Anthony Shakinovsky is the Head of Performance at Finder, an Aussie owned fintech company. Finder’s mission is to help customers make better decisions to improve their lives.
Let’s start with your background! Can you share with us your career journey and what you’re currently up to?
I started out wearing suits as a lawyer and changed into t-shirts about 10 years ago when I transitioned into a growth facing role in tech. At the time it was quite a big change.
Right now as Head of Performance my role is to help lead and support our Client Services team. Our focus is to help partners drive efficient growth and connect with high intent audiences. We are also really passionate about creating the best experiences for the customers on Finder. Supporting customers and partners has never been more important given the sudden change from cash / interest rates being super cheap and then suddenly not being super cheap.
Core to my role is also helping to enable our crew, who are the people that make it happen.
We’d love to know what a typical day is like for you. Could you describe a recent workday?
Up early. For a run. Then the mad morning rush. Get the kids up and ready, and head to work. Grab a quick coffee and piece of sourdough toast to help power my day.
Work for me is largely having lots of convos. Every morning I ask myself ‘’what do I need to make happen / what are the biggest opportunities ?’’. Generally this means I need to then ask ”ok who do I need to speak to”. It might be with one of our crew or leaders internally, or with existing or new partners externally etc.
Can you define work-life balance for yourself and share with us your approach in maintaining it?
I see this more as ‘’life’’ balance’’. In life there are so many high value competing priorities for your limited time, work is only one of them. I joke that you have to optimise your time like you do your marketing. I’m not really kidding though because that’s my genuine approach. For me much of my time is very intentionally spent on my family.
I have 2 beautiful kids under 5, which is very fun, but not very chill. And then the rest of my time I aim to spend with people / doing activities / on stuff that gives me the most energy. Exercise is quite central to this. For me it’s like eating or sleeping, something I need. A border collie or something similarly active would be my spirit animal.
Change is constant, and it’s essential for growth. Have you made any lifestyle changes in the past year to improve your work-life balance?
Yes. Getting up early and by extension going to bed earlier.
We’re always on the lookout for new resources! Can you recommend any books, podcasts, or newsletters that have helped you in your journey towards balance?
Honestly there’s so much content out there. For me potentially it’s more to look inwards – ask yourself what gives you energy / what makes you be at your best – and go after that. I do like David Goggins though. All his videos are basically the same. Him running with his shirt off looking super fit telling you not to have excuses and just to do it.
Before we wrap up, do you have any final words of wisdom or insights on work, life, or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
ABO. Always be optimising.
