Archita Fritz

Fractional Product Marketing Leader | I help operationalize product roadmaps for commercial success | Strategic Board Advisor | Workplace Culture

I help private equity–backed CEOs and value creation teams turn fragmented go-to-market efforts into a system that drives top-line growth, margin expansion, and commercial readiness for exit.

Most of the companies I support are post-acquisition, sitting around $15M–$50M in ARR, and moving fast toward their growth targets. But behind the scenes? The GTM motion is often still being driven by legacy sales instincts, founder-era marketing, and a whole lot of duct tape.

The symptoms are familiar:
⟶ Sales blaming marketing.
⟶ Marketing running plays that don’t align to revenue.
⟶ No clear ICP, no pricing discipline, and no real GTM narrative investors can buy into.

That’s where I come in.

With 20+ years across global MedTech, SaaS, and industrial technology—leading product launches in 80+ markets—I now partner with portcos as a short-term operator to unblock growth and build real commercial infrastructure.

Here’s how I support the PE lifecycle:

In the first 100 days
→ Run a GTM audit, identify gaps, and prioritize high-ROI quick wins.
→ Bring visibility to what’s actually driving pipeline, not just vanity metrics.

During the build phase
→ Align sales, marketing, and product around one repeatable commercial motion.
→ Fix positioning, pricing, segmentation, and campaign logic.
→ Install weekly operating cadence, dashboards, and conversion discipline.

As you scale
→ Shift from hero selling to system selling.
→ Equip reps with enablement that sticks, and codify what works.
→ Build segment-level GTM plays that actually reduce CAC over time.

Ahead of exit
→ Translate the growth story into buyer-ready clarity.
→ Highlight pipeline velocity, retention drivers, and future upside.
→ Package GTM IP as repeatable, not founder-dependent.

I’ve done this across portcos of AKKR, EQT, Cinven, and Nordic Capital, and across sectors from life sciences to enterprise SaaS.

Outside of portcos, I sit on four boards, keynote international stages, and host the Embracing Only podcast on leadership, identity, and transformation.

If you want marketing to “look busy,” hire an agency. If you want a GTM system that builds enterprise value, call me.

👉🏽 Learn more here: https://calendly.com/archita-e-fm/1-1-work-with-archita-intro-call

What my clients say:

“Archita turned GTM chaos into clarity! And she did it fast!”
— David Hall Rode, CEO, Blue Mountain (AKKR Portco)

“She built our product marketing function and aligned commercial with product.”
— Patrick Hughes, CRO, CluePoints (EQT Portco)

Chief Marketing Officer

We rise by lifting others! Driven by a commitment to build psychologically safe workplaces where people can unapologetically be themselves Archita is resolutely focused to work with partners who want to look beyond metrics to help shape cultures of belonging and cancel out the silent acceptance of bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Archita is the strategy and marketing lead on campaigns, partnerships, products and promotion. If you want to partner with Speak Out on organisational campaigns or partnerships please connect with her.

New client, new year.
First week at Veristat and I got to be onsite for their Commercial Kick Off Meeting! 

Within the first five minutes, I somehow became the Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion! 
(Truly not sure if I peaked there, but it set the tone.)

I love being remote, but a week onsite upfront compresses relationship + context in a way that’s hard to replicate.

A few things I’m taking with me:

👉🏽 Commercial + Operations came together in a real way. You could feel how both sides contribute to the outcome, not in theory, in practice.

👉🏽 They brought in a customer, a family member, and two partners to speak. Hearing from a Veristat team member sharing what it’s like to be a family member navigating finding clinical trials for your loved one, and how that experience changes the way you think about timelines, communication, rigor, and care really struck a nerve. There wasn’t one dry eye in the room with folks recognizing the impact of the work they do.  

👉🏽 The trust Veristat has earned with sponsors is undeniable. There aren’t many teams sponsors rely on to take them from data → direction → regulatory submission with that level of confidence.

Personal bonus: I worked with Andrew (AJ) Mills for a minute many moons ago, so it’s been a joy to reconnect and jump in with his team again.

And I’m genuinely excited to partner with Kim Boericke as CEO, first time I’ve gotten to work this closely with a woman CEO, and you can already feel the clarity she’s bringing.

Grateful for the welcome, Veristat. Let’s go.

Archita Fritz 

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | 2 x Top 100 Product Marketing Leader

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A friend said something to me this week that I can’t stop thinking about.

She met our friend group when we were in our late 20s, because she was marrying one of our friends.

And she told me:

“I remember being genuinely surprised by how many of you were chasing a title like it had a deadline. Like you’d decided, that by this age, I have to be that… or I’ve failed.”

I laughed when she said it, because she was right.

Back then, we used to call it “ambition”, but what it also meant to most of us was “don’t be left behind!”

We were all trying to stay ahead of our insecurity.
 
And what’s wild is… I see the grown-up version of that same chase all the time now.

