Jason Feifer - Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Subestif. What's happening, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome to the show. Welcome to this episode. My guest this week, editor in chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, host of the podcasts. That's plural. Built for tomorrow, problem solvers and hush money. This is a guy who gets you excited for your future. Friends, please help me. Welcome to the show. Jason Pfeiffer, what's up, dude? How's it going? Everything's great, man. It's great to finally connect with you. We I think we met on Clubhouse.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yes. It's the place to meet these days.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It is where all the cool kids are hanging out.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, I know, cool, right, because it's still invite only. And then once it's opened up, it won't be the cool kids anymore. Well, Riffraff.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Because marketers ruin everything. So that's just that's just a reality there. So well, it's great to finally connect here. I know you're you're a busy guy, so taking some time out of your day to hang out with me, I really, really do appreciate it here. We were just chatting before the interview started that um I'd got a call and quickly learned just now that that was your wife that called that had called me several years back and used me um in uh in an actual uh I can't believe I'm gonna lose a word. There we go. In the magazine or an issue of a magazine. These are old terms, Jason. Issue, magazine, radio program. Like these are like outdated terms for us here these days.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So well, you know, I I still make a magazine. Uh so to me, an issue is still a a pattern of life that I live by. But yes, you were in an early edition of the magazine in my tenure as editor-in-chief. That was definitely that was my first year. I could picture the issue. It was before our big redesign, but it was a great story.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

It really was. I have um I've been following you guys for for quite some time, and uh it was really cool to have that opportunity happen. And then like I forgot about it, I totally forgot about it, and then I got an email from Jennifer that the story had dropped, the mag the issue's out now, so I went and bought every copy that Barnes and Noble had. So love it. That was a lot of fun. So uh I always like to tell people's story by going back to like high school because that's a good starting point. Because either after high school, you either went to school, became an entrepreneur, and did whatever life was was was fronting you next. So if we can back up there, we're like, what happened after? Did you go to college?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah, I went to college. I went to Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, ran the student magazine. And then I, you know, I mean, unless you want to know more about college, I'll that's a sentence of it. And then after that, I got a job at a community newspaper in North Central Massachusetts called the Gardner News, 6,000 circulation at the time in 2002. I don't know what it is now, I don't know if it even still exists, covering nothing, just nothing happening in that town. And after a year and change of that, I uh I came to this realization, important realization. And that was that I wanted to write for the biggest places that I could. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just knew that I could I could work at a high level, and that's what I wanted. And yet nobody at any of these places, New York Times, Washington Post, whatever, none of these places were ever, ever gonna call me up and say, kid, bring me up to the big time. We love that story you did on the sixth grade musical. Bring it up. It was never, it was like never, ever gonna happen. And so I needed to go to them. I needed to quit and I needed to sit in my bedroom and I needed to pitch these places as a freelancer. They're not gonna hire me, nobody they weren't gonna hire me, but maybe they would take an individual story and maybe I could develop some relationships and maybe I could prove that I could work at that level. And so that's what I did. And that idea of going to somebody instead of sitting around thinking that opportunity just creates itself is really driven my entire career after that.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Very cool. So journalism's clearly in your blood. You, you, you, you're passionate about it, you love it, and uh it's what it's your life's work.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, I you know, I mean, it's funny. I I've shifted away from thinking of myself as a pure journalist since I got to entrepreneur, which was a weird transition for me, right? I I started as a newspaper reporter, I was a magazine, I went into magazines, it was a magazine editor, I have bounced around Boston Magazine, Men's Health, Fast Company, Maxim. Uh, I've written for everybody, GQ, you know, Times, Post, et cetera, et cetera. But uh when I got to Entrepreneur and I became the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, people started treating me differently. And I mean, like in all sorts of ways, just what happens when you get a high-profile job. But in a way that was fundamental to changing my understanding of myself, which is that people didn't understand me as a journalist. Right. When you when you reach out to have me on your show, you don't think of me as like a pure journalist, right? No, nobody thinks of me that way anymore. Because as the editor-in-chief of the magazine, I uh people saw me as like a spokesperson for entrepreneurship, as a as somebody who understands and speaks for this community and serves this community. And I did not know how to do that at first. That was very, I got this job in 2015. I was very uncomfortable doing that because it wasn't what I was I'd thought of, it was a different identity than I had thought of myself the entire time. And so I had to go through a real process to make that shift. I didn't have to make that shift, I wanted to because I said there was more opportunity from the other side of that. If I could understand what that was, there were more things for me, and there was more value that I could provide to the world. If I could understand how to be the thing that everybody now assumed that I was, which was weird.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

