 Imagine what this would look like if you were able to land a remote furniture position in the US-based company while working from your home country, such as Canada, UK, and Taiwan, so that you are able to have the income and the flexibility. In this video, our partner leader Anthony is going to share with you how we land a senior PM position in the US-based company while working from Canada and taking care of his two young children. Hey guys, this is Dr. Nancy Lee, a director of product and featured in Forbes. I've helped 100 people land a dream PM job offer in fan companies at Unicorn startup and continue to get promoted as a product leader. If you're interested in product management course, you should go to PM Accelerator.io to learn more. To learn the most effective way to become product manager, please make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell button to be notified every time we turn on new video every Wednesday. So make sure to hit the like button and let's continue today's product leader podcast series. Today we have a dad. Anthony is also a product manager who's going to share with all of you guys regarding how he successfully become a product manager in a very different industry while being a very busy new dad. He's our guest speaker on our product leader podcast series, which he's going to share with you all the behind-the-scenes stories regarding how he conquers these challenges. Let's welcome Anthony. Hello Anthony, how are you doing? Hi Nancy, doing great thanks. Really looking forward to speaking with you today. Awesome Anthony, welcome to join us. So can you do a quick introduction? Yeah, I'd be glad to. My name's Anthony Janakis and I'm a product manager with GoDaddy in our e-commerce division and I'm a data-driven product manager, you know certifications and full-stack web developments, Scrum, cloud computing, all the normal stuff he'd expect and I've got experience across a few different industries in both B2B and B2C environments but it's been a variety of roles over the years. So it's somewhat of a non-traditional path. So you know product management of course but prior to that it was consulting, it was SaaS sales, it was marketing. So loving my role in GoDaddy, it's all consuming. I'm actually doing double duty right now. Interesting that you're noting that you know I'm a father of two young girls and so blessed to be that. I'm doing double duty because one of my colleagues that's actually on parental leave right now and I'm taking over his products as well. So it's a full schedule but it's fantastic. Awesome thank you for sharing with us today all of your busy schedule. So Anthony let's do this. You mentioned that actually you have a variety of background in consulting, in fitness industry and SaaS type of sales roles and now you are product manager in GoDaddy. So can you tell us more regarding your challenges? Becoming a product manager in the tech industry given you were actually transitioned from a fitness industry? Yeah great question. You know my experience to date in product management before shifting over to GoDaddy, I knew that I needed to have a specialized focus in order to make that jump. I did have aspirations to work for you know a big company. I wanted to work remotely. Our world has transformed so much since you know 2020 and with remote work becoming ubiquitous and common everywhere. I knew that I couldn't just waltz into a transition like that. I wanted to work for a company in Silicon Valley. I'm also competing against you know other applicants in Beijing and San Francisco and Boston Massachusetts everywhere else. So I needed to bring it and I needed to bring my game to the next level. You know your PM accelerator program was absolutely instrumental and my success of course. You know the challenge that you face first of all is the competitive landscape is the first thing that I'd say and that's what I'm trying to convey here to your audience. It's obviously a hyper competitive environment and yeah you're compensated well but there's a lot of people vying for those roles so you've got to be bringing in your best and that's the biggest challenge for sure because there's really smart people and they also work very hard because if other people are putting in more hours than you then they will have a competitive edge and that all comes through. In my case you know being a new dad I had a little bit of time off on parental leave and I was strategic about that wanting to put my family in a better position and I dedicated towards this job transition essentially full time with the same focus I would if I was on payroll in order to bring my game to the next level because I knew how competitive the landscape was and I think that's even more the case today here in later in 2022. I mean we've obviously understood and heard all the different cuts to different tech companies slashing 50 percent of their staff amongst the fame companies in particular and that makes a general atmosphere of anxiety I think for applicants who are seeking to transition into a new role and that was the second biggest challenge that I found was trying to separate the noise of I'm characterizing as noise those factors that are beyond your control be it the obvious decline in the economic you know environments and and the job prospects becoming increasingly scarce but you can't control that what you can control is your performance in these interviews what you can control is the research you do on you know the company that you're going to be interviewing with what you can control is polishing your answer to that question a little bit more and connecting with your peers in the pm accelerator community which is an amazing mastermind group and and get that feedback on how you can tighten up your answers control what you can control and keep getting better with every interview yes um especially we recently heard like met a layoff 13 percent employees an amazon layoff on 10 000 employees and lots of