Scaling Sustainably with Jon Brodsky: Lead to Succeed 42

Summary:

In this episode, Naphtali interviews Jon Brodsky. Jon is finder.com’s Country Manager (US), leading the company’s growth across its core niche categories of international money transfers, personal loans, credit cards and shopping comparisons. Before that, he was the Senior Vice President Digital at Chicken Soup for the Soul, where he was responsible for product changes that helped grow monthly content reach from approximately 300,000 people to one billion people. Previous experience also includes time at Allmenus.com, which Jon grew to 250,000 restaurants and nationwide coverage within 18 months, and 1-800-flowers.com, where he completed deals that generated over $300 million in annual revenue.

Episode Notes:

2:10 – Naphtali introduces Jon
2:34 – Jon’s unorthodox pathway to leadership
3:41 – How Jon’s competitive nature has served him
4:37 – The benefits of asking the right questions to figure out how things work
5:19 – Scaling reach (eyeballs on content) and revenue vs. SUSTAINABLE scalability
5:47 – The difference between Uber and Airbnb and everyone else when it comes to scalability
6:00 – Focus on the customer and their needs (what do they want and what are they not getting elsewhere?)
6:41 – Why you should ask for money for a service, subscription or product
7:45 – How do you know if there’s a demand for a product or service?
8:18 – AllMenus.com was really not such a novel idea
9:21 – Why Jon mashes up new ideas with existing products and services (example: Finder.com)
12:14 – How Jon sets goals (spoiler alert: not your normal goal setting process)
13:00 – Using daily tracking to monitor progress
14:05 – The only metrics Jon tracks
14:30 – Why process trumps goals
16:57 – Jon’s approach to delegation with internal training and letting his people fail (often and fast)
18:32 – Using weekly coaching to support company managers
19:05 – Startups cannot build companies by themselves
20:35 – How Jon knows when to pull the plug on a failing situation
21:55 – What terminated managers often tell Jon in exit interviews
22:26 – The “Straight Up” honesty policy
22:53 – Rapid fire
23:51 – Connect with John via email, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
24:24 – Stick with it and fight through the challenge