215. 3 ways to learn from innovators
Aug 07, 2024
If you want to be an innovator in the Digital Age, you must learn from those who came before you.
Here are Sophia Matveeva's top 3 recommendations for what to listen to to get the best innovators lessons.
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Transcript:
Sophia Matveeva (00:00.18)
If you want to be an innovator in the digital age, you must learn from those who came before you. And here are my top three recommendations for what to listen to to get the best innovative
Welcome to the Tech for Now Techies podcast. I'm your host, tech entrepreneur, executive coach and Chicago booth MBA, Safiya Matheer. My aim here is to help you have a great career in the digital age. In a time when even your coffee shop has an app, you simply have to speak tech. On this podcast, I share core technology concepts, help you relate them to business outcomes, and most importantly,
Share practical advice on what you can do to become a digital leader today. If you want to a great career in the digital age, this podcast is for you. Hello smart people. How are you today? If you are listening to this, when this episode comes out, I hope you are having a most fabulous vacation and enjoying the summer sun. I'm going to the French Riviera soon and I cannot wait.
But before that, want to teach you some stuff. If you're listening to this, you already know about the joy of podcasts. Isn't it amazing that you can learn almost whatever you want for free while going for a walk, driving to work or making dinner? Podcasts have truly changed my life and that's why I have three recommendations for things to listen to that will help you become more innovative.
If you want to do something really useful for your career whilst you're also lying on the beach and not doing much, then these recommendations are the way to do it. And if you're enjoying this show, but you haven't yet subscribed, then subscribe now. My job here is to help you have a brilliant career in the digital age, whether you're a founder or an employee or an investor. So if you want to demystify tech, learn how innovation works from the inside.
Sophia Matveeva (02:04.442)
and make more money, then you definitely have to subscribe and leave the show a rating and a review. And now let's get to my recommendation number one for you. It's a podcast called Founders. Simple, literally called Founders. In the Founders show, the host who's called David Senra summarizes what he learns from reading about famous innovators. And I just listened to his episode about Coco Chanel and about how she built her empire.
And it was really interesting and super inspiring. And the Founders podcast covers tech innovators like James Dyson and Steve Jobs, and also people who created things a really long time ago, like John D Rockefeller and Christian Dior. And I've now listened to quite a few of the Founders episodes. And you know what? It gets really insightful when you begin to see patterns, because there are patterns of behavior.
in really successful innovators. And the good news is, behavior is not the same as innate talent, right? We can copy behavior. You can adapt some of these behaviors yourself. And honestly, I've actually done that. And I would say that the quality of my work has improved as a result to listening to how the greatest innovators in the world did
Also, the Founders podcast is just great storytelling because in general, the people that David Senra profiles, they're interesting and they're imperfect and they have lived really interesting lives. My recommendation number two is a podcast called Lenny's podcast. Actually, one of the guests from this show recommended Lenny's podcast to me and I had a listen and then I was hooked. It's really good. Lenny's podcast started off as a show focusing
product management, but now it's a bit wider, but still really focused on product. You can learn about growth strategies and product innovation and also various career paths and kind of how to get into and succeed in product management. Leni's podcast is really focused on tech companies and how they make tech products like Uber Eats, for example, and then how the company scale them. The show has a very Silicon Valley focus.
Sophia Matveeva (04:21.94)
It does go quite deep into product stuff because some of the interviews are literally like an hour long conversation about how a specific app gets built. But there are also more general interviews. So my favorite so far is a conversation with Brian Chesky, the CEO and founder of Airbnb. Brian is a designer by training and he really does still pay a lot of attention to the product.
probably more than a lot of big company CEOs. And it was really interesting to hear from somebody who's so product focused and leading a company at that scale. It also shows that basically it's possible. So if you're working on a product team or you want to work on a product team, or maybe you have an idea for a tech product, but you don't know how to build it, then Lenny's podcast is definitely for you. I also
Always recommend that investors learn from product managers too because you do have to learn what you're investing in if you're an active fund manager. And now here's my final recommendation for you. It's an audio book called Shoe Dog by the Nike founder Phil Knight. It's also a real book. So pick whichever option you are going to enjoy more. I love, love, love Phil Knight's story and his writing style.
It's just really funny so you can actually really enjoy this book on holiday. I read this book when I was in Italy last summer. And did you know that Nike's founding team was basically a group of mostly obese alcoholics? Yeah, that is kind of not on brand and I didn't know about this until I read Feels Hilarious and Moving Memoir. Also,
What I noticed from this book is just how obsessed Phil was with the customer and specifically the customer's feet. Nike started as a company that imported Japanese running shoes for runners in the US and Phil Knight literally took apart used athletes shoes to see how they were impacted after races. Now imagine how crusty and smelly that must have been. And that...
Sophia Matveeva (06:35.724)
My dear smart listener, that was the foundation of Nike. So when I tell you to always focus on the user, I'm not making it up. It works. Look at how huge Nike is today. So if you're a founder, you have to read or listen to Shoe Dog and also it will just make you feel better about the chaos in your company. So to recap, my recommendations are founders, Lenny's podcast and Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Enjoy
and enjoy your summer. Have a wonderful day and I shall be back in your delightful smarties next week. Ciao.
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