layoffs and out there if people going out there and slightly the first dip of the job is taken by people in fan companies so you need to compete with them you brought up something regarding that emotionally very scary um so can you elaborate more actually you spend lots of time talking about how you ship your mindset instead of the pm community can you be specific for example what did you tell yourself do you do lots of medication or you stop reading news given you know they're all laying off people so what specific things you did to ship the mindset you always ask great questions um for me uh my approach to important matters in life starts with a deep contemplation of my purpose why i'm here and what's most important and you know becoming a parent and you can relate obviously it changes everything in your life everything becomes more meaningful everything becomes more significant and when you realize how competitive the world is and you have an awareness of that you want to do everything in your power if you rightly recognize how precious and valuable your kids are you want to do everything in your power to set them up for success and to take care of your family and that means making sacrifices that means making choices and prioritizing what is more important over what is less important um and i mean i'm i'm of a very competitive person i have been my whole life and have demonstrated that in every area of my life i know that but but there's lots of competitive people out there as well so like you've got to bring it and everything matters every you know in the p.m accelerator program uh i could have just waltzed through that program and and lolly gack my way through it and not gotten value out of it but you push your students you you create an atmosphere that brings out the best in your students and uh i certainly benefited a tremendous amount the value is incredible in the program and and that's important because even that's just a microcosm of everything else we're talking about if you're not bringing it in that kind of a master mind group like you have created with your p.m accelerator program then i mean other people are going to be passing you so it all starts with that deep purposeful understanding of uh that drives the motivation for everything um and that's how i really drove past those challenges it starts with that this is very powerful very amazing especially start with uh the purpose working hard it's really creating the better life for your family and for your kids and they are the true motivation behind it yeah when you came in actually you were talking about just had baby at the time your baby is your baby is one month old right just was born you're like i need to get this down Nancy i need to get into tech industry as a product manager this is what i meant before i i want to provide the best life for my kids for my family and you did it this is a true motivation behind lots of like strong dads trying to pursue to the next level i'm so proud of that oh thanks nancy yeah it was you know i do want your audience to know i mean this sincerely i mean i took one look at your program and i first encountered your content on youtube uh you know just doing some research i immediately recognized your genius um and and that was confirmed through my experience in your program obviously i mean you know youngest phd and in your school's history did a phenomenal job there on you know the science on the engineering side but also when it comes to business you're an absolute boss and that really comes out in your program it's incredible uh and in your your academic training there at mit it doesn't stop there you brought that to the companies that you worked with in your career path and you've disseminated all that to your students and the frameworks that you teach really equip your students for success and and that's one of the things that i want to emphasize for your students anybody that's you know sitting on the fence not sure if this is the right program for you of course there's different product management programs out there but i chose the pm accelerator program because i got the sense of authenticity from nancy which my experience validated that initial impression um there's something special about the community that you not only get the interaction with nancy directly which is unbelievably valuable because she's a world-class product manager but she's also got a number of those in her program as the leaders in that program that become the mentors that then these little groups form and it's this incredible synergy that just continues to organically build momentum positively and without that i probably would still have a lot of blind spots and have blinders on and tunnel vision um nancy you brought up something regarding open up your horizon and having blind spots so can you give us examples regarding your blind spot and how did you discover those and how did you actually fix your blind spot well with broadening horizons for example when it comes to say you know compensation and understanding what's possible out there it's a very nuanced and complex matter compensation it's not so easy to always discover what's possible and what's out there but you're hyper leveraging your ability and your access to information in a mastermind group like the pm accelerator program and you are constantly on the cutting edge obviously as as the CEO of pm accelerator and and your your team are on the cutting edge of like you know what's the best what's the best available out there and the strategies to take and the tactics to execute to get there i mean if you want to venture and discover all that on your own all the power to you but alternatively you can join you know the pm accelerator program and really hyper leverage and quickly accelerate your learning about all the nuances that go into that also understanding and hearing from you know your peers in the program otherwise all you know is all you know from your own experience