{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Random Access Memories","title":"I Cried Before the Layoffs: The Human Cost of Being CEO | Juan Rodriguez, Whistic","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2427,"description":"Juan Rodriguez grew up watching his mother go door to door selling stuffed animals in Mexico. When the family moved to America, she was still knocking on doors, but this time handing out business cards for her own company. Decades later, Juan founded Whistic. And unlike many first-time entrepreneurs, he wasn't particularly afraid of starting a business; he'd watched his mother do it his entire life.\n\nIn this episode of Random Access Memories, Juan joins Jake Bernardes for a deeply personal conversation about entrepreneurship, leadership, fatherhood and the uncomfortable realities of building a company.\n\nThis one is particularly personal for Jake, who worked alongside Juan at Whistic and credits him with fundamentally changing Jake's own approach to leadership. Juan explains why he gives employees enormous freedom while deliberately pushing them outside their comfort zones, why he wants people who challenge him rather than agree with him, and how the principles he uses to raise his children are remarkably similar to those he uses to run a business.\n\nBut building a company isn't always about growth, ambition and success. Juan opens up about the pain of laying off employees who had done absolutely nothing wrong, the responsibility he feels for the families affected by his decisions, and why he once offered his resignation rather than avoid accountability. He also shares how losing his brother-in-law during COVID brought him closer to walking away from Whistic than anything he'd experienced professionally.\n\nThen they explore the complicated relationship between founders and CEOs: what Juan learned from handing leadership of his company to someone else, and why he would make a very different decision if he could start again.\n\nAnd of course, they get into football, parenting, AI, why boredom might be essential to creativity, and Juan's seemingly impossible ambition to take an actual holiday.\n\nUltimately, this is a conversation about what leadership looks like when you...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AgTc_ajuZymV7B6Is4iwonkllAQv6bMTNgmQnuJEL_A/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84NGMz/OWQxZDMwZjBiYjQx/ODZlYjc3ZjJlN2Jk/YzM5Yy5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}