Entrepreneurship Archives - Page 7 of 7

22 May

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 2 comments

Manager Mistakes

Have you ever managed anyone? Then you could probably write this post too. Have you ever been managed by someone? Then you could write this post as well.

I’ve managed people in a few different companies and roles now. Like any position, management is learned skills that you have to both figure out and be trained on. Unfortunately, making mistakes in management skills directly affects people as opposed to simply business metrics.

Here are some management mistakes I’ve made and am seeking to learn from. Read more about Manager Mistakes …

16 Dec

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 5 comments

Learning To Say No

Today I tweeted something that seemed to resonate with others. This was the tweet, with an embedded quote from this post (h/t Joel):

Don’t accept the deadlines of others as your own. H/t @joelgascoigne pic.twitter.com/vF2oo8gZ80

— John Doherty (@dohertyjf) December 16, 2014

This was the quote:

“You can only go so fast for so long. You have natural output limitations. Other people rarely consider that when they ask for stuff and set deadlines. In fact, they rarely consider anything. Most times, I find the expectations that other people have around time are arbitrary. They don’t *really* need that thing right now–and if you gave it to them tomorrow, the world will go on.

Don’t be afraid to say, “It’s not going to happen by that time. Here’s when I can have it for you.”

There’s really no way to argue against that. If you draw lines and say no, they’re just going to have to figure out an alternative and accept. ” Read more about Learning To Say No …

07 Aug

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 3 comments

My Manager Hack: Relentless Transparency

In my role at HotPads, I manage an ever-growing team of smart marketers. My job is to hire, train, and retain the best and smartest, with the goal of removing roadblocks that keep them from both working together and succeeding at their individual jobs.

I’ve had managerial positions before, but never this direct and I’ve never been able to build my own team. Building your own team is quite different from inheriting a team, which is a whole different topic I’ll explore at some other time. Read more about My Manager Hack: Relentless Transparency …

05 Aug

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 8 comments

I’m Not A Good Employee

Have you ever heard someone say “I’m just not an employee” or “After working for myself, I can’t imagine ever working for someone again”. I’ve often felt this way, even though I don’t work for myself (well, there were those two weeks).

When I started my job at HotPads back in October, I told my then-boss “I have to be honest with you – I’m not a good employee”. What I meant by this is that I hate to be managed by others. I want to explore this a bit more, because not everyone who hates to be managed can work for themselves. Sometimes, we must learn how to succeed as we are, where we are. Read more about I’m Not A Good Employee …

11 Oct

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 6 comments

I was an entrepreneur for two weeks. Here’s what I learned.

A month and a half ago I took a new job as the Online Marketing Manager for Hotpads.com, the nationwide apartment and condo rentals subsidiary website of leading real estate website Zillow. I gave my notice at Distilled and finished out three and a half weeks there. I start my new job Monday. In between […]

17 Apr

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 2 comments

Interview with Entrepreneur David Hassell, CEO of 15Five

Entrepreneurs are some of the most interesting people in the world. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing David Hassell, who is the CEO and Founder of 15Five, a product built to better enable managers and employees to give and receive quality feedback in less time. Throughout this conversation we talk about not only entrepreneurship, but also productivity, the power of why, and the driving force behind what he does. Have a listen/read!

Here is David’s official biography, and you can read their blog here (including an interview with Simon Sinek on The Power of Why):

David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of 15Five, a software company focused on producing transparency and alignment in organizations through structured, efficient and effective communication practices. David has also been named The Most Connected Man You Don’t Know in Silicon Valley by Forbes.

14 Feb

John Doherty Posted in Entrepreneurship 7 comments

Talking Entrepreneurship and Product Marketing with Dan Martell

Entrepreneurship is a hot topic these days, and one that you may know I am quite passionate about if you are a return reader here.

After I interviewed Leo Widrich of BufferApp a couple of weeks ago, I was put in touch with Dan Martell who is a B2B SaaS founder coach as well as former founder of Clarity.fm, Flowtown, and Spheric Technologies. Clarity exists to connect experts with other entrepreneurs in order to create a knowledge-sharing ecosystem where the experts can also earn some money in return for having conversations with those seeking to learn from them.

Fun fact: you can book a call with me through Clarity: https://clarity.fm/dohertyjf

We talked about products, the importance of focus, the importance of revenue generation as early as possible, freemium, entrepreneurial goal setting, and more. Have a read or listen and let me know your thought in the comments!