008 Rand Fishkin - A Different View of Tech Startups
05/24/21 • 51 min
If you enter the phrase “top digital marketers in the world” in a google search, chances are you will get a list with 10 names, and among those names, you will find Rand Fishkin, our guest for today. Rand is an entrepreneur and author. Currently he is CEO of SparkToro, an organization that helps entrepreneurs, marketers, and product folks of all stripes uncover the publications and people that influence their target audience. In this episode, Rand talks about the importance of building organizations with strong core values and best practices for being a conscientious, thoughtful and empathetic leader. Rand presents a vision of the tech start-up world very different from what you hear in the predominant discourse. And in sharing the origin story of his latest startup, SparkToro, he details how his vision has informed the strategic choices he made in the process and how his definition of success has evolved throughout his career.
Key Takeaways:
01:12 – Introducing today’s guest, Rand Fishkin, who shares his thoughts on authenticity and seminal moments from his career where he discovered who he was as a leader
08:06 – Rand reflects on what he learned throughout the journey of building his software company, Moz
09:23 – The importance Rand placed on building out company values at Moz
11:47 – Rand talks his struggles with Imposter Syndrome
14:16 – Rand provides advice to those who are considering entrepreneurship or launching startups
18:14 – How Rand’s personal definition of success has evolved throughout his career
23:45 – Rand speaks to the evolution of content, SEO and building brands through digital marketing tactics
28:03 – Rand tells the origin story of his latest startup, SparkToro
32:18 – How Rand built SparkToro and the key decisions that were instrumental to the success of his company
34:07 – Rand talks about the importance of being a conscientious, thoughtful and empathetic leader and founder
36:18 – Rand talks about some of his passions and how they impact how he shows up at work
37:42 – The business phrases that drive Rand absolutely crazy
41:07 – Rand shares some food for your body and food for your soul
47:28 – Dino leaves the audience with ‘Outsider,’ a song written and performed by Honest Mechanic, a band featuring Dino’s wife, Susan Cattaneo
Tweetable Quotes:
“I think it’s really terrible to have a set of stated values – of expressed values that you put on the wall or the website – that are not lived up to internally.” (11:20)
“I suspect that some of it is biology and some of it is culture and some of it is upbringing. Those are generally the forces that shape us as human beings.” (12:22)
“I would urge folks that if you want to focus on the financial side, I would focus on profits over sales and revenue. If you want to focus on happiness, I would worry much less about size. Most entrepreneurs I know who have businesses between five and fifty employees are much happier than those that have five hundred to five thousand.” (16:23)
“I love proving people wrong. Oh man. When someone tells me ‘You can’t do this. No way that’s gonna work,’ oh my God, there’s nothing more I like more than proving them wrong.” (23:37)
“What does it mean to be a conscientious and thoughtful and empathetic leader and founder and company? And what is the way we want to participate in the world around us. Those are big picture conversations.” (35:29)
“I think it’s pretty darn obvious to anyone and everyone that if all you’re after is Google rankings: A.) That might not be the best thing in the world, you might want to diversify your marketing and B.) Links are not all there is to Google.” (39:23)
Links Mentioned:
Authentic Leadership for Everyday People Website
If you enter the phrase “top digital marketers in the world” in a google search, chances are you will get a list with 10 names, and among those names, you will find Rand Fishkin, our guest for today. Rand is an entrepreneur and author. Currently he is CEO of SparkToro, an organization that helps entrepreneurs, marketers, and product folks of all stripes uncover the publications and people that influence their target audience. In this episode, Rand talks about the importance of building organizations with strong core values and best practices for being a conscientious, thoughtful and empathetic leader. Rand presents a vision of the tech start-up world very different from what you hear in the predominant discourse. And in sharing the origin story of his latest startup, SparkToro, he details how his vision has informed the strategic choices he made in the process and how his definition of success has evolved throughout his career.