It was a big adjustment. So, but it also sounds like a huge growth opportunity where you were almost forced to lean in and take action in areas that you're not accustomed to, but realizing, hey, this comes with the territory. I committed and took the job, so this is this is what it looks like. So that's unique how that had ended up working out. So what in in the beginning it was quite the adjustment. When did you start to really feel like you caught your stride with the position?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Oh, you know, it's funny. I mean, this is I'm sure the case with everybody in any kind of new role or throughout their lives, which is that I think that there have been many times throughout this journey where I would have said, if you asked me at the time, do you feel like you have control of the situation? I would have said yes. And now a year later, I look back and I'm like, I didn't know what I was doing back then. Right. So uh so like last year, a year ago, did I know what I was doing? I would have said yes. Now when I look back, did I know what I was doing? Sort of, maybe. It's just how it feels. So do I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that in a year from now I'm gonna look back at this moment right now and be like, I did not know what I was doing. What was I talking about? So, but that's good. I think that's good. That's progress. That's what progress looks like. So I embrace that. I I think you do the best that you can and you just keep going. But it took me, I mean, it definitely took me at least a year to get comfortable with the language and the self-confidence that I could do more than just be a journalist. And I didn't have to. I could have just stayed, I am a magazine editor. What I do is I make magazines and I am a journalist. But that that just there was more, there was more to it. You know, I believe that in front of us at any one time are two sets of opportunities. Opportunity set A, opportunity set B. Opportunity set A is everything that's asked of you, uh all the your KPIs and whatever, whatever you have to wake up in the morning and like do because other people are relying upon you, or if you have an employer, like what your boss needs from you. And then opportunity set B are all the things that are available to you that nobody is asking you to do. And to me, opportunity set B throughout my entire career has has always been more important and has always been the bigger growth. And one of the foundational shifts in in this phase of my career was that early on I realized that opportunity set A was be a journalist and be really good at it and just like make this magazine really good. But and I I still want to do all those things, but opportunity set B, which was to like understand this community, be a be a leader in this community, be very active in this community. But that required that was hard. It required a shift in identity, and it required a lot of work and stumbling and embarrassment. But I I mean, but they're incomparable in that opportunity set B was more important.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's interesting. And you've been there for a minute now. I mean, that's that you know, six years is it six years, yeah. Six years is a is a long time to have a job these days. I know that sounds weird to say.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Oh, it is. It's the longest job I've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

By far.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

And wh why do you think you've been doing it so long? Is it just you thoroughly enjoy the craft and the in the and the culture and the and the job itself?

SPEAKER_01 9:03

At entrepreneur or even just in general. Oh, yeah. Um, well, because being editor-in-chief of a magazine is I mean, it's like a really special thing. Yeah. Uh it's like a real honor. Um, you know, I mean, you're like a real you're a steward of so many things. And but also it's the kind of role I I get I get bored pretty quickly. I learn something and then I'm done with it. And at every job that I worked at prior, I would get good at it and then I would immediately leave. That was my that was my habit. And because I'm just not interested in doing something over and over again. And so that's why I always push myself to learn and do new things. So the amazing thing of being editor-in-chief, especially at a brand like entrepreneur, is that the opportunities to learn new things are endless outside of outside, I mean, inside of entrepreneur, sure, but outside of entrepreneur too, right? I mean, nobody is nobody asked me to be good at public speaking. No, right? I mean, just it wasn't a thing that I had to do. My boss was didn't sit me down, the boss being the president of entrepreneur, and be like, and now you shall give keynotes, right? Like that's not, but uh, but it was it was something that was suddenly available to me because I was running, because I was running this magazine. Nobody said to me, and now you shall go on television. But you know what? It's available to me and it's awesome. And I would like to be very good at it. And so I take these out, and these are the kinds of things where I find that the more I can push outward into the world, being the editor chief of entrepreneur, frankly, really helps doing that. And also I just love that I have a platform here to help this audience that I've that I really care about and that I really connect with. Um I could do that on my own, sure. But entrepreneurs are gigantic platform. Sure. And what what an honor.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

And great opportunities too. And they we're living in a world now where it's almost not required, but expected for for for you to have a personal brand of some sort that complements what your job is. And I you, you, the stuff that you do with podcasting and speaking and content absolutely complements, in my opinion, your role at entrepreneur. So they they they they work back and forth. I mean, you getting speaking opportunities, being editor-in-chief on here does a couple different things. It brings some additional awareness to you and your brand as Jason Pfeiffer, but it's also beefing up the brand of Entrepreneur Magazine. We're like, hey, we got the editor-in-chief here to give a talk. Teach us what it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Well, look, and that I mean, and what you're identifying here is the real power of that opportunity set thing that I said a second ago, which I call work your next job. Because just because you are doing so, just because you're pursuing opportunity set B, you're doing something that's like other than the thing that your bosses are asking you to do, doesn't mean that you're being bad to your employer. In fact, you could be doing great for your employer by doing something that they didn't ask you to do, because you build yourself. You're also building your skill sets and your connections. And that makes you better. I mean, I I think that the best employees are entrepreneurial. Like they'll give you 100% and they'll keep 50% for themselves because they they just work at a higher level. And so I or that's right. I go when when somebody hires me as a as a keynote speaker, I come, I get paid myself, right? It's my money, but I am also making I'm making them feel good about me, but I'm also making them feel good about the brand. Sure. It's it it's a it everybody wins. And you know, entrepreneur understands that, and that's why we have a great relationship.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

