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Today’s guest is one of the smartest business minds that Dan and Ian have encountered in their travels.
Jason Cohen is the founder of WP Engine, a very successful company that provides managed WordPress hosting. He is also the author of one of Dan and Ian’s all-time favorite blogs, A Smart Bear.
A few years ago, Jason took the decision to step down from his CEO role at WP Engine, at a time when the company was more successful than ever. Jason recently spoke about why at our recent Dynamite Circle event in Austin, and we invited him on the show this week to expand on that talk.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear Jason share his insights about why a company’s ethos and culture has to come from its founder, the angst you can feel after you sell a business, why it’s not good value to hire cheaply and how to identify your very own ‘superpower’.
Listen to this week’s show and learn:
- How Jason decided that he wasn’t the right person to be CEO of his company. (6:46)
- Why you should focus on hiring results-oriented people. (11:39)
- What it really means to develop a good company culture. (27:20)
- How Jason dealt with the emotional ramifications of selling his business. (37:00)
- The delicate balancing act of Practitioner vs. Preacher. (49:51)
Mentioned in the episode:
- TMBA Masterminds
- Sponsor the TMBA Podcast
- The Dynamite Circle
- The DC Podcast
- Help Us Choose a New Name for the TropicalMBA Podcast
- DC BKK
- Jason Cohen
- A Smart Bear
- WP Engine
- Salesforce
- Southwest Airlines
- Rackspace
- How to Build a World Class Culture in 3 Easy Steps
- Mikey Trafton
- Capital Factory
- Indie.vc
- Hacker News
This week’s sponsor:
This week’s episode is brought to you by DCBKK. DCBKK is an immersive 5-day conference on October 18-22, 2017 hosted by the DC (Dynamite Circle) and presented by TropicalMBA creators Dan and Ian. The annual DCBKK conference is held in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok, Thailand for 250 established entrepreneurs running mid 5-figure to 8-figure businesses.
Enjoyed this podcast? Check out these:
- TMBA 326: To VC or Not to VC, That is the Question
- TMBA 366: A Conversation with Ricardo Semler
- TMBA 396: The Realities of Running a Business in 2017
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- Have comments about the show, or ideas for things you’d like Dan and Ian to discuss on future episodes? Our producer Jane would love to hear from you at jane@tropicalmba.com
Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Thursday morning 8AM EST. Cheers, Dan & Ian