LEVELS – A Whole New Level

Latest Episodes:

#41 - The role of design in behavior change (Alan McLean & Ben Grynol) Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Levels Head of Growth, Ben Grynol, sat down with Alan McLean, Head of Design at Levels, to discuss Alan's design philosophy, his approach to re-designing the Levels app, as well as his past experience with The New York Times, Fitbit and Google.

Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(07:27) - The importance of design for health products
(09:40) - Generalists vs. specialists
(10:19) - The value of technical expertise
(12:33) - The value of constraints
(19:00) - The print/digital divide
(21:26) - Expectations are high for productivity tools
(23:52) - Seek out magic moments
(26:39) - Consider user context
(28:55) - Focus on positive reinforcement
(31:26) - Personalization is not a hack

Transcripts & Show Notes

#40 - Stay off my operating table (Philip Ovadia & Casey Means) Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Levels' Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Casey Means, sat down with Dr. Philip Ovadia to discuss the key factors that lead to poor metabolic health. As well, they discussed their views on how to solve the metabolic crisis, and Dr. Ovadia's new book, "Stay Off My Operating Table."

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(04:42) - Medicine will not fix metabolic health
(14:32) - The benefit of continuous glucose monitors
(17:14) - Why are CGMs not in hospitals?
(20:49) - Eat whole foods
(23:53) - It's time to talk about what we eat
(26:01) -Take one step at a time
(28:03) - Substitute, don't eliminate
(30:29) - Read your food labels
(51:19) - Don't rely on exercise alone
(01:00:34) - Pay attention to the metrics of metabolic health

Transcripts & Show Notes

#39 - The Levels cultural handbook (Sam Corcos & Josh Clemente) Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

Sam Corcos, CEO of Levels, and Josh Clemente, Founder of Levels, sat down to discuss their outlook on a cultural handbook which was created by Miz, Head of Operations at Levels. The handbook dives into the values at Levels, and how to effectively build culture in an asynchronous and remote team.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(05:51) - Avoid paternalistic rules
(08:22) - Companies must create structure from chaos
(11:19) - Foster a productive environment
(18:57) - Make decisions for the good of the organization
(28:02) - Leave personal lives in the control of employees
(31:59) - The definition of project debt
(37:24) - Maintain a tolerance for risk
(39:27) - Don't Be a Blocker
(48:57) - The role of constructive criticism
(59:53) - Take action instead of complaining

Transcripts & Show Notes

#38 - Mainstream media vs. the creator economy (Ben Grynol, Mike Haney & Tom Griffin) Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

There is a major shift happening with traditional, mainstream media and the creator economy.

Levels team members, Mike Haney, Head of Content, Tom Griffin, Head of Partnerships, and Ben Grynol, Head of Growth, sat down and discussed the current overlap and benefits with each of these channels and how Levels can engage better with the audiences they want to reach.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(06:24) - Traditional media confers legitimacy
(10:23) - Use first principles to make decisions
(12:00) - Consider reach over time
(15:27) - Different channels have different audiences
(23:08) - The allure of an exclusive story
(32:18) - The value of eyes on a headline
(33:57) - Use coverage to attract talent
(37:01) - More awareness is always better
(41:06) - Mainstream attention has compound effects
(44:25) - Content is a long game

Transcripts & Show Notes

#37 - From school to startup (Braden McCarthy & Ben Grynol) Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

Many times, when people go through post-secondary school, they aren't aware of what career they want to pursue upon graduating.

For Braden McCarthy – part of the Operations team at Levels – he went straight from school to startup and took a non-traditional career path. In doing so, Braden has been provided with immense learning opportunities as part of a fast moving team and early-stage tech company.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(06:49) - Find an opportunity that resonates
(08:35) - Don't rush into a job blindly
(09:20) - Take the career path less trodden
(11:22) - Battle imposter syndrome & add value
(14:48) - Develop new skills quickly
(17:58) - The forcing function of asynchronous work
(20:46) - Everybody starts at square one
(23:19) - Build your trust "battery"
(25:42) - Customer support is under-rated
(34:29) - Don't wait for a job posting to apply

Transcripts & Show Notes

#36 - Building community, tribalism, and the principle of People Like Us Do Things Like This (Seth Godin & Ben Grynol) Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

When building a community, there's one principle which lays the foundation for every community and culture around the world – People Like Us Do Things Like This. It's a sense of tribalism, and a concept that Seth Godin, a global thought leader, brought to the world more than 10 years ago.

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker. In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, he has written 20 best-selling books, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and This is Marketing – which was an instant bestseller in numerous countries around the world. Though renowned for his writing and speaking, Seth also founded two companies, Squidoo and Yoyodyne (acquired by Yahoo!).

In 2013, Seth was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and, in 2018, was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

In this episode, Seth and Ben Grynol, Head of Growth at Levels, talked about marketing, community, and what it was like to grow up in Buffalo, New York.

