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In The Parlor Room's season two finale, host Chris Linnane shares his favorite questions and answers from his conversations with Harvard Business School faculty, including Christina Wallace, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Amy Edmondson, Sunil Gupta, V.G. Narayanan, Nancy Koehn, and Anthony Mayo. Tune in for their insights into marketing, the future of work, psychological safety, and more. Catch up on Season 2 of The Parlor Room: Amy Edmondson on Building High-Performing Teams: https://hbs.me/ade6yb9d Sunil Gupta on Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategies: https://hbs.me/3j3jcpmw Anthony Mayo on What Makes an Effective Leader: https://hbs.me/3ttp4c56 Christina Wallace on Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset: https://hbs.me/2p87t4j8 Felix Oberholzer-Gee on the Frameworks of Business Strategy: https://hbs.me/yc3f5jb3 Nancy Koehn on How Crisis Brings Out Extraordinary Leadership: https://hbs.me/ycksfcds V.G. Narayanan on How Accounting Connects the Business World: https://hbs.me/mry92699 Watch The Parlor Room on YouTube: https://hbs.me/4j99nbwc
In early 2023, dating site Eharmony released findings from a survey of over 1000 singletons. The research found that on average they spent 55 minutes per day logged in to the dating app, with six conversations on the go at the same time. Despite that, as many as 70% of those surveyed felt heavy dating app usage had a negative impact on their mental health. Spending so much energy on dating can get overwhelming, but fear not. I'm here to tell you about a solution which could help you take back control of your love life: the zero date. The idea was invented back in 2018 by American entrepreneur Christina Wallace. What's it all about then? What's the difference between a zero date and a regular first date then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: Why do mouth sounds drive some people crazy? Why does Ramadan start on a different date each year? How can I move house stress-free? A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 15/3/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this special episode featuring season two bonus content, host Chris Linnane shares exclusive, unaired clips from his conversations with Harvard Business School faculty members on the topic of AI and navigating the future of the workplace. Tune in to hear from Sunil Gupta on marketing strategies, Anthony Mayo on effective leadership, Christina Wallace on entrepreneurial mindset, Felix Oberholzer-Gee on business strategy, and V.G. Narayanan on accounting. Catch up on Season 2 of The Parlor Room: Sunil Gupta on Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategies: https://hbs.me/3j3jcpmw Anthony Mayo on What Makes an Effective Leader: https://hbs.me/3ttp4c56 Christina Wallace on Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset: https://hbs.me/2p87t4j8 Felix Oberholzer-Gee on the Frameworks of Business Strategy: https://hbs.me/yc3f5jb3 V.G. Narayanan on How Accounting Connects the Business World: https://hbs.me/mry92699 Watch The Parlor Room on YouTube: https://hbs.me/4j99nbwc
Send us a text4,000 weeks.That's all we get. The number of weeks most of us will live.The average human life is "absurdly, insultingly brief."As we step into 2025, this perspective—shared by Oliver Burkeman on the How to Live Podcast earlier this year—continues to resonate deeply. It's a stark reminder to be intentional with the one resource we can never reclaim: time.We've put together life lessons from extraordinary guests who appeared on the How to Live Podcast in the second half of 2024—thinkers who are reshaping how we live, work, and grow:Oliver Burkeman reframes time management with startling clarity.Aneace Haddad helps us navigate midlife transitions.Joel Pearson unveils the science of intuition.Sara Jane Ho elevates the art of human interaction.Simon Bowen introduces the power of visual thinking.Nir Eyal shares strategies for staying focused in a distracted world.John Dykes inspires with his journey of personal reinvention.Sha-En Yeo explores the science of happiness.Christina Wallace invites us to embrace a portfolio life.Matthew Dicks reveals the secrets of masterful storytelling.Drew Tarvin demonstrates humor's ability to transform.Nick Jonsson offers a path to self-discovery and personal transformation.This is more than a podcast—it's a roadmap to living with intention, curiosity, and purpose.As we close the chapter on 2024, I invite you to reflect on your own 4,000 weeks:What will you do differently in the weeks ahead?Don't miss this powerful episode that brings all these lessons together in one place.Here's to a purposeful 2025.
In this episode of The Parlor Room podcast, Chris sits down with startup advisor, founder, and Harvard Business School Professor Christina Wallace to discuss the critical role of building an entrepreneurial mindset. Wallace breaks down the distinctions between traditional marketing and entrepreneurial marketing, illustrating how mindset plays a pivotal role. She delves into the core principles of entrepreneurial marketing, emphasizing how curiosity and embracing uncertainty can drive meaningful results—far beyond a sales-driven approach. Plus, Wallace shares valuable insights on identifying your strengths and leveraging them to carve a fulfilling career path. GUEST Christina Wallace, Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School RESOURCES HBS Online's Entrepreneurial Marketing course (https://hbs.me/5bd39zr4) Wallace's latest book, The Portfolio Life (https://hbs.me/msc4a74u) Related HBS Online blog posts: Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset & Deep Marketing Expertise with HBS Online's New Certificate Course & Marketing Learning Track (https://hbs.me/659v25bd) HBS Online Courses Prepared This Young Professional to Jump from Industry to Entrepreneurship (https://hbs.me/4vt7un8w) Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: What's the Difference? (https://hbs.me/48kr9sc9) How One Health Care Leader Advanced Her Career by Becoming Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable (https://hbs.me/k82798by) 3 Entrepreneurs Who Made Their Ideas Winning Realities (https://hbs.me/yckw3fbn) Watch this episode on YouTube: https://hbs.me/yuds3ku4
On a special episode of the Walker Webcast, we showcased highlights from noteworthy episodes featuring remarkable women in leadership. We heard from: Christina Wallace, Senior lecturer at Harvard Business School Frances Frei, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School Ginni Rometty, Former Chairman and President & CEO of IBM, Co-Chair at OneTen Gloria Steinem, Writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer Julia Boorstin, CNBC's Senior Media & Tech Correspondent, author of “When Women Lead” Mary Erdoes, J.P. Morgan's CEO of Asset and Wealth Management Stephanie Linnartz, Former CEO of Under Armour These trailblazing leaders shared their stories and insights, empowering others to chase their dreams, overcome challenges, and achieve success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jessica interviews Christina Wallace, Storyteller & Entrepreneur. A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, an active angel investor, and a Tony-nominated co-producer of Broadway musicals. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card. She co-authored the book New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth. A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in ecommerce, edtech, and media. She was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes. Christina sings with various chamber choirs, loves adventure travel, and identifies as a mediocre endurance athlete. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children. Learn more about Christina at christinawallace.com. ~ Are you a high achiever, a leader, or an Ampersand who's recently taken on more responsibility at work? For high-achieving professionals, Jessica Wan's executive coaching services stand out as a rare gem. She provides strategic guidance and practical solutions, a unique offering that not only propels her clients' careers forward but also builds their capacity for significant leadership roles in their respective sectors. Her innovative coaching techniques and personalized approach set her apart from the rest. BOOK AN INTRO CALL: https://calendly.com/jessicawancoaching/intro-call-coaching Follow Jessica on LinkedIn Credits Produced and Hosted by Jessica Wan Co-produced, edited, and sound design by Carlos Schmitt Theme music by Denys Kyshchuk and Stockaudios from Pixabay
Ever felt like a jack of all trades, master of none? Think again! Welcome to the world of Portfolio Life! Just like a financial portfolio, it's about bringing together all your passions, talents, and needs—balancing them to create a fulfilling life on your own termsIt starts by understanding what truly matters to you: income, flexibility, creativity, intellectual stimulation, family responsibilities, and more. From there, you can design a life that accommodates all these dimensions. And just like rebalancing a portfolio, you can adjust with each new chapter of your life—minimising risks while maximising joy and fulfilment.In the latest episode of the How to Live Podcast, I sit down with Christina Wallace—serial entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and the creator of The Portfolio Life.Christina has done it all: she's worked with BCG, started multiple businesses, and found her sweet spot at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. Today, she teaches at Harvard Business School, produces Broadway shows, writes bestselling books, raises two kids, and even sings in a choir!If you want to learn how to create your own Portfolio Life—blending passions, multiple income streams, and a sense of purpose—this episode is a must-listen! Episode Shownoteshttps://howtolive.life/episode/078-crafting-a-portfolio-life-with-christina-wallace3 Questions to ask yourselfWhen have you seen me happiest?What do you come to me for?Where do I stand our against my peers?Related Episode#064 How to Live with Derek SiversSpotify: https://howtolive.life/ep64spotifyApple Podcasts: https://howtolive.life/ep64appleConnect with Christinahttps://christinawallace.com/Next Wave6 month program for high performers hitting 40s and beyond to design the next phase of life. Register interest below - https://www.sharadlal.net/nextwave Leave us a messagehttps://howtolive.life/contactAbout Sharad Lalhttps://www.sharadlal.net/Follow usLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharadlal24/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodcastHowtolive/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcasthowtolive/
Dive into Generally Curious as we explore the fascinating career journey of Christina Wallace, who has seamlessly navigated from the creative stages of Broadway to the academic halls of Harvard Business School. In this episode, Christina reveals how she blends her passion for the arts with her prowess in business and technology, creating a dynamic portfolio career that defies traditional boundaries. Learn how she leverages her diverse experiences to foster innovation and drive change across industries. Christina will share her insights on building a fulfilling career that combines multiple disciplines, offering practical advice for those looking to weave their varied interests into a cohesive professional narrative. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, an artist, or a professional at a career crossroad, Christina's story will inspire you to craft your own path and succeed in multiple arenas. Join us to discover how you can harness the power of a portfolio life to achieve career satisfaction and impact. Buy your own copy of The Portfolio Life, here.
En début d'année 2023, le site de rencontre Eharmony publie une étude concernant les comportements des célibataires. L'enquête démontre que ces derniers passent en moyenne 55 minutes par jour sur les applis de dating. Et beaucoup d'entre eux sont déçus du résultat. C'est ce que révèle l'institut de sondage YouGov. 8 personnes sur 10 ne sont pas satisfaites des nouveaux modes de rencontres. Mais il existe une nouvelle technique pensée par l'entrepreneuse Christina Wallace. Elle l'appelle le rendez-vous zéro. Elle explique pour le magazine Glamour qu'il s'agit là d'une petite révolution pour le monde du dating. En quoi cela consiste ? Mais quelles sont les différences avec un date classique ? Et cette méthode est-elle vraiment efficace ? Écoutez la suite de cet épisode de "Maintenant vous savez". Un podcast Bababam Originals, écrit et réalisé par Samuel Lumbroso. Date de première diffusion : 07/03/2024 À écouter aussi : Qu'est-ce que l'inflexibilité intentionnelle, qui peut vous sauver au travail ? Les hommes politiques sont-ils vraiment assez protégés ? Quelles sont les 3 idées reçues pour lutter contre la chaleur ? Retrouvez tous les épisodes de "Maintenant vous savez". Suivez Bababam sur Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wondering how to navigate common entrepreneurial pitfalls and ensure the success of your business? Just ask Christina Wallace, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, who's going to tell us the top three mistakes (or lessons learned as Christina calls them) early stage entrepreneurs make and how you can avoid them.In this episode you'll hear:(01:18) Why you shouldn't do everything yourself. Christina recommends ways to overcome the entrepreneurial urge to do it all.(04:32) Why cash flow is important and the consequences of ignoring it.(06:11) How to manage your cash flow by putting liquidity in place before you need it, keeping an eye on any lumpy cash flow throughout the year, and being creative.(07:41) How to avoid scaling prematurely.
For the past two and half seasons, we have been lucky to have some truly amazing guests here on "Your New Life Blend," who have shared so many amazing insights. As we hit that Q2 crunch time, we wanted to share some of it to help you refocus on your own priorities, goals, and boundaries (we love boundaries). Please enjoy this great advice and insight from Dorie Clark, Bridget Todd, Vanessa Bennett, Candice Cook, Lyz Lenz, Hitha Palepu, Christina Wallace, Stacy London, Bea Arthur, Morra Aarons-Mele, Abby Falik and of course, "Your New Life Blend" host, executive and personal coach Shoshanna Hecht. We hope you enjoy it! We'll be back next week with more great Season 3 guests. Featuring:Dorie Clark, Author & SpeakerSeason 1, Episode 13https://dorieclark.comBridget Todd, Founder & Podcaster Season 2, Episode 9https://www.unbossedcreative.comVanessa Bennett, Author & EntrepreneurSeason 2, Episode 16https://lessawkward.comCandice Cook, Entrepreneur & AttorneySeason 1, Episode 16https://www.candicecook.comLyz Lenz, Author & JournalistSeason 2, Episode 8https://lyzlenz.comHitha Palepu, Multi-HyphenateSeason 2, Episode 3https://hitha.beehiiv.comChristina Wallace, Author & HBS ProfessorSeason 1, Episode 7https://christinawallace.comStacy London, Style Icon & Midlife AdvocateSeason 2, Episode 6https://www.instagram.com/stacylondonrealBea Arthur, Entrepreneur & TherapistSeason 2, Episode 1https://www.beaarthurtherapy.comMorra Aarons-Mele, Mental Health Speaker & AuthorSeason 1, Episode 4https://morraam.comAbby Falik, Social EntrepreneurSeason 1, Episode 12https://www.abbyfalik.com
My career has never been this ONE thing, and I sometimes worry that it seems like I'm scattered. My guest today wants us all to feel validated and secure in pursuing multiple pursuits simultaneously. Christina Wallace is the author of The Portfolio Life, in which she shares how we can develop an identity that is so much broader than just how we monetize our time today. Christina is also a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and leads the HBS Startup Bootcamp. She is also the co-founder of Nothing Ventured Productions, where she and her co-founders provide access to micro-investments in Broadway theatre. Christina and I will talk more about investing in theatre, crafting your portfolio life, and the applications of AI in our daily lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How to build a career that is sturdy, meaningful, and doesn't burn you out.Description: Christina Wallace is a senior lecturer of entrepreneurship at Harvard business school, an active angel investor, and even a co-producer of Broadway musicals. Her new book is called The Portfolio Life. Her varied resume should give you an idea of what she means by this. In this episode we talk about:how to design a portfolio life for yourselfher philosophy of ambition how to create the freedom to failhow to engage in sane time management.To order the revised tenth anniversary edition of 10% Happier: click here For tickets to Dan Harris: Celebrating 10 Years of 10% Happier at Symphony Space: click hereSign up for Dan's weekly newsletter hereFollow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTokTen Percent Happier online bookstoreSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelOur favorite playlists on: Anxiety, Sleep, Relationships, Most Popular EpisodesFull Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/tph/podcast-episode/christina-wallaceAdditional Resources:Download the Ten Percent Happier app today: https://10percenthappier.app.link/installSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Christina Wallace is a veteran when it comes to following a diverse career path. Starting in the arts, she learned early on the necessity of juggling multiple roles - musician, theatre artist, and, later, various roles in theatre production. This experience laid the foundation for her career philosophy: versatility as a survival and success strategy. In our conversation, she shared her insights on the emerging trend of leading a portfolio life and career. This interview unearthed valuable insights into how a diversified career path offers resilience in an unpredictable job market and caters to the multifaceted aspirations of today's professionals.Read the full Blog on the Website Join 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening:01:20 The Genesis of a Portfolio Career03:49 Navigating Work and Identity in a Traditional Family Setting06:36 Embracing Flexibility and Novelty in Work11:32 Learning from Failure: The Value of Fast Failures in Business and Life15:44 Balancing Work, Family, and Personal Goals25:30 Addressing Career Paralysis and Identity Crises25:52 Unraveling Identity and Career Choices26:36 A New Approach to Identity28:42 Case Studies: From Physics to Origami and Beyond33:41 Redefining Ambition: Beyond Career Success36:25 The Power of Long-Term Vision in Career Planning47:48 Strategies and InsightsLinks mentioned in this episode:Connect with Christina Wallace on LinkedInGet Christina's Book here: The Portfolio LifeEpisode 126 - I Have Noticed That Professionals Fall into the Sunk Cost Fallacy When They Continue a Career TrackAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX /...
In early 2023, dating site Eharmony released findings from a survey of over 1000 singletons. The research found that on average they spent 55 minutes per day logged in to the dating app, with six conversations on the go at the same time. Despite that, as many as 70% of those surveyed felt heavy dating app usage had a negative impact on their mental health. Spending so much energy on dating can get overwhelming, but fear not. I'm here to tell you about a solution which could help you take back control of your love life: the zero date. The idea was invented back in 2018 by American entrepreneur Christina Wallace. What's it all about then? What's the difference between a zero date and a regular first date then? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: Why do mouth sounds drive some people crazy? Why does Ramadan start on a different date each year? How can I move house stress-free? A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. In partnership with upday UK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
En début d'année 2023, le site de rencontre Eharmony publie une étude concernant les comportements des célibataires. L'enquête démontre que ces derniers passent en moyenne 55 minutes par jour sur les applis de dating. Et beaucoup d'entre eux sont déçus du résultat. C'est ce que révèle l'institut de sondage YouGov. 8 personnes sur 10 ne sont pas satisfaites des nouveaux modes de rencontres. Mais il existe une nouvelle technique pensée par l'entrepreneuse Christina Wallace. Elle l'appelle le rendez-vous zéro. Elle explique pour le magazine Glamour qu'il s'agit là d'une petite révolution pour le monde du dating. En quoi cela consiste ? Mais quelles sont les différences avec un date classique ? Et cette méthode est-elle vraiment efficace ? Écoutez la suite de cet épisode de "Maintenant vous savez". Un podcast Bababam Originals, écrit et réalisé par Samuel Lumbroso. À écouter aussi : Qu'est-ce que la précarité menstruelle ? A quoi servent les drones dans une guerre ? Qu'est-ce que le sexisme bienveillant ? Retrouvez tous les épisodes de "Maintenant vous savez". Suivez Bababam sur Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodes from 2023Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author.In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina makes the case for how employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can re-think and reframe their relationship with their job and career, and to use portfolio and diversification theory to de-risk and explore multiple paths instead. During our conversation, Christina spoke about how living her own version of a Portfolio life gave her the idea to start researching the book, and why we need a more expansive mindset around how employees can navigate their lives and careers in a more expansive and modern way.She shares her perspective on how people who are not interested in a more traditional or tried career path, can use the portfolio model to find meaning and success, and she also makes the case, for how in the future of work, The Portfolio model can be a more expansive way for employees to manage their career in today's modern world of work.LinksThe Portfolio Life: https://www.portfoliolife.com/
Retirement offers a great opportunity to reset. It opens up new possibilities with resources to do what you've always wanted to do. But how do you approach it? Christina Wallace, author of The Portfolio Life, knows how business frameworks can be used to design the life you want. For example, you likely have a diversified financial portfolio. It's time to build a diversified life. Christina Wallace joins us from Cambridge, Massachusetts. _________________________ Bio A self-described “human Venn diagram” Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School where she is co-course head for The Entrepreneurial Manager, teaches Launching Tech Ventures, and leads the MBA Startup Bootcamp immersion program. Her latest book, The Portfolio Life, was published by Hachette in 2023. Previously, Christina was vice president of growth at Bionic, an innovation consulting firm that builds startups inside large enterprises. Prior to joining Bionic, Christina founded BridgeUp: STEM, an edtech startup inside the American Museum of Natural History, was the founding director of Startup Institute New York, and the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed fashion company Quincy Apparel. She was also, very briefly, a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and began her career at the Metropolitan Opera. Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is an active angel investor in early-stage tech startups as well as commercial theater productions on Broadway. She regularly speaks, writes, and consults on a wide range of topics, ranging from failure and resilience to corporate innovation, from K12 computer science education to her viral TED talk detailing her successful approach to hacking online dating. Mashable called her one of “44 Female Founders to Know” and Refinery29 named her one of the "Most Powerful Women in NYC Tech." She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Quartz, Elle, and Marie Claire among others. Christina is the co-author of New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (April 2019, Penguin Random House). She also hosted The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeartRadio podcast about portfolio careers that published 125 episodes over three seasons, garnering over 2 million downloads. ______________________ For More on Christina Wallace The Portfolio Life Website _______________________ Check out our brief summaries of the Best Books on Retirement ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman The Future You – Brian David Johnson A Tapas Life – Andy Robin _____________________ Wise Quotes Christina Wallace on a Portfolio Life in Retirement "I think retirement, certainly as I've seen it with my mother-in-law, my friends' parents, as they're all going through this transition, they're not like leaving the world. They're just leaving that one thing that has been their big focus and has been their identity crucially for a really long time. And so it can be hard in that transition because not only have you lost the routine of what do I do with my day, you've also lost the community of here's who I talk to on a regular basis - and then you've lost this identity. How do I describe myself? Who am I when I get out of bed? And as terrifying as it is to go through that transition and losing all three things at the same time, it's a huge opportunity because for so many people at that cusp of retirement, they're thinking, I'm not dead yet. I've got a whole life ahead of me. I still have something to offer. And very likely,
Pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Your parents' advice to focus on one career path? It doesn't work anymore, for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global pandemic (to name a few).We need a dramatically different relationship with work, one that allows us to define ourselves beyond our paid labor. The answer? A Portfolio Life. An anti-hustle, pro-rest approach to work-life balance, a Portfolio Life is built on three tenets.1. You are more than any one role or opportunity.2. Diversification will help you navigate change and mitigate uncertainty.3. When (not if) your needs change, you can and should rebalance.In The Portfolio Life, Harvard professor, serial entrepreneur, and self-described "human Venn diagram" Christina Wallace adapts tried-and-true practices from entrepreneurs, creatives, and successful freelancers to help you eschew the cult of ambition and experience the freedom of building the flexible, fulfilling, and sustainable life you want.Whether you're sick of being told your worth is inextricably tied to your work, or that setting boundaries and protecting your personal life means you aren't “all in,” this book will walk you step-by-step through the process of designing a strategy for the long haul. Because you deserve rest, relationships, and a rewarding career — not someday, but today. After all, you only live once.***The Burleson Box is brought to you by Socius Marketing:The Socius team is your strategic partner to set both specific KPIs and patient growth objectives as well as identify the most effective mix of digital marketing services for your practice.Our experienced team will work with your internal team to build an effective strategy for reaching those goals, as well as provide ongoing feedback about the success of those strategies over time.And because we believe that trust and transparency are essential for any successful partnership, you'll always have real-time insights into the progress of your campaigns across all digital marketing channels. In fact, you retain ownership of all digital assets so you can access results any time you like.Detailed data and a crystal-clear understanding of which marketing efforts are really driving success in your business not only saves you time and money but also lets us do more of what works and less of what's not paying off.And with services such as optimized website design, SEO content, paid media, digital strategies, social media campaign, and review management, Socius has your digital marketing needs covered.***Resources Mentioned in the Episode with Christina Wallace:Christina WallaceThe Portfolio LifeClayton Christensen on emergent versus deliberate strategyClayton Christensen on disruptive strategyThe Perfect Story by Karen Eber***Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, exclusive study guides, special edition books each quarter, powerpoint and keynote presentations and two tickets to Dustin Burleson's Annual Leadership Retreat.http://www.theburlesonbox.com/sign-up Stay Up to Date: Sign up for The Burleson Report, our weekly newsletter that is delivered each Sunday with timeless insight for life and private practice. Sign up here:http://www.theburlesonreport.com Follow Dustin Burleson, DDS, MBA at:http://www.burlesonseminars.com
Episode 44 - Alc - 2023-09-22 - Craft a life worthy of you with Christina Wallace author of The Portfolio Life and boundaries expert Michelle Elman whose new book ‘How to Say No' is for children. Disclaimer: Please note that all information and content on the UK Health Radio Network, all its radio broadcasts and podcasts are provided by the authors, producers, presenters and companies themselves and is only intended as additional information to your general knowledge. As a service to our listeners/readers our programs/content are for general information and entertainment only. The UK Health Radio Network does not recommend, endorse, or object to the views, products or topics expressed or discussed by show hosts or their guests, authors and interviewees. We suggest you always consult with your own professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advisor. So please do not delay or disregard any professional – personal, medical, financial or legal advice received due to something you have heard or read on the UK Health Radio Network.