It is usually not “VP by 30.”

But it’s more like, 

“We need to look further along by the next board meeting.”
“We’ll fix the foundation after we hit the number.”
“Just get through this quarter.”

I get why people say it. I’ve said it too.
Usually it means we’re in scramble mode.

A few years ago, I started asking myself a different question…

𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒕…
𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒎 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 “𝑰’𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅” 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈?

And then, separately, this week I flew in to celebrate a different and very dear friend—mid-week—for her wedding.

I cleared the time properly and showed up without negotiating with myself. We laughed and danced so hard our face and feet hurt.

And for once I wasn’t doing that mental math of what I “should” be doing instead.

And I had this quiet thought on the way home: I’m really glad I don’t live in that frantic chase mode the way I used to.

👉🏽 What was your “by ___” deadline that you have finally loosened the grip on? 

PS: And LinkedIN can you please take a moment to celebrate my gorgeous and dearest friend Sneha on her wedding day!

Archita Fritz at Sneha and Chris Rossi wedding in New York City 

Best thing I’ve done this year so far: breakfast with two women I respect.

Just coffee, tea, some scones were involved and a bit of laughter, with the kind of conversation that puts you back in the right headspace. 

Shea Conboy’s growth over the years has been a joy to watch. 
This past week I got to say it in person.

She was on my team many moons ago, and seeing what she’s built since then is genuinely brilliant. From building social media and event capability from the ground up at various life science companies to starting to build her impact in product marketing, so proud of everything! 

 I left that part of the breakfast feeling properly proud.

And then I finally met Kisha Wynter in person. Author of Your Power Unleashed and a guest on our  Embracing "Only" Podcast  in person for the firs time.  

We talked women in leadership, boardrooms, sponsorship, timing…and every so often we’d stop and laugh: “That’s literally in your book.”

On the way out, I caught myself thinking how often the right conversations get pushed “until things calm down”. 

If you care about women in leadership, your calendar has to show it.

I love catch-ups like this, because In Private Equity land, it’s easy to live in spreadsheets and operating reviews. Breakfast like this pulls you back to what actually moves companies...the people.

Who are you making time for this month?

PS: Check out the link to Kisha's book and her episode in the comments below.

Archita Fritz advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Shea Conboy

Archita Fritz Advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Kisha Wynter author of the book Your Power Unleashed.

These are all the things I would rather do than sit down and do homework with the three littles who live in my home rent free:

✪ Get grilled by a PE sponsor on CAC payback.

✪ Walk into a board meeting with one slide and pure courage.

✪ Explain (again) that “pipeline” isn’t a strategy.

✪ Untangle a CRM that’s 47 versions of “called - no answer.”

✪ Run win/loss calls where the feedback is: “Pricing.”

✪ Rewrite positioning while Legal replaces every verb with “may.”

✪ Align five execs on one ICP without anyone saying “everyone.”

✪ Explain our investor story using chaos, caffeine, and a prayer.

✪ Do a “quick” launch that somehow needs 14 approvals.

——

Because the mental health damage of doing homework and test prep with little humans is something else.

To every parent doing the nightly and weekend sit-down, I see you! 

PS: Anyone else have to take a mid-homework walk outside the house to save themselves from absolutely losing it?

PPS: Picture below courtesy my mid lunch walk last week in the middle of a Sales Kick off meeting! Trying to channel in those calm vibes right now.

You want to be “easy to work with.”
But a lot of you learn the wrong version of it.

Last week, someone I’d never met got combative over email. This person was several levels senior to me.

All I’d asked for was time on the calendar.

The reply wasn’t neutral, it was defensive and a tone that felt like: “know your place.”

In the past, I would have gone along with it. I  would have been extra polite, over-explained and tried to smooth it over.

I don’t do that anymore.

I stopped the email thread and moved it to a call.
On the call, this is what I said.

“We all want growth and a good way to work together. If that’s true, we’ll be fine. If what you actually want is friction or positioning, then this won’t be a good use of either of our time. Either outcome is okay, I just want it to be clear.”

Once that was said out loud, the defensiveness dropped and the real constraints came out. It turned into a productive discussion instead of a drawn-out thread.

By the end, they suggested spending more time together, not less.

Most people tolerate bad behavior because they want to be easy to work with. 

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆.

Going into this week: don’t confuse “easy to work with” with “easy to push around.”
If the tone is off at the start, address it early.

You’ll save yourself weeks of stress, and you’ll get better work out of the relationship.

Kicking off 2026 with a proud board moment: Inflectiv Group has made a minority investment in psLondon.

Huge congratulations to James Rose, Jan-Philipp Matthewes and the Inflectiv team, and a genuine welcome to Robert Pepper, Tony Speight, and everyone at psLondon. Excited to have you in the Inflectiv collective and for what we’ll build together.

Press release in the comments. 

