Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / "Ship the Damn Thing" with Bradley Jacobs

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"Ship the Damn Thing" with Bradley Jacobs · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of Founders Unfiltered.
• 0:03
  I am Bradley Jacobs, I'm your host and the founder and CEO of
• 0:08
  Mylance. Before we jump in, like come
• 0:10
  check out our amazing new product.
• 0:12
  It's getting better by the day. It helps you show up on LinkedIn
• 0:15
  authentically, genuinely, consistently with
• 0:19
  accountability. It's really amazing.
• 0:20
  So come check it out. Today's episode is a bit
• 0:24
  different because I'm actually the guest.
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  I sat down with my friend Ty Hammond.
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  He has a podcast on true leadership and we really went
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  deep and I I shared stories from my past and how I got to be
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  where I am today and some really pivotable moments that
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  completely changed how I look at business, how I look at like
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  really getting what I want. That's kind of the core of what
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  I talked about. And then some of my other
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  lessons and how I think I hold my business back as a founder,
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  my growing edge and on down the line, including stories from
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  Uber, a $20,000 mistake I made on the third week of my job and
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  a lot of the inner work that I've done that I truly believe
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  is the reason that my Lance is still going.
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  So if you've ever felt like fear is the thing that's holding you
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  back or quietly running the show, this episode's for you.
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  Let's get into it. Welcome to the True Leadership
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  Podcast, where we explore the essence of leadership beyond
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  tactics and performance by sitting down with executives to
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  hear what matters most to them. I'm your host, Ty Hammond.
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  Today's guest is Bradley Jacobs. Bradley is the founder and CEO
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  of Mylance, a platform helping founders and consultants build
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  authentic, credibility driven content on LinkedIn to attract
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  the right clients. A former fractional COO and
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  early operator at Uber, Bradley has launched and scaled markets
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  across rides, Eats and freight, contributing to Uber Freight's
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  rapid path to a billion dollar valuation.
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  Since 2018, he has focused on making the founder journey more
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  sustainable by turning expertise into trust at scale.
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  A Duke University engineering graduate, Bradley blends
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  operational rigor with sharp positioning strategy to help
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  entrepreneurs grow through clarity, consistency, and
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  authentic visibility. It's my pleasure to have Bradley
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  here with me today. Welcome to the show, Bradley.
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  Thanks for having me. Every leader, of course, has a
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  beginning. I love starting with this
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  question here on this show. Of course, who we are as leaders
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  at work and in life starts taking shape long before we
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  advance to any executive position of leadership, to any
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  workplace even. Who is someone from your early
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  life or an early experience that you really feel like shaped the
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  kind of leader in the the person that you are today?
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  Like childhood, early life or early career life or I can go
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  anywhere. Wherever, whatever comes up for
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  you there, anything that you feel like you know has shaped
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  the the person and the leader that you are today is going to
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  be relevant here. My first boss at Uber, she's an
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  incredible woman and there's so much I could say about her.
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  The biggest thing that really shaped me was she was so
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  invested in my growth and success.
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  Like it felt so much like that was paramount more than the
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  business performance and all the shit we were, you know, graded
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  on, if you will. It was like, I want Bradley to
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  win And, and look, I made my fair share of mistakes.
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  And she, yeah, I, I once actually, I made a mistake that
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  cost us like 20 grand And it was, I remember it was like my
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  third week at the company. I was like, Oh my God, I'm like,
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  this is this is it, right? And the only thing I could do
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  was just come clean. I was like, hey, this is what
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  happened. I literally just misread a
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  document and didn't check a thing, whatever.
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  And, and she was like, cool, did you learn your lesson?
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  Like, are you good? Like, you learned what not to
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  do. And I'm like, yeah, like I'm
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  going to be a lot more thoughtful about, you know,
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  sops. And she was like, OK, great,
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  let's move on. And I just, I'll just never
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  forget that moment of she cared about me.
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  She she like saw I was already taking it hard.
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  I knew my, you know, I learned my lesson.
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  And she was like, cool, we got bigger shit to worry about.
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  This is fine. I know you're in responsibility
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  of it. And it was the first time in my
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  life where I got promoted without asking for it.
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  You know, like every time after and every time before it was,
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  I'm fighting tooth and nail. I'm arguing my case.
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  And, and she surprised me with one.
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  Like, I didn't even know it was on the table, frankly.
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  And all of a sudden I was managing A-Team and, and I could
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  go on and on about the things that she supported me through,
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  but she showed me what leadership could look like.
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  And I feel like I've just taken that forward with me ever.
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  Since first of all, I love that story that you shared.
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  I'm curious because I think it's it's really, really powerful.
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  I often, you know, I think about care and caring being one of the
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  things we can't bake and it's so essential to leadership.
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  What are some of the the, you know, the ways that you knew
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  that she actually cared about you?
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  You gave that one story, of course, but what are some of the
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  other ways that came through and how she LED that really helped
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  you to know that? That's a good question.
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  I mean, part of it is energetic, right?
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  It, it, it's even in the little things and the questions she
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  asked. And it's like, yes, the end of
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  the day, we are working for a business.
