We were lucky to catch up with Roberta Mantenuto recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Roberta, so happy to have you on the platform with us today and excited to chat about your lessons and insights. Our ability to make good decisions can massively impact our lives, careers and relationships and so it would be very helpful to hear about how you built your decision-making skills.
I just do the best I can with the information I have. Part of making decisions is getting clarity – for me, that looks like doing a reality-check and separating what are emotional perceptions vs. real facts. I would to often make the mistake of feeling uncomfortable changing my decision as new information came in. I thought that changing your mind was a sign of weakness, disorganization, and a lack of focus.
This is not always the case. Changing course as you accumulate more information is part of a growth trajectory. It can actually demonstrate a measured diligence, strength in acknowledging you could have been wrong and clarity.
A question I have started asking myself more often is: “does this decision need to be made right now?” Sometimes decisions need to breath. They don’t need to be decided as quickly as you expect.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the Cofounder of Fittes. We reimagine mundane, unloved building products. In other words, we make very unsexy interior design components – sexy. We started the company reimagining vents (yes, vents. Those ugly grilles on your floors and walls that deliver sweet conditioned air) and we have since expanded into light switches, thermostat mounts, modern dog niches and more. Basically, anything ugly that hangs off your walls – we want to reimagine how you see them.
I love building a team and getting consumers to care about random unsexy products they have probably never considered before. Watching our customers journey through this realization and become obsessed with our products is the fuel that keeps us going.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Emotional Intelligence – I am not sure if this is a teachable skill. Its more of a lived skill that I am always developing. I learned a lot about myself and how to read others by talking to people. Talk to as many people as you can. I condition this muscle a lot when I do activities like interview candidates, travel, and team 1on1s.
2. Resilience & Grit – This is my gas in the tank. Building a business is insane. It varies moment to moment. Some minutes you’re on top of the world, the next minute your’e ready to run away. I learned to not ride the highs or the lows. Grit is the stamina to learn to do new things that you could pay someone to do in 1/4 of the time but you chose to figure it out yourself.
3. Disconnect – you need to have the discipline to disconnect. Put away the laptop, remove the email from your phone – go for a walk and recharge. Create safe zones where you don’t talk about work. This takes true discipline. This might be the single reason why I haven’t burned out yet. I’m not a robot, I’m human. I need to recharge my battery.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents were business owners my entire life. Watching them, I learned first hand the sacrifices it takes to be a business owner. As kids, we were privy to see the inner workings of a business. Just by sitting in my mom’s office after school, or listening to them talk about work at the dinner table, I absorbed so much passive knowledge. So when we started this business, I was already kind of comfortable with that environment. It was somewhat familiar.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fittes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fittes/
- Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/fittes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Z3b0jfeKE3KaOuTxUrEog/featured
Image Credits
Fittes Inc.
