What happens when a 46-year-old walks into a company where the average age is 23, and has to earn the respect of every person in the room? In this episode, Jesse sits down with Stephen Scheeler, the former inaugural CEO of Facebook ANZ and now CEO and MD of Omniscient, a company using AI to map the human brain.
Stephen’s career has zigged and zagged through startups, Silicon Valley, McKinsey and big tech, and the dental practice leadership lessons he’s picked up along the way are gold for any practice owner navigating change, technology and team dynamics.
From the deceptively simple question (“teach me how to do your job”) to the dangers of unchecked power and the realities of adopting AI without losing your mind, this conversation is packed with insights that go well beyond tech. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the pace of change or wondered how to lead a team that knows more than you do in certain areas, this one’s for you.
In this Episode:
- 04:12 The unconventional career path that took Stephen from avoiding work in his twenties to running Facebook’s Asia Pacific ad business
- 08:00 The one question Stephen asked over 100 Facebook employees, including Mark Zuckerberg, that changed the way he led forever
- 23:30 Three things every practice owner can learn from Facebook’s accountability failures and what unchecked power really costs a business
- 28:00 Why Stephen told his team to ignore AI for two years, and the crawl, walk, run framework he’s now using to transform his company
- 38:00 How Omniscient is using AI and connectomics to map the human brain, and what precision brain medicine could mean for the future of healthcare