(00:06) - People like us do things like this
(04:21) - There isn't one Buffalo
(08:32) - The rise of the interview podcast
(10:45) - Professionals are expected to embrace consistency over authenticity
(14:05) - New media is exciting because it's always changing
(16:33) - Following the path to find the dynamics of the medium
(18:18) - How do ads create value?
(23:42) - Defining the culture to drive action
(26:18) - Respecting people who like loud music
(29:34) - How do you build community?
(40:52) - Building a new path for learning

Transcripts & Show Notes

Watch the Video – https://youtu.be/bim08ixEYtc

LINKS

SETH GODIN
Seth's Blog – seths.blog
Akimbo Podcast – akimbo.link
Seth's Website – sethgodin.com

#35 – Building our Engineering Team (Michael Mizrahi & Andrew Conner) Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

Oftentimes, in hiring processes, companies have a sense of leverage over prospective candidates. However, with Levels, this isn't the path that we take – we don't want to sell candidates, and we don't want candidates to sell us.

When bringing new team members onboard, the process is transparent. We don't trick people with challenges: "Here's a hard question, go and solve it." Rather, we give people the opportunity to document things, find areas where they can offer insight into what we're doing, and pick things apart.

In this episode, Michael Mizrahi, Head of Operations, and Andrew Conner, Head of Engineering and one of the Co-Founders of Levels, sat down and talked about the process of building our team and onboarding new team members.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

Transcripts & Show Notes

#34 – Growth experiments & playbooks (Wiz Abdulla & Ben Grynol) Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

Growth at an early-stage startup involves running series of experiments to learn about a hypothesis. Growth is not based a specific playbook, or a prescriptive plan that people can transfer from one company to the next. Rather, growth experiments are based on an amalgamation of insights from differing areas of a business, and even within the world.

Wiz Abdulla, an investor in Levels, understands growth experiments at their foundation. Often, he has portfolio companies reach out to him for help about ways in which they can start ramping up growth within their companies.

So, what better way to give people insight about Levels' "book of plays" than to have a conversation about the way that we think about growth experiments.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(01:16) - There is no one size fits all growth playbook
(06:32) - The dangers of following a prescriptive playbook
(09:00) - The 3 principles of growth
(13:14) - The 4 pillars of growth at Levels
(20:57) - How to think about growth investments
(24:22) - Acquiring more customers might not be the answer
(26:21) - How can you get creative like Casey Neistat
(32:57) - How the Levels Culture project came about
(38 :49) - Launching the Coke Challenge experiment
(39:49) - Iterating on experiments to unlock new growth
(43:54) - The importance of being data informed vs data driven

Transcripts & Show Notes

#33 – Inbox zero & time management (Sam Corcos, Casey Means & Ben Grynol) Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

Inbox zero – it's taken the email world by storm and has been popularized by startups, like Superhuman. But, everyone seems to have their own process for managing emails and prioritizing tasks. Sometimes, this is due to the vertical or industry that a person works within. Other times, it's because entire companies have specific ways of approaching work.

For the Levels team, we value three factors deeply when it comes to communication:

Discussing initiatives asynchronously
Documenting projects thoroughly
Closing the loop voraciously

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(03:26) - Why Sam is a proponent of inbox zero
(04:25) - Reducing anxiety through inbox zero
(06:00) - Transitioning from the medical field to a fast paced startup
(09:12) - Transitioning to a new process for task management
(11:31) - The impact of closing the loop
(13:47) - How to force constraints on what you can accomplish every day
(16:33) - Ben's biggest learnings from calendaring
(20:09) - Working in Threads and a need for reminders
(22:59) -Learning specific skills for inbox management
(25:51) - Superhuman as a tool for flow state
(28:42) - The role of leadership: removing blockers from others
(32:25) - Being clear on who has the ball
(35:38) - Increasing visibility for deadlines in remote teams
(45:00) - Adapting to moving into a leadership role
(57:09) - Recommendations for better communication

Transcripts & Show Notes

#32 – Personal Socrates (Marc Champagne & Mike Haney) Oct 18, 2021

Show notes

Marc Champagne started out his career in the corporate world. After a decade of working in roles across sales, analytics, and product management, he took a leap and started a company – KYO – a journalling app, which ended up reaching nearly 87M people.

Eventually, the company shut down and Marc was left thinking about what he wanted from his life. After an introspective period of asking himself questions, he decided to become a Mental Fitness Strategist, which led him down the path of becoming a podcaster (Behind the Human), and author (Personal Socrates).

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

(09:06) - If everyone is trained the same, how can you stand out?
(12:47) - Escaping the autopilot of entering higher education
(16:22) - The birth of KYO with a clickable PDF
(20:22) - The emotional toll of sunsetting KYO
(25:19) - Finding a way back
(26:44) - Pausing the loop by one small step at a time
(30:14) - Why write a book when there are so many digital options
(43:58) - Increasing self awareness to avoid negative choices

Transcripts & Show Notes

Marc Champagne – behindthehuman.com

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