Proud to share this marks Inflectiv Group’s third strategic addition, building a collaborative network of founder-led independents — now alongside Fresh Air and Hue & Cry | Certified B Corp.  

We’re continuing to grow selectively, making minority equity investments where there’s real alignment on quality, leadership, and culture.  
If you’re a founder exploring that kind of partnership, my DMs are open.

This week I got to do one of my favorite things: sit across the table from two C-suite leaders I genuinely love thinking with.

David Hall Rode and Amira Modi, thank you for the time, the candor, and the quality of the thinking.

I’m on my way back to Dusseldorf and smiling thinking about how grateful I am for leaders like them in my orbit. 

With David, we can brainstorm in 80 directions in 20 minutes… and somehow it doesn’t turn into chaos, it turns into clarity.

And then there’s Amira, who is the kind of leader who can zoom out to strategy and zoom in to the detail that will make or break execution.

She’s also one of the few women C-suite leaders in healthcare who brings both deep industry credibility and real commercial clarity. I’m lucky to have them both in my orbit.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞?

Because this is what separates teams that move from teams that stall.

Most teams don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they can’t turn messy thinking into a clear direction people can execute.

What that looks like:
➟ People keep the real concerns to themselves because it’s not worth the friction
➟ The group talks through ten options and chooses none
➟ Everyone “agrees” in the room, then nothing changes after

What strong leaders do instead:
➟ Make it easy to say the unfinished thing out loud
➟ Keep the pace without steamrolling people
➟ Pull a real decision out of the noise
➟ End with a clear “here’s what we’re doing next”

It sounds very basic, but it really isn’t. And it’s a big reason some companies move faster with the same resources.

I’m grateful for leaders who make clarity feel normal and execution feel possible.

Archita Fractional Marketing Leader for Blue Mountain and other Private Equity Backed Middle Market Portfolio Companies 

This week I caught myself working like something was on fire, even though nothing was.

I’m onboarding a new client, and the engagement is off to a strong start. The work is clear, the team is aligned, and the trust is already there. 

I’ve been doing this independently for nearly three years, so none of this is new.

And yet, more than once this week, I caught myself pushing as if I still needed to earn the right to be here.

It was a strange moment of self-awareness, the kind where you can see your own behavior while it’s happening. I found myself asking a question I didn’t expect to be asking at this stage: 

👉🏾 Why am I going this hard when nothing is actually wrong?

This isn't new work or a new room, and it certainly isn’t about proving competence. By any rational measure, I already belong here.

And yet, something in me still behaves like 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭.

That question matters because it doesn’t point to a workload issue. 
It points to an identity issue. 

If you’re doing well in your role or building something that’s finally working, notice what shows up anyway. 

Pay attention to 
the extra effort that isn’t required, 
the urgency that isn’t real, 
the impulse to prove yourself in rooms that have already said yes. 

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 
𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈.

I don’t have a neat answer yet.
Right now, I’m sitting with the question instead of rushing past it. 

Because something tells me this isn’t about working more or less. It’s about updating who I think I need to be in rooms that have already said yes.

PS: I came across a photo of one of my old teams I had the privilege of leading many moons ago. They were one of the first groups that ever held up a mirror to me around this pattern. Seeing that picture again felt like a quiet reminder I needed more than advice.

We’re in a pilot phase rolling out a suite of AI solutions at a PE-backed company.
And the impatience is… Olympic level.

Week 2:
“Why isn’t the AI delivering value yet?”

Because AI isn’t a vending machine.
You don’t insert “tool” and get “pipeline” back.

In the pilot stage, you’re not “deploying AI.”

You’re validating the conditions that make AI worth using

➟ Data integrity (what we think is true vs what’s actually in the system)
➟ Use case fit (what works in generic SaaS ≠ what works in this industry)
➟ Signal quality (which inputs predict response, and which are noise)
➟ Customer reality (how buyers actually reply, in the wild)
➟ Workflow adoption (if humans don’t use it, it doesn’t exist)

So yes, we should push for outcomes. But if you treat a pilot like a finished product, you don’t speed things up, you just create noise, churn, and “AI doesn’t work” opinions before you’ve even set it up properly.

If you’re a revenue leader in a PE-backed company, here’s the better question than “Why isn’t it working yet?”

“What do we need to make this work reliably, and at scale?”

If you’re in the messy middle of an AI pilot right now, what’s the biggest friction point you are navigating?

👉🏾  data, use cases, adoption, or expectations?

AI is not like a vending machine, you cannot put stuff in and hope to get pipeline out.

In a lot of mid-market PE portfolio companies, the issue isn’t lead generation. 

It’s that the company hasn’t agreed on the rules of the funnel, so leads get handled differently depending on who touches them. 

Marketing passes names,
Sales disputes quality, 
follow-up is inconsistent, 

and the CEO ends up asking for “more pipeline” when the real problem is a messy handoff.

There are other things that matter, and deal velocity is increasingly the bigger constraint I’m seeing, but without a clean handoff you can’t tell what’s working, what’s broken, or what to fix next.

