#57: We Can Do Hard Things and Other Lessons Learned in 2024 (Part 2)

Since 2024 already killed so many jobs, how about we bring to life new ones?

👋 Hola friends! Thank you for opening my email! I truly appreciate it.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you might have noticed that my newsletter is now called “How To Build What Feels Good & Other Stories”. This shift reflects my focus on building products AND careers that align with our values, maximize our strengths, and embrace our uniqueness.

If you’re new here, I’m Kax — welcome! How to Build What Feels Good is my weekly newsletter about becoming your favorite version of a Leader, building a purpose-driven startup or any business, and navigating all the human mess in this often cynical world of tech… while still having a happy and healthy life.

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😮‍💨 Let’s keep going with “What a Year!”

In Issue #56, I’ve shared how 2024 was the year that I finally felt like myself again. When I finally entered my “favorite version of myself” era. And as a result, I’m feeling strong and I’m building businesses that feel good.

But none of these would have happened if it weren’t for 5 critical milestones scattered across the year, that taught me the lessons that I needed to learn so that I could get to where I am right now.

I already shared the first 3 in my previous issue.

So here’s part 2 of the lessons I learned from these milestones about success, personal growth, career development, and more.

And I hope you will take at least one of these lessons and shape it into something that feels good for you.

So that you might have a 2025 that fills you with joy, gives you space to shine, brings you success. And more importantly, so that you can finally become your favorite version of yourself too. 🫶

Let’s go! 💪

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💡 Lessons from Building Magical Audios: What we focus on, we amplify

I promise to write more about the hows, whats, and whys of Magical Audios in 2025… so let me start with this first. This is a shared lesson between me and my co-founders.

2024 was the year we built and launched Magical Audios.

i still pinch myself whenever I remember how cool Magical Audios is 😂

Building a company and a product is such a humbling endeavor. For every single thing we thought we knew about building products, running a business, and tackling mental health problems, there were 10 other things we didn’t know. But this was the fun part.

What wasn’t fun was listening to people who told us that we needed money to create value… because we didn’t have money 😂.

So we ended up hyper-focusing on this perceived lack so much that it sucked out all the joy of building.

The worst part was, we started making decisions that optimized for this perceived lack. And friends, those decisions were bad. The results of those decisions… terrible.

📌 What we focus on, we amplify: By focusing on our lack, we created more loss.

Instead of focusing on building an MVP that could provide value, we spent money from our savings on building an MVP that potential investors might want to invest in. That MVP remains unused until now.

Instead of figuring out what could be valuable for our target users, we focused on what could generate revenue. We optimized for pricing vs product and spent even more of our savings on ads to recruit an audience. We didn’t sell a single thing.

It was a stressful first few months for Magical Audios.

The good thing about working with a mental health expert is that the patterns of scarcity mindset became obvious soon after.

Because it would be the biggest irony in the world if we were building a product for mental health but the founders are burned out as hell.

📌 What we focus on, we amplify: So we shifted our focus back to our mission. And in doing so, we made peace with what we currently had and recognized that it was enough. We were enough.  

When we stop thinking that we have a gap that we need to fill before we can create value here’s what happens:

• We prioritize better - so we can use the resources we do have, smarter

• We become resourceful and creative - we learn to use what we have differently

• We experiment bravely - we become less protective of our resources and we become more open to taking risks that may lead to even bigger gains

Because when we spend our energy creating value and making sure that that value reaches the right people — the how becomes limitless.

So we bootstrapped, we experimented like hell, and we were loud and proud about Magical Audios.

By the end of the year, we finally built something that helped 200+ people find relief from their burnout and gain confidence in themselves.

🧠 So here’s a question for you: what are you focusing on these days? And is your current focus holding you back or pushing you forward to action?

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💡 Lessons from Becoming a Full-Time Coach: Action Leads to Clarity AND Confidence

I almost gave up coaching. Twice.

The first time was at the start of 2024. I was so burned out and exhausted.

The second time was in May when I got laid off from my day job and I started questioning the value I can provide as a coach.

"Should I keep coaching?” I started asking myself. A question that implied there was a right or wrong answer. A question that’s motivated by external expectations and obligations.

So as a result:

• I stopped publishing in my newsletter

• I stopped promoting my coaching business

I couldn’t stop. Not fully at least. But I slowed down enough that it almost felt like I did.

I couldn’t stop. My body wouldn’t let me. Because the nagging feeling to continue with this mission kept scratching at the back of my head.

I couldn’t stop. The universe wouldn’t let me. 😂 Because even when I stopped talking about my coaching business, people still kept booking conversations with me.

So I changed the question from “Should I keep coaching?” to “Do I want to keep coaching?” 

And the answer was a HELL YES!

When the question became about what I wanted to do - the shift was empowering. It reminded me of how much agency I have over my ambitions and my career.