Christina Wallace is a Harvard Business School instructor, serial entrepreneur, and author of the book The Portfolio Life. In this episode of WorkLab, Wallace discusses how leaders and individuals need to rethink careers and personal growth in AI-powered work. She is the third guest for season 5 of the WorkLab podcast, in which host Molly Wood has conversations with economists, technologists, and researchers who explore the data and insights about the work trends you need to know today—from how to use AI effectively to what it takes to thrive in a digital age. WorkLab Molly Wood | LinkedIn Christina Wallace
Chad Goodman is, to quote Christina Wallace from Forbes Magazine, "an entrepreneur bringing innovation to classical music." In his young life, Chad has started his own ensemble, the Elevate Ensemble, worked with the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Ballet as a conductor, and is currently a Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony. So how did he do all of this at such a young age? He gives a lot of clues and practical advice in his book: "You Earned a Music Degree. Now What?" It was a pleasure to speak with him about the many aspects of his career and life.We begin by going back to the start of Chad's career, learning music and also learning the business of music. At a very young age, he founded the Elevate Ensemble. He talks about many of the different aspects of planning concerts, paying musicians, arranging concert venues, and the like. We trace his career to working with the San Francisco Symphony, assisting guest conductors, and how Manfred Honeck was such a profound influence on him.
How can we break free from the traditional job-centric identity? And how can we redefine ourselves beyond our professional roles? Christina Wallace is a true trailblazer in the world of career and life design. She's a Harvard senior lecturer and the author of The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card. In this conversation, we got into the nitty-gritty of how diversifying your skills and experiences can give you a unique edge in navigating your career. We talked about the power of saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities, drawing from Christina's own life-changing experience of jetting off to a new country with someone she had just met. The impact of that bold move? It's been nothing short of transformative for her as an entrepreneur, parent, and creative soul. Christina shared practical steps for seeing yourself beyond your job, designing a business model for your life, and crafting a portfolio life that defies the conventional notion of "work-life balance." Let's challenge the status quo and inspire you to create a life that transcends your business card, and turn the "F-word" (Failure) into a powerful tool for success. Here are a few key takeaways: Identity Beyond Career: Learn how defining yourself outside professional roles can unlock your full potential and purpose. Diverse Skills Pay Off: How Christina's experience in diverse fields enriches her unique perspective, enhances career opportunities and adaptability. Embrace the Unexpected: Why welcoming spontaneous choices can lead to profound personal and professional growth, broadened horizons and innovation. Craft a Portfolio Life: Learn how to rethink work-life balance and design a dynamic, meaningful life aligned with passions and interests. Personal "Board of Directors": How to cultivate personal mentors for diverse life aspects to navigate your journey effectively and achieve holistic success. LINKS: Learn more about Christina Wallace Read The Portfolio Life by Christina Wallace Interested in saying "yes" to adventure and leaning in to the unexpected? Check out my conversation with Shelby Stanger Sign up for my weekly newsletter!
Our guest is Christina Wallace, Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, where she leads HBS Startup Bootcamp, Her latest book is "The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card."From Hachette Book GroupChristina's Website @cmwalla on Instagram Here are the topics we discussed:1. As a self-described "human Venn diagram," you've crafted a diverse career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. How has this unique combination influenced your approach to entrepreneurship and teaching?2. Your latest book, "The Portfolio Life," delves into future-proofing careers and avoiding burnout. Could you share some key insights from the book and how individuals can apply them to build a fulfilling life beyond just their professional identity? 3 tenets of a Portfolio Life:You are more than any one role or opportunity.Diversification will help you navigate change and mitigate uncertainty.When (not if) your needs change, you can and should rebalance.3. You explore portfolio careers. How do you believe these non-traditional career paths can foster creativity and lead to a more fulfilling professional life?4. Co-authoring "New To Big" with David Kidder provided insights into creating like entrepreneurs and investing like venture capitalists. How can companies strike a balance between fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and business profitability while maintaining a focus on people -- their growth and their success – building THEIR portfolio life?5. Your background in edtech startups, corporate innovation, and venture-backed fashion companies showcases your versatility. How has your experience in various industries shaped your understanding of creativity and innovation?6. With a rich background in music and arts, how do you see the integration of creativity in the business world, and what role does it play in fostering innovation and problem-solving? How can individuals leverage their artistic interests to enhance their entrepreneurial endeavors?Copyright 2023 Mark Stinson Thanks to the folks at HEADFONE for their support. On HEADFONE, you can listen to Premium Audio dramas - like Romance, Thriller, and Horror. For a 10% discount, use coupon code - MARKCREATIVITY10Go to - https://headfone.page.link/MARKCREATIVITY10
On today's episode, Christina Wallace, Author of the terrific new book The Portfolio Life, sits down with Kara Goldin to discuss her journey as a self-described "human Venn diagram." After a decade as a serial entrepreneur, Christina joined the faculty of Harvard Business School where she is the course head of the first-year entrepreneurship class and runs the HBS Startup Bootcamp. Whether you're looking for a career change, a side hustle or a way to express your creativity, her latest book The Portfolio Life, is packed with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you rethink your career and life choices. This is a not-to-be-missed episode in entrepreneurship and life choices that will have you thinking about the opportunity of a portfolio life too. You don't want to miss this episode. Now on #TheKaraGoldinShow. Enjoying this episode of #TheKaraGoldinShow? Let me know by clicking on the links below and sending me a quick shout-out on social. Or reach out to me at karagoldin@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/karagoldin/ https://www.instagram.com/karagoldin/ https://twitter.com/karagoldin https://www.facebook.com/KaraGoldin/ https://www.tiktok.com/@KaraGoldin https://www.youtube.com/c/KaraGoldin https://www.threads.net/@karagoldin Check out our website to view this episode's show notes: https://karagoldin.com/podcast/429 To learn more about Christina Wallace and The Portfolio Life: https://www.twitter.com/cmwalla https://www.instagram.com/cmwalla https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace https://www.christinawallace.com/
Make sure you buy Christina's book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card. On this Walker Webcast, we are joined by Christina Wallace, serial entrepreneur and top professor at Harvard Business School where she is the co-course head for The Entrepreneurial Manager, teaches Launching Tech Ventures, and leads HBS Startup Bootcamp for student entrepreneurs. A self-described “human Venn diagram,” Christina crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts and believes that when it comes to pursuing your passions, you shouldn't have to choose. Watch the replay If you have any comments or questions, please reach out to your main Walker & Dunlop point of contact. We are all available to answer questions and provide assistance. Additionally, if you have topics you would like covered during one of our future webcasts, we would be happy to take your suggestions.
On today's episode of the Entrepreneur Evolution Podcast, we are joined by Christina Wallace, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Author of “The Portfolio Life.” A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and marketing. A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in ecommerce, edtech, and media. She also co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (Currency, 2019) and was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes. In her free time, she sings with various chamber choirs, embarks on adventure travel, and is a mediocre endurance athlete. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children. To learn more about Christina and her book “The Portfolio Life,” visit http://www.christinawallace.com/ We would love to hear from you, and it would be awesome if you left us a 5-star review. Your feedback means the world to us, and we will be sure to send you a special thank you for your kind words. Don't forget to hit “subscribe” to automatically be notified when guest interviews and Express Tips drop every Tuesday and Friday. Interested in joining our monthly entrepreneur membership? Email Annette directly at yourock@ievolveconsulting.com to learn more. Ready to invest in yourself? Book your free session with Annette HERE. Keep evolving, entrepreneur. We are SO proud of you! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/annette-walter/support
How can you protect yourself from changes in the workplace, a layoff, or even just needing a work change to reflect a new season of life? The answer is a portfolio career. Author and Harvard Business School professor Christina Wallace is here to share why it's important to approach your career as a diversified portfolio, how to translate that to work, and the three questions to ask your network to help you build your personal Venn diagram.Weekly Newsletter Sign-Up: http://bit.ly/37hqtQWFollow Career Contessa: http://bit.ly/2TMH2QP The Successful Networker: https://bit.ly/3OK2d2uChristina Wallace LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallaceChristina Wallace Website: https://christinawallace.comThe Portfolio Life book: https://christinawallace.com/authorThis episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Ritual is offering our listeners 10% off during your first 3 months. Visit ritual.com/CONTESSA to start Ritual or add Essential For Women 18+ or Prenatal to your subscription today.Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/careercontessa to take your business to the next level today.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
How can you make 'work' work for you? Christina Wallace is a millenial, an entrepreneur, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an expert in building a career that is both true to your values and interests and compatible with our age of constant disruption. It's the subject of her new book The Portfolio Life and of a livestreamed conversation we hosted with Christina in the spring, hosted by her friend and fellow entrepreneur DJ diDonna. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Christina Wallace is a Harvard Business School lecturer, serial entrepreneur, and self-described ‘human Venn Diagram.' She joins us to go in depth on her new book “The Portfolio Life,” a thought-provoking takedown of our outdated concept of work-life balance, with deeply practical advice on how to build a life that, in her words, is bigger than a business card. *Why having a ‘solid career path' is no longer the path to a stable future*How to leverage your skills to transition between seemingly unrelated careers*Establishing an identity bigger than your job*Why everyone should create their own personal ‘board of directors'And much, much more.
Join Scott "Shalom" Klein on his weekly radio show, Get Down To Business with guests: Peter Rahbar Christina Wallace Deji Ayoade Kevin Griffin Ash Beckham
The term “work/life balance” can feel simplistic because the relationship between your career and the rest of your life can be complicated and intense. Our guest today, Christina Wallace, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, says we need a broader relationship with work. She describes how diversification can help you navigate change and mitigate uncertainty. She talks about how her own work life encompasses a variety of activities. And she shares tips from her book, “The Portfolio Life,” about how to forge a path that not only brings more joy, but also reduces the risks of career-building in today's frantic world. For more, see: https://www.portfoliolife.com/
Success is a tricky thing. For starters, what does success even mean? Everyone has their own definition of success, yet we are often held to society's standards. In this unique live event, three notable authors, Aliza Licht, Laura Gassner Otting, and Christina Wallace, discussed this topic from their experienced perspectives and respective new books, ON BRAND, Wonderhell, and The Portfolio Life. Each author brings decades of experience and fascinating stories to the table: Aliza Licht is an award-winning marketer, 2x author, host of the Leave Your Mark podcast, and personal branding expert with over twenty-five years of experience in the image-making fashion industry. Her new book, ON BRAND: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception. is part career book, part personal growth guide, and a comprehensive roadmap to building your personal brand so your name is dropped in rooms you're not in and that you're recommended for opportunities other people haven't even heard of yet. In the WSJ bestseller, Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn't Feel Like It Should . . . and What to Do About It, Laura Gassner Otting leverages her 30-year-plus resume, defined by her entrepreneurial edge, to introduce the idea that success is often both a wonder and a hell. She answers the question: Why doesn't success feel like it should? What do we do with this confusing feeling, and how do we learn to live with this newfound potential that's both exciting and exhausting? In The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card, What Color Is Your Parachute? meets Out of Office in this inspiring, practical playbook. Christina Wallace, serial entrepreneur, podcaster, and Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, shares her solution for anti-hustle culture and how having a "portfolio life" (rather than pouring yourself into one single full-time job) will help you future-proof your career and achieve a sustainable work-life balance while optimizing your happiness, personal growth, and bank accounts.
Christina M. Wallace, Harvard Professor, Entrepreneur & Author, shared the story behind her title with us on July 5, 2023.A self-described “human Venn diagram” CHRISTINA WALLACE has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, where she co-leads HBS Startup Bootcamp, and is an active angel investor and startup advisor. Her latest book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card will be published in April 2023 (Hachette). She co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (Penguin Random House, 2019) with David Kidder, co-founder of growth advisory firm Bionic, where she worked as the Vice President for Growth before joining the HBS faculty. Early to the podcast scene, she co-created and co-hosted The Limit Does Not Exist, a podcast about portfolio careers produced by iHeartRadio with 125 episodes over 3 seasons and millions of downloads by passionate listeners.She regularly speaks, writes, and consults on a wide range of topics, ranging from failure and resilience to corporate innovation, from K12 computer science education to her viral TED talk detailing her unique approach to hacking online dating. Mashable called her one of “44 Female Founders to Know” and Refinery29 named her one of the "Most Powerful Women in NYC Tech." She has been profiled in Elle, Marie Claire, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company, among others.Originally from Lansing, Michigan, Christina is pleased to serve as a mentor for several accelerators, including Techstars Anywhere and the NEW INC accelerator for startups at the intersection of art and technology. A lifelong musician, she earned her high school diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy, where she studied piano, cello, and classical voice. In her free time, she sings with various chamber choirs, embarks on adventure travel, including summiting Mt Kilimanjaro and trekking to Everest Base Camp, and is an endurance athlete, with 22 half marathons, 3 triathlons, and 3 marathons under her belt. She lives in Cambridge with her husband Chas Carey and their two children.SUE SAYS"Christina grew up with a love of both music and math. While she thrived academically, she also had a love of the arts. When she combined the two she would learn that the perfect route for her was to become an entrepreneur. Many twists and turns that took place in her life led to her latest book, The Portfolio Life which details the importance of diversification in both finance and life."Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/women-to-watch-r/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Few people want to talk about their failures, but Christina Wallace has built a career talking about hers. The failure of her first company made headlines and became a case study used in business schools around the world. As a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Christina now shares the value of learning from our failures. In this episode of Flip Your Script with Kristi Piehl, Christina talks about how she started telling the truth about her failed business and became an author and educator.
Are you interested in many different things, and if so, have you permitted yourself to be all of who you are? How do you build a (professional) life that allows you to be many things at the same time?In this episode, Julienne and Jerome talk to Christina Wallace, a self-described human Venn diagram who has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts, teaches at Harvard Business School, and has recently published her book “The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card”. Christina talks about her career path, which has been multidisciplinary and full of zigzags, and the models she has created to make that life work for her. She talks about the importance of allowing yourself to be different things, changing your path forward if something doesn't work, and the two reasons why failure is so important. Christina also explains how applying business models to life can be tremendously helpful and can help you prevent burnout. Listen to this inspiring episode to learn more about how Christina, a serial entrepreneur, has shaped her own life and what you can do to change yours and embrace your full potential.NotesBuy Christina Wallace's “The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card” here.Find “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen here Find “The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower” by Morra Aarons-Mele hereLearn more about the Narativ online workshop series hereFind out more about The Narativ Storytelling Method atnarativ.comEMAIL Jerome@narativ.comLINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/company/narativ-incTWITTER @narativ
Kayla is joined by serial entrepreneur and senior lecturer at Harvard University, Christina Wallace, to discuss the real life practices that successful entrepreneurs and creatives use in order to live the free and fulfilling life they truly want. Follow ChristinaChristina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmwallaCheck out THE PORTFOLIO LIFE: https://www.portfoliolife.com/Follow Us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directionallychallenged__/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cicely wraps up her discussion with Christina Wallace, the author of The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card. Christina is a writer, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, who has created a successful and fulfilling career by combining her multiple passions and interests. In the first part of our conversation, we talked about Christina's journey and how she discovered the concept of a portfolio life. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend you go back and check it out. In this episode, we dive deeper into the practical aspects of creating a portfolio life. Christina shares with us the four essential pillars of a portfolio life: vision, strategy, execution, and evaluation. She explains what each pillar means and how to apply it to your own situation. She also gives us some examples of how she and other portfolio lifers have used these pillars to design their own unique careers and lives. This episode is full of valuable insights and advice that will help you take action and start creating your own portfolio life today. Whether you're looking for more freedom, creativity, or impact in your work and life, this episode will inspire you to think differently about your career and life choices. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the most inspiring and successful portfolio lifers out there. Pull up your chair and listen now!
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Do you feel like you have to choose one thing to be good at? Do you struggle with balancing your work and your life? Do you want to design a career that fits your unique talents and passions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this episode is for you. Join Cicely as she chats with Christina Wallace, a self-described “human Venn diagram” who has mastered the art of creating a portfolio life. Christina is a writer, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, with a wealth of experience and knowledge to share. In her latest book, “The Portfolio Life,” Christina adapts proven practices from the business sector to help you break free from the cult of ambition and design a flexible, fulfilling, and sustainable life on your own terms. This episode is packed with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you rethink your career and life choices. Whether you're looking for a career change, a side hustle, or a way to express your creativity, this episode will help you discover the possibilities of a portfolio life. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the most innovative and successful human Venn diagrams out there. Pull up your chair and listen now!
Felix and Mihir are joined by Christina Wallace to discuss the meaning of a portfolio life and why U.S. workers are happier than ever but less productive.
In this interview, you'll learn about building your resilience so you can do things that help you break through your fear. Jeanette Cajide is Technology Executive and author. One of my favorite parts is how she learned to ask for help. Highlights from the interview: Learn about Jeanette's big ambitions.What her biggest regret is in life.Building resilience in life so you can handle difficult situations.Understanding what you can control and what you can't control.Why a cold plunge pool can help you be comfortable with the uncomfortable.The importance of controlling your breathing when you are stressed.How to have difficult conversations so they improve your relationships.Why timing is so important when having a difficult conversation.Self-awareness is key to having better conversations.Using Brené Brown's method to have more fruitful discussions.Understanding the stories that we are telling ourselves.Finding the patterns in our emotions so we can understand why we make the decisions that we do.Knowing that our memories aren't perfect.How to process our feelings so we can move forward with more confidence.Understanding when something feels off and knowing that when this happens she needs to ask for help.Returning to the company that she left.Growing horizontally in your career.Why she feels so grateful.What is a joy spotting practice and how to use it in your life.Christina Wallace (link to our interview) wrote the Portfolio Life (Amazon Link).What books she shares most with other people. You can learn more about Jeanette over at her blog on Medium. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn. And as always, if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing, just reach out to me on the Dig to Fly website, and I'll do my best to get them on. If you enjoy the interview, please take 30 seconds to rate the Dig to Fly podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks!
BONUS EP! We're talking 2nd-half career pivots, how to redefine yourself (it is NEVER too late!), and how to build a high quality network at any point in your career. Harvard Business School educator Christina Wallace is sharing a new framework for building the life you want NOW, no matter what your starting point. This episode is CHOCK FULL of practical tips and actions you can take NOW. In this episode: Navigating second-half career transitions + networking like a boss! Work/life balance is a misnomer, let's look at our entire 'portfolio' What is a human Venn diagram? What is a Life Audit and how does it work? How to network like a boss What is the "orthogonal network"? The Coffee Chat strategy Christine's 3 questions to garner feedback Forget mentors, seek directors Redefining failure AND success GET THE SHOW NOTES: https://www.onairella.com/post/300-network-like-a-boss Follow Ella on Instagram @onairwithella Leave a message for Ella at +1 (202) 681-0388 You can get FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS here.
In this thought-provoking episode of The Heart Speaks, the conversation delves into the shifting value system influenced by the advent of AI technology. Joining the conversation this week, Christina Wallace highlights the positive changes observed in areas such as mental health awareness, sustainability, and work-life balance and also discusses the impending disruptions caused by AI and automation across various industries, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a focus on sustainability and well-being amidst rapid change. Don't miss out on this enchanting conversation! Keep listening for more content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Description: In this episode I am speaking with Christina Wallace who is the author of The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card. This book was written targeting millennials however, I think it is a worthwhile read for anyone at a crossroads in their career or life. Here is a bit from her website about page: A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and marketing. A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in e-commerce, ed-tech, and media. She also co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth and was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes. I found the process that Christina writes about is excellent for anyone who is at a crossroads on what to do next. In some ways, it is more applicable to people in their 2nd half of life because they have more life experience to reflect back on. If you are at a crossroads, then please give this episode your full attention. This episode is sponsored by Career Pivot. Check out the Career Pivot Community, and pick up my latest book, Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life Third Edition. For the full show notes and resources mentioned in the episode click here.
