Seeking Wisdom with David Cancel

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Want to get better every single day? Tune into Seeking Wisdom, a podcast hosted by Drift's David Cancel. You'll hear about the leadership principles that have changed his personal and professional outlook and the hard-earned lessons he's learned over his 25+ year career as a 5X startup founder.

09/13/2021

#179 Focusing on the Four Main Buckets with Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler

One of the youngest self-made billionaires and an entrepreneur/author/ultra marathoner get married and have four kids, yet they still manage their own businesses and try new adventures daily. How do they manage it all? In this from-the-vault episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC sits down with founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, and author, entrepreneur and keynote speaker, Jesse Itzler, to talk prioritization, marriage and extreme sports. DC and Jesse bond over big calendars, and DC learns how Sara and Jesse’s whirlwind love story still works today. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

14 min
08/23/2021

#178: Will Anything Top El Cap? With Alex Honnold

What do you do after you accomplish your biggest professional goal at age 33? That’s the question DC asked professional climber Alex Honnold in this exclusive HYPERGROWTH episode of Seeking Wisdom. Alex was the first, and remains the only, climber to free solo El Cap, a 3,000ft granite face in Yosemite National Park, in 2018. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t as easy as he made it look. In this episode, DC and Alex talk about what it was like to train for the climb with an entire film crew by his side, what life’s been like since the release of the Free Solo movie, and what’s next for Alex. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

17 min
08/09/2021

#176: Why Technology Isn’t the Reason You're Distracted with Nir Eyal

Ever blame your unproductive day on too many emails, Slacks, and phone calls? Us too. But on this never-before-released episode of Seeking Wisdom, author, investor and lecturer, Nir Eyal, debunks the myth of technology’s influence on distraction. Because it’s not the technology’s fault you’re distracted – it’s you wanting to be distracted. DC and Nir talk about Nir's background in advertising and gaming, what he's learned from writing two books (Indistractible and Hooked), and why anything that you do that you don't PLAN to do is a distraction. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

16 min
07/26/2021

#175: Bridging the Gaps Between Skiing, Climbing & Filmmaking with Jimmy Chin

What do skiing, rock climbing, and photography have in common? They can all become part of one story – if you seek the parallels. For this episode we went back into the crates to bring you an exclusive episode with the one and only Jimmy Chin. Jimmy, who is a professional climber, photographer, and Academy-Award winning film director, talks with DC about what it was like to grow up as the “other.” He shares how his early understanding for different worlds helps him to draw parallels between seemingly strikingly different things today. But Jimmy would not be the success story he is without the help of his mentors, so in this episode DC and Jimmy geek out on storytelling and mentorship. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

18 min
07/12/2021

#174: Never Stop Iterating

Leo Tenenblat (Drift's Chief Product Officer) is back to talk with DC about iteration. Leo shares what iteration is like at Drift and how it compares to other companies he's worked at – from the big ones (like Salesforce where he drove the Einstein platform) to the small ones (like the startup he founded called AppMesh). DC discusses the difficulty of tying together marketing and product releases too tightly. They also touch on the importance of feedback loops and why product teams need to get as close to the customer as possible. Is this really just a veiled 1-on-1 meeting for DC and Leo? You can be the judge. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

24 min
06/28/2021

#173: Replacing Yourself

DC's goal in life? To replace himself. On this episode, he's joined by Leo Tenenblat (Drift's Chief Product Officer) to talk through what this means in the context of a scaling company. Together, DC and Leo talk about their approaches to hiring and team building, projecting yourself into the future, and the one thing Leo thinks DC should stop doing. Digressions include some Portuguese lessons (for DC) and comparing astrological signs. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

17 min
06/14/2021

#172: Brand Love with Rebecca Messina

The world of marketing is constantly evolving, but understanding people? That will always be fundamental. Today, marketing expert Rebecca Messina joins David to share her biggest learnings from the 22 years she spent at Coca-Cola, what it was like to be Uber's first-ever CMO, and how she's applying both of those experiences to her work as a senior advisor at McKinsey. DC and Rebecca go deep on the importance of brand building and brand love, the psychology of marketing, and what it means to be a brand vs. an icon. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/

40 min
05/17/2021

#171: Working Backwards with Amazon's Colin Bryar and Bill Carr

There's a saying at Amazon: "Good intentions don't work. Mechanisms do." For well over a decade, Colin Bryar and Bill Carr worked in tandem with Jeff Bezos, building out the mechanisms and leadership principles that shaped the company into what it is today. How'd they do it? They started with a relentless focus on the customer – and worked backwards from there. Colin and Bill were in the trenches for the creation of some of Amazon's most innovative products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services. And on today's episode of Seeking Wisdom, they sit down with DC and talk about what Amazon was really like in the early days, the development of critical processes like the PR FAQ, single-threaded teams, and their best practices for hiring the right talent. Like this episode? Be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with DC on Twitter @dcancel @DriftPodcasts or text him to share your feedback at +1-212-380-1036. For more learnings from DC, check out his weekly newsletter, The One Thing. You can subscribe here: https://www.drift.com/insider/learn/newsletters/dc/ Buy a copy of Working Backwards here: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595

48 min

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5

out of 5

576 Ratings

Great wisdom

12/23/2021

johnmitchell82

This podcast is so good. Love the diversity of topics. True wisdom is coming fourth that is practical and usable.
The Real Deal

10/04/2021

FSJMJ

David is amazing! His podcast lived up to the name. Such powerful wisdom dropped in every disposes. Subscribe right away!
Just YES!

09/06/2021

CWW!!

Even more excited to start at Drift after listening to several episodes of “Seeking Wisdom.” I found myself nodding in agreement to so many episodes. Can’t wait to get some book recommendations from David and be a constant learning machine.
10 star podcast

05/30/2021

Ze_reviewer

Another great book recommendation: Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources by Martin Lings. It’s super interesting how such a leader emerged as the one most influential person in history (according to the top 100 ranking by time magazine).

Want to get better every single day? Tune into Seeking Wisdom, a podcast hosted by Drift's David Cancel. You'll hear about the leadership principles that have changed his personal and professional outlook and the hard-earned lessons he's learned over his 25+ year career as a 5X startup founder.