Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 339. Leading With Purpose: Strava's Chief Business Officer Zipporah Allen On Intentionality, Owning Her Mornings & Picking Up Running Later In Life

Transcript

339. Leading With Purpose: Strava's Chief Business Officer Zipporah Allen On Intentionality, Owning Her Mornings & Picking Up Running Later In Life · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: You can't be it if you can't see it, And
0:02
Speaker 1: I want to be the person that other people can
0:04
Speaker 1: see and say, oh, if she.
0:06
Speaker 2: Can do that, I can do that too.
0:21
Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, Emily, a body here. You're listening to episode
0:24
Speaker 3: three hundred and thirty nine of Hurdle, a wellness focused
0:27
Speaker 3: podcast where I talk to inspirational people about everything from
0:30
Speaker 3: their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips on
0:34
Speaker 3: how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life. We
0:38
Speaker 3: all go through our fair share of hurdles. My goal
0:41
Speaker 3: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
0:44
Speaker 3: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
0:47
Speaker 3: towards your own big potential and of course have some
0:51
Speaker 3: fun along the way. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness.
0:56
Speaker 3: Three thirty nine. I could not be more elated to
1:00
Speaker 3: bring my conversation with Zipporah Allen to the feed. Zip
1:05
Speaker 3: as her friends call her, is the chief business officer
1:10
Speaker 3: over at Strava. I am an active user of Strava
1:15
Speaker 3: for many years now. I had the honor of hosting
1:19
Speaker 3: their annual Camp Strava last year as their official head
1:23
Speaker 3: camp counselor. And this is a conversation that has been
1:28
Speaker 3: in the works since well before then. In today's episode,
1:33
Speaker 3: Zip and I really get into it. We talk about
1:35
Speaker 3: the journey that led her to Strava and what it
1:38
Speaker 3: was like to work at brands like McDonald's and Pizza
1:41
Speaker 3: Hut and Taco Bell believe it or not, before landing
1:45
Speaker 3: in the health and wellness space. Naturally, when I have
1:48
Speaker 3: the opportunity to talk to anyone with a title like ZIPS,
1:52
Speaker 3: I love to get their best practice business advice. Zip
1:56
Speaker 3: and I talk about what it's like for her to
1:58
Speaker 3: be a leader, what her leadership style is. We also
2:01
Speaker 3: talk about the importance she places on learning as she
2:05
Speaker 3: progresses within her career, and what it's like to be
2:08
Speaker 3: on the board of directors for a company. Naturally, we
2:12
Speaker 3: also talked about running. Zip shares her relationship with the
2:15
Speaker 3: Score and how she actually really got into lacing up
2:19
Speaker 3: herself upon taking this role at Strava and now proudly
2:23
Speaker 3: calls herself a two time marathoner. Plus she offers advice
2:28
Speaker 3: that she'd give her younger self, and why she feels
2:31
Speaker 3: that it is so so important to respond instead of react. Love, love,
2:38
Speaker 3: Love this conversation, and again so thankful that we were
2:42
Speaker 3: not only able to make it happen, but that I
2:45
Speaker 3: can now bring it to the feed. Make sure if
2:48
Speaker 3: you're not yet subscribed to the weekly Hurdle newsletter you
2:51
Speaker 3: do that. The link is in the show notes. Follow
2:53
Speaker 3: along with Hurdle over on Instagram. It's at Hurdle Podcast.
2:56
Speaker 3: I am over at Emily a body and appropriate for
2:59
Speaker 3: this episode, the Hurdler's Strava group is waiting for you.
3:03
Speaker 3: I'll link that in the show notes as well. With that,
3:06
Speaker 3: let's get to it. Let's get it's a hurdling today.
3:16
Speaker 3: I am overjoyed to be sitting down with Zippora Allen.
3:21
Speaker 3: She is the chief a business officer over at Strava.
3:24
Speaker 3: How are we doing today's ZIP?
3:26
Speaker 2: I'm fantastic. It's so nice to see you.
3:30
Speaker 3: It's so good to see you. Zip and I are
3:32
Speaker 3: old friends. Now, what's your most recent activity on Strava ZIP?
3:36
Speaker 1: So, this week we actually had Strava's leadership off site
3:41
Speaker 1: and it was up in San Francisco in Berkeley. Specifically,
3:45
Speaker 1: we went on team activities that's always part of a
3:48
Speaker 1: Strava offsite, and we did a trail run. So I
3:51
Speaker 1: think my caption on that trail run was vibes and
3:54
Speaker 1: vert are really high. We did two thousand feet of
3:58
Speaker 1: climbing in like seven it's a lot.
4:01
Speaker 3: Wow, that is an impressive amount of climbing and like
4:04
Speaker 3: really fun. It seems when your personal interests align with
4:10
Speaker 3: the interests of your company, you can't be a non
4:14
Speaker 3: active person and work at Strava.
4:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what's cool about it is you don't have
4:20
Speaker 1: to be you don't have to be doing two thousand
4:22
Speaker 1: feet avert in seven miles. We had a team that
4:25
Speaker 1: went hiking, which was just a nice little two mile
4:28
Speaker 1: loop with great views. We had a team that did
4:30
Speaker 1: a bike ride, so it doesn't have to be this
4:33
Speaker 1: like crazy, like really high performing team. And we did
4:36
Speaker 1: a lot of power hiking.
4:38
Speaker 2: On the run, as all good trail runners know, you
4:41
Speaker 2: do a.
4:43
Speaker 3: Lot of power hiking and the run with air quotes. Yeah,
4:46
Speaker 3: I see that. I see that. I only learned, like
4:48
Speaker 3: within the last couple of years that trail running is
4:51
Speaker 3: often simply power hiking, which is.
4:53
Speaker 2: Okay, It's totally okay.
4:57
Speaker 3: It's totally okay. Well, I feel like someone he years
5:00
Speaker 3: the title chief business Officer at Strava, and they think,
5:04
Speaker 3: how does someone end up with a job like that
5:06
Speaker 3: that sounds like something that would be really cool. So
5:09
Speaker 3: I know that it's not a one sentence answer, but
5:12
Speaker 3: talk to us a little bit about your career trajectory
5:14
Speaker 3: before ending up at Strava.
5:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I do have to say I do think
5:20
Speaker 1: I have the best job in the world, and that
5:22
Speaker 1: is because I get to get up every day and
5:25
Speaker 1: think about our mission, which is to motivate people to
5:27
Speaker 1: live their best active lives. And I get to work
5:31
Speaker 1: with a team that engages our community, our partners, gets
5:35
Speaker 1: to bring Strava to the world and really recruit people
5:41
Speaker 1: onto our platform and make them feel like they belong.
5:44
Speaker 1: And so I get to do that every single day
5:47
Speaker 1: and it's just a joy and a privilege, and I
5:50
Speaker 1: feel like.
5:50
Speaker 2: I'm so, so so lucky.
5:53
Speaker 1: How I got here is I grew up as a
5:56
Speaker 1: marketer and a brand marketer specifically, And to say, I
6:00
Speaker 1: made this pivot from fifteen years in a fast food
6:04
Speaker 1: career to a fitness career, which might not seem that
6:07
Speaker 1: intuitive to a lot of people, but when you look
6:10
Speaker 1: at the similarities across fifteen years in restaurant brands. So
6:15
Speaker 1: I worked for McDonald's for a long time. I was
6:18
Speaker 1: the Chief Marketing officer of Pizza Hut. I was the
6:21
Speaker 1: chief Digital officer of Taco Bell most recently. But the
6:25
Speaker 1: common thread there is food is actually very emotional for people,
6:30
Speaker 1: and so as a marketer, you want to tap into
6:33
Speaker 1: the emotion. You want to tap into what it is
6:36
Speaker 1: that the food enables. So for Pizza it was really
6:40
Speaker 1: that connection and families were really important. For Taco Bell,
6:45
Speaker 1: it's a really cool brand, and so when you go
6:48
Speaker 1: to the Taco Bell brand, yes, it's about like emotionally
6:51
Speaker 1: fulfilling that craving for that really specific taste, but it
6:54
Speaker 1: also is about that cool factor of what being a
6:57
Speaker 1: Taco Bell customer says about you. And so taking that
7:02
Speaker 1: over to a brand like Strava has just been really
7:06
Speaker 1: interesting to make a pivot in my career to be
7:10
Speaker 1: more digitally focused. Strava physically doesn't exist in the world.
7:14
Speaker 1: It exists in people's run clubs, It exists in their
7:17
Speaker 1: hearts and their minds and in their own personal fitness journey.