When I’m brought in to steady this quickly, I put a basic GTM system in place in the first two weeks:

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 “𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅” 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
One page that Sales and Marketing both agree to. If you can’t say the same sentence, you don’t have a funnel.

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.
Fit, intent, recency, and engagement, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but consistent enough to run the week on.

➟ 𝑺𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘-𝒖𝒑 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆. 
Who responds, how fast, and what happens when it doesn’t happen.

➟  𝑹𝒖𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅.
Routing, speed, fit, or follow-through, then fix one failure point each week.

This is not complicated. It’s just missing in more companies than anyone wants to admit.

In a recent engagement, this system helped moved leads from roughly 5–10 SQLs a month to 170+ sales-qualified leads in 60 days. 

Not because we “did more marketing,” but because we stopped debating opinions and installed a system the team could run.

If you’re a CEO and this feels familiar, ask one question in your next commercial meeting: what happens in the first 24 hours after a lead is marked sales-qualified? If the answer isn’t clear, start there.

Why Private Equity PE Portcos don’t have a Lead Gen Problem. They have a systems problem. “We don’t have enough leads” is the biggest misplaced diagnosis in private equity portcos

Good products don't sell themselves.
At least, they don't do it twice.

Most companies find their first "big win" through sheer grit and a great product. But when they try to launch the second or third product, the wheels usually start to wobble.

If your revenue is plateauing despite a great roadmap, the gap is likely in your Product Marketing foundation. Transitioning from a single-product company to a multi-product powerhouse requires a specific shift in "muscle memory." 

👉🏾 You have to move from selling a tool to selling a solution universe.

I helped a mid-market private equity portfolio company navigate this exact pivot. 

They had the talent and the tech, but their growth was capped by their position. By building a repeatable "pre-commercialisation" engine, they unlocked a 40% revenue lift across their entire portfolio.

1️⃣ Defining the Operating Model: 
↳ Moving away from ad-hoc launches toward repeatable playbooks.

2️⃣ Pre-commercialisation is more than just feedback: 
↳It’s about doing the heavy lifting, market sizing, competitor mapping, and message testing, long before the sales team ever sees the product. If you haven't validated that a "gap in the market" is actually a "market in the gap," you’re just setting your reps up to fail.

3️⃣ Internal Readiness: 
↳ Ensuring Sales knows not only what the product is, but also where it fits in the broader universe.

I’ve attached the one-pager we used to guide this process. If your team is struggling to move beyond your first "big win," I hope this roadmap helps you find some clarity this week.

Roadmap to take your company from a single product to a multi product universe. How to scale your company from a single product to a multi product solution. How Product Marketing can help you grow your product roadmap. How to commercialize your product roadmap.

At Christmas, I was lightly chiding my brother-in-law about how much he cares about football. 

Because I genuinely don’t relate. 

I’m not wired to tie my mood to something I can’t control for three hours on a Saturday/Sunday. My brain files it under: “entertaining… but not emotionally binding.” 

Also, I know basically nothing about American football. 

My strongest credential is still that I once stood on the inside of a football field because I was crowned University Homecoming Queen in 2004. That’s the whole resume!

Fast forward to Saturday, Jan 17. 
The Buffalo Bills lost 33–30 to the Denver Broncos.

My BIL and his entire family are huge Buffalo Bills fans. 
Like it affects the entire "household mood" fans.

So you can imagine, the family chat lit up immediately.

 And it wasn’t just analysis. It turned into people fast:
“He’s such a good guy.”
“He does so much with kids.”
“He deserves a ring.”

Bills fans… I’m sorry. 
That one looked painful.

---
And it made me think about something I see in Private Equity-backed leadership teams after a miss:

𝘐𝘯 𝘗𝘌, 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵.

The room starts hunting for the person attached to the number. Usually it is because we want the chaos to make sense, so we pin the story to a person.

In sports, it can swing either way just as fast:
one moment, one person… 
and suddenly it’s either pile-on or protective loyalty.

A few things I’ve seen the best PE teams do instead:

➜ Separate “bad outcome” from “bad decision.” 
Sometimes the call was right and the timing just didn’t cooperate. 
Sometimes you got lucky and you shouldn’t repeat it.

➜ Force specificity. 
Not “we need to execute.”
More like: “3 deals slipped 30 days” or 
“churn ticked up in X segment.”

➜ Make the next step small and real. 
One fix, one owner, one date, before the next LT/board call.

➜ Do a quick ‘what changed’ review. 
What we thought, what happened, what we’re changing. 
No courtroom or character trial.

Pinning it on one person is the quickest way to feel like you’ve explained it. It’s rarely the quickest way to improve it.

PS: Serious question...are you a “watch with people” fan or a “do not speak to me during the game” fan?