Key Takeaways:
01:12 – Introducing today’s guest, Rand Fishkin, who shares his thoughts on authenticity and seminal moments from his career where he discovered who he was as a leader
08:06 – Rand reflects on what he learned throughout the journey of building his software company, Moz
09:23 – The importance Rand placed on building out company values at Moz
11:47 – Rand talks his struggles with Imposter Syndrome
14:16 – Rand provides advice to those who are considering entrepreneurship or launching startups
18:14 – How Rand’s personal definition of success has evolved throughout his career
23:45 – Rand speaks to the evolution of content, SEO and building brands through digital marketing tactics
28:03 – Rand tells the origin story of his latest startup, SparkToro
32:18 – How Rand built SparkToro and the key decisions that were instrumental to the success of his company
34:07 – Rand talks about the importance of being a conscientious, thoughtful and empathetic leader and founder
36:18 – Rand talks about some of his passions and how they impact how he shows up at work
37:42 – The business phrases that drive Rand absolutely crazy
41:07 – Rand shares some food for your body and food for your soul
47:28 – Dino leaves the audience with ‘Outsider,’ a song written and performed by Honest Mechanic, a band featuring Dino’s wife, Susan Cattaneo
Tweetable Quotes:
“I think it’s really terrible to have a set of stated values – of expressed values that you put on the wall or the website – that are not lived up to internally.” (11:20)
“I suspect that some of it is biology and some of it is culture and some of it is upbringing. Those are generally the forces that shape us as human beings.” (12:22)
“I would urge folks that if you want to focus on the financial side, I would focus on profits over sales and revenue. If you want to focus on happiness, I would worry much less about size. Most entrepreneurs I know who have businesses between five and fifty employees are much happier than those that have five hundred to five thousand.” (16:23)
“I love proving people wrong. Oh man. When someone tells me ‘You can’t do this. No way that’s gonna work,’ oh my God, there’s nothing more I like more than proving them wrong.” (23:37)
“What does it mean to be a conscientious and thoughtful and empathetic leader and founder and company? And what is the way we want to participate in the world around us. Those are big picture conversations.” (35:29)
“I think it’s pretty darn obvious to anyone and everyone that if all you’re after is Google rankings: A.) That might not be the best thing in the world, you might want to diversify your marketing and B.) Links are not all there is to Google.” (39:23)
Links Mentioned:
Authentic Leadership for Everyday People Website
Previous Episode
007 - The Power of Voice Roundtable with Allison Bennie, Jenee Halstead and Ruby Rose Fox
The Power of Voice Roundtable
This is the first special edition roundtable episode. These episodes provide an in depth look at an interesting topic. They feature guests who are experts in the specific area, who share their experience and then discuss the connection between that area and leadership
Today’s topic is the connection between voice, creativity and leadership.
Allison Bennie, Jenee Halstead and Ruby Rose Fox have one thing in common. Each one of them started their career as a singer and performer. And each one of them found an interesting way to expand beyond voice to use their experience to help people in different areas of their life.
We start from their stories, what attracted each one of them to sing and how they went on the journey to be an artist. It is a pretty raw and candid discussion. Along with the passion and the joys, they cover some of the less known and less glamorous realities of life as an independent artist and as a woman in show business.
From there, we talk about the moment when they realized that their expertise in voice and performance could actually benefit people who are not artists, and how the three of them has used this platform to expand career into new areas . Spoiler alert: everyone can sing, no matter what they have been told. You will hear about the physiology of voice, and what impact realizing they can sing has on adults who were told their whole life they couldn’t.
Of course, we talk about some of the connections between voice and leadership. And they share some exercises that you can use in your everyday life to improve your overall presence as a leader, in any situation. As usual, we close the episode with some great recommendations for food for the soul.
Enjoy this episode, it is a good one.
Key Takeaways:
04:14 – Dino introduces today’s special roundtable episode, featuring Jenee Halstead, Allison Bennie and Ruby Rose Fox
07:25 – Jenee, Allison and Ruby share the moment they realized they wanted to become performers
11:37 – The less glamorous side of being an independent artist
23:28 – Jenee, Allison and Ruby talk about what led them to pursue more powerful and meaningful initiative through their collective experiences as artists
40:45 – Jenee, Allison and Ruby provide advice for those looking to truly be seen more
54:15 – Jenee, Allison and Ruby share some food for your soul
59:38 – Dino thanks Jenee, Allison and Ruby for all joining the show
1:02:25 – Dino leaves the audience with two songs: ‘Solitary People,’ by Jenee and ‘Matador,’ by Ruby
Tweetable Quotes:
“I’m a musical artist of various kinds and storyteller of various kinds.” (05:09) (Ruby)
“So, here were these white men who were telling me how to get my dream as how I saw it. And I said, ‘Ok, cool. I’ll stop eating.’ So I did and I lost a ton of weight very quickly. I got very ill, very weak, and lost my voice. By the age of twenty-four my voice was gone and my singing career was over.” (13:50) (Allison)
