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The Tim Ferriss Show

#336: Scott Belsky — How to Conquer the Messy Middle

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2018

⏱️ 142 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) is an entrepreneur, author, investor, Chief Product Officer of Adobe, and venture partner with venture capital firm Benchmark. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006 and served as CEO until Adobe acquired the company in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries.

Scott is an early investor and advisor in Pinterest, Uber, and Periscope among many other fast-growing startups, and his new book, The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture, hits the shelves October 2nd.

I urge you to check it out, but until then, please enjoy this interview in the meantime!

This podcast is brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients.

FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more.

Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted useYou do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month and see how the brand new Freshbooks can change your business, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “how did you hear about us” section.

This episode is also brought to you by LegalZoom. I've used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast such as Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame.

LegalZoom is a reliable resource that more than a million people have already trusted for everything from setting up wills, proper trademark searches, forming LLCs, setting up non-profits, or finding simple cease-and-desist letter templates.

LegalZoom is not a law firm, but it does have a network of independent attorneys available in most states who can give you advice on the best way to get started, provide contract reviews, and otherwise help you run your business with complete transparency and up-front pricing. Check out LegalZoom.com and enter promo code TIM at checkout today for special savings and see how the fine folks there can make life easier for you and your business.

***

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm the optimal mineral.

0:02.0

I think this altitude I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

0:06.0

Can I also put some questions?

0:08.0

Now I just see the nipper coming.

0:10.0

What if I do the altitude?

0:12.0

I'm a cyber nettie organism living this show with metal impulse gore.

0:16.0

Need to perish so.

0:24.0

This episode is brought to you by Fresh Books.

0:26.0

Fresh Books has become the go-to cloud accounting software for literally millions of small business owners who found a faster, more efficient and much less stressful way to deal with their numbers.

0:36.0

And ultimately this helps you to focus on what you are best at.

0:40.0

It is used by many of the fastest growing startups I've invested in or advised and it's equally used by many of the best freelancers I work with on a daily or weekly basis.

0:48.0

It is one of the easiest ways to send invoices, get paid, track your time and track your clients.

0:54.0

If you're self-employed and managing business sometimes means wrestling with spreadsheets, crumpled receipts and other scattered pieces, fresh books can really help.

1:02.0

Fresh Books allows you to do many, many different things very easily, preparing and sending a polished branded invoice takes about 30 seconds.

1:10.0

You can set yourself up to receive online payments from your clients in about two clicks, which on average will get you paid twice as fast.

1:16.0

Their new proposal feature means you can include a project summary and timeline as part of your estimate.

1:21.0

There are many, many other things, tracking your time, the quick proposals that I mentioned, formatting free, super easy, late payment reminders so you don't have to chase people, automatic expenses, sharing files and messages with your clients, award-winning customer service.

1:35.0

They are extremely responsive, the interface is super intuitive and there's almost no learning curve.

1:42.0

So in short, it's easy, it saves you time.

1:45.0

And right now, fresh books is offering an unrestricted 30-day free trial for all of my listeners.

1:50.0

To claim yours, check it out, go to freshbooks.com-forward-slash-tim and enter Tim Ferris in the How Did You Hear About Us section.

1:59.0

And that is Funky Spell T-I-M-F-E-R-R-I-S-S.

...

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