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Many of us want to get promoted at work, but dont often stop to consider what that means. Moving into the executive ranks often means leading the very people you once worked alongside. And while you might attract attention with stellar performance, it’s not enough to secure your success as a leader. As a CEO and C-Level coach, let me tell you that I, nor any of my most successful clients, would risk elevating a leader to the next level if it would lead to a systemic risk of losing talent or momentum. In those cases, Id wait to ensure that this high performer is making an effort to work on leadership quality, including their peer relationships. Leadership requires a new skill set and, just as importantly, the respect and trust of your peers. Your colleagues’ opinions can hurt or help your ability to rise to the next level. Many professionals overlook their peer relationships, focusing instead on managing up to satisfy their boss or managing down to lead their teams performance. The reality is: If your colleagues don’t trust or support you, your promotion might never materialize. Worse, it might falter due to their feedback. During executive coaching engagements, I often find leaders realize that they need to start paying attention to their cross-functional relationships. Then they often ask, how do I take such initiative? Where do I start? Below are the steps that you might want to take. Map your landscape Start by listing all the colleagues who are critical to your teams mission and your success as a leader. Think horizontally, like your peers who report to the same manager and cross-departmental collaborators at a similar level. List them, and for each of them, consider rating the relationship based on the following factors: How vital is it to your mission? Identify the level at which their support is critical to your KPIs, to advancing your teams agenda and your own professional success. How frequently are you communicating? Think about how often you have a chance to talk, email, or formally meet. What’s the quality of your communication? Determine if your interactions are purely transactional or if youve built actual rapport. Think about how productive each interaction is and what follow-up occurs. What is the level of trust between you both? Reflect on how both parties may feel about the honesty of the exchange, the commitment to what youve discussed, and the level of political gesturing that might or might not have been present. Once youve thought about these ratings, take it a step further. Relationships don’t evolve by accident. They require consistent effort, thoughtful communication, and mutual understanding. Use your empathy to reflect upon things like: What drives their business agenda? Reflect on their business mission and goals. Ensure that you understand how to help them. What seems to motivate their engagement? Thinking about a time when theyre highly engaged. Thats a peek into what motivates them and how to get the best out of them. For example, some people are motivated by public recognition, but others arent. What tends to demotivate their engagement? Think about when that person exhibited anger, frustration, disappointment, or did not reply at all. That might be a sign that you need to modify your behavior or communication style. Identify your sponsors and anti-sponsors Once you create the list of people and go through this process, youll quickly realize that there are key people that you havent built relationships with. Start with those people. Youll also realize that there are peers that will be naturally inclined to support you (sponsors) and those who might work against you (anti-sponsors). Instead of avoiding detractors, take the opportunity to address their concerns. Reflect on why some peers may resist your rise. A client of mine once discovered that an “anti-sponsor” was frustrated by being left out of critical project discussions. Inviting them into conversations and acknowledging their expertise turned a skeptic into an advocate. Take radical ownership The strength of your relationships often mirrors your own behaviors. If a colleague is disengaged or resistant, consider how your actions influenced the situation. Have you been overly competitive? Dismissive of their ideas? Too focused on your own outcomes? Leadership starts with accountability. I learned long ago the only behavior I can truly change is my own. If I wanted to improve a relationship, I had to initiate it. For example, start by saying, Something seems off in our working relationship. Can you share what it is? Maybe theres something I can do to change it. Honesty often paves the way for better collaboration. Radical ownership involves recognizing your impact and taking action to improve, not assigning self-blame. Step into their shoes Empathy is your most powerful tool. Put yourself in your colleagues’ positions and consider the key pressures that they face, the resources that they have access to, and ways that you can make their lives easier. Consider what would matter to you if the roles were reversed. A simple question like, “What can I do to support you?” can open doors to meaningful dialogue. Once, as a young leader in a fast-moving tech company, I pushed hard for more support from my marketing peers. My aggressive approach, however, only generated resentment. When I took the time to understand their pressures and resource limitations, I adjusted my requests. By expressing empathy and remorse, we found a productive path forward and collaborated successfully. Play the long game Building strong peer relationships requires a long-term commitment to earning respect and trust over time rather than focusing on quick wins. When you consistently demonstrate authenticity, reliability, and a commitment to shared goals, your peers will naturally see you as a leader they want to follow. Remember, leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s ultimately rooted in inspiring others to follow willingly. Win the trust of your peers, and you’ll not likely secure your promotion, but equally thrive in the new role with their support.
