I know it’s been a while. And I hope you’ve been well.

Since we last spoke in November (🤯 what???), I left my role as VP of Product after nearly a decade at the same startup and, for the first time in my life, stepped into a chapter I’ve never been before: One of space. Listening. Recalibration.

Which makes *now* feel like a uniquely special time to introduce my next guest.

Back in December, I sat down for an intimate chat with Kudzi Chikumbu, former TikTok Global Head of Creator Marketing, influential creator, and overall multihyphenate powerhouse.

At the time we spoke, Kudzi was in his own in-between — fresh from a season of rest and in the middle of crafting his next move.

The conversation felt illuminating then — but even more relevant now that I’m in my own season of transition.

Throughout my life, I’ve been inspired by leaders like Kudzi - those who seem to move between worlds with ease — one foot in stability, the other in a life that feels vivid, creative, and fully their own. From Deloitte to executive to candle influencer, Kudzi’s path hasn’t always been linear, but his energetic throughline has been remarkably consistent: to illuminate people’s lives.

His creative expression, it turns out, takes many forms.

We often focus on chasing “more.” But life – at its truest – is more like an art form. Beginning from a place of rest, starting with what feels connected and resonant, adding pieces - season by season - until we gradually create a frequency that others can step into.

That’s what my conversation with Kudzi felt like: an invite to reconnect to a new frequency.

From this headspace, we unpack what it means to:

• Create from space — using rest to reveal authenticity

• Build trust — treating your career as an offering

• Create your life forward — iterating from feedback

• Redefine success —Balancing risk, fulfillment, and building a multidimensional life and career that *truly* feel like us

I hope you enjoy the episode (and the fun edit!). Also - expect more posts soon - not just with guests, but also inspiration and thoughts from me.

Till next time 🫶,

Lucy

Note: Since our chat, Kudzi has released the full season of his new podcast “Not Just One Thing” - a powerful body of work on rewriting the playbook on the modern career. If you’re a multi-passionate leader looking to go deeper - check it out here!

🎥 Watch on Youtube (if you prefer 🙂)

Where to follow Kudzi:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kudzichikumbu/

• Website: http://kudzichikumbu.com/

• Podcast: http://kudzichikumbu.com/podcast

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kudzi

• TikTok (SirCandleMan): https://www.tiktok.com/@sircandleman

I’m excited to share with you the 2nd pilot episode of my new 380 Podcast, where I sit down with inspiring leaders to get a unique, more holistic take on their approach to life, leadership, and success. If you missed the 1st episode with Patrick Burns (ex-founder, Oscar-nominated filmmaker), you can check it out here!

Today, I'm very excited to introduce my special guest Ian Yung. Ian is a senior growth and marketing executive with a diverse career journey, from serving as President of the largest audio manufacturer in South America to leading growth for major DTC lifestyle brands like Tonal, where he was most recently the SVP of Revenue. Ian’s career has been marked by his ability to drive profitable growth across industries, thanks to his keen eye for strategy (what’s driving your growth?), a genuine desire to help, and an overall passion for efficiency.

Now taking a career break and fresh off a renewing trip to Bali, Ian joins me to chat about his career journey to date, his strategy to drive broader impact, and his approach to finding balance.

📌 In this episode, we cover:

• Ian’s hard pivot from industrial engineering to lifestyle e-Commerce at the age of 30 (new country, new job!)

• How “trying to be helpful” created natural inflections in his career journey

• Leaning into creativity and resourcefulness as a competitive advantage - especially for startups

• Using each career transition to reflect on his drivers of energy

• Finding balance in life between leverage, pleasure, and purpose

🎥 Watch on Youtube:

📝 Some key takeaways:

1. It’s important to regularly pause and assess what energizes and fulfills you. After 9 years at AudiLab and ultimately selling the company, Ian used the opportunity to re-evaluate the best path to achieve his long term goals, ultimately deciding to move from Brazil to San Francisco to pursue growth-focused opportunities in a brand new industry.

2. Ian’s background in industrial engineering shaped his problem-solving approach, where he constantly sought ways to do things better and faster. This “high-functioning laziness” drove his efficiency-focused mindset, which allowed him to regularly identify creative, unconventional paths to growth. A competitive advantage, he notes, for resource-constrained startups.

3. A desire to be helpful goes a long way. Ian’s career naturally evolved because he sought to do what was best for the company - even if it was outside of his role. Combining self awareness and the needs of the organization, he removed himself quickly from positions where he would be unhelpful (”What the business needed was more product people, less growth”) and found himself in new roles as a result of identifying business opportunities (private labeling at Touch of Modern).

