#168 Building With "margin for life" — Justin Jackson on lessons from running a skate shop, optimizing for profit, running a "calm company," co-founding Transistor, having kids early, designing margins and how money actually does make him happy

Justin is the co-founder of Transistor, a podcast hosting platform on which The Pathless Path podcast is hosted. Justin is passionate about designing his company so that all the team benefits. He achieves that by making sure that there is always a financial margin as well as a "margin for our emotional health, margin for our physical health, margin for life."

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Links:

• Personal website
• X (Twitter): @mijustin
• Justin's podcast
• Transistor

⌛TIMESTAMPS

• (00:11) - Guest introduction
• (03:08) - The scripts that Justin grew up with
• (07:59) - Lessons from running a skate shop
• (13:53) - Optimizing for profit in business
• (26:27) - The opportunities on the internet, staying in the water, the survivor bias
• (35:46) - Getting into digital business
• (42:48) - The importance of the customer support
• (45:07) - "A calm company" — designing the company to make their lives better
• (54:14) - How Transistor has changed Justin's life?
• (54:38) - Having kids early and how more money actually made him happy
• (56:59) - How Justin approaches money
• (59:31) - Navigating the changes in the podcasting platforms
• (01:08:08) - The next chapter for Justin
• (01:10:00) - Where can we find out more about Justin?
• (01:11:01) - Closing remarks

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Creators & Guests

Guest

Justin Jackson

Co-founder of Transistor.fm

What is The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd?

The Pathless Path is hosted by Paul Millerd - a writer, creator, and consultant. He has conversations with freelancers, self-employed entrepreneurs, creators, and vagabonds who share their perspectives on their relationship with work, burnout, bootstrapping, indie hacking, remote work, reinvention, creativity, sabbaticals, leisure, self-employment, unconventional living, and digital nomadism. Past guests include Ali Abdaal, Russ Roberts, Kevin Kelly, Khe Hy, David Senra, Derek Sivers, Joe Hudson, Luke Burgis, Ben Hunt, Dan Vassallo, Steph Smith, Alex Pang, Visakan Veerasamy, Michael Ashcroft, Kyla Scalon, Trung Phan, Justin Welch, and more.