Category:
E-Commerce
Since its launch in 2018, Olipop has been a bit of a Cinderella story in the oft-unforgiving beverage game. The prebiotic, fiber-laden soda designed to be healthier than the category classics is currently thriving: It just closed a $50 million Series C and announced a $1.85 billion valuation. Last year, it surpassed $400 million in revenue. Its reps cite it as the No. 1 nonalcoholic brand in dollar and unit growth, outpacing legacy giants like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Red Bull. Its now sold in nearly 50,000 stores and is even outselling Coke at one major national retailer (though they wont disclose which one, per that retailers regulations). Which is all to say: Theres no way cofounder and CEO Ben Goodwin still formulates all of the brands cult-fave flavors in his laundry room himself, as he did back in the day. . . . Right? People would be shocked. Established flavor chemists, if they walked into my little laundry room lab, their heads would explode, he says with a laugh. I have my own kind of differentiated way that I approach formulation. And from there, it’s all about my nose and its about my senses and my vision for the formula. And it’s all I need. In lieu of Cinderella, Goodwin has been described as the Willy Wonka of soda. And, well, that tracks. [Photo: Olipop] Oli and Microbiology Goodwin grew up in Monterey, California, in a low-income family with food instability and food insecurity. As a result, he says he suffered from weight issues and anxietybut he realized at 14 that better health would yield a better life in the long run. So, he actively pursued just that through a variety of means, notably nutrition and adopting a vegetarian diet. Ben Goodwin [Photo: Olipop] It was a very powerful interpersonal awakening for me [that] also affected my emotional stability, my cognitive function, he says. It was like a paradigm shift for me as a person, and it’s also part of what then led me to have this really deep passion about how poor nutrition and poor health outcomes can undermine society’s well-being on all levels at scale. Goodwin went on to study environmental science in college, but didnt want to emerge saddled with debt. After reading about successful entrepreneurs, he dropped out of college in the early 2000s. He says he felt drawn to the beverage industry, and went to help out a friend who had launched Kombucha Botanica . And thats when he began to go down the rabbit hole of microbiomes. The connectivity occurred for me of, Oh, wow, this is probably what I activated as I went through my own nutritional journeyand so that really then became the center of my focus. After a few years at the company, he spent half a decade freelancing in product development, but eventually found himself pulled back to the beverage industry. He took what he had learned about fermentation at Kombucha Botanica and worked with a microbiologist to develop Obi Probiotic Soda, which was made from non-dairy kefir. He realized he could go the natural product route, or he could meet soda customers where they truly were in the mainstream and think biggersomething that would prove critical for Olipop down the line. [Soda] is arguably the most deleterious nonalcoholic drink in all of human history, he says. So, if I want to make the most impact, here’s where I can make the most impact. He met ex-Diageo innovation head David Lester as he was working on the product, and the two launched Obi together in 2013. The brand eventually folded a few years later due to what Goodwin dubbed partnership issues on the investor side, but the pair had witnessed something critical: potential. We learned that there was a real opportunity here around this healthy soda concept, he says. When Obi came to its conclusion in late 2016, my passion for the mission was not only not diminishedit was actually enhanced. [Photo: Olipop] A Sodastream and a Dream After Obi folded, Goodwin says he and Lester took $100,000 they had made from the brand and immediately went back into the soda game. For Goodwin, that meant formulating. He was focused on fiber, prebiotics, and nutritional diversityand, of course, flavor. From a makeshift lab in his California kitchen, he started working on the first three Olipop varieties: Cinnamon Cola, Strawberry Vanilla, and Ginger Lemon. The first was the most soda-like, but while cola traditionally contains cinnamon, people assumed it would be spicyso they changed the name to Vintage Cola, which Olipop drinkers know today. Ginger Lemon, meanwhile, was intended for health-focused kombucha consumers, and Strawberry Vanilla was an innovation test flavor inspired by one of Goodwins favorite candies as a kid. Goodwin still formulates flavors much the same way today, despite running a company worth billions of dollars. He is the chief formulator, and his lab is now in the laundry room of his Washington-state home by virtue of convenience. Theres a sink, and he can put a metal table in there. Its an otherwise deceptively simple rig consisting of a couple scales, a Vitamix, pipettes and measuring devices, and a Sodastram. [At our headquarters] we’ve got a much more sophisticated setup with an Alpha MOS mass spectrometer and all that kind of stuff. But when I’m in what I would call the artistic phase, I don’t want any of that stuff interfering with my process. He says he knew he had a knack for formulating back at Obi, and enters a flow state when hes working. He spends a lot of time up front thinking about the architecture of the flavor he wants to create: Whats the story he wants it to tell? Whats the mouth-feel? The acidity? The resolution as you drink it? Critically, he says he always tries to create something that has a nostalgic anchor, but is innovative and ownable at the same time. As the flavor progresses, he breaks out a yellow legal pad to jot down his formulas. He has cupboards filled with these notebooksin total, he has created more than 50 flavors over the past seven years, and has brought 22 of them to the market, including favorites like Crisp Apple, Tropical