Savage Mindset: Finding Your Speed

Welcome to my newsletter. Every month, I’m going to be sharing highlights of leadership lessons, new tech, and things that have inspired me recently.

This month, I’m sharing thoughts about the importance of pace and managing pace when growing a business.

Control Your Speed

If your business is a car, your job as a founder is to decide which direction to steer and how fast to go.?

Sometimes you hit the gas. Sometimes you hit the brake. Somethings you floor it. If you get it wrong, your organization, customers, or team may not be ready.?

We’ve had years when we wanted to go slower because we thought we might need to steer in a new direction. More recently, we’ve been working hard to go a lot faster in the same direction, together.

When Should You Go Fast?

Like everyone else competing in this market, we’re up against new innovations daily. We can't afford to slow down.?

When my Wistia Co-Founder and CTO Brendan Schwartz and I recently had one of our 16-years-and-running weekly debriefs, I said to him: "We're going so fast. This is so great."

"Just wait," he replied. "We're going to go faster."

The thought? If we can master speed together as a team and get it right, we’ll end up at the destination we want to be faster.

Accelerating in the wrong direction would take us off the proverbial cliff.

Give Away More to Move Faster

How do you lead a team moving fast?

You must delegate.?

Early in my career, I discovered my productivity problem was a delegation problem. When it came to delegating, I wasn't going all in. I was addicted to the feeling of playing the role of solving problems and didn’t fully step away.

So, I let go. I committed to delegating the right things 100%.?

There were dramatic changes I never expected:?

• Some people started failing instantly.
• Others began growing faster and took on way more than I expected. With more ownership, their domain expertise began to make a positive impact on the company.
• I had more energy and time to do the things I was uniquely capable of doing to move the business forward.

The lesson — it can be scary to delegate, but you can't scale by productivity hacks alone. If you fail to delegate, you fail to scale.

Pitstop for Creativity

I've been making it a nightly ritual to read a chapter or two of Rick Rubin's book, "The Creative Act: A Way of Being,” to ensure I’m making time for creativity no matter how fast we’re moving.

Each chapter delves into a specific exercise or vignette designed to spark creativity.?

This is how I found myself beating up a pillow for 5 minutes and doing stream-of-consciousness writing sessions immediately after.?

By the way, beating a pillow for five consecutive minutes is harder than it probably sounds.

The thought is if you do the work and get everything out on the pillow — anger, frustration, etc. — creative magic will pour out of you.?

I have a feeling this book will be one of those I read and re-read in the pursuit of keeping close to creativity, no matter how fast we’re moving.