If you are interested in entrepreneurship, leadership and professional growth then this episode may be of interest to you.
We speak to Sean Sheppard, a serial entrepreneur, VC and co-founder of GrowthX and GrowthX Academy, with three successful exits, who has successfully grown dozens of early-stage companies across a wide variety of products and markets. He was recently named the #2 Online Sales Influencer and contributor at The Huffington Post. He’s now committed to working with countries, companies, entrepreneurs and those who want to work with them on building startup ecosystems and developing the next generation of leaders for the innovation economy.
You can connect with Sean here:
Twitter/IG @seanasheppard
Timestamps:
02:10 Feedback vs Failure explained by one of the most successful people in the startup and tech industry.
05:25 It's not a failure if you learn from it as it creates the opportunity to learn faster, iterate more quickly and provide something of real value
06:35 Practical advice on how to find what you want to do next and figure out if you have a viable product
11:10 It has never been more difficult and expensive to get traction for products due to too much noise and competition
14:40 What it actually means having a growth mindset
15:21 Why we need to create psychologically safe environments where people can tell us the truth in order to increase our success rate in everything we do
19:55 What wins in the information economy? Insights created by data and the importance of having a good relationship with someone who is willing to give it to you.
If you want to stay relevant you need to make those changes quickly.
22:07 What do people with high potential have in common? How it is important to trust your gut when looking for talent
25:56 Sean’s professional career growth tips
30:49 Why in the GrowthX academy everyone has to present a lot which is very uncomfortable for most people however Sean explains how it's amazing to see them transform within weeks into very solid presenters
31:06 How it's important to have a supportive community of peers, plus a safe place where you get to try things and screw up and keep trying
31:33 Sean explains how to return from a fixed mindset back to a growth mindset we all had as kids - Think learning to walk...
35:36 The most dangerous thing is how we talk to ourselves, negative self-talk and self-doubt are the most destructive forms of human behaviour to oneself.
42:14 Every new interaction is an opportunity to learn something
42:28 What are the 5 skills that can help anybody in the innovation economy
47:56 Sean talks about Authentic Intelligence: be different, be collaborative, be creative and do it all with good intention and build a community around yourself.