Punch, Cherry Cola, and Cream Soda. Olipop’s flavors have the essence of traditional soda drinks, but they don’t taste exactly like a Coca-Cola or a Dr. Pepper. Rather, they look to channel a similar vibe using sweeteners like stevia, cassava syrup, and fruit, alongside botanicals, plant fiber, and prebiotics (the stuff that feeds the good bacteria in your stomach). Something I love about formulating: It’s a proper blending of science and art. And I’m still growing as a formulator every time I formulate, he says. I take craftsmanship extremely seriously, and it’s like the formulas that I create have the least distance between me and the Olipop customer of anything I will ever do. It is my most direct and unfiltered communication tool. [Photo: Olipop] Olipops can design is perhaps the ultimate mirror to his formulation strategy. Its clean, thanks to the brand name set in the Ano typeface and the accompanying minimalist illustrations; its warm and nostalgic, owing to each flavor name set in the friendly Windsor; and ultimately it harkens back to a more innocent time when we didnt know traditional soda was terrible for us. (As for the healthiness of Olipop and its competitors, with fewer calories and added sugars than traditional soda, and no high-fructose corn syrup to speak of, they’re indeed a healthier choice than cracking a Coke. But the Cleveland Clinic and others have written that while they can be a good occasional supplement, it’s still best to get prebiotic fibers naturally from eating whole foods.) [Photo: Olipop] Olipop pops off When Goodwin and Lester were trying to get Olipop off the ground, they approached the distributor Dairy Delivery, which Goodwin says agreed to launch the brand if they could get 100 stores on board. Olipop managed to net 40 or 50 accounts, and Dairy Delivery got them into some small chains in Northern California. Goodwin says Olipop has always had robust organic traction, experiencing triple-digit growth every year since launching in 2018; 2020 was particularly critical, with 960% growth. Influencers and TikTok played a big role, and at a time when the world receded from groceries, Olipops in-store sales were strong, indicating people were picking it up as an essential item in their strategic grocery runs. The companys DTC sales (which today account for less than 5% of the business) were an added bonus on top of it all. That was actually my first clue that something really different was happening with this brand than what is even remotely typical, Goodwin says of Olipop’s COVID-era sales surge. Olipop has a lot of flavors compared to most bev brands. While Crisp Apple is the company’s top seller, Goodwin says none of the brand’s kaleidoscopic cans have ever really been a failure, so Olipop walks a careful line of skew effectiveness and the right cadence of novelty. It’s a great problem to have, but it does add to the complexity in terms of what choices we make, he says. It’s always a tension between supply chain going, Guys, you’ve got enough SKUs, you’re going to kill us, and sales saying, We want more SKUs, we want to go sell more product. Of course, the behemoth brands have been watching. What does he make of Coke joining the category last week with the launch of Simply Pop, with Pepsi also reportedly prepping its own response? I gotta tell you, there is kind of no bigger compliment, Goodwin says. Back in 2010, [I said], I think this is important. I wonder how this will do. And now in 2025 to have the biggest soda brands in all of human history decide that they agree, putting their money where their mouth is and launching products . . . it’s incredible.
Category:
E-Commerce
For some time, meme coins have occupied a peculiar space in online culture. While there are people who have struck it rich trading these joke-based cryptocurrencies, the landscape is riddled with scams, rug pulls, and market manipulation. Beneath the fun, there are systemic issues that demand attention. Crypto coins are often cons. And now theyre a matter of life and death. Streamer MistaFuccYou died by suicide on an X livestream after allegedly losing his last $500 to a meme coin scam. In a desperate bid for attention, he played Russian roulette on camera, seemingly to promote his own meme coin. His final post on X read: Before you crash out and throw your life away ask your self [if] it really matters.” Reports suggest the entire incidenthis financial loss, the deadly stuntmay have been part of an extreme marketing ploy for another crypto coin that spiraled out of control. Regardless of intent, the aftermath was chilling. Within minutes of his death, crypto tokens bearing his name were launched, their value spiking before an inevitable crash. Opportunistic traders saw a chance to cash in on tragedy, mirroring the same exploitative cycle that may have led to his demise. The crypto sector, already battling a reputation for scams, now faces an even darker association: the human cost of financial manipulation. While cryptocurrency is often touted as an alternative to traditional banking, meme coinsdesigned for viral hype rather than real utilityare particularly prone to fraud. Rug pulls lure in investors, artificially inflate prices, and then leave them bankrupt when creators cash out and vanish. Yet, despite mounting concerns, crypto continues to gain political backing. President Donald Trump has positioned himself as a champion of digital currencies, picking venture capitalist David Sacks as his crypto czar and appointing Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto advocate, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. These moves signal growing legitimacy for the industry, even as financial regulators in the U.S. and U.K. warn that meme coin investors risk losing everything. Meme coins have long been dismissed as harmless fun, a gamified entry point into crypto speculation. But the reality is starker. Theyre not just vehicles for financial losstheyre now entangled with life-or-death consequences.
Category:
E-Commerce
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