Becca Camp Coaching

04/14/2021

You don't ever have to scan job listings ever again. Ever.

I want you to know that there is an entire tier of the product leadership job market where job postings don't exist. Here's the strategy:

1. Meet with three people every week, all the time, forever.

That's it. It's one step.

In those meetings, share:
1. What you're most excited about right now in your life
2. What you're learning in your product role
3. Ask the same of them.

And, as always, ask who you should meet next, based on your conversation.

Don't wait until you are looking for a job (though when you are, you're gonna want to use my Third Link Rule for Job Searching (http://ow.ly/CYEB50Emt1y).

When you are regularly meeting with people you admire, generously creating value for them, and sharing where you're at, you will be on their radar.

In about a year, you'll be having the conversation where someone is designing a role for you, bespoke to your skills. There was never going to be a job posting for this role. It was always yours.

Every client I work with thinks I'm lying about this until it inevitably happens for them. Nothing is ever the same after that.

Book a call and let's work together: calendly.com/beccacamp/strategy-session

If you aren't currently looking for a promotion or raise, you probably will be in the next year or so. Sometimes, that advancement requires you to change companies or teams. Most people take that as a cue to start a) answering recruiter messages on LinkedIn, b) scrolling through endless job listing

04/13/2021

If you want to get promoted to Senior PM fast, you have to do great work faster than your counterparts.

Here's the deal: you get MORE, BETTER work done in a 20 hour workweek than in a 40+ hour workweek.

Your fear of being seen as “lazy” is keeping you from even considering setting a boundary in spite of the pure simplicity of this fact.

I’m not saying there isn’t social pressure to “look like you’re working” but before long, your improved performance will make the case for you. We measure impact, not suffering. This is 90% on you, sorry.

Your boss wants you to do few things extremely well, not many things poorly.

OUCH! I know, this is probably the realest talk you've heard on this topic. Here are some lines for you to use to stay focused on high-leverage stuff.

1. “Hi Jordan, I’m cutting back on meetings. I’ll review the notes afterwards.”
2. “Hi Tomas, do you need me here?”
3. “Our top 3 priorities for this month are X, Y, and Z. Which do you think we should compromise in favor of [their thing]?”

Consider the possibility you have been taken by the cult of American productivity, and look at the science. Twenty hours a week gets more and better done.

This is the gospel of Fearless Femmes who want a promotion without burning out. When you're ready, book a call.

03/26/2021

If you’re getting repeatedly passed over for promotions or new jobs, there are only two possible reasons:

1. Your passions, skills, and growth areas are not a match to the “puzzle piece” of the company’s needs.
2. You actually ARE a match, but your insecurity/lack of confidence is contagious.

Your insecurity is contagious because of a phenomenon called “physiological co-regulation”. It’s when our bodies tune into an unconscious band of data interpreting others’ heart rate, gaze, breathing, posture, and pheromonal cues, and our own body responds by MATCHING theirs.

That means if they’re freaked out and vigilant, suddenly you feel that way, too. It's pretty unpleasant, right?

But if your body conveys calm, curiosity, and play--you'll elicit THOSE emotions in other people.

That's what people mean when they say, "I don't know, there was just something about her I really liked! I can't put my finger on it."

But science DOES know what "it" is. We solve for this issue in the first three weeks of Fearless Femmes.

There are body interventions and practices that are extremely straightforward--once you learn them, you'll wonder how you even survived walking around in the world without them.

You'll be the obvious candidate.

Book a call: calendly.com/beccacamp/strategy-session.

03/25/2021

I don’t get intimidated by anyone. Not anymore.

It doesn’t matter who you are. I look at every aspect of your behavior in our meeting, and my unconscious mind starts whirring, filing it all away, noticing all the ways in which you are the product of our culture.

Of your pain. Of your trauma. Of your desire to be needed. Of your fear of being needed. Of your desire to be understood. Of your fear of being understood.

I also see the ways you make ME feel—fear, pain, inspiration, all of it—and notice all the ways in which I, too, am a product of our culture and my past. I see it all for what it is, and smile at how predictable we both are.

Yeah... all, like, DURING our meeting.

