Unlearn

Ja-Naé Duane is CEO of the Revolution Factory and the bestselling author of The Startup Equation. Her mission is to make life better for one billion people. An award-winning innovator and expert on global systems, Ja-Naé helps corporations identify trends, using emerging technology such as AI and blockchain, that will help them pave the way for the future through futures forecasting and complex system building. She also loves singing opera. Currently, she is a PhD candidate focusing her research on the future of information systems as well as a research fellow at the Center of Information Systems Research at MIT. Ja-Naé joins Barry O’Reilly in this week’s show to talk about designing Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAO).  Everything is Interconnected John Newton’s philosophy that everything is interconnected, is one that Ja-Naé lives by. We build on everything we learn, she tells Barry. The same is true in a company: its founding principles are connected to how those tenets are manifested in interactions with customers. “All of these things - much like nature - is very much an ecosystem,” she points out. Survival depends on the dependencies and interdependencies within the ecosystem. Likewise, the systems of the future will be enabled by interconnected technology, and we have to be ready. [Listen from 2:15]  DAO Principles Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) is one of the cornerstones of Web 3.0, and as Barry puts it, “the future of how the international world could become programmable.” In a DAO, business is conducted via programmable principles and smart contracts. Ja-Naé remarks that every member of a DAO has voting rights based on their level of contribution, unlike the traditional system where only a select few dictate how the organization is run; this can really move the organization forward. “With the democratization of information that comes along with that, we are seeing these pockets of erosion around centralized models,” she continues. [Listen from 4:25] Creating Value Together DAOs transform the role of the customer from just buyer into co-creator. Ja-Naé comments, “How do we also bring customers in to co-create and really capture value with them, so that they're building not only because they like our product or they like our service, but they're aligned with the mission of where this company is headed?” It’s a massive shift in customer behavior that’s ripe for exploration and innovation, she and Barry agree. The workforce of the future - the ‘liquid workforce’ - will be one where you contribute to several companies, and you’ll be judged on credibility and your last job, Ja-Naé says. [Listen from 17:50]   How to Start Barry asks Ja-Naé to share some tips to help people get started exploring the world of Web 3.0. Try to understand blockchain and how it’s changing the world first, she urges listeners. Learn about digital twins, virtual reality and virtual worlds, as well as the metaverse. The next step is to understand crypto and NFTs; putting some ‘skin in the game’ by making a small crypto investment is a good way to learn, she comments. She gives suggestions of DAO protocols listeners can explore to learn more, including her own DAO resource. [Listen from 32:50] Visit Barry O'Reilly for full show notes.   Resources Ja-Naé Duane on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook DAO Board How to Build a DAO Revolution Factory The Startup Equation

Barry O’Reilly welcomes David Chen to the Unlearn Podcast this week. Barry tells listeners that David’s story is nothing short of exceptional. His rapid rise at Deloitte saw him becoming one of the company’s youngest partners at the age of 34. He started the group GTIF Capital, and partners with several major businesses in the eSports, technology and healthcare sectors. David has worked with several partners and celebrities on the recent Super Bowl commercial. He sits on several boards including Mediabundance as the head of eSports, Faze Clan and the North American Collegiate League. He has brokered a deal to bring Wolves eSports gaming, a professional gaming wing of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, into the NACL via their strategic partnership with the Fosun Group. A Happy Balance David was at the pinnacle of his career at Deloitte but his life was out of balance. He tells Barry that he had all the trappings of success, and yet he was miserable. Barry comments that successful people often feel guilty when they feel emptiness or dissatisfaction with their lives because they believe they don’t have a right to those feelings when they’ve had so much opportunity. “Nobody teaches you how to be happy,” David responds. He describes his internal struggle as the darkest journey he ever went through. “But it was the best journey that I have to go through multiple times.” The secret is to change your thought process and do things that actually matter, he posits. A Booming Industry Gaming is the fastest-growing industry. Before the pandemic, gaming was projected to be a $3 billion industry by 2023; it’s now estimated to be worth $200 billion by 2023. This “influential shift” is because of the large population of gamers around the world. Brands trying to reach this demographic - 35 years and younger, 60% male and 40% female - have to demonstrate that they care about societal issues in a tangible way. David admonishes parents to have an open mind about gaming because it is changing the world in the same way that Amazon did with ecommerce. Starting with eSports Barry asks David, “What are some tips you could give [people who are curious about eSports] to