So it's uh editor-in-chief slash brand ambassador. Yeah, that's right. It is of sorts, and I think that's gonna be a com that's gonna be a very, very, you know, a common theme with companies if it hasn't already. How can we identify a prospect for this position, place them, and then have them be an evangelist for the brand in addition to what they're doing and be able to leverage their personal brand while they why they why they leverage our actual brand. So it's brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Well, people, yeah. I mean, people, people connect with people more than they do with brands. And so if you can find somebody and put them out there and have them connect with an audience, it the the goodwill, they get some of that goodwill, and the brand gets some of that goodwill. And you know, you live if you have an abundance mindset, then there's plenty of goodwill to go around.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

There certainly is. There, there certainly is. So let's talk podcasting for a minute. We're almost out of time here, but uh, you're you're quite the podcaster. I I counted, I believe, three shows you've you you host right now. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yes, that's that's right. I mean, well, one of them's on hiatus, so technically two right now, but yes. Um uh uh, I mean, the three I'll rattle them off is Build for Tomorrow problem solvers and hush money. And they're all different and they all do different things. But yeah, I love I love podcasting. And Build for Tomorrow is the one that I I could have pour my heart and soul into. Uh it's a it's a show about uh the the things from history that shape us and how we can shape the future. Deeply reported, crazy. You want to know why participation trophies are like why, why have why were why is everything that people say about participation trophies completely wrong, like embarrassing, shockingly, completely wrong. Um well, I I dug into a hundred years of uh research and give you the answer. Uh and and what I am ultimately doing is that I'm I'm obsessed with how change happens, and I'm obsessed with how people find opportunity by focusing on the future and what inhibits us from being able to do that. That's what that show is. But yeah, anyway, I love podcasting.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I can tell, my goodness. Well, well, one show's on hiatus. Well, I'm sorry you're only running the other two podcasts on here. I've had to reevaluate my entire life as an actual podcaster in the podcasting business with my my one measly show here. I made to step up my game a little bit. By the way, if you're listening to this, you're thinking, I want to check out that podcast. That sounds amazing. All of Jason's links and contact information is going to be in the show notes. You'll be able to connect with him on LinkedIn and socials uh across the platform and Clubhouse too, where I initially had met him there too. Well, we're out of time, but I do appreciate you carving some time out of your calendar today. I always like to leave each episode, or at least most of, especially when I got a very, very interesting guest um in smart guests like yourself. Uh and I always like to pose a question. So I myself am a speaker too, but I do more MC work than I do uh than I do speaking work. So chances are you and I connecting in a green room are very, very common when live events start to happen again. So let's just say you're keynoting uh a conference that I'm MCing and um we got done with our day. It's the last day of the conference. We're at the hotel bar, it's a late night, everybody's hanging out, having a great time. And I look across the hotel and I realize that there's a karaoke bar not too far away from where we're at. And I say, hey, Jason, let's go. Are you down for a duet? What song would we sing? Oh man, that's so that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Boy, that was like a real windy tale. I didn't know where this was going uh or where it was gonna land. I so I will tell you something. This is a challenging thing to answer, not because the duet part is what really threw me off. And the reason for this is because you don't you don't know this, but I karaoke very hard. Uh I karaoke so hard that I tore my ACL doing karaoke. That is not a joke. That is a real story. Green Days, Basket Case, Corporate Retreat. When I worked at Fast Company many, many years ago, I was totally sober because I just karaoke hard. I don't need a bunch of alcohol to do it. Right. And then uh and I I just I jumped off the stage. I landed uh funny. Uh I I collapsed to the ground. I had no idea what happened to me. And I but you know, I finished the song. You better believe I finished the song. I did a little air guitar on the floor. Nobody knew the difference. I I climbed back up to the stage, I finished, and then I hobbled off and got surgery a week later or something. It's terrible. So uh uh so anyway, the point of that is that I I sorry to help you relive that. No, it's fine, it's a great deal. But I'm very, very bad at duets uh on karaoke because I like to run around so much that I like I feel like uh I hate I I honestly I just hate sharing the stage. But but you know what? My what but when my wife and I uh when we karaoke, um our our like power move is um is shoop, where she handles the majority of the song, and then I come in for that like one refrain with the male rapper, and uh and it's great because people just don't see it coming. So um, so I don't know. I guess I'd leave it to you.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

We'd have to go through the book. We'd have to get go through.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

You're gonna have to really, yeah, you're gonna have to really step up your game.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

We'd have to flip, yeah. I mean, air guitars, torn ACLs, jumping off stages. I'm like, I I thought I was when I dropped the mic on a cruise ship after Frank Sinatra's My Way, I thought I was a badass. My goodness. I don't mess around. Absolutely. Well, I look forward to seeing you in a in a uh in a in a green room sometime uh uh before too long here in the in the near future when things get back to our new normal on here. And again, thanks for your time. It's so great to be connected with you now and to be able to get you on the show. And uh I love the work that you're doing. It clearly matters. You're you're extremely passionate about it. And I just encourage you to continue up, uh, continue the great work.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Oh well, hey, thanks. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for the great questions. It was a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to be out there in the real world uh karaoking with you.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Me too, man. Thanks again, Jason. I appreciate you, man. Thanks. Thanks, Bye. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.