680: Scott Galloway: Action Absorbs Anxiety, Handling the Haters, Becoming an Excellent Storyteller, Reverse Engineering Your Success, The Importance of Novelty, and Why Praise Is the Most Underrated Leadership Tool - The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk Recap

Podcast: The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Published: 2026-03-22

Guests: Scott Galloway

What Happened

Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at NYU's Stern School of Business, emphasizes the role of novelty and diversity in slowing down the perception of time. He plans a trip to India, aiming to experience something new, which he believes can make life feel richer and longer.

Galloway discusses his resilience to criticism gained over seven years and the significance of expressing praise and positive feedback. He attributes much of his success to external factors like government support and competitive markets, advocating for the reverse engineering of success to identify these uncontrollable elements.

A key aspect of Galloway's leadership style comes from his mother, who consistently affirmed his value, building his confidence. This has influenced his belief in storytelling as a critical leadership skill, honed over 22 years of teaching 4,500 students.

In his class, students are tasked with choosing a social media platform and developing a niche content strategy to reach the top 1% by semester's end. Galloway suggests finding the strongest medium of communication and focusing on it to become an effective storyteller.

Galloway's 'Resist and Unsubscribe' initiative uses consumer spending power as a protest tool, inspired by historical economic impacts like the Montgomery bus strike. This campaign has led to both positive and negative feedback, including canceled speaking engagements and paused advertising from a major software company.

Galloway believes in building enterprise value for his media company, Prof G Markets, by creating content beyond his personal brand and aiming for a potential sale. He stresses the importance of giving equity to talented employees to retain them and create economic security.

Addressing societal pressures related to appearance, Galloway openly discusses having cosmetic surgery and advises young men to work out to increase attractiveness. He criticizes the incel movement and promotes the 'rule of threes' for improving social skills.

Ryan Hawk mentions his upcoming book, 'The Price of Becoming,' available for pre-order with bonuses like a digital copy. The book targets individuals doing well but aspiring to improve further, described as 'eights and nines who want to be tens.'

Key Insights