"Bend"ing Rules -- Justin Johnson joins BR today. Learn why Justin left a 20 year professional services career, a year way from sabbatical, to launch his first start up.

Intro: I am sure more than once many of you have sat behind your comfortable corporate environment and thought "is now the time to take a leap of faith?" Well, Justin Johnson did just that. After a 20 year career in professional services, the last 7 which were at Frank Russell Company and only a year away from a paid sabbatical, Justin decided to launch his start-up, which was successfully acquired 7 years later, he's now onto start-up 3 and 4. It sounds risky, and it was, but one of my main takeaways today was how Justin "de-risked" his launch into the start-up world. Hope you enjoy and find value learning from his journey.

1:54 --- How one editorial on start-ups stuck with Justin 15 years later. We never know where that source of inspiration will come from. You'll have to listen to find out the article!

4:47 -- 7 years at professional services firm (Frank Russell Company), with an office view and one year away from a paid sabbatical. Why leave now?

6:49 -- Product Market Fit, attaining the "fit" before leaving his job. Acquiring an entrepreneurial spirit -- trading domain names to pay for Grad School.

12:11 -- Importance of Customer Validation not just on price, but product and supporting services.

28:52 -- Importance of seeking advice and filtering it.

37:32 -- Justin's biggest challenge (and failure) along the way.

49:01 -- Identifying and leveraging your superpower.

53:11 -- Importance of planning an "exit" strategy. Contrary to popular opinion.

1:09 -- The exit cycle, what it looks like. I'd like to take a deeper dive on this point another time, we just scratched the surface today.

1:18 -- Celebrating success. Justin's next start-up and how he's more focused now, and still enjoys the process.

I'll be taking a bit longer break (than every two weeks) until our next session, week of July 8th and have a guest lined up you will not want to miss. Onward ~