Are you looking to have your work fit into your life? Christina Wallace is the author of a brand new book called The Portfolio Life. In 2017, she wrote a key article about Portfolio Careers. Then, as her life evolved, she realized that she wanted to design her life, not just her Portfolio Career. In this episode, you will learn core ideas in her new book and so much more. Excited for you to build and grow your Portfolio Career!This episode with notes is available on my website.Connect with Christina on LinkedInConnect with David on LinkedIn
Christina Wallace, a professor at Harvard Business School, teaches you how to avoid burnout, how to create your own personal board of directors (or advisors), and how to create a career and life that makes you happy. Plus did you know your ceramics hobby can get you that higher paying job? Seriously. After a decade as a serial entrepreneur, Christina Wallace joined the faculty of Harvard Business School, where she is the course head of the first-year entrepreneurship class and runs the HBS startup bootcamp. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life, How to Future Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card. LINKS: -Connect with Christina on LinkedIn -The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card: Click Here! -FREE DOWNLOAD: Improve Your Video Quality to Increase Your Revenue - 10 Tips to Take Your Videos from Mediocre to Magnetic click here -Follow host Kim Rittberg on Instagram! -How To Be A Happier, Less Stressed & More Successful Parent: Click here!
Christina Wallace discusses the benefits of having a diverse work portfolio that will help you weather any storm. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) How to diversify your work 2) How to lessen friction and hit your flow 3) The three questions that surface your hidden needs Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep864 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT CHRISTINA — Christina Wallace is a human Venn diagram with a career at the intersection of business, technology and the arts. A writer, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, and erstwhile theater producer, Christina spent a decade building businesses in New York City. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an active startup mentor, and angel investor. Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard. In her free time she likes to sing in choirs, climb mountains, and run marathons (slowly). She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two energetic children. • Book: The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card • Instagram: Christina Wallace • LinkedIn: Christina Wallace • Website: PortfolioLife.com — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower by Morra Aarons-Mele• Book: The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton ChristensenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
LifeBlood: We talked about how to get what you want, how to not be defined by the work we do, the importance and value of striving towards more balance in life, the right questions to ask yourself to get closer to the life you want, and how to make it all work, with Christina Wallace, entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and Harvard Senior Lectureer. Listen to learn why it's never too late to start doing what you truly want to be doing! You can learn more about Christina at PortfolioLife.com, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Get your copy of How to Future-Proof Your Life HERE Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here: https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcast You can learn more about us at LifeBlood.Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook or you'd like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood.Live. Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeblood
In this episode I chat with Christina Wallace. Christina is a self-described “human Venn diagram” who has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and marketing. In that diagram lies “author” and we are going tot talk a bit today about her book, The Portfolio Life – How to Future Proof Your Career, avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card. Find out more about her and The Portfolio Life at portfoliolife.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
According to serial entrepreneur, author, and Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer, Christina Wallace, pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Focusing on one career path doesn't work anymore for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global pandemic (to name a few). We need a dramatically different relationship with work that allows us to define ourselves beyond our paid labor. In her new book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card, self-described "human Venn diagram," Christina Wallace adapts tried-and-true practices from the business sector to help you eschew the cult of ambition and experience the freedom of building the flexible, fulfilling, and sustainable life you want. Drawing on research, case studies, and her own experience, she walks you step-by-step through designing a strategy for the long haul. Because you deserve rest, relationships, and a rewarding career—not someday, but today. After all, you only live once. Wallace talks about building a life like a portfolio rather than a linear career as disruptions become more frequent and diversification and flexibility become more valuable. The Portfolio Life is an anti-hustle, pro-rest approach to work-life balance, built on three tenets: You are more than any one role or opportunity. Diversification will help you navigate change and mitigate uncertainty. When (not if) your needs change, you can and should rebalance. In this episode, we discuss the idea of a portfolio career and how having multiple areas of expertise can be beneficial. Christina emphasizes the importance of recognizing the value of diverse experiences and networks and how a Venn diagram can identify areas of opportunity and help you connect the dots between many areas of expertise. Christina shares her startup failure story and how it's now a case study at Harvard. Though crushed and paralyzed, she got back on her feet by committing to 70 coffees in 30 days. You'll learn the three crucial questions she asked her network that brought her back in touch with her self-worth and clarified her next steps.
What does it take to write a book? Or host a podcast? Or start getting speaking engagements based on the content you've put out? To find the answers we've invited the Human Venn diagram, Christina Wallace. Christina has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, an angel investor, speaker, and Author of "The Portfolio Life: How to Future Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card" We start our conversation by learning how Christina got started by writing bits and pieces about the ideas she had that she wanted to share. These small bits led to getting a column at Forbes.com and eventually becoming the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist podcast. Christina shares how all of these mediums gave her real-time feedback from her audience and made writing her book so much easier. Christina explains how each chapter in her book had roots in a podcast episode of the written article that acted as the first draft and then came to full maturity in the book. Not only did all of the previous content give birth to the book but it gave proof to literary agents and publishers that she not only had an established audience but they were actively seeking to know more. Three Key Takeaways: · You can get lucky by being in the right place at the right time. It takes courage to say yes to the opportunity presented. · Having a library of online content is like leaving an everlasting trail of breadcrumbs that lead back to your services. · Thought Leaders need to proactively tell the story of why they are the expert on the topics they discuss.
Today I'm in conversation with Christina Wallace, author of the new book, The Portfolio Life: How to Futureproof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card.Charles Handy coined the term Portfolio Life in 1989 to argue that your life's work shouldn't be defined by one job, but that it could be a collection of passions, interests, and hobbies. Christina expands that definition to include relationships, community, personal growth and impact, creating a full portfolio across work and life. In the episode, you'll hear how the portfolio life invites you to own your agency in crafting the life you deserve.Thanks for Listening!If you liked this episode, please rate, review, and share the episode. Thank you so much!Get show notes for this episode at https://sustainableambition.com/podcast Send me a voice note, ideas for what you'd like to hear on the podcast, or a question that might be read and answered here on the show! Go to: https://bit.ly/sapodcast-ask Or simply send an email here: podcast@SustainableAmbition.com Sign up for my curated bi-weekly Sustainable Ambition Forum newsletter at: https://sustainableambition.com/subscribe
EPISODE 88: MEET CHRISTINA WALLACE, author, Harvard Business School lecturer, human Venn diagram. Christina Wallace and The Portfolio Life Christina's website: https://www.portfoliolife.com The Portfolio Life book on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-portfolio-life-future-proof-your-career-and-craft-a-life-worthy-of-you/18849007?ean=9781538710470 Quick takes: My Substack newsletter on Substack Notes (and community moderation in general): https://elisacp.substack.com/p/community-is-not-easy-and-this-shouldnt Substack CEO's interview on The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/23681875/substack-notes-twitter-elon-musk-content-moderation-free-speech TV mentioned: Star Trek: Picard S3 (and Series) finale on Paramount+ The Mandalorian finale on Disney+ Sort of S2 on Netflix Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ Somebody Somewhere S2 on HBO Max The Best Man The Final Chapters on Peacock Books mentioned: We Were Dreamers by Sims Liu Still Just a Geek by Will Wheaton (My #3MinuteBookReview: https://www.tiktok.com/@elisacp/video/7221308385214467371?lang=en) A Knock at Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett Music mentioned: Hikaru Utada, first album I listened to: Deep River https://music.apple.com/us/album/deep-river-remastered-2018/1444573229 Dawn Richard, first album I listened to: Goldenheart: https://music.apple.com/us/album/goldenheart/587073808 Where to find me: My website: https://elisacp.com Sign up for my newsletter, This Week-ish with Elisa Camahort Page: https://elisacp.substack.com Calendly: Schedule a session with me!: https://calendly.com/elisacp Thanks to Ryan Cristopher for my podcast music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ryan-cristopher/1479898729 Road Map for Revolutionaries by me, Carolyn Gerin and Jamia Wilson: https://elisacp.com/books Social media handles: TikTok: @ElisaCP Mastodon: elisa@sfba.social Spoutible: @ElisaCP Twitter: @ElisaC Insta: @ElisaCP Please share, subscribe, rate and review!
A core step to building wealth is creating a diversified investment portfolio. But when it comes to our jobs, we often do the exact opposite — we‘re told to specialize and stick to a single career or industry until we make it to the top. But what if that's not possible anymore? Entrepreneur and Harvard Business School lecturer Christina Wallace joins us to talk about how the job market has changed, and why it's so important to diversify our skill sets beyond our 9-to-5. In Mailbag, we answer questions about buying a house in a HCOL area and saving for multiple goals at once. In Thrive, how pets can improve your mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Christina Wallace wrote The Portfolio Life: How To Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, in part, to explain the zig zagging path of her own life, a trajectory that has been markedly different than the more linear and predefined paths often followed by those in earlier generations. The accelerating pace of change, along with one societal disruption after the next, has resulted in ever more uncertainty about what the future holds and translates into the need for an emergent rather than a deliberate strategy for one's life. The beauty of the model presented in The Portfolio Life is that it provides readers with a practical guide on how to be more intentional and strategic about the actions we take, particularly during times of transition, and it allows us to rebalance allocations when our needs inevitably change. In this conversation, hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Christina reflects on parallels between The Portfolio Life and How Will You Measure Your Life; the importance of having an identity separate from your job title; our oftentimes flawed metrics of success; why she thinks of herself as a human Venn diagram, and the value that can be found at the intersection of those overlapping circles; the promise of diagonal thinking; and more. Listen to learn about how practitioners of The Portfolio Life model gain optionality, flexibility, and diversification in their lives, resulting in greater stability in the face of the many unknowns and changing circumstances that we all will face in navigating the waters – both personal and professional – of our lives.
This week we chat with the successful serial entrepreneur, Christina Wallace!A self-described "human Venn diagram," Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. After a decade as a serial entrepreneur, she joined the faculty of Harvard Business School where she is the course head of the first-year entrepreneurship class and runs the HBS Startup Bootcamp. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card (Hachette, April 2023).On this episode the pair go back to the start of Christina's journey and breakdown motivation and challenges along her way to success. A frequent public speaker on topics including entrepreneurship, failure, and women in tech, Christina is also known for her viral TED talk on using a sales funnel for online dating and her TEDx talk about portfolio careers and the future of work. Conversations on failure, startup businesses, and the spirit of entrepreneurship at its core is just a glimpse into this week's episode. Twentysomethings, get ready for an hour with the inspiring and creative, Christina Wallace!Follow Us!Christina Wallace: Instagram @cmwalla // Twitter @cmwallaThe Portfolio Life: (website here)Erica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS MBA Graduate, entrepreneur and author.In her most recent book, The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, Christina reminds us that employees are multi-dimensional individuals, and can reframe their relationship with their job and career, and to use portfolio and diversification theory to de-risk and explore multiple paths and opportunities. During our conversation, Christina spoke about how living her own version of a Portfolio life gave her the idea to start researching the book, and why we need a more expansive mindset around how employees can navigate their lives and careers in a more expansive and modern way that accounts for the complexity, opportunity, and pace of change in today's world of work.She also makes the case, for how in the future of work, The Portfolio Life can can be a more expansive way for employees to manage their career in today's modern world of work, and how employers can benefit and bring out the best talents and skills in their employees, while improving their ability to attract talent and drive business results.
EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode of Chan with a Plan, Max Speaks with Christina Wallace, an author, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. During this conversation Christina discusses her journey of living the portfolio life, using four pillars to build your portfolio, and how to practice failure. QUOTES FROM CHRISTINA “The idea of the portfolio life is simply that you can and should build a portfolio for your career, your hobbies, your community, your commitments that is diversified.” “The challenge there is if you identify as your job. Your identity can be taken away from you, whether you're fired or you're laid off, or your entire industry disappears. If who you are is what you do, who you are is at risk.” “Part of my identity was I am someone who succeeds. And the problem with that mentality, that narrative, is that if I am someone who succeeds and there's a chance that I might fail at something, I'm probably not going to try.” TIMESTAMPS [02:08] The Portfolio Life [03:28] Christina's journey [08:31] Four pillars to create the portfolio life [12:47] Failure can be good [17:50] Building your narrative [20:40] Business model for your life [25:02] Having a well balanced portfolio [32:03] Seeking your board of directors [34:40] Director vs Partner [36:23] Crafting your story [39:19] Preparing for the future [41:17] Adapting to AI [43:55] Key takeaway RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS Christina Wallace on Social Media:The Portfolio Life LinkedIn Chan With A Plan Max Chan on Social Media
#464: For those of us who have zig-zagged our careers, we often feel misplaced, misunderstood, and feel like we come across as scattered. But the truth is there's magic in our intersections, and the key is excavating the unique value that comes from your intersection. This has worked wonders for me as I now describe my own intersection as a coach who uses principles from human-centered design, investing, and entrepreneurship to help people unlock creative career paths that make them come alive. My next guest says instead of shunning your disparate interests, embrace them and learn to live a Portfolio Life. HMMM, that portfolio phrase is something I very much ascribe to! A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches entrepreneurship and marketing. Her most recent book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card (Hachette, 2023). A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in ecommerce, edtech, and media. She also co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (Penguin Random House, 2019) and was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes. In her free time, she sings with various chamber choirs, embarks on adventure travel, and is a mediocre endurance athlete. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children.
"In The Portfolio Life, Harvard professor, serial entrepreneur, and self-described "human Venn diagram" Christina Wallace adapts tried-and-true practices from the business sector to help you eschew the cult of ambition and experience the freedom of building the flexible, fulfilling, and sustainable life you want. Drawing on research, case studies, and her own experience, she walks you step-by-step through the process of designing a strategy for the long haul. Because you deserve rest, relationships, and a rewarding career—not someday, but today. After all, you only live once."Adam Grant even named THE PORTFOLIO LIFE as one of the 13 New Books to Expand Your Mind this year. Christina Wallace is a human Venn diagram with a career at the intersection of business, technology and the arts. A writer, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, and erstwhile theater producer, Christina spent a decade building businesses in New York City. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an active startup mentor, and angel investor. Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard. In her free time she likes to sing in choirs, climb mountains, and run marathons (slowly). She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two energetic children.Episode Highlights:The four pillars of a Portfolio LifePouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make - We can be more than one thing!How diversification will help navigate change and mitigate uncertainty Why we should embrace failure and taking risksIntentionally designing our career choicesPutting the power back in your hands Get your copy!Balance Publishing Hardcover: ISBN: 9781538710470 ▪ $29 ▪ April 18, 2023Electronic Book: ISBN: 9781538710494Simultaneous audio publication coming from Hachette Audio ▪ Downloadable Audiobook ▪ ISBN: 9781668626603 ▪ $24.99Connect with me!LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizherrera1/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizcareercoaching/Website: https://www.lizcareercoaching.net/Twitter: https://twitter.com/HerreraLiz27Email: lizcareercoaching@gmail.comMusic: https://www.purple-planet.comArtwork: Joseph Valenzuela DesignSupport the show
Today we have a return guest: Christina Wallace who had joined me on EP55 of the podcast. Christina is an entrepreneur, musician, podcast host and professor at Harvard Business School. With all these interests she describes herself as a "human Venn diagram."Christina is here to discuss her book The Portfolio Life”, in which she talks about how cultivating a number of different interests and skills is key to living a more fulfilled life and build a successful career in a rapidly changing world. In our conversation, Christina explains how she came up with the “portfolio life” concept, and then shares practical examples and steps that we can take to design our optimal portfolio life.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:57] – Dino introduces today's guest, Christina Wallace, who is returning to discuss her new book, "The Portfolio Life," to be released on April 18.[04:06] – Christina shares the evolution of The Portfolio Life.[05:13] – How Christina's double major and learning about portfolio theory during her finance classes in business school inspired The Portfolio Life. Plus, a long ago and forgotten conversation foretells the future years later.[09:21] – Christina describes the three tenets of a portfolio life and why life changes require a rebalancing of your portfolio.[11:29] – Christina emphasizes that a portfolio life isn't just about work and shares the other things it includes, plus how to think about life in chapters or seasons for a happy life.[12:26] – You only have a certain amount of time you can balance—work is just a piece of it—why The Portfolio Life is about more than having a work–life balance.[12:26] – How the portfolio life concept challenges traditional career paths and allows for a diversified approach to work, skill development, and life in general.[14:11] – How Christina's grandmother's wisdom helped her create a mindset and a unique approach to her career that has fueled her success and has helped her counsel people as they're thinking about the career piece of their portfolio.[15:35] – Tell them a great story about the experience you bring: Christina talks about the power of associating and the ability to connect seemingly unconnected ideas or industries or networks in a world where so much of what we think of as specialization can and will be outsourced to computers very soon.[18:34] – Christina talks about the concept of a human Venn diagram and shares how she's built her own human Venn diagram at the intersection of multiple identities, multiple experiences, skill sets, and identities to help others understand what she brings to the room in terms of unique perspectives and experiences.[21:12] – Embrace your uniqueness and look for opportunities where you are the perfect fit, rather than carving off parts of yourself to fit in with a puzzle that doesn't quite fit so you can focus your energy on doing amazing work and contributing to the team.[22:25] – Whether it's in your relationships or your career, why it's essential to find the rooms that want what you have to offer.[23:10] – Christina shares the recipe for happiness in your current stage of life.[26:25] – Art/Life Balance, Christina emphasizes the importance of building a business model that can provide the stability, income, and health insurance to support a sustainable art career.[27:34] – Stop measuring the quality of your art
1. Why VC, why now? Kimberly Bryant twitter thread: https://twitter.com/6Gems/status/1640835647173951488 Kimberly Bryant's Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/ascendventures 2. Quick Takes: This Week-ish Newsletter re: SVB Collapse: https://elisacp.substack.com/p/financial-crisis-hits-close-to-home TikTok: My Top Book Launch Advice: https://www.tiktok.com/@elisacp/video/7215737194466643243 Funding campaigns: GOLD Comedy on IFundWomen: https://ifundwomen.com/projects/help-more-funny-women-make-more-funny-stuff The Cru on Republic: https://republic.com/the-cru Books: Tales of Potential by Joanna Bloor: https://www.talesofpotential.com/ The Anxious Achiever by Morra Aarons-Mele: https://morraam.com/books The Portfolio Life by Christina Wallace: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455973/the-portfolio-life-by-wallace-christina/9781529146349 Minimalista and Organized Living by Shira Gill: https://shiragill.com/books/ The Lit Lovers by Ciara Blume: https://ciarablume.com/ Where to find me: My website: https://elisacp.com Sign up for my new newsletter, This Week-ish with Elisa Camahort Page: https://elisacp.substack.com Calendly: Schedule a session with me!: https://calendly.com/elisacp Thanks to Ryan Cristopher for my podcast music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ryan-cristopher/1479898729 Road Map for Revolutionaries by me, Carolyn Gerin and Jamia Wilson: https://elisacp.com/books Social media handles: TikTok: @ElisaCP Mastodon: elisa@sfba.social Spoutible: @ElisaCP Twitter: @ElisaC Insta: @ElisaCP Please share, subscribe, rate and review!
Felix, Mihir and Christina Wallace consider the SVB business model, what its loss means for entrepreneurial finance and what they make of new models of philanthropy.
Drawing on research, case studies, and personal experience, Christina Wallace's new book, The Portfolio Life walks you step-by-step through the process of designing a strategy for a healthy work-life balance. Join Robert as he sits down with Christina to discuss how her experiences culminated in her new and illuminating book on how to manage diversification, risk, and failure in the context of your daily life. Check out Christina's website at http://www.christinawallace.com/ to learn more about her work.
On Episode 17 of This is Small Business, Andrea talks about setting goals and mechanisms for your business in a way that lead to success with Renee Manzari, founder and CEO of Livity Yoga. With big goals like diverting a million yoga mats from landfills by 2026, Renee breaks down all the planning and mechanisms that go on behind-the-scenes in order to make big goals like that less daunting and achievable. Next, serial entrepreneur and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, Christina Wallace joins Andrea once again to talk in depth about how to set goals in the first place, different types of mechanisms you could set, and steps that are often overlooked but can make a big impact. Join Andrea as she points out all the important takeaways that are going into her small business playbook.Did you know that we have a voicemail line? If you have questions – or maybe a small business story you'd like to share – all you have to do is click HERE and leave us a message!By submitting your voicemail, you're granting us permission to use the recording in episodes of This is Small Business. Please note, voicemails will not receive direct responses. For help with other questions to Amazon unrelated to this show, you can reach out to Amazon's customer service team at amazon.com/contact-us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On Episode 14 of This is Small Business and the first of our This is Small Business: Minisodes series, Andrea talks to Christina Wallace, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, about the top three mistakes Christina sees early-stage entrepreneurs make. Join Andrea for this Harvard-level crash course filled with helpful takeaways that are going into her small business playbook.Did you know that we have a voicemail line? If you have questions – or maybe a small business story you'd like to share – all you have to do is click HERE and leave us a message!By submitting your voicemail, you're granting us permission to use the recording in episodes of This is Small Business. Please note, voicemails will not receive direct responses. For help with other questions to Amazon unrelated to this show, you can reach out to Amazon's customer service team at amazon.com/contact-us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Christina Wallace led a hard-charging life before the pandemic. She was a multi-hyphenate's multi-hyphenate, a musician-entrepreneur-marathon-runner-speaker-author-road-warrior who was flying a hundred thousand miles a year for work. Then she quit her job, because she had a new baby and it was time for a change. She was mapping out her book proposal and multiple income streams when the pandemic closed everything down - including her almost-income streams - and her world shrank into her Brooklyn apartment with just her, her baby, her husband, and her husband's phone voice - "a separate being in our relationship" - all day, every day. She realized change was going to have to come from her, so she reached out about a long-shot dream job - and became the newest faculty member of Harvard Business School. After a stint of zoom teaching, Christina and her family decamped for Boston and a life that, while still full and busy - had been designed on her terms, with a flourishing professional life at, she freely admits, "the first job that I have yet to cry at.” Now the mother of two, a three year old and a nine-month-old, Christina is the author of a new book, "The Portfolio Life," and a passionate advocate for designing a life that makes you happy. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Christina about finding her way to her own Portfolio Life, and how we should all aspire to be happy in our own unique and personal version of success.
