Liz Swanson: “I have had to unlearn questioning myself and apologizing”
- Kimberly Aguilera
- Jun 12
- 6 min read
Liz Swanson is an independent brand and growth consultant. Liz is passionate about health and wellness. Right now, she’s leading partnerships and growth for Sleep Cycle, the world’s number one sleep tracking app. We’ve known each other since her days in advertising, and I love her optimism, global mindset, and dedication to doing truly meaningful work. In this installment of my interview series on purpose-driven leadership, Liz shares how her attitudes around teamwork and performance were shaped in her childhood; what she’s had to learn—and unlearn—as a female leader; and what it takes to succeed in the health and wellness space.
🗨 Hi Liz! I’d love to hear you describe who you are and what you do.
I started in marketing. I kind of grew into product. I've done gaming. I've managed studios. I've had a real emphasis on growth. Honestly, the best way to describe who I am, is as an eternal optimist. That is what's contributed to my success over the course of my career, to be quite honest with you. In terms of what I do, I would say I'm best described as a brand and growth consultant. I work individually. I have my own consultancy. I'm primarily working with a team based in Sweden right now, Sleep Cycle, focused on the health and wellness space, emerging technology, AI, and machine learning. I am leading partnerships and growth, and have an opportunity to have my hands in everything, which is really, really exciting as we work toward their next stage of growth.
🗨 What energizes and inspires you at work and outside of work?
It’s definitely the people that I'm surrounded by. I have a really incredible circle, both professionally and personally. So, constantly getting diverse perspectives from my network, and from my friends, and from my family. I'm also somebody who thrives off of space and flexibility. So being able to spend a lot of time outside, which is where I come up with some of my best ideas, or wandering around the city—London or New York. I’m inspired by my surroundings.
🗨 Oh, I agree. You're lucky that you get to be moving around all the time. We've talked about it a bit. I love your life. What pivotal experiences in your life or career have been influential in shaping your leadership style and values?
I grew up playing a lot of sports, and I grew up really involved in music. Those are two areas that have really shaped who I am as a person, and how I interact with my team, how I think about coaching, teamwork, and community. There’s obviously a really heavy aspect around performance, and there's a lot of competitiveness to it. There's also these really incredible bonds that are created through sport, music, or art. I started playing T-ball when I was five years old, and that really shaped me early on, and in the way I think about interaction and performance.
🗨 Okay, I'll keep my kids in sports then. Even though it messes up our weekends. I'm like 8 am?! What's something you've had to unlearn, or rethink as a leader?
This is a really good question. Especially being a female leader, we've probably had experiences that maybe our male counterparts haven't had to the same degree. I have definitely had to unlearn questioning myself and apologizing. It's crazy that we have this natural tendency to say “I'm sorry” out of the blue for no reason. I'm incredibly watchful and mindful around the things that I say. It's not always going to be right, but I also don't need to apologize for it. I've had really, really negative and sexist experiences with corporate leaders. It goes back to who you surround yourself by, and making sure you have the right support. On the flip side, I've had agency leaders who've been my biggest support system. So, I think that has definitely given me the confidence, and helped me navigate some of those more treacherous hurdles, if you will.
🗨 Good point about gender norms in leadership. That’s a whole topic in itself. How will your organization's talent and culture strategies need to evolve in the coming years?
Flexibility is the word that I keep coming back to. You know, whether it's flexibility for location, like remote versus in-person; whether it's flexibility for mothers or parents, or somebody like me, who lives a bicoastal lifestyle, giving people the freedom and space to do what they do best, on their terms, is what lends itself to the best work. I learned that more and more throughout my career, and as I've become more experienced. That's how I try to approach leadership: you find the best talent, and your job as a leader is to do what you can to clear out their way, so that they can do what they do best. And obviously be there, should they require any support. It really comes down to space and freedom. If you establish trust as the foundation within your team, then it's so much easier to be able to give flexibility. Establish what is the mission, or what is the goal you're all working toward, and then be realistic in that you're going to have different ways and different methods to get there. That should be more accepted than perhaps it has been in the past.
🗨 I think we talked about this before, but a lot of my clients are requiring at least one to three days in person, but we'll see how it goes. What advice would you give to individuals aspiring to work in the health and wellness industry?
It's a really, really fascinating category, and it's one that touches every aspect of our lives. Also the role that creativity and technology play in health and wellness is critically important. Longevity in life is not something that's ever going to go away. There are so many different ways to get involved personally and professionally. For me, the opportunity is to embody what we're selling—to practice the routines and mission that we're trying to sell, or impart on the public. So, try to embody that as much as you can, so that you experience it firsthand, and then you can bring those experiences in a much stronger way to whatever organization, or whatever product it is you're building. I don't know if that was a good answer.
🗨 It makes sense. Health and wellness impact our lives. Especially with Sleep Cycle, you have to believe in what it is, and what it does. If you’re selling potato chips you can sell them in lots of different ways, but do you want to be eating them all day? Probably not. If you're suggesting a health and wellness technology, you want to make sure that you understand what it can do, and what the opportunities are as well.
Exactly. I actually learned from a mentor really early on in my career that regardless of what the brand is, as long as what we're doing is intended to make a meaningful impact, or to create greater change, that should be your mission, right? I'm really grateful that I get to focus on a healthy and positive category and product. There are people who are selling consumer goods that they probably don't want to consume day in and day out. It comes back to, whatever their role in that contribution is, trying to make it as positive and as meaningful as possible, no matter what the product is.
🗨 Agree. Every step is a step in your journey, and you have to do some roles that maybe don’t exactly align with your beliefs, but you have to find balance. And that can be something in your outside world, for instance mentoring. Personally for me there has to be some aspect that I'm like, “Okay, this is making it all make sense.”
Exactly. I don't know if you've experienced this, but 20-some years later, I've kind of come back full-circle. Like my first job out of college was in nonprofit marketing. We were focused on promoting charitable causes and writing grants, so that we could create campaigns for the International Peace Council and Partnership for a Drug-Free America. And I loved that so much. But in my mind, I felt I needed to get corporate or for-profit experience, if I was going to be able to navigate business. Even though I'm working for a publicly listed company now, I can bring it full circle back around again. I feel really grateful to be able to be back in this space, where I'm contributing to something that's good and healthy.
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