First Principles Thinking with Billy Samoa Saleeby
In this episode of the Success Fundamentals Podcast, Kris Sykes and Brian Goldsack talk to Billy Samoa Saleeby, the CEO and Co-Founder of Podify. Billy is also an award-winning filmmaker and is the former Head of Global Sales and Product Training at Tesla.
Billy talks about his journey from filmmaker to podcast entrepreneur, and the many lessons he learned along the way. He also shares some sage advice on how to stand out from any saturated market, focusing on the problem first, and The First Principles Thinking, which he learned directly from Elon Musk.
In this episode of the Success Fundamentals Podcast, Kris Sykes and Brian Goldsack talk to Billy Samoa Saleeby, the CEO and Co-Founder of Podify. Billy is also an award-winning filmmaker and is the former Head of Global Sales and Product Training at Tesla.
Billy talks about his journey from filmmaker to podcast entrepreneur, and the many lessons he learned along the way. He also shares some sage advice on how to stand out from any saturated market, focusing on the problem first, and The First Principles Thinking, which he learned directly from Elon Musk.
HIGHLIGHTS
- All about creating experiences
- Billy's creative process: give your brain a break
- We're hardwired to not pay attention to familiarity
- Focus on the problem, not the solution
- Provide more value than you take in payment
- Stand out by using the First Principles Thinking
- Be the master of the beast in your head
- Success can be more dangerous than failure
- Find a long term sustainable interest for what you want to be known for
- We all want to leave something behind
- Deep dive into succeeding in podcasting
- Niche down until it hurts
- Spend time with marketing
- Money directs too much of our attention and too many of our actions
- Power is opportunity, ability, and responsibility
QUOTES
Billy: "To me, success wears many hats and it finds itself in bizarre places. But the thing to remember is we all are in control of how we show up int h world and what we bring to the world. When we do things that people remember, that's when we stand out."
Billy: "Any business that's successful needs to have a few things. It needs to understand what problem they are solving, not necessarily what is the right solution. The problem that's being solved is most important. The solution to that problem is determined by your own ability to pivot and find the right solution for your specific potential customer. I think all too often, people get too wedded and too married to a specific solution and not first talking about that hair-on-fire problem."
Billy: "When you provide more in value than you take in my payment, people feel like you are somebody that they can't live without. I think right now, to your point that there's so many things out there. You could get this subscription and this membership, and this, and that, but if people feel that they can't live without you, they're gonna be a customer for the long term. And they'll feel that way if you have their best interest at heart."
Billy: "The First Principles Thinking is not iterating from what currently exists. So for example, in Tesla, Elon could have said, okay all these cars exist, I'm just gonna make it incrementally better than all the other cars out there. He didn't do that. Instead he said, ‘let's look at this from the ground up, if no car ever existed how can we build it in a way that will serve the need and deliver something that's gonna blow people away.’"
Billy: "Don't allow the beast in your head to make you second guess in yourself and turn into the direction that you don't need to turn."
Billy: "Niche down, niche down again, and niche down until it hurts. So how do you narrow down who it is you're speaking to 'cause if you try to speak to everyone, then you actually speak to no one."
Follow Billy on the following links below:
- Website: https://www.podify.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billysamoa/
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