Christina Wallace is a human Venn diagram with a career at the intersection of business, technology and the arts. An author, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, and erstwhile theater producer, Christina spent a decade building businesses in New York City. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an active startup mentor, angel investor, and author of the upcoming book "The Portfolio Life." Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard. In her free time she likes to sing in choirs, climb mountains, and run marathons (slowly). She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two energetic children.http://www.christinawallace.comNext Steps Share your thoughts with a review - https://www.thedealscout.com/reviews/ Let's connect on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ Subscribe and Watch on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQN_Y3nhDGClfMxCSBDjOg
Bio Chris Boeckerman is currently Vice President of Research & Development for Fabric & Home Care. Prior to this she was R&D Vice President for P&G Ventures, the company's internal startup studio that partners with entrepreneurs and startups to create new brands and businesses in spaces where the company doesn't play today. Known as a “change agent” during her 30-year career with Procter & Gamble, Chris co-founded P&G's Lean Innovation movement, known as GrowthWorks, and has specialised in developing dynamic teams worldwide to strengthen the company's innovation capabilities. Her impressive P&G career also includes more than 20 years in the company's Global Fabric Care business, working to create breakthrough innovations with iconic brands such as Tide, Ariel, Downy, Gain and Bounce. Chris holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. She has been honoured as a YWCA Rising Star, is an active leader in the Girls in STEM program for P&G and across Cincinnati and serves on the Advisory Board for the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative. Chris resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with her family. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-boeckerman-06577110/ Interview Highlights Timestamp 02:12 - Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio 07:07 - Studying engineering in a cooperative education setting 12:25 - R&D Vice President at P&G Ventures 19:38 - Productive failure 37:00 - Co-founding GrowthWorks 44:30 - No one size fits all 53:22 - Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful , committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has Books/ Resources Mentioned The Lean Startup by Eric Ries https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successful-Businesses/dp/0670921602/ The Startup Way by Eric Ries https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06Y1G9RVC The Leader's Guide by Eric Ries https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Leaders-Guide-Audiobook/B07K8WQHYW New to Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth by David Kidder and Christina Wallace https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Big-Companies-Entrepreneurs-Permanent-ebook/dp/B07FC3C51Z Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/1847941109 Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Embrace-limits/dp/1784704008 Episode Transcript Ula Ojiaku (Intro): Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener. Ula Ojiaku (Guest Intro): My guest today is Chris Boeckerman. She is the Vice-President of Research and Development with the startup studio for Procter & Gamble that partners with entrepreneurs and startups to create new brands and businesses in spaces where the company doesn't play today. Known as a change agent during her 29 year career with Procter & Gamble, Chris co-founded P & G's lean innovation movement known as GrowthWorks and has specialised in developing dynamic teams worldwide to strengthen the company's innovation capabilities. In this episode, Chris talks about herself and gives us a glimpse into the influences that shaped her into who she is today and how she got into Procter & Gamble and developed her career, as well as her experience setting up GrowthWorks within Procter & Gamble. It was a very insightful conversation. I definitely will be listening to this episode again, because there were lots of gems and I know you will find it useful as well. So thank you again for tuning in and for watching. Without further ado, my conversation with Chris. Enjoy. Ula Ojiaku So Chris, thank you so much for making the time to join us on the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. It is a great honour to have you here. Chris Boeckerman Oh, thank you. Thank you for asking me. It's a wonderful honour to be here. Ula Ojiaku Awesome. Now let's get to know you, Chris. Can you tell us about yourself, your background? Chris Boeckerman Sure. My name is Chris Boeckerman. I work at Procter & Gamble. I've been here almost 30 years, which is exciting, but going back to the beginning, so I'm actually born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I've never left. And it's kind of funny, when you're born in Cincinnati, many times you don't leave. I've been prepping my parents from the day I got my job at P & G that I would leave and I just, I never. I never left. So it's very fun, but yeah, so I'm born and raised. My family is still here, and yeah, I love it. Ula Ojiaku Wow. So you, based on what you said, it seemed like you had expectations growing up that you would leave. So what was it about, you know, the whole set up that made you end up not leaving Cincinnati? Chris Boeckerman I don't know that I ever thought I would leave because, like Cincinnati is a great place and a lot of people I know don't leave, but when I got my job at Proctor & Gamble, which is a multinational company, I expected that I might have to, but really no, I, went to grade school in Cincinnati and then high school. And then I ended up going into chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. And I co-oped and ended up, you know, getting this great job at P & G. So that's just kind of how it all happened, which is why I ended up staying in Cincinnati. It's a great place. It's a wonderful place to raise a family. I'm married. My husband works full time, at a company called Turner Construction. And, I have two children, my oldest child is 21 and he's at the University of Dayton doing mechanical engineering. And then my daughter is 17 and she's at a local high school here in Cincinnati. So, and my family and my husband's family, we met at the University of Cincinnati. So I think a lot of those things kind of keep you in a place. Ula Ojiaku I can imagine. Well, whilst I didn't grow up in the town I studied, I also graduated with an engineering degree, but it's an electronic engineering degree and I met my husband in the university as well. But that's about, you know, the parallel, I've moved a lot, I've kind of lived everywhere else in the world. Chris Boeckerman Well, what I'm happy about is, I'm so happy that I work at P & G, because P & G has introduced the world to me. And so I've been able to travel all over the place and then it sparked that interest in my husband and my family being able to travel. So we definitely, because of P & G we now know it, but I've just never lived anywhere else, that's all. Ula Ojiaku And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, you travelled when you wanted to. And I can only imagine, because that's not been my experience having family and friends, you know, it makes things easier as a full time working mother, a family person. Chris Boeckerman Yes, yes. I don't know how you do it otherwise. So I bow to you, to all my friends. It's difficult, but we all figure it out. Ula Ojiaku Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's great. So, what do you do, Chris? When you're not working, what would you say you do to recharge yourself? Chris Boeckerman Well, I am, as you've already found out, I'm very family oriented. And so, we are a family of SciFi lovers. And so we like movies and shows and things like that. We just celebrated my husband's 50th birthday at Disney at Galaxy's Edge. Ula Ojiaku Wow. Happy birthday to him. Chris Boeckerman I know, it was great. We both turned 50 this year, so it's a big year. But that was fun. We were able to get my son back from college and my daughter, and we were able to spend a fun long weekend there. We love rollercoasters and so we've organised family vacations around rollercoasters and getting to rollercoasters all over the world. And we all love to golf. And so that's something I picked up later. My husband's a wonderful golfer. And so now we really enjoy that as the kids have gotten older, I can spend more time golfing along with my full-time career, but yeah, so it's a lot of fun. I just really like to be outdoors. I think that's the common theme. I love to read, I love to do, but I love to do it outdoors. So that's my favourite. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, that sounds very interesting. The first and the only time I tried golf, I was so horrible at it. I think I gave myself an advisory, you know, just to do it not in public. Chris Boeckerman It's not for everybody, it's not for everybody. Ula Ojiaku Yeah. Okay. I also got the, when you're talking about yourself, that you studied chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. What made you choose that discipline, that line of study? Chris Boeckerman Yeah, and that's kind of a funny, it's kind of a funny story. So, my parents didn't get to go to college, but I've known since I can remember that I was going to college. So, they worked their whole life, I'm blue collar raised. The one thing I can tell you is I work hard. That's what, you know, my parents really instilled that in me. And so I really liked chemistry in school, and I was pretty good at maths. And so my counselor was like, oh, chemical engineering. My grandpa was actually a chemical engineer. So it was a familiar term, even though I think it's hard to just understand what engineering is by talking to people. But I did some shadowing and I thought, okay, engineering sounds good. And University of Cincinnati was close by, but they invented cooperative education. So, this kind of go to school, go to work. It helps pay for your school, and what I didn't even realise at the time is I'm a very practical person. And so University of Cincinnati was the best for me because I didn't always love the theory. I could learn it, I got the theory, but I'm an applied learner is what I've learned since then. And so by having a co-op job, I could take the theory, apply it, and then I loved it. And so I got the chance to co-op six quarters at P & G in all different parts of the company. So I got to see how, I got to see the company, the company got to see me. It's really how we hire now is through interns and co-ops. But back then, it was just perfect for me. So I'm so glad I made the choice. Like I said, when your parents don't go to college, I don't think you even realise there's that many opportunities, what all the colleges are. But I just got really lucky and then obviously had to work hard because engineering is extremely difficult, and like I said, I think if I wouldn't have had co-op, I may not have stayed in chemical engineering, but because I had the experience of what I could do with it, I made it through. Ula Ojiaku Well done you and it's people like you, that paved the way for people like us women to get more into engineering as well. So the co-op, was it the University of Cincinnati, did the university help you with getting the job with P & G as part of the studies? Chris Boeckerman Yeah, it's integrated into a five-year program at the University of Cincinnati. And so you have to co-op to graduate and therefore they have a very structured way of introducing you to many companies, and so they have great relationships with local companies, with national companies. And so, because you know you have to, it's just part of the curriculum, and so they work hard to make sure you get a job. You work hard to make sure you get a job, and then you graduate with experience. So, yeah, I encourage anybody who's going into engineering, even if it's not integrated, like it was at UC, to do internships over the summer. It's a very popular thing to do here in the US so like my son did internships, most of the colleges have support here to be able to do an internship or they have co-op abroad, learning abroad. Any of that I think is amazing. Ula Ojiaku Yes, it helps with the balance, you know, to know what reality is and what the theory is of this discipline. Okay. And how did you, you said you made it through, so how was it for you as a student? Chris Boeckerman I am the person that you should send anybody to who struggled, because I struggled. You know, in high school I was a straight A student, and I memorised everything. I, like I said before, I know how to work hard. I worked hard, grades were very important to me, but it was more of a memorisation thing in high school. I understood the problem solving up to that point, but then I got into university, and yeah, it was just a whole other ball game. One of the things that I think I just learned about engineering is, in the real world, you never have enough time. You never have enough money to do what you want to do. Well, engineering preps you for that because you walk into a test and there's not enough time to finish the test. You're never going to get the right answer. Right. And it's hard to go through that, but I think it creates this grit and tenacity of like, I just have to keep going now. And that is, I mean, that's kind of what I learned when I got into the workforce, is that engineers are problem solvers and that experience, that difficult experience through school just preps you for real life. And you know, when you feel like you can't keep going, you're like, I am, let's just, you know, this is the way it is. There's not enough time. There's not enough money. We've got to keep moving. Ula Ojiaku Exactly, let's make the most of the situation. So, you were co-opting with P & G, they loved you and they said they wouldn't let you go. And here you are. So how did you get to your current position as the Vice President? You're now for R & D right? Chris Boeckerman Right, it's R & D Vice President in a part of the company called P & G Ventures, which I can explain. So I'll try to take 30 years and give you the shortened version of it. So I started with Procter & Gamble and I worked 20 years actually in the part of the business called fabric care, so Tide, Gain, Ariel, Lenor… like I could talk to you about laundry all day long. So I worked there for 20 years. I worked upstream, downstream, consumer facing, technical facing, internal, external. Like, if you're going to stay somewhere for 20 years, you better do it all, and it was a wonderful, great experience. I've always lived in Cincinnati, but I've had teams all over the world, and so, you know, getting to know the cultures and how people work and the diversity, it's just, it's been amazing. You know, even the different brands and the different countries was great. And so I did that for 20 years, loved it, but I had this wonderful boss who said, hey, it's time to go try something else. And so I went into corporate R & D, and I wasn't sure about it because I come from the business and I have a P & L and I know what I'm delivering to the company, but I really trusted her. And she said, this is where you should go. And the minute I met with the leader of that organisation, he convinced me because he said, hey, my goal is that we are tailwinds for the business units. So, we're not off on the side, but we have the time to look internally and externally at all the best practices. And then we become tailwinds for our businesses who don't have time to do that because they're running the business. And I just loved that vision. And you know, P & G, our mission, our purpose at P and G is to improve the lives of consumers every day. I always say I love my job. I don't love it every day, but I do really love my job. I think if anybody tells you, they love it every day, they're just lying, but I really do love my job. And I think it's because my personal mission in life is to nurture and inspire the people in my work, my community, my family, and P & G's mission and purpose to improve the lives of consumers comes together in a great place. And that role in particular, in corporate R & D, it all really came together because, you know, I did feel like it was a mission. So when I got into that organisation, it was when, I like to say Dollar Shave Club had happened to us. So it was something where we stand for irresistibly superior products, and that is what our business model was made of. And this was a new, digital business model and it was new to the world and we were trying to figure it out. And so right as I got into this role, the Chief Technical Officer, Kathy Fish, and the Chief Brand Officer kind of came to me and my boss and said, you know, the world is changing really fast and we need to make sure that we are sustainable in this changing environment. So can you go find out what's happening and figure out, you know, how to make sure that we survive, right. How to make sure that we can live in this changing world. And so I was like, wow, that is like a very clear work plan. And I have no idea how to do that, right. It was very big, the company is big, it's a hundred thousand people, and you know, but I did what I do and I just went and started talking to everybody. And as I was talking to everybody, there were two very clear themes that came out. One was fear of failure, and the second one was that commercial and technical were working in silos. We weren't really a connected team, and so we just kind of looked around and said, what other industry or what other space is tackling these two issues in this dynamic world? And it was the startup Ecosystem. And so we just went to school. I mean, I, the number of podcasts I looked into, like everything I had to learn. We are lucky enough to be a big company. We were able to get to the likes of like David Kidder from Bionic and Ian Berkowitz and Eric Ries. And I could give you the five names of the people that I would go to, but we were lucky enough to get those experts to come in and counsel us, which, that's one of the things I'm so proud of us to do is we didn't pretend we knew how to do it. Yeah. And that's one of the advice I would give everybody is don't pretend, go seek external help, always, because they're always going to give you a different perspective. But anyway, we just kind of, that's how we got into lean innovation, that's how we got into, hey, there is a different way in which we can, you know, learn quickly, learn fast, fail fast. We kind of learned nobody wants to fail, but if you can fail fast and early, then it's, it feels much more like learning. How fascinating, why did that happen? If you fail later and expensive, that's bad. And so, you know, we were, we had to get to school on it. We had to learn how to do it. And then the organisation I was able to create really was a small organisation that was meant to enable the business unit. So we created a framework that was agile and could kind of meet the business units where they were and helped them to understand this is the framework that you can apply to wherever you're at in this journey, because we were all at a different place in the journey, but we enabled startups inside the company is the easiest way for me to talk about that. And then I did that and now I got the great opportunity, about two years ago, to come into a part of the company called P & G Ventures, which had actually, they were the first part of the company to kind of work like a startup, and they worked internally and externally to start up, what are the next businesses going to be? So we have 10 existing business units. Their job was, how do you develop the next business unit, which, talk about a high hurdle. Right. But, so I basically got to take the five years of kind of learning and enabling the business units, and I got to apply it to one of the toughest problems, which is how do you create a new business unit in an already very big and successful company? Ula Ojiaku That sounds exciting. And the journey so far, it sounds really impressive and exciting. So, given that P & G, you know, already is renowned for, you know, research, the extensive research and development, would you say that you already had that culture where it's okay to fail because not everything in the research would, you know, go on to be commercialised and end up on the shelf, or did you have to also change people's mindsets towards failure to know that if you fail fast it's okay. You know, was there any, from a leadership perspective, did you need to change anything in terms of people's perception? Chris Boeckerman Yeah, I mean, we really did, and it's still, you know, it's never perfect inside of an organisation because, you know, it is a large organisation. It was more around though, the speed of learning is what I would say is the biggest difference, was get something out there faster, to let people react. So it was almost and we do, we have a great, behavioural learning mindset now as well, but it was earlier back then. Right. And so I think what happens is, you know, you have your standard, large base qualification tests. That was, you know, the standard process that we had, and it worked well, but the world was shifting. And so it was like, if you were going to need to be more dynamic in how you evolved it, you needed, we needed to follow more of what the lean innovation process would be, which is, you create a quick and early prototype. It doesn't have to be perfect because you're only going to test it with 10 people, get it out to those 10 people and you're going to learn much more, very fast. I always joked, I had this old project or I'm in a project I did a long time ago and I had a bad package, but I knew the product was amazing. And I had this team and the packaging group did not want to place this package. Of course, we all knew it was bad and nobody wanted to look bad, right. And I was like, listen, I promise, I'm going to get the highest level person to say, he knows the package is going to fail. Well, if that's okay, will you let us place this test? Because I've got to find out if the juice is good, right. I've got to find out if the product is good, and I promise when I come back, I'm going to have even better information about what the package needs to do to be amazing. And so, you know, this was what this was way before, but it like, it just took people, you know, a little bit of time. And they needed to be reassured that it wasn't going to come back on them, right. And it's the difference, it's not the qualification test or I'm spending a million dollars, it's a small test, but you just need to make sure you're intentional about that, right. And we did, we learned a ton. We learned that the juice was magical. The product was great, and the package was bad, and this is exactly what we needed from the package. And we wrote up probably the most beautiful package brief ever. So I really think that's the difference, is you had to make sure that there weren't repercussions. You had to take the risk lower. And if you can take the risk lower, then the failure, like I said, it's more of, oh, you learned that, awesome, you learned it fast, you learned it cheap and now we know what to go do. I always used to say in the early days of GrowthWorks, because everybody's polarised by the term failure, which I totally understand, but it was like productive failure is failure that enables you to know fast, cheap, and easy what to go do next. And as long as you do that, that is productive failure. I had these great managers one time who, I was very uptight about a very large test market that was going to get delayed. It was under my charge and I felt very responsible. And as you can tell, I'm very passionate and you can read my emotions on my face. So I walked into my two leaders and they're new too, they don't know me, so I don't have a relationship with them, but they can just tell, I haven't slept for a week and, like, things are bad and, you know, and they kind of looked at me and they said, hey, Chris, is this the worst thing that's ever happened to you at work? And I was like, uh, yeah, like million dollar test market, right. And they're like, oh, okay, we're going to talk to you about that tomorrow. Today, we're going to talk to you about things that have gone wrong in our career, and what we learned from them. And I just, this was a transformative conversation that my leaders, I'm so thankful, took the time because when I found out what went wrong in their history, I was like, that's not even close to what is happening. Put things in perspective, right. They really, they were able to put things in perspective for me, and they were able to help me see you learn more from your mistakes than your successes. Don't make the same mistake twice and make your mistakes, or do your failures as early and as cheap as possible. And you know, this was 10 years before I did GrowthWorks, but that stuck with me and it turned me, it turned me from a micro-managing crazy person, which is what I was doing at that time into a learning leader is what I would say. I learned to then, when things came to me that were surprising, I always try to say, no matter what the data is, I try to say, oh, how fascinating, why do we think that happened? And it's, you know, like the results are awesome, clean, fascinating. Why do we think they're great? Like, why do we think that happened? The results are bad, fascinating, why? Why do we think that happened? And what we learned is if leaders can approach everything that way, then the team moves into a learning mindset and you learn a lot faster. It's hard to do. And I don't do it every day. If my team were here with me, they would be like, we're going to remind Chris on Monday about that. So, you know, nobody can do it all the time, but that learning mindset, which is something P & G has, you know, focused on a lot, it makes all the difference in the world of creating a culture in which people can learn fast, because everything's fascinating and you need to understand why you got good data, just as much as you need to understand why you got bad data. That's just good science. Ula Ojiaku I love that term productive failure. I think this is the first time I'm hearing. So do you get to share your failures, you know, after experiments do you get to share that with the rest of the organisation or how does that work? Chris Boeckerman Yeah, I mean we try hard. We actually try hard in P & G Ventures, because anybody who's listening, who's done any type of venture, new business building type stuff, you have to shut down more things than you keep going and it's really hard to shut a program down, and so we really try to celebrate when we stopped something as much as we celebrate when we're moving forward, because Kathy Fish had this, she would say to us, she was our past, Chief R & D officer when we were doing GrowthWorks, and she was like, it's so important to shut things down because you need to shut the good things down so that you have people to work on the great things, right. And it's, but I'd say that that's the hardest thing to do. And we just did it this week and I compliment the team and it's so exciting to see it's not all roses all the time, I'm telling you, it's not, this is very hard work. Everybody's job is hard, but when you have a team that really does the sprint together to get to the bottom of how big is it, how big is the problem? Does P & G have a unique, proprietary gift to solve it? And, you know, they come back and the answer is, hey, we did all the due diligence and we don't think that we should pursue it. It's like, I am so excited that they had the confidence and they gave us the confidence because you just want to be confident in your decision, whether it's to go forward or to not, this world of disruptive innovation is uncertain, right? It is just uncertain. It's hard to live in uncertainty every day. But if you have clarity of, we did the due diligence in the team, like I always used to say in GrowthWorks, I want the teams to shut the programs down, or the teams to be the ones that are driving it forward. But it's hard, it is hard to create a culture where people can be agile enough to move to different programs, and we are in the learning, we don't have it all figured out, but you know, we've been at it for a while, and so it's just really, it's exciting to be part of this organisation at this time, to see how far we've come. Ula Ojiaku Wow. So, for them, because you said something about clarity in times of uncertainty and, you know, the teams actually come to you and say, they've done the due diligence, it doesn't meet the criteria. That suggests to me that you've, you know, and you, as a leadership team have taken the time to sit down with them to identify what those clear criteria are. Are you able to share what these are, or at least the process, you know, that made you arrive to those criteria that is open and transparent to everyone that it makes the team, you know, that helps the team to determine if it meets the, it aligns with what P & G is looking for? Chris Boeckerman Right. Well, I can share it in general terms, right. And so a lot of people listening into the podcast would understand a funnel, right? You know, you have big, broad ideas in the beginning of the funnel and you're trying to figure out, and that's what this particular project was at, is you're trying to figure out really at that point in time, how big is the problem? It's got to be a problem big enough that P & G will care about it. Right. But the problem itself, that's more of a, how many people have it? How many solutions are out there already? What are the dissatisfiers with the solutions? So you kind of go through the essence of how big is the problem? And could we do