start experimenting and learning their way into this world because the future is going to be so connected to it?” David responds with practical steps, including: If you’re a parent, ask your kids about their favorite games. It will help you bond with them. Keep up with the trends as a business leader. Gaming is now mainstream, so ignoring it means ignoring the next 40 years of your client base. Over 180 universities are giving out scholarships in gaming. If your child has the opportunity to learn, allow them to. Building Community “Community is important in anything,” David tells listeners. Community is the people who believe in the game. The danger lies, he continues, in the business leaders who only see the dollar signs, and don’t care about young gamers’ mental health. Being sensitive to kids’ needs at such a difficult time in their lives will help you build a better brand. Also, make sure your game is great, David tells Barry. “Here's the thing: the game can't suck, and [that’s] what a lot of guys are doing wrong…Let me just put it very very simply: if it's not cool, no one's gonna do it.” He shares some common mistakes brands make in trying to influence the gaming community.  Advice for Brands Revisit the games you enjoyed as a child, David advises listeners. It will give you the comfort level you need to start learning more about gaming. “Then start communicating with your child and understanding the trends that exist,” David says. The next step is learning the play to earn model, but understand that it has to make sense, he adds. You’re never too old to learn. Read the full show notes at Barry O'Reilly Resources David Chen at Website | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Barry O’Reilly welcomes James Scott as this week’s guest on the Unlearn Podcast. James is the former Chief Digital Officer at Absa Group’s Corporate Investment Bank in South Africa. In his previous role, his focus was product design, data, and platforms, as well as new propositions. James is very passionate about building the future of digital innovation and ventures in Africa. In this week’s show, James explores his working experiences in the region, the similarities and differences in how things are done in the West, and what’s unique about Africa’s scaling venture landscape. A New Way Forward James discovered his passion for venture building while looking for disruptive product opportunities on the continent. The last few years of working in the business end of technology, he was reluctantly involved in a massive large-scale digital transformation. “There [were] so many concurrent pieces of work,” he shares. “Organizing teams, trying to scale agile, building and transforming products and channels as well as embedding new ways of work while trying to hit regulatory deadlines… The good news from that part of the journey is that I made it out alive.” In his own journey, James found that while he loved leading and building teams within a corporate environment, he missed building products and businesses. He talks about getting back into it. From Corporate to Entrepreneurship After being in financial services and large corporates for 21 years, James had some things to unlearn. People typically think the first thing would be the safety and security of a paycheck, but for James, it was capacity. When you’re in a large organization you don’t have to worry about machinery and funding; you focus instead on organizing internal teams. What you're really doing is mobilizing capacity, James says. “When you’re running big teams, you’re so far away from the backlog…” he adds, “part of the unlearning is [realizing] it’s quite hard to scale yourself.” He and Barry discuss creating systems to facilitate team cooperation and efficiency. Debunking Misconceptions about Africa Africa is a bed of budding opportunities at the moment, James tells Barry. There is a common misconception that it’s just one big group of homogeneous countries but that’s not true; the diversity on the continent is phenomenal. Furthermore, the big hubs of South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria to Egypt are building amazing organizations that work exceptionally well across the continent. “It’s exciting for me because I’m starting to see the maturity of businesses emerge… when you get this right, it’s less about big, global solutions and more about local high-impact businesses creating jobs and generating value in their economies,” James comments. Localization is a key part of the game, especially on the continent, Barry adds. How Fintech is Driving Innovation Barry asks James to talk about any recent developments that have caught his attention. “Fintech continues to dominate the investment landscape and I like some of the businesses that are providing various kinds of multi-country aggregation capability that’s not only moving traditional mechanisms of money transfer, but also plugging into the mobile networks,” James remarks. This is important because a massive part of the African financial ecosystem is mobile money. “Solutions that provide that aggregation are opening up lots of innovation; it's allowing people sitting in Nairobi to be building solutions that work in Rwanda, that may be work in Nigeria and South Africa.” Resources James Scott on LinkedIn

