The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - How Introverts Can Succeed in Business, Navigating Class Differences, and Employee Equity

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Scott Galloway answers listener questions on whether introverted founders can succeed without being natural salespeople, how to deal with insecurity when you’re surrounded by wealth, and the smartest way to give early employees a real sense of ownership through equity. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [e-mail], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit bitdefender.com slash trusted to see why experts and renowned brands trust Bit Defenders stay protected. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform. That makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more.

And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-O-F-Frey at O-D-O-O-O-D-com. Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer your question about business people. tech entrepreneurship and whatever else is on your mind if you'd like to submit a question for next time you can send a voice recording to office hours of proptomedia.com again that's office hoursoptomedia.com

or post your question on the scott galilee subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode first question our first question comes from initial miserable 7-914 on reddit they say prof g i can build products but i can't work a room i have a product management background and I've spent the past years building AI automation tools and microsas. What I don't have is the extroverted hustle gene or the network to attract the operators and capital needed to scale. Is there a path forward for introverted builders who can execute they can't sell themselves or does the startup ecosystem just filter us out by design? I keep thinking about how many viable products are dying, not because they're bad, but because

the person who built them isn't wired to pitch network and evangelize 24 by 7. Is this a solvable inefficiency in the market or just how it has to work. So, no, that I think in almost every tech company, there's sort of a tech genius or someone on the team who is deeply introverted and awkward, and I'm not saying you're awkward, but sounds like you're an introvert. And that's why the majority of successful companies are founded by not one, but several people. So my first company that I started in my second year of business school was a company called Profit, which was a brand strategy firm still around. And my partner was a guy or named Ian Chaplin, and Ian was a real. I mean, I think of myself as introverted in the sense that I have the skills to be social, especially if

there's alcohol around. I'm even sometimes kind of likable or sort of amusing. What? I amuse you? And it was a great line for him, good fellows. But I can do that. I can work a room. I can get clients. You know, I can do it. It takes energy from me. And that's a lot. It takes energy from me. And that's a the disposition of an introvert is not somebody who's not social, but someone who people sort of take energy from them instead of adding energy to them. And an extrovert is somebody who gets energy from people. Anyways, but Ian was a very much an introvert, but he was very strong with technology and operations and had all the skills I don't have. And so typically the most successful businesses are one where you have an alchemy of talents. No one person brings it all. And so

if you bring product management skills, especially in AI, my brother, you bring a lot to a team. You're actually the secret sauce. Whenever I'm in pitches, whenever I've been in pitches to a VC firm or M, oftentimes I get asked to sit in on pitches. Basically, the VC will say, right, who's the tech guy or gal here? Who's the secret sauce? And then they ask them a lot of questions. So in some, it sounds like you need a front man or a front woman who understands is more comfortable. pressing the flesh and trying to raise capital, and you need that person to hire, you need that person for clients. And I keep saying this, agency and the greatness of others, yeah, start a business, but just find a partner. And I have generally found, I've started almost every business. I've

started with a partner or a core group of people. So again, one plus one equals three here, my brother, you bring a lot to the table. You just need to find your front man. Thanks for the question. Question number two. Hi, Scott. This is Matt from Boston. Similar to you, I grew up in a low-income, single-parent household, and worked hard to make it to a top university on financial aid. Now, I'm surrounded by people from very wealthy backgrounds. Some of my close friends, and now my new girlfriend, come from ultra-privileged families. I find myself feeling uneasy and hyper-aware about this class difference. I can't tell if it's envy, insecurity, or something else, but it's starting to eat away at me. Why do I feel like this? How do I manage

this discomfort and stay grounded without letting resentment or self-pity creep in. Thanks. So first off, this is a, it's a question for a licensed therapist because if this feels like this feels like there's some sort of, I don't know, insecurity or trauma or blockage that you need to work through, but that's not going to stop me from talking about me as a means of giving you advice, but I do think it sounds like you could benefit from therapy to kind of explore this issue. I share the same sentiment as you. I don't like rich kids. I have a bias against them. And I don't know if it's because I'm jealous or it's deferred anger from not having money. And that is, I've said this before. I don't, I just don't think, I think people who have money

or grow up with money can, they can sympathize with people that don't have money, but they can't really empathize. I just don't think people, and the story I tell is when I didn't get into UCLA, I'm like, I'm not going to college because I needed to live at home. home I couldn't afford to go somewhere else. And as I've said several times, I ended up getting in on appeal. But I remember going over, I lived in a wealthy neighborhood. We had kind of the shittiest condo on the block, my mom's boyfriend, who happened to have another family bought it for us, but it's another story. But I was around a lot of kids and I was happening when I was UCLA. I was broke. There was me and one of the kid out of 120 of us that everybody knew had no money where it was laid on a fraternity