My empathy makes me un-intimidate-able.

My “sensitivity” makes me unf**kwithable.

An excellent manager. A stakeholder mind-reader. A thoughtful responder and guide under pressure. And yes, it is as effortless as it looks.

I’ll say it straight up: people who think they need to intimidate others have a loooong way to go before they get to my level. And that’s okay. I had to work
Your sensitivity is a feature, not a bug.

Oh, and, if you want that sensitivity to become your #1 asset as a leader, we should talk now.

03/24/2021

The reason you aren’t confident is because your "fight/flight/freeze/appease" survival system is activated.

And yes, everyone can tell. Humans evolved to be able to pick up on threats based on the subtle behavior cues of members of their social group.

This system originates in your BODY (your vagus cranial nerve, to be exact). So the BODY is where we target our interventions.

Yelling at your body (“stop it, stupid!” “Why can’t you just be confident!” “Ugh, I choked during a presentation/interview/negotiation AGAIN!”) doesn’t work, as you may have noticed.

But if we see our physiological survival impulses for the helpful data they are, THEN we’re speaking the same language.

Here's how to turn towards our insecurity so it can release:

1. Soothing breathing
2. Screaming into a pillow
3. Self-massage of our belly, heart, and throat

Often, a few minutes of these techniques will make anxiety disappear completely—and you’re back to feeling like it’s great to be you again. That’s all confidence is, after all.

Different techniques get different mileage for people. I help people spot what’s going to work best for them and create a daily training plan to make them even more resilient in literally any situation.

Book a call when you want to get started.

03/23/2021

Most people want a fulfilling life and career. The reason we feel drained instead is because we stop listening to our bodies in favor of “the grind.”

We glamorize overwork even though overwork makes us less productive, rather than more.

The biggest mistake people make is falling for the myth that rest is counter-productive. But you don’t see marathoners prepare for a race by running 24h/day, do you?

In FF, we build a unique training plan for achieving your goals that takes your body into account. No other career programs do this.

Like an athlete, your BODY (which includes your brain and emotions) is the thing that creates the results you want.

Ignoring your physiological needs will leave you super frustrated, lost, and confused.

You probably need help getting started and following through, though. The reason why you have been refusing to act in your own interest goes really deep for most people. You've probably been people-pleasing since you were a little kid.

DM me if you’re ready to finally get off the hamster wheel—and get a $50k raise, a promotion, and executive presence in the next six months--without burning out.

Just say "Hey Becca, I want [a raise/promotion/whatever] by September." And I'll guide you from there.

03/19/2021

Your inner saboteur is not something to be conquered.

Your inner saboteur is trying to get your attention.

You know how to break down a goal into small steps, put them on your calendar, and execute. There should be no mystery to goals, if they are physically possible. You're trying to get promoted, not grow a pair of wings.

So why is it so complicated?

There are emotional underpinnings to achievement. And when we feel fired up about them, the stakes feel really high.

Cue: the inner saboteur.

Why is it smart to procrastinate? Because once we finish the task, we will be evaluated. And at some point in the past, that evaluation hurt our feelings.

So, your inner saboteur does its acrobatics to prevent those hurt feelings. It's peak survival technology. It keeps you playing safe.

Unfortunately, it also keeps you playing small.

The next time you catch yourself self-sabotaging, instead of getting angry--get curious.

Why is this self-sabotage behavior SMART? What purpose is it serving?

Then you can ask if it's actually the right tool to deploy to get you what you truly want. It usually isn't.

And, of course, if you want to go deeper on understanding your self-sabotage, become a Fearless Femme. :)

You will get promoted (or achieve a comparable career advancement) within 12 months , or I give you your money back. Sometimes this advancement will require you to change teams or companies. I give support on that, too—with the power of my personal network in Silicon Valley, NYC, and globally;

03/18/2021

Not everyone needs to be more self aware. Not everyone needs to be more resilient. Not everyone needs more focus. Not everyone needs more situational awareness.

If you're like me, you might have TOO MUCH self-awareness.

My emotions are like a freight train--are you telling me there are people who can ignore them!? It used to amaze me, until I realized that everyone's emotional fingerprint is different.

