Identifying your own guiding principles is an absolute game-changer: I cannot recommend this highly enough, be it for yourself or building something BIG at your current workplace.

It was shared to me by a very smart, successful friend who knew I was working on building a big global project at the time and talked about this guy called Martin Eriksson and his method called ‘The Decision Stack’.

Eriksson is a veteran product leader and an expert in scaling things to multiple global markets. It is an absolute gold standard in strategic alignment, a model which allows teams, especially on hugely cross-functional projects, to have more clarity and feel more empowered to make better decisions faster. The bit of his approach which is relevant to all, no matter if you’re freelance, in a small company, or thinking about being a solopreneur, is clarity in where you stand with your own values in order to stay in the right direction when building your new chapter. In the case of building a product, the most common question Martin hears is ‘How do we know if we’re building the right thing?’. Grand vision statements fail when the execution has struggled due to different opinions on vision or bad decisions being made on a daily basis.

For full context of The Decision Stack, check out this 35 minute video where Eriksson dives into the strategic approach, explaining how teams can truly build then execute a vision efficiently, especially in large, complex organisations. Your mind will be blown.

BWhat we can adapt from this approach in Oh Yeah, is the framework to create clarity through your own ‘even over’ statements, which become your guiding principles. And here’s the vital piece; when you know your values without ambiguity then it’s not that hard to make a quality decision, no matter what stage you’re at in exploring your new chapter.

Oooofff. I mean, right? And although this is usually applied in the product development space, it is so true for us as human beings. We cannot make a quality decision, in its right context, if we’re not truly anchored in our own guiding principles.

This is why the following an ‘even over’ approach is such a game changer. They are YOUR fundamental principles which makes it clear what you’re willing to trade over the other through the ‘Even Over’ approach, thus sharing clarity to yourself and others in what you should prioritise and care about.

Here’s Oh Yeah’s guiding principles as an example. It’s 100% based on what I value and care about: anything I build or decision I make about what time and energy I want to invest, stems from these ‘mothership’ principles:

Guiding Principles for Oh Yeah.

Shared mission with others, even over self.
Good company and vibes, even over status.
Space, warmth, fun and nourishment, even over earnest privilege/ lack of self-awareness.
Honesty, humour, authentic expertise, even over mainstream convention/ need for mass reach.
Simplicity of format, even over verbosity.
Led by feeling, even over volume of content or need for constant productivity.

You can see easily, what takes priority in each statement, or rather, what you’re willing to trade off. There’s no lack of clarity in what is most important to me – or to anyone joining the Oh Yeah community.

And that’s why building Oh Yeah has been such a joy for me and the whole team building the platform. By having clear guiding principles, we have each been empowered to crack on with our respective expertise and experience, helping me learn as a new founder, along the way.

Here are the steps to building your own guiding principles:

So start working out your own guiding principles, and remember, you can always finesse them through time. But I honestly think that your ‘gut’ response will lead and anchor you to your ‘mothership’. Be as honest as you can. And in Oh Yeah’s Season 2 the ‘Reflective’ season, I’ll show you how they can be stress-tested and adjusted for the real world and where you’re at in life.

Here’s that space to build your own ‘even over’ guiding principles - and enjoy every moment nourishing joy back into what YOU want!

Quick Tip: Talk to those who already made the move.

To compliment your guiding principles, let’s go back to your mates.

What’s super handy is speaking to those who have made the transition or change you’re exploring, be it gaining more confidence to change roles at work, or to fundamentally shift the balance between work and life, or to completely change careers. Those who have made the jump and landed on the other side. Listen and learn how they did that. And similarly to those who you’ll hear from The Oh Yeah crew, you’ll gain wisdom, insight and inspiration to help shape your own forward direction.

If you know a couple of folks who have made the shift that you want, reach out to them. These conversations are so life-affirming as we’re often in our own bubbles, engrossed in the day-to-day. So hearing an outside perspective from someone who was once in that same routine will always want to share how freeing it actually is on the other side. And if you’re on good terms with them, they’ll be more than happy to share their perspective and recommendations.

This happened with one of my friends Andre, an amazing writer who comes from the creative design world. A while ago, he made a bold move with his family, leaving the safety net of his home and re-locating his entire brood from the West Coast to Amsterdam.

I spoke to him just around the time I began experimenting on Substack. My pen didn’t leave my hand as I jotted down his advice throughout our catch up. Here’s the key pointers:

-How do you want to feel professionally? In the design world, that’s what it’s all about.

-Give yourself time, but you need a deadline too. You need an out or you won’t move that far.

-Write what you know.

The above is based on Hemingway truism ‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’

And later, I soon came across someone who quoted Hemingway and raised it by one:

‘Write what only you know.’

Now promise yourself to give that mate a buzz and use the space below to jot down what resonates with your from their learned experiences and ‘shifting’ tips you’d like to take and explore yourself:

Note Space

Notes

The Oh Yeah Juice

Note Space

Notes