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  The business gets to win, right? Like that is what we're here to
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  do. But it was like, how are you
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  doing? And caring about me personally
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  and that energetic feel of like we're in this together even
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  though she was my boss. Like we're A-Team and we have
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  each other's back right there. There's such a feeling that I
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  got from her that I just didn't get in the past from other
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  bosses. She cares about my well-being.
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  She cares about my growth. I think that's a really big one.
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  She's like, what do you want to create in your life?
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  And asking that question about where I want to go so that she
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  could give me opportunities to help me learn the skills I
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  needed to learn, experience the things I wanted to experience so
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  that I could move along that journey.
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  I mean, that's so many bosses are like, all right, what needs
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  to get done goals to hit, you know, projects, OK, Rs all this
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  stuff. And she was like, how do you
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  want to develop as a leader? Who like where do you want?
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  And and so having my North star in mind for her, it's also how
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  you get the best out of me, right?
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  I busted my ass for her, right, because she I felt seen by her.
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  I felt heard by her. She was giving me these
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  opportunities. I'm like, I'm going to work my
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  ass off so that I get it. Just like it all works.
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  It's like a win, win, win, right?
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  The business win, she wins, I win.
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  That was going to be my next question and take it to the, you
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  know, the place of, you know, how, how is it that Uber
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  benefited from her caring about you so much?
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  You know, and I think this is the piece that you know,
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  especially, you know, through your experience and it's so it's
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  so obvious and apparent how impactful this was to you.
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  So I think it'd be really worthwhile to to stop on this
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  for a moment because it's not just about you feeling good
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  about you. It's also about like, you know,
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  how did that benefit the business, right?
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  How did that show up for for? Uber, I was loyal as hell,
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  right? I was in crazy ownership over
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  the business performance and that's it was one of the key
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  values of Uber at the time it was called be an owner, not a
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  renter, right? You are in ownership of your
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  city, you know, because you were pretty much like siloed, like
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  you own the city, right? I was originally started with
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  Raleigh, NC. So I was like Raleigh, Durham
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  and Chapel Hill are mine and I am solely responsible for the
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  performance and whatever the hell that takes, I get to do.
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  And that at the beginning we didn't have support agents, so I
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  was responding to somewhere between 500 and 1000 driver
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  emails a week. And our biggest times, as you
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  can imagine, are Saturday, Friday and Saturday night from
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  like 11:00 PM to 2:00 in the morning.
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  All right, people leave the bars.
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  So you, you bet your ass I was in front of the computer for a
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  lot of those nights or taking shifts or switching off
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  whatever. Valentine's Day, Halloween, New
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  Year's Eve, those are the biggest days and times for Uber.
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  So from a output outcome in the business, they got me as a full
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  owner of like, I am responsible for this and I'm going to treat
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  it like like it's my family, my life.
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  And I did. And I was like, this is mine and
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  I, I am responsible and I will make this.
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  I will make it work. I will make this happen.
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  It's such a great example. I always, you know, I think of
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  the the adage, you know, you can tell people what to do, but you
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  can't but tell them to want to do it.
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  You know, that's that that's where leadership comes in.
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  It's such a thank you for expounding of it.
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  I think it's, you know, helpful to whoever is going to listen
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  there. Of course, you know, this is the
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  true leadership podcast. I'm curious, what is true
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  leadership mean to you? What makes a true leader in your
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  eyes? There's a few things that come
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  to mind. The the first one is actually
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  not being needed. It's like there's a value in
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  hiring the right people, setting them up for success, empowering
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  them. You get to set the vision and
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  the North star as the leader. But then you're basically like,
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  I'm hopefully not the smartest person in the room in any one of
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  these aspects. I want to hire someone smarter
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  than me in marketing and sales and OPS and product and finance
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  on down the line so that you guys go do your jobs and I'll
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  just be here to support you. It's like almost like reverse,
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  right? So I, I, that's how I, I think
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  of like almost like bottoms up leadership, like how can I push
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  them to, to be the best that they can be at their job and
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  their expertise? And I really hope I don't know
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  their stuff better than they do. You know, I think that's a huge
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  part of leadership. You get to get your ego out of
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  the way, right? It's not about you being needed.
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  It's not about you being the smartest.
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  It's not about you being the know it all, like, you know,
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  just cuz you're CEO whatever. So I really love that principle
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  of leadership. And then I do think to what we
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  talked about earlier is understanding what motivates
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  people because it's not the same thing.
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  It's not everyone's not motivated by money and power and
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  titles and whatever. It's just not true.
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  I remember I'm going to tell you a quick story.
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  I earlier, he's only here with me, but I had ACTO at my lands
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  for four years and he was in South America.
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  And so, you know, I only got to see him so often, but he was an
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  incredible, incredible value out of the company.
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  And I loved, loved working with him.
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  And I at one point sent him a random bonus like I just, it
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  wasn't like bonus time or anything like that.
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  I was like, you know what, like I really appreciate the value
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  that you're bringing. So here's, here's a check and I
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  wrote a nice note alongside it. And a few months later we are at
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  an off site. We're down in Mexico.