4. Finding balance between leverage, pleasure, and purpose for a fulfilling life. Ian emphasizes the importance of embracing joy and meaning in our experience, while striving to accumulate the necessary resources to achieve our personal definition of impact.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:34 About the Podcast

01:48 Guest Introduction: Ian Yung

05:50 Starting at Ford in Automotive Manufacturing

09:10 Becoming President of Audilab, the biggest audio manufacturer in South America

12:38 Pivoting to DTC and moving to San Francisco

13:33 Touch of Modern and the shift from Operations to Growth

28:32 Simple Habit and the Allure of Series A

35:12 The Importance of Fundamental Thinking, Mindfulness, and Diverse Perspectives

40:52 Career Transitions and Shift from Growth to Countercyclical

43:54 Black Tux during the Pandemic

45:32 The Importance of Strong Brands in DTC

52:25 Approach to Leadership

01:06:41 Career Break and trip to Bali

01:09:04 Balancing Leverage, Purpose, and Pleasure

01:16:18 Contrarian opinion: Being uncomfortable

01:18:00 Future Trends and Predictions: e-Comm consolidation

01:20:25 Ambitions / What's Next

01:24:21 Rapid Fire Questions

01:32:55 Final Thoughts and Reflections

Follow for more:

• Ian’s LinkedIn

• Lucy’s LinkedIn

• Level 380 Youtube Channel

• For inquiries: lucy@level380.com

I’m excited to bring you the pilot episode (1 of 2) of the 380 Podcast, where I sit down with inspiring leaders to get a unique, more holistic take on their approach to life, leadership, and success. If you’re interested and want to get involved in this series, shoot me an email at lucy@level380.com!

For this inaugural episode, I'm very excited to introduce my special guest and friend, Patrick Burns. Patrick is a dynamic product leader and ex-venture-backed startup founder whose career journey not only spans major tech names like Amazon, Snapchat, Google, and Discord, but also includes early experiences as a journalist, filmmaker, and producer of an Oscar-nominated documentary.

📌 In this episode, we cover:

• Balancing creativity and pragmatism in his professional and personal pursuits

• Transitioning from journalism to tech, with a focus on Product roles

• Finding his “sweet spot” experimenting with tech companies at different stages

• Co-founding and scaling a remote collaboration startup during the height of COVID

• His creative inspirations and approaches to harnessing creativity in life and work

🎥 Watch on Youtube:

📝 Some key takeaways:

1. Building a “habit” for creativity is about creating regular space for un-pressurized work. Doing this regularly and consistently gives us the freedom to tap into new ideas that ultimately lead to meaningful creations.

2. When starting something new in a rapidly changing market, it’s critical to focus on adaptability and market timing. As the co-founder of a remote collaboration startup, Commons, during the pandemic, Patrick found himself in a race against the clock to launch against evolving market conditions.

3. Knowing when to pivot is challenging, as breaking points are often important moments for perseverance. In both filmmaking and entrepreneurial pursuits, Patrick leaned into his long-term intuition to determine when to persist and when to shift direction.

4. Energy is energy - finding ways to stay energized and inspired is key. Whether it be at work or outside of work, we can all leverage creativity to get into a more energized and expansive headspace.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:10 About Level 380

01:41 Guest Introduction: Patrick Burns

04:45 Creating Time for Creativity

07:28 Early Career Journey - Music and Traveling

14:23 Being Broad and Shallow

16:16 Creativity as a Habit and Form of Meditation

18:42 Balancing Passion and Pragmatism

30:40 The Journey into Photography and Filmmaking

33:33 Cutie and the Boxer: The Documentary

38:46 Considering being a Full Time Creative

41:17 Transitioning from Journalism to Business School

42:04 Discovering the Product Management Role

45:26 First Product Management Role and Moving to SF

45:58 Joining Snapchat and Moving to LA

47:23 Experiences in Different Tech Companies

53:10 Founding a Startup During COVID

58:44 Importance of Speed and Timing in a Shifting Market Environment

01:03:13 Philosophies around Company Building

01:04:48 Intuition and Balance around Pivoting

01:08:30 Career Reflections - a Late Bloomer and Finding the Sweet Spot

01:13:03 Creative Synergy and Cultivating Energetic Headspace

01:17:46 Salsa, Rosalia, and Patrick’s Secret Skills

01:24:57 Rapid Fire Questions

01:35:23 Concluding Thoughts and Reflections

Follow for more:

• Patrick’s LinkedIn

• Lucy’s LinkedIn

• Level 380 Youtube Channel

• For inquiries: lucy@level380.com

- Steve Jobs

💡Level Up: Respect the whole

Why do organizations even exist?