something about it? So how big is the problem? Does P & G have a proprietary, unique reason why we should go after this versus somebody else? Do we have the capability and the technology, or do we have the partnerships? We do external scouting, right? So do we have external solutions that look viable? And then you put that together to figure out financially, what do the signals look like? Does it look big enough that it's going to be a business that P & G would care about? Because there are plenty of businesses. I've done this myself, I've fallen in love with the business, I want to do this business, and at the end of the day, it's not going to look attractive to P & G, you, at the end of the day, you are choosing to put resources on different programs at different times, and they have to not compete, that's not a great way of saying it, but they have to be big enough that it's worthy of putting a team on it. So we take a small team, they do that early work, and there's a sprint that you go to it, but it's not the same for everybody. Like it's not hard and fast numbers at this point in time. But it is all around, is the problem big enough? Do we have a reason to think that we can deliver a breakthrough solution? And then, when you put that together financially, does it look good? And so we have, I would say, what we have, the leadership team has determined is, there are some ranges that the teams work within, but what really helped this team in particular, which is something that I think people could value is we really enabled the team to focus, right? So they did this broad, like what are the parts of this problem that we think are interesting? And they did a sprint, they identified those spaces. We were like, great. We love it. Now, with that criteria go run some sprints to figure out quickly, how big is it? Is it growing? What are the gifts we have in the company? What is the quick scouting? And is this something that makes sense for, you know, P & G to create a new brand VR work or not. And they really, they came back and they said, thank you for the focus, we met with them every month after the sprint, we made decisions, but they made the recommendations and then they were like, this one isn't big enough, it's not growing, we're going to stop work on that one, do you agree? They were like, yeah, because you made such a compelling case, how can we not agree? And then the other, you know, the other, we were like, we are still really interested in the other two. Do you have enough time? And do you have the right people to do that? They went after it, they came back and you know, and then it becomes much more of a discussion because it's like, is it really something we should do? Is it something the other businesses have a better, do they already have a brand? It is expensive to create a new brand. So, we have amazing brands in this company. And so, many times it's like, wait, do we need to influence, or do we want to try to influence another brand to really take this on, because it's big and growing. So that's how it, early in the funnel, as we go later in the funnel, it becomes much more of, the first question is, could we do it, the second question is, should we do it? Right. And so the, should we do it is all based on can you create the business? Right, so then you really start pulling in all of the business aspects, the full qualification that we tend to do, transactional learning tests, incubations either in stores or in small markets or in direct to consumer. So you really start to get that behavioural and transactional data giving you the signals that this is a business. Janice Fraser, who was also one of these external experts, she would always say, you know you're ready to scale when you've put the variables together and you know where to pour the money to make it grow, you know where the money should be poured to make it grow. If you don't know where to pour the money, you're not ready to scale. And, you know, those are always, so it's complicated. Business is complicated. The channels are complicated, the platforms are complicated. So, you know, that's when you really have to figure out, do I have, you know, should I invest the big money in this? And I think one of the things that you have when you're doing intrapreneurship, you're creating startups inside the company, is you should be able to get through that funnel faster, if you can get all those parts to come together and that's, you know, that's our goal, that's what we're getting to. In P & G Ventures, I mean, we have a new opportunity area around safe and effective insect control. And it's a brand called Zevo and it's amazing, right. And so it's nice to have a program that has been through those parts and is really kind of in that space now that we can all look to and, you know, say, all right, how are we looking compared to where they were looking at the time? Because it's like, that uncertainty and clarity, like you said, it is just uncertain space. You don't know, you can't predict a billion dollar brand, you just can't, but what are the things that you can start running after and you can learn fast and you can validate that gives you the signals at all different fidelities and levels to then go, all right, we're going. So anyway, that's the goal. Ula Ojiaku So, the listeners might be wondering, especially for those of us who are not so familiar with the intricate, you know, organisation, the way P & G is organised. So, what's GrowthWorks and then, what role did you play in that? Chris Boeckerman Perfect. Well, I ended up being able to be the co-founder of GrowthWorks. And GrowthWorks, in a simple term, is, a framework that you can apply to nurture startups inside the company. So, we are a big company and we know how to do big, big programs. Right. As we got into this disruptive world and we were being disrupted and, you know, we were looking for how to become agile, it, you know, it was sort of like we needed to shift how we did our innovation. And so we needed to be able to apply these principles from lean innovation, but in a way that made sense for P & G. So one of the things we learned, you know, very early on and everybody would know is, you know, at the end of the day, our goal is to build a business that we cultivate. We're not trying to sell to somebody. That's a very different aspect of being a startup, in a startup you want to get bought, right. But here we need to create a value creating business. And it is interesting during this time is when, Marc Pritchard, who's our Chief Brand Officer, really started to talk quite a bit about constructive disruption, and it was really important, and I think it's important for any big company to understand as they're doing this, is our job is always to build categories, to build the industry. We don't ever want to take the industry down. We want to build the industry. So we want to be disruptive, but in a building way, and so as we were thinking about that, it was just like, okay, there's probably three components that we were pulling together that you can apply, whether you're doing sustaining innovation, or disruptive innovation. There's a, how do you learn, right. So it's the build, measure, learn, but how do you handle this, helping an organisation feel okay about sending five prototypes to consumers and not being concerned that it's going to fail. Right. So that is sort of the build, measure, learn loop. We base everything in the consumer love and the consumer need. And so we wrapped that together to kind of give it, this is how P & G applies the lean innovation model. There's also, how do you think about the type of innovation you're doing? And so, like I said, whether it's sustaining, disruptive or anything like that, but visualising that is really important, helping everybody understand, what are the new spaces that we're looking at? Placing lots of bets in these new spaces and knowing the high percentage is going to fail, right. And so, how do you measure progress in this uncertain space? That was a part of the framework as well. And then the last part of the framework was how do you organise to do this work? And I'd say the biggest thing we learned then is yeah, when you're early in the funnel, a small team can make tremendous progress, make it less hierarchical, let the team lead, leaders learn, because this is new. So I used to always joke. I was 20 years in fabric care, right. And so I would be working with an internal startup team in fabric care. And my 20 years of knowledge of fabric care wasn't what was helping the team. I was holding them back because I have all these biases of the past and they needed to go into the future and I needed to learn, so you just have to let the teams lead at that point in time and you have to learn, and be supportive. Then you do get to the point though, where my 20 years of knowledge of fabric care does become important. And that's where every startup runs into as well, is you get it to a certain point, but if you need to industrialise something, that is the core capability the company has, and you can't do that with three people, and you need hierarchy and you need to, so it's like, how do you take the best of both worlds and bring them together? And so that was how we had to figure out how to organise for where you're at and what you need at the time. And then how do you shift to that when you need to shift it quickly? And so those were the three aspects, how you learn, what is the type of innovation you're going after, and then how do you organise, and that we made it a broad enough framework so that we have 10 business units and P & G Ventures who were at the tip of the sphere of doing this for the company anyway. And we were trying to help the rest of the company, but you wanted to give them that framework and then no matter what they were working on, could they fit themselves into that framework or could the framework enable them? And so we started as two people and our leader, and I was able to grow that organisation to about 25 people across every function of the company, but just a small group, like we just had, you know, 25 people out of a hundred thousand, right. But each of us were a function in the company, but we were one team across all functions. And so that's how we were able to kind of like be like the Navy Seals, we could come in and we could help support the business unit for what they were doing. And then the business unit would take it on. That was the only way we could become sustainable because we weren't, I never wanted to create a 500 person organisation. Everything I learned about from all my predecessors who've tried this at other companies as well, that just gets to be too heavy. And it doesn't integrate into the entire company because you're reliant on the coaches or the experts versus our job was eventually like when we were about three years in and we kind of knew what we were doing, when we would come in and help train some part of the organisation, we would only do it if they offered up a person that would then take it from us and do the next training. And so, you know, then you start to really get into the fibre of the company to really drive the change. And it's not perfect, right. But it really was able to shift how we did our innovation and the BUs own it, right, the business units own it. Ula Ojiaku That's the only way it's going to be sustainable, if there's ownership from them. Chris Boeckerman Exactly. And they applied it in different ways, our beauty care business is very different than our fabric care business. So one size fits all was never going to work. Ula Ojiaku Oh my gosh, sorry, that was a theme at the conference I spoke at, you know, it was like, no, there's no one size fits all approach. Chris Boeckerman I'm very thankful that I had the support around me, and that the company invested to bring external people in, right. One of the people I haven't mentioned yet is Maxine Friedman and she started with Bionic and, you know, now has her own work that she does, but she was my partner day in and day out as we were trying to figure out how to make this change. And without having people like that near me, Karen Hershenson's an internal person that was with me. They're the ones that really helped me see it was more than us. And in order to make it more than us, we had to enable others. We had to give it away. So first we had to figure out what it was. So don't get me wrong. That was not easy. It took us an entire year of really crazy experiments that the business units did. And we were just learning and running and helping and doing everything that we could, but we were pulling together the learnings. We were strategically figuring out what was working and what wasn't working so that we could land within the first year with this framework. Then once we had the framework, then we had something more intentional that we could work with the business units on. And we showed up for free. That was the other thing is, when they called, we showed up, right? Like nobody paid for us, we were helping them, but then they started to pay with their people, and they became the experts who then moved it forward and they moved it forward in different ways, because the external experts were the ones telling us we've seen other companies try this, don't try to mandate, don't force it, help figure out an agile framework that people can fit for what they need. And to this day it still exists. I mean, I'm not on it anymore, there's a small team that's still is working through it and, you know, but the businesses own it. They're the ones who really drive it in the way that they need. Ula Ojiaku Wow. I respect your time. I could delve in more. I think, Chris, this is an official invite to have you back sometime, you know, for a sequel to this conversation. Chris Boeckerman I would love it. I would love it. This has been so much fun. I really, I have a ton of passion for this type of work and our motto in GrowthWorks was unleash people to unleash growth. I do think P & G has the best people. I think everybody thinks that about their company, but I just really, I believe it, you know, when I was 20 years in fabric care, when I was, you know, 5 years in GrowthWorks, and now in P & G Ventures, that we just have the best people. And as we unleash them, we're growing, and so it's just a ton of fun, so happy to come back. Ula Ojiaku Your passion shines through and for you to say P & G has the best people, speaking with you, I am left with no doubt about it because you are a great ambassador for that. So thank you for that. So, in terms of a few more questions, so what books, if you had, because you said you had to go to school to learn more about innovation and you got in coaches. Are there any books that have helped you, you know, in this learning journey? Chris Boeckerman Yeah, there's a group of books just on lean innovation that definitely helped. So the Eric Ries, like kind of trilogy of books, I would say is The Lean Startup, The Startup Way, but he also had a small printing of something called, The Leader's Guide, which I think you can only get on audio now. And Janice Fraser, Eric introduced us to Janice and she had a lot of that, that really helps you to figure out how to help an organisation, how to help leaders to bring this to life. So those were really critical. And then David Kidder from Bionic wrote a book called New to Big, and I would say that's a great synopsis of what they taught us. And so, that's a good one to go to. And then there's a Scrum book that, I'm going to have to look up afterwards to give you the actual title, but twice the work and half the time. Ula Ojiaku That'll be Jeff Sutherland, Scrum, How to do Twice the Work in Half the Time. Dr Sutherland was my guest a few episodes ago. Chris Boeckerman Yes, it was life-changing for me, not necessarily because I became, I did not become a Scrum master. We have people inside the company that have done amazing things, but that was the book where he really articulated the questions that we started to ask, that helped us with teams lead, leaders learn. So he articulated that leaders, you know, should ask, what did you learn? How do you know? What do you need to learn next? And how can I help you as a leader? And, you know, that simple articulation was really great for us. So those are the ones that I kind of went back to again and again, to really figure out how to do lean innovation. I have another book for you just in general to share, and that's called Four Thousand Weeks, and it's a productivity book that somebody had just shared with me and it's by Oliver Burkeman and this, I just really liked because it's made a big impact in my life right now. If you live to be 80, you live 4,000 weeks. So it puts a finite amount of time, which can be scary, but we all know is real. But what I loved about this, it's the first productivity book that I received the message because I'm sure other productivity books have told me this, but it's the first time I was able to openly receive the message that you cannot do it all, so stop trying. You need to be choiceful. You need to be intentional on what it is you want to do and what it is you're going to intentionally not do. And that was just really impactful for me. And I think it can be impactful for a lot of people that really, the quality of your life is based on the choices that you make, and it's part of the reason I'm here because I'm a very busy person, but I just decided, no, I really, this is a passion that I have. I have a unique experience, I would really like to share that with other like-minded people who are on this, you know, what I call rollercoaster journey. It is like high highs and low lows when you are a change agent in big companies, but it's so fulfilling. So that book just had a big impact on me, that I really am in control of my destiny, but I need to make some choices. Ula Ojiaku Well, I've made a note of those books and they would be in the show notes of your episode. So thank you for that. Would that be, if the audience wants to get in touch with you, how can they find you? Chris Boeckerman The best way is through LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn, and while I would love to talk to everybody in the world, right. The way that I kind of make my choices, like I just said, which is exactly when you reached out to me is, anything that enables P & G and you know, what, what we all have passion for, I make time for, so yeah, so LinkedIn is the best way. Ula Ojiaku Definitely. I mean, you're a busy person, so LinkedIn would be the best place. And any final words for the audience so we wrap this up. Chris Boeckerman Yeah. I think, you know, I think it just really is, if you can, you follow your passion and people are everything. I just, everybody in the startup world, everybody in a corporate environment will tell you that the team and the people, they make all the difference in the world. And I just have found through my career as well, the more I invest in the people, the better, and so, yeah, I mean, if there's a way that you can ever really drive together your passions and then the ability to kind of bring an amazing team around you, you can do anything. My favourite quote is, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has. It's by Margaret Mead. And I just really, I really believe it. I think, and, in what we've been able to do at P & G, we had the people, the groundswell, and we had the leadership support in, and you need both, but it just really starts with a small group of people that have a lot of passion and are amazing. And so that's what I would focus on. Ula Ojiaku Wow. Thank you so much, Chris. This has been an inspiring conversation, more like me learning from you. So I do think, and I know that the audience, the viewers and listeners would also find this episode very useful. So thank you again for your time. Chris Boeckerman Oh, thank you very much. And I've listened to all your podcasts now. And so I'm learning a ton from this forum as well. And just thank you for taking the time and doing it. I love your story and I was really happy to be part of it. So thank you. Ula Ojiaku That's all we have for now. Thanks for listening. If you liked this show, do subscribe at www.agileinnovationleaders.com or your favourite podcast provider. Also share with friends and do leave a review on iTunes. This would help others find this show. I'd also love to hear from you, so please drop me an email at ula@agileinnovationleaders.com Take care and God bless.
Allison Bennie is a Creative Leadership and Life Coach at Does As She Pleases, an international coaching, facilitation, and training company that helps people in the performing arts who want to live by their own rules. Allison and I were both diagnosed with Adult ADHD in. the past 3 or 4 years. Today she joins me to discuss our journey to being diagnosed, what the diagnosis has meant in our lives, and how we live successfully with Adult ADHD. KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:59] - We're starting year three of the AL4EP podcast. Thanks, listeners! [01:38] - How my Adult ADHD diagnosis changed my life.[02:10] - Getting real about Adult ADHD with Allison Bennie.[03:49] - Allison shares her background growing up in Scotland and her work with others to help them carve out their own path.[04:27] - Allison shares the story of her post about the chicken and the egg on TikTok and how it made her feel seen.[06:49] - Dino shares how seeing others he respected get diagnosed with Adult ADHD gave him the courage to pursue his own testing. [09:07] - Allison discusses how reading Fast Minds inspired her to explore testing.[12:30] - Dino reveals what adults with Adult ADHD often struggle with. [13:23] - Dino shares an experience from his past that helped him pinpoint the patterns of ADHD in his life. [14:42] - The guilt aspect of ADHD for adults. [16:06] - Allison shares how a building designed to promote collaboration left her feeling like she was going mad.[19:44] - Allison shares why it's more common to have ADHD and autism than one or the other. [21:05] - How the ongoing “ADDinoed” joke turned into a health diagnosis for Dino. [21:22] - How after several misdiagnoses, finally being diagnosed with ADHD was like a weight being lifted, permitting Allison to, at long last, fully be herself. [24:10] - How seeing others face the challenge of ADHD and be successful offers a glimmer of hope for others who might be suffering in the same way. [24:51] - Dino shares how getting the ADHD diagnosis was like the shift from the minor 3rd to the major 3rd.[25:53] - Why it's NOT laziness. [26:50] - Allison shares her journey to making healthier dopamine choices. [29:37] - Dino shares how Christina Wallace helped him determine he could be BOTH a coach and a marketer. [30:34] - If you or someone you know may be living with Adult ADHD, there is help. Find out more at ADD.org.ContactDino at: dino@al4ep.com Websites:al4ep.com or...
Christina Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, an HBS Graduate, entrepreneur and author. As a self-described “human venn diagram,” Christina wears many hats, and has learned to embrace and lean into her unique talents and found ways to bring them to life throughout a multitude of different avenues in her career and in her life.During this conversation, we spoke about Christina's career journey to HBS, and her time in management consulting, as an entrepreneur and life now as an author and lecturer. We also spoke about the concept of a Portfolio life, and how this framework and language has helped Christina and others find more expansive ways to find meaning and fulfillment in their work and life.LinksChristina Wallace's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallaceThe Portfolio Life:
In this interview you'll learn about how to be bad at things, so you can finish things. Christina Wallace is a Senior Harvard Lecturer and author. I found her story about how she started a clothing company that eventually failed and what she did to recover. Highlights from the interview: How Christina cheated at the Presidential fitness test when she was young and what it taught her.How to get over the overachiever mindset.Why we avoid things that we are bad at and how it hurts our careers.The reason she shut down her first company.How she dealt with closing her company.She had 30 days to get a job. What she did to get moving and find a new job.Resetting her mindset after failure.Why you should dig into your personality with your friends.What questions she asked her friends to dig into herself and find out what direction to take her career in.Building your career at your day job.Why employers need to let their employees flex on their sidegig and how it can help the company grow.Being full human beings in our professional lives.Why opening up about our lives helps create unique connections that help galvanize a team.The word gets out about your team when you allow people to be their full selves at work.Why stories show the values of the people that we work with.Show people who you are through stories instead of telling people who you are.Why asking for help is so important.Letting go of our ego when asking for help.The cost of not being vulnerable can be so much higher than we expect.Connecting around shared love or a shared purpose is so much more powerful than connecting around complaining.Looking back at your past to start to connect the career dots moving forward.Why she valued autonomy so much in her career.Most impactful book, favorite speaker, tool that helps her stay focused. You can learn more about Christina over at her website Christian Wallace dot com. You can also follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter. And as always if you have any questions or want to submit a guest for the podcast that you think would be amazing just reach out on Dig to Fly and I'll do my best to get them on. If you enjoy the interview please take 30 seconds to rate the Dig to Fly podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks!
Christina Wallace talks bout how to stop swiping and find your person on dating apps.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Christina Wallace is a former entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience building companies, and and currently a professor of entrepreneurship and marketing at Harvard Business School. She is writing a book about the Portfolio Life. It's a concept that acknowledges that we all have multiple interests, and that given how business has evolved, the idea of a linear career no longer applies. In this world, we look at our life as a portfolio of experiences, that may or may not build on each other. And in a world with increasing speed, uncertainty and complexity, in the long run managing our career as a portfolio makes us happier and more effective. In this episode, we also discuss Christina's experiences as an entrepreneur, the cost of failure and how to manage risk and create opportunities for second chances. KEY TAKEAWAYS [02:34] – Christina shares her story with us. [03:47] – One of Christina's pressures is focusing on being just one thing. [05:16] – Christina landed on a phrase that helped with introducing herself. [08:22] – Giving the skill, that ability to see connections between currently unconnected ideas or unconnected, a name legitimized it and gave value to Christina. [10:28] – Christina feared that the business world would look at her background, think less of her, or not take her seriously. [13:04] – If you can't answer any of the “Why” questions, and if any of those answers are inauthentic, no one is getting on board. [15:51] – Christina and her team got to have an honest conversation about what failure means and had the opportunity to teach it to the students at HBS. [17:13] – It is only a question of, when, not if, that failure will be part of your story. [20:47] – When taking advice from anyone, you have to filter for how much of it is relevant to your circumstances. [23:53] - There are all of these different models that someone could use to prove themself and to gain some traction without the shoot for the moon approach. [26:35] – Christina realized she needed to practice being bad at things if she wanted to be able to keep going down the path as an entrepreneur. [28:20] - Control over her time became one of Christina's primary metrics of success. [30:46] – It is hard to walk the path that has been prescribed, but sometimes you have to make the best decision for yourself. [33:06] – Christina shares some classroom advice: as you progress in your career, as you hit through these stages of success, you will always have two choices. [35:17] - Be thoughtful about the operational model, or the business model, for the life that you set up. [37:41] - The portfolio life is giving everyone a term to legitimize something that many of us are already doing. [39:17] – A portfolio life is predicated on three ideas that Christina shares with us. [42:42] - Someone who has other things that they do outside of the job means they're more likely to be a highly motivated, engaged employee on the job. [44:57] – I ask Christina if she has a hobby or passion that she does outside of work that has helped influence her work. [46:58] - Which business cliches, processes, or jargon drives Christina crazy? [48:51] – Food for the body or food for the soul. [50:45] – Thank you and closing remarks. Contact Dino at: dino@al4ep.com Websites: https://authenticleadershipforeverydaypeople.com/ (al4ep.com) https://www.christinawallace.com/ (christinawallace.com) Additional Christina Wallace Links: Contact at: christinawallace.com/contact LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace/ (linkedin.com/in/christinawallace) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmwalla/ (@cmwalla) Twitter: @cmwalla Authentic Leadership For Everyday People / Dino Cattaneo Dino on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneo ( linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneo) Podcast Instagram –https://instagram.com/al4edp ( @al4edp ) Podcast Twitter –https://twitter.com/al4edp ( @al4edp) Podcast...
