Andrea Michalek

Andrea Michalek

@thatandream.com

🎯 I am a: serial entrepreneur, mom, leadership coach, community builder and diy-er. 🔥 passions: product management, women in tech, startups, AI, leadership 🚀 my path: developer → CTO → startup CEO → exit → VP PM → brain injury → consultant/coach

3K followers864 following1.1K posts

3 months ago, I started Full Moon Forum for women founders, executives & innovators. No pitching. No selling. Just real conversation. But relationships aren’t built in two hours. That’s why Full Moon Forum doesn’t end when the gathering does. fullmoonforum.org/membership

Your network gets bigger as your career grows. But the number of people you trust with an unfinished thought gets smaller. A network and a peer group aren’t the same thing. I wrote about why that matters. 👇

I’ve been rethinking what a “personal brand” is. Not a more polished version of your resume. A more complete picture of the person behind it. So I rebuilt ThatAndreaM.com around an idea that feels much more like me: Figuring it out in public.

I spent my career learning how to succeed as the outlier. This year I decided to build a different room instead. That's how Full Moon Forum started, a peer group for innovative women who are done adapting to the room. New post + upcoming gatherings: www.topularstrategy.com/blog/the-adv...

topularstrategy.comThe advice I stopped giving womenAfter a career spent learning how to succeed as one of the only women in the room, I started asking a different question: What if we built a different room?

For women founders, executives, and innovators: I’m hosting Full Moon Forum, a private gathering space for women leaders to connect openly and off the record. If you’d like an invitation to our next virtual gathering this Thurs, Aug. 27, request one at fullmoonforum.org.

fullmoonforum.orgFull Moon Forum | The Peer Group You’ve Been MissingAn invitation-only community for women founders, executives, and innovators to build the peer relationships that get harder to find as you become more senior.

Trying to find a lightweight CRM solution I came to the realization that AI product-bloat is real. This might be the REAL reasons SaaS products are dying. Product managers need to show some restraint in what features make it into their products, ESPECIALLY with AI.

Under Monday’s Strawberry Moon, a room of women founders, executives, and innovators talked about the things they can’t say anywhere else. That was the first Full Moon Forum. Next one: September 25 during the Harvest Moon.

I saw this quote today and it kept echoing in my head. Love the life you live. It doesn't have to be a fancy destination or an amazing view. Today, for me, it meant choosing to work from my patio. Birds chirping, little bit of traffic, laptop open. This is enough.

I'm speaking at Toronto Product Con on May 28. The session: three leadership traps that keep high output teams stuck and what it takes to break the pattern. Are you going? Let me know. I'd love to connect while I'm in town.

Up and to the right is a simplification of what success looks like, but it never plays out that cleanly in reality. I learned, very early on, that the path to your ultimate goal is often the "silly path." It has missteps, turnarounds, and in hindsight, was the harder way to go.

My book didn't start with an outline. It started with fear. A talk I over-prepared for. And one drawing I couldn't stop thinking about. When I ask other authors if I should write a book, they usually say, "Don't do it."

But someone gave me better advice: wait until you have a book burning inside you that you can't not write. I finally found mine. This week's newsletter is the origin story behind Beyond Incremental, and a question for anyone circling something that hasn't clicked yet.

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Your calendar is full. Your head is foggy. And the irony? Your impact is shrinking even as your responsibilities grow. Especially in December, when planning pressure hits max volume.

The fix isn’t “better time management.” It’s not blocking out more deep work. It’s shifting from being the keeper of clarity to building shared clarity your team can own.

Burnout isn’t just about working long hours. It’s about carrying all the mental load for your team. You’re not just leading. You’re translating. Explaining. Clarifying. Constantly.

That’s the Context Keeper Trap. You rose fast by bridging gaps and thinking strategically. Now your team leans on you to keep everything coherent. Every update runs through you. Every decision waits for you.

I'm rebuilding my technical leaders advantage course directly on my website, rather than hosting it separately. Every time I need to set up secret keys for authentication in APIs I feel like I am practicing dark magic. Is that just me? #buildinpublic

Go Beyond Incremental in 2026. Enrollment is now open for my course + live workshop designed for product and engineering leaders who want to break out of reactive mode and lead with clarity. Details below.👇

The Beyond Incremental framework helps leaders bring together: ✨ People: how you multiply impact ⚙️ Performance: how you turn clarity into results 🔥 Passion: why your work truly matters When these three align, the impossible starts to look inevitable.

Do you leave "co-authored by Claude" or your AI tool of choice in your commit messages in git? I'm not. It seems like it might invite IP issues that I don't need. Are others doing the same? #buildinpublic #vibecoding

Entrepreneurs are not afraid to hustle. There is nothing more fun than seeing a group of potential customers and figuring out how you can serve them. Does that make me an outlier or an adrenaline junkie?

The higher you rise, the less data you have to make a decision. Being willing to take calculated risks is key. Even if the details are fuzzy, knowing with precision, how you will evaluate a bet is what can help detail-oriented people find their path through uncertainty.

Anchoring any technological advance with the human side of leadership is the recipe for making change. Far too many companies have AI as a must-do priority without considering how it positively impacts their customer AND how to serve customers better. AI should not simply be a checkbox to get done

The worst career moves I've seen (and made) all follow the same pattern: Chasing the bigger title or salary while ignoring what it actually costs. Money looks like freedom. It often buys the opposite.

Inner Circle starts Oct 1. A small group of leaders will learn how to fuel grit and strategy with joy so their teams do not just deliver, they love the climb. Only a couple seats left. If you have been on the fence, this is your moment. DM me to join.