Simple. Primarily because we can do more together that we can do by ourselves.

Just like the different functions of our body work to support the greater vessel…

Or the different players on a team play their position…

…An organization is made up of individuals whose different perspectives and areas of expertise enable the organization to steer towards a greater level of impact.

But.. like individuals, organizations can easily fall into dysfunction.

It’s difficult enough to communicate to ourselves and interpret the signals of our own needs, let alone the signals of an organization and the customer it seeks to serve.

At an organizational level, lack of clarity or misaligned intention simply multiplies. Now, any bad habits that we exude as individuals are exuded at scale, rippling through the organization... sometimes to the point of no return. In an organization, clear communication in pursuit of an authentic purpose become even more paramount as the stakes get higher.

But most of us know this. The real problem is... maintaining a purpose-led organization is challenging.

As technology evolves, organizations mature, and culture continually shifts, the frameworks that we use to lead must continually adapt. But too often, we mistake approaches for fundamentals. We try to apply the latest tools and playbooks as a one-size-fits-all solution, only to find that nothing seems to stick - or only sticks temporarily. And it’s a tricky balance to strike, given the complexity and interconnectedness of a well-functioning system. Even if one leg of your approach is sound, you may wrongly interpret the approach as failing if another leg is missing.

Instead, to truly understand how to recalibrate an organization to retain its purpose-led startup energy at scale - shifting from a vicious cycle of resistance to a virtuous cycle of flow - one must understand how energy flows at a fundamental level.

Understanding the Organism

An organization is simply a function of (1) the individuals who make up the organization and (2) the leaders who influence how decisions are made.

This is just an order of magnitude greater than the way we work within ourselves. The same way we create inner alignment (between our conscious and subconscious, our desires and our actions, etc.), is the same way we create alignment across multiple individuals — essentially, energy moving in a guided direction.

So, to create a purpose-led organization, we must first understand what drives purpose at the individual level, so we can multiple it for the whole.

Purpose (or meaningful work) is made up of three fundamental drivers:

1. Vision: An individual’s conviction that a goal is worth pursuing

   1. Individual personal visions will likely be much broader than a company’s vision, but the level of shared overlap will maximize sustained motivation

2. Path to Impact: An individual’s belief that they can contribute to this vision

   1. This is the essence of an ownership mentality - asking what we can do to make a difference. Motivation will wane over time if we are overwhelmed by blockers in our path (ie. lack of direction, politics, bureaucracy, lack of resources, or space to focus).

3. Feedback/Reward: Some mechanism that allows the individual to feel a sense of progression

   1. Even the most enlightened amongst us need short-term dopamine to stay on track in the pursuit of a larger purpose. Lack of momentum = lack of energy. Building in mechanics for healthy reinforcement is key to sustaining purposeful action in the long term.

While any of these elements could exist in isolation, it would be much more difficult to sustain motivation without all three acting in concert. Even the most ownership-minded of us can fall prey to weak incentive structures, while even the strongest of systems may not be able to lift someone up who isn’t ready to embrace their owner mindset.

Vision at Scale

As an organization scales, it becomes exponentially more difficult to keep individuals and teams activated as a part of the whole.

Consider this: you’ve just created your founding team (activation of the 1st degree). At the early stages of a startup, each of your leaders remain close to the nucleus. Decisions are made, feedback loops are frequent and tight, and there’s little room for schisms in thinking or purpose to emerge.

However, as the organization expands, new feedback loops form - both formal and informal. Conversations start to diverge from each other and silos begin to form. People start focusing on the wrong things (process, title/status, doomed ideas) and the organization starts attracting the wrong people.

When this happens, the key to maintaining purpose-led activation is to design the right feedback loops around the nucleus (the vision) and to keep each new layer of scale activated and attached to the nucleus as closely as possible.

The importance of attaching back to the core was highlighted recently by Brian Chesky (CEO of Airbnb), who reignited “Founder Mode” conversations when he shared how pulling in decision making helped him break down divisional politics and bureaucracy at Airbnb.

“I stopped pushing decision-making down. I pulled it in. I created one shared consciousness and I said, the top 30, 40 people in the company are going to have one continuous conversation.” - Brian Chesky

Similar sentiments have been echoed across the industry, with even major players like Amazon announcing goals to combat bloat and return back to core principles.

