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Leveraging growth advisors, hiring well, mastering SEO, and honing your craft | Luc Levesque (Shopify, Meta, TripAdvisor)

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Jun 15, 2023

Guest

Luc Levesque

Luc Levesque, Chief Growth Officer at Shopify and former executive at Meta and TripAdvisor, shares insights on building effective growth teams. He emphasizes the importance of hiring well and finding great growth advisors to enhance company impact. Luc discusses the transformative power of SEO strategies and adapting to the evolving digital landscape. With anecdotes from Facebook, he reveals vital lessons on recruitment and achieving product-market fit, while also encouraging continuous self-improvement and the balance of personal and professional life.

01:20:24

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Episode notes

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ADVICE

Hiring Tips from Zuck

Involve the entire executive team in the hiring process, leveraging their collective understanding of talent needs.
Make the recruiting process personal, considering the candidate's family and involving them if appropriate.

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Hiring is Key

Prioritize hiring as a crucial skill for leadership, as team success depends on the quality of hires.
Develop a hiring playbook to refine your approach and consistently attract top talent.

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ANECDOTE

Small Change, Big Impact

Luc Levesque made a significant impact at a company through a small conversation where he improved a landing page.
This showcases how advisors, with deep knowledge, can impart quick fixes that yield large results.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Impact and Recruitment Insights from Facebook

03:55 • 18min

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The Impact of Growth Advisors on Business Success

21:32 • 20min

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Harnessing the Power of SEO for Business Growth

41:05 • 5min

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Navigating SEO Strategies for Growth

45:53 • 9min

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Navigating SEO and Google's Transformative Changes

54:39 • 4min

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Mastering SEO and Personal Growth

58:14 • 19min

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Evolving Product Development: Balancing Experimentation and Intuition

01:17:02 • 3min

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Brought to you by Mixpanel—Product analytics that everyone can trust, use, and afford | Attio—A powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments

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Luc Levesque is Chief Growth Officer at Shopify and has advised companies like Canva, Twitter, Pinterest, and Patreon on growth and product strategy. Previously he served as an executive at TripAdvisor, where he built and led the growth team that helped it become the world’s largest travel site. Luc was then recruited by Mark Zuckerberg to Facebook, where he was an executive and held senior product and engineering leadership roles. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Why you need to become world-class at hiring

• Tips for finding a great growth advisor and assessing their impact

• Why truly great companies focus on impact

• Common mistakes to avoid when building a growth team

• The importance of passion and continuous self-improvement

• Signs your company should explore SEO as a growth channel, and strategies to do so

• Why Mark Zuckerberg personally recruited Luc and what it taught him about the recruiting process

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/leveraging-growth-advisors-hiring

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Where to find Luc Levesque:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/luclevesque

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luclevesque/

• Website: https://luclevesque.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Luc’s background

(03:31) Luc’s first MT review at Facebook

(07:09) Impact vs. industriousness

(09:20) Facebook’s relentless, personalized approach to recruiting talent

(13:12) Luc’s hiring playbook

(16:56) When to focus on growth and the importance of product-market fit

(18:04) What to look for in a growth advisor

(23:15) The large impact Luc made from a small conversation

(26:52) Advice on compensating advisors

(31:35) How to find a good growth advisor using VCs and your network

(33:33) The importance of having an in-house person and growth advisors as support

(38:15) Tips for becoming a growth advisor

(41:59) The power of SEO

(45:29) The two buckets of SEO

(49:21) Channels of growth

(51:49) The potential impact of ChatGPT on Google and SEO

(56:04) Advice on hiring an SEO person

(58:19) How long it takes for SEO to make an impact

(1:00:07) Self-reflection, cold plunge, and other tools Luc uses to excel in his personal and work life

(1:06:46) Luc’s famous dinner guild

(1:10:33) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Luc’s blueprint: https://coda.io/@luc-levesque/blueprint-for-leaders-managers-communicate-your-quirks/my-blueprint-9

• Jeff Bezos’s morning routine: https://finty.com/us/daily-routines/jeff-bezos

• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain: https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514

• Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less: https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Brevity-Power-Saying-More/dp/1523516976

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-New-Expanded-Psychology-Persuasion/dp/0062937650/

• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://www.amazon.com/Outlive-Longevity-Peter-Attia-MD/dp/0593236599

• Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer: https://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Wants-Read-Your-Tough-Love/dp/1936891492

• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles: https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026

• The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Bagger-Vance-Novel-Golf/dp/038072751X

• Huberman Lab podcast: https://hubermanlab.com/welcome-to-the-huberman-lab-podcast/

• The All-In Podcast: https://www.allinpodcast.co/

• Renu cold plunge: https://www.renutherapy.com/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

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