that was one of the big takeaways for me was the broadening of my horizons about what's possible how things are in other companies and that that informs your vantage point so then you can make some prudent decisions when you're negotiating and when you're declining offers that aren't really uh exactly what you want for yourself and your family yeah exactly i remember when you go to offer actually bump up uh a lot after you negotiate this amazing so happy to see that i became more aware of my blind spots through one of the most important features i think of your program nancy and and those are those mock interviews that you do with your peers and and the relationships that are built there it's an extremely rich dynamic amongst the peers because there's a mutual interest in wanting to be vulnerable help one another and vulnerable in the sense of just give authentic feedback like no egos how can i get better those mock interviews really accelerate and improve your performance almost perhaps like no other form of practice that you could execute in preparation for you know changing jobs and and make no mistake about it you need a focused effort to be changing jobs you can't just waltz into it and think oh on the strength of my resume alone i'm just going to get a job no it's a performance and you have to execute there are companies out there that you are the right fit for and do not stop until you find them because they exist and every dimension of your being your your personality your particular professional skills your academic training and all the experiences you've amassed along the way are preparing you for this next role but that's only possible if you never give up because if you give up you'll never find the connection with that right company but continue to pursue it uh is it intimidating that you know a lot of fank company employees former employees on the resume are in the job market yeah it is but it's not impossible and no great thing in life is accomplished we know without extraordinary effort so it's now or never there is opportunity and and Nancy i do want to credit you as well there was a time during my journey and in my focused job hunt here where i connected with you to ask you your thoughts on the landscape in the economy because things were looking pretty rough and you know just like you do in every other aspect of of your program you're just teaching decomposition you know if you look at the economy and see the downturn and you leave your analysis at that you will wrongly conclude oh shucks the economy is looking rough i guess i won't get this product manager job i'm looking for in a big tech company well no let's decompose it a little bit let's look more specifically at the details these companies over here are cutting but these companies over here in this segment of the economy they're actually hiring so pursue those and don't just stop at a superficial analysis that says oh the economy is generally rough therefore i won't be successful in my pursuit that's not true this is amazing thanks for sharing yes exactly we do a lot of in-depth analysis regarding how to navigate the economy i'm glad you follow the same strategy and then for a managed job go daddy um now ensign i do want to switch gear regarding um your other challenges as being a dad um because i personally know it's very challenging once you become a parent the world shift for the better but your time is gone so how did you manage other challenges of being a dad and also doing job this is not for everybody and i think some people might disagree with what i'm about to say because they might have a different philosophy and approach to life but i'm viewing myself and i'm trying to view myself as a servant here to serve my family and so you know if i think of my time i'm doing air quotes here but i've got the filter blurring me out a little bit if i think of my time as like oh i don't get to do this you know two nights a week and i don't get to do this that i used to do because it's my time um then i'm gonna really feel like i'm missing those things but when i think differently about my time and think that actually my job and my role is to serve and to be putting others ahead of myself then i don't feel burnt out at all i feel a real sense of purpose that motivates me to do those things for other people and to be there for those other people be it my children or my wife or there's only so many hours in the days you have to be wise about your priority relationships um but that's the approach that i've taken to try to manage all these responsibilities is that it's a good thing for me to be serving and to be putting their needs ahead of my own and when i'm thinking about uh what is most valuable to me and how i'm prioritizing their needs and desires over my own that's really invigorating me with a purposeful motivation to every day that gets me up early with the spring in my step so i can accomplish what i need to so it's like a deep thoughtful approach to i guess the relationships of my life that helps me manage the time is it a season of life yes uh i just have so much respect for my wife because she's doing an amazing job during the long hours i'm putting at work but uh it's a challenge it's a challenge but uh i i hope that your audience in particular you know folks that are married or or have children that uh they can get inspiration that it's possible you know it's not easy of course but uh life isn't easy i mean there's there's real challenges in life people are suffering people are struggling but there's so much joy to be had despite all the challenges out there and despite the suffering that we all encounter uh stick with it never give up and and keep pushing yourself and be there for your loved ones and make a difference it's an exciting adventure this is beautiful uh you're such a great husband great dad i definitely just going to cut up this clip and send it over to your wife i bet she won't be able to give a big hug and cry i