{"video_id":"fp_kFof0peksT","title":"Meet the Team - Terren Tong | Exec Week","channel":"FP Exclusives","show":"FP Exclusives","published_at":"2025-01-31T18:00:00.025Z","duration_s":1303,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":4.537,"text":"Terren: Hello, everyone. I'm Terren. I'm the CEO of Linus Media Group. 2 00:00:04.537 --> 00:00:07.340 Sammy: Perfect, Terren. And we're playing this new game now. 3 00:00:07.340 --> 00:00:11.177 You have to tell me two truths and a lie, and then we'll reveal the lie at the end. 4 00:00:11.177 --> 00:00:15.281 Terren: So I used the same... I also played this game at my last job at Dell. 5 00:00:15.281 --> 00:00:16.149 We were onboarding. 6 00:00:16.149 --> 00:00:16.716 Sammy: Oh, really? 7 00:00:16.716 --> 00:00:21.921 Terren: Yeah, that was driven by one of my close co-workers over there. 8 00:00:21.921 --> 00:00:27.827 So I'm going to use the same lines and we'll see how people here do compared to my previous co-workers. 9 00:00:27.827 --> 00:00:30.697 So I crashed multiple motorcycles. 10 00:00:30.930 --> 00:00:31.965 I'm an avid hiker. 11 00:00:31.965 --> 00:00:33.099 I have multiple tattoos. 12 00:00:34.234 --> 00:00:35.268 Sammy: Oh, I know which one the lie is. 13 00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:37.837 Okay, well... 14 00:00:37.837 --> 00:00:39.039 Terren: Have you seen me shirtless? 15 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:39.506 Sammy: Huh? 16 00:00:39.506 --> 00:00:40.540 Terren: Have you seen me shirtless? 17 00:00:41.341 --> 00:00:42.542 Sammy: Well, I didn't say it was that one. 18 00:00:42.542 --> 00:00:44.277 I didn't say it was that one. 19 00:00:44.277 --> 00:00:44.978 All right. So yeah, we'll start the questions. 20 00:00:44.978 --> 00:00:46.179 I asked you who you are. 21 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:47.313 So what do you do at the company? 22 00:00:48.681 --> 00:00:49.482 Terren: I'm the CEO. 23 00:00:50.417 --> 00:00:51.317 Do you want more specifics? 24 00:00:51.317 --> 00:00:52.585 Sammy: Yeah, what does that entail? 25 00:00:52.585 --> 00:00:53.319 Terren: What does that entail? 26 00:00:54.254 --> 00:00:55.955 Resource management for the most part. 27 00:00:55.955 --> 00:00:57.557 So I'm here to run the business. 28 00:00:58.591 --> 00:01:03.930 Also to figure out what else we should be investing in just so that we can grow revenue 29 00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:08.835 and make sure that we have a viable platform for everybody over the coming years. 30 00:01:08.835 --> 00:01:13.139 Sammy: Can be an example of something you're doing that's not super confidential? 31 00:01:14.441 --> 00:01:15.642 Terren: Everything's super confidential. 32 00:01:16.342 --> 00:01:16.376 No, we have discussions around what else we want to do from a content perspective. 33 00:01:16.376 --> 00:01:20.713 We have discussions around what else we want to do from a content perspective. 34 00:01:20.713 --> 00:01:22.148 I think that was one of the examples that we had 35 00:01:22.148 --> 00:01:26.286 from a not so super confidential conversation earlier today. 36 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:27.387 Other lines of business. 37 00:01:27.387 --> 00:01:31.157 So we have a merchandise and a hardware business at this point in time. 38 00:01:31.157 --> 00:01:35.228 We're constantly evaluating what else we should be looking to get into potentially. 39 00:01:36.529 --> 00:01:37.330 Sammy: Sorry, this is off topic. 40 00:01:37.330 --> 00:01:38.665 You know what I realized about you? 41 00:01:38.765 --> 00:01:42.268 I think every time I talk to you, you always say you were constantly evaluating decisions. 42 00:01:45.805 --> 00:01:51.144 Terren: Because I think that's a truism where you want to be able to make a decision with 43 00:01:51.144 --> 00:01:54.347 as much current information that you have available. 44 00:01:54.347 --> 00:01:57.650 There's always going to be call it a fog of war. 45 00:01:57.650 --> 00:01:58.985 There's always something you don't know. 46 00:01:59.552 --> 00:02:02.922 So there's always some educated guesses that you have to make about a market, 47 00:02:02.922 --> 00:02:04.924 about a business decision or whatever else. 48 00:02:04.924 --> 00:02:07.560 Things would be so much easier if everything was laid out. 49 00:02:08.128 --> 00:02:12.031 So there's a certain amount of leaps of faith that we have to take. 50 00:02:12.031 --> 00:02:17.003 So constantly evaluating to me means that we're taking information all the time. 51 00:02:17.003 --> 00:02:21.574 So that allows us to revise decisions 52 00:02:21.574 --> 00:02:27.046 or to add additional insights in terms of assisting the decision-making process. 53 00:02:27.046 --> 00:02:28.548 Sammy: How long have you been here at the company? 54 00:02:28.548 --> 00:02:29.382 Just over a year. 55 00:02:29.382 --> 00:02:32.318 Yeah, does it feel longer or way too long? 56 00:02:32.952 --> 00:02:34.954 Sammy: I don't know, it feels like a right amount of time. 57 00:02:35.088 --> 00:02:36.422 if that makes a difference 58 00:02:36.422 --> 00:02:37.290 It doesn’t feel like- 59 00:02:37.290 --> 00:02:40.727 It feels like, and I think when you first started, 60 00:02:40.727 --> 00:02:42.462 you're kind of like just like a fly on the wall. 61 00:02:43.363 --> 00:02:46.866 But then I think as of late, I've been seeing you 62 00:02:46.866 --> 00:02:49.502 and decisions you're making come to life more, I guess. 63 00:02:49.502 --> 00:02:51.037 So you're saying I'm talking too much? 64 00:02:51.037 --> 00:02:53.273 No, it's in a good way. 65 00:02:53.273 --> 00:02:56.876 It's also funny because we can cut this out of you if you don't want to be. 66 00:02:57.177 --> 00:02:59.078 When we did the I'm stepping down video, 67 00:02:59.145 --> 00:03:00.346 you didn't know that that was being made. 68 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:02.682 Terren: No, we can totally share this. 69 00:03:02.682 --> 00:03:07.954 I think this is sort of funny because we had talked about this with Linus. 70 00:03:07.954 --> 00:03:11.391 It's like, hey, this is sort of my plan just in terms of how we could communicate this to 71 00:03:12.192 --> 00:03:14.127 the internal stakeholders I have over at Dell. 72 00:03:14.127 --> 00:03:18.031 So at that point in time already, I had the discussion with my immediate boss 73 00:03:18.031 --> 00:03:20.600 as well as call our divisional manager. 74 00:03:22.268 --> 00:03:23.303 But that was about it. 75 00:03:23.303 --> 00:03:25.572 And then it's just like, hey, this is my end date. 76 00:03:25.572 --> 00:03:30.743 And then that evening, I think we were sitting on some calls with Singapore. 77 00:03:30.743 --> 00:03:32.278 People started messaging randomly. 78 00:03:32.278 --> 00:03:33.313 Hey, congratulations. 79 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:35.648 People I've never talked in my life. 80 00:03:35.648 --> 00:03:38.051 It's just like, OK, I don't know who this person is. 81 00:03:38.051 --> 00:03:38.851 I just saw the video. 82 00:03:38.851 --> 00:03:40.119 I was like, what are they talking about? 83 00:03:40.119 --> 00:03:43.890 And then I go onto YouTube, and then I saw the video. 84 00:03:43.890 --> 00:03:46.192 And then I was like, oh, OK, this isn't super good. 85 00:03:46.192 --> 00:03:51.397 So I had to go message my boss and his boss again just to be like, hey, this is intentional. 86 00:03:51.397 --> 00:03:52.665 I wasn't trying to create trouble. 87 00:03:53.633 --> 00:03:55.468 I totally got blindsided by this. 88 00:03:55.468 --> 00:03:58.371 And then I texted Linus basically about the WTF. 89 00:03:59.405 --> 00:04:01.174 And then he's like, oh, I didn't know this was a problem. 90 00:04:01.174 --> 00:04:03.009 And I was like, yeah, yeah, man, it kind of is. 91 00:04:03.943 --> 00:04:07.547 Sammy: Who would have thought taking someone that's very important in the company would be a problem? 92 00:04:07.547 --> 00:04:08.214 Terren: I don't know. 93 00:04:08.214 --> 00:04:09.015 It's really important. 94 00:04:09.015 --> 00:04:11.150 It was just there's a certain way to do things. 95 00:04:11.150 --> 00:04:13.653 And that wasn't necessarily the playbook. 96 00:04:13.653 --> 00:04:14.454 Sammy: It's very Linus. 97 00:04:14.454 --> 00:04:15.154 Terren: Yes. 98 00:04:16.489 --> 00:04:18.291 Sammy: I love how fast you answered that 99 00:04:20.293 --> 00:04:23.096 OK, what kind of hobbies are you interested in? 100 00:04:23.096 --> 00:04:24.998 Terren: I have a kid, so basically I have no hobbies. 101 00:04:26.633 --> 00:04:27.200 Sammy: Okay well... 102 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:29.068 Terren: Don't let me dissuade anybody from having children. 103 00:04:29.068 --> 00:04:30.837 They're just all time consuming. 104 00:04:31.404 --> 00:04:35.575 Before that, though, I do like to play video games. 105 00:04:35.575 --> 00:04:38.444 I think that's a little more theoretical than actual practice now. 106 00:04:38.444 --> 00:04:42.048 So my kid gets mesmerized whenever I play video games. 107 00:04:43.016 --> 00:04:45.151 So I try not to do it too often at home, 108 00:04:45.151 --> 00:04:47.954 just because I want him doing other things other than staring at a screen. 109 00:04:49.489 --> 00:04:52.125 I try to pick up games on my Steam Deck or whatever else. 110 00:04:52.125 --> 00:04:55.161 But somebody else was making fun of me. 111 00:04:55.161 --> 00:04:56.029 He called me a casual. 112 00:04:57.397 --> 00:04:58.998 Yeah, one of my old employees. 113 00:04:59.232 --> 00:05:02.368 I was playing The Witcher 3 earlier this year on the Steam Deck. 114 00:05:02.368 --> 00:05:06.272 But games are complicated enough where I just can't pick them up anymore. 115 00:05:06.272 --> 00:05:07.874 I remember all the button combinations. 