Founder Series: Navigating Uncertainty & Disruption
w/ Jessie Garcia, Founder & CEO, Tozuda
Buzzwords like “grit” and “resilience” often complicate how we talk about the psychological and emotional pressures of business building. As it turns out, you can possess both and still have days where you—and your leadership choices—look and feel like a dumpster fire.
I’m always inspired by how our founders navigate uncertainty and disruption. Even more uplifting is how they are redefining what it means to build resilience and show grit... while also caring for themselves and for others.
It's a pleasure to showcase a few of their stories, in their own words, in this new series. Enjoy!
Jessie Garcia, Founder and CEO, Tozuda
1) Knowing what you know about how quickly and significantly circumstances change, how do you think about long term planning? How do you balance the upsides of long term planning with the need to be dynamic, in real time?
It’s critical to have a long term vision for your company even with how crazy the day to day of startups are. You have to believe to succeed! By putting big goals and milestones down on paper, we can fully commit to make a plan and chip away to get there. I also believe in iteration, empathetic listening, and discovery work. This is where we stay flexible. Feedback or a random call can open you up to opportunities you might not have seen on your own. It’s a healthy gut check when you come across these situations to crosscheck it with your big vision. As long as it’s not too far off track, you can confidently pounce on that opportunity.
2) What’s your take on transparency with your team? How do you decide what to share and what to hold back?
One of my favorite questions to ask during interviews for potential new hires is how do you handle/cope with change and stress? It’s critical to make time to understand your team’s personalities because everyone has different tolerances and reactions. I believe in transparency, proactive communication, and the right timing with messages. It’s the only way we can work as a unit to accomplish our goals.. I am careful not to distract them and I try my best to recognize the difference between being reactive or brash and being transparent..
3) How do you help your team navigate uncertainty? In what ways, if any, does uncertainty guide how you set and measure performance goals and other KPIs?
I like to keep it real with my team. Working at an earlier stage company is tough as hell. But it’s also so much fun. You have to make time to celebrate the little wins and appreciate the people who are on this journey with you. If not, you will all burnout. The only way to predict the future is to create it. So even if we fail or don’t hit that KPI, at least we can say we gave it all we got!
4) Do you use any techniques / approaches for managing stress and prioritizing mental health (yours or your team’s) that you are willing to share?
Our team is in a unique position in that our COO is also a licensed psychiatrist and neuroscientist. So while we’re not all sitting around sharing our emotions 24/7, he’s helped us incorporate some tricks to help us better manage our stress. We use walk and talk meetings now. Getting moving even for 5 minutes outside of the office helps us alleviate anxiety while still being productive. I do my phone calls that way whenever possible. We also created some code words in the office to let people know, "hey, I have some stuff going on in my personal life that might throw me off today." Everyone has their own way of sharing personal info so this is a way to show support and empathy without having to go deep. While yes, you are here to work, you’re a person first, and I genuinely care about our team.
5) There’s been a lot of conversation about the importance of “resilience” in business building. What does that word mean to you, if anything at all?
Resilience means everything to me. I don’t believe in the old adage “everything happens for a reason.” Sometimes, horrible things happen for no good reason or explanation. It’s just out of our control. But how you react and what you do after is what matters. Are you going to let that sales rejection or failed call eat away at you for weeks? Or are you going to learn from it and try again tomorrow? I try to make even the worst of circumstances into something meaningful. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is my favorite book that talks about this.
6) Startup culture has long celebrated “grit” as a pre-requisite for success, but often done so in a machismo way. If you could write your own definition for the word grit, how would it read?
This might be a super machismo way to think about it, but I relate with, and love, the analogy. When I think about grit and success, I think of Coach Schiano from Rutgers Football’s famous analogy. Schiano says our goals are like a massive forest that needs clearing. In order to start, you gotta sharpen your axe, pick just one tree, and chop away at the same spot over and over and over until it starts to split. And then you pick another tree and chop. It’s hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight. Grit to me is all about having the discipline to show up everyday and chop away just at one tree, even when all you want to do is curl up in bed.. With grit and consistency, you’ll look up one day and realize you made a clearing in the forest.
7) What’s your favorite way to blow off steam or recharge after a tough day?
After a tough day, I like to recharge by walking around my home in the city of Philadelphia. I like the people watching, listening to some good music, and just realizing the world’s a bigger place than just “my startup world.” It helps ground me. Watching some great comedy TV re-runs with my husband, chatting with my family and friends, or playing games helps me relax. I’m also a sucker for a mani/pedi to force myself off my phone for a bit of time :)
8) If you could give one piece of advice to a new founder starting out today about how to survive the uncertainty of building a company, what would it be?
No one is better than you. And you’re not better than anyone else. When you have an idea, the only difference between a founder and someone who has a great idea is execution. I truly believe that there is no one better than YOU to start a business that you’re passionate about. My piece of advice is start however you can with whatever you have. Your journey and timeline might not look like everyone elses. With the help of other people, you fill in gaps, getting answers to the questions, and things just might start taking shape and look a little more clear if you keep chopping.
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Tozuda is a manufacturing company dedicated to increasing head safety for helmet wearers. With our novel, non-electronic mechanisms for head injury awareness and helmet damage indication, we make safety affordable and accessible to the 400 million people who wear helmets in athletics and on the job site.
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