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Chris Tottman's avatar

It's been such a brilliant experience being interviewed by Joel ✨ I seriously recommend it - he is so talented not just as an interviewer but how he takes the raw material and turns it into genuinely valuable & actionable content for people to take onboard and run with 🧡

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Joel Salinas's avatar

Thank you very much, @Chris! Means a lot.

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Mike Goitein's avatar

Priceless frameworks, Chris - I especially like the "Holiday" framework to build a self-sustaining company. What struck me was the lack of judgment around the results when you return.

Regardless how things worked out, you review, adjust, iterate, and leap into action and go back on vacation. Rinse & repeat!

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Chris Tottman's avatar

As a creative person - failure is the way/the method. People imagine a galley - clean & organized. A creative person imagines their studio - messy with loads of unfinished work

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Chris Tottman's avatar

I meant "gallery"

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Joel Salinas's avatar

Yes, that struck me too!

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Laura Ferraz Baick's avatar

I really liked the perspective on being intentionally unavailable. I had never thought of it that way.

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Joel Salinas's avatar

That struck me too, makes me a little nervous but I’ll try it!

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Laura Ferraz Baick's avatar

Makes me nervous too haha.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

It's very real. Very revealing. Very humbling. And very inspiring for those in the team who want to grow ✨

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Sharyph's avatar

This approach to leadership is a breath of fresh air. The "holiday exercise" is a fascinating concept for building trust and empowerment within a team. It's all about strategic growth and letting go of control to achieve bigger things.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Well said - massive net positive compared to micro management 🌟

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Joel Salinas's avatar

I agree! I thought the same thing!

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Andrew Barban's avatar

Interesting post. There are some good ideas in here, and I especially liked the way you framed delegation and resource focus. At the same time, I think the punchy delivery can sometimes take away from the strength of the ideas themselves. For me, the value lies less in the packaging and more in how these approaches work in practice, where they succeed and where adjustments are needed. To me, it seems worth remembering that we usually only hear from the survivors, so the lessons can look cleaner and more universal than they really are.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

So true. When we built and scaled our company for 100m plus every thing looks totally nailed on, super clean, faultless - the reality was it was like a bare knuckle fit - wild, messy and one hit away from being knocked out 😵

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Joel Salinas's avatar

That’s a good point, and honestly we can learn as much from those who made it as from those who didn’t

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Petar Dimov's avatar

Really enjoyed this one — especially the reframe on delegation.

Not delegating isn’t about control, it’s actually stunting team growth. The frameworks around divergent vs. convergent thinking and the 3 Horizons model are spot-on and highly applicable beyond venture.

Lots of practical wisdom here!

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Joel Salinas's avatar

Thanks Petar! Yes, the lack of delegation is so short sighted, but also so common!

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Glad you liked it. Brilliantly well written by Joel 🌟

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