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

Entrepreneur / Finance Lawyer / Ex Professional Tennis Player / Author

Winning isn’t just about trophies or deals. It’s about leading with clarity - and living on your own terms. That’s where I come in.

I know what it takes to perform when everything is on the line - first as a professional tennis player, then as a BigLaw partner advising on billion-euro finance deals, and now as a coach to ambitious leaders navigating high-stakes transitions.

👉 I work with founders, executives, and consultants facing: 

- Identity shifts during career transitions

- Pressure to perform at the highest level

- Redefining success beyond titles and trophies

- Reinvention after plateau or burnout

My approach blends the discipline of elite sport with two decades of legal and financial leadership. It’s performance coaching reimagined - designed for leaders who want bold results without losing themselves in the process.

I’m also the author of Winning Inside, which explores how high-performance principles help leaders thrive in business and in life. It’s the foundation of my keynotes and workshops for organizations preparing their leaders for the future.

📩 Let’s connect if you’re ready for coaching, workshops, or speaking engagements.

************

📩 Contact

Workshops, speaking, coaching, advisory: ak@angelakerek.com

Legal advisory in banking & finance: akerek@drkerek.com

Brand collaborations: https://app.limelighthq.com/p/angela-kerek

Website: www.angelakerek.com

🎓 Education & Credentials
- Executive MBA - Kellogg/WHU
- Executive Training - Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Health Tech & Innovation - MIT
- Certified Nutrition Coach - Precision Nutrition
- PhD in Constitutional Law - Humboldt University of Berlin

🏆 Recognitions
- AZUR Award - Most Innovative Project (2020)
- WirtschaftsWoche - Best of Legal (2021)

🌍 Languages
German, English, Hungarian, Romanian (fluent at the highest level)

Dr. Angela Kerek MBA

Your top performer might be your biggest liability.

Simon Sinek explains why.

Top performers don't miss targets, but
 they quietly redefine what’s acceptable.

They hit numbers.
They deliver results.
So their behavior gets explained away.

“They’re just intense.” (yep)
 “They don’t mean it.” (they actually do)
 “That’s the price of excellence.” (not necessarily)

While leadership rationalizes,
the rest of the team is watching.

They learn that output matters more than respect.
 No matter the cost.
That values are negotiable.

That some people are untouchable.
This is how trust erodes without a single announcement.

The acceptance of these high-performers does influence results.
But they set the standard.

And when that standard rewards ego, blame, or fear,
the cost doesn’t show up immediately.
It shows up later:
in disengagement, silence, and the quiet exit of people you actually wanted to keep.

Great leaders don’t choose between performance and culture.
They understand that behavior IS performance.

What you tolerate today
becomes your culture going forward.

👇 Any thoughts?

✅ like and ♻️ re-share if this resonates
➕ Follow Dr. Angela Kerek MBA for more

Money talks.

But reputation echoes.

A young founder asked me: "What's the one thing you'd protect at all costs in business?"

Without hesitation: Reputation.

Warren Buffett said it very clearly in 1991:
"Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation, and I will be ruthless."

He wasn't just talking. During the Salomon Brothers crisis, he put his own reputation on the line to save the company. Why?

Because he knew:
• Money is replaceable
• Trust is not
• Markets forgive losses
• Markets never forget betrayal

Think about the companies that lost our trust in the last decade.
How many recovered?
How many disappeared?

The math is simple:
20 years to build trust.
20 seconds to break it.
20x harder to rebuild it.

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Mindset & Transformation for Founders & Leadership | 18+ years experienced Finance Lawyer to CFOs | Author | Ex-Tennis Pro 🎾 & Ex-BigLaw Partner💲 | Defining Success on Your Own Terms

Feeling “fine” is the biggest career red flag.

Not because something is wrong.

But because nothing excites you anymore.
Most people ignore that feeling.

Until burnout decides for them.

This is your life.
Your job.
Your career.
You decide.
You transform it.

👉 Before changing anything, start here:
Awareness.
Not judgment.
Not panic.
Just honesty.

1️⃣ Spotting the Signs

9 signs you may be ready for a career change
- Your energy is constantly drained
- Motivation feels forced
- You’re bored more often than not
- Bad moods spill into most days
- Your mental health is taking a hit
- You see no real perspective ahead
- “What if” thoughts about other roles keep showing up
- You keep telling yourself you’re “fine”
- There’s no joy. No fresh ideas.