While the level and intensity of core attachment will vary by organization or context (ie. wartime vs. peacetime, nature of business), the fundamental principle remains the same: To move as a whole, we must be truly attached to the whole.

Scale is not simply the delegation of decisions, but rather, the delegation of context and thinking, such that others can make certain decisions as your proxy - a delegation that requires healthy feedback loops to maintain and clear mechanisms to course correct as needed.

Designing Your Loops

So, how do you design and manage core feedback loops from a fundamental perspective?

My recommendation is to do so in the same way your body delivers signals to your brain - based on urgency and health of the system as a whole. Holistic thinking is key.

1. What are our loops? What are the different conversations we’re having / problems we’re solving for?

2. What’s our loop frequency? How urgently do we need to stay aligned on these workstreams? (Ex. higher feedback loops during war-time periods, lower frequency loops for extended leaders to converge on the same wavelength)

3. Who’s looped in? Individuals who are integral to the respective end-to-end body of work and must think holistically (health of a function, cohesion within a strategic initiative, stewardship of the nucleus itself).

The highest version of this is your Executive Loop, which sits closest to the nucleus and is the steward of the ship. This feedback loop supports cross-functional input, but ultimately decisions are made by the CEO.

Next layer down are integration loops for key bodies of work that require end-to-end thinking: Strategic Initiatives and Functional Domains (ie. Engineering, Marketing, etc.). While this approach may vary by organization (and sometimes by workstream), I generally lean towards the approach of organizing vertically by Function and horizontally by Strategy, as Functions are less likely to shift (and therefore benefit from longer term thinking and health). One example Chesky highlights in his interview is his decision to move away from Host and Guest teams, which yielded a “hodgepodge” app. Instead, he reorganized his teams by function and focused on cross-team collaboration across a few key launches.

Emphasis on a few. Remember, the outside world experiences you as a single body - not as the disparate pieces of multiple minds.

Finally, integration loops for the Company. These usually take the form of All Hands or extended leadership forums and require less frequent loops, but are valuable for convergence of thinking and bringing further layers into the gravitational pull of the core. If these loops are done well, decision making is role modeled, and there’s a clear path for healthy escalation, important issues emanating from further layers can still travel quickly to the Executive Loop.

Sustaining Activation Takes Work

Remember to take your time. Activate each loop with intention and closure so that they remain attached to the parent body. Don’t spin too fast. Get one loop going at a time, focusing on the most important priorities. Broken loops compound debt, positive loops compound momentum.

Some potential challenges to watch out for:

1. Loops designed too tightly designed around a specific strategy - all the way down to execution. This is a trade-off: You move faster, but may also create solutions that are (1) not prioritized holistically or (2) impact functional area cohesion. Best suited for more contained workstreams.

2. Loops designed too tightly around goals. This may result in solutions that are not integrated / don’t make sense to the consumer as one (ex. multiple departments achieving a goal in their own way, or non-integrated solutions proposed by different goal squads).

3. Too many loops, or poorly activated ones. If not managed well, silos will emerge at scale - loops that have deactivated or detached from the core (and are no longer making decisions in line with the whole). This often happens when there’s no clear escalation path or review mechanism that allows teams to stay on track, a recipe for zombie projects or ideas that drift into the ether.

Over time, poorly designed loops will act like blockages, resulting in suboptimal decisions and unnecessary process that slow the organization down and are difficult to unwind. Purpose debt, if you will.

The Beauty of Returning to the Core

The beauty of keeping teams attached to the core is that you can move more quickly to meet a changing environment. With shared purpose as the guiding mechanism for decisions, it encourages teams to rethink old problems and recalibrate solutions.

Additionally, it can help you identify those who may not be ready to step into their ownership mindset. Flow is never just the result of the system or the individual - it is the harmony between the two bodies. Create the right system, and those who are ready to rise will. For those who aren’t (yet), it may be healthier for them to switch to an environment that can best serve them.

Consider how loops are currently structured at your organization (and perhaps even within yourself). Consider what blockages you may be inadvertently creating that don’t serve the whole. Consider what actions you’re taking driven by old signals.

Scale doesn’t have to mean politics, burnout, bureaucracy.

Scale can be the powerful elevation of the whole.

I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next time.

“The biggest unlock in the game is to realize that it is a game.”