Barry O’Reilly and Sara Michelazzo know each other from their days working together at Thoughtworks. Sara is Head of Customer Experience - Tech Operations at Thoughtworks, as well as Design Advisor at Nobody Studios. Sara is an advocate for women in tech, cryptos, and NFTs. In this week’s show, she and Barry discuss human-centered technology design and making data awesome to empower users to solve real-world problems. Empowering People with Technology “I've never been a superfan of technology for technology's sake, but more about all the opportunity that technology brings to empower people and allow them to do things that they couldn't do before and connect them in new, meaningful ways,” Sara remarks. She tells Barry that it was seeing how technology allowed her father to continue working on his passion during his illness, that drove her to pivot from her art career into tech. Human-Centered Design Making technology simple for users is at the heart of human-centered design. Sara tells Barry that she fully grasped the power of intuitive design through her father’s experience. Technology should be easy for users to grasp and adopt, she posits. We should design for 50% of people’s attention instead of 100% because we all have so many other things going on in our lives at any moment. Barry asks her about the future of tech and what she had to unlearn regarding technology design. Humans are the same while technology is growing exponentially, she responds. As such, we need to meet people where they are and bridge the gap. Making Data Awesome Barry and Sara discuss Thoughtworks’ journey to become data-driven. The best software or spreadsheet means little if people don’t know how to use the data, they both agree. Sara realized that her strength was in seeing the user’s perspective; she got comfortable asking questions such as, ‘Will the user understand this?’ and ‘How are they going to use it?’  Shifting the mindset from data and dashboards to people was a tall order, Sara says, but it was the only way forward. People don’t care about data per se; they just want to do better work. This was the principle behind their Data Awesome framework - for users to experience data delight instead of data frustration. The Data Awesome framework is made up of six simple steps including: Understand the audience; Define the job to be done; Determine the questions to answer to get the job done; Find the answers. Looking Ahead Barry asks Sara what she is looking forward to as she looks to the future. The opportunities that NFTs bring makes her excited. “I'm learning tons about unstructured people achieving incredible results, and it's very refreshing to see how hundreds of people can contribute to an outcome without being in meetings or meeting each other very often,” she tells Barry. They talk about the value of the community of followers and creators. “The value of NFTs goes up as the popularity of the project increases. The idea is that we’re all in this together,” Sara comments.  Read full show notes at Barry O'Reilly. Resources Sara Michelazzo at Website | Thoughtworks | LinkedIn | Twitter Articles on Thoughtworks: Why do Data Platforms Fail? | The Data Awesome Framework | Five Tips from the Data Awesome Frontline

Barry O’Reilly welcomes Gibson Biddle and Melissa Perri as this week’s guests on the Unlearn Podcast. Gibson is the former CPO of Netflix; he is also a speaker, teacher, writer, and author of the “Ask Gib” product newsletter. Melissa is Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, a member of the Board of Directors at Forsta, and host of the Product Thinking Podcast. In today’s show, Gibson, Melissa and Barry review their working experience over the past six months, discuss progress challenges in the US, and define what personal and business growth means to them in the year ahead. The CAMP Model The CAMP model, designed by Gibson, is an evaluation of how you feel about the overall quality of your job and career.  C is about community: do you enjoy working with your boss and your peers at your company? Do you feel a connection to the customers that you serve?  A is about autonomy: do you feel you have the opportunity to set your own direction?  M is about mastery: are you learning?  P is about purpose: do you feel a connection to the work that you're trying to do? Do you feel like it will help “dent the universe” in some way?  These questions are asked to be answered on a scale of 1 to 10. “I generally want everyone I work with to have an 8, 9, or a 10,” Gibson shares. “I can usually figure out ways to get a 6 or 7 to an 8, eventually.” CAMP-S “I added another letter to the CAMP model,” Melissa admits. “The S is for scale. In the last board of directors meeting, I talked about how I burned out pretty hard during [the pandemic] while I was scaling [my] consultancy, so I’m trying to focus on things that scale, where it’s not me working 24/7.” Barry asks Melissa and Gibson to evaluate their experience over the past 6 months using the CAMP model. The HBS Case Method Melissa talks about her first year doing the case method with her students. Harvard’s case method is an interactive, discussion-focused teaching approach that uses cases about true scenarios that have happened in the past to engage students in problem-solving and decision-making debates. “When the class has a discussion, they can take it anywhere, but as a teacher you have to pull them back a little,” she explains. “You make sure they take the big takeaways, but let them figure it out themselves and surface the ‘aha’ moments.” How To Take a Break Gibson and Melissa explore ways to encourage Barry to be more disciplined in taking time off. “What I did last year when I was feeling burnout… [was] use Calendly to block out time,” Melissa says. “I don’t do anything else on Friday unless it’s something I’m gonna get joy out of… Ultimately, it’s about knowing the world’s not going to end if you’re not there.” Gibson talks about how he carves out time. “I tend to ski my age in days each year, and I’m turning 60 this year so that’s 60 days,” he adds. “[Additionally,] I always felt like it’s healthy to take a week off every quarter.” Questions About Culture & Autonomy “You have to work to define, edit and live the values [of a world-class culture] over time; it’s a forever process,” Gibson tells Barry. “Culture is the skills and behaviors you expect from all of your employees. Frankly, the CEO and exec team have to be very invested in [the culture] because they are the role models.” Melissa shares how too much autonomy can hold you back from learning new things. “I felt like I was the only one responsible for my success, and it was never enough.” Resources Gibson Biddle on LinkedIn | Twitter GibsonBiddle.com  Melissa Perri on LinkedIn | Twitter MelissaPerri.com