116 00:05:07.874 --> 00:05:12.278 So it's been at least a couple months since I picked up my Steam Deck. 117 00:05:12.278 --> 00:05:15.815 So I don't think there's any easy way for me to ease back into The Witcher, 118 00:05:15.815 --> 00:05:18.685 just because it's relatively complicated. 119 00:05:19.252 --> 00:05:23.089 And I don't know if I have the patience to try to learn mechanics all over again. 120 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:24.290 Sammy: Yeah, I recognize that. 121 00:05:24.290 --> 00:05:25.625 In older games, they don't tell you. 122 00:05:26.359 --> 00:05:28.027 They don't give you the tutorial again, kind of. 123 00:05:28.027 --> 00:05:31.097 But in newer games, they always lay out the button at all times. 124 00:05:31.097 --> 00:05:35.635 Terren: Yeah, I need the old man antidote on games to say, I hit this button. 125 00:05:35.635 --> 00:05:36.469 I like shooters a lot. 126 00:05:36.469 --> 00:05:42.775 Just because in general, you can get away with forward, back, left, right, 127 00:05:42.775 --> 00:05:46.379 strafing, and then your guns are opening a door or whatever. 128 00:05:46.379 --> 00:05:48.548 So the mechanics are familiar to me. 129 00:05:48.548 --> 00:05:49.882 I grew up playing shooters. 130 00:05:49.882 --> 00:05:53.186 So usually those are the ones I tend to enjoy, 131 00:05:53.186 --> 00:05:57.090 just because you don't have to do all the superfluous stuff usually. 132 00:05:57.490 --> 00:06:01.260 You know, you can just run and gun or do kind of whatever else 133 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:02.862 and it all sort of works out. 134 00:06:04.464 --> 00:06:07.567 Sammy: Is there a specific shooter that you are enjoying or you enjoyed? 135 00:06:07.567 --> 00:06:09.102 Yeah, back then and now, I guess. 136 00:06:09.669 --> 00:06:13.639 Terren: I put in a lot of time on, I'm dating myself again, 137 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.142 Half-Life specifically, Half-Life Classic. 138 00:06:16.142 --> 00:06:18.344 Did a lot of Deathmatch at that point. 139 00:06:19.412 --> 00:06:20.580 Played a lot of Team Fortress. 140 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:22.849 So that was my kind of big thing in shooters. 141 00:06:23.249 --> 00:06:24.784 Sammy: TF2 or TF1? 142 00:06:24.784 --> 00:06:26.152 Terren: Oh, TF1. 143 00:06:26.152 --> 00:06:27.253 TF2 is a casual game. 144 00:06:28.855 --> 00:06:29.255 Sammy: What about now? 145 00:06:29.889 --> 00:06:30.356 Terren: Right now? 146 00:06:31.157 --> 00:06:31.791 Not that much. 147 00:06:31.791 --> 00:06:34.360 Usually, it's single-player stuff just because I don't want to get 148 00:06:35.328 --> 00:06:38.998 embroiled in online games because it's just like a massive time sink. 149 00:06:38.998 --> 00:06:41.167 I want something where I can get in there, play for, you know, 150 00:06:41.167 --> 00:06:44.103 six to ten hours and sort of be done until, you know, 151 00:06:44.103 --> 00:06:47.974 Call of Duty 10 or whatever the next iteration is that comes out.so. 152 00:06:47.974 --> 00:06:48.908 Terren: Damn, six to ten hours? 153 00:06:48.908 --> 00:06:49.842 That's not casual. 154 00:06:49.842 --> 00:06:50.510 Terren: Is that not casual. 155 00:06:50.510 --> 00:06:51.144 Sammy:I don't know, I play less than that. 156 00:06:51.144 --> 00:06:56.682 Terren: Well, I just spread it over time or I get like a binge weekend and ignore the family 157 00:06:56.682 --> 00:06:57.950 and then they're like, well, are you done yet? 158 00:06:58.518 --> 00:06:59.552 How long does this game last for? 159 00:07:00.586 --> 00:07:03.623 Terren: Okay, so I guess this is a pretty big question, actually. 160 00:07:03.623 --> 00:07:05.625 What made you interested in the CEO role? 161 00:07:08.261 --> 00:07:13.232 Every year, Linus and I would have a call, essentially, right? 162 00:07:13.232 --> 00:07:16.269 Where he'd be like, hey, you ready to come work for me again? 163 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:19.071 And then every year, I always have some sort of excuse. 164 00:07:19.071 --> 00:07:23.543 It's like, no, man, I have a lot of things going on and the time is not really good. 165 00:07:24.744 --> 00:07:28.281 And then so that was, it was always sort of the running joke. 166 00:07:28.281 --> 00:07:31.717 And then so when I accepted the job, it was a more serious conversation where 167 00:07:31.717 --> 00:07:34.454 he was like, hey, I really need some help. 168 00:07:34.454 --> 00:07:37.957 So let's have a real discussion about what it would take for you to come on board. 169 00:07:37.957 --> 00:07:41.861 So there were a few things that were super interesting. 170 00:07:41.861 --> 00:07:45.631 I've never done call it ad supported or media sales before. 171 00:07:45.631 --> 00:07:49.168 So I've done a lot of different things, I guess, in my previous roles, 172 00:07:49.168 --> 00:07:52.438 from product management to sales to product developments. 173 00:07:53.306 --> 00:07:56.108 But ad sales was the area that I've never sort of done. 174 00:07:56.108 --> 00:07:58.845 So content is sort of net new to me. 175 00:07:58.845 --> 00:08:02.982 So that was something that was really interesting to me that I didn't have a lot of experience in. 176 00:08:02.982 --> 00:08:07.320 So that was an interesting leap of faith that Linus was taking there. 177 00:08:08.287 --> 00:08:10.022 I enjoyed working with him in the past. 178 00:08:10.022 --> 00:08:12.758 I've always found that he was really grounded. 179 00:08:12.758 --> 00:08:18.364 So I don't think that he is that different from the person I met, call it 20 years ago now. 180 00:08:18.998 --> 00:08:22.502 So those were the two things that were really important to me. 181 00:08:22.502 --> 00:08:26.772 I think he also reassured me that I would have a lot of leeway to make my own decisions. 182 00:08:26.772 --> 00:08:29.876 Terren: So this wasn’t a just call it... 183 00:08:29.876 --> 00:08:31.143 Sammy: like a puppet CEO kind of thing. 184 00:08:31.143 --> 00:08:32.111 Yeah, that's right. 185 00:08:32.111 --> 00:08:32.612 Yeah. 186 00:08:33.079 --> 00:08:36.516 Sammy: So I definitely noticed that Linus does a lot less things. 187 00:08:36.516 --> 00:08:38.050 I think he doesn't want to do some things. 188 00:08:38.050 --> 00:08:41.954 But then when you tell him to do it, he does it because he tries to make the right call. 189 00:08:41.954 --> 00:08:44.123 So I find that very interesting. 190 00:08:44.123 --> 00:08:44.290 Terren: And I think it's interesting to see a person in his position have this sort of self-realization. 191 00:08:44.290 --> 00:08:50.830 Terren: And I think it's interesting to see a person in his position have this sort of self-realization. 192 00:08:51.564 --> 00:08:56.502 So I've worked at, I guess, throughout my entire career, 193 00:08:56.502 --> 00:09:00.506 the founder owner was always still within the company. 194 00:09:00.506 --> 00:09:04.043 And you can see elements of all founder owners 195 00:09:04.043 --> 00:09:09.081 having the inability to delegate as much as they probably should have. 196 00:09:09.081 --> 00:09:12.351 And I think that was true whether it was a $100 million company, 197 00:09:12.351 --> 00:09:15.154 a billion-dollar company, or a $100 billion company where 198 00:09:17.490 --> 00:09:23.162 very early employees or the founders themselves were very involved in a lot of the day-to-day work 199 00:09:23.162 --> 00:09:26.532 where you would have thought that they would have walked away from some aspects 200 00:09:26.532 --> 00:09:28.034 or some elements of it way earlier. 201 00:09:28.901 --> 00:09:33.172 So for Linus to have, I sort of realized it's like, hey, I'm getting my... 202 00:09:33.873 --> 00:09:36.275 And Peter Principal is probably the wrong word to describe this, 203 00:09:36.275 --> 00:09:39.712 but he knows the things that he doesn't really want to be involved in. 204 00:09:39.712 --> 00:09:42.114 And to be comfortable saying, yep, I'm done with this. 205 00:09:42.114 --> 00:09:43.549 Somebody else could deal with it. 206 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:45.551 That's relatively rare, I guess. 207 00:09:45.551 --> 00:09:49.555 So to me, that was also a very positive thing 208 00:09:49.555 --> 00:09:52.825 just because I think that it spoke to the amount of trust 209 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.463 and his motivation to, I guess, step away to something certain. 210 00:09:58.130 --> 00:09:59.165 Sammy: How's working at LMG? 211 00:09:59.865 --> 00:10:00.533 Terren: It's been good. 212 00:10:00.533 --> 00:10:04.670 Usually I've been the youngest person or one of the younger people working in the company. 213 00:10:04.837 --> 00:10:06.205 I'm definitely one of the older people. 214 00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:08.741 But it's been good. 215 00:10:08.741 --> 00:10:10.042 Everybody here is super friendly. 216 00:10:10.042 --> 00:10:12.745 Everybody is really into the work that they do. 217 00:10:12.745 --> 00:10:14.213 So I think we have a good culture here. 218 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.248 Sammy: Anything weird about working here? 219 00:10:16.248 --> 00:10:18.084 Terren: What do you find weird about working in that company? 220 00:10:18.751 --> 00:10:19.385 No, no, no, no. 221 00:10:19.385 --> 00:10:20.252 Sammy: This is not Meet the Teams Sammy 222 00:10:20.252 --> 00:10:21.387 This is Meet the Team Terren. 223 00:10:23.856 --> 00:10:27.059 Terren: I don't know if there's anything that is particularly weird. 224 00:10:27.126 --> 00:10:33.065 I think that one of the things that was expected coming in is a relative lack of structure. 225 00:10:33.633 --> 00:10:36.268 So it's a flattish organization. 226 00:10:38.571 --> 00:10:43.142 But I don't think there was anything that was unexpected. 227 00:10:43.275 --> 00:10:45.244 Sammy: You fly biweekly. 228 00:10:45.244 --> 00:10:45.645 Terren: Yep. 229 00:10:45.645 --> 00:10:46.545 Sammy: Are we going to disclose that? 230 00:10:47.246 --> 00:10:47.980 Terren: I don't know, probably. 