2️⃣ Evaluate before you leap

- List what regularly zaps your energy and motivation
- Note what you avoid
- Go deeper and question the narratives behind it
- Identify aspects of your job you still or would enjoy
- Create your space to think and be freely

3️⃣ Prepare with intention

• Build skills deliberately
• Update your CV with real impact
• Optimize your LinkedIn presence
• Explore new networks and environments

4️⃣ Networking Strategically

• Build skills deliberately
• Update your CV with real impact
• Optimize your LinkedIn presence
• Explore new networks and environments
• Trust your intuition about fit and opportunity

5️⃣  Then move

• Have a transition plan
• Choose your timing
• Communicate clearly
• Keep promises you made to yourself
• Act — even when it feels uncomfortable

✨ Remember:
Don’t wait until you crash.
Changing jobs is common.

Changing careers is often a sign you want to live fully.
Be who you want to be.

‼️ The purpose of your life is the one you give it.

Do you agree?
Let me know ⬇️

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Most stress comes from trying to control the wrong things.

For years, I burned through energy like it was unlimited:

- Refreshing my inbox after sending proposals.
- Waiting for investors to call back with the "right" tone.
- Doing favors for people, then feeling resentful when they didn't return them.

I was living in a constant state of "what if."

- What if they don't like my idea?
- What if they think I'm pushing too hard?
- What if they never respond at all?

My mind was running scenarios on repeat.
Rehearsing conversations that might never happen.
Preparing for reactions I couldn't predict or control.

‼️ Anxiety isn't random. It's misplaced control.

The turning point came when I realized:
🕯️ I was spending 80% of my mental energy on things that were 0% in my control.

Other people's opinions? Not mine.
Their timeline for decisions? Not mine.
Whether they'd reciprocate my effort? Definitely not mine.

So I made a rule:
💪 Focus only on what's actually yours.

My attention. My words. My response. My boundaries.
My next action. My standards. My follow-through.

I gave myself permission to move forward WITHOUT their approval.

When someone didn't respond to my proposal?
Data point. Not a personal rejection.

When an investor passed on the deal?
Information. Not a verdict on my worth.

When someone didn't return a favor?
Good to know. Adjust expectations accordingly.

This wasn't about becoming cold or detached.
It was about channeling my energy where it could actually make a difference.

💡 Here's what shifted:

- I stopped creating stories about what people might be thinking.
- Stopped waiting for the "perfect" response before taking my next step.
- Started treating reactions as feedback, not validation.

The irony?
My results improved dramatically.

Not because I cared less.
But because I cared more intentionally.

💡 Remember: 
When you stop trying to control their reactions,
you free up all that energy for what you can actually influence.

Keep focusing on your next steps.
Let go of trying to control their reactions.

That's where your real power lives.

❓ What's one thing you're trying to control that you need to let go of?
Drop it in the comments. 👇 

🫵  Focus on what you can control - pick this as your 21 Day Challenge to LEVEL UP YOUR GAME: https://lnkd.in/e6Rz4Uvf

Teams don’t hide ideas by accident.

They learn to.

They learn when their feedback is ignored.
When their honesty is punished.

When silence feels safer than speaking up.
When they feel that nothing they say or do matters.

Over time, people stop sharing what they see.
Even if they care, they don't do it because they’ve learned the cost of caring.

And that’s how cultures quietly break.
Not through bad intentions.
But through repeated signals that say:
 “Keep your head down.”

If you want better ideas,
don’t ask for louder voices.
Build safer rooms.

💡 Remember: 
Culture is defined as "the way we do things around here every day"!
It is not what you say it is on paper.

👇 Let me know - what means to have a good culture to you?

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This isn't a practice run.

But most of us live like it is.

We wait for the "right moment" to launch that business idea.
We postpone the difficult conversation with our team.
We delay reaching out to that potential client.

I see this pattern everywhere.

The proposal has been sitting in drafts for weeks.
The partnership conversation that keeps getting pushed to "next quarter."
The business pivot everyone knows needs to happen.
The will to lose weight is there; only needs a kickstart.

They're all waiting for someday.

But someday = never ‼️ 

Someday is a place that doesn't exist ‼️ 

The timing will never feel perfect.
You'll never have all the answers.
The fear won't magically disappear.

Think about it.

That client you've been meaning to reach out to?
They're probably looking for exactly what you offer right now.

That team member who needs feedback?
They already sense something's off, and they're wondering why no one's talking about it.