7:23
Speaker 1: But you can't like walk into Strava like you can
7:26
Speaker 1: Taco Bell or Pizza Hut, and so that has been
7:30
Speaker 1: like a really interesting flex for me as a marketer
7:33
Speaker 1: to just learn that muscle of like, how do you
7:37
Speaker 1: create a brand? How do you create momentum when you
7:40
Speaker 1: don't have the like physical there's a McDonald's sign every
7:44
Speaker 1: like two miles in America, so that's kind of.
7:48
Speaker 3: How I got here.
7:49
Speaker 1: And then at Strava, I made the pivot from just
7:54
Speaker 1: marketing specifically to really broadening my experience. I have aspiration
8:00
Speaker 1: to continue to grow in my career. I'm an ambitious
8:03
Speaker 1: woman and I'm not shy about saying that. And expanding
8:08
Speaker 1: beyond marketing to really be accountable for all of our
8:11
Speaker 1: business growth, for our top line growth, for our community growth,
8:15
Speaker 1: for our revenue growth has been just a really great
8:19
Speaker 1: stretch for me.
8:21
Speaker 3: This is so admirable. First and foremost, I need to
8:24
Speaker 3: know before we go any further. Go to Taco Bell,
8:27
Speaker 3: order Oh, a black bean crunch rap. Do not sleep
8:31
Speaker 3: on the black beans at Taco Bell. They are so, so,
8:34
Speaker 3: so good. And then I'll usually pair that with a spicy,
8:41
Speaker 3: potato soft taco. So I eat almost entirely vegetarian at
8:45
Speaker 3: Taco Bell. My go to Taco Bell order is also
8:48
Speaker 3: a bean and cheese burrito, So I'm with you on
8:50
Speaker 3: the vegetarian avenue.
8:52
Speaker 2: I love it. My kids love the bean and cheese
8:54
Speaker 2: burrito too.
8:56
Speaker 3: I can't say I eat it very often, but I
8:58
Speaker 3: would be remiss if I didn't ask you that. And
9:00
Speaker 3: what I really appreciate about the insights that you gave
9:03
Speaker 3: me about how you ended up at Strava is the
9:08
Speaker 3: clear indication that you want to continue learning. And I
9:14
Speaker 3: believe that when you get to a place where you
9:16
Speaker 3: have these really grand titles where you're leading business units
9:21
Speaker 3: and change and entire companies right that sometimes that isn't
9:26
Speaker 3: always an option for you. Now to be in this
9:29
Speaker 3: position where you are the chief business officer, who are
9:34
Speaker 3: you learning from? Who are you leaning into to garner
9:38
Speaker 3: more education and continue to flex these muscles?
9:41
Speaker 1: I love that question because I've always had it. You know,
9:45
Speaker 1: if you look at my career, I will say the
9:47
Speaker 1: through line is learning and development. And when I have
9:53
Speaker 1: gotten myself into like situations where you're like, ooh, I'm
9:56
Speaker 1: a little uncomfortable, I don't know if I can actually
9:59
Speaker 1: do it, that's when the growth happens. And so earlier
10:04
Speaker 1: in my career, I actually moved internationally for three years
10:07
Speaker 1: with McDonald's, and that was like I knew nobody on
10:10
Speaker 1: the continent. It was Australia. I did not have the
10:16
Speaker 1: cultural context of like marketing a brand in that space,
10:20
Speaker 1: and I look back on that as one of the
10:23
Speaker 1: pivotal moments in both my life and my career on learning.
10:27
Speaker 1: And so now you're right, it does get harder when
10:30
Speaker 1: like you are looked to to be like, well, you're
10:32
Speaker 1: the person that's supposed to like know what to do
10:34
Speaker 1: in this scenario. One I find it just like really
10:39
Speaker 1: empowering to myself and also creates an environment where other
10:44
Speaker 1: people around me can say, I don't know. So there's
10:47
Speaker 1: a lot of situations. You know, I never worked for
10:50
Speaker 1: a subscription business before. This is the first time I've
10:53
Speaker 1: done that in my career, So there's a lot of
10:56
Speaker 1: situations where I tell my team, well, I don't know.
10:59
Speaker 1: I'm really lucky that I have a lot of people
11:02
Speaker 1: on my team cross functionally and that report to me
11:05
Speaker 1: that have taught me a lot about subscription businesses that
11:08
Speaker 1: I didn't know before. And so I think that, like,
11:11
Speaker 1: when you're at the top, it's very easy to say, oh,
11:13
Speaker 1: I should know all of the answers, but I look
11:16
Speaker 1: to my team to teach me a lot. And I'm
11:19
Speaker 1: humble about that. We have a new CEO, Mike Martin.
11:22
Speaker 1: He's awesome at Strava. He just came in just over
11:26
Speaker 1: a year ago and he has a completely different background.
11:29
Speaker 2: Turns out he has a lot of experience and subscription businesses,
11:32
Speaker 2: so he has taught me a lot. My peer set
11:35
Speaker 2: teaches me a lot.
11:36
Speaker 1: And then you know, I think I sit on a
11:38
Speaker 1: couple of external boards and that experience has really helped
11:44
Speaker 1: round out my perspective on just what's going on with
11:48
Speaker 1: the consumer, what's going on in the environment, what is
11:51
Speaker 1: cool right now? And where are the conversations going in
11:57
Speaker 1: the business world.
11:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, when I saw that you sit on the board
12:00
Speaker 3: for Reformation, I was like, hmm, I wonder if there's
12:03
Speaker 3: a discount that's involved with that. Now, this isn't a
12:06
Speaker 3: business podcast, so I don't want to go too far
12:08
Speaker 3: down this road, but I do need to ask because
12:12
Speaker 3: this beckons the question how does someone sit on a board?
12:16
Speaker 1: How does that happen? Oh, that's a great question. So
12:22
Speaker 1: I think there does need to be a fit with where.
12:25
Speaker 1: So what do boards of directors do? They really help
12:30
Speaker 1: the CEO be successful in achieving the mission and the
12:34
Speaker 1: financial results of a company that is like my definition
12:37
Speaker 1: of it. But really you're there to help the CEO
12:39
Speaker 1: and the management team be successful. And usually boards are
12:44
Speaker 1: made up of if it's a private board of investors,
12:48
Speaker 1: and then also independent board members. And I'm an independent
12:53
Speaker 1: board member on a couple of private companies, and what
12:56
Speaker 1: my role is is really to bring my background and expertise.
12:59
Speaker 2: And so I.
13:00
Speaker 1: Think you need a certain level of background and expertise
13:04
Speaker 1: to be valuable. And with the ref board, they were
13:08
Speaker 1: looking for somebody that understood consumer and understood digital and
13:13
Speaker 1: so you know, I in the conversations that I would
13:16
Speaker 1: have with recruiters would I would just tell them, hey,
13:19
Speaker 1: I'm open to board seats. I think I'm experienced enough
13:23
Speaker 1: to be able to add value, and also I'm looking
13:26
Speaker 1: to learn these specific things.
13:28
Speaker 2: For my board seats.
13:29
Speaker 1: So I think it's a give and take, but really
13:31
Speaker 1: just like putting it out there to the network. I
13:34
Speaker 1: really encourage, especially women, to just say what you want
13:39
Speaker 1: in every conversation because you never know when that's going
13:42
Speaker 1: to come back to you.
13:43
Speaker 3: I love this and again that through line of learning here, right,
13:46
Speaker 3: it's not only what can I bring to the table,
13:48
Speaker 3: but also who else is sitting at the table and
13:50
Speaker 3: what is it that we can exchange with one another.
13:53
Speaker 3: That's right, absolutely, Now transitioning back to the work that
13:57
Speaker 3: you do at Strava, not to are removed from when
14:01
Speaker 3: you started working at Strava, you also started to invest
14:03
Speaker 3: in your own journey of personal health and well being.
14:07
Speaker 3: Can you talk to me a little bit about that.
14:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've told this story on a couple of stages
14:13
Speaker 1: that you've been on as well. Yeah, if you look
14:17
Speaker 1: at my physical and I guess my wellness and fitness journey.
14:22
Speaker 1: I grew up as a dancer, and so I was
14:24
Speaker 1: a pretty serious ballet dancer. I danced in college on
14:27
Speaker 1: the dance team, and so I was sort of like
14:30
Speaker 1: a pilates yoga girly and I used to run very
14:35
Speaker 1: short distances for like I would say, like vanity purposes.
14:40
Speaker 1: And when I came to Strava, I said, look, there's
14:43
Speaker 1: this product that really helps people live their best active lives.