231 00:10:48.247 --> 00:10:49.382 Sammy: How's flying back and forth? 232 00:10:50.182 --> 00:10:52.418 Terren: Flying back and forth is OK, actually. 233 00:10:53.285 --> 00:10:55.054 I'm usually based in the Bay Area. 234 00:10:55.054 --> 00:10:57.957 That's about two hours as far as flights go. 235 00:10:57.957 --> 00:11:02.495 I have a pretty good system in terms of figuring out when to get to the airport. 236 00:11:02.495 --> 00:11:09.135 So when I was flying a lot from my previous job at Corsair, I would have it timed so that 237 00:11:09.135 --> 00:11:12.738 I could get to the gate just as the plane was about to board. 238 00:11:13.305 --> 00:11:15.207 I would cut it really, really close. 239 00:11:15.207 --> 00:11:16.575 And I've never missed a flight. 240 00:11:17.476 --> 00:11:20.646 So the flying part doesn't really bother me. 241 00:11:20.646 --> 00:11:21.847 I don't necessarily enjoy it. 242 00:11:22.415 --> 00:11:23.616 We get the cheap seats in the back. 243 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:28.487 So it's not the life of luxury that everybody sort of expects. 244 00:11:29.288 --> 00:11:31.057 Sammy: You're saying you don't take private jets every day? 245 00:11:31.057 --> 00:11:31.557 Terren: No. 246 00:11:32.425 --> 00:11:34.493 No, that wasn't approved on the expenses. 247 00:11:35.628 --> 00:11:36.328 Sammy: Well, you can approve it. 248 00:11:36.328 --> 00:11:36.829 You're CEO. 249 00:11:38.264 --> 00:11:38.898 In theory, right? 250 00:11:39.565 --> 00:11:41.667 Sammy: What do you think is the hardest part about your job? 251 00:11:41.834 --> 00:11:46.772 Making sure that everybody feels heard and managing expectations, I think, for everybody. 252 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:49.642 Managing expectations across the organization. 253 00:11:51.177 --> 00:11:54.447 There's certainly, I think this is true of everybody in management. 254 00:11:54.447 --> 00:11:59.251 There's always a lot of asks just in terms of what employees and key stakeholders have 255 00:11:59.251 --> 00:12:01.821 in terms of what they think they need to do their job better. 256 00:12:01.821 --> 00:12:07.727 So part of what I think I do relatively well is to understand what's absolutely necessary 257 00:12:07.727 --> 00:12:11.163 and to, again, divert dollars or resources in the right areas. 258 00:12:11.731 --> 00:12:17.570 But at the same time, make sure that people don't feel that I'm coming across as being 259 00:12:17.570 --> 00:12:20.940 dismissive if one of their asks is not acted upon. 260 00:12:22.842 --> 00:12:27.012 It's making sure that we're explaining to people how we're making our decisions and 261 00:12:27.012 --> 00:12:31.884 making sure that we can come to consensus just in terms of how we can address some of 262 00:12:31.884 --> 00:12:33.352 the issues that they're raising. 263 00:12:33.352 --> 00:12:37.656 Sammy: I'm not sure if 100% sure, but did you approve the move for editors to Labs? 264 00:12:37.656 --> 00:12:38.991 Terren: Oh, are we going there? 265 00:12:38.991 --> 00:12:39.892 Sammy: Yeah, we're going there. 266 00:12:39.892 --> 00:12:41.861 Well, that's the one recent example I can think of. 267 00:12:42.828 --> 00:12:46.599 It's clear that this is something that people brought up, and then this was something that 268 00:12:46.599 --> 00:12:47.233 you've worked on. 269 00:12:47.233 --> 00:12:52.104 So make sure that you are heard, and this is a solution that is in the, not everyone 270 00:12:52.104 --> 00:12:57.943 wins, but the core problem of editors and writers not being closer is resolved. 271 00:12:57.943 --> 00:13:02.748 Terren: Yeah, so I don't know if the entire audience is aware, but LMG is in two separate buildings 272 00:13:02.848 --> 00:13:03.616 at this point in time. 273 00:13:03.616 --> 00:13:07.653 Call it, I don't know, what's it, a seven-minute walk between the two buildings or a one-minute 274 00:13:07.653 --> 00:13:08.154 drive? 275 00:13:08.254 --> 00:13:13.225 It's not far, but I'll be the first to admit it can be slightly disruptive when you're 276 00:13:13.225 --> 00:13:14.727 trying to get a hold of somebody really quickly. 277 00:13:15.928 --> 00:13:20.099 In most of my office jobs, I have a tendency to walk around quite a bit during the course 278 00:13:20.099 --> 00:13:20.599 of the day. 279 00:13:22.401 --> 00:13:26.405 I do a lot of instant messaging, but I still feel that it's easier for me to get things 280 00:13:26.405 --> 00:13:28.641 resolved if I have a conversation with people. 281 00:13:28.641 --> 00:13:33.546 So I think those are one of the workflow challenges that we have, especially with people inside 282 00:13:33.546 --> 00:13:36.415 the same work stream. 283 00:13:36.415 --> 00:13:41.220 We've gotten ample feedback that having the writers and the editors in the same building 284 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.122 would be something that was preferable. 285 00:13:43.122 --> 00:13:48.727 So what we're trying to do is to make sure that we're minimizing or recognizing some 286 00:13:48.727 --> 00:13:50.329 of the trade-offs that have to happen. 287 00:13:50.896 --> 00:13:53.465 There are some things that we can't move inside some of the buildings. 288 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:56.502 The writers currently are inside the Labs building. 289 00:13:56.502 --> 00:14:00.172 We have a lot of equipment for Labs, as you guys have seen in lots of different videos. 290 00:14:00.172 --> 00:14:03.676 That stuff is not practical to move that stuff. 291 00:14:03.676 --> 00:14:09.615 So we want to cultivate a closer working relationship between what we're doing from a testing perspective 292 00:14:09.615 --> 00:14:11.217 and what we're doing from a content perspective. 293 00:14:12.651 --> 00:14:18.090 So the one move that we thought we had to make was moving the editors over there, just 294 00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:23.462 because it didn't feel like it was smart for us to split up the writers and the Labs team 295 00:14:23.462 --> 00:14:27.366 So moving the editors over to other building was one of the things that we had suggested, 296 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:33.539 just to make sure that we can get everybody under one roof. 297 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:37.776 This introduces additional challenges, just because we split up production. 298 00:14:37.776 --> 00:14:39.445 We have our sets in a different building. 299 00:14:39.445 --> 00:14:43.515 So now the entire production chain is another building, except for the sets. 300 00:14:43.515 --> 00:14:46.952 So these are all the dependencies that we're trying to work through. 301 00:14:46.952 --> 00:14:49.355 And quite frankly, sometimes there isn't a great answer. 302 00:14:49.355 --> 00:14:52.892 It's just, what are we OK breaking? 303 00:14:52.892 --> 00:14:56.061 No, and I think this is a good example in terms of making sure that everybody feels 304 00:14:56.061 --> 00:14:56.462 heard. 305 00:14:56.462 --> 00:15:00.132 I know that this is exactly the move that everybody envisioned. 306 00:15:00.699 --> 00:15:05.437 But again, we feel that, look, if we can get everybody in one building, some of the other 307 00:15:06.372 --> 00:15:10.376 issues or concerns that people have, we can largely solve for them. 308 00:15:11.677 --> 00:15:13.445 So you know, fingers crossed. 309 00:15:13.445 --> 00:15:14.947 Sammy: I guess this is kind of a weird question. 310 00:15:15.648 --> 00:15:17.883 How did you get into your, quote unquote, skill? 311 00:15:18.617 --> 00:15:22.621 So I guess resource management and just being a CEO, I guess. 312 00:15:23.422 --> 00:15:26.458 I don't know if CEO is a skill, because I think every CEO always varies. 313 00:15:27.593 --> 00:15:34.667 Terren: I think it's volunteering for a lot of things, especially early in your career. 314 00:15:34.667 --> 00:15:40.906 I would say that I was lucky to have a lot of mentors, officially or not, and companies 315 00:15:40.906 --> 00:15:45.144 that were supportive in letting me, I guess, explore the bounds of things outside of my 316 00:15:45.144 --> 00:15:46.278 immediate job. 317 00:15:46.278 --> 00:15:49.882 So I think I hustled quite a bit, especially when I was younger. 318 00:15:49.882 --> 00:15:54.286 And I put in a lot of additional hours just to make sure that I was really good at my 319 00:15:54.286 --> 00:16:00.359 primary job and understood, I guess, frustrations or things that needed to be addressed in adjacent departments. 320 00:16:00.359 --> 00:16:05.331 So it allowed me to get a more well-rounded picture in terms of how an overall business 321 00:16:05.331 --> 00:16:09.168 was run, just so that things were piecemeal together over time. 322 00:16:09.368 --> 00:16:13.205 I studied computer science when I was younger, so my background definitely is in business. 323 00:16:13.205 --> 00:16:17.142 So these are things that were just acquired over the last 15, 20 years of my career. 324 00:16:17.309 --> 00:16:23.315 Sammy: What's the coolest project you got to work on that you can disclose? 325 00:16:25.084 --> 00:16:26.518 I realized half these questions. 326 00:16:26.518 --> 00:16:28.420 I wrote it for everyone else. 327 00:16:28.420 --> 00:16:33.058 But then, because this was planned just today, and I didn't realize half these questions, 328 00:16:33.058 --> 00:16:33.859 you can't really answer. 329 00:16:34.526 --> 00:16:36.028 I'm hoping there's at least one thing. 330 00:16:36.028 --> 00:16:37.396 You can say something that's cool. 331 00:16:37.396 --> 00:16:38.697 If not, we can just move on. 332 00:16:38.697 --> 00:16:41.000 Terren: We opened up operations for NCIX in Toronto. 333 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:42.101 That was a really fun project. 