Company News and Culture / November 19, 2013 / By Erin Martin

Introducing The Mix – Jeff Lanctot Interviews Code Fellow's Brent Turner

Thanks to our new CEO Jeff Lanctot, every month Mixpo will invite a community leader to present at The Mix. This month, Brent Turner, President of Code Fellows, was selected and interviewed. Brent and Jeff discussed topics ranging from how to build great teams, be a great team member, to how to incorporate service into your company and career.

Brent Turner is the Co-Founder & President of Code Fellows, an engineering training program founded by Andy Sack that teaches people to code and guarantees them a job. In his words, Code Fellows is “a business that really, really matters.” Turner previously worked as executive vice president of call products at Marchex. Prior to that, he had spent nearly 10 years in various roles at aQuantive and Razorfish. He is also the Director of Strategy at REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade), an organization with a powerful mission.

Highlights from the interview with Brent:

00:00 Introduction to The Mix and Brent Turner by Jeff Lanctot.
01:57  Advice on how to build great teams:
02:46  1. Get the right people in the right roles.
05:13  2. Get very clear on what your plan is – what you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do.
06:47  3. Talk about the right things at the right intervals.
08:09  4. There is a culture that every team needs to accept and lead out.
10:30  Four characteristics of how to be a good team member:
10:41  1. Be committed to an outcome versus being helpful.
12:10  2. Constantly be learning and trying to improve, and find a mentor.
13:50  3. Explore versus purely asserting yourself.
15:32  4. Keep your introspection on whether you’re on the right path in your career. Are you on the right path?
18:26  Some insights about CodeFellows.org, what’s the market need and how do you meet it?
23:36  What is REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade) and why are you involved?
28:02  The importance of having a service component for your company and career. Brent recommends elf-taxation of your time, your talent and your resources to help people wherever your passions lie.
32:40  Q&A
33:16  What surprised you when working at REST?
35:40  How did you develop your management style?
37:48  How do you find a mentor?
40:44  How can nonprofits coexist rather than compete?
44:45  How important do think it is to take a look at efficiency? What is your advice for Mixpo around efficiency?
50:32  How do you organize your life with all you have going on?