#002: Ian Yung

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#002: Ian Yung

DTC growth executive (ex-SVP at Tonal, ex-Parachute) on creative resourcefulness, finding balance, and the simple power of being helpful

Lucy Liu

Nov 17, 2024

Transcript

Happy Sunday everyone!

I’m excited to share with you the 2nd pilot episode of my new 380 Podcast, where I sit down with inspiring leaders to get a unique, more holistic take on their approach to life, leadership, and success. If you missed the 1st episode with Patrick Burns (ex-founder, Oscar-nominated filmmaker), you can check it out here!

Today, I'm very excited to introduce my special guest Ian Yung. Ian is a senior growth and marketing executive with a diverse career journey, from serving as President of the largest audio manufacturer in South America to leading growth for major DTC lifestyle brands like Tonal, where he was most recently the SVP of Revenue. Ian’s career has been marked by his ability to drive profitable growth across industries, thanks to his keen eye for strategy (what’s driving your growth?), a genuine desire to help, and an overall passion for efficiency.

Now taking a career break and fresh off a renewing trip to Bali, Ian joins me to chat about his career journey to date, his strategy to drive broader impact, and his approach to finding balance.

📌 In this episode, we cover:

Ian’s hard pivot from industrial engineering to lifestyle e-Commerce at the age of 30 (new country, new job!)
How “trying to be helpful” created natural inflections in his career journey
Leaning into creativity and resourcefulness as a competitive advantage - especially for startups
Using each career transition to reflect on his drivers of energy
Finding balance in life between leverage, pleasure, and purpose

🎥 Watch on Youtube:

📝 Some key takeaways:

It’s important to regularly pause and assess what energizes and fulfills you. After 9 years at AudiLab and ultimately selling the company, Ian used the opportunity to re-evaluate the best path to achieve his long term goals, ultimately deciding to move from Brazil to San Francisco to pursue growth-focused opportunities in a brand new industry.
Ian’s background in industrial engineering shaped his problem-solving approach, where he constantly sought ways to do things better and faster. This “high-functioning laziness” drove his efficiency-focused mindset, which allowed him to regularly identify creative, unconventional paths to growth. A competitive advantage, he notes, for resource-constrained startups.
A desire to be helpful goes a long way. Ian’s career naturally evolved because he sought to do what was best for the company - even if it was outside of his role. Combining self awareness and the needs of the organization, he removed himself quickly from positions where he would be unhelpful (”What the business needed was more product people, less growth”) and found himself in new roles as a result of identifying business opportunities (private labeling at Touch of Modern).
Finding balance between leverage, pleasure, and purpose for a fulfilling life. Ian emphasizes the importance of embracing joy and meaning in our experience, while striving to accumulate the necessary resources to achieve our personal definition of impact.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:34 About the Podcast

01:48 Guest Introduction: Ian Yung

05:50 Starting at Ford in Automotive Manufacturing

09:10 Becoming President of Audilab, the biggest audio manufacturer in South America

12:38 Pivoting to DTC and moving to San Francisco

13:33 Touch of Modern and the shift from Operations to Growth

28:32 Simple Habit and the Allure of Series A

35:12 The Importance of Fundamental Thinking, Mindfulness, and Diverse Perspectives

40:52 Career Transitions and Shift from Growth to Countercyclical

43:54 Black Tux during the Pandemic