334 00:16:42.234 --> 00:16:46.605 Getting a warehouse open, getting retail open, and moving to a new province 335 00:16:46.605 --> 00:16:48.340 all in one go in two, three months. 336 00:16:48.340 --> 00:16:53.545 So that was late, long days every day for the better part of three, four months. 337 00:16:53.545 --> 00:16:55.481 So stuff like that was kind of fun. 338 00:16:55.481 --> 00:16:56.281 Sammy: That's cool. 339 00:16:56.281 --> 00:16:57.383 But what about LMG? 340 00:16:57.383 --> 00:16:58.017 Terren: LMG? 341 00:16:58.017 --> 00:16:58.684 Redacted, yes. 342 00:16:59.385 --> 00:17:00.486 Sammy: Second last question. 343 00:17:00.486 --> 00:17:02.421 What were your jobs prior to LMG? 344 00:17:02.421 --> 00:17:04.456 So NCIX, Corsair. 345 00:17:05.357 --> 00:17:07.126 Terren: I was working at a... 346 00:17:07.126 --> 00:17:08.660 Sammy: Let's get a timeline from start to end. 347 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:09.862 Terren: Oh, a timeline from start to end. 348 00:17:10.429 --> 00:17:11.697 I delivered papers. 349 00:17:11.697 --> 00:17:12.164 Oh, really? 350 00:17:12.164 --> 00:17:13.599 Yeah, when I was really young. 351 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:14.400 A paperboy. 352 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:15.367 Yeah, I was a paperboy. 353 00:17:16.502 --> 00:17:18.404 I was sort of miserable because, well, before climate change kicked in. 354 00:17:18.404 --> 00:17:19.938 I was sort of miserable because, well, before climate change kicked in. 355 00:17:22.441 --> 00:17:24.810 Vancouver was pretty wet in general, right? 356 00:17:24.877 --> 00:17:28.814 And then so, what was it, like 250, 300 days a year? 357 00:17:28.814 --> 00:17:30.416 I'm probably exaggerating a little bit at this point. 358 00:17:30.616 --> 00:17:31.750 Terren: I worked fast food before. 359 00:17:31.750 --> 00:17:33.752 Sammy: Oh, which one? 360 00:17:33.752 --> 00:17:34.386 Terren: Arby's. 361 00:17:34.386 --> 00:17:34.953 Sammy: Arby's? 362 00:17:34.953 --> 00:17:35.521 Terren: Yeah. 363 00:17:35.521 --> 00:17:36.155 Sammy: Wow. 364 00:17:36.155 --> 00:17:36.722 Terren: Yeah. 365 00:17:36.722 --> 00:17:37.756 Sammy: I've never been to Arby's. 366 00:17:37.756 --> 00:17:40.025 Terren: If I say you're not missing much, am I slandering them or... 367 00:17:40.659 --> 00:17:41.527 Sammy: It's your opinion. 368 00:17:42.494 --> 00:17:43.062 It's an opinion. 369 00:17:43.262 --> 00:17:45.798 I think that was a motivating factor in making sure that 370 00:17:47.466 --> 00:17:50.669 you're studying hard and planning your career just because there's a lot of... 371 00:17:53.639 --> 00:17:54.606 What's the best way to put this? 372 00:17:56.208 --> 00:18:01.080 There's a lot of parts of the job that were not super awesome, right? 373 00:18:01.713 --> 00:18:05.084 It wouldn't be just working the catchers or whatever else. 374 00:18:05.150 --> 00:18:07.786 It'd be cleaning up tables, it'd be cleaning up the washrooms, 375 00:18:07.786 --> 00:18:11.790 and people can be a little bit slobbish. 376 00:18:12.691 --> 00:18:13.325 Oh, okay. 377 00:18:13.325 --> 00:18:13.826 Yeah. 378 00:18:14.193 --> 00:18:17.563 So I clean the washroom one way. 379 00:18:17.563 --> 00:18:20.065 Apparently not everybody uses washrooms and facilities in a consistent fashion. 380 00:18:20.065 --> 00:18:22.601 Apparently not everybody uses washrooms and facilities in a consistent fashion. 381 00:18:22.601 --> 00:18:23.902 Let's just kind of put it that way. 382 00:18:23.902 --> 00:18:31.009 I can appreciate the hard work that goes into working as something as Mindy and Sauce Food. 383 00:18:31.677 --> 00:18:36.315 There's a lot of things that are taken for granted, but it was a job that taught me, 384 00:18:37.583 --> 00:18:39.118 you know, to continue to work hard, 385 00:18:39.118 --> 00:18:43.589 just because it wasn't something I envisioned having to do over the longer term. 386 00:18:44.456 --> 00:18:47.426 Sammy: What do you say is your first quote-unquote real job then, I guess? 387 00:18:48.694 --> 00:18:51.330 Terren: A hardware reviewer for a website called NeoSeeker. 388 00:18:51.330 --> 00:18:53.265 So we would test computer hardware and stuff, 389 00:18:53.265 --> 00:18:55.834 so I was responsible for benchmarking and writing. 390 00:18:55.834 --> 00:18:56.602 Sammy: Oh, wow. 391 00:18:56.602 --> 00:18:58.604 Terren: Yeah, I became a writer. 392 00:18:58.604 --> 00:19:02.541 And then I became a product manager after that at a computer company called Cenix. 393 00:19:02.541 --> 00:19:05.944 I was based in Richmond, and then I went to NCIX after that. 394 00:19:05.944 --> 00:19:11.049 As a product manager in, I guess, today's parlance, I would be like a buyer 395 00:19:12.351 --> 00:19:17.956 or a merchant, where basically you are making business decisions around product categories 396 00:19:17.956 --> 00:19:22.094 or vendors that we want to bring in. 397 00:19:22.094 --> 00:19:26.098 And then I did that for quite a few years before moving to Toronto, 398 00:19:26.098 --> 00:19:28.433 open up stuff up east for them. 399 00:19:28.433 --> 00:19:32.171 And then I went over to Corsair to manage Canada for sales. 400 00:19:32.838 --> 00:19:38.277 Yeah, so I was managing Canada on behalf of Corsair on the sales side for a couple of years, 401 00:19:38.277 --> 00:19:42.814 and they're like, hey, you should move down to the Bay Area to manage our North American sales team. 402 00:19:42.814 --> 00:19:45.617 So I went down there to do that for a few more years, 403 00:19:45.617 --> 00:19:50.756 and then I did some product development work for them at the end before going over to Dell. 404 00:19:50.756 --> 00:19:55.127 And then I was at Dell for about two years before coming to LMG. 405 00:19:55.127 --> 00:19:56.028 Sammy: That's cool. 406 00:19:56.028 --> 00:19:59.231 That's a very upwards career, I guess. 407 00:19:59.231 --> 00:20:00.432 You can see we're starting to end. 408 00:20:00.432 --> 00:20:01.867 Terren: You can go check me out on LinkedIn. 409 00:20:03.235 --> 00:20:04.503 Sammy: Now we're going back to the first question. 410 00:20:05.304 --> 00:20:06.104 What was your lie? 411 00:20:06.738 --> 00:20:08.173 Terren: My lie is I have tattoos. 412 00:20:08.173 --> 00:20:09.074 Sammy: You have no tattoos? 413 00:20:09.074 --> 00:20:10.108 Terren: I have no tattoos. 414 00:20:10.108 --> 00:20:10.576 Sammy: What? 415 00:20:10.576 --> 00:20:11.843 Terren: What did you think it was? 416 00:20:11.843 --> 00:20:12.744 Sammy: I knew it was that one. 417 00:20:12.744 --> 00:20:14.112 Sammy: Oh, did you know it was that one? 418 00:20:14.112 --> 00:20:15.547 You told me about your motorcycle crashing, 419 00:20:15.547 --> 00:20:18.116 and then I think in your How Well Do You Know Your Boss, 420 00:20:18.116 --> 00:20:19.284 you talked about your hiking experience. 421 00:20:19.284 --> 00:20:23.088 Terren: Avid listeners or avid viewers of LMG and Floatplane 422 00:20:23.088 --> 00:20:25.257 will have known answer because that way it's too easy. 423 00:20:25.691 --> 00:20:26.892 Sammy: Is there anything else you want to mention? 424 00:20:28.060 --> 00:20:29.328 Terren: Is there anything else you want me to mention? 425 00:20:29.328 --> 00:20:29.661 Sammy: I don't know. 426 00:20:29.661 --> 00:20:30.395 Is there anything cool? 427 00:20:30.395 --> 00:20:30.796 I don't know. 428 00:20:31.063 --> 00:20:32.931 This is your chance to talk to the floaties, you know? 429 00:20:33.665 --> 00:20:34.866 Terren: Is that what we call them floaties? 430 00:20:34.866 --> 00:20:35.567 Sammy: Yeah. 431 00:20:35.567 --> 00:20:36.768 Terren: Do we now have a better name? 432 00:20:37.669 --> 00:20:38.136 Sammy: No. 433 00:20:39.338 --> 00:20:42.474 The joke was that I was going to change her name every week, 434 00:20:42.474 --> 00:20:43.442 but then I got lazy. 435 00:20:44.409 --> 00:20:46.245 I went floaties, floatgoats. 436 00:20:46.245 --> 00:20:47.679 No, no, that's Adams. 437 00:20:47.679 --> 00:20:51.850 I went floaties, floaters, pilots, and then I gave up 438 00:20:51.850 --> 00:20:52.951 because that was too much effort. 439 00:20:52.951 --> 00:20:54.953 So I just stuck with floaties because it's a nice word. 440 00:20:54.953 --> 00:20:56.888 Terren: Oh, I thought you said you were stuck with pilots 441 00:20:56.955 --> 00:20:59.191 Terren: because- Sammy: Pilots was too easy. 442 00:20:59.191 --> 00:21:00.158 It's too expected, you know? 443 00:21:00.158 --> 00:21:00.859 Terren: It's too expected? 444 00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:02.961 Sammy: Yeah, if it's too obvious, you know, it's kind of boring. 445 00:21:02.961 --> 00:21:05.530 Terren: Floaties sounds like what you leave in the... 446 00:21:05.530 --> 00:21:06.632 Sammy: That's what they call floaters. 447 00:21:07.699 --> 00:21:09.301 Floaties is a cool name. 448 00:21:09.301 --> 00:21:10.335 It's like, you know, those like floaty, 449 00:21:10.335 --> 00:21:11.470 like inflatable arms? 450 00:21:11.470 --> 00:21:11.770 Terren: Oh yeah. 451 00:21:11.770 --> 00:21:13.138 Sammy: It's like that, you know, that's my vision. 452 00:21:13.372 --> 00:21:14.439 I say floaties. 453 00:21:14.673 --> 00:21:15.874 People envision the other thing. 454 00:21:16.908 --> 00:21:17.643 Marketing issue. 455 00:21:18.343 --> 00:21:19.544 Terren: Cut this part out 456 00:21:20.812 --> 00:21:21.780 Sammy: No, no, this is all making it in. 457 00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:22.814 This is all making it in. 458 00:21:24.249 --> 00:21:26.551 Terren: Hey, floaties, thanks for your support. 459 00:21:26.551 --> 00:21:27.419 I'll see you in the pool. 460 00:21:29.187 --> 00:21:30.455 Thanks for watching guys. 461 00:21:30.455 --> 00:21:32.391 If you like this video, leave a thumbs up. 462 00:21:32.391 --> 00:21:34.459 If not, send a nasty gram. 463 00:21:34.459 --> 00:21:34.726 Sammy: No! 464 00:21:36.862 --> 00:21:39.798 Terren: Don't send a nasty gram. 465 00:21:41.166 --> 00:21:42.567 Sammy: That wasn’t on the script! 