While most coaching content out there would suggest that game strategy is paramount, figuring out “how to win” or “how to build influence” and so on, I feel that very little content is centered around the fundamental mindset from which we choose to play.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: most of what we do - we seem to do backwards. We start playing the game before we understand what we are truly playing for.

The chaotic way we receive content doesn’t help. Most information these days is very difficult to digest, simply because of how it’s delivered - in bits and pieces lacking context - unclear as to which problem we’re solving and what layer we’re on in the broader problem pyramid. We debate about generalities like “follow your passion” or “never give up” or “fail fast,” when what is most important is the situation. As is the case with all tools.

That said, I have nothing against information overload and our rapidly decreasing attention spans — In fact, I see it as a natural byproduct of progress and technological evolution.

What I do believe, however, is that in the age of AI and information overwhelm, it is even more paramount for us to deeply understand ourselves as individuals, as humans, and as a collective consciousness.

What’s the point of it all? Why does it all matter? Why are we all here?

We are whole to start.

For most of my life, I have been driven by ambition (and consequently, time scarcity).

While we all form our ego in different ways, mine was formed out of early success  — Things would often come naturally for me. People came to expect more. I came to expect more. And eventually, I began to live my life against the clock, pressed against the burden of my own potential: how would I use each moment most productively? What would my ideal self say in this situation? Was I being risky enough, aggressive enough, self-driven enough? (ironic, I know)

In some ways, I was a very highly functioning shell of a character I had willed into existence. A lot of extra processing between my true self and my external one.

If you’re reading this, you may feel in some ways similar. Maybe not so extreme (or maybe more extreme!), but for highly ambitious leaders, it’s possible that some of our drive comes from a sense of self that is attached to accomplishment, power, or at least the hunger to put in the work. We praise the fearless and successful. We loathe passiveness or incompetence. Our obsessiveness with reaching our full potential is in line with what has always worked for us, what we have always done to be seen. To matter. To be recognized for who we were meant to be.

Perhaps it is by design - the necessary runaround so that by the time we get back to square 0, we can appreciate square 0 for what it is.

Nonetheless, at some point, most of us come to realize that living in a scarcity mindset can be quite exhausting.

What do I mean by that?

Let me explain.

I’m using the phrase “scarcity mindset” to express the attachment of our life experience to a set of conditions. If we define a prevailing performance value for our lives (and hence the value we attach to), we will forever lack. Why? Performance is, by definition, measurable, thus it can always be more or less. In my case, the importance I placed on ambition drove a constant sense of highs and lows. At times, I felt on top of the world. Other times, I felt far behind. The highs were powerful highs. The lows were empty lows. Because I could always be “doing more,” every second felt heavy and judgmental. I navigated the world as a series of opportunities and threats. I could never fully let go.

The scarcity mindset can be quite insidious - like a toxic relationship. Because we still have fleeting moments of highs, the experience can be just encouraging enough to keep us from seeking a deeper knowing. We hold on tightly, thinking that clarity is right around the corner. But these efforts are ultimately futile.

When we attach our sense of selves with an overdeveloped ego, we can easily forget who is truly in control.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned anything about the games. Well, this is it. You’re in it.

The approach I mention above is not bad per se - it’s simply the game you’ve chosen to play. Resistance only arises when we seek certain answers in one dimension that actually live in another.

Awakening the player.

While there are many strategies and frameworks on “finding inner peace,” the single most important realization that we must make is that we exist across two distinct dimensions - one that represents the basis of our being (whole and immeasurable), and the other that represents our human experience.

The first dimension, which I’ll refer to as the “3rd person perspective,” is essentially what others may call “inner peace.” It is the condition of awakening outside of the constraints of the game - of being deeply and unconditionally seen, without judgment. It is the recognition of our true being as pure consciousness and energy, which, as energy, has no start or end. While many will never experience this state, my goal is that many more will.

The other dimension is what I’ll refer to as “the games,” which are the experiences we choose to pursue that add meaning and joy to our lives. Within certain aspects of this dimension - let’s say, challenge or creation - performance can clearly be finite and measured. Most “debate” happens within this dimension.

By recognizing these two dimensions as separate and independent, we create the space to acknowledge and experience a deeper sense of aliveness, allowing us to approach “our games” from a mindset of abundance. Because we are consciously detached, we are able to fully immerse ourselves in the game itself (from the highs to the lows) with freedom and excitement - the way we knew how to from the very beginning. (now just with more control over our powers!)

In the same way that a true sportsman never forgets that it’s a game - win or lose, neither should we.

As we shift from a mindset of scarcity to abundance, we give ourselves the opportunity to experience the game, our experience, for all that it is:

A game.

