Be Ready To Jump In: An Interview With the President of Oofos Footwear

Beyond Neutral

Paula interviews Steve Gallo, the President of Oofos Footwear, where he played a crucial role in establishing the brand as a leader in the rapidly growing Recovery Footwear market. During the interview, Paula and Steve delve into his career journey, starting from his post-college years up until the present.

Steve shares how he was swiftly promoted to a sales role at Reebok and enthusiastically embraced the opportunity. This led to a fast-paced and exhilarating career, with three promotions in three years. However, when you climb the corporate ladder rapidly, blindspots can go unnoticed. Eventually, Steve realized the need to invest time in obtaining his MBA while still working. He learned invaluable lessons from this experience and believes it significantly propelled his career forward. Paula and Steve also explore his transition from the big corporate world to the relatively smaller business environment at Oofos Footwear.

In this episode, Paula and Steve discuss the following topics:

• The significance of not settling and taking risks in both life and career.

• Navigating the transition from a big corporate position to a smaller company.

• The importance of diverse leadership styles and how we can utilize various approaches to effectively collaborate with our teams.

Show Notes: reidnco.com/podcast

Time Stamps:

[00:04:57] Steve: You know, I, I just, I loved it. So, you know, I, I made a good impression on our sales team. Mm-hmm. And very, very quickly in a short period of time, within a year was promoted into, uh, a sales role. Um, and basically the pitch to me was, Hey, um, you know, you're gonna be taking over territory that's a mess. Um, just wanted to let you know you're gonna be, you know, moving into a hornet's nest. And, um, they gave me the offer and, you know, I'm still young. I'm just outta college, and I wasn't a very good negotiator back then, and it was double my salary and I was like, yeah, I'll, I, I signed on the dotted line. I'm in right. Drive home fast. My newly married, my, my, my new wife. You won't believe what just happened, right? They hit the jackpot. Yeah. We can pay rent this month, so we're good. And, um, yeah. Dove in and honestly, you know, you and I have talked to those before. Sometimes when you're taking over a territory that is mm-hmm. Had its challenges or difficulty, it's actually easier because there's nowhere to go but up.

[00:10:04] Steve: Um, move from me because I could apply a lot of the things that I was learning that I couldn't really talk to in business meetings. That on the academic level, the light bulb went on for me. Right. Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. You know, so I was, you know, as opposed to going through your MBA after school. One of the things I, after undergrad one of the things people always ask me about is, you know, How important is an mba? I say I think it's important if you think it could help you get to where you need to go. Mm-hmm. Um, I also strongly advise people, you know, you really should get some work, real work experience. Mm-hmm. So you can make those courses that much more impactful. Because I'm not sure how, if you go from your undergrad to the MBA right away, yeah. You get the piece of paper and you learn more. But the reality is it's not gonna, you're not gonna be able to apply it the way you would

[00:15:50] Steve: Which is fantastic, and I'm a lifelong learner. I, I, I like to learn about a, a, a lot of the aspects of the business. Um, read a ton of, of, you know, business books and, you know, high leadership. Level profile. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, autobiographies, et cetera. And, you know, a lot of the lessons you learned from folks like that, um, Louis Garner, Steve Jobs, those type of people. You know, you can, you apply those and you remember all those things and you see 'em come to fruition, especially in an early days of a startup. Absolutely.

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