466 00:21:42.567 --> 00:21:44.102 Terren: That was on the script!","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"Terren: Hello, everyone. I'm Terren. I'm the CEO of Linus Media Group. 2 00:00:04.537 --> 00:00:07.340 Sammy: Perfect, Terren. And we're playing this new game now. 3 00:00:07.340 --> 00:00:11.177 You have to tell me two truths and a lie, and then we'll reveal the lie at the end. 4 00:00:11.177 --> 00:00:15.281 Terren: So I used the same... I also played this game at my last job at Dell. 5 00:00:15.281 --> 00:00:16.149 We were onboarding. 6 00:00:16.149 --> 00:00:16.716 Sammy: Oh, really? 7 00:00:16.716 --> 00:00:21.921 Terren: Yeah, that was driven by one of my close co-workers over there. 8 00:00:21.921 --> 00:00:27.827 So I'm going to use the same lines and we'll see how people here do compared to my previous co-workers. 9 00:00:27.827 --> 00:00:30.697 So I crashed multiple motorcycles. 10 00:00:30.930 --> 00:00:31.965 I'm an avid hiker. 11 00:00:31.965 --> 00:00:33.099 I have multiple tattoos. 12 00:00:34.234 --> 00:00:35.268 Sammy: Oh, I know which one the lie is. 13 00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:37.837 Okay, well... 14 00:00:37.837 --> 00:00:39.039 Terren: Have you seen me shirtless? 15 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:39.506 Sammy: Huh? 16 00:00:39.506 --> 00:00:40.540 Terren: Have you seen me shirtless? 17 00:00:41.341 --> 00:00:42.542 Sammy: Well, I didn't say it was that one. 18 00:00:42.542 --> 00:00:44.277 I didn't say it was that one. 19 00:00:44.277 --> 00:00:44.978 All right. So yeah, we'll start the questions. 20 00:00:44.978 --> 00:00:46.179 I asked you who you are. 21 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:47.313 So what do you do at the company? 22 00:00:48.681 --> 00:00:49.482 Terren: I'm the CEO. 23 00:00:50.417 --> 00:00:51.317 Do you want more specifics? 24 00:00:51.317 --> 00:00:52.585 Sammy: Yeah, what does that entail? 25 00:00:52.585 --> 00:00:53.319 Terren: What does that entail? 26 00:00:54.254 --> 00:00:55.955 Resource management for the most part. 27 00:00:55.955 --> 00:00:57.557 So I'm here to run the business. 28 00:00:58.591 --> 00:01:03.930 Also to figure out what else we should be investing in just so that we can grow revenue 29 00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:08.835 and make sure that we have a viable platform for everybody over the coming years. 30 00:01:08.835 --> 00:01:13.139 Sammy: Can be an example of something you're doing that's not super confidential? 31 00:01:14.441 --> 00:01:15.642 Terren: Everything's super confidential. 32 00:01:16.342 --> 00:01:16.376 No, we have discussions around what else we want to do from a content perspective. 33 00:01:16.376 --> 00:01:20.713 We have discussions around what else we want to do from a content perspective. 34 00:01:20.713 --> 00:01:22.148 I think that was one of the examples that we had 35 00:01:22.148 --> 00:01:26.286 from a not so super confidential conversation earlier today. 36 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:27.387 Other lines of business. 37 00:01:27.387 --> 00:01:31.157 So we have a merchandise and a hardware business at this point in time. 38 00:01:31.157 --> 00:01:35.228 We're constantly evaluating what else we should be looking to get into potentially. 39 00:01:36.529 --> 00:01:37.330 Sammy: Sorry, this is off topic. 40 00:01:37.330 --> 00:01:38.665 You know what I realized about you? 41 00:01:38.765 --> 00:01:42.268 I think every time I talk to you, you always say you were constantly evaluating decisions. 42 00:01:45.805 --> 00:01:51.144 Terren: Because I think that's a truism where you want to be able to make a decision with 43 00:01:51.144 --> 00:01:54.347 as much current information that you have available. 44 00:01:54.347 --> 00:01:57.650 There's always going to be call it a fog of war. 45 00:01:57.650 --> 00:01:58.985 There's always something you don't know. 46 00:01:59.552 --> 00:02:02.922 So there's always some educated guesses that you have to make about a market, 47 00:02:02.922 --> 00:02:04.924 about a business decision or whatever else. 48 00:02:04.924 --> 00:02:07.560 Things would be so much easier if everything was laid out. 49 00:02:08.128 --> 00:02:12.031 So there's a certain amount of leaps of faith that we have to take. 50 00:02:12.031 --> 00:02:17.003 So constantly evaluating to me means that we're taking information all the time. 51 00:02:17.003 --> 00:02:21.574 So that allows us to revise decisions 52 00:02:21.574 --> 00:02:27.046 or to add additional insights in terms of assisting the decision-making process. 53 00:02:27.046 --> 00:02:28.548 Sammy: How long have you been here at the company? 54 00:02:28.548 --> 00:02:29.382 Just over a year. 55 00:02:29.382 --> 00:02:32.318 Yeah, does it feel longer or way too long? 56 00:02:32.952 --> 00:02:34.954 Sammy: I don't know, it feels like a right amount of time. 57 00:02:35.088 --> 00:02:36.422 if that makes a difference 58 00:02:36.422 --> 00:02:37.290 It doesn’t feel like- 59 00:02:37.290 --> 00:02:40.727 It feels like, and I think when you first started, 60 00:02:40.727 --> 00:02:42.462 you're kind of like just like a fly on the wall. 61 00:02:43.363 --> 00:02:46.866 But then I think as of late, I've been seeing you 62 00:02:46.866 --> 00:02:49.502 and decisions you're making come to life more, I guess. 63 00:02:49.502 --> 00:02:51.037 So you're saying I'm talking too much? 64 00:02:51.037 --> 00:02:53.273 No, it's in a good way. 65 00:02:53.273 --> 00:02:56.876 It's also funny because we can cut this out of you if you don't want to be. 66 00:02:57.177 --> 00:02:59.078 When we did the I'm stepping down video, 67 00:02:59.145 --> 00:03:00.346 you didn't know that that was being made. 68 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:02.682 Terren: No, we can totally share this. 69 00:03:02.682 --> 00:03:07.954 I think this is sort of funny because we had talked about this with Linus. 70 00:03:07.954 --> 00:03:11.391 It's like, hey, this is sort of my plan just in terms of how we could communicate this to 71 00:03:12.192 --> 00:03:14.127 the internal stakeholders I have over at Dell. 72 00:03:14.127 --> 00:03:18.031 So at that point in time already, I had the discussion with my immediate boss 73 00:03:18.031 --> 00:03:20.600 as well as call our divisional manager. 74 00:03:22.268 --> 00:03:23.303 But that was about it. 75 00:03:23.303 --> 00:03:25.572 And then it's just like, hey, this is my end date. 76 00:03:25.572 --> 00:03:30.743 And then that evening, I think we were sitting on some calls with Singapore. 77 00:03:30.743 --> 00:03:32.278 People started messaging randomly. 78 00:03:32.278 --> 00:03:33.313 Hey, congratulations. 79 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:35.648 People I've never talked in my life. 80 00:03:35.648 --> 00:03:38.051 It's just like, OK, I don't know who this person is. 81 00:03:38.051 --> 00:03:38.851 I just saw the video. 82 00:03:38.851 --> 00:03:40.119 I was like, what are they talking about? 83 00:03:40.119 --> 00:03:43.890 And then I go onto YouTube, and then I saw the video. 84 00:03:43.890 --> 00:03:46.192 And then I was like, oh, OK, this isn't super good. 85 00:03:46.192 --> 00:03:51.397 So I had to go message my boss and his boss again just to be like, hey, this is intentional. 86 00:03:51.397 --> 00:03:52.665 I wasn't trying to create trouble. 87 00:03:53.633 --> 00:03:55.468 I totally got blindsided by this. 88 00:03:55.468 --> 00:03:58.371 And then I texted Linus basically about the WTF. 89 00:03:59.405 --> 00:04:01.174 And then he's like, oh, I didn't know this was a problem. 90 00:04:01.174 --> 00:04:03.009 And I was like, yeah, yeah, man, it kind of is. 91 00:04:03.943 --> 00:04:07.547 Sammy: Who would have thought taking someone that's very important in the company would be a problem? 92 00:04:07.547 --> 00:04:08.214 Terren: I don't know. 93 00:04:08.214 --> 00:04:09.015 It's really important. 94 00:04:09.015 --> 00:04:11.150 It was just there's a certain way to do things. 95 00:04:11.150 --> 00:04:13.653 And that wasn't necessarily the playbook. 96 00:04:13.653 --> 00:04:14.454 Sammy: It's very Linus. 97 00:04:14.454 --> 00:04:15.154 Terren: Yes. 98 00:04:16.489 --> 00:04:18.291 Sammy: I love how fast you answered that 99 00:04:20.293 --> 00:04:23.096 OK, what kind of hobbies are you interested in? 100 00:04:23.096 --> 00:04:24.998 Terren: I have a kid, so basically I have no hobbies. 101 00:04:26.633 --> 00:04:27.200 Sammy: Okay well... 102 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:29.068 Terren: Don't let me dissuade anybody from having children. 103 00:04:29.068 --> 00:04:30.837 They're just all time consuming. 104 00:04:31.404 --> 00:04:35.575 Before that, though, I do like to play video games. 105 00:04:35.575 --> 00:04:38.444 I think that's a little more theoretical than actual practice now. 106 00:04:38.444 --> 00:04:42.048 So my kid gets mesmerized whenever I play video games. 107 00:04:43.016 --> 00:04:45.151 So I try not to do it too often at home, 108 00:04:45.151 --> 00:04:47.954 just because I want him doing other things other than staring at a screen. 109 00:04:49.489 --> 00:04:52.125 I try to pick up games on my Steam Deck or whatever else. 110 00:04:52.125 --> 00:04:55.161 But somebody else was making fun of me. 111 00:04:55.161 --> 00:04:56.029 He called me a casual. 112 00:04:57.397 --> 00:04:58.998 Yeah, one of my old employees. 113 00:04:59.232 --> 00:05:02.368 I was playing The Witcher 3 earlier this year on the Steam Deck. 114 00:05:02.368 --> 00:05:06.272 But games are complicated enough where I just can't pick them up anymore. 115 00:05:06.272 --> 00:05:07.874 I remember all the button combinations. 116 00:05:07.874 --> 00:05:12.278 So it's been at least a couple months since I picked up my Steam Deck. 117 00:05:12.278 --> 00:05:15.815 So I don't think there's any easy way for me to ease back into The Witcher, 118 00:05:15.815 --> 00:05:18.685 just because it's relatively complicated. 