“I didn’t know why, but my heart was calling me somewhere else. And, I think I could have stayed in theatre if I had wanted to but there was so much negativity there. And I knew that I could produce my own shows, put my name on the marquee so they know a woman is coming through the door. And it just empowered me in a way that made me feel like an entrepreneur.” (18:16) (Ruby)
“Since that time, it’s just been really a process of facing my own insecurities and my own fears around being seen.” (22:47) (Jenee)
“Just all these little pieces of saying yes, and saying yes, and saying yes, and realizing that all of this stuff that I had been through and all of this training that I had was still within me.” (26:43) (Allison)
“Everybody can sing. The fact that we’re putting people on a pedestal that only certain people are born to sing and others aren’t was just this terrible narrative that’s false. So, I’m on a path to deconstruct that.” (39:55) (Jenee)
“That’s the place to start is to breathe and to chill out and to relax and to support yourself with that breath.” (42:07) (Allison)
“Switch your focus from thinking that whatever apparatus you use – whether it’s your voice, or a saxophone, or whatever instrument you’re using to perform with – that there’s an instrument prior to that, which is your nervous system. And that instrument is what people are gonna pay you a lot of money to see.” (49:35) (Ruby)
“Nobody comes to me for voice lessons because they want to be a professional singer. I don’t teach professional singers. I have no interest in polishing something to perfection. I only work with people who just want to connect with something.” (52:48) (Allison)
Links Mentioned:
Dino’s Email –
Next Episode
009 Marcel Quiroga - Wealth Management for The Whole Person and Servant Leadership
Our guest today is Marcel Quiroga, Founder and CEO of TQM Wealth Partners, a registered investment advisory firm. Marcel is not your typical founder of a wealth management firm. First of all, she is a woman in an industry that is still very much a male dominated industry. Second, she has a unique international perspective. She grew up in the US from Bolivian parents, went back to Bolivia to start her career and then came back to the US. Finally, she put herself through college while raising her kids as a single mother, and working her way up in the industry.
All of these experiences have given her a uniquely empathetic view of the role of a financial advisor, and have led her to start a firm where success is measured not just by the numbers, but by how wealth management can improve her clients’ overall quality of life.
Marcel is also the Founder of The Legacy Dialogues, a program geared at helping people to find a path towards living their legacy and making a difference in the world. In this episode, Marcel opens up about her leadership style, the inspiration to launch her own investment advisory firm and her experience navigating the male-dominated field of finance. Marcel shares her thoughts on authenticity, leaving a legacy and why everything she does is in service of her clients’ values.
Key Takeaways:
01:27 – Introducing today’s guest, Marcel Quiroga, who speaks to the inspiration to start her own investment advisory firm and her personal leadership journey
10:05 – Marcel speaks to navigating a heavily male-dominated field and how it has shaped her experience as a leader
15:59 – Marcel shares her thoughts on authenticity and her mission to help others
26:36 – Marcel expounds on the work she’s doing at her latest initiative, The Legacy Dialogues
35:10 – Marcel talks about other passions of hers that influence the way she shows up at work
37:50 – The business phrase that drives Marcel absolutely crazy
39:56 – Marcel shares some food for your body and food for your soul
44:23 – Dino leaves the audience with the acoustic version of ‘Work Hard, Love Harder,’ a song written and performed by his wife, Susan Cattaneo
Tweetable Quotes:
“Oftentimes I felt like the places where I was working were not led by individuals who had as much focus on the human element as they did on the money element, for lack of a better term.” (04:24)
“I think one thing that helped me realize what kind of a leader I wanted to be is becoming aware of the type of leader I did not want to be from a personal perspective. Meaning, the first time I had a team that I was in charge with, I didn’t have enough self-confidence, I believe, at that time to lead the team.” (06:31)
“Ultimately, I think humility is a key trait in leadership which means I can recognize the good, the bad and the ugly. I know where my strengths are. I know where my weaknesses lie, and I’m gonna work on improving those.” (09:38)
“I want to attract other people who have that desire to do well and do good at the same time. And I want my clients to know that what we’re doing for them is beyond the numbers.” (19:00)
“The Legacy Dialogues seeks to empower and enable people to think about how they want to live their lives because we actually live our legacies. The way we live is going to influence our legacy more than what we leave behind.” (27:18)
“It’s also not easy to hear constructive criticism, but it’s so important for growth. If everybody tells us how great we are all the time, we might actually believe it. Yes, we may be good, but we can always be better.” (39:36)
Links Mentioned:
Marcel’s LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/marcelquiroga/
TQM Wealth Partners - tqmwealthpartners.com/
Instagram: @tqmwealthpartners
Facebook: facebook.com/tqmwealthpartners
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tqm-wealth-partners/
The Legacy Dialogues – legacydialogues.com/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/legacydialogues/
Book: Awareness by Anthony DeMello
Dino’s Email –
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