Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Birnbaum

Hi Jordan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I got lucky right out of college – I was the 101st hire at D. E. Shaw & Co., which was pioneering quantitative trading. They were hiring liberal arts students with good grades to join the mailroom, and after a few months, most of us got placed somewhere else. I was sent to London to learn how to become a market-maker of Japanese equity warrants. It was an incredible experience, professionally and personally, but I learned that finance was just not my cup of tea.

When I told my boss that I wanted to return to NY and look for something else to do, he explained that the company had a few non-finance projects in the works, and suggested I look into them. That is how I came to join Juno Online Services almost a year before launch.

Juno afforded me the opportunity to do lots of things to discover my strengths. I was a natural deal maker and a natural leader. So despite my youth and inexperience, I ended up managing our entire sales and sales operations. I had great success in the role, which helped Juno to go public. By the time I left to start my own company, Juno had a $44 million run rate, at the time one of the highest in the industry, but most importantly to me, I also had the company’s highest upward review scores.

I left Juno wanting to produce and distribute new media on the Internet. But in the interest of creating a short-term revenue stream, I had the “bright” idea of housing the media production business within a music venue. The plan was: media by day, revenue by night. The result was The Vanguard, a 20,000 sq. ft. venue on Hollywood Blvd. in LA.

Ironically, The Vanguard was a huge success as a venue, but never found sustainable success with media production. Nonetheless, the Vanguard employed 150 people for 10 years, was voted the #4 venue in the US, hosted every big DJ in the world, and hosted events for every major Hollywood film and television studio, including the first-ever run of Rock of Ages.

I had an experience at Vanguard which had a huge effect on me. While training my security guards, I had a flashback to training my salespeople. In both cases, I was able to provide a very clear and effective plan. But I realized that my success came down to only one thing: could I get people to care?

I came to learn this was called intrinsic motivation, and this resonated so much that when I sold the Vanguard, I went back to school to get my MA in Industrial / Organizational Psychology. That is where I was introduced to behavioral science more broadly, and my goal was to become an expert in applying behavioral science to solve for I/O Psychology problems.

In another lucky twist of fate (I went to the right cocktail party), I charmed my way into a consulting role for ADP, until they put a ring on it, making me VP and Chief Behavioral Economist. At ADP my team and I developed, built and brought to market Compass, a behavioral science-based leadership development tool. Compass produced extraordinary results – leaders’ scores improved an average 10% as a result of receiving 8 short coaching emails. Accordingly, Compass won HR Tech’s 2017 Product of the Year, and went on to help thousands of teams and leaders enjoy improved dynamics.

Following a brief stint as COO for a Bsci-based market research firm (not my cup of tea), I began my consulting practice by securing my first anchor client – ADP – to train and develop their sales leaders, and create video content to help leaders improve. I also began working with HGAN to administer behavioral audits to their clients. By reviewing marketing and communications, I helped those clients generate at minimum double-digit percentage improvements, with the best ever outcome at +290%.

I realize it seems that my career has been filled with twists and turns that may be hard to connect. However, there has been one constant in all of my experiences – my successes have been attributable to my ability to understand, help and influence people for good. With a few notable exceptions, people tend to work harder and more joyfully with or for me than they are accustomed. It’s because I’m very competent and very kind.

My childhood was exceedingly difficult, filled with experiences and responsibilities way beyond what I could handle. There haven been, and will continue to be, many difficult challenges as a result. But the most positive thing to come from those experiences was a capacity to understand other people’s needs. Once I worked past my anger, I began to use that capacity to try to make people feel better, and most of the good things that have happened to me since have been a result of that.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Is there such a thing as a smooth road? Or is just it a nice idea, like the fountain of youth?

It’s never been a smooth road for me. There have been plenty of business challenges. Losing a huge revenue deal right before going into the quiet period of an IPO. (I managed to replace it.) Seeing revenue halved overnight following the 2008 financial crash. (I cut salaries across the board and struggled until selling the business in 2010.) Having to compete for salespeople’s attention with a low-commission product. (We found success with inside sales.)

There have been plenty of people challenges. Taking over a sales team of 40 with no sales leadership experience. (I faked it.) Retaining employees in the hospitality business. (I treated them decently.) Navigating the palace intrigue of a Fortune 500 company. (I made friends sideways.)

But the struggles that are worth talking about are the emotional ones. I emerged from my childhood with delusions of grandeur and just enough talent to fake it. The success I sought had nothing to do with fulfilling any personal aspirations – only externally validating ones. I was so scared of demonstrating any vulnerability to myself, much less anyone else, that I kept my mind running too fast, 24 x 7, to ensure that none of the bad thoughts could enter my mind. And my feelings got hurt so badly, so often, that I chose to spend huge amounts of my personal life alone.

At 28, I finally broke down and admitted to myself that I needed help. I found an incredible therapist and began an arduous and ongoing journey to try to heal and then figure out who I want to be for me. Fantasies about the trappings of success have ben replaced by fantasies about helping people feel much better in their lives. I’m much happier and healthier now because I’ve made my life about the latter.

But being happy and healthy does not mean being without struggle. Life is struggle. Being happy and healthy means having the capacity to feel all of our emotions, including the painful ones, without being overwhelmed by them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?

We are expert at applying behavioral science to solve for any business problem that involves people.

On the people side, that includes leadership development, motivation and engagement training, organizational culture assessments, and sales and marketing learning and development.

On the business side, that includes product and feature design, sales and marketing collateral, direct-to-consumer communications, and Web site design.

And we provide keynote presentations on a host of subjects, many of which can be found on Psychology Today. My online column, The Uncertainty Principal, offers a fresh take on organizational psychology and advances a new vision for leadership in the new world of work.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?

Don’t believe that you know who you are and what you want to do, You’d be horribly boring if you did.

Try everything. Say yes to every opportunity. Treat every relationship as though it can help you, especially if it can’t.

Hustle. People look for a spark, so show yours. Take initiative. Show people that you are humble, courageous and want to succeed – that’s who people want to help.

Feed your favorite version of yourself. Starve your least favorite version of yourself.

Don’t wait to start therapy – you need it by virtue of being human.

People, including you, have shockingly little control over their decisions and actions. That makes forgiveness a lot easier, and forgiveness makes everything else a lot easier.

It’s going to hurt as much as it’s going to feel good. The point is to feel it all and stay the person you’ve always wanted to be. There is nothing in life more worthwhile than that.

Contact Info:

• Twitter: https://x.com/JordanBirnbaum