bills. But you always feel like there's a ghost whispering in your ear that you're not worthy. I felt like a ghost was following me and my mom around saying, oh, you fucked up, you guys don't have money, you're not worthy. And it just kind of erodes your self-esteem, and you're not as confident, you're not as inclined to take big swings or wrists. At least I didn't. And I remember being a friend's house. And I was all bombed. I hadn't gone to UCLA. And the dad said, Well, just get on a plane and fly out to Michigan or Indiana and show up and don't take no for an answer and speak to the admissions department and, you know, speak of raw, raw speech like, get up and okay, I didn't have a fucking credit card. I had maybe been on a plane a half a dozen times in my life. I wasn't going to get on a plane and go to fucking Michigan to Ann Arbor and just show up. I just, I find that I resent rich kids because I just don't think there's any goddamn way.

And by the way, a lot of them are just lovely and very nice. I just don't think there's any way. they have any fucking idea about how hard it is to make money and make something of yourself when you don't come from money. If a university's mission is to create income mobility, like the most important university in New York is not Columbia or NYU, it's pace because it takes people who maybe didn't get tutors in all sorts of special time. That's my favorite now in these schools is that every rich parent is convincing or writing a letter saying their kid has some acronym and that they need extra time.

You want to hear a scary stat. Poor high schools spend, or high schools in poor areas, spend about $8,000 to $10,000 per student. The average high school's public high school spends $15,000 per student per year. The average elite private school in America spends $75,000 a year on a kid. So what a shocker, all right? Here's one kid that uses an education infrastructure and gets, say, you know, $180,000 in investment towards him.

through funneled through this, you know, I think pretty strong education infrastructure in the U.S. Some people would say K through 12 is not very stronger and they have more, they have data to back it out. But anyways, we spent $180,000 on most kids in America, right? Whereas rich people invest vis-a-vis their education network approximately $900,000. And what a shocker. They're better prepared for college in the work world and make more. Well, that's a fucking spoiler alert. Well, thank you, Captain, obvious. As a matter of fact, middle-income homes, kids from middle-income homes score an average of 120 points higher on the SAT. That is substantial.

But get this. Upper-income homes score 250 points higher than the middle-class kid. So, meaning that they score on average, 370 points. And you don't think that $900,000 in investment over 12 years doesn't make a huge difference. if we had true kind of affirmative action trying to get everyone to the starting point at the same time, if you will, then we would spot every poor kid, 370 points on the SAT. We would say, if you could figure out a way to get to a 1230, congratulations, you just got a perfect score on the SAT. The strongest indicator of your forward-looking success, or the strongest

forward-looking indicator of your success is no longer grit and your character, your intelligence, your kindness. It's how rich your parents are. This, in my opinion, is the biggest problem but back to you uh your your resentment i think is understandable i have figured out that okay enough already are i try to be more generous and graceful and realize like good for them they were born with money wasn't their fault uh to the benefit or the drawback doesn't mean they're not really good people uh but i do find i resent them i think it's because i'm a little bit jealous and insecure uh about my upbringing but if you're really having trouble and it's kind getting to you and sort of getting in the way or really eroding your confidence, I would suggest

there's something deeper going on and suggest that you reach out to a licensed therapist. There's now a bunch of great online platforms and talk through this issue with a licensed professional to try and it feels like there might be something deeper here and that it's just manifesting in this specific way. Anyways, I very much appreciate the question. And again, I would suggest that you talk this out with a licensed professional. We'll be right back after a quick break. Support for the show comes from Square. A seasonal drink at your local coffee shop,

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That's LinkedIn.com slash prof to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back onto our final question. Hey, Prof.G. My name is Ira, calling in from Power River, British Columbia, Canada. A huge fan of the pod and longtime listener. Please say hi to add for me. So I'm the co-founder of a marketing agency that was launched five years. ago, we're focused on consulting for landscaping businesses across Canada and the US. I've been thinking a lot lately about your advice on the importance, particularly in the early growth stages of company of hiring and retaining great people and then getting out of their way. We recently had a key milestone for a business of a profitable $1 million in annual recurring revenue. And in order to continue to scale, I know this is going to be critical to get right. You often say that if you want people, to act like owners, you should make them owners. Do you have any advice on structuring ownership