Picture credit: AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Ranked #1 in Branding | AI Strategist for High-Stakes Communications | I Help You Attract Premium Clients, Stages & Global Media | 35M Views

Iza Montalvo is an award-winning journalist, founder, and speaker whose work has been recognized on the floor of the U.S. Congress.

She works at the intersection of media, reputation, and influence, shaping how leaders, companies, and experts are seen, trusted, and remembered.

Over the past 15+ years, Iza has helped craft public narratives and media strategy for U.S. elected officials, public figures, advised C-suite executives at Fortune 100 and 500 companies, and partnered with product and go-to-market teams to launch and scale complex technologies. 

Her specialty: translating high-stakes ideas, from AI platforms to enterprise systems into human stories people understand and believe.

Her own platform has reached more than 50 million people, building a 115k-strong audience in a single year. 

She has been featured in Times Square, recognized by Forbes as a LinkedIn expert, and ranked #1 globally for branding and positioning by Favikon.

Whether on stage, online, or on the page, Iza challenges one belief:
talent isn’t enough, visibility shapes opportunity.


IZA MONTALVO 🧲

This isn’t persuasion.
It’s how the brain works.

Most offers don’t fail because the product is weak.
They fail because the decision feels hard.

Carousel created by Tom Pestridge.

Every buying decision runs on a few shortcuts.
Ignore them and strong offers stall.

9 principles that shape buying decisions:

✅ Anchoring Bias
✅ The Framing Effect
✅ The Contrast Effect
✅ The Affordability Illusion
✅ The Power of Free
✅ The Rule of 3
✅ The Paradox of Choice
✅ The IKEA Effect
✅ The Endowment Effect

Good marketing isn’t deception.
It’s structure.

It aligns the offer with how decisions happen
so value doesn’t need explanation.

📌 Save this before you price or package anything.
♻️ Share it with someone who builds offers.

NEUROMARKETING CONCEPTS TO KNOW

I lost time trying to “figure things out myself.” Speed matters more than pride.

So in 2023, I made a rule:
If I want to learn something fast, I hire the best.

I treat this as a practical decision.

Jobs are contingent.
Markets are cyclical.
Titles are temporary.
Skills are portable.

I’ve seen people lose income, security, and status.
The ones who recovered weren’t unusually confident or optimistic.
They were competent.

They could do something useful in more than one setting.
They didn’t need ideal conditions to function.
They weren’t dependent on a single system continuing as planned.

One distinction:

You’re not paying for information.
Information is easy to access.

You’re paying to shorten the gap between not knowing and being able to act effectively.

There’s evidence behind this way of thinking.

The World Economic Forum estimates that 44% of workers’ skills will change by 2027, driven by technology and shifting business needs.

Skills that only work in one role or one environment don’t age well.
That’s why I don’t see learning skills as a gamble.
I see it as limiting downside.

When you invest in property, equities, or a role, you rely on external conditions holding.
When you invest in skills, you increase your ability to operate when they don’t.

The filter I use before investing in a skill:

Can I use this in more than one role or industry?
Does it improve how I think and decide, not just what I produce?
Would it still be useful if my current job disappeared?

If the answer is no, I skip it.
If things went wrong tomorrow, I wouldn’t be starting from zero.

I’d be starting with capabilities I can apply again.
That’s the difference.

PS: If you’ve built a skill that paid off later than expected, share it below, those examples are more useful than advice.

♻️ Repost to help spread this message

When I say it's never too late, I mean it because I've lived it.

At 40, I:

got married for the first time
had my second child
quit my corporate career in news
built my first serious business
traveled to my dream city in Europe 
bought my first investment property

At the same time, life didn't stop happening.

I lost a job. 
My husband got sick.
I spent years trying to find the right support for my child with additional needs.
I got scammed online.
I had to reinvent myself.
I found success again. 

If you're new here, I want you to know this:

You're not late.
You're not broken.
You didn't miss your one chance.

Some of us move slower because we're carrying more.
We are figuring out things as we get older and wiser. 

If you're in the middle of a reset, this isn't the end of your story.
It's the part where you realize what you're really made of.

PS: What's one thing you started later than you "should have" and still made happen?

Award-Winning Founder, Journalist & Speaker | Top 1% Creator | Former U.S. Congress Communications Director

Kindness matters more now than it used to. 
Or at least it feels that way. 

Sometimes it’s a smile, a helping hand, or a simple gesture that brightens someone’s day. 

Work has sped up, gone remote, stripped back to tasks and messages and calendars. 
A lot of the human stuff has thinned out.

There’s data behind that feeling. 
Studies on modern workplaces show declines in perceived empathy and connection as work becomes more digital. 

Gallup has found that only a small fraction of employees feel genuinely seen or cared about at work, even when performance stays high.

During remote learning, a professor logged into what he assumed was just another final Zoom class. 

Same faces. 
Same screens. 
Nothing to mark the end.

Then the cameras came on.
One at a time.
Every student holding a handwritten sign.