14:46
Speaker 1: But you know, at the time, and I think still
14:49
Speaker 1: is the case, Strava is really best suited to runners
14:52
Speaker 1: and cyclists. Bikes were a little bit intimidating to me.
14:56
Speaker 1: There's a lot that goes into riding a bike. I
14:58
Speaker 1: do have one now, but running was sort of the
15:01
Speaker 1: first place that I started, and I said, Okay, well,
15:03
Speaker 1: I have to learn the product. I have to really
15:05
Speaker 1: understand our consumers, so I have to start running, and
15:09
Speaker 1: boy is running hard. I ran my first two mile
15:12
Speaker 1: loop with my cell phone and the mobile recording screen
15:16
Speaker 1: on Strava around my house, and like five minutes in,
15:19
Speaker 1: I was like, how much longer do I have to go?
15:22
Speaker 1: And I was not even close to I mean, I
15:25
Speaker 1: don't think it was even like a quarter of the
15:27
Speaker 1: way through that run. So fast forward to I just
15:32
Speaker 1: I stuck with it. I gave myself a goal. I'm
15:35
Speaker 1: a goal oriented person, so I decided to run a
15:39
Speaker 1: local half marathon and I got myself a little hell
15:44
Speaker 1: Higden training plan and executed the plan and it was
15:49
Speaker 1: just like so hard, like everyone run was the longest
15:53
Speaker 1: I had ever run, and I was so proud of
15:56
Speaker 1: myself and Strava really did it helped me learn the
15:59
Speaker 1: product of Like wow, the kudos, the comments.
16:01
Speaker 2: The community was so so so supportive.
16:05
Speaker 1: And so now fast forward, I've run two marathons, the
16:08
Speaker 1: first of which was in New York City. You saw
16:10
Speaker 1: me probably at the lowest point of my running career ever,
16:14
Speaker 1: at mile eighteen and a half, I saw Emily and
16:17
Speaker 1: she was cheering me on, and I think I was
16:19
Speaker 1: like sort of like blacked out in like a fog
16:22
Speaker 1: of like, I still have like eight miles to go,
16:25
Speaker 1: I don't.
16:25
Speaker 2: Know how I'm going to finish.
16:27
Speaker 1: And then I ran a marathon in Paris this summer.
16:31
Speaker 1: So it's been a really fun journey. It's really fulfilling.
16:34
Speaker 1: I'm getting in a trail now, I'm loving it. Power
16:37
Speaker 1: hiking is for me, and it's just been really rewarding
16:41
Speaker 1: and fulfilling.
16:42
Speaker 3: You highlighted something that I believe is so essential, as
16:46
Speaker 3: you know, to the DNA of Strava and also the
16:49
Speaker 3: success of anyone that's going to begin a new activity,
16:54
Speaker 3: and that is the kudos and the community for so
16:58
Speaker 3: many when you get involved in a new something, whether
17:01
Speaker 3: it be running or cycling or hiking or walking or dancing,
17:05
Speaker 3: whatever it is, you there's this fear that you're not
17:08
Speaker 3: good enough to do it with other people, right, and
17:10
Speaker 3: so open yourself up to that community, to open yourself
17:15
Speaker 3: up to those kudos. What you find then is that
17:17
Speaker 3: there's a perk to that. There's a perk to being
17:20
Speaker 3: surrounded by like minded people who want to see you win.
17:24
Speaker 3: As you started your journey, you were immediately open to
17:29
Speaker 3: that community because of your role within Strava. Were there
17:33
Speaker 3: are emotions, feelings, thoughts associated with that.
17:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think you're touching on something that I think
17:40
Speaker 1: prevents people from getting started, where it's like I'm going
17:44
Speaker 1: to be bad at it. I'm not going to be
17:46
Speaker 1: like good enough to run with the group. I'm not
17:48
Speaker 1: going to be like fit enough to actually like complete
17:51
Speaker 1: the workout or whatever it is. And especially like we
17:55
Speaker 1: have a lot of really fast people that work for Strava,
18:00
Speaker 1: and so the first time we have a we have
18:03
Speaker 1: a workout Wednesday Wednesday that we do with in our
18:07
Speaker 1: global offices, and so it's really cool. You like go
18:10
Speaker 1: for a walk or run or whatever together and everybody
18:15
Speaker 1: does it together and it's really fun, and it's also
18:19
Speaker 1: like pretty intimidating if you're a first time runner and
18:23
Speaker 1: like I am, if you follow me on Strava, I
18:26
Speaker 1: think I'm a fun follow.
18:27
Speaker 2: But I'm not fast.
18:31
Speaker 1: And it's just like you have that anxiety, you have
18:35
Speaker 1: that worry, you almost have that like self doubt of
18:38
Speaker 1: I'm not going to fit in and that's what you know,
18:42
Speaker 1: I think a lot. A large part of my team's
18:45
Speaker 1: job is at Strava is to create the conditions where
18:49
Speaker 1: people can see themselves in the community. At a colleague
18:54
Speaker 1: that was like, ooh, I don't want to like post
18:56
Speaker 1: my pace on Strava, and I was like.
18:58
Speaker 2: Why not.
18:59
Speaker 1: It's super inspiring to see somebody achieve something that is
19:05
Speaker 1: hard for them, no matter what your pace is. And
19:09
Speaker 1: everybody is trying to like do something in their active life,
19:14
Speaker 1: whether it's that's be more consistent, or it's to go faster,
19:18
Speaker 1: or to go further, or to do it more often.
19:21
Speaker 1: Everybody has a goal and it's really inspiring to see
19:25
Speaker 1: people reach those goals. And when you post something on Strava,
19:29
Speaker 1: even if it is your slow thirteen minute mile run,
19:32
Speaker 1: that's totally fine because guess what, it's going to inspire
19:35
Speaker 1: one hundred more runs that look exactly like yours.
19:39
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so for you as you started out, did
19:42
Speaker 3: you feel anxious or nervous?
19:45
Speaker 2: One hundred percent? I felt. So it's like exposed almost
19:50
Speaker 2: where you're like, it's a vulnerable place to be, like, man,
19:54
Speaker 2: I'm like out there doing this thing and I don't
19:59
Speaker 2: know what it's going to to look like, and I
20:00
Speaker 2: don't know if I'm going to be good, and you just,
20:04
Speaker 2: of course you feel anxious and nervous. Yeah.
20:07
Speaker 1: I think when I like, even when I said, oh, okay,
20:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to like try and run the New York
20:12
Speaker 1: City Marathon, people were like, how fast do you think
20:15
Speaker 1: you were going to run it?
20:16
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm just trying to finish.
20:17
Speaker 3: The thing that should be your only goal at your
20:21
Speaker 3: first marathon is simply to finish. Yes, and I did that.
20:26
Speaker 3: I'm proud of myself, but I and I'm proud of
20:28
Speaker 3: you too. I what I appreciate, though, is that you
20:31
Speaker 3: at Strava have, then, being that you're using the product,
20:34
Speaker 3: taken what your learnings are and then implemented them into
20:38
Speaker 3: said product. Right, So you knew that there were other
20:41
Speaker 3: people that didn't want it all to be about the
20:43
Speaker 3: pace that they were running and maybe didn't want to
20:45
Speaker 3: share information like the roots that they were on, and
20:48
Speaker 3: then integrated that into it so that those things no
20:52
Speaker 3: longer have to be visible.
20:54
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:54
Speaker 1: One of the things that we have really started to
20:56
Speaker 1: be intentional about is how do we build specifically for her.
21:02
Speaker 1: So Strava has historically it started out for male cyclists really,
21:09
Speaker 1: and as we've expanded into running, and as we've seen
21:12
Speaker 1: new audiences come onto our platform, and as more of
21:16
Speaker 1: us on the leadership team have started to be less
21:20
Speaker 1: of that sort of like elite athlete, it has been
21:23
Speaker 1: really cool to see one the product team's openness to
21:28
Speaker 1: be building for expansion audiences and two being willing to
21:33
Speaker 1: really take our input, and it's like amazing what can
21:36
Speaker 1: come out of that. So things like we launched a
21:39
Speaker 1: product feature called quick Edit this year where it just
21:44
Speaker 1: brings up all of the things that you want to
21:46
Speaker 1: edit about your run in like one sheet as soon
21:49
Speaker 1: as you finish the activity. And it's so helpful because
21:52
Speaker 1: like I have started hard hiding my heart rate on
21:55
Speaker 1: specific workouts because one, I don't want people to know
21:58
Speaker 1: that how out of shape I am sometimes and like
22:02
Speaker 1: do that's really private information and so when it is
22:06
Speaker 1: like a harder workout, I maybe don't want people to
22:09
Speaker 1: know all of that. In addition to things like our
22:12
Speaker 1: privacy settings around like maps and you know, I don't
22:16
Speaker 1: want people to know where I live. I don't even
22:18
Speaker 1: want people to know sometimes what city I'm in because
22:21
Speaker 1: I travel so much. So it's great to see some
22:25
Speaker 1: of the controls, especially as we start to build in
22:28
Speaker 1: for women.
22:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned traveling a lot. I know that
22:32
Speaker 3: you are constantly on the go. With that said, how
22:38
Speaker 3: do you find the time to take care of yourself
22:43
Speaker 3: when you are going and coming and flying and training
22:47
Speaker 3: and driving. Right, You're constantly on the move, and so
22:50
Speaker 3: with that comes a little bit of fatigue, a lot
22:54
Speaker 3: of I'm just trying to do the best I can
22:56
Speaker 3: with everything that's happening around me. How does ZIP take
22:59
Speaker 3: care of zip?
23:01
Speaker 2: Yeah?
23:01
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big question. I don't think I do
23:06
Speaker 1: it as well as I want to all the time.
23:10
Speaker 1: And when I think about when I do it at
23:13
Speaker 1: my best, I'm really intentional about how I'm spending my time.
23:19
Speaker 1: I'm really planful about that. So right now I know
23:23
Speaker 1: that I'm coming up into a pretty big travel block.
23:25
Speaker 2: I was in San Francisco last week.
23:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to be traveling in two weeks time, and
23:30
Speaker 1: I have traveled back to back weeks. I actually try
23:33
Speaker 1: not to travel back to back weeks. I'm a mom
23:37
Speaker 1: of two amazing kids. I have an eight year old
23:39
Speaker 1: and a six year old. I have an amazing partner
23:43
Speaker 1: in my husband, who really supports our whole family, including me,
23:49
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure that I have time
23:51
Speaker 1: to give them what they need from me as well.
23:53
Speaker 1: So like, and I don't know if you know anyagrams,
23:57
Speaker 1: but I'm an aneagram too, which means I'm a considerate helper.
24:01
Speaker 1: And I'm a social enneagram too, which means that we
24:05
Speaker 1: have this I have this analogy that like, I want
24:08
Speaker 1: to give all my pie away to people because I
24:10
Speaker 1: want to help people.
24:11
Speaker 2: And I want to be there for them, and I
24:14
Speaker 2: want to support.
24:14
Speaker 1: All the things that my team is doing and our
24:17
Speaker 1: community is doing. But what that means is that I
24:20
Speaker 1: have no pie left for myself. And so I really
24:23
Speaker 1: I'm like calibrating all the time on like do I
24:27
Speaker 1: have enough pie for myself? And so I take time
24:30
Speaker 1: early morning workouts are really important for me. That is
24:34
Speaker 1: my time to myself, and so I get up early
24:37
Speaker 1: and I do the workout so that I can come
24:40
Speaker 1: to any situation with like my best self and my
24:43
Speaker 1: rested self and my like reset self. It starts the
24:47
Speaker 1: day off well for me. I see that you do
24:50
Speaker 1: that too. You're a source of inspiration for me. I
24:53
Speaker 1: follow you on a lot of social networks, and I
24:57
Speaker 1: think that that is like such an important practice of
24:59
Speaker 1: like how in that time every day and then I
25:02
Speaker 1: round the day out every night I journal, and.
25:05
Speaker 2: So I just like it's nothing like over the top.
25:08
Speaker 1: If like anybody read it, they'd be like, what are
25:12
Speaker 1: these like random thoughts? But I just like kind of
25:15
Speaker 1: reflect on the day and like how did I feel
25:17
Speaker 1: and what did I feel good about?
25:19
Speaker 2: And where do I think I can do better tomorrow?
25:22
Speaker 1: And so just like having those pockets of individual time
25:25
Speaker 1: are really important.
25:27
Speaker 3: Whenever I share morning content without fail, someone's in the
25:34
Speaker 3: DMS asking, how do I too become a morning person?
25:39
Speaker 3: For you? Were you always this way? Or is this
25:42
Speaker 3: learned behavior? And what helps you get up on the
25:45
Speaker 3: days that you really don't exactly feel like getting out
25:49
Speaker 3: of bed?
25:50
Speaker 1: I do think I have been a morning person for
25:52
Speaker 1: a long time, probably like my early twenties, and I'm
25:55
Speaker 1: in my mid forties now, so it's been a minute
25:59
Speaker 1: since I had to train myself to be a morning person.
26:03
Speaker 1: And I think just like corporate America probably did that
26:06
Speaker 1: for me pretty naturally.
26:08
Speaker 2: On the days that I don't. But one, I'm pretty
26:11
Speaker 2: strict about the bedtime.
26:12
Speaker 1: I do try and be in bed at a reasonable
26:15
Speaker 1: hour so that I can get enough sleep. It doesn't
26:17
Speaker 1: always happen, but I really do try and prioritize that.
26:21
Speaker 1: And then on the days that you know, I get
26:23
Speaker 1: up and I'm like, oh, it's too cold, which I
26:26
Speaker 1: live in California, so anyway doesn't live in California, They're like,
26:29
Speaker 1: you don't know what you're talking about, or you know
26:32
Speaker 1: it's too cold, or like I don't really feel like
26:35
Speaker 1: doing it. I think about how I feel afterwards, and
26:40
Speaker 1: it's like, you know you were going to feel better.
26:43
Speaker 1: You know you were going to have a better day
26:46
Speaker 1: if you get a little sweat in, if you go
26:48
Speaker 1: take that pilates class, if you go for that run.
26:51
Speaker 1: The other thing is like accountability buddies. I love that
26:54
Speaker 1: I have a friend that I train with. Her name
26:57
Speaker 1: is Anne, and you'll see her tagged on almost all
27:00
Speaker 1: of my runs when I'm in town and at home,
27:03
Speaker 1: and I know that if Anne and I have agreed
27:06
Speaker 1: to run, she is going to be waiting for me
27:08
Speaker 1: on the corners that we meet at at five point
27:10
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. And so it's a way to
27:12
Speaker 1: just like hack it where it's like I cannot leave
27:14
Speaker 1: Anne hanging on the corner.
27:18
Speaker 3: We can't leave Anne on the corner.
27:20
Speaker 2: Man on the corner, don't do it?
27:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean accountability buddies are everything, and obviously you
27:25
Speaker 3: and her have this very special relationship that arguably is
27:29
Speaker 3: made better because you've solidified it in sweat when it
27:33
Speaker 3: comes though, to those that may not know each other.
27:36
Speaker 3: We talked about numbers before and that comparison can be
27:38
Speaker 3: a tough thing. That famous comparison is the thief of joy.
27:42
Speaker 3: What do you say to the people who maybe do
27:46
Speaker 3: U Strava and do feel discouraged by that comparison factor.
27:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's like, that's a real risk and
27:56
Speaker 1: it's one of the ones that I think make It's
28:00
Speaker 1: so important that our community reflects the diversity that exists
28:05
Speaker 1: in the sport types that we support, because not everybody
28:10
Speaker 1: is going to look the same, not everybody is going
28:12
Speaker 1: to run at the same pace. And you can find
28:14
Speaker 1: inspiration and motivation no matter you know what pace you
28:18
Speaker 1: run at, or you.
28:20
Speaker 2: Know how far you walk or how far.
28:22
Speaker 1: You ride, and there is that comparison factor where like
28:26
Speaker 1: you know, it's on.
28:27
Speaker 2: The top of the card where it's like how far
28:29
Speaker 2: did you run?
28:30
Speaker 1: What pace was it at? And like what was your
28:33
Speaker 1: total time? And then if you really want to get
28:35
Speaker 1: into it, you can see like total elapse time versus total.
28:38
Speaker 2: Moving time and see how much somebody stop.
28:42
Speaker 1: And I think the comparison, yes, it can be motivating.
28:46
Speaker 1: Like there are people that I follow that I'm like, man,
28:48
Speaker 1: I wish like you're faster than me, and I'm like wow,
28:51
Speaker 1: like she ran like a you know, eight minute mile,
28:54
Speaker 1: Like I wonder if I.
28:54
Speaker 2: Could ever get there.
28:56
Speaker 1: And I think it's like really important to focus on
29:00
Speaker 1: your own journey. That's what I would tell people is
29:03
Speaker 1: like everybody is on a different path, and what my
29:07
Speaker 1: best active life looks like might be different than what
29:10
Speaker 1: your best active life looks like. And so I think
29:13
Speaker 1: getting really clear on like, well, what is the goal?
