Answering The Call

Dave Scott - Multiple Lives: The Executive’s Guide to Professional Reinvention


Listen Later

Show Notes: Answering the Call with Dave Scott

In this episode, we sit down with Dave Scott, a veteran product leader and "adrenaline junkie" who walked away from a comfortable corporate executive career to reclaim his professional agency. Dave shares how he broke out of the "execution trap" to pursue fractional consulting, mountain bike racing, and authoring his upcoming book, Product at a Distance.

Key Takeaways
  • Escaping the Execution Trap: Dave explains how senior roles often shift from high-level problem solving to mere execution and politics, prompting his need for a "mental shake-up".
  • The "Multiple Lives" Philosophy: Embracing the idea that life is too short to stay on one path; Dave advocates for "scaring yourself" by pivoting into new industries and challenges.
  • Product at a Distance: Insight into Dave’s upcoming book, which provides frameworks for making distributed product teams operate as if they are co-located.
  • The Power of Agency: Why having the courage to "pick the fork in the road" leads to deeper professional satisfaction and even "unexpected happiness" in daily life.
  • AI as a Thought Partner: How Dave uses a suite of AI tools to research, build his business, and even design his website at 10x speed.

The Three-Legged Stool of Balance

Dave discusses his framework for a centered life, which requires three critical anchors:

  1. Mental Challenge: Solving problems where you don't yet know the path from A to B.
  2. Physical Challenge: Pushing boundaries through endurance sports like mountain bike racing and skiing.
  3. Spiritual Balance: Finding a centering practice—whether through meditation or community—to anchor your decisions.

About Our Guest

Dave Scott is a product executive with over 20 years of experience at companies ranging from Intuit to seed-funded startups. He is a former leader at the global innovation firm Frog Design and currently serves as a fractional consultant and author.

Connect with Dave: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Dave Scott - Bay Area Software Executive

How To Contact David

Website: www.zenten.io

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidzemanek/

Email: [email protected]

Opening music is Flowers Shower by Devakant. You can hear this and more music by Devakant on Spotity.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Answering The CallBy David Zemanek