Barry O’Reilly welcomes Le-an Lai Lacaba to this episode of the Unlearn Podcast. Le-an is the CEO and co-founder of 2xYou, an outsourcing company that specializes in hiring, managing, and growing remote executive assistants for solopreneurs and small business owners. She has been working from home since she was 15; she published her first book at 18, and became CEO at 20. At 23 she partnered with her boss to start 2xYou Executive Services, and aims to help 10,000 entrepreneurs grow remotely, and 1 Million Filipinos to work from home. Le-an also has her own Youtube channel, where she trains Virtual Assistants on how to work from home. She and Barry talk about entrepreneurship, and she gives advice to solopreneurs and small business owners on how to scale their business. Building Systems Le-an describes her early career as being an “outsourced CEO”, as she was running her clients’ businesses on their behalf. This was a major lesson she learned from that time, so her mission with 2xYou is “to empower executive assistants to empower the entrepreneur”. Le-an explains that she was able to develop and refine her processes over 3 years of hiring, interviewing, and training others. “There was a lot of testing and a lot of rediscovering things that I already knew, and then looking at different ways that it could be better,” she tells Barry.  Scaling Remotely What are some key things to unlearn when you want to scale your business to working with remote teams, Barry asks Le-an. She shares three tips: Don’t expect your team to know everything right away. Delegate the right task when you’re onboarding, so that they are not overwhelmed.  Make sure your workers document and report what they are working on. This ensures continuity in case someone else needs to take over their task. It’s your responsibility to build a solid relationship and clear communication with your employee. If your workers are not sure about what they need to do next, it’s your fault. The Importance of Mentorship “I believe that you can always teach people anything, but it has to start with their character,” Le-an states. She describes the important role her mentor played in developing her leadership skills, and how she now uses what she learned to mentor her own team. She focuses on training her team to think like an entrepreneur, so it’s easier for them to help their clients. Mentorship also boosts her team’s confidence, she comments. Remote work has exploded over the last two years, she and Barry agree. She is excited about the increasing number of resources and communities now available for remote workers. What also struck her, Le-an tells Barry, is how easy it was for companies to turn remote. Looking Ahead Barry is excited about the explosion of entrepreneurship around the world, and what it means for Nobody Studios. He asks Le-an what excites her about entrepreneurship and remote work as she looks ahead. Empowering different people to have multiple streams of income makes her happy, she responds. People now have a choice in how they want to work and how they structure their lives. Remote work has made this possible. Le-an shares tips for business owners who want to hire remotely, as well as individuals who want to find remote work. “Look for someone who can complement you,” she advises business owners. “And the only way you know how someone could complement you is by looking at what you're currently doing and then finding the pitfalls and the things that you miss, and then finding a person who won't miss that.” Read full show notes at BarryO'Reilly.com Resources Le-an Lai Lacaba at Website | LinkedIn 2xYou

Barry O’Reilly is happy to welcome Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas to this episode of the Unlearn Podcast. Sally earned international acclaim as an entrepreneur and innovator in social change, helping to establish many large-scale mental health efforts, including Man Therapy and National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. A trained clinical psychologist and a suicide loss survivor herself, she sees issues of suicide prevention and mental health promotion from a holistic perspective. Sally is a team member at Nobody Studios, leading the Employee Crisis Management function, where her mission is to save company-employee relationships by ensuring both sides have their needs met in times of difficulty. He and Sally discuss how we all can promote mental health in our companies, family, and community.  