29:16
Speaker 1: My goal is like I just want to get out
29:17
Speaker 1: there and move every day, and maybe I have a
29:20
Speaker 1: distant goal for you know, I'm training for a half
29:23
Speaker 1: local half marathon right now, but I don't have a
29:26
Speaker 1: time goal associated with that. I just kind of want
29:28
Speaker 1: to run and have fun and do it with a
29:32
Speaker 1: group of friends that you know, we can do the
29:34
Speaker 1: training together. So that's what I would say to people
29:37
Speaker 1: is just like focus, it's so cheesy.
29:39
Speaker 2: And cliche, but like run run your own race.
29:42
Speaker 3: Yeah no, I mean I love the sentiments of run
29:44
Speaker 3: your own race. And I also like don't want to
29:47
Speaker 3: downplay that it is so okay to quote unquote just
29:51
Speaker 3: do it for fun. I feel like so much, Oh
29:54
Speaker 3: what are you aiming for? What are you going for?
29:55
Speaker 3: And it's like no, like having fun and completing something
29:58
Speaker 3: is valid and good, good and enough. Period.
30:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ann and I have started a local mom's run club,
30:07
Speaker 1: and so it's you know, it's a bunch of moms
30:09
Speaker 1: that like can only run at five thirty am in
30:12
Speaker 1: our suburb that we live in, and tomorrow morning we're
30:16
Speaker 1: going for a run and brunch together.
30:19
Speaker 3: So I love a weekend run in frun. You're like
30:23
Speaker 3: my friends and I. Now in New York, we have
30:25
Speaker 3: what we call Pastry Run Club, which is every Friday,
30:29
Speaker 3: we pick a different place and go try a bunch
30:32
Speaker 3: of pastries.
30:34
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm totally gonna steal that.
30:37
Speaker 3: You can whenever you're in town. Next you can come
30:39
Speaker 3: to Pastry run Club. Okay, deal, taking your break from
30:48
Speaker 3: today's episode to talk to you about my partner at
30:52
Speaker 3: open everything changed when I started doing breath work. For
30:57
Speaker 3: so long, I was living in a constant state of
31:00
Speaker 3: fight or flight, and it was through using OPEN that
31:04
Speaker 3: I realized I had so much more control over my
31:07
Speaker 3: reactions than I even realized. Your nervous system plays a
31:12
Speaker 3: role in nearly every aspect of your health, m well being,
31:15
Speaker 3: and your breath is the most direct and scientifically supported
31:19
Speaker 3: way to regulate your body and improve your mood. Every morning,
31:22
Speaker 3: I do five to ten minutes of breath work. Right now,
31:25
Speaker 3: I'm doing Open's Nervous System Reset program, And when I
31:30
Speaker 3: tell you it is something I look forward to from
31:31
Speaker 3: the moment I get out of bed, well, that's kind
31:34
Speaker 3: of an understatement. With Open as a part of my routine,
31:37
Speaker 3: I feel more calm, more capable, and more prepared to
31:41
Speaker 3: handle anything that comes my way. Join me for opens
31:44
Speaker 3: Nervous System Reset too. It's absolutely free. Head on over
31:49
Speaker 3: to the link that's in the show notes and again
31:51
Speaker 3: that's for thirty days of free meditation. Again, head on
31:55
Speaker 3: over to the show notes and join Open for free today.
32:07
Speaker 3: Comparison can be the thief of joy, and to your point,
32:09
Speaker 3: I also do feel like it can be motivating if
32:13
Speaker 3: you have the right framework on things. Framework can be
32:16
Speaker 3: the thing that makes something great or makes something awful.
32:20
Speaker 3: Your power is really in your perspective. Speaking of perspective,
32:26
Speaker 3: I do want to shake up this conversation a little
32:29
Speaker 3: bit and talk a bit about you as a leader.
32:32
Speaker 3: We talked about how you have this opportunity to continually
32:36
Speaker 3: learn in your position as you evolve within your work.
32:40
Speaker 3: You're also leading by example. Do you feel pressure in
32:45
Speaker 3: that in being someone that people look to for answers?
32:49
Speaker 1: I actually, well, pressure is maybe not the wrong word.
32:53
Speaker 1: I find it very motivating. And when I think about
32:58
Speaker 1: my leadership philosophy and how I lead, I think it
33:02
Speaker 1: is such a privilege to get to be a leader
33:06
Speaker 1: and I think anybody can be a leader at any level.
33:10
Speaker 1: You can show leadership as the most junior person on
33:13
Speaker 1: the team all the way up to my level and
33:17
Speaker 1: my boss's level and a board of director level. Because
33:20
Speaker 1: when it comes down to where people look for motivation
33:25
Speaker 1: and inspiration, where they look to for the examples, it
33:29
Speaker 1: really is like the integrity with which you do your job.
33:32
Speaker 1: It's the way that you show up with the We
33:37
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the like what you do and
33:39
Speaker 1: the how you do it. I think those are really
33:42
Speaker 1: important to bring together. It is not just about what
33:44
Speaker 1: you do, It is about how you do it as well, and.
33:47
Speaker 2: How you make people feel in the process.
33:51
Speaker 1: So I actually think that that is like, I want
33:54
Speaker 1: to set a really good example for you know, I
33:57
Speaker 1: think that especially as a woman in leadership, a woman
34:01
Speaker 1: in tech leadership, a woman of color in tech leadership, that's.
34:05
Speaker 2: Really rare, rare, error.
34:08
Speaker 1: And I have people that I have looked up to
34:12
Speaker 1: in my career and I want to be that example
34:15
Speaker 1: for people to say, hey, like I you can't you
34:19
Speaker 1: can't be it if you can't see it. And I
34:21
Speaker 1: want to be the person that other people can see
34:23
Speaker 1: and say, oh I can If she can do that,
34:26
Speaker 1: I can do that too.
34:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:28
Speaker 3: And I think a reason that you're so great at
34:31
Speaker 3: what you do is because you understand that you have
34:35
Speaker 3: the opportunity to learn from everyone. Right, you just talked
34:38
Speaker 3: about people on your team, junior folks, your boss above you. Right,
34:43
Speaker 3: you have this opportunity, no matter what level they're at,
34:48
Speaker 3: to learn from them. And I think that's very special
34:50
Speaker 3: and what contributes to your continued success.
34:52
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Yeah, you're welsome.
34:56
Speaker 3: It is though, And I do believe that when you
34:59
Speaker 3: get to a place where you are convinced that you
35:01
Speaker 3: are perhaps the smartest person in the room, and that
35:05
Speaker 3: means that you're not in the right room anymore.
35:07
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. You never want to be the smartest
35:09
Speaker 1: person in the room. Oh my gosh, Like, how scary
35:12
Speaker 1: is that. I have a saying with my team, like
35:17
Speaker 1: I reserve the right to get smarter and take in
35:21
Speaker 1: new information and change my mind. And I think that
35:24
Speaker 1: sometimes in leadership positions you can get stuck in this
35:29
Speaker 1: mindset that like I have to have all the answers,
35:31
Speaker 1: I cannot change my mind. But we're getting new information
35:35
Speaker 1: all the time. We're finding new context to problems, both
35:41
Speaker 1: in like personal life and in work life. There's so
35:44
Speaker 1: much context that changes. And so it's like it's totally okay,
35:48
Speaker 1: And it's really empowering to say I reserve the right
35:51
Speaker 1: to get smarter about a given situation or a given
35:55
Speaker 1: problem or a given opportunity.
35:58
Speaker 3: What has your role as a mom taught you about
36:04
Speaker 3: being a leader?
36:06
Speaker 1: Oh? Man, it is the greatest teacher. It is such
36:11
Speaker 1: a humbling experience to be a mom. One nobody knows
36:17
Speaker 1: what they're doing because especially like with your first child.
36:22
Speaker 1: It's like you've never been a mom before, You've never
36:25
Speaker 1: been a parent before, and it's not like every kid
36:30
Speaker 1: comes with like a set of instructions for like this
36:33
Speaker 1: human being needs to do this, this, this, this, and this.
36:37
Speaker 1: You're like, I think it's the greatest responsibility and one
36:42
Speaker 1: that is like really scary on Like you are creating
36:46
Speaker 1: the foundational experiences of this human being that is going
36:51
Speaker 1: to grow up and do whatever it is that they
36:53
Speaker 1: are meant to do in the world, and so like
36:55
Speaker 1: what are you pouring into them?
