Jay is the founder and former CEO of Blinds.com, the world’s largest online window coverings retailer, acquired by The Home Depot in 2014. Jay remained as its CEO and later joined The Home Depot Online Leadership Team. After stepping away from these roles in early 2020, he began teaching entrepreneurship at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and has increased his involvement on numerous private company boards and serves as a director of the public company, Masonite. 

In this episode, Dean Newlund and Jay Steinfeld discuss:

• The counter productiveness of generosity 
• Caring for your people genuinely 
• Being serious about your culture 
• Tips for creating startup businesses 

Key Takeaways:

• A lot of people think that what you need to do to succeed in business is to spend as little as possible and give away as little as you can get away with and you’ll get more money. However, the opposite is true. If you give more, you’ll get more. 
• Not every person wants to dedicate their whole life to one company. People have dreams, aspirations, and goals of their own. When you start making people feel that you genuinely care about them, they’ll start trusting you more. 
• You have to communicate to your team that embodying the culture and values of the organization is the most important thing. Be serious about culture, and hold people to your expectations. 
• It’s better to be prepared yet humble enough to know that there is a lot that you don’t know. When experimenting, try the small and fast ideas that have any potential rather than big ideas that would take a lot of time to execute. 

“It’s better to give as much as you can away because you’ll actually get people more loyal, more satisfied, and that goes with not just your customers – it’s especially true with your employees.” —  Jay Steinfeld

See Dean’s TedTalk “Why Business Needs Intuition” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEq9IYvgV7I

Connect with Jay Steinfeld:  
Website: https://www.jaysteinfeld.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlindscomCEO

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaysteinfeld/ 

Connect with Dean:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqRK8GC8jBIFYPmECUCMkw

Website: https://www.mfileadership.com/

The Mission Statement E-Newsletter: https://www.mfileadership.com/blog/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannewlund/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/deannewlund

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MissionFacilitators/

Email: dean.newlund@mfileadership.com

Phone: 1-800-926-7370

Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla
  
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.