The Turning Point “Many of us have these moments in our life where we had a life before and then we have life afterward,” Sally says. That pivotal moment for her was her brother’s death by suicide. She describes her deep grief and the moment in a Suicide Loss Survivors support group when she realized that she could contribute to supporting others. Facing Down Fear “The fear around suicide is just immobilizing,” Sally tells Barry. Even trained mental health professionals feel that fear and often ‘hot potato’ clients who are struggling with suicidal feelings: they fear losing their reputation - and their license - if a client dies by suicide on their watch. If, however, we face down the fear, we can really help people, she points out. Sally describes how fear made them reluctant to take a different approach to suicide prevention, despite data telling them that they should. In the end, they decided to face down the fear and go against the status quo. She and Barry talk about the importance of psychological safety. If people don’t feel safe to reach out for help, they won’t, and then they can’t get the help they need. Learning From Disaster “A lot of times when we face large-scale disaster, we pull together as communities and that protects us,” Sally tells Barry. However, the Great Resignation is teaching us that people will no longer tolerate working in a toxic environment. Burnout is real, and when it reaches the point of despair, then it’s past time for companies to do something about it. A Better Approach to Suicide Prevention  Historically, suicide prevention has been seen as an issue only medical professionals could address. This ‘only-one-path’ approach has failed. “What we learned from that is that when we force hospitalization, suicide rates go up,” Sally says. We have to broaden our view and see suicide prevention as both a public health and social justice issue. Research shows that people who overcome suicidal despair usually fall into two categories: they related deeply with someone who went through a similar experience, or they made meaning out of their experience so they could help others. Having someone be there for you in tough times really helps, Barry and Sally agree. Looking Ahead Sally is excited about the progress she is making advocating for mental health in male-dominated industries. 80% of people who die by suicide are male, she tells Barry, so it’s important to carry the work where it’s needed the most. It’s about creating a culture where people are excited to serve, rather than one where you are essentially a robot. She is also excited about her work at Nobody Studios, particularly the collaborative employee crisis management tool they are working on. Personally, she is unlearning that she is more than just her work. “We are the millions of decisions we make every day with the people around us,” she reminds herself and listeners. Read full show notes at BarryO'Reilly.com Resources Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas on Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Barry O’Reilly goes solo in this season's finale episode of the Unlearn Podcast. He answers listeners’ questions about perfectionism, permanent hybrid work, and letting go of the past, among other things. Q: How do you deal with perfectionism in the startup you're working on at the moment? Q: How do you get the most out of the content you create under reach? Q: How would you summarize the insights and learnings from your podcast guests about being change agents? Q: Given that your move towards permanent hybrid work seems to be gaining serious momentum, how will this affect founders’ efforts to scale their businesses? Q: In the unlearning process, what encouragement do you have to counter the fear of letting go of the past? Q: What are you most excited about at the moment? Q: What kind of guests are you looking for for future episodes? Q: What's the biggest lesson you've had so far in 2021? Resources Barry O’Reilly on LinkedIn

Barry O’Reilly is excited to welcome this week’s guest, Ryan Serhant, to the Unlearn Podcast. Ryan is founder & CEO of SERHANT., the bestselling author of Sell It Like Serhant and Big Money Energy, and is one of the most successful and well-known real estate brokers in the world. He is a producer, public speaker, and the star of multiple TV shows. In this inspiring episode, Ryan talks about how he revolutionized the traditional brokerage model and his strategies for building businesses of tomorrow. Selling Confidence “I have never sold a house in my entire career,” Ryan tells Barry. “What I've sold is about $5 billion dollars worth of enthusiasm and confidence.” When he started out in real estate, he didn’t have the ‘right’ education, connections, or experience. What he did have in spades though, was self-confidence. Every day he would convince himself that he was the greatest real estate broker because he knew that clients were not just buying a house, they were buying into his belief that he was the very best in the business. Barry asks Ryan how he helps clients see something exciting in an otherwise ordinary property. “Facts tell, stories sell,” Ryan responds. He no longer just gives information, he deciphers it so that clients see the potential. Diversifying Happiness “I diversify opportunities for happiness so every single day is exciting,” Ryan comments. He learned the hard way to never depend on just one “line of happiness”. As such, he used his skills to create other businesses and diversify his income sources. This led him to create his online education platform and his real estate media production company. “It’s really proven beneficial for my long-term career,” he adds. Barry comments that diversification is one of the tenets of Nobody Studios: “It's all about diversifying because you're building lots of different businesses; you're diversifying your skills, your portfolio, your investment strategy; and I think it's really important for people to see that as a skill to develop.” People First Business books