36:57
Speaker 2: What are you equipping them with that is.
36:59
Speaker 1: Going to make manifest in like therapy later, because like
37:03
Speaker 1: I think that everybody's going to end up in therapy.
37:06
Speaker 1: I have a great therapist that really helps me show
37:10
Speaker 1: up as my best self. And I had a very
37:13
Speaker 1: incredible mother have very incredible mothers. So the responsibility of
37:18
Speaker 1: like being a mom, it has like taught me so
37:20
Speaker 1: much about like humility, and it has taught me so
37:24
Speaker 1: much about patience, and it has taught me so much
37:27
Speaker 1: about like I am not in control of everything because
37:31
Speaker 1: this little tiny human being is going to do what
37:34
Speaker 1: he or she is going to do, and the only
37:37
Speaker 1: thing I can control is how I respond to it.
37:40
Speaker 3: M the token respond instead of react. That is probably
37:46
Speaker 3: one of the most challenging lessons and concepts to continually
37:52
Speaker 3: put into practice, especially because a feeling arises and your
37:57
Speaker 3: thoughts follow, and then you have to write I recognize
38:00
Speaker 3: in that moment that you are not your thoughts.
38:04
Speaker 2: Yes, And it's so hard.
38:07
Speaker 1: I feel like every day I get multiple opportunities to
38:12
Speaker 1: practice that, and I fail at least fifty percent of
38:16
Speaker 1: the time every day.
38:17
Speaker 3: What do you do when you fail, though? Because it
38:20
Speaker 3: is something that's very challenging and something that's easy to
38:23
Speaker 3: fail at. So is there a situation where you address
38:29
Speaker 3: that maybe you didn't handle a situation as you had hoped.
38:33
Speaker 3: Is there a moment where you maybe put your pride
38:35
Speaker 3: or your ego aside, so go back and handle something
38:38
Speaker 3: the way that you wanted to the first time.
38:41
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, it happened to me this week at our
38:45
Speaker 1: leadership off site. Somebody asked me a question in I
38:50
Speaker 1: mean they were probably like how many people in the
38:52
Speaker 1: room seventy ish. Somebody asked me a question and I
38:56
Speaker 1: responded defensively to the question because the question, in some way,
39:02
Speaker 1: shape or form triggered me to your point. I had
39:05
Speaker 1: a thought about I had a feeling and then a
39:07
Speaker 1: thought about it, and then I reacted. I did not respond,
39:12
Speaker 1: and I was as soon as it came out of
39:15
Speaker 1: my mouth, I was like, well, shit, like I did
39:19
Speaker 1: not handle that properly.
39:23
Speaker 2: And I apologized.
39:27
Speaker 1: I apologized in private, and I said, hey, I didn't
39:30
Speaker 1: respond to your question in the way that I should have.
39:34
Speaker 2: I'm really sorry that I did that.
39:36
Speaker 1: I'm really sorry that I did that in a bunch
39:38
Speaker 1: of in front of a bunch of people. I didn't
39:40
Speaker 1: feel great about myself, and I think that you know,
39:43
Speaker 1: I am a person that will like replay that a lot.
39:48
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that I am working
39:49
Speaker 1: on is being really kind and loving to myself on like,
39:53
Speaker 1: we are going to make mistakes, and that one was
39:55
Speaker 1: one of the bigger mistakes because it was in front
39:57
Speaker 1: of a lot of people, and so I have to forget.
39:59
Speaker 1: I also have to like forgive myself for that and
40:03
Speaker 1: know that I acknowledged it, I apologize and I can
40:08
Speaker 1: do better next time.
40:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's a learning lesson, right, Like I hear
40:13
Speaker 3: you on the I have to get to a place
40:15
Speaker 3: where I forgive myself about how I acted, because I
40:18
Speaker 3: think that that can be the worst part. Also, what
40:21
Speaker 3: a beautiful sense of awareness that you have that you
40:26
Speaker 3: went to that person without ego and said, hey, my bad.
40:30
Speaker 3: I think that is exemplary of what leadership looks like.
40:35
Speaker 3: Because no one's going to be perfect all the time.
40:38
Speaker 3: It isn't relatable, it doesn't make sense, it's not going
40:41
Speaker 3: to happen. But when you own up to who it
40:45
Speaker 3: is you are, what you want to do, and that
40:47
Speaker 3: you can portray and enact within the best part of
40:50
Speaker 3: your capability your positive intentions, that is leadership.
40:55
Speaker 2: I would agree.
40:55
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think when I was journaling about
40:59
Speaker 1: that situation and the night that I have okay, I
41:03
Speaker 1: did give myself credit on like, okay, you acknowledged it,
41:06
Speaker 1: because it would have been very easy to just say
41:09
Speaker 1: to dismiss it and say feel a certain way about it,
41:13
Speaker 1: but then say, oh, but like it's too scary to
41:16
Speaker 1: go apologize to the person. And this person was incredibly
41:20
Speaker 1: gracious in the way that they responded to my apology.
41:25
Speaker 1: They gave me grace in that moment. They could have
41:27
Speaker 1: very easily been like, no, like I am still mad
41:31
Speaker 1: at you. I did not think that was okay, and
41:34
Speaker 1: that would have been okay, that would have been very warranted.
41:38
Speaker 3: Totally understandable, And again I do think that that is
41:41
Speaker 3: very indicative of your leadership style and the fact that
41:45
Speaker 3: you see everyone as an equal at the table.
41:48
Speaker 1: When I think about what creates the environment for people
41:55
Speaker 1: to be successful, you want people to be able to
41:59
Speaker 1: break their whole selves and you want them to be
42:02
Speaker 1: able to bring.
42:03
Speaker 2: Their whole thought.
42:05
Speaker 1: You're in a work environment, especially you're hiring people for
42:08
Speaker 1: their expertise, and so we need to create the conditions
42:13
Speaker 1: where they feel like they can bring that full expertise
42:16
Speaker 1: to the table, because that's what they were hired for.
42:21
Speaker 1: If they're just going to be there to tell me
42:23
Speaker 1: what I want to hear or to focus their attention
42:26
Speaker 1: on orienting around what they think is the answer, then
42:30
Speaker 1: that's like we get into echo chambers and we don't
42:37
Speaker 1: I guess, appreciate the full diversity.
42:40
Speaker 2: Of the team.
42:41
Speaker 3: We spoke earlier about what it's been like for you
42:44
Speaker 3: to pick up running in different types of activity since
42:47
Speaker 3: you began your time at Strava. What would you say
42:50
Speaker 3: that added activity, that added going outside of your comfort zone,
42:54
Speaker 3: These new added challenges have done for you, both personally
42:58
Speaker 3: and professionally.
43:01
Speaker 1: Personally, it has given me just one this like really beautiful,
43:10
Speaker 1: like almost like active meditation that I didn't know existed.
43:13
Speaker 1: And yes I did plates, and yes I did yoga
43:16
Speaker 1: and I still do those, but there is something about
43:20
Speaker 1: running where you can process. It's like the rhythmic nature
43:24
Speaker 1: of it. It's the fact that you're out there for
43:26
Speaker 1: like a long time, especially if you're training for something
43:29
Speaker 1: like a marathon, you're out there for hours by yourself,
43:32
Speaker 1: just kind of with your thoughts. And so personally, that's
43:36
Speaker 1: been like a really nice gift. It's also given me
43:39
Speaker 1: a lot of confidence. I mean, I picked up running
43:41
Speaker 1: in my forties, just not at post having two children,
43:47
Speaker 1: so it's not like I think that's kind of badass.
43:52
Speaker 1: So it's given me this like wow, like if I
43:56
Speaker 1: could do that, like imagine what else I could do?
43:59
Speaker 1: Since given me like I think a little bit more swagger,
44:02
Speaker 1: I guess or confidence. And then professionally, it's just opened
44:06
Speaker 1: up this whole new industry to me. I we probably
44:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't have met if I didn't start working at Strava,
44:13
Speaker 1: I didn't start running, I probably wouldn't be on your podcast.
44:17
Speaker 1: Having this amazing conversation with you right now. I would
44:20
Speaker 1: have to have a very different podcast if we were
44:24
Speaker 1: talking about pizza and tacos.
44:26
Speaker 2: Yes, be a very different podcast.
44:29
Speaker 1: And it's given me just this, Like from a professional standpoint,
44:33
Speaker 1: you know, I think that I loved working in restaurants,
44:36
Speaker 1: and restaurants are still near and dear to my heart.