"Thank you".
"For caring".
"For showing up".
"For treating us like people".

He stopped talking.
Just looked at the screen for a second.

Then said is a whisper: “You’re gonna make me cry.”

Someone recorded it. 
The clip made its way around. 
People shared it, saved it, sent it to each other.

Psychology research explains why moments like this are so memorable. 

Under stress, the brain holds on to emotional experiences more than information. 
Facts blur. 
Feelings don’t.

That semester was full of isolation, deadlines, and glowing rectangles. 
And this is what stayed with people.

Not the material.
Not the grades.
Not the lectures they crammed for.

Being noticed.
This isn’t really about teaching.
It’s about leadership. 

Or maybe it’s about what leadership looks like when all the extras fall away.
If you manage people, build things, mentor someone, the impact you have usually shows up later.

In trust.
In who sticks around.
In moments you never planned for.

That’s the part people carry with them.

🎥 Video credit: Brain Nourishment, IG
♻️ If you believe in kindness, pass it on.

Perspective arbitrage is worth 30% more revenue.
Research on cultural adaptation found this pattern.

Companies that adjust products and messaging see higher revenue growth than those that don’t.

Most companies already have this advantage.
They just don’t see it.

What is perspective arbitrage?

The ability to profit from insights others can't access because you think in multiple cultural contexts.

Inside organizations, this ability is often treated as translation.

I’ve seen the cost of that mistake.

A company planned to enter a new market.
The discussion centered on translation and launch timing.
One person raised a different concern.

The product story didn’t match how customers in that market judged value.
That observation changed the launch plan.
Projected revenue increased threefold.

Nothing new was added.
The decision changed.

So why does this keep getting overlooked?

1/ It gets framed as language
“I can help translate.”
Instead of: “This won’t work the way we expect.”

2/ Differences get set aside
Teams aim for speed and miss context.

3/ Observations don’t carry forward
Adjustments get made in meetings,
then disappear once the decision is done.

When insight isn’t named, it doesn’t influence the next choice.
Seeing across cultures isn’t a soft skill.
It’s how blind spots get caught early.

Many bilingual professionals are hired for language.
The ones who advance earn trust for how they think.

Perspective arbitrage isn’t a personal advantage.
It’s how companies avoid making the wrong call.

Your cultural lens isn't just heritage.
It's a business advantage.

🔁 Share if you've used cultural insights to drive business results
➕ Follow me IZA MONTALVO 🧲 for more

Founder | Top 1% Creator | Journalist | Former U.S. Congress Communications Director | 50M Views

Intelligence opens doors. 
Adaptability keeps you moving.

Someone with less experience just got promoted 
over 5 people who'd been there longer.

Same role. 
Same manager.
Happened over 18 months.

The difference wasn't talent.
It was how they responded when things changed.

When feedback came, they didn't defend it. 

They listened. 
Took notes. 
Applied it without ego.

When a new system rolled out, they learned it first. 
While others complained, they were already fluent.

They copied what worked. 
Emails. 
Meetings. 
How to handle pushback. 

Same personality. 
Upgraded execution.

They admitted gaps early. 

"I haven't used this before. 
I'll learn it this week." 
Speed beats pretending.

They systemized mistakes. 

What went wrong. 
Why it happened. 
What changes next time. 

Fix once. 
Avoid forever.

Research shows 64% of senior leaders say: 
a growth mindset enhances productivity and performance. 
Source (TalentLMS)
and 94% of employees would stay at a company longer 
if it invested in their career development.  
Source (LinkedIn)

The pattern is clear: 
Internal promotions happen 20% faster than external hires 

PS: What's one habit you picked up from watching someone else work?
♻️ Share with your network of high-performers

Most leadership misses one simple truth:
Connection isn’t one-size-fits-all.

My 9-year old son’s teacher proves this every morning.
At the classroom door, she gives her students five ways to be greeted:

High-five
Hug
Fist bump
Smile and nod
“Good morning”

That’s it.

No pressure.
No forcing energy.
Just choice.

What matters isn’t the options themselves
it’s what they mean.

👉 You get to decide how you want to be seen today.

Some mornings kids want closeness.
Some mornings they want space.
Some mornings they just want acknowledgment without attention.

And every choice is respected.

That small moment does something powerful:
It gives students agency before the day even starts.

When people are acknowledged in ways that work for them, engagement follows.

They participate more.
They take risks.
They trust.

It made me think about leadership.

How often do we decide for people how connection should look?
How often do we mistake our preference for a universal rule?
The best leaders don’t demand sameness.

They design for difference.
Because confidence doesn’t grow from being managed.
It grows from being met where you are.

♻️ Worth sharing with someone who leads people.

Some fires don’t burn you all at once.
They warm you first 🔥 

You stand close.
You tell yourself it’s manageable.

You adjust instead of stepping back.

Until one day you realize...
you’re not tired.
You’re scorched.

