The Wunderkind CEO

08/09/21 • 41 min

"Wunderkind" is a fun German word for "a person who achieves great success when relatively young." I can't think of a better word to describe our guest today.
Barely into his 30s, Matt Tresidder, is already at the helm of his second fast-growing tech startup. At the age of 26, with zero executive leadership experience, Matt was tapped to be the VP of Sales at Pushpay, a tech company providing donor management software to thousands of churches and nonprofits. He promptly led his team of 100+ sales reps and account managers through four straight quarters of record breaking and unprecedented growth. After taking a six month break to detox from quotas and end-of-quarter scrambles, he jumped right back into the startup vortex as Co-founder and (as of four months ago) CEO of Leadr, a people development platform that has just received $10 million in Series A funding.
Matt steps back from the hustle this week to share how he's planning to spend that $10 million and to reflect on the half-decade he's spent in high pressure, high growth leadership roles. We talk about wins, regrets, culture drift, imposter syndrome, the endless hamster wheel that is sales, and I get him to share his philosophy on working with friends: "don't suck at your job and we'll get along fine." :) It's a great conversation with a guy who has taken the concept of "learning on the job" to new heights, and who has all the scars, perspective, and leadership chops to show for it. Give it a listen! And then get #backtowork.

Previous Episode

The Preacher Man

It's our 50th EPISODE!! And for the first time in over 18 months (and 47 episodes), we recorded this one in person with our guest. Was it worth the wait? Time will tell.
In this episode, Kent swings by Orland Park Church in Orland Park, IL on an oppressively hot July day to chat with his good friend, Derek Buikema, about Derek's job as Lead Pastor of Orland Park Church.
After Derek attempts to derail the conversation by bringing up the story of Kent's disastrous audition for the Wheaton College Improv Team, Kent gets things back on track by shifting the focus back to Derek with some hard hitting questions about Derek's short-comings as a minister.
Just kidding. But they DO go deep on what life as the leader of a congregation of 1,000+ is really like. In a tight 30 minutes they touch on everything from the time Derek did four funerals in a single week to how he deals with congregational criticism to the most extreme responses he's ever gotten when he tells people "I'm a pastor." Being a pastor is one of the oldest, most intense, and most public professions around. Join us this week as we go behind the pulpit and into the life of Pastor Derek Buikema. And then get #BackToWork

Next Episode

Amazon's Chief Book Recommender

Finishing an amazing book is kind of like going on the Keto Diet: if you don't tell everyone in your life about it, you're probably not doing it right.
But that's honestly one of the coolest things about books. They have a way of turning readers into evangelists. It's also one of the coolest things about our guest this week's job: she gets to recommend great reads to literally millions of people each month. And she gets paid for it!
Sarah Gelman is the Editorial Director of Amazon's Books division. (That's right, selling books on the internet: back where it all began for Amazon.) In that role, Sarah leads the team of writers, readers, and content creators who serve as the "human" element of Amazon's recommendation engine. As great as the "frequently bought together" and "you might also like" tools are, we can't leave your next book solely in the hands of the robots. Which is where Sarah and her team come in, writing reviews and making recommendations on hundreds of titles every year. Think of them like your best friend with impeccable taste. Just, you know...on the most popular website on the internet.
Sarah stops by The Dream Job this week to talk about her earliest literary memories, what it was like interviewing Chelsea Clinton, and how she manages to read nearly 100 books a year. And, of course, since she's in the "recommendation business," we make sure to get her recommendations for the books you MUST be reading with what's left of your summer. (Links below.)
Sarah is a living example of the magic that can happen when a passion (books), a profession (Amazon), and a mission (celebrating great authors and great literature) all converge into one. Give it a listen! And then instead of getting back to work...get back to reading!

Books Recommended On The Episode