I’ve been thinking about my early days as a musician before I switched gears and built my career around technology, design, and product management. Sometimes folks ask me if I still play my saxophone, and I say no. I never quite found my voice as I did working in technology. One thing I did take with me though was being proficient at the art and craft of improvisation. Being good at improvisation means bringing creative thinking and innovation to the table.

When I left my position at Exygy in July, I knew I needed to catch up on my physical and mental health. For the first three months, I dove into healthy eating, improving sleep, meditating, and cycling – all great – but it’s easy for me to slip back into the grind. Focusing on one day at a time keeps me grounded and hopefully will help me turn these habits into life-long practices.

Last week, I caught up with one of my former product managers who gave me feedback that I was great at fostering continuous growth for folks on my teams. This is something I’ve taken very seriously since I managed my first team of frontend web designers back in the early 2000s and it all started with a great manager I had at my first job after college.