I used to stay near things that were silently burning me.
I thought endurance was a virtue.
It isn’t.

There’s research that backs this up.

Studies on chronic stress show the body reacts before the mind does: 
elevated cortisol, muscle tension, sleep disruption, long before people consciously label a situation as “toxic” or unsustainable.

That’s why logic rarely gets you out first.
Your nervous system tries to.

What finally changed things wasn’t a conversation.
Or closure.
Or an apology.

Relief came the moment I stepped out of the burn radius.

That’s emotional intelligence.
Not reading the room
reading the heat in your own body.

Those Sunday night knots?
That’s not anxiety.
That’s information.

Psychologists call it somatic signaling, the body flagging prolonged threat when the mind is still negotiating.

Signs you’re standing in the fire:

🚩 You explain it more than you enjoy it
🚩 You’re depleted, not restored
🚩 You don’t recognize who you’re becoming
🚩 Every interaction feels like careful movement
🚩 You’re giving fuel, getting smoke back

Leaving doesn’t mean you failed to control it.
It means you stopped pretending you could.

Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do 
is walk away and chose yourself.

♻️ Repost to share this message with your network.

Ranked #1 in Branding & Positioning | AI Strategist for High-Stakes Communications | I Help You Attract Premium Clients, Stages & Global Media

Your biggest limit isn’t skill. 
It’s self-perception.

Before effort.
Before chances.
Before experience.

I didn’t apply for leadership roles
because I didn’t see myself there yet.

That took me longer to admit than I’d like.

You don’t try everything you can do.
You try what feels right for someone like you.

That starts early.

The jobs you apply for.
The roles you raise your hand for.
The rooms you expect to be in.

Over time, this view becomes familiar.

You learn what you’re known for.
You learn what people come to you for.
You learn what feels normal to reach for.

Then something bigger shows up.

A role with more responsibility.
A chance to lead instead of help.
An opportunity that could change things.

You pause.
You read it twice.
You tell yourself to wait.
You think you need more time.

So you stay where you are.
The work stays busy.
The results stay good.

But nothing really changes.

While that view stayed the same:

Skills stayed boxed
Growth slowed
Opportunities passed you by

Nothing broke.
Nothing failed.
That’s how limits work.

They don’t stop you.
They guide what you try.

People who move ahead see themselves doing more.

They apply sooner.
They speak up earlier.
They step into roles they grow into later.

That starts with how they see themselves.

Different view.
Different actions.
Different results.

Change how you see yourself,
and the line moves.

Little by little.
You reach higher.
You stay in the room.

You try things that once felt out of reach.
That’s how limits lift.

PS: What’s one limit you’re ready to question?
♻️ Share this with someone who needs it.

A bad boss makes weekdays hell. 
A great one gives you Sundays off. 

I’ve worked for managers who made me dread Mondays.
And managers who made me want to take on things I didn’t feel ready for.

The difference wasn’t title or tenure.

7 signs you’re working with a great manager:

They remember what you told them weeks ago.
They ask how it turned out without checking notes.

When you mess up, the first question is:
“What do you need to fix this?”

They back you in rooms you’re not in.
You hear about it later, casually, from someone else.

Bad news doesn’t trigger panic.
It starts with: “Walk me through what happened.”

They give you work that makes you pause before saying yes.
The kind that forces you to rise.

Their one-on-ones aren’t updates.
They’re honest conversations about what’s stuck and what’s next.

When they’re wrong, they say it.
Out loud in front of others.
Then they move on.

The best managers don’t just manage work.
They change what you think you can do.

If you've got one, appreciate them. 
If you don't, become one. 

PS: What’s one thing a great manager did that you still remember?
♻️ Share if you believe good leaders deserve recognition.

5 mindsets I see in every successful person 
(you’re not born with this)

95% of people want to be high performers.
Only 5% install the mindset required to sustain it.

The difference isn’t effort.
It’s how they interpret pressure, failure, and time.

I’ve had to consciously rewire these myself, especially after hitting plateaus where “working harder” stopped working.

Here are 5 mindset reframes that separate winners from everyone else:

Reframe #1: Failure
Every setback is data.
Every obstacle reveals something.

❌ "I'm afraid of making mistakes."
✅ "Mistakes show me what to fix."

Reframe #2: Discipline
Pressure isn't the enemy.
Avoidance is.

❌ "I don't feel like doing it."
✅ "I do what needs to be done."


Reframe #3: Time
You don't find time.
You protect it.

❌ "I don't have time."
✅ "I protect what matters most."


Reframe #4: Success
Success isn't motivation.
It's repetition.

❌ "I hope this works."
✅ "I make it work through action."


Reframe #5: Opportunity
Momentum beats timing.
Action beats waiting.

❌ "I'll start when it's right."
✅ "I start now."

Your mindset determines your ceiling.
Reframe how you think.
Change what you achieve.

♻️ Repost this if it helped.

