Secret Academy Episode - Jason MaydenAbout:
Jason Mayden is the co-founder and CEO of Super Heroic, a business focused on creating quality play performance product, technology and services for elementary school-aged children and their families. Prior to this, he was the senior lead designer of the Air Jordan - the highest grossing Nike shoe in history. During his 13+ year career at Nike, Mayden led and contributed to the creation of innovative sport performance products for athletes and cultural icons such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Derek Jeter, and Michael Jordan. Currently, Jason is an advisor and media designer at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University.
Lesson's in Today's Interview:
- How Jason was able to find a job at Nike at 19 years old without any experience in the shoe industry.
- How working as an intern pushed Jason to design the highest grossing shoe in Nike’s history.
- Why creating value for a company as an intern gave Jason the upper hand later on in his career.
- Why learning how to follow helped Jason be a better leader.
- How Jason pushed himself out of his comfortable job and started his own business.
- Jason’s “aha” moment before leaving his corporate job to start his own venture.
- How leveraging your network can help you build your business faster.
- How going to business school gave Jason the confidence and necessary abilities to start his own brand.
- Taking careful steps and learning from different industries prepared Jason for entrepreneurship.
- The biggest obstacles Jason experienced with building his own company.
- Why asking the right people the right questions is extremely important.
- What makes a clothing brand successful.
- Why it’s extremely important to understand your audience.
- Why Jason started a shoe brand specifically for children.
- How Super Heroic is encouraging children to play more and helping them establish healthy behaviors.
- How focusing on an underserved market can really help your brand grow faster.
- Why understanding the pain points of your users and fixing them will create a trustworthy relationship between your brand and them.
- Three main steps to creating a successful brand.
- Why Jason’s love for comic books pushed him to start Super Heroic.
- How you can mix passion and knowledge to start a business.
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