Astria Farm is a family-owned and operated company based out of Asheville, North Carolina & has specialized in developing high-quality CBD, DELTA-8, THCV & THC-O products since 2017. For years they've focused heavily on hemp research in the quest to innovate with different See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People always talk big about success, with different strategies, frameworks, and blueprints to achieve it. But there's very little talk about failure, flaws, and mistakes. Christina Wallace, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, gave a refreshing take on not only mistakes but actually bragging about them and using them to be more receptive to new opportunities and appreciate wins. Learn more about: Overcoming fear Pivoting towards success Not just embracing your story, but bragging about it Follow BossMove on all socials: https://linktr.ee/bossMoveSeries
Wanna know how to normalize imperfection? In this episode, Matt @mattgottesman sits down with Tom Eisenmann (Author & Professor of Business Admin at Harvard Business School) & Christina Wallace (Entrepreneur, Author, Podcaster & Senior Lecturer at Harvard) and they go all in on learning from your losses, distinct patterns that account for most startup failures, learning from doing, bad bedfellows in business, false starts, false promises, building too fast, the importance of domain expertise, transparency in entrepreneurship, what Tom learned from conducting over 470 interviews with entrepreneurs and VCs who experienced a startup failure and much more… Follow Me: Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattgottesman Instagram: https://instagram.com/hdfmagazine Website: https://mattgottesman.com Facebook: @mattgottesmanofficial Podcast: Subscribe: https://ampl.ink/dZ2Xd
David Kidder is an entrepreneur and an angel investor in more than 30 companies. He's the co-founder and CEO of Bionic, unlocking growth and competitiveness in the world's largest enterprises. He's also a bestselling author, which includes: The Startup Playbook and his latest book, New To Big. Find out how you can get #TheBionicLife and learn lots from David in this inspirational show including: The philosophy of growth and transformation The entrepreneurs mindset Control is a myth The concept of a Growth Mindset for a big company Plus loads more hacks Join our Tribe at https://leadership-hacker.com Music: " Upbeat Party " by Scott Holmes courtesy of the Free Music Archive FMA Transcript: Thanks to Jermaine Pinto at JRP Transcribing for being our Partner. Contact Jermaine via LinkedIn or via his site JRP Transcribing Services Find out more about David below: Bionic Website - https://onbionic.com David's Website - https://www.davidskidder.com The Startup Playbook - Book New to Big - Book David on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidskidder/ David on Twitter – https://twitter.com/davidskidder David on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/davidskidder/ Full Transcript Below ----more---- Steve Rush: Our special guest on today's show is David Kidder. David's an entrepreneur and an angel investor in more than 30 companies. He's the co-founder and CEO of Bionic, unlocking growth and competitiveness in the world's largest enterprises. He's also a bestselling author, which includes The Startup Playbook and his latest book, New To Big. But before we get a chance to speak with David, it's The Leadership Hacker News. The Leadership Hacker News Steve Rush: What comes to mind when you hear the word “Startup”, if it's a trendy loft conversion in London's Shoreditch, or a grungy basement in the heart of Silicon Valley, you're probably not alone. A large proportion of people think that startups is just a term for a team of one or two people that have a common thread. In fact, many startups include large scale growth companies, and of course a startup, does not stay a startup. It can often graduate to larger organizations readily, requiring more office space, generating higher revenues and having many employees. The global pandemic has spurned a rise in new companies, startups. In the UK in 2020, 278,300 new companies were started. And then the US 804,000 businesses were also started. That's about 10% up year on year. So, if your entrepreneurial spirit has been ignited, I just wanted to share some simple facts with you about startups. Some of the things we can get excited about, and some of the things we maybe need to be wary about. Patience is a virtue. The average time between seed funding to Series A is typically 22 months. And between A and B is 24 months and B to C is 27 months. So, there's a long lead in to successful organizations of which 47% of Series A start up spend more than $400,000 dollars per month. Not all startups are big, but the average round for Series C investments is $50 million dollars between the UK and the US. The average time to incorporate a business globally is typically six days, not much time really. And when we look to the ratio of who's leading startups, the ratio of men, entrepreneurs to women entrepreneurs in 2020 was 10 versus 7. Statistic show whoever's leading them, but 90% of all startups fail with 10% failing within the first year across all industries. And the number one reason for failure was that startups fail to misread the market demand. And the second largest reason why startups fail is due to running out of cash. The good news is that 33% of startup capital for employer led firms is less than £10,000 (pounds) or $14,000 (dollars). With one in three businesses, starting with a less than £5,000 (pounds) or $7,000 (dollars). So, what did the experts say? Well, according to respondents of small business trends survey, the best way to learn about entrepreneurial ship is to do it. Start a company, test and learn. And if you have an idea, research businesses similar to that, that you have in your head, and you're thinking that have been active for longer than five years, assess all the potential bottlenecks apart from the competition and make sure that the team that you gather to help you on your journey is experienced enough that you're aware of those threats and have some experience in helping you fill your gaps in knowledge and expertise. In a recent interview with Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, he suggests the secret to successful hiring is this. Look for people who want to change the world, don't just look at the resume. And having done it and got some t-shirts along the way. The most valuable thing you can do as a founder of a business is to recognize your downfalls beforehand, learning from other businesses, how they've won and how they failed and apply that knowledge as part of your startup thinking, that's been The Leadership Hacker News. Please get in touch, if you have any stories or news that you want our listeners to hear. Start of Podcast Steve Rush: David Kidder is our special guest on today's show. He's a serial entrepreneur, having invested in over 40 startups, including SpaceX. He's also a New York times bestselling author and the CEO and co-founder of Bionic. David welcome to The Leadership Hacker Podcast. David Kidder: Very grateful to be here. Steve Rush: Me too. It's been a while since you and I last met, the world is a very different place now. Before we get into some of the things that are presenting themselves with the work that we do now, perhaps for our listeners, you can give us just a little bit of a backstory as to how you've arrived at doing what you do? David Kidder: Well, I've been an entrepreneur now and founder four times. I've had three venture backed services and SAAS companies that I've sold over the last 25 years. This company I've been involved in building for the last eight years as a co-founder in Berkowitch and it started really with a book, The Startup Playbook about in 2007, 2008 and onstage at a fortune 10 company after doing a keynote with a single question, actually from the vice chairman about how to disrupt. And from there I started doing keynotes and workshops with Eric Reese all over the world. Bionic was really born out of that. And it's been an incredible journey building, you know, a $20 million dollar company. We saw the biggest CEOs in the world P&G, General Mills, Microsoft and others. Really just a privilege to be doing this work of growth transformation. Steve Rush: And its that whole philosophy of growth transformation that sits at the heart of disruption. And when people hear the word disruption, they don't often think of it as a positive thing, but in fact, you call it out as being essential, don't you? David Kidder: Well, I think as something that's really about you, then it could be problematic because you think, you know, it's your fault or it creates discomfort. Disruption usually is something that happens from the outside in, is changed, right? The needs and the world change, which we have experienced last year. Steve Rush: Right. David Kidder: And, you know, it forces you to reset and to move outside of what has been working in rediscovering things. And that's not something you can plan for. So, it draws out a completely different mindset and skillset to do that work, which, you know, is largely uncomfortable because it's managing the unknowable and that comes from a completely different skill set. So, it's an exciting chapter and we should be grateful for the test because we'll be better on the other side of it. But you can't try to get out of the discomfort and you have to be able to grow comfortable with that. Steve Rush: And it's the uncertainty that causes most discomfort in people. How do you grab hold of that uncertainty and create more certainty? David Kidder: Well, I think it's important to reframe it like if you have, it draws some of the psychology of loss of version, which is you always overvalue what you have and you undervalue what you could become, what is available to you. And so, in that context, knowing how the mind works, knowing how you know, humans, the species love to have planning and safety as comfort. When you have this these transformation opportunities, it's really about reframing and overvaluing, what is possible, what's available to you. And so, by holding on to that and saying, ah, I have this value in my hand, but I'm required to either replace it or add a new opportunity or new hand, so to speak that I have to become. You reframe it because it's something to pursue, maybe it's required, but that pursuit really energizes the change. And it's not to something to be feared. It's something to be embraced because it's just the natural way to evolve into growth. Steve Rush: It's kind of ironic, isn't it? Because if you think back over the last hundred years, nothing's really been certain, we've always been in a world of uncertainty, but we've had perhaps a different mindset. David Kidder: Yeah, I mean, control is a myth. I mean, I've made it all, lost it all. It made it all, lost it all twice now in my career just by investing in building companies and, you know, I've gone through incredible highs and I've gone through a brokenness. And I think one of the things that has accelerated my failure in the past when I've had it is just the idea that it's about you and to control. And so, the more you hang on to your plan, your vision, and you don't accept all of the possibilities from extraordinary success to extraordinary failure and be comfortable with that, right? David Kidder: And say, success, you know, comes in two front-page coverage, you're a hero, and you're an idiot, right? Steve Rush: Yeah, exactly. David Kidder: You have to be able to be a position to give it over and ask for the outcome, because then, you know, the universe and your people can conspire to help you solve the need as opposed to directly and exclusively coming from you. That's where mistakes are made is that we don't get to the truth because we don't ask from our team and we're not willing to accept it. Steve Rush: There's this lack of control that comes with also giving away some of the stuff that you have; and ironically, the more you give away, the more you receive in return, that's kind of how the world kind of plays out, right? David Kidder: Yeah, you can you can always suffocate possibility by hanging on to things in a zero-sum view of the world. It's really a non-zero, right? I think this is essential to what you're saying is, that people, their very nature is there's a limited supply of an outcome. There's a limited supply of, you know, consulting. There's a limited supply of services. There's a limited supply of customers, and that's a total addressable market view of the world. That's a limited zero-sum view of the world. It's actually the non-zero. The unlimited version is to think about the total addressable need in the world and how it's evolving. And that takes you from the inside out to the outside in. From zero sum to non-zero, from fear to abundance, from market to need. And you start to really radically evolve your discovery of what your role is in solving it. The marketplace is an opportunity is unlimited. It's only limited to the fact of your ability to create the permission for you to go pursue it, that's it. And that's inside your mind, Steve Rush: Big organizations, I guess, think the same way or the people that work in big organizations also feel the same way as that's the focus of the work that you have with Bionic. Maybe you can just give us a little sense of how you're helping organizations go through that same transformation? David Kidder: Thank you for that Steve. We have a philosophy. That's in a book I wrote called, We, as a company wrote called New To Big. I wrote it with Christina Wallace, who was our VP of marketing and a brilliant writer and thinker. She helped curate this from the company, which is this concept that the big to bigger organizations, that scale are literally at war with growth. They're paid to create efficiency and certainty. And so, when there's change and you're paid incentivized to make what you have work, you actually can't evolve. It's actually, you're at war with growth, stakeholders and the addiction of being right and, you know, rack and stack ROI and all things really limits the organization ability to evolve because you're literally making what you have work. New To Big, really describes a way of thinking and working. We've pioneered the idea of growth mindset in a big company and the systems to support that, we call a Growth OS. It really solves the discovery missing skills versus the planning skills inside an organization in a model. So, we set up growth boards. We set portfolios of total addressable problems and needs. We launched large volumes of entrepreneurs inside and outside the organization to experiment and test, to figure out what to build partner or buy that creates their future as we go launch it. But more importantly is that we fix the growth operations of an organization, the functions that are designed to stop new things from happening, become entrepreneurial. Marketing and sales and compliance and fines come around because they learned to act small because the question that companies need to ask is, should we do this? So, if you're only asking that with planning in five big bets a year, you're in big trouble, you're not learning anything, you're making what you have work. Our model creates that pipeline of always on growth, in the same way, you know, Six Sigma lean manufacturing created efficiency. Bionic has pioneered a model, which is sort of the anti of that. And every company in the world needs this. We've done this at the top of organizations at the CEO level P&G, General Mills, Nike, Citi Corporate, others, with extraordinary impact. Steve Rush: And when I read this from you, I had a little bit of an “A-HA” moment because from a consulting perspective when I work with my clients, it's often around how can we do things faster, more efficient, more effectively, which comes with either streamlining a process, saving some money, looking at resources. And you literally have just flipped that on its head around, it's not about the efficiencies. It's about the effectiveness. Tell us a little bit about how you came to that? David Kidder: It's because we don't come from the industry. You know, I, my entire background, and my co-founders are all entrepreneurs. And so, we didn't come competing with McKinsey or BCG who we do almost exclusively today. Who kind of copy us at this point which is sort of a compliment and also annoying. We could never be them and they can never be us. The way we think, they will be a radical outsider. Be able to walk away at the cost of the truth, creates a friction in the leadership that allows them to go on offense, because, you know, the leaders thought leaders like Adam Grant and Linda Hill and Justin Berg and General Stanley McChrystal who all serve on Bionic advisory board so often have driven a way to think differently as a way of running the company. And here's why this is so important. About 70% of all growth comes from 7% capital deployed. So, if we make a hundred bags or I spent a hundred million or whatever it is, 7% of that is going to be all the returns. So, if I go back to the beginning and say, why did I invest in those ideas or innovations? They have two qualities. One is high conviction. Why us and why now? And two is, is non-consensus. We make all of our decisions from the ideas, with the highest disagreement. Steve Rush: Wow, yeah. David Kidder: So conversely, when you have consensus, you're basically screwed. You have to be able to hold. Non-consensus, high conviction solutions to new problems from the outside in portfolios, a lot of failure to figure out why us and why now. Disruption is important, but how you react to it is more important. Steve Rush: I love that. And it makes loads of sense when you say it. It's almost one of those, why didn't I do this before? Because ultimately what you're suggesting is consensus is another word for group think almost, isn't it? You're looking for convergence, rather than divergence and strategic thinking. David Kidder: Yeah, the reason why it's so uncomfortable, because it's new to you and new to the world, your entire bias is to make what you have work, and it's super dangerous. Steve Rush: Yeah, it is. For sure. Now, there's not many chances you get to say to people. Yeah, well, you wrote the book on it and you did, you wrote The Startup Playbook and you had the network and opportunity to interview over 40 of the world's greatest Gamechangers, including Elon Musk and Sarah Blakely, just to name, but a few. What did you notice having had the opportunity to interview all of these great leaders and entrepreneurs and thinkers that was consistent? David Kidder: Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. The summary of the book I wrote on a single flight in six hours from, you know, let's say San Francisco back to New York where I live. And I didn't realize how significant that introduction would change my life, but it was really the synthesis of those that time. I remember 10 years ago, Elan was broke, sleeping on my friend's couch in Palo Alto. And you know, last week is the world's richest guy, because he always was in his mind. What I think is interesting is that when you listen to that summation of the time with them and in the book, The Start Playbook, there's like summaries of the lenses, those entrepreneurs use to select their ideas. So, it's the way they view it. It's their mindset that allows them to lead and bet their life on an idea that has turned into in most cases, a huge outcome. I summarize this called the five lenses. So, if you listen to all the time, basically they say an idea would pass through these five lenses in the same order, over a period of typically three years before you know how big it could be. And the first lens is proprietary gift. Why you and why now? Like, what's your unfair advantage? The second one is extreme focus. You don't want 10 ideas. You want one solution to one problem. So, getting the validation, the first principles logic in place, so you can get extreme focus. So, you have night and day obsession, conscious and subconscious working at problem is could vital to making this work. The third lens is you have to go painkillers, not vitamins. Vitamins are wishful thinking and wishful thinking is the enemy, according to Elon. So, getting the painkiller, which solves who is the customer, right? Solves the chronic lifelong malignant problem that is you can solve forever, which leads the last two lenses, which are something that you become, which is the 10X factor was the fifth, fourth ones, which is what element of the business given enough time could be 10 times better than anyone else in the world. And then the fifth lens is permanence. Like, how do you build a monopoly? How do you put hooks and barbs in customers so they can never leave? So, you could evolve with them for years and so, they'll quit. So those five lenses are very high bar. They're not something to be thought about that some of you discovered and you need to learn them over a period of time that allows them to become true because you're deploying energy, money, capital, people into becoming that. So, I'll pause there, but they're quite profound when you think about your own business. And I hope that listeners do as well. Steve Rush: Yeah, I love the whole principle. It's almost a systematic approach to thinking about this is the direction I need to take the business in. Need to take the leadership of the organization in as well. David Kidder: Yep Steve Rush: If you were to peel back all of the layers across all of the lenses across those 40. Is there may be the one thing that stands out beyond everything else that is the most important, the most significant? David Kidder: You got to care the most, it's obsession. I'll tell you; I mean, I can speak my very modest career. But I think that whatever you do, when you care the most, it almost always works in whatever view of works defines you. So, I think that's the most important thing is that you deeply, deeply care. You just won't be able to get through the hard times if you don't. Because you know, no matter how successful the company is, you're going to go through blink at death moments. I mean, you know, we had one, you know, this last year of the pandemic and, you know, not only survived, but thrived through it as a result of that, you know, you don't sleep on the factory floor on the brink of death unless you care more. And I think that's the central limit. It's not just passion, and yeah, I love something, it's obsession is born to do it. And I think you should listen to that voice inside of you and not play to lose. You have to play to win, to be able to produce something of any meaning. Steve Rush: I love it. Awesome. So, if I'm a leader in an established team or business, I'm not involved in the VC startup environment, is there anything that you think that would be useful for me to consider? So that would fully propel me in my existing business. David Kidder: Yes. I mean, the idea that, you know, growth is exclusively a venture capital entrepreneurship idea is false. We proven that over the world-class bunch of years, you know, this is a form of management. In the same way have actually master's degree of administration that solve the big to bigger, because it's no noble. We have management skills in discovering investing and solving new problems that are called growth investing in entrepreneurship as a form of a career. And it's not exclusive to outside of companies. It's that outside of companies have not created the incentive to be paid to do it, but they can do it, we've proven that, at billions of values. So, I just think that you know, the biggest mindset shift when you're thinking about how to manage and why you manage this and how to solve disruption is one of the concepts that Bionic has pioneered called TAM to TAP. It's sort of Total Addressable Marketplace view of the world to a Total Addressable Problem. From linear five big bets a year to portfolio with a 90% failure rate, recollect five, let's 50 where 90% fail within two or three years, but they're going to discover the proprietary gifted in us and the need of the world that we had to solve become. So that Tamba Tap really changes from an inside out to an outside of a new world. So, it ends the technology in search of a problem or science in search of a customer problem challenge, that is almost always fatal because how do you know what to make? If you don't know a problem you're solving. These ideas are so profoundly simple, but they have massive impact organizations that are literally crossing their fingers and hoping their ideas work. So, if you read New To Big, the book, you'll start to get kind of the beta or the 1.0 of how to think about this. And then we have a whole bunch of new learning you can go to onbionic.com and learn more about it, or just reach out to me. But I think these are concepts that help shift the organization's mindset and begin journey of like discovery because it draws a distinction from efficiency and planning. Steve Rush: I think mindset is massive here, right? So, when I hear you talk about a portfolio with a 90% fail rate, my stomach does starts to churn, right? So how do you get into the mindset to help people in an organization recognize that's okay. David Kidder: Well, you need to play into their, you know, genetics, which is, you know, if we launched 90 things and it's more efficient than launching five big expensive failures, because they now, these people are really smart. They know that they're launched five things, one will work, they're all going to cost 50 million. But if I could launch a hundred, the all costs a hundred grand, I actually saved money. I get more shots on goal. I see more. I discover myself and I'm right on time because market timing drives these needs. They realize that we can't just show up my balance sheet and my brand and make it work because it's not about us. It's about solving the need. It's the outside force. It's the rip that makes the business work, not ours. And so, it's being there when it happens. When you're positioning capital or new need or the need that just changed of your customer, which is why disruption happens. Disruption happens, when the change comes to you versus you arriving with it, but it shows up at your doorstep, like what happens in the pandemic. It's all because the need changed. The customer's behavior changed, that's it. Behaviors don't lie, how it got delivered, how it got paid for, how it gets solved, AI, technology outside forces. But none of that matters. It's simply what the customer does that we're trying to solve. And in many cases, the customer doesn't even know. So how do you discover the change? The customer doesn't even understand that's happening. You only can discover that through experiments and learning with them. Not for them, not inside, for them, with them. And so, this is profound. Like, I mean, it sounds simple, but when you start working, thinking this way, this changes everything. Steve Rush: Is academically sounds very simple, but behaviorally. There is so much going on with mindsets, behaviors, systems, political warfare internally, I guess, plays out here too. Has it been a time maybe that you found that when you've met with an organization, they've gone no way, David, we're not playing this game? This is far too risky. David Kidder: Of course, of course. Steve Rush: So how do you deal with that? David Kidder: Well, I mean, listen, Bionic has worked with 26 companies in the last eight years, but we work at the CEO level. These companies work with