How The Uncommon Executive Was Born
From entrepreneur to product executive to leadership coach, here's the story behind The Uncommon Executive.
The Uncommon Executive is a weekly newsletter by Yue Zhao, a product executive with 20+ years of experience leading product & engineering teams across growth-stage startups and FAANG in Silicon Valley.
How It Started
There must be something else.
There must be something more.
This is not it.
This was the repeating talk track in my head as I talked with companies about VP Product and Chief Product Officer roles.
It was Sept 2023. The growth-stage startup where I was Chief Product and Technology Officer had just shut down. Thanks to my breadth of experiences (first PM of a growth-stage unicorn, PM lead at FAANG, entrepreneur, venture partner) and top-tier brands (Meta/Instagram, Sequoia Capital, McKinsey and Company, Harvard Business School), I was approached with some fantastic offers.
But my heart wasn’t in the job search. My gut was pulling elsewhere.
I felt like I had “hit my goal” on the product leadership career ladder. And the idea of taking another product role just didn’t have pull.
My North Star for my career had shifted. I no longer wanted or needed to optimize for brand name, title, compensation, or team size.
Instead, I wanted a career where I:
have a strong impact on others
found joy in the work
can sustain my share of the family finances
For the past 15+ years as I rose through the ranks to CPO, it was about optimizing for title and compensation and brand names and team size. It was liberating to dismiss that line of thinking.
Instead, I honed in on what I enjoy: creating new things, helping others, and learning. I considered what types of people had the most impact on my life: my partner, my kids, my managers, and my coaches.
The Uncommon Executive
I saw the intersection of joy and impact in coaching. I have been coaching nights and weekends since 2016, and cautiously, like anyone turning a passion project into a full-time job, began to expand my career coaching business from a few dozen to hundreds.
I also started writing.
What started as a Google document meant to help a few coaching clients became a self-published book in Jan 2024: The Uncommon Executive: Breakthrough to the C-suite as a Minority.
I started to get colleagues and friends asking me to be their leadership coach, be on their podcasts, or give workshops at their companies. Writing and coaching began to snowball together.
June 2024: 6 months later, I hit my financial number to commit to coaching full-time. I committed this new chapter of my career to help women and minorities break through to the C-suite.
Since then, I’ve developed a well-loved The Uncommon Executive Leadership Launchpad, an 8-week leadership accelerator for women and minorities, taught courses on Maven and Reforge, and built an audience of thousands here on Substack.
A Career Coach in Your Inbox
When I was on my journey to the C-suite, I desperately sought out role models and mentors who could show me a different way that was effective and authentic; who could encourage me to shift my mindset from scarcity to abundance; and who could give me the tools and tactics to build credibility and influence.
This newsletter is my way of helping you accelerate your career. Every Thursday at 3:14 pm, I post tactical lessons and how-to’s that help minorities and women advance in their careers.
It contains hard-won learnings on career growth, executive leadership, and combating bias. We cover topics such as team values, executive communication, strategy & execution, executive presence, maximizing relationships with managers, and overcoming people-pleasing tendencies.
For more of my work, check out:
My book: The Uncommon Executive: Breakthrough to the C-suite as a Minority
Group Coaching: Yue’s Leadership Launchpad
1:1 executive coaching: Book a Free Intro Session
Courses: Mastering executive Presence and Communication; Unleashing Your Leadership Superpower
For information on corporate team coaching and workshops, please contact me at yuezhao.coach@gmail.com
Subscriber Benefits
Weekly posts to accelerate your career
Access to all archives
Monthly office hours with Yue on top-of-mind career challenges
Invite to Yue’s Coaching Corner, a private community of aspiring executives.
1:1 executive coaching (Founding Members only)
Discounts to courses, events, and coaching programs
I hope you enjoy what I write, and I genuinely look forward to hearing what you think as well!
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” —Eleanor Roosevelt
Really appreciated the clarity and depth here. Especially the attention to how mental frameworks are formed over time—not just borrowed. The uncommon executive, as you frame it, isn’t just effective, but intentional. That distinction matters!