teach product, process, then people; Ryan learned that people should come first. “What I realized was you can think of the greatest product ever, …[but if people] were not part of the ideation of the products - especially in the early phases - they have no emotional connection to it, and they're just never going to care the same way you do.” Employees who are emotionally committed to your company will give their best and “will do everything possible to make sure that the company is successful,” Ryan tells Barry. He shares how this has played out in his own businesses: his team shared ideas that brought significant growth to the company. Ryan is also thinking about getting into the minds of his future customers. This is how he future-proofs his business. He says, “I want to make sure that I'm living in the future far enough, so I can predict my future.” How to Get Started We are in the attention economy, but you can grab your customers’ attention for free. However, you have to speak to them in their language and play in their field, and their field is on their phone. Ryan's advice for anyone wanting to get started in business is to determine the story you want to sell, and why it’s better than your competitors’ story. “Get that story out there in the form of content,” he tells listeners. Barry admires that Ryan does not pretend, that he’s authentic in what he shares with the world. Ryan adds that clients come to him to interpret the facts they already know, the same reason they listen to the news. People don’t want to think, he points out. “Do the thinking for people and you can be wildly successful,” he advises listeners. Visit Barry O'Reilly for full show notes. Resources Ryan Serhant on Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Barry O’Reilly welcomes Shiyan Koh as this week’s guest on the Unlearn Podcast. Shiyan is Managing Partner at Hustle Fund, a VC fund that invests in pre-seed software startups in the US, Canada, and Southeast Asia. What makes Hustle Funding different is that, beyond the usual criteria that VCs look for, they tend to prioritize founders that have speed of execution. In today’s show, Shiyan and Barry discuss her professional experience, from her beginnings in finance to her current role at Hustle Fund. A Whole New World “I’ve never been one for ten-year plans, so I cannot tell you that [I knew] I was going to end up here,” Shiyan tells Barry. One major interest was policy creation and regulation, which she defines as “systems being enacted on people,” so she surprised herself when she delved into investment banking after receiving an internship in college. “I didn't really know what I was showing up for, but opened up a whole new world,” she says. The company that offered her the internship, JPMorgan, invited her to work for them as a full-time employee, which she accepted. Eventually, however, she decided that the job and the industry weren't in her long-term game plan. Finance, to Growth Stage Venture Capital Shiyan talks about how she transitioned from investment banking, and how that experience helped her determine what to do next. “I thought [to myself], ‘I don’t want to be an investment banker anymore, but let me reflect on the things I enjoyed about the job.’ [So I] made lists… When I thought about all the different projects I've gotten to work on over the course of my time there, I realized that my favorite ones were the young companies, the ones who were just going public. And so I went ‘You know what, I want to do more of that.’” Growing Beyond Growth It’s much easier to model growth in an Excel sheet than it is to make it happen. Shiyan recalls what she learned from her stint in growth stage venture capital. “I often felt like a fraud in those board meetings because I had never sold anything in my life… there was a huge gap between theory and practice.” Emboldened by her lack of knowledge, Shiyan resolved to attend business school to grasp a better understanding of how to build and run a business. Yet once again, she determined that this wasn’t what she wanted to do. Just because something is intellectually interesting to you, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good job for you, she affirms. NerdWallet and Takeaways Shiyan dives into her time at NerdWallet, where she was VP of Business Operations and Corporate Development. Incidentally, the founder of NerdWallet was a friend of hers. They were together for a casual meetup when she asked him if he knew of any interesting companies in New York, to which he replied with an offer to join his company. She goes on to describe her experience commuting from New York to San Francisco every few weeks. “The big takeaway from startups is that only 2 of the 100 things to do on your list are existential; you just need to let 98 things burn until they [reach that level],” Shiyan advises listeners. “You just have to focus on existing topics.” Alignment and Action “One thing I personally struggle with is finding the balance between the appropriate amount of time to invest into getting people aligned with what you’re trying to do, and getting them to take action,” Barry shares. If you spend too much time on alignment, no action will take place, and vice versa. One thing that’s hard for a lot of people to imagine is that startups move so fast, and as human beings, we’re unaccustomed to that rate of change, according to Shiyan. We develop routines for control, but when things shift too quickly, we become stressed and emotional. You then have to investigate ways to help people continue to be productive and high-performing. Resources Shiyan Koh on LinkedIn | Twitter Hustle Fund