Ty Haney's Secret to Standing Out
As we mentioned yesterday, two more episodes from Season Two of “The Corp” were released. One was with three-time Super Bowl Champion Rob Gronkowski, and today we will highlight an interview with Ty Haney, who is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Voices.
On the podcast, Barstool CEO Erika Nardini, Alex Rodriguez, and Haney chat about her journey to being a CEO, raising capital, and her passion for the outdoors. Only 30 years old, Haney was asked about her experiences early into her career.
Erika Nardini: What do you think, and you’ve been at this five years, and you’ve had a stratospheric impact in that short amount of time when this is really your first real gig. What have been the biggest things you’ve learned? What’s the biggest failure? What’s your biggest win?
Ty Haney: Yeah. I was the commencement speaker last night for my high school in Boulder, which was fun. So, this is a little bit top of mind, but for me I think the key to success so far has been to try a lot of things and try them early. So, going into this with no experience, I had tried a lot of things, but this felt like something I was extremely passionate about. And so, I went all in and really embraced beginner ship. It’s cool to be a beginner and I think people, way too soon, want to be experts at things and really this not afraid to fail mindset. I think the other piece is creating your own rules to the game. So, there’s a way that this has been done with kind of the incumbents in the space. And I said, well, I don’t have to do it that way. I’ve flipped kind of their script, zigged when they zagged, and have created kind of my own rules to the game that are working so far.
Haney’s resume speaks for itself. Clearly, she has the right mindset here. This kind of reminds me of the college application process all over again. “How are you different than everybody else?” “What makes you stand out versus everyone else?” As cliche as those questions are, the way you answer them is crucial. I really like what Haney said about not being afraid to fail. It’s important to take those certain risks because who knows what kind of positives could end up being on the other side. Being different in a positive way has definitely worked for her so far, and the fact that she has advanced her career this much in such a small window of time says a lot.