the largest of the world. I mentioned a couple of names, Citi Corp you know, General Mills, Nike, Santander, P&G is a very incredible case study for us. There's actually an HBS case study on this work written by Linda Hill about the Growth OS, but largely about Kathy Fish, the head of global R&D at P&G, She's amazing. But the point is, is that not every company is ready because the CEO it creates or denies the permission to grow. I wrote the purpose of Bionic was to ignite growth revolutions. And what I've come to realize is it's actually not about money. It's about the interior life of the leader. They are the ceiling of what's possible for our organization. Steve Rush: Right. David Kidder: What freaks them out is, in the past. When they launched a hundred things, nothing ever died. They started lighting money on fire. They had to manage it. They need a way to manage it and not light their money on fire. And our model is that answer. And when they get comfortable with that, they go to scale. I mean, our partners are launching hundreds of startups, a quarter zonally vertically. They're adding hundreds of millions in some cases, billions of new revenues each year repeatedly. So, I rarely use the word innovation because of the brain damage around it, it's a toy. You have to create urgency, grow or die. When that happens, the question is, how? And the work Bionic does, New To Big is the how. Steve Rush: From your portfolio experience. So, you're an investor and you've got a significant portfolio of your own investments that you've made in other startups and businesses. Is there one that you've got there? It's the favorite child? David Kidder: I do. It's just one that you wouldn't think. Of course, there's the unicorns and those are exciting. And it takes about 50 bets to produce one in your life, even if you're connected, your shot is 1 in a 50. Unless you're very fortunate and network effect. And I was very fortunate because of that, but there's a company that I love and it's a founder, Lindsay Rosner, it's called Wellthy. The obsession comment I made earlier, born to do it. She is the, like the perfect case study for this, for profound reasons. So, Wellthy does a care coordination and they help families manage care at a distance. Family lives in lots of parts of the world or the country or town, even. A family member is sick, maybe they have mental illness. Maybe they have a degenerate disease or dementia, lots of stakeholders, lots of regulation and complexity. And they built a platform to solve that. It's like a quarterback managing all the aspects of caring for a single loved one. So that everyone's on the same page always. And you know, that was because, you know, Lindsay, when she grew up, you know, her mom had MS. And she was an only child and she had to lead and love and care for her mother through her very young age, through college, where she put herself through to Ivy league schools, started her own company. She is incredible, and she did this because she was born into it, obsession and gifted. And along the way, you know, she lost her mother and that continued to drive the purpose of her life. But Wellthy is a born to do a proprietary gift story that I love to tell because I love Lindsay, but I also just love the purpose of that company is on. And it's a great example of what will be a huge success because of her. Steve Rush: Awesome. Now, from your perspective, looking outside in at new opportunity like that, what drives your fire in your belly more? Is it that obsession with the people you work with or is it the product or return on investment? David Kidder: I mean, I probably should be more investment driven, you know, I've had raised a lot of venture, deployed a lot of venture. I love the becoming, I had a mentor and a relative of mine who passed away in 2014. Amazing guy, clinical psychologist, on the board of a bunch of big famous companies, great consultants. When he sold this company age 70, he passed away. Roger Fronske about nine months later. I was the last week person to see him. And he started me on my career as my uncle when I was 16. As he passed away, I saw him a couple of days before, and we were together and were forehead to ford, as he was saying goodbye. He had brain cancer, and he said, don't focus on who you are to the world, focus on who you're becoming. The idea becoming now, which is central to my philosophy but also that of my companies is that, you know, when you get to the top, you realize there's nothing there. The journey is where the growth is. That's where the love is. That's where the people are, relationships the vulnerability, the change. So, when you try to escape that, get out of that, to get to the exit, get to the top, finally get blank, you realize like what a perishable identity you have with that success. The success is falling in love with the becoming. And I really counsel my teams and the company, my culture, to create the doctrine, to make choices that choose the becoming versus, you know, performance and, you know, kind of like the silly comparison. That's a solving to probably an old shame in your life that you have to be successful but, in this case, find what you love. I love that part of the work. And so, wherever I apply, the energy will be important to me. Steve Rush: Really profound story, thank you for sharing it by the way, David, I appreciate it. David Kidder: Yeah, of course. Steve Rush: So, this part of the show is where we start to hack into your leadership brain. And I'm going to ask you to distill all of the years of learning experiences in organizations and tap into the very top three leadership hacks that you have. David Kidder: One that is new to me is to lead with the truth. This is one of the profound lessons I've learned in building Bionic is that people want the truth so they can help. Not because they're scared, but because they want to help and what they resent when you don't tell them the truth and ask them to help is that you didn't ask them because that's why they're there. So that is a gap between you, the CEO and the team, and that gap is can really only be filled by the team because most of the answers always come from the edge of the team. So that was one of the big one is lead with the truth. And it will shock you where you end up. Number two is I start in my day with a five-minute journal and it helps me understand where I am in the journey each day. I think there's a famous saying, which says, you're always optimistic about what you can accomplish in a day and you undress it and you can accomplish it in a year. So, getting the day right is most important. So, my five minute opens and closes the day with what I'm grateful for, what I need for that day. What I asks of the truths I need that day and also ask the universe, like, what do I need? And so, I close and begin the day, figuring out those things, but also reflect on like, hey, how could I have grown? You know, what can I handle better? That's the second one. And the third one is really the becoming part, which I just shared why that was important, but the becoming is philosophical, but it's also really important because you need a lot of patients when you're trying to create change and grow something. You know, the greatest force of the universe is compound interest. Will you do the right thing for a long period of time, it's inevitable. If you get that system right, that you'll be successful in whatever you define success, because it's what you think about. So, getting those things right, you know, those hacks right of the truth, that's reflective in the five-minute journal. And then you focus on becoming, I think no matter where you focus, your energy will lead to extraordinary outcomes. Steve Rush: Very great lessons. Thank you so much. The next part of our show is we call affectionately Hack to Attack. So, this is where something in your life or work has not worked out as planned. Could have been quite catastrophic or even screwed up. But as a result of the experience, we've now used that experience as a positive force in our life and work, what will be your Hack to Attack David? David Kidder: Hit the reset button, start over. I think people underestimate how powerful it is, is to set down an old truth, set down a day, set down an hour and start over. The ability to restart, reset, restart, however you want define it, is a miracle. You could restart your life. You could restart your career. You could restart your day. You could restart your relationship with person, your kids, your spouse, your co-founder, yourself. In a minute, in an hour, in a day, in a week, whenever you want. It's just a choice. And so being able to say, okay, that was a super bad morning. I'm going to restart my morning. I'm going to restart this meeting in the meeting. I'm going to restart this conversation. I'm going to restart my financial life, my savings, my spending, whatever it is. That power is available to you. I remember I had a moment when I went through total abject failure and had to build back. I was imagining myself running through these thorns, right? This my metaphor, but this how I felt. The harder ran the deeper the thorns got. I had nothing left. I was bleeding out, but I kept going because I would not fail. And I had this moment. It was probably one of most courageous resets in my life. As I imagined myself, lifting myself out of that road and putting myself on a clean new road. But what I did is as I moved myself back to when I was 20 years old. And when I realized is that all the same things that I knew and believed and was hopeful for about the future when I was 20 was still true today. I just need to re up, re believe, reset. And what were the challenge for me was I felt foolish and naive because who does that? Maybe I should just quit and find safety, that was all fear. And so that courageousness of starting over, but starting back in time, when you knew what was possible, all that optimism back, it just an amazing force. So, my hack is to reset or restart, however you define it. I think it's probably the greatest privilege and power we have in our lives. And you have the choice to do it at any moment in your day, week or life, to begin again. Steve Rush: Comes back down to mindset as well, doesn't it? David Kidder: Hundred percent. Steve Rush: Having the conviction to say, right. Need to change, need to do it. Now, ironically, our third and final thing that we wanted to take you through was a bit of time travel and you get to almost revisit the 20-year-old. And in this case, the 21-year-old David and give him some advice, what would be your advice then? David Kidder: To love yourself. And I think it's hard to not think about that through a lens of like selflessness, because I think that it's like, what I've discovered is that. I have three sons and I love them like the power of the sun, right? And as you think about how you love them; you would never want them to do something or be something that was harmful to themselves, that wasn't for loving themselves, right? Because they become, you know, a performance addict or, you know, all the dope, right? Steve Rush: Sure. David Kidder: Make the field better. So, I think if you can take that same power and shine it from your soul to yourself, you can realize, am I doing this through love or fear? And so, when you start to look at the choices that you're making in your life, in your business, yourself, especially largely they're made through performance and fear, but if you can get that orientation, right. That observer self to yourself saying, you know, I love you Steve, then I could ask the question is, why are you doing this? What are you needing? And that changes everything. And I taught my kids about this, but I would talk to myself about this, if I went back to when I was 21, because it would have saved me probably 10 years of my life, at least I'm 47 now, because I just made choices out of fear. Steve Rush: Yeah, and we often do, because that sense of fear is that self-preservation thing working out, which is what most entrepreneurs flip to use, their opportunity. David Kidder: Yup, a hundred percent. They're not even solving the problem. They're solving something inside themselves. Usually, it's an old shame. Steve Rush: I did some research for this many, many years ago, actually. And most entrepreneurs happen to be the least academical individuals as well, because they've used their creativity. They've focused on intuition. They've used all of those raw kind of right-hand emotions versus the left-hand emotions that we need to be effective in business too. David Kidder: Yeah. It's funny, you mentioned the word academic. I am almost anti academic and my dad was a psychologist, PhD. It's hilarious because, while we have a couple of PhDs at Bionic, who I love, where, you know, we create the outcome and you know, it's grounded in good academics, but it's not all that. Steve Rush: Right. So, what's new and what's next for you David? And for the folk at Bionic? David Kidder: You know, for now. I mean, it's the same, the purpose of our lives, the purpose of Bionic. My writing, thinking, and the company has never been more needed in the world today than any time in my lifetime. And certainly not since we started the company, I mean, transformation and growth are the most important things in the world today. And it's what we do. And so, I am in the right place, right time, you know, classic overnight journey, eight years in the work. And I couldn't be more honored to be doing it. Steve Rush: And if ever there was a right time to get you onto our show, it's also the now. So thank you for being with us. David Kidder: Grateful. Steve Rush: Where's the best place for us to send folk who would like to learn a bit more about you, but more about the work that you do, you're writing and Bionic. David Kidder: Sure. So, there's two places for big companies. If see a big company you can go to onbionic.com O-N-B-I-O-N-I-C.com, learn more about transformation for big organizations there. For speaking or keynotes or books. You can go to davidskidder.com, D-A-V-I-D S in Steve K-I-D-D-E-R.com and there is a bunch of stuff up there. And hopefully it's enjoyable, feel free to reach out. I'm pretty available. So, we're accessible. So, no worries there but love to stay in connected with the world. Steve Rush: You're also pretty accessible through social media. We'll make sure that we have all of those links in our show notes as well. David Kidder: Thank you, wonderful. Steve Rush: It's only left for me to say thank you, David. I just love chatting with you. You're a really inspirational guy and that's no surprise why you have been so successful in winning and losing, and the 10% that are successful growing into great organizations and great companies. But thank you very much for being on The Leadership Hacker Podcast. David Kidder: It's my pleasure. Thanks, Steve. Closing Steve Rush: I genuinely want to say heartfelt thanks for taking time out of your day to listen in too. We do this in the service of helping others, and spreading the word of leadership. Without you listening in, there would be no show. So please subscribe now if you have not done so already. Share this podcast with your communities, network, and help us develop a community and a tribe of leadership hackers. Finally, if you would like me to work with your senior team, your leadership community, keynote an event, or you would like to sponsor an episode. Please connect with us, by our social media. And you can do that by following and liking our pages on Twitter and Facebook our handle there @leadershiphacker. Instagram you can find us there @the_leadership_hacker and at YouTube, we are just Leadership Hacker, so that is me signing off. I am Steve Rush and I have been the leadership hacker.
Only twenty percent of new businesses survive their first year. The companies that survive, and continue to succeed are those that focus on prioritizing long term profitability and efficiency. New to Big however tackles what comes next, how already successful firms can avoid the pitfalls of top heavy bureaucracy and continue to find means of growth. Professional consultants David Kidder and Christina Wallace delve into whether or not large companies can transform and adapt to keep up with emerging markets and business trends, arguing that companies need to rely on themselves to foster organic growth, not simply on acquisitions and partnerships. *** Do you want more free audiobook summaries like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries.
When it comes to pursuing your passions, you shouldn't have to choose. The Limit Does Not Exist is a podcast for people who want to embrace the “and” instead of “or” in their careers — offering concrete tools, real talk, and conversations with inspiring guests who have crafted their own interdisciplinary careers across STEM and the arts. The Limit Does Not Exist is a podcast from iHeartRadio and co-hosts serial entrepreneur/storyteller Christina Wallace and actress/writer/director Cate Scott Campbell. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are you currently learning in your creative pursuits? How fast would you say you are learning what you need to learn in order to begin activating that knowledge in your business? In the book New to Big by David Kidder and Christina Wallace, they write about the importance of learning quickly because “the future looks […] The post Learning Velocity (GWTW354) appeared first on Chris Martin Studios.
David Kidder is the co-founder of Bionic and Christina Wallace SVP of growth. Bionic is a company that helps large businesses scale and staff just like a startup. In April, David and Christina published the business book, "New to Big" which talks about their The Growth OS which is a tool that bionic uses to help established organizations think like entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. In this conversation, David and Christina get candid about how large companies need to approach growth differently in order to compete. They also explain the Growth OS, and how startups have a competitive edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Episode SummaryInnovating within a large corporation poses many challenges. The Lean Startup, the classic book by Eric Ries, teaches how small teams can pivot and create new products quickly, but applying these principles in larger companies is not always clear. New to Big takes the next step by providing prescriptive advice for how large companies can innovate successfully by applying venture capital principles. Join us as we hear from Christina Wallace, coauthor of New To Big and VP of Growth at Bionic, as we talk about the mindsets needed for innovation, the importance of uncovering customer needs and the value of a zig-zag career. About New to BigSerial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal their revolutionary playbook for igniting growth inside established companies. Most established companies face a key survival challenge, says David Kidder, CEO of Bionic, lifelong entrepreneur, and angel investor in more than thirty startups: operational efficiency and outdated bureaucracy are at war with new growth. Legacy companies are skilled at growing big businesses into even bigger ones. But they are less adept at discovering new opportunities and turning them into big businesses, the way entrepreneurs and early-stage investors must. In New to Big, Kidder and Wallace reveal their proprietary blueprint for installing a permanent growth capability inside any company--the Growth Operating System. About Bionic Bionic seeds and launches startups that discover and solve new customer problems for the world’s most competitive companies. Bionic installs a new, permanent capability within large enterprises that leverages the mindset and mechanics of entrepreneurship and venture capital to deliver an always-on pipeline of growth.About the Digging for Insights PodcastWhether you are a marketing research professional looking for career inspiration, or a business looking for ways to become customer focused, the Digging for Insights podcast is for you. How do you know what your customers really need? How can you use research to make critical business decisions? Join Stephen Griffiths, a Fortune 500 Corporate Researcher to find answers to these questions as you dig for the insights that will grow your business. Whether you work in marketing, consumer insights, customer experience, analytics or market research, this podcast provides case studies, how-to research methods and career advice that can accelerate your career.
Resources: Christina Wallace's website Forbes Article: Why Everyone Should Consider Building A Portfolio Career Podcast - The Limit Does Not Exist The Future Belongs to Human Venn Diagrams speech at TEDxSan Antonio Contact information on Twitter @cmwalla Bionic
Let's face it, online dating can suck. So many potential people, so much time wasted -- is it even worth it? Podcaster and entrepreneur Christina Wallace thinks so, if you do it right. In a funny, practical talk, Wallace shares how she used her MBA skill set to invent a "zero date" approach and get off swipe-based apps -- and how you can, too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Seamos realistas, las citas en línea pueden apestar. Tantas personas potenciales, tanto tiempo perdido, ¿vale la pena? Podcaster y empresaria Christina Wallace piensa que sí, si lo haces bien. En una charla divertida y práctica, Wallace comparte cómo usó su conjunto de habilidades de MBA para inventar un enfoque de "cita cero" y salir de las aplicaciones basadas en deslizamiento, y cómo usted también puede hacerlo.
솔직히 얘기해봅시다. 온라인 소개팅은 별로일 수 있어요. 많은 사람들과, 많은 시간들이 낭비되고 있습니다. 그럴만한 가치가 있을까요? 팟캐스트 방송인이자 기업가인 크리스티나 월레스는 그렇다고 생각합니다. 제대로만 한다면요. 재밌고 실용적인 강연에서 크리스티나는 어떻게 경영전문대학원(MBA)에서 배운 기술들로 "제로 데이트" 접근법을 개발했고 어떻게 소개팅 앱을 떠날 수 있었는지 이야기합니다. 그리고 어떻게 하면 여러분도 그렇게 할 수 있는지에 대해서도요.
Sejamos sinceros, um encontro on-line pode ser ruim. Muitas pessoas em potencial, muito tempo desperdiçado, será que vale a pena? A empreendedora e "podcaster" Christina Wallace acredita que sim, se você fizer certo. Em uma palestra cômica e prática, Wallace compartilha como ela usou suas habilidades da pós-graduação para criar o "encontro zero" e sair dos aplicativos baseados em escolha rápida, e como você pode fazer o mesmo também.
Let's face it, online dating can suck. So many potential people, so much time wasted -- is it even worth it? Podcaster and entrepreneur Christina Wallace thinks so, if you do it right. In a funny, practical talk, Wallace shares how she used her MBA skill set to invent a "zero date" approach and get off swipe-based apps -- and how you can, too.
Reconnaissons-le, les rencontres en ligne peuvent être vraiment nulles. Tant de personnes potentielles, tant de temps perdu – cela vaut-il le coup ? L'animatrice de podcasts et entrepreneuse Christina Wallace pense que oui, si on le fait correctement. Dans une conférence amusante et concrète, Christina Wallace explique comment elle a utilisé son MBA pour inventer une approche « rendez-vous zéro » pour se sortir des applications où l'on fait glisser les profils – et comment vous pouvez en faire de même.
The world is awash with capital, why aren't companies reinvesting in innovation to jump start the economy? The Forum for Growth & Innovation is led by Professor Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School. In this series we explore what Clay calls "The Capitalist's Dilemma" with various people in the field, academia and within our own ranks. In this installment we talk with two experts, David Kidder and Christina Wallace of Bionic Solution. Bionic Solution is a growth strategies services firm that helps clients create a start-up ecosystem to help them start new growth.
Meet Christina Wallace, a serial entrepreneur, storyteller, and all-around woman in tech. While she’s currently the VP of Growth at early stage startup Bionic, she’s also founded venture-backed fashion startup Quincy Apparel, opened the New York office of Startup Institute, and founded BridgeUp: STEM @ the American Museum of Natural History, a new educational division that inspires […] Read more...
Fam, we recorded a live show! KPCC In Person presented Mash-Up Live featuring the one-and-only Bricia Lopez. Bricia is a Mexican-American Mash-Up and the official mezcalera of LA! (We may have gotten drunk.) Bricia is a partner at Guelaguetza Restaurant, which was founded by her father and is LA's temple for Oaxacan cuisine. We talked about what it was like seeing her first white person, how bulgogi and carne asada are the basically the same, and why she is so proud to be an immigrant. You also get a bonus podcast today: Included in this episode is the live recording of The Limit Does Not Exist, which is hosted by Christina Wallace and Cate Scott Campbell and is available on Forbes and Podcast One. If you believe that creativity, science and technology are better together, The Limit Does Not Exist is for you! Stick around after our episode for their conversation with the science writer Jennifer Ouellette. Thank you to KPCC In Person and Skylight Studios for producing the event. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Fam, we recorded a live show! KPCC In Person presented Mash-Up Live featuring the one-and-only Bricia Lopez. Bricia is a Mexican-American Mash-Up and the official mezcalera of LA! (We may have gotten drunk.) Bricia is a partner at Guelaguetza Restaurant, which was founded by her father and is LA's temple for Oaxacan cuisine. We talked about what it was like seeing her first white person, how bulgogi and carne asada are the basically the same, and why she is so proud to be an immigrant. You also get a bonus podcast today: Included in this episode is the live recording of The Limit Does Not Exist, which is hosted by Christina Wallace and Cate Scott Campbell and is available on Forbes and Podcast One. If you believe that creativity, science and technology are better together, The Limit Does Not Exist is for you! Stick around after our episode for their conversation with the science writer Jennifer Ouellette. Thank you to KPCC In Person and Skylight Studios for producing the event. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Can taking outside capital kill your startup? Christina Wallace, is the VP of Growth at Bionic, a company that brings startup and VC experience to enterprise. Previously she was founding director of BridgeUp: STEM, an educational initiative to captivate, inspire, and propel girls and minorities into computer science. Erica Duignan Minnihan and Christina talk about lessons learned from a failed startup, fundraising, and finding the right cofounder. Show Notes Going Against the Flow: Christina Wallace, Founder of BridgeUp: STEM at AMNH by Charu Sharma, Huffington Post BridgeUp: STEM Helen Gurley Brown May Never Have Used a Computer. But Her Trust is Into Coding by Tate Williams, Inside Philanthropy Let’s Get Real About Startups And Mental Health Christina Wallace, Medium After 10 Months, A Boatload Of Press, And A CEO's Departure, Apparel Startup Quincy Shuts Down by Alyson Shontell, Business Insider My Father was an Abusive Sociopath and I was the Only One He Had Left by Christina Wallace, elle.com Tranche Investing Will Kill Your Startup--Here's Why by Tom Kriegistein, Forbes The Moment I Lost Everything by Kathryn Minshew, Medium Looking for Love in All The Wrong Places - How to Find a Co-founder First Round Review Genius in Madness? 72% of Entrepreneurs Affected by Mental Health Conditions by Debra Carpenter, StartupGrind Guest bios & transcripts are available on www.broadmic.com.