A fun definition to start, because - why not? Clarity matters :).

The observable matrix /ði əbˈzɝːvəbəl ˈmeɪtrɪks/

The rules & patterns of the reality in which we operate, based on information that is available or can be reasonably inferred or deducted

Last week, I shared how limited mental energy plays a role in our tendency to reach for patterns and create meaning out of information.

But signals can sometimes be overwhelming and vast. It can be difficult to identify common driving factors, or even recognize when a signal is no longer reliable. One moment, your picture of “what’s working” may seem complete. The next, the story no longer makes sense. How do you identify such deviances sooner? How do you pivot when you become stuck?

A story of mixed signals

When I was starting out my career, I felt a strong pull towards actions that others would consider “impulsive,” “rebellious” or even, if generous, “independent minded.”

For example, I remember once taking a spur of the moment weekend trip from Los Angeles to Madrid with a co-worker. While fun to talk about, I remember this experience only because of how I felt, walking into the solace of my hotel room after a nearly 12-hour flight.

Trapped.

How could this be? I had traveled across the world to escape this feeling. As I made my way to the window of my room seeking reprieve, looking over a beautiful quiet cityscape - pristine and unassuming - my feelings only intensified, now sprinkled with hints of confusion and desperation.

I can’t get out.

While it would take me several more years to fully escape the prison of my mind, this moment was one that reminded me of the conflation of signals with our deeper needs. I expected my actions to help me feel a certain way, when what I needed was internal.

The necessity and risk of using signals

Most of what we learn, we learn backwards.

• We see successful people and think - “they must be doing something right.”

• We see happy people and think - “I should probably meditate more”

• We see confident people and think - “I should take more risks”

It’s no surprise.

Living in a world of asymmetrical information with a need to make sense of it all, we naturally evolve to be master correlators.

We become a mish-mash of the variables we see, hoping that the right combination may unlock the answers that we seek.

This association is not inherently a bad thing.

In fact, the tension between signals and reality is not just inescapable, but a matter of necessity. The ability to interpret signals on the path to greater knowing is how we navigate the world:

1. We need “proxy” goals and benchmarks to understand if we’re on the right track towards a larger goal

2. We need shorter term milestones to keep ourselves motivated amid noise and distraction — Author and behaviorial economist Dan Ariely really hammered this concept home for me. Here’s a must-watch: Start at 7:16.

3. With our limited mental energy, we need to form quick judgments to rationalize the unknown and, in turn, feel some semblance of control

Yet, in the midst of all this - it’s easy to forget that signals are simply...signals.

They are indirect signs of what’s really happening. Outside, inside, and within ourselves.

And because we get so used to focusing on them, we start to mistake them for the goal.

• The money for the freedom.

• The external freedom for the internal freedom.

• The proxy for the outcome.

• The process for the purpose.

Getting to the need behind the signals

Being aware of this natural conflation is step 1. It allows us to zoom out and regularly ask ourselves whether the actions we’re taking along the path are still in service of our higher goals (or simply an outdated signal we once defined in the past).

While sometimes the answer is obvious, in others, pivoting can be...challenging. Where does one look if one’s signal is no longer working? Where does one turn when we’ve tried multiple paths to no avail? What does freedom even mean, in its truest form? Economic freedom, time freedom... spiritual freedom?

When it becomes difficult to parse the deeper connecting story from the observable matrix, it may be prudent to ask a more fundamental question.

What is the root of everything we do?

What is “that” which we are searching for?

What are we seeking most deeply - conscious or subconsciously?

To get here, we often to have to scale up our pyramid backwards, going up multiple “why’s” to access the deeper why.

Let’s take pressure as a starting point.

Pressure is typically looked at through the lens of performance.

In some cases, pressure is a net positive. It creates a sense of urgency, helps us activate our mind’s cognitive processes, releases reward-driven dopamine, and gives us an anchor point that allows us to land further than we would have otherwise landed.

In some cases, pressure is a net negative. It frazzles our nerves, causes overstimulation, or stirs up excessive fear disproportionate for the situation at hand — and consequently, yields poor decisions.

For the goal of performance, we can see that pressure is neither inherently bad or good, but rather, an effective tool for performance if leveraged correctly. It’s a conditional signal, not to be confused for performance itself. Why are we still applying pressure? Is it still serving the goal of performance? Asking these questions will help us ensure that we’re applying the tool effectively.

But let us zoom out 1 notch further.