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  And I asked him, I was like, how what was it like to receive
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  that? And he's like, probably your
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  letter meant so much to me. And I was like, OK, great.
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  Like, what about the check? You know, like I thought you, I
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  thought you'd be like really excited about the money,
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  especially, you know, down in South America.
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  It just goes so much further, right?
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  And he's like, yeah, that was nice.
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  But like, the letter really, like, touched my heart and
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  really made me feel seen in the value that I'm adding here.
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  And I was just kind of like, mind blown in the moment of
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  just, like, yeah, still people appreciate money.
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  Like, send them money. We have to, like, pay for our
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  lives here. But he really just wanted to be
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  acknowledged. Like, that's what really meant
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  the most to him. And when I asked him what really
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  motivates him to work hard at my Lance, it was creating software
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  that really changes people's lives, that really impacts
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  people. That's really what mattered to
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  him. So getting to know your people
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  in a way that's deeper, that's a, that's a deep level.
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  What's important to them? What do they care about?
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  What are their families like? What are they going through?
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  I mean, you want to keep people forever.
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  I think that's the way you do. It, you know, but I really love
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  that, you know, I'm curious, curious to go a little bit
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  deeper with that motivation question.
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  You know, there is, of course, like just getting to know people
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  you know personally. Do you have a particular, you
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  know, what's your way of actually getting to?
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  What motivates someone? If you just like, go straight
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  out asking them? Are you getting to know it sort
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  of through the lines? I'm curious.
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  It's got to be both in my opinion.
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  I think asking upfront, you know, in your first few weeks
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  with someone like, hey, maybe even in the interview process,
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  like what motivates you? What are you excited about?
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  And then, you know, checking in, there's, there's one on ones, in
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  my opinion, are not times for giving the updates and all these
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  projects, right? That's what your OPS meetings
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  for marketing meeting, whatever it is your one-on-one time is.
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  How's it going? What do you like about your
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  work? What do you not like about your
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  work? Like, what do you, you know, I
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  had my, even my VA recently. I was like scale of 1 to 10.
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  How much do you enjoy working here, right?
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  How motivated are you? What's what tasks do you hate
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  doing? Right?
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  Like really take, like most people don't ask those questions
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  because it's like taking time out of your, your busy day to,
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  to ask. And so I think you got to check
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  in and consistently right, maybe at least once 1/4 with really
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  the deeper questions. And ideally you're one on ones
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  like every week, every other week.
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  But even, you know, deeper questions like, Hey, I really
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  want to check in. You told me last time that your
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  North Star was this. Is that still true or like where
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  do you want to be in a year, three years, five years, 10
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  years? Like what's important to you and
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  then cool, what skills do you want that's going to help you
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  get there? I mean, really like get to know
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  them and check in, but I'm just ask.
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  I'm such a fan. I'm just like ask the question.
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  Yeah, You know, you can have, you can sort of tell through
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  people's stories. I actually was before we even
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  got to this place of the motivation when you were sharing
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  in your first answer. I was like, oh, I bet Bradley
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  tell me if this is is too often over.
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  But Brad, one of Bradley's big motivations is ownership of like
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  owning his own work. And I know it is for me too.
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  And I wouldn't find that too. You know, it may be very similar
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  for a lot of entrepreneurs across the board as just like
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  really being empowered to own that.
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  Knowing that is a motivation. Yeah.
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  I mean, your work's a reflection of you.
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  I think it's really important that it's not your identity that
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  that's a that's a trap to not get into.
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  But you know, what I put out there is a reflection of me and
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  it's not necessarily from an ego perspective.
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  It's AI want I'm here to impact people.
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  If I didn't care about impacting people, there's a million other
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  ways for me to make money. That's probably a hell of a lot
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  easier than I'm doing right now, frankly.
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  Like just be totally honest. But that's not my main driver in
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  the world. It's important, but it's not my
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  main one. So I'm here to impact people.
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  And me putting a bunch of bullshit online and, you know,
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  with typos or just like bad quality or product that sucks or
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  whatever, that's not gonna help anybody.
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  And that's a wrap on today's episode.
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  Really hope that you got some value, you learned something,
• 15:03
  resonate with something that I shared.
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  If anything hit home, the fear stuff, the ownership mindset,
• 15:08
  the inner work. I really would love to hear from
• 15:11
  you. You like shoot me a message on
• 15:12
  LinkedIn. Come check us out at my Lance.
• 15:15
  And if you're a founder or executive or fractional, that's
• 15:19
  building credibility and looking to attract your customers and
• 15:22
  clients on LinkedIn, you got to check out what we're building at
• 15:27
  Stratus. We'll put the link in the show
• 15:29
  notes. But it's really an incredible
• 15:30
  product. People are absolutely loving it.
• 15:32
  They're getting clients, they're showing up, they're saving time.
• 15:35
  It's just really incredible. So come check it out.
• 15:38
  I really thanks for listening to Founders Unfiltered.
• 15:40
  We will see you next week.