Discover more from Delivering Value with Andrew Capland
Daphne Tideman talks failure, finding perspective, and discovering her voice
The former growth lead at Heights shares her biggest failures and the learnings that fueled her comeback story.
Normally, this email is just for sharing. But today, I need to ask for a favor 🙏
This is the 12th ep of the show. And even though I've been a little frustrated with my audio quality, I love making it. If you enjoy listening, I'd really appreciate a review.
Your stars and kind words on Apple or Spotify help surface this content to other folks like us. (Pro Tip: reviews & ratings must be done from your mobile apps.)
The more reviews it gets, the more new listeners will find it, the more people it can help, the more brands will want to sponsor the content (and the more pull-ups for my 2.5 yr old we can buy).
Don't want to share a review? No biggie. Just send good vibes instead 😎
Presented by MadKudu. SaaS teams spend tons of time trying to identify accounts that are likely to purchase or upgrade based on their behavioral signals.
MadKudu’s Revenue Automation Intelligence platform helps revenue teams cut through the noise by predicting and prioritizing the right revenue generating actions.
And by Navattic. The old PLG playbook is already outdated. We're seeing forward-thinking SaaS businesses adopt interactive product demos as a core part of the modern product-led approach.
Navattic's no-code editor helps product-led SaaS companies create and build interactive product demos to increase website conversions and activate free trials.
Daphne Tideman didn't expect to spend her afternoon crying in the bathroom.
But when her founders said they were disappointed, after she presented her growth strategy (the one she’d labored over for countless hours), it just happened.
Daphne’s story (and the emotion of her retelling) really resonated with me. My quarterly growth strategy once got comments like, ‘not aggressive enough,’ ‘hard to follow,’ and ‘not aligned with core priorities.’ Hearing those comments in front of a room of 40 people, that included my peers and my team, triggered an anxiety attack.
So I can understand why the feeling of missing the mark hit her so hard. Like most of us who work in tech, her job was a big part of her identity. (We’ve all been there — working late hours, wearing the company hoodie, feeling like we're part of something bigger than ourselves.) No wonder the criticism felt like a personal attack.
On top of that — as the growth lead, and unintentional “Jill of all Trades” — Daphne routinely took on way more than her share of responsibility for any failures. She forgot that there were a lot of things outside of her immediate control (economics, market conditions, competitor changes, etc.) that impacted her success. She also forgot that growth is a team sport, and she’s just one player on the team.
Instead, she just put all the blame on herself.
It took a while for Daphne (former growth lead at RockBoost, Heights, and now an independent advisor helping D2C companies) to gain the skills and perspective needed to understand what happened and protect herself from future spirals.
In our conversation, Daphne shared why working on your own self esteem and taking non-work passions and goals seriously made a huge difference in her confidence and helped her build a more stable, well-balanced professional life. (For Daphne, this included therapy, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and running the London Marathon. But you don’t have to go that far.)
We also cover the importance of learning to speak your executive’s language (something that might have averted the crash-and-burn on that presentation), the power of what she calls joint goals, and why it’s not a crime to be in your comfort zone (even when your working in growth).
👇 Watch below, or catch the show on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube 📺
Things to listen for:
[4:29] The crossroads that led Daphne to the Growth industry
[14:18] Being the only woman in a meeting
[17:35] Remembering work isn’t your whole life
[20:42] The power of joint goals
[21:54] How to get your ideas heard
[32:56] Focusing on things in your control
[35:28] Being in your comfort zone is OK
Resources
Connect with Daphne on her Website and subscribe to her newsletter
Learn more about Navattic
Learn more about MadKudu
Originally published at www.deliveringvalue.co on August 23, 2023
Subscribe to Delivering Value with Andrew Capland
Learn how the world's most successful growth leaders navigated the toughest moments in their careers: the times they struggled with imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and navigated brutal performance feedback. Learn from their mistakes - without the pain.