Audio File: Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders: Hi this is Lucy Sanders, the CEO, co‑founder of NCWIT. The National Center for Women and Information Technology. We have another one of our really fabulous interviews today with women who have been very successful in the entrepreneurial space. Today we're interviewing a woman who has experience across for profit and the non‑profit entrepreneurial sectors. Larry Nelson: Good. Lucy: Good. With me is Larry Nelson, w3w3.com. Hi Larry. Larry: Hi, I'm really happy to be here. I really loved your site and our listeners are going to learn it. A number of wonderful lessons and were posted on our home page and NCWIT channel as well as a podcast directory and blog. Of course, we're in really shine is on the ncwit.org site. Lucy: Yes, very excited about that. Today we're talking to Christina Wallace and as I mentioned before, Christina has a lot of experience in both for profit and the non‑profit sectors. She was also named as one of Mashables 44 female founders to know. Now, all of our listeners are going to know Christina. Larry: There you go. Lucy: That's absolutely awesome. Today she's the founding partner of BridgeUp: STEM and certainly near and dear to our heart. For those of you listening, STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and BridgeUP: STEM is a new educational initiative at the American Museum of Natural History and it's focused on introducing girls and minorities to computer science again, something that we care passionately about. Before her role at BridgeUP STEM, she was vice‑president at Startup Institute and the founder and CEO of Venture Back eCommerce brand, Quincy Apparels. A management consultant with Boston Consulting Group, who we used to hire when I worked at AT&T, and an arts manager at the Metropolitan Opera. Wow, what a span of things. I can't wait to hear about it in addition to, she has an MBA from Harvard University. Christina, welcome. We're really happy to have you here. Before we start and get into the interview questions maybe just a little bit more for listeners about BridgeUp: STEM. I'm sure they'll be curious to know what you're up to there. Christina Wallace: Sure, we're very excited. We're about six months into a five year grant to build BridgeUP: STEM. Helen Gurly Brown Foundation was very generous in being our founding partner to support this. It is a new portfolio of programs actually. There's several pieces of this that we're building over the next five years at the museum, really focused on diversifying the pipeline of talent going into STEM. Really trying to get more girls, more minorities, under‑served students into the pipeline, getting them into computer science and encouraging them and inspiring them. Our first piece of initiative is what we call our Brown Scholars Program and that is intended as an intensive two‑year after school program for 9th and 10th grade girls to come to the museum two days a week after school and we'll teach them to code in python. We'll introduce them to some statistics and data science and a little bit of algorithms and databases and data visualization. We'll do that through using the scientific data sets here and letting them become mini data scientists. Getting to play with genome data, getting to play with our digital universe atlas of the universe and, in their second year, do real research with some of our scientists here and the opportunity to really contribute to some of the work being done. That's our first big kick off for this program. Our girls start in our first cohort in February and we'll do another cohort sort of every trimester. Fall, Spring and Summer for the next few years. Then we're adding additional programming this summer for middle school students, boys and girls, trying to get out into the boroughs of New York City so it's not just something we have on the upper west side. Then we're really looking into professional development and curriculum development opportunities for public school teachers. Trying to bring computational thinking and computer science into existing math and science classrooms. Trying to really give the students of New York an opportunity to get exposed to this discipline and hoping to piquÈ their interest so that they're, you know, thinking about this as a real opportunity when they go to college. Lucy: And we like that at NCWIT, I'll tell you what. [laughs] Larry: Yes. Ain't that the truth. Lucy: That is the truth. Christina, why don't you tell our listeners a bit about how you first got interested in technology and, as you look out there with all the great technologies you mentioned, data science for example. What other kinds of technologies do you see that you think are really exciting? PARTICIPANT: Sure. So, I got into technology pretty young without realizing that it was a thing, or a thing that I could get into. My mom was a secretary in the computer science department and Michigan State University. We got to play with one of the very first laptops. It didn't have an internal hard drive, it was a dual floppy with a green screen so you could boot it up on one floppy and then you could run a program off the other. And got to participate in some of the early experiments that some of the professors at Michigan State were doing with fingerprint scanning, which seemed so out there in 1991. And really got to see that this was something kind of cool and exciting from the future. I've always was a math nerd, was a math major all through college and took some early programming classes as part of that major. I didn't really put one and one together until business school. I started my career, as you said, at the Metropolitan Opera, I started off on the art side. I've always been both the technologist and a creative artsy person and sort of thought the arts was where I was going to be where I made my home. When I got to business school and discovered there were all the tech start‑ups and sort of the creativity that came with creating something from nothing from a product and a business and really getting to kind of imagine something and then go build it, combined with the power of technology and computer science and data and all of those pieces. It just kind of clicked for the first time. That's how I made my path back into this. It's a little bit secluded, but technology is always been there from the beginning. In terms of the stuff I'm really excited about, I think data science is the thing right now. Computer programming, web dev, it's exciting. I like to make pretty things and I like to have them live online. Certainly mobile apps have been of focus for a long time. Being able to ask big questions from giant data sets and really get those in place that can help you design better products. It can help you think about customer segmentation a little bit better. In our case, to help you understand the human body or how different fossils might have originated from different family trees within evolution. In the case of our digital universe, finding new XO planets or seeing what else is out there in the giant universe. I think that's what's really exciting because there's more data now than there's ever existed ever. Larry: [laughs] Christina: It just seems to be compounding. Learning the tools and the skill set to be able to ask those questions and answer them is what gets me excited. Larry: Wow. That's really interesting. Lucy: What's an XO planet? Larry: Yeah. What is an XO planet? Christina: An XO planet is a planet that exists outside of our solar system. Our planet all rotate around the sun. Lucy: I'm such a moron. Christina: The sun isn't the only star that has planets. Our astronomers that search for XO planets are looking for planets that rotate around other stars. Lucy: Thank you for that. [laughs] Christina: You could tell I work at a science museum now. [laughs] Lucy: Yup. That's awesome. Larry: With all of these, this is very fascinating. Just why is it that you are an entrepreneur? What is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Christina: Oh, man. The creating something from nothing is just the thing that drives me. I was a theater director and a producer all throughout college. Going from that, spark of an idea to the plan of how we're going to do it, and then actually building it even if it requires some duct tape and holding two sticks together. Larry: [laughs] Christina: Hoping no one pushes a little bit too hard on the scenery. That's always been the conception to the execution in its first, second and 12th iteration, ideally under intense time, pressure with fewer resources than you would like is just what gets me excited, I think. I've never been at the point of scaling companies. I certainly haven't been at the point to make them big and IPO or any of that. It's sort of that zero to two that gets me really excited. When I created Quincy Apparel with my co‑founder, it's sort of the first time that we got to take this experience from the arts and kind of throw it onto a business model and see how that works and just...I don't know. Butting your head against the wall a hundred times and having it work 101 is just so exciting that I had to do it again [laughs] . When I moved onto Startup Institute and got to open a New York office, it was great to be given a product and ideas that they already figured out, but the question of how do we make it work in New York or will it work in New York? Larry: [laughs] Christina: If it works in New York, how do we make it work in other places too? Then, now getting to be able to start‑up inside a museum that has such an amazing brand and cultural trove. Everyone thinks who about MNH, their first reaction was always, "I love that museum. It's love." Larry: [laughs] Christina: You don't get to build something that's attached to love very often. Lucy: Awesome. I loved the Night at the Museum movie. [laughs] I love them also. Christina: We just had our first hackathon here at the museum, which was a big deal. To say the word "hackathon" in the museum and to let people spend the night and create something on our digital universe is exciting. Lucy: It was at the museum? Christina: It's the best of both worlds. The Night at the Museum, the 3:00 AM in the Hall of the Universe combined with, "Here, take our data. Build something cool on top of it." Lucy: It's so cool. That is awesome. Along this pathway, who has influenced you? You have mentors, role models, or people you've admired from afar? Christina: Yeah. There's been quite a few. One of them that stands out so immediately was a professor I had at business school, Dr. Noam Wasserman. He teaches this course called Founder's Dilemmas. It basically goes through all the ways that a start‑up could fail. It had nothing to do with your products sucking. Larry: [laughs] Christina: It's mostly about interpersonal skills, founder things, legal things, and how to think about who you need on your team. It's just the nuts and the bolts and the playbook for how to actually take an idea and turn it into a business that can continue to exist. It was a complete accident that I got into this class as a virtue of our class selection process. Maybe the second time he was teaching it, it wasn't in demand then as it is now. I actually tried to get out of the class, and I told him that. Lucy: [laughs] Christina: I was going to take this other education class and I couldn't get out of it. I was like, "I'm so sorry. Please forget that I told you I was trying to leave the class." [laughter] Christina: It ended up being one of the best experiences that I had at school. He stayed as one of my close mentors throughout this thing. Always on speed dial when I needed him during Quincy and even post my startup as I thought about, "What do I do next?" "How do I build a career within the start‑up world without being always the founder or always kind of driving this?" He's just been always there for me. I try to pay it back when I can, going back and teaching in his class or contributing when I can. He's been just a huge supporter, from the beginning, even when I told him I wasn't interested in being there on purpose. Larry: [laughs] Christina: And then I think the other person that really just has been driving me, especially in New York is Rachel Sklar. Lucy: Oh sure. Christina: She's the founder of "Change the Ratio" and "The List" and just has been on the forefront of trying to get more visibility and opportunity and access for women in tech, trying to make sure that not every conference is the stale pale male lineup of speakers. Trying to really call out biases when she sees them in media, or in companies, in the way that funders and VC's think about the work they're doing. She's unflagging in this regard. She takes a lot of criticism sometimes. It's hard getting to the forefront of a revolution, but she just does it and she always looks great doing it. She has so much energy and has been one of the reasons I've gotten such a great network of women in New York, from the beginning that have exponentially helped me succeed here and have become some of my best friends, which is pretty awesome to have that kind of a community. Lucy: Absolutely. Larry: Boy, that's better than dessert. Yes, that's good. Christina: [laughs] Lucy: Better than dessert. Larry: Though, Christina, let me ask this, with all the things you've been through and you've developed and you've been a part of and everything else, what's been the toughest thing you've had to do in your career? Christina: The toughest thing I've had to do in my career was to get back up after my company failed. It's something that I try to talk a lot about, because I don't think failure is something that high‑achieving, go‑getter people really think about it until the moment that they're in it themselves. It can feel really, kind of career ending or overwhelming or any of those things, and it's not, at least in the start‑up world. The moment that I knew that we were going to shut down and went through that whole process of unwinding the company. Then I went home and I crawled into my bed and I didn't leave for three weeks. There was this moment of paralysis, of like, "Well what do I do now? " In addition to the, "I have no skills. I'm generalist. I'm a little bit of everything and no one's going to want to hire me," through to the like, "How do I look my investors in the face again," and say, "I lost your money. I'm so sorry. That was never something that I thought would happen." To, "What about my employees?" They pay their rent with paychecks that I was giving them and they don't have them anymore. I've had kids on my health insurance plan. All of these things are going through your head and it can feel overwhelming. I gave myself a couple of weeks to watch The West Wing and to eat seamless and not see anyone. Then I got back up. That four‑week period was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do personally or professionally, but I did it and it all worked out. I don't think any point in the last two years, anyone has asked me, except from a "I want to learn perspective," no one's asked me "Why did your company fail? That's such a terrible reflection of you as a human being or an indication of your ability or your potential or your worth as a person." It's never came up. That was surprising and something I hope especially more women experience, at least in a lot of the public speaking I do and the mentoring I do. High achieving young women have never really failed at basically anything. The potential for failure, I hope, doesn't prevent them from trying. Lucy: That is so well said. In many of these cases, in both of the last questions you answered, you said like in the case of your professor, you know, "I didn't want to be there and yet, I learned so much." Nobody wants to fail, but definitely it's one of the places you learn a lot. Larry: Yep. Christina: Oh yeah. Lucy: You learn how to lead in hard times. That's very hard. I don't want to say it's remarkable experience because you don't say, "I hope you fail," but there's a lot of learning that can happen there. Sort of along those lines, you've already given us great advice about being an entrepreneur. If you were sitting here now, with young people talking about entrepreneurship, what other advice would you give them about being an entrepreneur? Christina: Not everyone should be an entrepreneur. Right now, it's being very popularized. It's in the Zeitgeist. We're sort of turning a lot of entrepreneurs into these rock stars. That's great that we're giving the visibility and the platform to sort of show off that this is one potential path, but it's not the path for everyone. There's also a lot that can be done, and it can be very fulfilling. It can be the right path to be an early hire at a start‑up, and to be employee number two or number one or number ten. To recognize that I want to be in a place that creates value. I want to be at a place that is very close to it's customers and listens for their feedback and iterates. I want to be at a place that values learning of it's employees and is really focused on professional development and opportunity for us as well as creating value for investors. Identify that start‑ups or technology companies or however you want to define this is a sector that you would really like to be part of without being the first one off the ship, with the idea and no money and living on the couch and taking all the risk. There's a lot of great experiences and obviously, we need entrepreneurs in order to drive innovation. But you don't have to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial. That's the distinction that, when I'm talking to a lot of the young students that I'm mentoring, really trying to help them define "Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? What specifically are you impassioned about solving a specific problem. Do you just see a potential opening in a market that you want to take advantage of?" Or, do you say, "I'm looking at the jobs in front of me in consulting and banking and brand management. None of those look exciting. I really liked that startup movie. I'm going to go start a company because it's not that hard to get $25,000 and two friends to build something at a hackathon." Those are very different things. To really identify where you think you sit and that it might change over time. You might not be ready to be an entrepreneur right out of school, or even in your 20's, but you want to get that experience. At some point, when you find that thing that you can't stop thinking about, and that opportunity that you just have to build, because no one else can build it except you, then you go and take that plunge. You risk everything to build it and that's totally legitimate. It doesn't have to be just his second and you don't have to be the founder to still get that entrepreneurial experience. Lucy: That's very wise. Larry: Boy, that's for sure. Christina I want to thank you for sharing the experience that you went through a few years ago. It's really a great turn on for a lot of people who really could use that extra push. Now I'm going to ask you another question... Christina: Sure. Larry: ...That kind of ties in with that. What are the personal characteristics that you have that given you the advantage of being an entrepreneur? Christina: This is a great question. I was reading a Steve Blank blog post on this today on the "First Round Capital" blog about what to look for when you're basically dating for co‑founders or what specific traits to look for. I don't remember the exact quotes that he put in there, but he basically outlined it as someone who can focus in the midst of extreme turmoil. Larry: [laughs] Christina: And it's function and moving pieces. Someone who is resilient and has endurance, that this is not a sprint, and it's such a clichÈ but it's so important to especially if you've never run a marathon. To understand what it means to run a marathon because it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. To have that resilience to keep getting back up and continue to try and push through. Someone who just has that work ethic to put in the hours. It's not just about long nights so that you can claim that you're working hard. But it's not like a work‑life balance thing. At least that's the beginning. To have that understanding of the discipline required for the home marshmallow test. Can you wait till tomorrow to get two marshmallows versus getting one marshmallow right now? Do you have the discipline to push through for a delayed gratification? Do you have the resilience and the endurance to pick yourself up even after you've been thrown to the ground 20 times? Do you have that ability to focus and make decisions when you're in sort of extreme chaos and dysfunction? Or does that paralyze you? Because that's an early stage company, the very beginnings of entrepreneurship. It's not about executing against an idea, it's trying to narrow down what that idea is. Triggering out what type of business plan that you are trying to execute against his and being able to prioritize and assign resources to different things when everything is priority number one. Some people have life experiences that just naturally prepare them for it. Thanks to you for saying that the ideal founder in his opinion of someone who grew up in a dysfunctional family and was a platoon army leader. [laughter] Christina: That gives you that perspective of chaos but decision making and leadership. Some people have those experiences. I would argue that, I was a costly trained pianist, and challenged for 16 years. That honed my discipline side of my brain, the ability to sit still and practice six hours a day. In hopes that three months from now, this piece will be ready to perform. I certainly grew up in a slightly dysfunctional, crazy things moving around and changing all the time kind of home life. From the endurance and the resilience piece, I run marathons and I climb mountains. I don't do either those things because I really like sweating. It's a way to sort of build that endurance muscle to push through and kind of recognize that head space that you've been there before and you can kind of get to the end of it. Lucy: Here in Boulder we have mountains and marathons. [laughter] Larry: Uh‑huh. Christina: There you go. Lucy: We have all those things here and we have craziness too. Larry: That's true, that's true. Christina: I believe that. Lucy: Totally crazy. You mentioned the work‑life balance and that's actually our next question around. How do you then sort of in some sense blend your personal and professional lives? Because we all have something that we do outside, what we call "work." Right? Larry: Yeah. Christina: Again, it's sort of a horrible not answer, answer. But it also sort of depends. It depends on what stage of life you're in, it depends on how you need to balance those things to make it work. It depends on who else is involved in the room with you right? So with Quincy, I made the decision very early on that it was all I was going to do. I worked seven days a week at it. I didn't sing in a choir, I didn't run marathons, I didn't date, I didn't see my friends, I didn't really see my family. It was just all I did, seven days a week. All I could think about even when I was sleeping. It was the one I needed. At the beginning we were getting from a running start with no money. We had a very specific length of time before we were out of money so that was the runway we had, it was about eight months. It either had to work or it was over. At the end of those eight months, we did managed to raise a venture capital. We had some resources and we were able to hire some people and my co‑founder and I looked at each other and said "We have to have slightly more work‑life balance, or we're going to burn out." So now we're in a different stage in our company. We're able to say, "OK, now we're working six days a week. We'll take one day off every weekend." She was married so she tried to find time and space to make room for her husband. I decided to take up long distance running and I got to go back on audition for a choir, so I'd have something. We got eight months more into that and we were nearly to a point where either was going to work or we were going to have to shut down. In either case, killing ourselves wasn't going to make that difference. We said "OK, now we're going to work five and half days a week" and make a little bit more space for ourselves. In the case of per jobs done at MNH, it's a very different culture here. It's a museum, it's a non‑profit. We have hours that the museum are open, we have hours that the education programs happen. A lot of the partners that I meet to interact with in order to build this program, they're not going to be on their email at four in the morning on a Sunday. There's no point in me being on email at four in the morning on a Sunday. There's a lot more space for me to have a work‑life balance here because the other partners in the room, insists on it. It's the culture that we have here. It can be frustrating sometimes. It can feel a little bit slow sometimes and that's the pay off, right? The nice thing is, I'm not competing with other companies to be the first to market with our product. It's a different type of a start‑up and a different type of an organization. Larry: Wow, that's really something. One of the things I would like to ask is, what mountain are you going to climb next but I'm... [laughter] Christina: Well I can tell you, I leave in two days. I'm going to Nepal to go to average base camp. Lucy: Oh my gosh. Wow, be careful. Larry: Oh wow. Christina: Thank you. Larry: Yeah, you have a great time. Yes. [crosstalk] Larry: Well, you've already been through a great deal, you achieved a lot. What's up for your next? Christina: I mean, I'm excited for project STEM. This could be a program that isn't just something we run at the American Museum of National History. But something that other museums and other informal learning areas might be able to adapt. One thing that we're already seeing in our early development here, is that by teaching coding in computer science through the lens of a subject that girls and minorities already know and are familiar with. We're getting a much higher sort of response rate to the applications and to the programs than we were expecting because if you look at biology, they don't have the gender gap that we have in computer science. Or at least not nearly as much, and certainly in a place like museum where a lot of these kids have been going on school trips since they were in kindergarten. It's a place that they recognize and that they feel comfortable in. We're not having this "Oh I'm not sure I fit in there" piece. For me, the big question that I wanted to ask with this program and I hope that will be able to publish the results and help others think about replicating is, can we teach computer science a lot like we teach English? Which is a tool to help you do other things. If the thing that you're interested in is biology or if it's fashion, or if it's art, let me teach you different languages and process season. Algorithms and things that it might be interesting tools for you to do that other thing that you care a lot about. We might be able to really see this change in this diversity of the talent that's interested in it. This is my big focus, what's got this grand for five years and I intend to take the most of it. But I really want to see this as something that scales beyond just MNH and beyond just New York City. As a way to think about computer science and STEM education. Or populations that aren't necessarily just attracted to the idea of "Let me learn to code, cause I want to learn to code." Lucy: Amen to that. If NCWIT can help you, we are here. Christina: Excellent. Lucy: We are absolutely here. Larry: Wow I'll tell you, that's a fact. We'll have your interview course up on our home page at w3w3.com, in our blog, in our podcast directory, in our newsletter. Most of all, go to ncwit.org and you'll see some fantastic information and stories. Lucy: Well, thank you Christina, very much of just great advice. We always love these interviews. We ask the same questions to everybody and they're all different, the answers of course. Very interesting, thank you very much. Christina: That's awesome. Thank you, I was so happy to be here. This is such a great initials of you guys have. Lucy: Thank you very much. Larry: Christina, I'm glad you didn't ask me to carry your bag on a couple of days so... [laughter] Lucy: Well, thanks very much. We're sort of done with the interview now. But I should just reinforce that offer to help, in any way, NCWIT got a lot of research and practice. What you're doing with bridge up STEM is very much in our will house in terms of interest. Larry: Yes. Christina: Excellent. I will absolutely follow up with you guys on that. Lucy: Yeah. We have a K12 alliance and all the organizations are working together in different things. There's no membership fees for non‑profits so could be some natural affinities there. Christina: Excellent. I will look into that more when I'm back from Nepal. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Christina WallaceInterview Summary: Christina Wallace is the founding director of Bridge Up: STEM which is a new educational initiative at the American Museum of Natural History focused on introducing girls and minorities to computer science. Before her current role at BridgeUp: STEM, Christina was a Vice President at Startup Institute, the Founder and CEO of venture-backed e-commerce brand Quincy Apparel, a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, and an arts manager at the Metropolitan Opera. "I'm excited for project STEM," said Wallace about her program. "This could be a program that isn't just something we run at the American Museum of National History. But something that other museums and other informal learning areas might be able to adapt. One thing that we're already seeing in our early development here, is that by teaching coding in computer science through the lens of a subject that girls and minorities already know and are familiar with." Release Date: March 22, 2015Interviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 27:52
Global Val of Mutiny Radio speaks with Patricia Belasama and Mona Lisa Wallace of California NOW, Stacy Malkin of the campaign for GMO labeling, Janet Weil of Code Pink and Christina Wallace of Freedom Socialist Party about California ballot propositions and the issues in the national election we are not hearing about. The post Women's Magazine: Election of Eve – November 5, 2012 appeared first on KPFA.