119 00:05:19.252 --> 00:05:23.089 And I don't know if I have the patience to try to learn mechanics all over again. 120 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:24.290 Sammy: Yeah, I recognize that. 121 00:05:24.290 --> 00:05:25.625 In older games, they don't tell you. 122 00:05:26.359 --> 00:05:28.027 They don't give you the tutorial again, kind of. 123 00:05:28.027 --> 00:05:31.097 But in newer games, they always lay out the button at all times. 124 00:05:31.097 --> 00:05:35.635 Terren: Yeah, I need the old man antidote on games to say, I hit this button. 125 00:05:35.635 --> 00:05:36.469 I like shooters a lot. 126 00:05:36.469 --> 00:05:42.775 Just because in general, you can get away with forward, back, left, right, 127 00:05:42.775 --> 00:05:46.379 strafing, and then your guns are opening a door or whatever. 128 00:05:46.379 --> 00:05:48.548 So the mechanics are familiar to me. 129 00:05:48.548 --> 00:05:49.882 I grew up playing shooters. 130 00:05:49.882 --> 00:05:53.186 So usually those are the ones I tend to enjoy, 131 00:05:53.186 --> 00:05:57.090 just because you don't have to do all the superfluous stuff usually. 132 00:05:57.490 --> 00:06:01.260 You know, you can just run and gun or do kind of whatever else 133 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:02.862 and it all sort of works out. 134 00:06:04.464 --> 00:06:07.567 Sammy: Is there a specific shooter that you are enjoying or you enjoyed? 135 00:06:07.567 --> 00:06:09.102 Yeah, back then and now, I guess. 136 00:06:09.669 --> 00:06:13.639 Terren: I put in a lot of time on, I'm dating myself again, 137 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.142 Half-Life specifically, Half-Life Classic. 138 00:06:16.142 --> 00:06:18.344 Did a lot of Deathmatch at that point. 139 00:06:19.412 --> 00:06:20.580 Played a lot of Team Fortress. 140 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:22.849 So that was my kind of big thing in shooters. 141 00:06:23.249 --> 00:06:24.784 Sammy: TF2 or TF1? 142 00:06:24.784 --> 00:06:26.152 Terren: Oh, TF1. 143 00:06:26.152 --> 00:06:27.253 TF2 is a casual game. 144 00:06:28.855 --> 00:06:29.255 Sammy: What about now? 145 00:06:29.889 --> 00:06:30.356 Terren: Right now? 146 00:06:31.157 --> 00:06:31.791 Not that much. 147 00:06:31.791 --> 00:06:34.360 Usually, it's single-player stuff just because I don't want to get 148 00:06:35.328 --> 00:06:38.998 embroiled in online games because it's just like a massive time sink. 149 00:06:38.998 --> 00:06:41.167 I want something where I can get in there, play for, you know, 150 00:06:41.167 --> 00:06:44.103 six to ten hours and sort of be done until, you know, 151 00:06:44.103 --> 00:06:47.974 Call of Duty 10 or whatever the next iteration is that comes out.so. 152 00:06:47.974 --> 00:06:48.908 Terren: Damn, six to ten hours? 153 00:06:48.908 --> 00:06:49.842 That's not casual. 154 00:06:49.842 --> 00:06:50.510 Terren: Is that not casual. 155 00:06:50.510 --> 00:06:51.144 Sammy:I don't know, I play less than that. 156 00:06:51.144 --> 00:06:56.682 Terren: Well, I just spread it over time or I get like a binge weekend and ignore the family 157 00:06:56.682 --> 00:06:57.950 and then they're like, well, are you done yet? 158 00:06:58.518 --> 00:06:59.552 How long does this game last for? 159 00:07:00.586 --> 00:07:03.623 Terren: Okay, so I guess this is a pretty big question, actually. 160 00:07:03.623 --> 00:07:05.625 What made you interested in the CEO role? 161 00:07:08.261 --> 00:07:13.232 Every year, Linus and I would have a call, essentially, right? 162 00:07:13.232 --> 00:07:16.269 Where he'd be like, hey, you ready to come work for me again? 163 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:19.071 And then every year, I always have some sort of excuse. 164 00:07:19.071 --> 00:07:23.543 It's like, no, man, I have a lot of things going on and the time is not really good. 165 00:07:24.744 --> 00:07:28.281 And then so that was, it was always sort of the running joke. 166 00:07:28.281 --> 00:07:31.717 And then so when I accepted the job, it was a more serious conversation where 167 00:07:31.717 --> 00:07:34.454 he was like, hey, I really need some help. 168 00:07:34.454 --> 00:07:37.957 So let's have a real discussion about what it would take for you to come on board. 169 00:07:37.957 --> 00:07:41.861 So there were a few things that were super interesting. 170 00:07:41.861 --> 00:07:45.631 I've never done call it ad supported or media sales before. 171 00:07:45.631 --> 00:07:49.168 So I've done a lot of different things, I guess, in my previous roles, 172 00:07:49.168 --> 00:07:52.438 from product management to sales to product developments. 173 00:07:53.306 --> 00:07:56.108 But ad sales was the area that I've never sort of done. 174 00:07:56.108 --> 00:07:58.845 So content is sort of net new to me. 175 00:07:58.845 --> 00:08:02.982 So that was something that was really interesting to me that I didn't have a lot of experience in. 176 00:08:02.982 --> 00:08:07.320 So that was an interesting leap of faith that Linus was taking there. 177 00:08:08.287 --> 00:08:10.022 I enjoyed working with him in the past. 178 00:08:10.022 --> 00:08:12.758 I've always found that he was really grounded. 179 00:08:12.758 --> 00:08:18.364 So I don't think that he is that different from the person I met, call it 20 years ago now. 180 00:08:18.998 --> 00:08:22.502 So those were the two things that were really important to me. 181 00:08:22.502 --> 00:08:26.772 I think he also reassured me that I would have a lot of leeway to make my own decisions. 182 00:08:26.772 --> 00:08:29.876 Terren: So this wasn’t a just call it... 183 00:08:29.876 --> 00:08:31.143 Sammy: like a puppet CEO kind of thing. 184 00:08:31.143 --> 00:08:32.111 Yeah, that's right. 185 00:08:32.111 --> 00:08:32.612 Yeah. 186 00:08:33.079 --> 00:08:36.516 Sammy: So I definitely noticed that Linus does a lot less things. 187 00:08:36.516 --> 00:08:38.050 I think he doesn't want to do some things. 188 00:08:38.050 --> 00:08:41.954 But then when you tell him to do it, he does it because he tries to make the right call. 189 00:08:41.954 --> 00:08:44.123 So I find that very interesting. 190 00:08:44.123 --> 00:08:44.290 Terren: And I think it's interesting to see a person in his position have this sort of self-realization. 191 00:08:44.290 --> 00:08:50.830 Terren: And I think it's interesting to see a person in his position have this sort of self-realization. 192 00:08:51.564 --> 00:08:56.502 So I've worked at, I guess, throughout my entire career, 193 00:08:56.502 --> 00:09:00.506 the founder owner was always still within the company. 194 00:09:00.506 --> 00:09:04.043 And you can see elements of all founder owners 195 00:09:04.043 --> 00:09:09.081 having the inability to delegate as much as they probably should have. 196 00:09:09.081 --> 00:09:12.351 And I think that was true whether it was a $100 million company, 197 00:09:12.351 --> 00:09:15.154 a billion-dollar company, or a $100 billion company where 198 00:09:17.490 --> 00:09:23.162 very early employees or the founders themselves were very involved in a lot of the day-to-day work 199 00:09:23.162 --> 00:09:26.532 where you would have thought that they would have walked away from some aspects 200 00:09:26.532 --> 00:09:28.034 or some elements of it way earlier. 201 00:09:28.901 --> 00:09:33.172 So for Linus to have, I sort of realized it's like, hey, I'm getting my... 202 00:09:33.873 --> 00:09:36.275 And Peter Principal is probably the wrong word to describe this, 203 00:09:36.275 --> 00:09:39.712 but he knows the things that he doesn't really want to be involved in. 204 00:09:39.712 --> 00:09:42.114 And to be comfortable saying, yep, I'm done with this. 205 00:09:42.114 --> 00:09:43.549 Somebody else could deal with it. 206 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:45.551 That's relatively rare, I guess. 207 00:09:45.551 --> 00:09:49.555 So to me, that was also a very positive thing 208 00:09:49.555 --> 00:09:52.825 just because I think that it spoke to the amount of trust 209 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.463 and his motivation to, I guess, step away to something certain. 210 00:09:58.130 --> 00:09:59.165 Sammy: How's working at LMG? 211 00:09:59.865 --> 00:10:00.533 Terren: It's been good. 212 00:10:00.533 --> 00:10:04.670 Usually I've been the youngest person or one of the younger people working in the company. 213 00:10:04.837 --> 00:10:06.205 I'm definitely one of the older people. 214 00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:08.741 But it's been good. 215 00:10:08.741 --> 00:10:10.042 Everybody here is super friendly. 216 00:10:10.042 --> 00:10:12.745 Everybody is really into the work that they do. 217 00:10:12.745 --> 00:10:14.213 So I think we have a good culture here. 218 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.248 Sammy: Anything weird about working here? 219 00:10:16.248 --> 00:10:18.084 Terren: What do you find weird about working in that company? 220 00:10:18.751 --> 00:10:19.385 No, no, no, no. 221 00:10:19.385 --> 00:10:20.252 Sammy: This is not Meet the Teams Sammy 222 00:10:20.252 --> 00:10:21.387 This is Meet the Team Terren. 223 00:10:23.856 --> 00:10:27.059 Terren: I don't know if there's anything that is particularly weird. 224 00:10:27.126 --> 00:10:33.065 I think that one of the things that was expected coming in is a relative lack of structure. 225 00:10:33.633 --> 00:10:36.268 So it's a flattish organization. 226 00:10:38.571 --> 00:10:43.142 But I don't think there was anything that was unexpected. 227 00:10:43.275 --> 00:10:45.244 Sammy: You fly biweekly. 228 00:10:45.244 --> 00:10:45.645 Terren: Yep. 229 00:10:45.645 --> 00:10:46.545 Sammy: Are we going to disclose that? 230 00:10:47.246 --> 00:10:47.980 Terren: I don't know, probably. 