almost cried listen to this this is beautiful very beautiful very amazing okay great so ensini let's do this uh let's also talk about product management okay so we invite you back as part leader parka series because you already are product manager out there and you are actually doing two person's job and in the tech industry and especially from fitness industry into tech industry now you're doing every aspect of tech so can you tell us more exactly what do you do as a product manager what's the day-to-day look like as a product manager go daddy the day-to-day in our organization and it's exciting for me because you know i'm building a new product right now so it's in the design phase but because we have such a massive organization and you know any other pms that work in larger companies can probably relate one of the unique challenges in a large organization is getting to understand who the stakeholders are and who does what in the organization and how to effectively uh move things along leveraging the influence and you know the ability to move things that those stakeholders have it's difficult because it's not written down anywhere and nobody's going to spoon feed that to you and there's a lot of complexity and nuance to the way these dynamics work so in a phrase stakeholder management is of massive importance when you're working in a big organization like this and you have to be a a self starter uh because i mean even like an onboarding plan like nobody's going to spoon feed you nobody's going to hold your hand and walk along walk you along so you've got to be a self starter for everything stakeholder management entails a ton of meetings of course and and these are working sessions this is not you know chatting about the game last night but it requires all of your concentration and a real attention to the details about how everything is connected across the organization and business moves fast so you've got to be paying attention i guess my day to day rhythm i do like to start early because i like to get all of my messages answered uh you know whether it's slack messages emails or whatever but i also time to think and get my in formation get all my understanding in formation properly with all the insights gleaned from the previous all of what lies ahead a reexamination of the jobs to be done this week in alignment with the priorities on your roadmap yeah that's how i would characterize it thank you um some quick follow-up question are you working from home you're in canada right now so are you working from home for godaddy yeah working from home so uh most of our team is distributed remote but i have been down to the santa clara california office which is amazing it's great to be in silicon valley there um prior to i guess recent events you know it it seems like it'll be harder to get me down there uh as often as we otherwise would like so i'm pretty much fully working from home now aside from the one trip down to the office yeah oh this is awesome this is amazing that's everyone's dream she's like working for american company we're working remotely in your home country this is beautiful especially at the day i was two kids like let's work from home let's do this it's beautiful congrats yeah thank you thank you yeah it's uh yeah i'm very feeling very fortunate and i i of course worked unbelievably hard to get to this point the specialized focus and preparation for this job hunt is it's been life changing for me and my family and we've got a distributed team across many countries in the world brazil china india you're competing with kansas from all over the world but it's possible and i'm living proof of that and i hope that you know you're encouraged from hearing a little bit about my journey and in the path this is beautiful okay let me ask you the last question what's the most important shift to push you to the next level well i knew that i wanted to change and encountering you know your content on youtube which was like the gateway the door that led me to your program i did immediately recognize your genius but it was another level when i actually joined the program and i point to that being the shift because could i have attempted to prepare on my own to enter the job market sure but i can tell you with high confidence i wouldn't be where i am today if it wasn't for the pm accelerator program i've emphasized throughout our time together today how hyper competitive the job market is but it's achievable to accomplish your goal but when you have people like me and like other people that are dedicating themselves to essentially a full-time preparation for the performance in interviews like think about how competitive that is right so if you're not doing that it becomes difficult to perform at the same level as the folks who are preparing to that degree so that for me was you know the thing that really changed the trajectory era for me and i was very confident i recognized the genius and the excellence in your program and i knew that if i did everything that you were teaching i would be successful it was just a matter of time i was fully confident in that beautiful beautiful ensney thank you for sharing with us today by the way guys i didn't pay him to say anything like this but i'm so glad to see your success thank you very much for sharing with us today ensney and so thank you for joining us and also sharing your soft process as a product leader in the space and welcome to share us again in our exclusive alumni community as a panel speaker they're looking forward to hear all the insider details how you get into your level and like getting a remote pm position working in canada for the u.s company it's like this is amazing awesome okay great cool all right thank you for joining us today ensney and also everyone if you like the content we provide today please make sure to hit the like button comment and share this video with any aspiring prime managers out there awesome thank you for joining us ensney see you guys