From irrelevant to key player
An origin story
Today: Andrés shares a transformation story
👋 Hey! Welcome to Astrolab’s weekly newsletter on how to become a better communicator at work.
Hello
You are here because you want to achieve big things, be successful, and become a key player.
You know that the way to do this is by being good at igniting collaboration with others. It’s impossible to do big things alone, honestly.
I want to share with you how I got better at this.
I went from being barely noticed in the first years of my career to
being invited as a panelist at Harvard and Wharton conferences,
became a communication speaker for teams at the Google, LinkedIn, and Colgate’s Manhattan offices, and
the winner of a public speaking event at the University of Pennsylvania.
I achieved this because I learned to bring clarity in every interaction with others, especially with busy people.
Here’s how it happened.
Before
You know how when you just woke up or when you’re really tired after a crushing day, your brain feels dazed and confused, unable to focus on anything?
That’s how I felt all throughout my first years at work after graduating from law school.
Fifteen years ago, I got my first real job working as a lawyer for a retail company in Monterrey Mexico.
I had to review all the contracts that were to be signed between the company and other parties, except real estate ones.
I started this role with a lot of energy and hope, eager to have an impact, but I soon discovered that I was interchangeable. Any other corporate lawyer could do my job.
Also, I was often asked not to stand out and basically just disappear into the background.
They were asking me this, I knew, because I wasn’t articulate when explaining ideas.
Because of this, I was irrelevant, and that made me very frustrated.
Yes, I was earning enough money to start paying my student loans, but I wasn’t getting anything else from my job.
I got to the point where I accepted this fate. My role was transactional, and that’s how my career would be from then on.
Then
But one Sunday, I woke up early and went for a walk.
I thought You know what, fuck it. No way. I cannot have an irrelevant life. What would I tell my future hypothetical kids when they asked about why I accepted that fate (in case I had kids, and they asked that question, lol)?
In my desperation, I started reaching out to friends to see if someone was in a similar situation
It turns out, many did—two in particular: Óscar and Gerardo, two old friends who were struggling in similar yet different ways.
The three of us started thinking about how to help people like us thrive: young professionals with talent but no real impact in the business world. Also, no fancy last name, decent inheritance, or C-Suite level buddies at Fortune 500 companies.
The key, we discovered, had to do with becoming better communicators.
We started Astrolab with the quest to help many people achieve this, but we had to improve ourselves, first.
Each of us three started similar yet different paths. I can talk about mine.
My Sacrifice (play Creed’s song… joking!)
I started reading everything I could about how to add more value in meetings, presentations, and conversations.
I learned that if you want to grow, you need to understand what others—especially decision-makers, leaders, or clients—value.
And the answer I found was: Busy people to process a lot of information quickly so they can make fast and good decisions. This requires you as a knowledge worker to bring clarity to every interaction with them.
That was it! If I could do this consistently, I could start to be taken more seriously.
Here are the three things I got obsessed with in order to be able to bring that clarity:
How to quickly find what mattered to my audience,
How to boil down my thoughts into a few ideas, words, and slides, and
How to be deliver with confidence
For the past decade, that's what I've been trying to master.
As me and business partners improved our abilities, we started getting taken more seriously.
I was invited to do a couple of TEDxTalks.
We got invited to teach our programs every year at IPADE, the best business school in LATAM.
We started to get booked to work with C-suite members of billion-dollar companies such as CEMEX, Sigma (Bar-S), C&A, Alpura and Citibanamex.
Today
Fast forward, I’m in charge of expanding Astrolab into the US market. I moved with my family to Philadelphia in 2022 to study a masters in behavioral science at the University of Pennsylvania, and after graduation, decided to stay here and turn Astrolab into an international company.
Especially in the past two years, great things are starting to happen, fast.
I was named a LinkedIn Top Voice for my contributions to clarity and storytelling on that platform
I got invited as a panelist at Wharton and Harvard conferences to talk about these topics
I facilitated our storytelling workshop for my classmates at UPenn, and
Got hired to run our communication and storytelling workshops for teams at the NYC Google, Colgate, and LinkedIn offices
But the moment when I realized how far I had come was a specific event last May. It was something very small, but huge for me.
I was at a party, just a couple of days away from graduating from Penn. My classmates were hosting a superlatives event, a macanazos for the Spanish-speaking audience.
After a number of prizes—”the most likely to win a Nobel Prize”, “the most likely to become a professor”, “the most likely to have a big social impact—they announced another one:
The Most Likely to Become a Commencement Speaker award.
And I was surprised when I heard my name.
That was when it dawned on me that I had gone from being a confused and demoralized professional to someone who is relevant, heard, and respected.
I had become a key player in my community and in my industry.
Back to you
Can you relate to my story?
I think you do. You want to do big things, to leave a mark in this world, to put your talents in the service of others.
You want to have success, and you know that the way to do this is by igniting collaboration with others.
Last week, Óscar told you about a new workshop that helps you get on the correct path to achieve this.
We’re calling it Let’s be Clear, and we’re having the first ever public version of this workshop in March.
Let’s be Clear will help you become better at these three things:
How to quickly find what mattered to my audience,
How to boil down my thoughts into a few ideas, words, and slides, and
How to be deliver with confidence
So, make the decision.
Do you want to become a key player, or do you want to stay in the shadows?
Do you want to be relevant, or stay invisible?
Do you want to become taken seriously, or are you ok being ignored?
The decision is in your hands.
Register today to Let’s be Clear and start this path. Our first one hundred spots are about to be filled. After that, there’s going to be a price increase, so act quick.
Briefs
Astrolab 2025 brochure 🗂️: If you need to help the top talent in your organization become better at driving business outcomes through communication, collaboration and influence, consider hiring one (or both!) of our workshops. Get to know them in English or in Spanish
Astrolab <> SpeakHers 🏦: Andrés got invited to facilitate a session for the SpeakHers Mastermind on how to use storytelling. Cool experience!