>>5 MINDSET REFRAMES OF HIGH-PERFORMERS<<

The best KPI no one talks about 👇🏽
because you can’t measure it

It’s how your team feels on Monday morning.
You won’t find it in a dashboard.
It won’t show up in a report.

But you notice it straight away.
It’s there when people walk in.
In the energy they bring.

In whether ideas get shared or kept to themselves.
In how people treat each other before the meeting even starts.
That tells you more than most metrics ever will.

What tends to move that needle:

1/ Keeping people interested
Not just busy.
Not just ticking tasks.
Engaged in what they’re building.

2/ Keeping people informed
Sharing the why, not just the plan.
Letting people see the bigger picture, not just their lane.

3/ Keeping people involved
In decisions that affect their work.
In changes they’ll have to live with.
In wins they helped create.

4/ Keeping people inspired
Through trust.
Through space.
Through leadership that doesn’t rely on pressure.

You can track every number in the business
and still miss the important one.

How many people want to be here.
Look at how your team show up in the morning.
That’s the real dashboard.

Old thinking built control.
New thinking builds outcomes.

Good people don’t leave bad companies.
They leave bad leaders.

Treat people like a risk and you’ll churn talent.
Treat them like an asset and they’ll grow the business.

This isn’t a culture debate.
It shows up in revenue. 

Here's what works:

→ Hire for behavior, train for skill
→ Give people freedom to get results
→ Apply the same rules to everyone

The business owners I work with get this.
They don't build places where people count down to Friday.
They build places where people want to show up.

This change is happening now.

The best leaders aren't building better companies.
They're building places where people grow.

PS: Which shift has made the biggest difference where you work?
♻️ Share this if you agree

"If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."
William H. McRaven

If you can’t do the small things right
You’ll never do the big things right 

That’s a Navy SEAL lesson to remember. 

Admiral William McRaven said it best in a commencement speech that has been watched over 100 million times.

It comes down to one simple idea:

Make your bed.

It sounds silly.
It isn’t.

True leadership isn’t built in big moments.
It’s built in what you do every day.

When small things slip, bigger things follow.
1/ Start with one finished task
Before email.
Before meetings.
Before anyone needs you.
Do one small thing you can complete.
You start the day with a win.

2/ Use hard moments to pull people together
In SEAL training, the toughest tasks can’t be done alone.

When something breaks:
→ Don’t avoid it
→ Don’t carry it solo
→ Bring someone in and work through it

Teams don’t bond when things are easy.
They bond when things feel challenging.

3/ Notice what others skip
Details tell the truth.
What you check shows what you care about.
People trust leaders who pay attention.

4/ Say what didn’t work
In training, failure was normal.
What mattered was owning it and learning fast.
When leaders talk about mistakes, people stop hiding.
Trust goes up.

5/ Make one person feel seen
In the hardest moments, one comment kept people from quitting.
Leadership lives here.
In checking in.
In noticing effort.
In showing up when it’s uncomfortable.

The gap between good and great isn’t talent.
It’s doing the small things.
Every day.

video credit: IG

♻️ Share this with your network of high-performers

Built your credibility face-to-face.
Keeping it offline is the bottleneck.

I analyzed 50+ leaders’ online presence last year.

Not to study content.
To see where opportunity breaks.

The pattern showed up across the same roles:

📣 Investors.
📣 Executives.
📣 Founders.

People with track records.
Very little to verify in public.

That gap creates credibility leaks.
If you’re missing deals, it’s usually coming from 1 of these 4 places:

1/ Your wins are hard to find
Media features buried
Exits never named
Board seats invisible
If someone has to work to understand your background, they won’t.

2/ Your language sounds like everyone else’s
Careful phrasing
Safe opinions
Nothing that shows judgment
You don’t look wrong.
You look replaceable.

3/ Your presence doesn’t match your level
Generic posts
Helpful tips
No authority markers
You wouldn’t hire this version of yourself.

4/ Your footprint is too light to confirm influence
Search doesn’t validate you
So decisions move on without you

Here’s what that costs in practice:

❌ Investor intros that don’t progress
❌ Board seats that go to visible peers
❌ Speaking invites that never land
 
When leaders fix this, the shift is predictable.

✅ Inbound increases.
✅ Demand rises.
✅ Opportunities start finding them.

Same experience.
Clear positioning.

If you want to close the leaks:

1 / Look yourself up like capital would
First three results only
Do they show relevance?

2 / Put proof where attention goes
Headline: the win that opens doors
About section: the track record you already have
Once a month: explain one real outcome

3 / Remove corporate or technical language
Write how you speak in closed rooms
State what you believe
Let judgment show

4 / Leave authority trails
Share how you decide
Break down calls you’ve made
Show the method behind results

Staying quiet doesn’t protect your name.
It makes it easier to pass over.

PS: Where is your credibility leaking?
♻️ Share with your network of high-achievers

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IZA MONTALVO 🧲

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