We started talking about pressure as a tool for performance. But why do we seek to perform? Success, of course, but why success? Why do we want to succeed?

At this point, regardless of our how we present externally, internally our reasons may be very different.

One reason may be a passion for the work. Another may be for recognition.

All of these desires are fine really. The only issue is if these desires are actually masking a deeper, more fundamental need. If it is, the inaccuracy of your signals will become obvious over time. Your tools won’t work. You’ll always be so close, but so far. Full, but never whole.  

There are many ways we could describe this fundamental need, but for now perhaps we refer to it as the human need to feel deeply and unconditionally seen. One might describe the actualization of this as inner peace. Or maybe “higher consciousness.”

There is no end or beginning to this need because it is unconditional. The more you seek it, the less you’ll have it. And the more distracted you’ll be.

It’s not easy, but once we are able to fully internalize this concept, we can stop letting fear secretly drive our decisions. From a clear, non-judgmental state of mind, we finally have the headspace to pay attention to the right signals. What gets us excited even when we’re not trying to be? What are we gravitating towards?  

Worried you’ve been going in the wrong direction for awhile now? Don’t worry, you’re further along than you think. In fact, regardless of how many “wrong” moves you’ve made, look closely and you’ll see clues of a larger guiding force. There is mostly likely a common thread pulling you forward, even if it’s not apparent to you yet. (It’s hard to suppress oneself entirely!)

Once you unlock inner clarity, you will be 100x closer to where you want to be simply through awareness. You will be able to more easily recognize when you’re making decisions driven by fear/scarcity, and choose otherwise. You’ll be able to see through the noise to signals that really matter.

Everything you’ve done in your life up until this point has been to prepare you for this very moment.

Welcome to Level 380. Your game is waiting.

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💡Level Up: Finding Clarity

One of the lessons I learned early on in my leadership journey was the importance of clear, resonant communication. (Emphasis on “resonant” because the message has to not only reach, but also be received by the end listener. It has to resonate.)

Whether it was at a team meeting or at the finish line of a cross-functional product launch, I frequently observed stakeholders with differing views completely crossing and missing each other like two ships in the night (and consequently resulting in time spent on wrong or unnecessary things). It was in these moments that I discovered I had a knack for “closing the gap.” Only a few years into my gig as “Product Manager numero uno,” I somehow found myself acting as the go-to mouthpiece for different factions of the org, gathering and delivering synthesized messages to executives and other departments. (More on this in my book 🤓)

“So and so wants X! So and so recommends Y! We’ve come together and believe we should do Z!”

I found that, while I was pretty decent at moving the compass in the right direction and keeping things organized above deck, I had a lot of trouble moving the ship.

Often - I would work tirelessly on a proposal, rallying the troops and getting folks lined up to execute, only to have my efforts wasted or dismissed.

I learned over time that I was doing two things majorly wrong:

1. I was focused on my own needs

2. I was moving bottoms-up

Enter The Pyramid Principle, a classic and influential book on logic in thinking and communication, published in 1985 by Barbara Minto (the 1st female consultant at McKinsey). While for most, the book is viewed as a thesis on effective business communication (required reading material for McKinsey consultants, I’ve heard!), for me, it offered a larger lightbulb moment, helping me make sense of how to create and leverage influence.

The Pyramid Principle is based on 1 fundamental principle:

The book cites “The Magic Number 7” or “Miller’s Law” to illustrate this point, which is the principle that the average person can hold around seven items in their working memory.

Scientific evidence aside, this concept is intuitive. When there are too many pieces of information, our minds start to naturally seek common groupings and relationships to reduce cognitive overload. It’s why branding and signals are so important - we only have so much time and energy to invest in understanding something - therefore, we take asymmetrical information and mentally complete the rest of the picture.

For better or for worse.

At higher leadership ranks, it becomes progressively more difficult (and even counterproductive) to try holding onto information that is too low level. In some ways, the nature of executive communication is simply about respecting your audience’s mental altitude. How do you say something that matters to them and peaks their interest? What level should you deliver your message at?

The “matters to them” part for me is key, even more so than the ability to communicate succinctly. I realized that no matter how good my recommendations were, they would fall on deaf ears unless they aligned with what mattered to leadership.

I could form a plan from bottoms-up. But to move the ship, I’d have to start from the top. Everything else would follow.

Once you recognize the top level goals, applying the Pyramid Principle in communication is straightforward: Using layers, we present our argument at the highest level (the question and answer) and move down only if needed. A good intro matters: like in storytelling, we must first peak the audience’s interest by signaling something of value.