44:40
Speaker 1: The brands that I worked on, I still love them,
44:43
Speaker 1: and I love the people that I work with. I'm
44:45
Speaker 1: still friends with a lot of those people. But I
44:48
Speaker 1: think running and fitness has given me this, like other
44:53
Speaker 1: path in my career, It's opened a lot more doors
44:56
Speaker 1: for me, I will say, from a career perspective, where
45:00
Speaker 1: or before, you know, I maybe had sort of like
45:02
Speaker 1: one thing that I did and now I am much
45:06
Speaker 1: more multi dimensional.
45:08
Speaker 3: And the thing is tho zip is that like you
45:10
Speaker 3: were multi dimensional before, it was just getting to a
45:14
Speaker 3: place where you could recognize and see that within yourself.
45:18
Speaker 3: I think so often we feel as though, because of
45:21
Speaker 3: our environment, like things are quote unquote supposed to be
45:24
Speaker 3: some kind of way, when all it takes is just
45:28
Speaker 3: exposure or a moment to get outside of your own
45:31
Speaker 3: box to understand hey, actually it could be different if
45:36
Speaker 3: you're open to that possibility.
45:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, back to you, like your mind creates a reality,
45:42
Speaker 1: Like your thoughts can really create like oh, I'm like
45:46
Speaker 1: boxed into this industry, or like oh I'm not a runner.
45:50
Speaker 2: That's not me. It's too hard.
45:52
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, if you actually challenge that and say, well,
45:57
Speaker 1: what would it look like if I was a runner,
45:59
Speaker 1: or what it looked like if I stepped outside of
46:01
Speaker 1: an industry that I'm super familiar with, it's super scary
46:07
Speaker 1: and it puts you in a vulnerable position because you
46:09
Speaker 1: might mess it up and it might not go as
46:13
Speaker 1: you think it's going to go. But then again, it
46:15
Speaker 1: is like your mind. It's like what you think it's
46:18
Speaker 1: going to go a certain way and then it goes differently.
46:21
Speaker 1: Does that mean that it's bad, No, it's just different.
46:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
46:25
Speaker 3: I mean that in itself is such a lesson, right,
46:28
Speaker 3: having to navigate quote unquote failure understanding that there are
46:32
Speaker 3: lessons everywhere for you. You talked about, you know, the
46:35
Speaker 3: side step that happened earlier this week, but I'm sure
46:38
Speaker 3: there have been other quote unquote failures that have taught
46:42
Speaker 3: you major lessons over the last few years at Strava.
46:46
Speaker 3: Anything come to mind.
46:48
Speaker 1: When I first got to Strava, one of the things
46:52
Speaker 1: that we wanted to do was really clarify the brand.
46:57
Speaker 1: And you know, the job and what I was hired
47:00
Speaker 1: to do was to grow the community and to get
47:02
Speaker 1: us into new expansion audiences.
47:06
Speaker 2: And as we started to.
47:10
Speaker 1: Define what those new expansion audiences are, I think it
47:16
Speaker 1: was very easy for us to lose sight of our
47:19
Speaker 1: core user base, like the people that have been with
47:24
Speaker 1: Strava for over a decade and have loved us, and
47:28
Speaker 1: have been in the product and are really passionate about Strava.
47:34
Speaker 1: And I think in the beginning I made the mistake
47:37
Speaker 1: of not really appreciating how deep that love for the
47:43
Speaker 1: brand and that passion for the brand was from our
47:46
Speaker 1: core audiences. So we made a pricing change, and we
47:50
Speaker 1: updated our subscription prices, and we did it for the
47:52
Speaker 1: first time in like ten years, and this was back
47:56
Speaker 1: earlier in twenty twenty three, and I don't think we
48:01
Speaker 1: did a very good job of explaining the value that
48:04
Speaker 1: we had built into our subscription and into our features
48:10
Speaker 1: for that core audience. And they were really surprised when
48:14
Speaker 1: we raised our prices and we hadn't done so in
48:18
Speaker 1: ten years, and we had built a lot of functionality
48:21
Speaker 1: into the product that we hadn't told them that story.
48:24
Speaker 1: So it was a lesson for me in really making
48:28
Speaker 1: sure that we are continuing to nurture how our community
48:33
Speaker 1: and especially our subscribers understand the value that we are
48:37
Speaker 1: bringing to them, while also making sure that we are
48:41
Speaker 1: setting ourselves up for business success, and we are setting
48:44
Speaker 1: ourselves up for the expansion in our user base, which
48:50
Speaker 1: we've seen, you know, in spades in twenty twenty.
48:53
Speaker 2: Four four in spades.
48:55
Speaker 3: It's so interesting. I'm reflecting back on what you said
48:57
Speaker 3: about the fact that, unlike a McDonald's or pizza Hut,
49:01
Speaker 3: you can walk into one of those, probably within ten
49:04
Speaker 3: minutes somewhere, right, but you cannot walk into a physical Strava.
49:07
Speaker 2: Yet.
49:08
Speaker 3: I do believe that the brand has such a strong
49:12
Speaker 3: brand presence in that it's positive, it is community, it
49:18
Speaker 3: is I said the word positive, but like happiness, Like
49:21
Speaker 3: I don't think of Strava as an application that I'm
49:25
Speaker 3: going to open and feel bad about myself. I'm like,
49:28
Speaker 3: who knows what could happen elsewhere on the interwebs or
49:31
Speaker 3: whatever else I'm looking at on my phone right and
49:33
Speaker 3: so I think and believe that that's a testament to
49:36
Speaker 3: the fact that you are so dialed in on this
49:40
Speaker 3: mission statement, which is that you want to motivate your
49:43
Speaker 3: consumers to live their best active lives.
49:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is that's it's really important that
49:52
Speaker 1: Strava is that place that you find motivation, and we're
49:57
Speaker 1: a platform, and so we want people creating whatever is
50:02
Speaker 1: they're going to create on our platform, and that is
50:05
Speaker 1: in the form of their upload to Strava their active life,
50:09
Speaker 1: their run, their walk, their pilates, their yoga, their ride,
50:13
Speaker 1: and in doing so, that inspires the next person to
50:17
Speaker 1: get out there. And it's funny, like there have been
50:20
Speaker 1: weekends where I'm like, man, I didn't meet my weekly
50:24
Speaker 1: mileage goal.
50:24
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll just like let it slip. And then I
50:27
Speaker 2: open up my Strava and I see all these cool activities.
50:29
Speaker 1: And I'm like, ah, I probably should just get out
50:32
Speaker 1: there and like finish the rest of the mileage. It's
50:36
Speaker 1: such a cool positive fly wheel because we actually Strava
50:40
Speaker 1: is a place where we want you to actually get
50:42
Speaker 1: off of our app and go do the thing.
50:45
Speaker 2: We don't want you sitting on the app and just
50:47
Speaker 2: scrolling scrolling scrolling.
50:49
Speaker 1: We want you to get motivated and get inspired and
50:53
Speaker 1: then get out there and do the thing that is
50:55
Speaker 1: going to make you feel better and live your best
50:59
Speaker 1: active life. I think that's where the brand does become
51:02
Speaker 1: very personal for people, because what is on Strava is
51:06
Speaker 1: your personal body of work. I mean, that's why we
51:10
Speaker 1: just came out of year in Sport and I just
51:13
Speaker 1: got my water bottle. I think I got it in
51:16
Speaker 1: the mail while I was out of town, but I
51:18
Speaker 1: just picked it up when I got back this morning,
51:21
Speaker 1: and it's so cool. It's like I have like a
51:23
Speaker 1: personal piece of swag that has my personal stats of
51:29
Speaker 1: what I did last year. And I think that is
51:32
Speaker 1: really part of the emotion that exists, and I think
51:34
Speaker 1: that's why our community is so passionate.
51:36
Speaker 3: Last year was the year I remember a God. Two
51:39
Speaker 3: years ago was the year we started adding photos and
51:42
Speaker 3: videos and everything to Strava. Last year was the year
51:45
Speaker 3: of dark Mode, among many other things, athlete intelligence. What
51:49
Speaker 3: is there to be excited about right now on the
51:52
Speaker 3: horizon for Strava.
51:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, what I am excited about is we're going to
51:58
Speaker 1: be talking a lot more to our community, and so
52:02
Speaker 1: I think we have done an okay job of that,
52:05
Speaker 1: but I don't think we've done a great job back
52:07
Speaker 1: to you know, one of the missteps that I think
52:09
Speaker 1: we made a couple of years ago, I don't think
52:12
Speaker 1: we talked to our community enough about the value that
52:16
Speaker 1: we are adding and the value that they get from
52:19
Speaker 1: being on Strava.
