Life: A story of core principles

This interview provides a compelling look into the life and philosophies of someone who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, whose formative experiences with curiosity, creativity, and family support shaped their career as a product manager. They emphasize the importance of focusing on the journey rather than the outcome and share a practical framework for life decisions based on core pillars: financial support for family, continuous learning, and enabling others to excel. Their insights on maintaining balance, reassessing values, and mentoring others offer valuable lessons in personal and professional growth.

Interviewer: To start, can you tell me a bit about your background? Where did you grow up, and what were some early influences in your life that shaped who you are today?

Brody: I grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania about an hour and a half outside of Philadelphia on 12 acres of woods. As an only child, I spent a lot of time by myself and with a few of my neighbors building things, breaking things, being outside, and trying to satisfy a really intense curiosity.

My dad was an upholsterer who specialized in redoing furniture from the early 1900's - but I saw him struggle in maintaining a profitable business regardless of his incredible talents. I think this was a really formative experience to see in real-time... the understanding that being excellent at something doesn't necessarily make you financially successful, but can certainly give you a personal pride which leads to a feeling of success.

Interviewer: That's a fascinating background. How do you think growing up in a rural area and spending so much time outdoors and building things influenced your approach to problem-solving and creativity in your career?

Brody:  Having to create my own entertainment meant a lot of trial and error. Now that I think about it, I think this is why I likely find so much enjoyment out of the "experience" of something, rather than the end-result. This has played out so often in my life - to the point where I often say that my only true hobby is living experiences.

Growing up in a rural area without much financial means, there was a lot of playing with things that were readily available. In my case, it was wood, screws, saws, marbles, rocks, and cardboard tubes from the fabric my dad used. It wasn't enough to come up with one or two ways to play with these things... I needed to constantly iterate, and configure things in new ways so that I could maintain the "newness" factor.

I also think being outdoors so often was imperative to creativity. Nature isn't defined within a box, or restricted by the code someone writes... it ebbs and flows in an infinite amount of ways, and I think being in that environment instilled some of the same principles for my life.

Interviewer: It sounds like your early experiences really fostered a love for innovation and adaptability. How do these principles of enjoying the experience and constant iteration play into your career decisions and leadership style?

Brody:  I fell into the role product management, but I couldn't imagine a more closely aligned career path with my personality.

I'll tell you a quick story. When I was working at Apple, I used to describe the difference between Mac vs. Windows operating systems as a difference in how their "foundations" were built. A Mac is built similarly to a house on pillars (or stilts). If one falls, there are multiple others still holding up the house until a repair can happen. Whereas a Windows machine is built like more of a standard concrete foundation. It may be more sturdy, but when there's a crack, it will just keep getting worse until you replace the entire thing. (I was young... give me a break)

I carried those principles into how I make decisions about my life. I have core pillars of my life that are necessary in order for me to survive, and everything else can flow through the pillars.

My leadership style is similar. Things are constantly changing, and there will always be ambiguity to manage - I choose to lead through consistent pillars, and then manage the rest as it comes and goes. This is true for people, careers, products, or even friendships.

Interviewer: That's a great analogy and an interesting approach. What would you say are the core pillars of your life, and how do they influence the decisions you make both personally and professionally?

Brody:  My core pillars are:

• Have the ability to financial support my family and give them a sense of financial freedom.

• Constantly be learning and experiencing new things

• Have the ability to enable people to be the best versions of themselves

I recently had a son, so maybe it's time to add a pillar, but these have been the same since I was 22 (I'm 34 now).

These pillars have helped me made decisions on career moves, how to prioritize things for better balance between work and life, and even decide investment opportunities for the largest ROI to me personally.

Interviewer: Congratulations on your son! It sounds like these pillars provide a solid foundation for both your personal and professional life. How do you balance these pillars, especially with the new responsibility of parenthood, and what challenges have you faced in maintaining this balance?

Brody:  It's a really good question - and I'm not sure it has a simple answer since I still don't feel very good at it. What I will say though is that having a consistent practice of reviewing the pillars to see if they are serving me or not has been essential. Life changes, and it happens fast - to continue the analogy, it's sometimes hard to tell when a pillar is starting to deteriorate or needs replacing, but assessing their strength and purpose is something that I do frequently.

Especially with parenthood, it's easy to deprioritize a lot things in your life, including self care, to spend valuable time with your child - but I've found that having these pillars has given me a sense of confidence and safety that as long as I continue to check-in on the strength of them, I am maintaining the core things that hold me up each day.

Interviewer: That makes a lot of sense. Regularly reassessing your pillars seems crucial. Can you share a specific instance where you had to reassess or even replace one of your pillars? What was the situation, and how did you navigate that change?

Brody:  I haven't had to replace any pillars yet, but one of the times I really had to reassess was when I made the decision to propose to my wife. Until that time, "Supporting Family" meant supporting myself, and my interests. Adding not only another person to that family, but her entire family to that pillar was something I really needed to consider.

In the end, it was a relatively easy decision since they felt like family already - but I think if I didn't have the pillars in place, my mind would have gone in a million different directions of "what if's" and "is this what I want". My system gave me structure and a framework on how to make incredibly important decisions about my life, and definitely made it easier and faster to pull the trigger.

Interviewer: That's a great example of how your pillars provide clarity and structure in decision-making. Given how effective this framework has been for you, how do you incorporate it into your role as a leader and mentor to help others achieve their best versions of themselves?

Brody:  Being in Product we often talk about Outcomes. I think my pillar system is just my own way of ensuring that the outcomes I'm seeing in my life are tied back to my core principles.

As a mentor, I often speak with people around career advice or how to become a better leader. I bring these pillars up with them to help ground them in their own desired outcomes. I see so many people get analysis paralysis from making big and important decisions - and my thought is always "they didn't set themselves up for success and now their paying for it." - Taking the time to truly evaluate what is valuable, and distilling it down to it's core is what leads to better and faster decisions.

Interviewer: Switching gears a little bit, what do you consider to be your greatest strength and how has it played a role in your career and personal life?

Brody: My greatest strength is hands down an intense curiosity. My wife makes fun of me (probably because it annoys her) because my most used word is "interesting". Let me be clear with this though - intense curiosity doesn't need to lead to answers... Intense Curiosity to me is truly just the act of being an active learner.

My career and personal life are based around this idea of intense curiosity, and it has and continues to allow me to feel consistently fulfilled and entertained regardless of what i'm doing.

Interviewer: That's a wonderful strength, and it clearly aligns with your philosophy of valuing experiences over outcomes. For the final question, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to balance their personal and professional life while staying true to their core values?

Brody: Great question - my biggest advice is that if you find yourself struggling to balance core values with everything surrounding your life, your core values may be too broad and allow for too many variables (the "but what if's") - Take time to drill down your core values into < 4 short statements that provide a clear and concise definition of the outcomes you value most.

Interviewer: That’s fantastic advice. Thanks for sharing such thoughtful insights. To wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to add about your philosophies or experiences that you think people should know?

Brody:  Go Birds!

Interviewer: Go Birds indeed!