We recently connected with Donna Budica and have shared our conversation below.
Donna, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Developing resilience is undoubtedly foundational to my being a first-generation Iranian-Italian. The mindset and dedication to striving for improvement and forging a unique path tends to be ingrained and instilled in us since childhood and is often commonplace for immigrant kids. While a more traditional career was probably expected of me, my passion for the arts, business, and just a little bit of defiance, propelled me towards entrepreneurship. Despite my family’s concern about embarking into wildly unknown territory, their tacit but ubiquitous support in my abilities and capability to thrive was an early lesson in self-belief and the fundamental mandate to embrace failure as a learning, not a loss.
My formal education, studying finance at Wharton followed by an MBA in media marketing, was my early foray into a love for business. Despite learning fundamentals, the truth is that school does not and cannot teach you the daunting realities that life does when starting any business. However, a solid foundation certainly provides a meaningful head-start. What we do with it, then, is up to us — because there is not a diploma or degree in the world that can replicate the value of experience.
Ultimately, I always say, We Choose Our Choices. My own resilience has been cultivated and a culmination of diverse experiences, unwavering commitment to purpose, and an inherent pursuit of learning and adaptability. It’s this resilience that has defined my journey as an entrepreneur and continues to drive me towards a future where artists and entrepreneurs alike have the tools to thrive.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the Co-founder and COO of TEN2 MEDIA. My focus is on corporate strategy, infrastructure, and scalable execution, both internally and externally. Ten2 specializes in the distribution & monetization of content for music artists on YouTube. We believe in democratizing access to resource and knowledge that artists can use to succeed on YouTube.
In partnership with Google, we have built and scaled technology, tools, & systems to better serve artists and their teams by deploying, among other things, our platform [LaunchPad] as a centralized hub and suite of tools to help artists amplify their presence and maximize their revenue on YouTube.
By giving artists access & insights about critical performance metrics, audience demographics, and engagement insights, they are empowered to make more informed, data-driven decisions, and armed with the knowledge to craft a more strategic, sustainable career.
Helping mitigate information asymmetry has always been core to our mission, vision, and values. Breaking down the overwhelming universe of content marketing, particularly on YouTube, while incrementally but steadfastly counter-acting the pernicious and pervasive behavior of bad actors in the space is part of that. Our approach is rooted in transparency and imperative to maintaining our #1 KPI — TRUST.
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?
Three things stand out the most: Relentless curiosity, Embracing discomfort, the Power of genuine connection.
1. Relentless Curiosity: Never Stop Asking “Why?”
From a young age, I was the kid who always asked “why?”. I am sure my father (real-life rocket scientist) has a lot to do with this part of my nature. An unrefined delivery, however, has gotten me in trouble over the years… . “Why” can be provoking, grating, & combative. I learned this the hard way despite my eternally well-intentioned inquisitiveness. Ultimately, it has been this insatiable curiosity that propelled my dedication to explore, learn about various fields, and ultimately, identify key challenges that I wanted to solve.
Takeaway: Cultivate curiosity. Challenge logic. Read. Go on deep dives & crawl into those rabbit holes. Talking to people outside your usual circles is a stimulating way to inspire ideas & explore solutions, personally and professionally.
2. Embracing Discomfort: Growth Will NEVER Happen in our Comfort Zone.
No sugarcoat: starting a business is hard. Growing it (really growing it) is even harder.
Incessant uncertainty, risk, logistics, delivering on expectations, doing the actual job the business was based on to begin with… among the inundating myriad of other hats you HAVE to wear simultaneously to survive let alone thrive.
That said — there is a magic that happens outside our comfort zone. Whether it’s learning something new, facing soul-crushing, adversarial negotiations, leading teams, or simply saying “no” for the first time without explanation.
Takeaway: Embracing discomfort is essential for growth. Failure happens. So fail fast and fail small. Experience is the one thing that can’t be replicated.
3. The Power of Genuine Connection: Building Bridges, Not Walls
Business is about people. Learn empathy, actively listen, find common ground. And do it authentically. Real ones always smell a phony.
Takeaway: Be present, be authentic, and be genuinely interested in the people you engage with.
Plus, being interested is the surest path to being interesting.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
1. Peter Drucker has been a pretty prominent force in my life since I was 17 — Management-100 is a core class that every Wharton freshman is required to take and while at the time, seemingly suffer through, there is no other curriculum that has singlehandedly had a great and such long-standing impact on my personal POV, resilience, and evolution as an entrepreneur. Drucker’s permeating ethos around building and maintaining a solution-oriented mindset — focus on opportunities not problems is the sentiment — has fundamentally shifted how I think and manage challenges, in business and life.
2. All things HBR, and specifically the Emotional Intelligence series. I think empathy is often conflated with sympathy (erroneously) and thus frequently shafted in business as an indicator of weakness. The reality is quite the contrary. Empathy — the true definition of empathy — is one of the greatest skills to hone for longevity of success & is the greatest indicator of strength of character and humanity. None of those things are ever flaws or weakness of persona.
3. Never Split the Difference. This is one of those books where a physical copy is the only way to go. I’ve read mine cover to cover more times than I can count and think WWCVD — what would Chris Voss do — often. It’s far less about the negotiation tactics he shares than it is about his approach and why — tactical empathy. Having a perspective rooted in “how do we make this a win-win” beats gouging your adversary and transactional-only mentality all day. This book does a great job articulating that and providing anecdotal applications.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ten2.media
- Instagram: @donnabudica
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-budica/
- Other: https://www.launchpadpro.io
Image Credits
Leo DiMarcano
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