• The top of the pyramid represents the synopsis of the layers below it:

  • The context

  • The problem you’re solving

  • The solution and how you got there

  • …All this at a very high level.

• Each layer represents a deeper supporting grouping/argument/piece of evidence:

  • Groupings on the same layer are related to each other (ie. 3 steps, 3 divisions)

  • Groupings at any level are summaries of the ideas grouped below (summary, supporting answers)

• Be careful not to deliver bottoms-up. You did your homework to get to the answer. Start with the answer, not the homework.

Once I unlocked this fundamental principle, I started to operate more like a lighthouse for the ships, preventing them from going too far off course and slowly, but surely, we converged on the same mental energy.

In summary: Get aligned from the top on what matters, then deliver your logic so that it’s both high level and complete (aka, the top of the pyramid). Your leaders (and your brain 🧠) will thank you.

I hope you enjoyed the read. 👋 See you next week!

💡Level Up: The Beginning

When I first joined FabFitFun in 2015, it was a 15-person startup operating out of a small 2nd floor unit above a Beverly Hills nail salon. At the time, the company was small, but growing quickly - carving out a name for itself as one of the first full size lifestyle subscription boxes under the leadership of its co-founders, Michael, Dan & Katie. Having luckily managed to impress my then-manager at a chance networking event the week prior, I suddenly found myself in a cramped interview room being peppered with start-uppy-esque questions like “Do you know photoshop?” and “What’s your opinion of spin-wheels?” After a few more questions like these, he finally asked me the pivotal one:

“What do you want to be called?”

He then rattled off a few potential titles that I might like.

Before he could finish his list, I had already responded.

“Product Manager,” I said, with zero hesitation.

Truth is, I had had minimal “formal” product management experience up until this point. For the past several months I had searched (in vain) for a startup that would take a chance on me as a PM, despite my finance and big company background (Disney, J.P. Morgan). All I knew was that I wanted to own something, build something, invest in something I could believe in. And the beauty of Product, I felt, was that this was its very essence. The art of leadership in the pursuit of creation. Product.

He looked up at me and nodded.

“Ok, done.”

And just like that, I became FabFitFun’s 1st PM.

Over the years, I learned how to manage difficult stakeholders, identify hidden landmines, and find the needle in a haystack of seemingly irreconcilable opinions. In the early days, I voraciously studied Product Management as a discipline, believing that “skills” and “best practices” would be my path to success.

Wrong.

With tight engineering bandwidth, systems buckling under runaway growth, and an entire company hungry for technical resources, I quickly realized that to succeed, I would need to approach Product through a higher lens - one of leadership, influence, and the ability to evangelize change.

While I didn’t intentionally set out to “climb the ladder” - in hindsight, my gradual rise to VP was a function of both timing and a steady expansion in my circles of trust. These circles looked like the following:

1. Building a Strong First Impression (amongst my boss & peers)

2. Expanding my Circle of Trust & Leverage (amongst cross-functional leaders)

3. Exercising Strategic Focus & Resilience (focusing on long-term trajectory-defining problems)

Essentially, each of these circles are the same - just progressively larger problems requiring progressively higher levels of trust.

Some foundational notes before we begin…

While I am a huge proponent of championing your career, it’s important to recognize that all sustainable growth (in any field, be it building muscle or playing a sport) requires building on solid foundations: you must conquer the first milestone before jumping to the next. Punching above your weight is expected, but jumping to a level you’re far from ready for rarely does you any favors (and mostly comes with a whole lot of stress).

It’s also important to be aware of your environment. For leveling within an organization to work, you must be in an environment where leadership makes decisions based on results (or one’s potential to deliver results). Effectiveness can be learned regardless of where you work - but it’s much harder to be noticed and level up (in a meaningful way) if you and your leaders are playing different games.

Finally, remember that titles are only a proxy...my goal here is not to share with you how to get to “VP” (as a literal title) in any particular organization, but to position you to achieve your highest potential. Trust the timing and location of where it lands you.

Anyway, that’s enough for now. If you made it this far, kudos to you :). Hit me up here if you have any questions. In the meantime, I’m working on sharing some of my strategies for building influence and respect up and down the chain. See you next week.

⚡️Extra Energy

Need a little juice in your day? Here’s a quote to lift your week.

“Our life is a constant journey, from birth to death. The landscape changes, the people change, our needs change, but the train keeps moving. Life is the train, not the station.” - Paulo Coelho, Author of The Alchemist