incentives for early employees? Right now, we offer small bonuses tied to revenue thresholds, but I just don't think it really creates that true feeling of ownership. Thanks and keep up all the incredible work. Thanks for the question and congratulations on your success. A company focused on consulting for landscaping businesses across Canada and the U.S. That's just so cool. There's so many cool ways to make money. Yeah, look, there's compensation and there's ownership. And compensation is people are going to engage in a certain number of activities in order to increase their compensation. But when you give them ownership, they start, you know, they'll take out the trash from the snack room or they'll refer, you know, they'll think, oh, this would be a great

business opportunity for another division, another part of the company. Whereas compensation, you usually outline what their metrics are and they will study to that. test. But when you make them owners, they're thinking about every aspect of the business and trying to contribute. And I find, you know, give someone some equity and make them an owner. They become like you and they start thinking about the business even when they're not working. And those are the most important people. I think in a small business, you want to find the critical people and give them chunks of the company. And that's what I've always done. And the mechanics are pretty straightforward. I would do an S-core for a few reasons. One, I don't know if you've looked at 1202, but look

at 1202, if you start a company, sell it five years later or more, the equity that you've held for longer than five years, if the company has an enterprise value of less than 50 million, which your company does, the first 10 million are tax-free. Actually, they've just increased it to 15 million. And also, let's be honest, it's total income inequality, but, or a total tax loophole for the rich, because VCs get it as well. But anyways, the best means of giving people ownership is usually through options on their equity, because then it's not a taxable event. If you give people equity, outright equity, it becomes a taxable event, and they have to write a check. When they exercise their options, they will have to write a small check because you do

basically a valuation of 409A that says, all right, the company is worth $2 million. You're giving them options on 2% of the company. That's $40,000. And they're going to have to write a check for that, but they don't have to actually, not until they exercise their options. Now, there's some other stuff. you want to exercise your options, ideally a year or more before liquidity event, because if you own it for longer than year, you get long-term capital gains. But individuals can figure that out with their own tax counsel. But essentially, awarding options is the most tax-efficient way to give people ownership. And I think that you identify those first two or three key employees. And that doesn't mean their first. I was cycled through about 10 or 15 people to get to two or three key ones. And that's not pretty. But I think in a small business, it's fucking Vietnam. It's hand-hand combat. someone's not adding a lot of value, you got to shut them and bring it someone else. But when you do find someone that's really outstanding, one, you want to make them an owner. And two, you want to outline your vision for the company around why that ownership will translate to real economic value. So at Prop G, I think we're going to continue to add voices. We're growing 20 or 30% a year. And by 2027, my guess is one of these traditional media companies or a new media company is going to panic and decide they want to be in the fastest growing out, supported medium, which is podcasting, and we'll come in and likely acquire us. Now,

None of us are going to get to go anywhere because we'll probably have to sign up for four or five-year employment contracts. But I go through, when we do in all hands, I outline the vision for this company. I have a track record of getting to exits and then try to say, okay, if this happens, this will be really good for people. And this is why. So the ownership question is important. It can also be phantom ownership through RSUs or, you know, there's all sorts of ways to give people different types of ownership. But traditionally, it's just an S-Core. S core or C core?

Should I'm getting my S's and my C's mixed up. I think it's S core. And then, is that right? Oh, fuck. Anyway, and then you give them options, so it's not a taxable event when you award it to them, and they believe that it's a, you know,

it's real ownership. Also, if you take an investment, I don't think it's a bad idea to try and do a secondary. What's the secondary? Say you want to raise $2 million. And your round is over subscribed, which is a good problem.

Take and say, raise three and take a million and buy people's shares. It's a chance for you to take some money off the table. And also, I do it proportionate. If I sell 10% of my stock to take some money off the table in a financing round, I'll let everyone else sell 10% of their holdings. There's something very powerful about when those options turn into money to really get people's greed glands going. In some, options structured with a lawyer, you can even do most of it on AI right now, that gets people real ownership

and then just as importantly outline the vision for the company such that they feel they have a piece of something run by someone who understands how to add value and it's also looking for an exit and not looking to give it to their kids

and they'll never be an exit. Anyways, congrats on your success, a million dollars in recurring revenue. Just call it AI landscaping or something and go raise billions of dollars to buy chips. Anyways, best of luck to you. That's all for this episode.

If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to Office Hours of Proptoidmedia.com. That's Office Hours of Propteamedia.com. Or, if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our assistant producer is Laura Jenaire. Jouberos is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Propheed Pot from Propty Media.

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