Illustration via 99designs

“There are two gaps that I think are really hard. One is people who can’t stop being victims, and the other gap is, I call it self-awareness gap, where they think they are the best in the world.”

— Claire Hughes Johnson

Claire Hughes Johnson (@chughesjohnson) currently serves as a corporate officer and advisor for Stripe, a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the Internet. Claire previously served as Stripe’s chief operating officer from 2014 to 2021, helping grow the company from fewer than 200 employees to more than 6,000. At various times, she led business operations, sales, marketing, customer support, risk, real estate, and all of the people functions, including recruiting and HR. 

Prior to Stripe, Claire spent 10 years at Google leading a number of business teams, including overseeing aspects of Gmail, Google Apps, and ultimately consumer operations, as well as serving as a vice president for AdWords Online Sales and Operations, Google Offers, and Google’s self-driving car project.  

Claire holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University. She currently serves on the boards of the renewable energy company Ameresco, the multi-platform publication The Atlantic, the self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation, and the customer management software company HubSpot. 

Her book is Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPodcast AddictPocket CastsCastboxGoogle PodcastsAmazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, LinkedIn Ads marketing platform with 1B+ users:, and Momentous high-quality supplements.

#724: Claire Hughes Johnson, Building Stripe from 160 to 6,000+ Employees — How to Take Radical Ownership of Your Life and Career


This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.


This episode is also brought to you by Momentous high-quality supplements! Momentous offers high-quality supplements and products across a broad spectrum of categories, and I’ve been testing their products for months now. I’ve been using their magnesium threonateapigenin, and L-theanine daily, all of which have helped me improve the onset, quality, and duration of my sleep. I’ve also been using Momentous creatine, and while it certainly helps physical performance, including poundage or wattage in sports, I use it primarily for mental performance (short-term memory, etc.).

Their products are third-party tested (Informed-Sport and/or NSF certified), so you can trust that what is on the label is in the bottle and nothing else. If you want to try Momentous for yourself, you can use code Tim for 20% off your one-time purchase at LiveMomentous.com/TimAnd not to worry, my non-US friends, Momentous ships internationally and has you covered. 


This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn ads, the go-to tool for B2B marketers and advertisers who want to drive brand awareness, generate leads, or build long-term relationships that result in real business impact.

With a community of more than 900 million professionals, LinkedIn is gigantic, but it can be hyper-specific. You have access to a diverse group of people all searching for things they need to grow professionally. LinkedIn has the marketing tools to help you target your customers with precision, right down to job title, company name, industry, etc. To redeem your free $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to LinkedIn.com/TFS!


What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Want to hear an episode with Claire’s colleague, the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, Patrick Collison? Listen to our conversation here in which we discussed the importance of giving ideas time to fail, succeeding in a seemingly saturated market, the siren song of high praise, organic traction, growing up as a “free-range” child, learning ancient Greek from a local monk, developing a unique worldview at any age, how to make speedier decisions, and much more.

#353: Patrick Collison — CEO of Stripe

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Claire Hughes Johnson:

LinkedIn | Twitter

SHOW NOTES

  • [07:51] Say the thing you think you cannot say.
  • [13:24] Detoxifying your left-hand column.
  • [19:59] Victim versus player.
  • [29:49] Recommended reading.
  • [36:53] The case for reading fiction.
  • [44:18] Crafting a working-with-me document.
  • [52:07] Make the implicit explicit.
  • [57:29] An Irish Goodbye.
  • [58:34] Email policies.
  • [1:03:58] Renegotiating the terms of expectations.
  • [01:06:05] Listening for the quiet no.
  • [01:08:27] Money versus time.
  • [01:10:14] Good rules can be liberating.
  • [01:12:59] Leadership and disappointment.
  • [01:17:59] Renegotiating past disappointment.
  • [01:37:05] Asking a question versus stating an opinion.
  • [01:40:58] Training wheels for a “no.”
  • [01:42:26] Time, talent, treasure, and testimony.
  • [01:46:37] Spotting bad apples while hiring.
  • [01:48:37] If you’re not self-aware, how would you know?
  • [01:51:08] Work style assessments for self-awareness building.
  • [01:58:38] Paragons of no.
  • [02:00:51] No more boards.
  • [02:04:58] Pushers and pullers.
  • [02:11:50] Parting thoughts.

MORE CLAIRE HUGHES JOHNSON QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“There are two gaps that I think are really hard. One is people who can’t stop being victims, and the other gap is, I call it self-awareness gap, where they think they are the best in the world.”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

“How do you get results? You get super clear and transparent about anything implicit — you make it explicit and you’re clear. This is a process. We’re going to go through it to get to this outcome. And what is the outcome we want? Make it explicit.”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

“I am just honest about, ‘I can’t do this well, and I think you want someone at their best. It’s not going to be my best.’”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

“My personal trap is I think I’m being an empath, giving them 30 minutes. ‘Let me hear your story.’ And in fact, the empathic thing to do is to say, ‘I’m going to do a probability assessment. The chance that I’m going to invest/make a donation are sub five percent. No. No for you, no for me. And you don’t have to think about it ever again. You don’t have have to email me tomorrow and ask me again.’”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

“There’s a reason these people are leaders. Most of the time they’re 80 percent of the way there. They’re just not confident in their instinct. And so my job is not to tell them what to do or how to do it. It is to build their confidence in their instinct and then yeah, we can brainstorm the last 20 percent.”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

“People do not learn by being told answers. … What you’re going to do if you’re a good leader, a good teacher, is you’re going to lead them through learning with you and they are going to get to the answer and you are going to celebrate them doing that.”
— Claire Hughes Johnson

PEOPLE MENTIONED

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it’s been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.


Source link