All right, welcome to LiftFM. This is where I'm planning on sharing stories and lessons that'll help you join the ranks of the top 1% of software engineers, product managers, and product designers in the world. And this is my first episode, so it's maybe a little bit rough. I wanted to start with a preamble of what this thing's all about. But I've been really overthinking the shape this thing should take, where it should start going in circles. So this morning I just decided to hit record and see what happens. and I decided the best way to start really is with a question. Does this sound familiar? You've been in software for a few years now. Maybe more than a few. And you show up, you work hard, you get shit done. But once in a while you look around and you see people who seem more junior than you getting the good projects, getting promoted, landing the bigger roles. And you've worked with these people. You know they're good. But you also know you're better. And you think what's going on here? Is this luck? Or are they doing something differently? Something that isn't just putting in more hours because we both know that is not always a winning strategy longterm. But maybe something else, maybe something you don't know about. Or maybe something you do know about but you just really haven't put as much intentional thought toward it because you didn't think it was a necessary ingredient for your success, right? And if this sounds familiar, just let me say I've been there too. I remember when I got my first real software job. I had been doing some freelancing for five years or so, but... It was through a stroke of luck that I landed a gig working at Amazon Web Services. And this was back in the early days. There were only like five services back then. And I dove in head first and it was a great, great learning experience when that subsequently opened up doors to many other opportunities. And over the two to three years following, I learned a lot, but I wasn't getting ahead as fast as I wanted. And I was trying to emulate my peers. I was doing many of the things my peers were doing, but then I noticed most of them weren't getting what they wanted either. It was only these rare few who seemed to be cutting the line and jumping ahead of the rest of us. And I spent the next 18 months trying to crack the code and I came out of that situation with a framework that I've used in multiple areas of my life quite successfully. I've used it to quit smoking. I was pretty heavy smoker. A decade ago, I used it to lose over 80 pounds. I was a much heavier person, over 325 pounds. I used it to make new friends. I used it to get new jobs. And perhaps most relevant to this conversation, I used it to double my income every two to four years for the past 15 years or so. So what's the magic? What's the magic? There is no magic. That's the magic. I'm not especially intelligent. I didn't go to a good school. In fact, I'm a college dropout. I don't have specialized knowledge in a narrow field. I'm not famous for any industry recognizable software or technology. But what I do have and what I've used is the ability to look across adjacent areas, to connect dots, to borrow lessons. and to apply them in a way that creates tremendous value for clients and for employers. And what do I mean by tremendous value? I've been either an early or founding engineer in seven, seven separate multi-billion dollar products in my career. And I've personally originated designer led three of them. And I've done this by applying a simple framework of my own design, I call DRX. deconstruct, reconstruct, execute. And it's about as simple as it sounds. It's a framework that I've used that takes advantage of the skills that I mastered, or at least I've tried to master in my capacity as a software engineer, but now applies them to new things and in new ways that unlocks the ability to create stupid amounts of value for my employer. And consequently helps me command stupidly large compensation. Compensation, it can help you too. And so by applying the simple framework to just a few areas of your personal and professional life, it'll put you on a completely new trajectory. And it's one thing for me to say nice things about myself, but here are some things that others have said about me in my career. These are, these are direct quotes from people who have worked with me. Here's the first one. Mason is a rare breed of tech professional and unlike any other I've worked with in my career. He's a true innovator who focuses his deep technical expertise through a lens of relentless customer obsession and who brings a very strong set of instincts and skills around the user experience. Um, design and product design to bear along with his deep technical skill set. Mason naturally drives and rallies product development orgs to improve both their tech and product design in the interest of making sure that customer and the business are getting exactly what they need. I would work with Mason again in a New York minute in any effort that we're a strong product leader with an impressive set of engineering and technical architectural credentials are needed. He's the real deal. Here's the second one. Mason personifies the ideal leader, partner, and mentor. Mason is the unicorn who possesses the rare combination of emotional intelligence, engineering proficiency, and business acumen. All my engineering teams looked up to him and inspired to be like him. Mason is universally accepting of people, regardless of their path. His openness allows him to embrace and empower others. Mason has a ferocious appetite for learning and personal improvement, which he shares openly with others in positive ways. Mason advocates and promotes others selflessly. I'm honored to have worked with him and I hope to have the opportunity to continue to watch his journey helping others along the way. I'll do one more. The list is quite long but I'll do one more. Here's one. Mason has an unusual combination of skills that make him incredibly successful at everything he does. He's technically talented, communicates well, and is an inspiring leader. He's easy to work with, gives great critical feedback, and is generally just a joy to be around. I've enjoyed watching his ideas come to life over the last couple of years. Now imagine being up for promotion and having directors or vice presidents. or the most senior principal engineers say these things about you in your promotion packet, how would that impact your ability to get promoted? Imagine having these people as references when you search for your next job. How would that impact your ability to ask for a 30% or 40% or 50% increase in your compensation? People I've mentored have used this framework to double and triple their compensation. Imagine being able to do that. Imagine having, imagine the impact that would have on your life. Imagine, you know, more experiences with loved ones, more space for a growing family, knowing your children. have their educational future taken care of, knowing your own future is taken care of. What would that be worth to you? And more importantly, what does the future look like if you're not able to crack this code? Is it more of what you're experiencing now? Is it day after day of wondering if there's a better way? Is it day after day of seeing opportunities pass you by? There's this notion called opportunity cost, and it's the lost opportunity due to poor choices or inaction. And if you think about this from an opportunity cost perspective, doing nothing is actually costing you $200,000 a year, $400,000 a year, a million dollars a year. That's millions of dollars over the course of your career that this is costing you all because of a few missing tools. So that's what left FM is trying to be. I'm trying to give you those tools. I will put them in your hands and you won't have to pay a penny in return. At least, at least not now. I'll say why I eventually want to sell. sell a book around this, right? I want to make a course or a book or something, but I've revised and refined this framework over the last 10 years or so, and I'm trying to now distill all the lessons down into a few cogent ones. And that's great, but I want to also be able to put people through the course, through the new thing, right? Before I try to sell it. And so that's what the podcast is about. It's distilling it down and getting it out there, putting in people's hands, hearing the feedback, making improvements, distilling it down further until it's something that I feel proud of selling. So here's the catch. I'm going to give it away for free in this podcast and you won't pay a thing. But what I will ask is three things. One, as a listener, you'll commit one hour per week to both listen to the podcast and find ways to implement lessons in your life. Second thing is I want you as a listener to provide feedback to me along the way. And the third thing is as you get into this, if you like what you're hearing, just leave a review. and then share it with a few people who you think will like it too. That's it. That's Lyft FM. I'm excited to be here. Let's get started.