So I kept going. Despite the fear, the doubt, and the discomfort. And in this consistency and persistence, I found clarity.

The more I kept coaching, the more I gained clarity about what problems I wanted to solve and for whom. And the clearer those problems became, the more I gained clarity about what tools I needed to have to become even more effective. And so I also found confidence.

By the end of the year, I had more clients than I ever did in all the years I’ve coached combined… but I also started coaching other functional experts and leaders as well as entrepreneurs vs only Product Managers. And I’m extremely glad I didn’t quit.

Questions for you:

• Do you feel stuck because you don’t know what you want to do?

• Do you feel like you can’t take any action because you don’t feel ready?

• Do you feel like you can’t do what you want because you don’t believe you have what it takes to do it?

But here’s the thing… you don’t need to wait until you’re sure, until you feel ready, or until you’ve learned every single skill that Linkedinfluencers are saying you need to learn so you can be part of an imaginary top 1% (and if you don’t, you’ll get left behind).

The stakes become higher the longer you wait.

📌 Take action instead. Experiment. Try new things. Some will be fine. Others will fail. But from all of them you will learn. And yes, sometimes things will be hard. But you can do hard things! And the more you do these hard things, your confidence grows.

On top of that, you’ll also learn:

• What you’re great at and what gives you flow

• What you don’t like and what causes friction with your core

• What problems you want to solve and who you want to solve them for

📌 With every action, a piece of the puzzle falls into place. Until the picture becomes clear. Clarity comes before you even realize what was happening. But you have to take action. 

So if you’re asking yourself “Should I do the thing?” - ask yourself instead, “Do I want to do the thing?”

And if the answer is yes… then actually do it! No matter how hard or uncomfortable it feels in the beginning. The outcome, whatever it is, will be worth it.

💬 Question for you: What is that thing that you want to do? And what’s holding you back from doing it?

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🌀 TL;DR: Build What Feels Good

I think I’m not the only one who thinks that 2024 was a challenging year. Thought leaders were killing functions and ways of working almost every week. While organizational leaders were killing projects, jobs, and opportunities almost every day. And a lot of people were burned out, about to burn out, or just overall frustrated.

But now it’s 2025! We survived! I’m pretty sure we also thrived, one way or another. 🎉 That’s something to celebrate, for sure!

This year though, I think it’s time to take back ownership of our careers and ambitions. It’s time for us to let go of the notion that we need to keep running in an invisible rat race because this industry has taught us to be afraid of being left behind (but from what?) or to want to be part of an imaginary 1% (but of what?).

And if the notion of taking back ownership of your career, to build what feels good for you, feels scary - I want you to remember:

1. The journey might feel challenging. But you can do hard things! Suffering is completely optional.

2. What you focus on, you amplify. Pay attention to the things that you’re learning. Recognize the things you’ve already achieved. Acknowledge your gifts and lean into them. Have gratitude for what you already have. You’ll find that they’ll multiply a thousand fold after.

3. When you’re feeling stuck, take action. Any action. The rest of the road will unfold in front of you. Confidence does not arrive it’s built.

4. When things feel hard, resilience is important. But resilience comes from wellness and having good emotional hygiene. From being present, from having an abundance mindset, from embracing failure as an opportunity to learn.

5. And don’t forget, progress is inevitable. All it asks is that you keep putting one foot in front of the other. Even when don’t need to feel ready or you don’t know everything yet. Who you are and what you have right now, is already more than enough. Everything else is gravy.

Because success does not need sacrifice. It might ask you to change - to let go of the mindset, self-limiting beliefs, and behaviors that are holding you back. And to embrace instead behaviors that are aligned with your values and make decisions that are aligned with your interests and desires.

Success does not need sacrifice. Instead it asks you to become your favorite version of yourself.

• The one that laughs at challenges and says “that was fun! let’s do it again!”

• The one that embraces failure because it means learning new things.

• The one that looks fear in the eye and says “Meh. I’ll do it anyway”.

Success does not need sacrifice. Instead it asks you to build what feels good: a career that feels good, a business that feels good, habits that feel good. So you can shine so bright, it’d be impossible to ignore you.

If any of that resonated with you and you want the same for yourself, I’d love to help you. Book a call with me and let’s see if 1:1 coaching with me is the right support for you.

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If you got to this part of this newsletter, thanks for staying with me til the end. And thank you for sharing with me topics that you’d like for me to share my thoughts, feelings, and violent reactions on.

❤️

Kax

PS. Here are more ways for us to connect:

1. Follow me on Instagram, Bluesky or LinkedIn for thoughts, feelings, and violent reactions that take less than 10 minutes to read. 😂

2. Learn more about my 1:1 coaching services. I typically work with experienced Product Managers, Designers, Software Developers and new Leaders in Tech who want to achieve their career goals. (and if budget is a constraint: join incitefulapp and you can get coaching for free!)