That new direction your business needs to take?
Your competitors aren't waiting for perfect market conditions.

The difference between leaders who thrive and those who survive isn't about having more information.

It's about acting with what they have.
Starting before they feel completely ready.

Because readiness isn't something that happens to you.
It's a CHOICE.

Your next breakthrough isn't waiting for the stars to align.
It's waiting for you to decide that the stars are aligned enough.

❓ The question is: what are you not doing while you're waiting to be ready?

👇 What's the one thing you keep pushing to "someday" that could change everything if you started today?

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The word NO changed my life. 

Here's why it might change yours too.

Learning to say no means protecting YOUR time, energy, and personal boundaries. 

And you don't owe anyone an explanation.

The more you say no, the more space you create to say yes to what truly matters to YOU.

For decades, I struggled with this. I thought the more yeses I said, the more people would like me. 

I was giving power to everyone else's priorities, not my own.

Here are 5 simple questions to ask yourself regularly. Write down your answers to track patterns and progress: 

✅ What am I not saying no to?

✅ How does my inability to say no impact my life?

✅ What signals of my body am I overlooking?

✅ What is the narrative behind my inability to say no?

✅ Where did I learn this narrative?

Whenever you say yes to something that doesn't align with your values or priorities, you're inadvertently saying no to opportunities that truly matter to you. 

The initial discomfort of declining requests stings. 

But it's nothing compared to the resentment of overcommitting or the regret of neglecting your own needs. 

What helps you decide when to say NO? 

👇 Share your strategy below.

♻️ Repost this to help someone set better boundaries.
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Questions based on Gábor Maté's: The Myth of Normal

It started in the 1980s.

It never really stopped.

Tennis has been THE quiet constant in my life.
Not in a straight line.
And certainly not always lovingly.
 
Sometimes intensely, resentfully.
Other times, obsessed. Many times distant.
Often, it just grounds me.

In the center of the focus or distantly. But it is always there.

Over the decades, my relationship with the game kept changing.
At first, it was about learning the rules.
Then, about winning or losing everything.

Then, about proving something. During my studies, it kept me afloat, and I financed my studies just through playing and teaching the game.

Then I pushed it away, and I kept a distance. I refused to see it.

Then, about staying fit. Then, about staying sane.

And then it brought me back to life when I was in my deepest lows.

Now it is teaching me about winning without holding a trophy in your hands. About winning at life!

Same sport.
Different decades, different relationships.
Different perspectives and filters.

What kept me grounded over and over wasn’t motivation or discipline in the abstract. It was repetition. 

The same movements. The same kind of attempt to hear that sound and feel that resonance in my body when hitting the ball.

That feeling when timing clicks. When effort disappears.
It is addictive.

Over and over. 

Forehands. Backhands. Footwork. Serves, volleys.
Hundreds of thousands of repetitions.

When life felt chaotic, the body remembered.
When my head was loud, the game kept being simple.
 
Sport becomes a constant like that.
A lens you keep returning to.

The game changed, and my relationship with it evolved over the decades.
But it always was and is a standpoint that centers me.
It can be so calming when everything around me is reduced to the next ball.

A lot of my fellow players quit.

And I just kept going back to it.
Because it always reflected something that was deep down in me.

Forty years of showing up doesn’t look dramatic. It looks ordinary.
Quiet. Maybe unremarkable from the outside.
But that’s the point.
Some things just need room to evolve with you.
Same court. Lots of new chapters.
And somehow, decades later, still playing.

💡 Much about life is about falling in love with the ordinary - the repetitions.

👇 What game do you love?
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🔔 Want to practice repetitions - on your own terms for your own game?
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Life through the lens of tennis

On January 1st, new partners were announced.

It exposed my real failure.

I never made someone up as a partner.
I mean in the real sense. 

Yes, I stepped aside.
Yes, I handed over my position.

But that’s not the same thing.

Leadership isn’t leaving a seat.
Leadership is helping someone grow into it.

While I was a partner, I didn’t have the opportunity to develop others to that level. I had to focus on performance, delivery, and survival.
There was no room for multiplication.

That realisation changed how I see careers in professional services.

Today, I work with:
- Lawyers/consultants who want to become partners
- Mid-career professionals who feel stuck and need to reshuffle
- Senior partners who are “sitting it out” because they don’t know what’s next

Too many brilliant people wait.
They prolong the inevitable and focus on preservation.
Not because they lack talent - but because they can’t see alternatives.