231 00:10:48.247 --> 00:10:49.382 Sammy: How's flying back and forth? 232 00:10:50.182 --> 00:10:52.418 Terren: Flying back and forth is OK, actually. 233 00:10:53.285 --> 00:10:55.054 I'm usually based in the Bay Area. 234 00:10:55.054 --> 00:10:57.957 That's about two hours as far as flights go. 235 00:10:57.957 --> 00:11:02.495 I have a pretty good system in terms of figuring out when to get to the airport. 236 00:11:02.495 --> 00:11:09.135 So when I was flying a lot from my previous job at Corsair, I would have it timed so that 237 00:11:09.135 --> 00:11:12.738 I could get to the gate just as the plane was about to board. 238 00:11:13.305 --> 00:11:15.207 I would cut it really, really close. 239 00:11:15.207 --> 00:11:16.575 And I've never missed a flight. 240 00:11:17.476 --> 00:11:20.646 So the flying part doesn't really bother me. 241 00:11:20.646 --> 00:11:21.847 I don't necessarily enjoy it. 242 00:11:22.415 --> 00:11:23.616 We get the cheap seats in the back. 243 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:28.487 So it's not the life of luxury that everybody sort of expects. 244 00:11:29.288 --> 00:11:31.057 Sammy: You're saying you don't take private jets every day? 245 00:11:31.057 --> 00:11:31.557 Terren: No. 246 00:11:32.425 --> 00:11:34.493 No, that wasn't approved on the expenses. 247 00:11:35.628 --> 00:11:36.328 Sammy: Well, you can approve it. 248 00:11:36.328 --> 00:11:36.829 You're CEO. 249 00:11:38.264 --> 00:11:38.898 In theory, right? 250 00:11:39.565 --> 00:11:41.667 Sammy: What do you think is the hardest part about your job? 251 00:11:41.834 --> 00:11:46.772 Making sure that everybody feels heard and managing expectations, I think, for everybody. 252 00:11:47.740 --> 00:11:49.642 Managing expectations across the organization. 253 00:11:51.177 --> 00:11:54.447 There's certainly, I think this is true of everybody in management. 254 00:11:54.447 --> 00:11:59.251 There's always a lot of asks just in terms of what employees and key stakeholders have 255 00:11:59.251 --> 00:12:01.821 in terms of what they think they need to do their job better. 256 00:12:01.821 --> 00:12:07.727 So part of what I think I do relatively well is to understand what's absolutely necessary 257 00:12:07.727 --> 00:12:11.163 and to, again, divert dollars or resources in the right areas. 258 00:12:11.731 --> 00:12:17.570 But at the same time, make sure that people don't feel that I'm coming across as being 259 00:12:17.570 --> 00:12:20.940 dismissive if one of their asks is not acted upon. 260 00:12:22.842 --> 00:12:27.012 It's making sure that we're explaining to people how we're making our decisions and 261 00:12:27.012 --> 00:12:31.884 making sure that we can come to consensus just in terms of how we can address some of 262 00:12:31.884 --> 00:12:33.352 the issues that they're raising. 263 00:12:33.352 --> 00:12:37.656 Sammy: I'm not sure if 100% sure, but did you approve the move for editors to Labs? 264 00:12:37.656 --> 00:12:38.991 Terren: Oh, are we going there? 265 00:12:38.991 --> 00:12:39.892 Sammy: Yeah, we're going there. 266 00:12:39.892 --> 00:12:41.861 Well, that's the one recent example I can think of. 267 00:12:42.828 --> 00:12:46.599 It's clear that this is something that people brought up, and then this was something that 268 00:12:46.599 --> 00:12:47.233 you've worked on. 269 00:12:47.233 --> 00:12:52.104 So make sure that you are heard, and this is a solution that is in the, not everyone 270 00:12:52.104 --> 00:12:57.943 wins, but the core problem of editors and writers not being closer is resolved. 271 00:12:57.943 --> 00:13:02.748 Terren: Yeah, so I don't know if the entire audience is aware, but LMG is in two separate buildings 272 00:13:02.848 --> 00:13:03.616 at this point in time. 273 00:13:03.616 --> 00:13:07.653 Call it, I don't know, what's it, a seven-minute walk between the two buildings or a one-minute 274 00:13:07.653 --> 00:13:08.154 drive? 275 00:13:08.254 --> 00:13:13.225 It's not far, but I'll be the first to admit it can be slightly disruptive when you're 276 00:13:13.225 --> 00:13:14.727 trying to get a hold of somebody really quickly. 277 00:13:15.928 --> 00:13:20.099 In most of my office jobs, I have a tendency to walk around quite a bit during the course 278 00:13:20.099 --> 00:13:20.599 of the day. 279 00:13:22.401 --> 00:13:26.405 I do a lot of instant messaging, but I still feel that it's easier for me to get things 280 00:13:26.405 --> 00:13:28.641 resolved if I have a conversation with people. 281 00:13:28.641 --> 00:13:33.546 So I think those are one of the workflow challenges that we have, especially with people inside 282 00:13:33.546 --> 00:13:36.415 the same work stream. 283 00:13:36.415 --> 00:13:41.220 We've gotten ample feedback that having the writers and the editors in the same building 284 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.122 would be something that was preferable. 285 00:13:43.122 --> 00:13:48.727 So what we're trying to do is to make sure that we're minimizing or recognizing some 286 00:13:48.727 --> 00:13:50.329 of the trade-offs that have to happen. 287 00:13:50.896 --> 00:13:53.465 There are some things that we can't move inside some of the buildings. 288 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:56.502 The writers currently are inside the Labs building. 289 00:13:56.502 --> 00:14:00.172 We have a lot of equipment for Labs, as you guys have seen in lots of different videos. 290 00:14:00.172 --> 00:14:03.676 That stuff is not practical to move that stuff. 291 00:14:03.676 --> 00:14:09.615 So we want to cultivate a closer working relationship between what we're doing from a testing perspective 292 00:14:09.615 --> 00:14:11.217 and what we're doing from a content perspective. 293 00:14:12.651 --> 00:14:18.090 So the one move that we thought we had to make was moving the editors over there, just 294 00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:23.462 because it didn't feel like it was smart for us to split up the writers and the Labs team 295 00:14:23.462 --> 00:14:27.366 So moving the editors over to other building was one of the things that we had suggested, 296 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:33.539 just to make sure that we can get everybody under one roof. 297 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:37.776 This introduces additional challenges, just because we split up production. 298 00:14:37.776 --> 00:14:39.445 We have our sets in a different building. 299 00:14:39.445 --> 00:14:43.515 So now the entire production chain is another building, except for the sets. 300 00:14:43.515 --> 00:14:46.952 So these are all the dependencies that we're trying to work through. 301 00:14:46.952 --> 00:14:49.355 And quite frankly, sometimes there isn't a great answer. 302 00:14:49.355 --> 00:14:52.892 It's just, what are we OK breaking? 303 00:14:52.892 --> 00:14:56.061 No, and I think this is a good example in terms of making sure that everybody feels 304 00:14:56.061 --> 00:14:56.462 heard. 305 00:14:56.462 --> 00:15:00.132 I know that this is exactly the move that everybody envisioned. 306 00:15:00.699 --> 00:15:05.437 But again, we feel that, look, if we can get everybody in one building, some of the other 307 00:15:06.372 --> 00:15:10.376 issues or concerns that people have, we can largely solve for them. 308 00:15:11.677 --> 00:15:13.445 So you know, fingers crossed. 309 00:15:13.445 --> 00:15:14.947 Sammy: I guess this is kind of a weird question. 310 00:15:15.648 --> 00:15:17.883 How did you get into your, quote unquote, skill? 311 00:15:18.617 --> 00:15:22.621 So I guess resource management and just being a CEO, I guess. 312 00:15:23.422 --> 00:15:26.458 I don't know if CEO is a skill, because I think every CEO always varies. 313 00:15:27.593 --> 00:15:34.667 Terren: I think it's volunteering for a lot of things, especially early in your career. 314 00:15:34.667 --> 00:15:40.906 I would say that I was lucky to have a lot of mentors, officially or not, and companies 315 00:15:40.906 --> 00:15:45.144 that were supportive in letting me, I guess, explore the bounds of things outside of my 316 00:15:45.144 --> 00:15:46.278 immediate job. 317 00:15:46.278 --> 00:15:49.882 So I think I hustled quite a bit, especially when I was younger. 318 00:15:49.882 --> 00:15:54.286 And I put in a lot of additional hours just to make sure that I was really good at my 319 00:15:54.286 --> 00:16:00.359 primary job and understood, I guess, frustrations or things that needed to be addressed in adjacent departments. 320 00:16:00.359 --> 00:16:05.331 So it allowed me to get a more well-rounded picture in terms of how an overall business 321 00:16:05.331 --> 00:16:09.168 was run, just so that things were piecemeal together over time. 322 00:16:09.368 --> 00:16:13.205 I studied computer science when I was younger, so my background definitely is in business. 323 00:16:13.205 --> 00:16:17.142 So these are things that were just acquired over the last 15, 20 years of my career. 324 00:16:17.309 --> 00:16:23.315 Sammy: What's the coolest project you got to work on that you can disclose? 325 00:16:25.084 --> 00:16:26.518 I realized half these questions. 326 00:16:26.518 --> 00:16:28.420 I wrote it for everyone else. 327 00:16:28.420 --> 00:16:33.058 But then, because this was planned just today, and I didn't realize half these questions, 328 00:16:33.058 --> 00:16:33.859 you can't really answer. 329 00:16:34.526 --> 00:16:36.028 I'm hoping there's at least one thing. 330 00:16:36.028 --> 00:16:37.396 You can say something that's cool. 331 00:16:37.396 --> 00:16:38.697 If not, we can just move on. 332 00:16:38.697 --> 00:16:41.000 Terren: We opened up operations for NCIX in Toronto. 333 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:42.101 That was a really fun project. 334 00:16:42.234 --> 00:16:46.605 Getting a warehouse open, getting retail open, and moving to a new province 335 00:16:46.605 --> 00:16:48.340 all in one go in two, three months. 