52:20
Speaker 2: And so that is one of the things that I'm
52:22
Speaker 2: really excited about.
52:23
Speaker 1: And you know, I mentioned kind of like everybody has
52:26
Speaker 1: a goal in their active life. We are going to
52:29
Speaker 1: get much more This is like so cryptic, but we're
52:33
Speaker 1: going to get much more intentional about how we think
52:37
Speaker 1: about helping people meet their goals on our platform.
52:41
Speaker 3: I love this. I know that cam Strava is only
52:45
Speaker 3: a few months away, so more will be revealed in
52:48
Speaker 3: the coming months when we want to learn revealed behind
52:51
Speaker 3: the cryptic messaging. What are you personally excited about right now?
52:55
Speaker 2: Is it?
52:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's maybe like kind of a controversial one.
53:01
Speaker 2: I'm excited about saying no more.
53:04
Speaker 3: Yes.
53:05
Speaker 1: One of my reflections at the end of last year
53:07
Speaker 1: is Q four was just a really hectic quarter for me.
53:11
Speaker 1: I was traveling a bunch, I wasn't sleeping. My aura
53:14
Speaker 1: was very very mad at me. My writing score was
53:18
Speaker 1: very low for most of Q four, and it's because
53:22
Speaker 1: I was trying to say yes to all of these things,
53:25
Speaker 1: and by saying yes to all of these other things,
53:27
Speaker 1: I was saying no to myself.
53:29
Speaker 2: And so I'm flipping the script in twenty twenty five.
53:32
Speaker 2: I am saying no to more things so that I
53:35
Speaker 2: can say yes to myself more.
53:37
Speaker 3: How do you remove the shame and guilt of saying no?
53:42
Speaker 2: Real hard? It's still a work in progress.
53:45
Speaker 1: One of the things that I am doing is I
53:47
Speaker 1: am when appropriate, not all the time, but when appropriate,
53:51
Speaker 1: I am giving context for why I am saying no.
53:54
Speaker 2: So I just said no to an event.
53:58
Speaker 1: And it is because I am just going to be
54:02
Speaker 1: coming back from a seven day business trip away from
54:06
Speaker 1: my family, and I cannot come back to my kids
54:10
Speaker 1: on a Friday and tell them Mommy is going to
54:13
Speaker 1: be gone on a Saturday after being gone for seven days.
54:16
Speaker 1: Like that's just not fair to me or to them.
54:19
Speaker 1: So I gave that context to my team, and I
54:22
Speaker 1: gave that context to our partner, and they've been really
54:25
Speaker 1: gracious about it.
54:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I appreciate that sentiment when appropriate, right, and
54:31
Speaker 3: that you don't always need to say no and then
54:34
Speaker 3: give a paragraph answer as to why you can't make
54:37
Speaker 3: it happen. Sometimes a no is enough, but it just
54:40
Speaker 3: depends on the context of the relationship and what it
54:43
Speaker 3: is that you're you know, you've got going on.
54:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I learned a phrase this week that I'm starting
54:51
Speaker 1: to test out. I just don't have capacity for that.
54:57
Speaker 3: That's a good one. Yes, I just don't have the
54:59
Speaker 3: capacity for that right now? Yeh like respect, Yeah, I'm
55:05
Speaker 3: gonna start trying it out. I was gonna say, have
55:07
Speaker 3: you tried it yet?
55:09
Speaker 1: I did, But it was like, as soon as I
55:11
Speaker 1: learned the phrase, that one of the other people I
55:14
Speaker 1: was with was like, Okay, let's try it out.
55:16
Speaker 2: Zip, do you want to hang out with this weekend?
55:18
Speaker 2: And I was like, I just don't have the capacity
55:20
Speaker 2: for that. And I was like, oh, that's all good.
55:22
Speaker 3: I really am going to start doing this too. Oh
55:25
Speaker 3: my goodness, I can't wait when I as soon as
55:28
Speaker 3: I use it, you will be the first to know.
55:30
Speaker 2: Oh please please please let me know. Now.
55:33
Speaker 3: We talked about what it's like to be at the
55:35
Speaker 3: front of the room, at the top of the ladder,
55:36
Speaker 3: for people to be under you looking to you for
55:39
Speaker 3: inspiration and motivation. Someone comes to your Instagram page and
55:43
Speaker 3: they see someone that is in this special role as
55:47
Speaker 3: chief business officer at Strava. You're a loving mom of
55:49
Speaker 3: two children and so much more. But specifically, when you
55:53
Speaker 3: look in the mirror, zip, what is it that you
55:56
Speaker 3: see looking back at you.
55:59
Speaker 2: I see a woman who is.
56:05
Speaker 1: In I'm gonna steal Michelle Obama's word, who is becoming.
56:09
Speaker 1: I see a woman who is becoming her best self
56:12
Speaker 1: at all times. I also see a person who sits,
56:20
Speaker 1: who has the privilege of all of the generations that
56:25
Speaker 1: have come before me. One of the people that I
56:27
Speaker 1: admire most is my grandmother. She passed away a couple
56:32
Speaker 1: of years ago, so I had the like good fortune
56:34
Speaker 1: to know her for a lot of my life. And
56:38
Speaker 1: I am half Filipino and half black, and she moved
56:42
Speaker 1: my family to the United States, and she has this
56:47
Speaker 1: like amazing story, but she was the visionary that did that.
56:51
Speaker 1: She moved here ten years before her kids, cleaned hotel rooms,
56:55
Speaker 1: worked odd jobs, worked her way up to like be
56:57
Speaker 1: you know, owned a pharmacy eventually in LA And she
57:04
Speaker 1: was the one that gave me the opportunity to live
57:09
Speaker 1: in this country. And have the opportunities that the US
57:13
Speaker 1: and the American Dream, if you will, affords to all
57:17
Speaker 1: of us. And I think about that a lot. It's like,
57:21
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that made a lot of
57:23
Speaker 1: sacrifices for me to have the opportunity I have. So
57:26
Speaker 1: I just I see somebody that is very grateful for
57:30
Speaker 1: where I have come from and what has come before me,
57:33
Speaker 1: and somebody that wants to pay that forward to the
57:36
Speaker 1: next generation.
57:38
Speaker 3: So special and what a beautiful opportunity it was to
57:41
Speaker 3: have her for such a long time in your life
57:44
Speaker 3: as a as a role model for you, and of
57:46
Speaker 3: course just to have her presence right now. Zip, you
57:50
Speaker 3: have an opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice
57:54
Speaker 3: coming into Java. I mean, you sought out the job
57:56
Speaker 3: because you knew that you could be good at it,
57:58
Speaker 3: but there was a lot that you knew you were
58:00
Speaker 3: walking into that was going to be foreign territory. Knowing
58:05
Speaker 3: what you know, now, what advice would you give to
58:08
Speaker 3: your younger self during that hurdle moment?
58:12
Speaker 1: I would tell myself during that hurdle moment, don't be
58:17
Speaker 1: afraid of what will be revealed within yourself based on
58:24
Speaker 1: the situations that you put yourself in, you will blossom
58:29
Speaker 1: more than you ever expected. You will grow and develop
58:33
Speaker 1: in ways that are uncomfortable, and it's going to be beautiful.
58:39
Speaker 2: And give yourself grace through that journey.
58:41
Speaker 3: Give yourself grace through the journey. I'm so happy that
58:44
Speaker 3: we were able to finally make this happen. Thank you
58:47
Speaker 3: so much. For those that want to keep up with you,
58:50
Speaker 3: maybe even just on Strava, how do they find you?
58:52
Speaker 3: Give us the details?
58:54
Speaker 1: Yes, so on Strava you can follow me. I'm zip
58:58
Speaker 1: Allen and I live. If you just search zip Allen,
59:01
Speaker 1: I should come up. I don't think there's any.
59:03
Speaker 2: Other Zipalans on Strava.
59:06
Speaker 1: And then on Instagram, on my handle is at it's
59:12
Speaker 1: its zip Allen. I'm like a spotty poster on Instagram.
59:17
Speaker 1: I'm much more consistent on Strava. And then I'm on
59:21
Speaker 1: LinkedIn as well, but I rarely post on LinkedIn.
59:25
Speaker 3: But I love a good zip Allen LinkedIn post, though
59:28
Speaker 3: it's always so profound, there's some takeaway there.
59:32
Speaker 2: It's just very rare.
59:34
Speaker 3: It's rare. I'm over at Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcasts.
59:38
Speaker 3: Another Hurdle Conquered. Catch you guys, next time.