👉 There is more to life than just self-protection.
More impact. More relevance.
More leadership - even without a title.

Preservation makes you feel small.
Opening up expands the self and the options in life.

And this time, I’m committed to doing the part I once missed.
I help those who want to raise and those who help others raise to the next level!

Congratulations to all newly made-up partners!

Tag someone whom you admire for developing leaders!
 👇 

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Self-asses to see opportunities!
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DM me if you want to chat about how to become a partner, how to level up, and how to exit without losing!

Image credit Leonardo Freixas - follow him for more on leadership

My runs and workouts now defend entire communities.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

I've planted over 1,500 mangrove trees.

Just by running and going to the gym.

The Active Giving app tracks every mile and workout I log and converts it into real trees. 
Their partners handle the actual planting while I handle the running.

It sounds too simple to matter.
Until you see what these trees actually do.

This video shows a model from a Dutch research institute.
Watch what happens when waves hit mangroves.

The trees don't just stand there.
They absorb the wave energy.

They weaken storm surges.
They prevent coastal erosion.

During hurricanes and extreme weather, mangroves act like natural seawalls.
Communities survive because these trees exist.

Every run I take and every workout I do builds that protection.
1,500 trees growing into barriers that will defend coastlines for decades.

I was already running and working out anyway.
Now my movement creates something that lasts - impact!

No guilt.
No complex offset calculations.
Just movement converted into real impact.

The connection is direct:
Your activity becomes their protection.

❓ How do you create impact - inspire me and the network - I am looking for ideas, always! 👇 

Want to join my Active Giving team?
Do you want to level up your game anyway?

🫵 Anyone who grabs my 21-day Challenge gets access to our group where we're turning workouts into forests: https://lnkd.in/e6Rz4Uvf

Your next run could save someone's home.


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Video from Mehrtash Soltani, Ph.D who's account I absolutely love - follow him for extraordinary engineering stories

47 pages. Five scenarios. Zero progress.

Six words to close the deal.

47 pages. Five scenarios.
A backup plan for the backup plan.

It felt thorough.
It felt smart.
It felt safe.

Then my senior partner closed the deal with six words:
“This works. Let’s do it.”

No justification.
No defensive framing.

Just clarity.
This is something uncomfortable.
Because I wasn’t being rigorous.
I was hiding behind complexity.

Here’s what was really happening:
• I confused activity with progress
 More analysis felt productive. It wasn’t.

• I used complexity to hedge myself
 If it failed, the system was at fault. Not my judgment.

• I was addicted to looking smart
 Simple felt obvious. So I added layers.

The cost?
👉 Complexity is expensive.
It drains time, energy, and the one thing that actually moves decisions forward: clarity.

What helped me change this:

I no longer ask,
 “What else should I consider?”
I am now asking,
 “What actually matters?”

If I can’t explain the decision in one sentence,
I’m not done thinking.

Simple isn’t easy.
Simple is essential.

💡 Remember:
The best leaders aren’t the smartest in the room.
They’re the clearest.

👇 Now your turn:
What was the six-word version of your last big decision?
Drop it in the comments.
(If it took more than six words, that’s the point.)


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Silence in meetings is not alignment.

It’s fear.

Fear of looking stupid.
Fear of challenging the boss.
Fear of being labeled “difficult.”

So people nod.
They agree.
They stay quiet.
And leaders mistake that silence for buy-in.

I have observed this in numerous partner meetings.
You go in full of ideas. Fresh perspective. 
Challenging assumptions.

But every time you speak up, responses you fear are:
"We've tried that before."
"That won't work here."
"Let's take that offline."

It takes just a couple of months until people stop contributing.
The start just sitting there, taking notes, and nodding along.

Because they learn, the room didn't actually want them.

The team thought they had alignment.
What they really had was someone who had given up.

Real alignment sounds noisy.
It sounds like disagreement.
It sounds like uncomfortable questions.
It sounds like “I see this differently.”

The best teams I’ve seen weren’t polite.
They were honest.

Psychological safety isn’t about everyone agreeing.
It’s everyone feeling safe enough to disagree.
If your meetings are quiet, ask yourself this:

👉 Your move as a leader: 
In your next meeting, don't just ask "Any questions?" 
Ask "What concerns do you have?" or "What am I missing?" 
Then wait. 
Actually, wait for the answer.

Do people feel heard… or watched?
Because the absence of conflict isn’t leadership success.
It’s often a warning sign.

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