Mike Duda

Mike is a Managing Partner at Bullish, one part strategic creative agency and one part early-stage consumer investment firm.

The Bullish portfolio spans the most impactful brands of the past decade, including Peloton, Warby Parker, Casper, Harry’s, and Birchbox.

On his morning routine.

I wish I could tell you that I have a regimented morning, but it changes daily.

Monday and Tuesday are completely different from the rest of the week. I’m up at 5 on Monday because I know it’s a grind day.

The earlier I get up, the more in control I feel.

I take most of my institutional meetings Monday morning, so it’s important that I get organized early. The rest of the week I’ll wake up a little later around 7.

I have a cup of coffee first thing, no sugar. Frankly, I just love drinking things, so most of my diet until 9 or 10 consists of coffee and Daily Harvest smoothies. 

After coffee, I proceed to consume a quagmire mix of newsletters that arrive in my inbox while I’m on my Peloton at 6 or 6.30. It’s not always a bike workout either. I try to mix in strength and stretching exercises through Peloton as well. 

If I don’t get those endorphins, I’m screwed for the rest of the day.

I can’t think well. I don’t sleep well. Nothing seems to go my way.

On the chip on his shoulder.

My dad was a lawyer in Onondaga County in Syracuse.

He never made more than $44,000 a year. 

He always wanted to be a teacher and was offered lots of scholarships, but he continued working for the county because it was the financially responsible choice. He would get a full pension after 25 years. That was his goal.

In late November 1996, he was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors found a 9.5 cm brain tumor. He had his surgery on July 4, 1997. 

It was successful and he went back to work but was terminated a year and a half away from his full pension. They deemed he couldn’t handle the stress.

I look at what he sacrificed for us, working all his life, only to have it all taken away from him in the end. He didn’t live the life he wanted to because he was always sacrificing himself for us. 

That’s the chip on my shoulder. That’s where my ambition comes from.

On chasing flow.

To me, flow state feels like a type of lucidity. 

Lucidity is the ability to think clearly. It helps me concentrate. 

I take medication for my ADD, so lucidity for me is unshackled creativity with a distinct lack of distraction.

If I look back to the earlier parts of the 90s when Red Bull was still a thing, I’d drink a few and stay up all night. Now, people know that’s not the path to clarity.

Most days, I can only find true flow in the morning.

Once 10 AM hits, I succumb to email. I’m at the mercy of my inbox or a stacked schedule, so I’m still learning how to stay focused on the task at hand.

I don’t have a brilliant system where I batch check emails or anything. I’m still quite inefficient on that front, unfortunately.

On finding a rhythm.

More than anything, I look for rhythm and balance. 

Lucidity for me is that rhythm, where I can block out key moments in time and where I’m doing some of my best thinking.

When the rhythms of my work and life mix, it comes down to priorities.

On his core priorities.

I love what I do and I know I’m good at it, but there are certain things people have to do to pay the bills.

Even when I got married to my wife, I didn’t know what love was until I had kids. It may sound odd, but when you’re responsible for bringing someone into this world, you fundamentally change. Everything I do now is for my kids. 

I made a decision a while back that I wouldn’t work for anyone else if their priorities would outweigh my family life.

While I’m by no means the poster child for the perfect family man, if I can’t drop my kids off to school then I’m just not going to be fully content. 

When I was seven, my dad took a day off from work to play mini-golf with me and grab a pizza. I still remember that when I was seven. I couldn't even tell you what I learned in grades one through five.

That’s how I grew up. And that’s how much family matters to me today.

When you have kids, you can reflect back on what your priorities are, and how they rank in terms of commitments.

Every day I’m just trying my best to align my priorities and rhythms.

On his evening routine.

I’m probably doing all the things you’re not supposed to do, including Netflix before bed.

If I’m having trouble sleeping, I’ll take melatonin or do a 10-minute meditation on my Peloton, which seems to help me get deeper sleep.

Unfortunately, I’m always double checking my phone right before bed. It’s the last thing I see before I turn the lights off, and the first thing in the morning. 

I love what I do, but being online is just the reality of my work-life balance.