336 00:16:48.340 --> 00:16:53.545 So that was late, long days every day for the better part of three, four months. 337 00:16:53.545 --> 00:16:55.481 So stuff like that was kind of fun. 338 00:16:55.481 --> 00:16:56.281 Sammy: That's cool. 339 00:16:56.281 --> 00:16:57.383 But what about LMG? 340 00:16:57.383 --> 00:16:58.017 Terren: LMG? 341 00:16:58.017 --> 00:16:58.684 Redacted, yes. 342 00:16:59.385 --> 00:17:00.486 Sammy: Second last question. 343 00:17:00.486 --> 00:17:02.421 What were your jobs prior to LMG? 344 00:17:02.421 --> 00:17:04.456 So NCIX, Corsair. 345 00:17:05.357 --> 00:17:07.126 Terren: I was working at a... 346 00:17:07.126 --> 00:17:08.660 Sammy: Let's get a timeline from start to end. 347 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:09.862 Terren: Oh, a timeline from start to end. 348 00:17:10.429 --> 00:17:11.697 I delivered papers. 349 00:17:11.697 --> 00:17:12.164 Oh, really? 350 00:17:12.164 --> 00:17:13.599 Yeah, when I was really young. 351 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:14.400 A paperboy. 352 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:15.367 Yeah, I was a paperboy. 353 00:17:16.502 --> 00:17:18.404 I was sort of miserable because, well, before climate change kicked in. 354 00:17:18.404 --> 00:17:19.938 I was sort of miserable because, well, before climate change kicked in. 355 00:17:22.441 --> 00:17:24.810 Vancouver was pretty wet in general, right? 356 00:17:24.877 --> 00:17:28.814 And then so, what was it, like 250, 300 days a year? 357 00:17:28.814 --> 00:17:30.416 I'm probably exaggerating a little bit at this point. 358 00:17:30.616 --> 00:17:31.750 Terren: I worked fast food before. 359 00:17:31.750 --> 00:17:33.752 Sammy: Oh, which one? 360 00:17:33.752 --> 00:17:34.386 Terren: Arby's. 361 00:17:34.386 --> 00:17:34.953 Sammy: Arby's? 362 00:17:34.953 --> 00:17:35.521 Terren: Yeah. 363 00:17:35.521 --> 00:17:36.155 Sammy: Wow. 364 00:17:36.155 --> 00:17:36.722 Terren: Yeah. 365 00:17:36.722 --> 00:17:37.756 Sammy: I've never been to Arby's. 366 00:17:37.756 --> 00:17:40.025 Terren: If I say you're not missing much, am I slandering them or... 367 00:17:40.659 --> 00:17:41.527 Sammy: It's your opinion. 368 00:17:42.494 --> 00:17:43.062 It's an opinion. 369 00:17:43.262 --> 00:17:45.798 I think that was a motivating factor in making sure that 370 00:17:47.466 --> 00:17:50.669 you're studying hard and planning your career just because there's a lot of... 371 00:17:53.639 --> 00:17:54.606 What's the best way to put this? 372 00:17:56.208 --> 00:18:01.080 There's a lot of parts of the job that were not super awesome, right? 373 00:18:01.713 --> 00:18:05.084 It wouldn't be just working the catchers or whatever else. 374 00:18:05.150 --> 00:18:07.786 It'd be cleaning up tables, it'd be cleaning up the washrooms, 375 00:18:07.786 --> 00:18:11.790 and people can be a little bit slobbish. 376 00:18:12.691 --> 00:18:13.325 Oh, okay. 377 00:18:13.325 --> 00:18:13.826 Yeah. 378 00:18:14.193 --> 00:18:17.563 So I clean the washroom one way. 379 00:18:17.563 --> 00:18:20.065 Apparently not everybody uses washrooms and facilities in a consistent fashion. 380 00:18:20.065 --> 00:18:22.601 Apparently not everybody uses washrooms and facilities in a consistent fashion. 381 00:18:22.601 --> 00:18:23.902 Let's just kind of put it that way. 382 00:18:23.902 --> 00:18:31.009 I can appreciate the hard work that goes into working as something as Mindy and Sauce Food. 383 00:18:31.677 --> 00:18:36.315 There's a lot of things that are taken for granted, but it was a job that taught me, 384 00:18:37.583 --> 00:18:39.118 you know, to continue to work hard, 385 00:18:39.118 --> 00:18:43.589 just because it wasn't something I envisioned having to do over the longer term. 386 00:18:44.456 --> 00:18:47.426 Sammy: What do you say is your first quote-unquote real job then, I guess? 387 00:18:48.694 --> 00:18:51.330 Terren: A hardware reviewer for a website called NeoSeeker. 388 00:18:51.330 --> 00:18:53.265 So we would test computer hardware and stuff, 389 00:18:53.265 --> 00:18:55.834 so I was responsible for benchmarking and writing. 390 00:18:55.834 --> 00:18:56.602 Sammy: Oh, wow. 391 00:18:56.602 --> 00:18:58.604 Terren: Yeah, I became a writer. 392 00:18:58.604 --> 00:19:02.541 And then I became a product manager after that at a computer company called Cenix. 393 00:19:02.541 --> 00:19:05.944 I was based in Richmond, and then I went to NCIX after that. 394 00:19:05.944 --> 00:19:11.049 As a product manager in, I guess, today's parlance, I would be like a buyer 395 00:19:12.351 --> 00:19:17.956 or a merchant, where basically you are making business decisions around product categories 396 00:19:17.956 --> 00:19:22.094 or vendors that we want to bring in. 397 00:19:22.094 --> 00:19:26.098 And then I did that for quite a few years before moving to Toronto, 398 00:19:26.098 --> 00:19:28.433 open up stuff up east for them. 399 00:19:28.433 --> 00:19:32.171 And then I went over to Corsair to manage Canada for sales. 400 00:19:32.838 --> 00:19:38.277 Yeah, so I was managing Canada on behalf of Corsair on the sales side for a couple of years, 401 00:19:38.277 --> 00:19:42.814 and they're like, hey, you should move down to the Bay Area to manage our North American sales team. 402 00:19:42.814 --> 00:19:45.617 So I went down there to do that for a few more years, 403 00:19:45.617 --> 00:19:50.756 and then I did some product development work for them at the end before going over to Dell. 404 00:19:50.756 --> 00:19:55.127 And then I was at Dell for about two years before coming to LMG. 405 00:19:55.127 --> 00:19:56.028 Sammy: That's cool. 406 00:19:56.028 --> 00:19:59.231 That's a very upwards career, I guess. 407 00:19:59.231 --> 00:20:00.432 You can see we're starting to end. 408 00:20:00.432 --> 00:20:01.867 Terren: You can go check me out on LinkedIn. 409 00:20:03.235 --> 00:20:04.503 Sammy: Now we're going back to the first question. 410 00:20:05.304 --> 00:20:06.104 What was your lie? 411 00:20:06.738 --> 00:20:08.173 Terren: My lie is I have tattoos. 412 00:20:08.173 --> 00:20:09.074 Sammy: You have no tattoos? 413 00:20:09.074 --> 00:20:10.108 Terren: I have no tattoos. 414 00:20:10.108 --> 00:20:10.576 Sammy: What? 415 00:20:10.576 --> 00:20:11.843 Terren: What did you think it was? 416 00:20:11.843 --> 00:20:12.744 Sammy: I knew it was that one. 417 00:20:12.744 --> 00:20:14.112 Sammy: Oh, did you know it was that one? 418 00:20:14.112 --> 00:20:15.547 You told me about your motorcycle crashing, 419 00:20:15.547 --> 00:20:18.116 and then I think in your How Well Do You Know Your Boss, 420 00:20:18.116 --> 00:20:19.284 you talked about your hiking experience. 421 00:20:19.284 --> 00:20:23.088 Terren: Avid listeners or avid viewers of LMG and Floatplane 422 00:20:23.088 --> 00:20:25.257 will have known answer because that way it's too easy. 423 00:20:25.691 --> 00:20:26.892 Sammy: Is there anything else you want to mention? 424 00:20:28.060 --> 00:20:29.328 Terren: Is there anything else you want me to mention? 425 00:20:29.328 --> 00:20:29.661 Sammy: I don't know. 426 00:20:29.661 --> 00:20:30.395 Is there anything cool? 427 00:20:30.395 --> 00:20:30.796 I don't know. 428 00:20:31.063 --> 00:20:32.931 This is your chance to talk to the floaties, you know? 429 00:20:33.665 --> 00:20:34.866 Terren: Is that what we call them floaties? 430 00:20:34.866 --> 00:20:35.567 Sammy: Yeah. 431 00:20:35.567 --> 00:20:36.768 Terren: Do we now have a better name? 432 00:20:37.669 --> 00:20:38.136 Sammy: No. 433 00:20:39.338 --> 00:20:42.474 The joke was that I was going to change her name every week, 434 00:20:42.474 --> 00:20:43.442 but then I got lazy. 435 00:20:44.409 --> 00:20:46.245 I went floaties, floatgoats. 436 00:20:46.245 --> 00:20:47.679 No, no, that's Adams. 437 00:20:47.679 --> 00:20:51.850 I went floaties, floaters, pilots, and then I gave up 438 00:20:51.850 --> 00:20:52.951 because that was too much effort. 439 00:20:52.951 --> 00:20:54.953 So I just stuck with floaties because it's a nice word. 440 00:20:54.953 --> 00:20:56.888 Terren: Oh, I thought you said you were stuck with pilots 441 00:20:56.955 --> 00:20:59.191 Terren: because- Sammy: Pilots was too easy. 442 00:20:59.191 --> 00:21:00.158 It's too expected, you know? 443 00:21:00.158 --> 00:21:00.859 Terren: It's too expected? 444 00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:02.961 Sammy: Yeah, if it's too obvious, you know, it's kind of boring. 445 00:21:02.961 --> 00:21:05.530 Terren: Floaties sounds like what you leave in the... 446 00:21:05.530 --> 00:21:06.632 Sammy: That's what they call floaters. 447 00:21:07.699 --> 00:21:09.301 Floaties is a cool name. 448 00:21:09.301 --> 00:21:10.335 It's like, you know, those like floaty, 449 00:21:10.335 --> 00:21:11.470 like inflatable arms? 450 00:21:11.470 --> 00:21:11.770 Terren: Oh yeah. 451 00:21:11.770 --> 00:21:13.138 Sammy: It's like that, you know, that's my vision. 452 00:21:13.372 --> 00:21:14.439 I say floaties. 453 00:21:14.673 --> 00:21:15.874 People envision the other thing. 454 00:21:16.908 --> 00:21:17.643 Marketing issue. 455 00:21:18.343 --> 00:21:19.544 Terren: Cut this part out 456 00:21:20.812 --> 00:21:21.780 Sammy: No, no, this is all making it in. 457 00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:22.814 This is all making it in. 458 00:21:24.249 --> 00:21:26.551 Terren: Hey, floaties, thanks for your support. 459 00:21:26.551 --> 00:21:27.419 I'll see you in the pool. 460 00:21:29.187 --> 00:21:30.455 Thanks for watching guys. 461 00:21:30.455 --> 00:21:32.391 If you like this video, leave a thumbs up. 462 00:21:32.391 --> 00:21:34.459 If not, send a nasty gram. 463 00:21:34.459 --> 00:21:34.726 Sammy: No! 464 00:21:36.862 --> 00:21:39.798 Terren: Don't send a nasty gram. 465 00:21:41.166 --> 00:21:42.567 Sammy: That wasn’t on the script! 466 00:21:42.567 --> 00:21:44.102 Terren: That was on the script!"}