If I assumed that everyone had the same emotional obstacles standing between them and their career advancement, I would suck at my job.

Fearless Femmes uses scientifically-backed assessments of emotional style, based on Dr. Richard Davidson's neuroscience research on the emotional life of our brains. There are six axes: resilience; outlook; self-awareness; social intuition; sensitivity to context; and attention.

Once we dial in how you want to grow on those axes, we build your 5 minute daily habit to cultivate the direction you want (and need) to grow in to support your advancement.

All before we even talk about setting goals.

There is no cookie-cutter approach to getting promoted.

You will get promoted (or achieve a comparable career advancement) within 12 months , or I give you your money back. Sometimes this advancement will require you to change teams or companies. I give support on that, too—with the power of my personal network in Silicon Valley, NYC, and globally;

03/17/2021

There was a specific moment when I realized I would never feel intimidated by anyone ever again, and would feel confident every day instead.

It was when I tried "voo breathing" for the first time. It's a technique where you make a "voo" sound on your exhale, which creates a physical vibration that soothes your fight-or-flight response.

Sounds kinda crazy, right? But I learned two huge things in that moment:
1) That intimidation/low-confidence/anxious feeling was physical in nature, and was a survival response from my body
2) That I could make myself feel better instantly, whenever I wanted.

It had nothing to do with my capabilities, talent, or potential. It had very little to do with the present at all, in fact--it was mostly about scary people I'd encountered in the past who hurt me.

In that moment, I was able to look at the person intimidating me, and see their humanity again. See how scared they were, too. How much pressure they were putting on themselves.

I teach this technique in Fearless Femmes to command respect. You can't un-see it once you see it. We use it to overcome nervousness in the high-stakes situations that stand in the way of getting promoted or a big raise.

Apply to join:

You will get promoted (or achieve a comparable career advancement) within 12 months , or I give you your money back. Sometimes this advancement will require you to change teams or companies. I give support on that, too—with the power of my personal network in Silicon Valley, NYC, and globally;

03/16/2021

Some stressors are within our control--like the amount of pressure we put on ourselves to perform.

That pressure, of course, causes us to NOT perform.

Left to its own devices, our brain would have us believe that everyone will hate us, or that everything will be ruined, or we'll be humiliated. It's a cute way to keep us safe, away from risks or challenges--but gets in the way of the growth we require to feel fulfilled.

In Fearless Femmes, we "tell our brain what to think" rather than let it hijack our reactions.

What would you need to believe to make a big presentation easy? To make confidence your default? To feel powerful?

For me, I would need to believe that I AM HERE TO SERVE OTHERS AS BEST I CAN.

I tell my brain to think this every day. That's it. As long as I show up like that, I've already won. Confidence is a breeze.

If you want help telling your brain what to think and break its old habits that hurt your confidence , apply to Fearless Femmes.

You will get promoted (or achieve a comparable career advancement) within 12 months , or I give you your money back. Sometimes this advancement will require you to change teams or companies. I give support on that, too—with the power of my personal network in Silicon Valley, NYC, and globally;

03/12/2021

Representation matters.

The scene: an apartment in San Francisco; it's February 2011. I sit listening to my then-boyfriend and male friend discuss Bitcoin.

They are happy to include me in the conversation even though I am mostly listening.

They speak in detail about how it works. I understand everything they say. I agree that while it is too soon to determine the productization path, Bitcoin is going to be a thing.

They discuss their current and planned investments in Bitcoin.

I say to myself: Oh. Well, I am a 24-year-old girl. Investing in complicated technology like this is not the kind of thing 24-year-old girls do.

I don't recall anyone ever telling me that directly. It was about what I WASN'T ever told. If that makes sense.

So I didn't invest.

I had access, knowledge, support, and--since getting my first job--probably even had a few hundred bucks to spare. I was (and am) a deeply confident, empowered, feminist woman. I had every advantage.

Except someone to show me that it was something I could do.

In February 2011, one bitcoin cost $1.

If I had put $500 in then, I would have $28,763,750's worth today.

Representation matters.

(photo: me in San Francisco, April 2011)