Guy Segal [00.00.05]
Welcome to "Design Downtime" – the podcast where we celebrate the joys of living a balanced creative life. I'm your host, Guy Segal, a design director in Toronto, Canada, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we redefine what it means to be a successful design professional. Let's break free from the shackles of hustle culture and embrace the full spectrum of human experience – because life is too precious to be spent only in pursuit of productivity. Today, I'm thrilled to talk to Sera Tajima. Sera is a product designer turned climate investor and advisor, bringing Silicon Valley growth expertise to founders solving our planet's biggest challenges. She's spent a decade driving growth at Y Combinator, Zendesk, and Webflow—achieving results like 200% acquisition increases. Through Conscious Tech Ventures, she guides climate startups scaling breakthrough solutions. Sera also has a course on sustainable growth. UC Berkeley-educated, Sera has spoken at Ikea, Uber, universities, and tech conferences worldwide, helping founders leverage product-market fit and product-led growth strategies. Her mission: Accelerate conscious tech that makes today's broken systems obsolete. We can't solve climate problems with the same thinking that created them. Sera, welcome to the show. 

Sera Tajima [00.01.26]
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm glad we were able to to finally make time. I know we've been talking about it for a few months. 

Guy Segal [00.01.33]
Yeah, it's been a long time in the making. 

Sera Tajima [00.01.36]
Yeah. 

Guy Segal [00.01.37]
But we're finally here. 

Sera Tajima [00.01.38] 
Yes, yes. And I'm so excited to be here. I listened to a few different episodes, especially gravitating towards the ones, of course, for the things that I do. Right. So I know you had one on dance, and I was like, I'm gonna start with that one. There was one on tea, which I got really excited about because I didn't really expect someone to come on and talk about tea. So I love the concept of the podcast. 

Guy Segal [00.01.59]
I love the topic that you wanted to talk about today, which is movement. 

Sera Tajima [00.02.03]
Yes. Yeah. I really wanted to talk a little bit about just my journey through. You know, I grew up at someone that was very athletic, and that's probably because my parents were athletic. So my dad did all the sports growing up and then was a bodybuilder. And for his career he was a firefighter. And so all very physical things. And my mom also did a lot of tennis growing up. And, you know, growing up, I did a bunch of sports. I mean, as a kid, my dad set up a trash can in our backyard so that I could hit the baseball, like, hit the ball into the trash can. I was like a little three year old or four year old kid. But then I did, you know, soccer and then and I did a track and field, so I did. I was a sprinter, uh, did long jump and then lots of just kind of short sprints. I did cross country, I did hurdles, and I grew up doing a lot of ballet. So different kinds of dance. 

Guy Segal [00.02.56]
Sports was something that was part of your life from, from the beginning? 

Sera Tajima [00.03.01]
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think the reason that I chose this topic is because I'm still doing a bunch of things, and maybe I'm always one of those people who is a little bit hard to pin down, because right now I do ballet still as an adult, which I get a lot of comments about. And then I'm also doing martial arts, which I did as a kid. I did kung fu, and so now I'm doing Wing Chun and I also started Muay Thai because try something new, you know, and so I'm doing a bunch of different things. But I think the core theme there is really movement. And I went through I got Covid three years ago. I can't remember if we spoke about this. 

Guy Segal [00.03.40]
I don't think we did.

Sera Tajima [00.03.41]
Okay. Well, yeah. Then it'll it'll be new, but I got Covid. And I was fine. But then I got Covid again during a period where I was under a lot of stress and my nervous system had essentially crashed, and then it turned into long Covid. And so now I'm in my third year of recovery, and that has been a massive health journey for me, where I come back to movement as something that's, again, still very important, but in a very different relationship to my body. 

Guy Segal [00.04.08]
I'm really curious to explore those different, different ways where movement comes into play for you. Where do you want to start? Do you want to start with ballet?

Sera Tajima [00.04.17]
Yeah, good question. We can definitely start with ballet. I think like at the most kind of quantum level, we're all moving all the time, right? Because we're vibrating, we're atoms, so we're constantly moving. But the thing that tends to happen as an adult is that somehow, you know, maybe this is cultural or we learn it from other adults around us. You get into a place where you stop moving or you move less. Let's say you're working eight hours a day or more and then, you know, you maybe have time for 30 minutes or you're even too tired to move your body and work out or go for a walk. So I think there's something there that I would love to explore, but we can definitely start with ballet.

Guy Segal [00.04.58]
Let's start with ballet, because I want to get to as much as we can for everything else. 

Sera Tajima [00.05.03]
I'll talk fast. Okay. So ballet. 

Guy Segal [00.05.09]
So when did you start with ballet? Because you were you were talking about, you know, your through your your relationship with your father and and growing up you were doing all these. I would say, you know, track and field and things you do in school. Right. That are kind of like part of it's easy to get to because it's offered to you on a daily basis. When did you get into ballet? 

Sera Tajima [00.05.32]
So ballet was funny because in the ballet industry you would say that I started late. And so I actually I did a bunch of things that I didn't mention. I did gymnastics first, actually. Um, and I've also done swimming, but gymnastics kind of naturally led into being decent at ballet. And so when I started, uh, it was really because I had exposure to some other kids that also danced ballet around me. I think that exposure can be quite unusual, especially, you know, where I'm growing up. Not a lot of people become a professional ballerina or anything. And so but we have a good dance school. And so I started doing that and then also got into like jazz and other forms of dance. But it was really ballet that I think I had done as a four year old, initially in a different state, and I was so shy as a kid that I sat there and cried the entire class, uh, because I didn't like the attention on me. And so I think coming back to it a little bit older, you know, as a middle schooler was more about it was more about the movement. And so it was more about doing points. And, you know, I got into point quite quickly because people at that age were dancing point already. And so that was, yeah, something really interesting that started a new relationship with pain. Right. Because I think people look at ballet and they're like, oh, so graceful and so beautiful. But let me tell you, behind the scenes we are bleeding. We are waking up as children in the middle of the night with our calves cramping. Um, so there's so much work physically that you're doing to be able to look that effortless and that that graceful. But I loved it and I, I personally and I don't know if other people are like this, but I love pain that comes from working out. It's just it's it's a good type of pain. You know, you're like this. This represents kind of the physical effort that I've put in. And so there's a physical manifestation of that. 

Guy Segal [00.07.31]
Yeah. It's a good kind of friction. Right? It's the it's a good kind of stress on your system that tells you you're growing. 

Sera Tajima [00.07.38]
Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, maybe having your toes bleeding is a little bit different, but yeah, I don't know everything about ballet. I think I just really gravitated to and and loved and, you know, ballet can be a little bit more along the lines of what we're talking about, sort of like a meditation, because you're really syncing every aspect of your body to your mind, because you need to have absolute control over everything, right from, like the top of your head, you know, lengthening your neck, putting your shoulders back and down to your toe. Like everything needs to be controlled and in exactly like the right precise location and movements at the right time. And there's a lot of physics also involved with ballet when you're turning and how you're leveraging your body and all of that. So yeah, it was something that I really, really enjoyed and also that connected me very deeply to my body. 

Guy Segal [00.08.37]
You said you I think you said you came back to ballet in recent years. What was that pause in between? 

Sera Tajima [00.08.45]
Well, I danced ballet pretty consistently, actually. I think in high school I actually stopped because it just became so expensive. I always danced ballet on a scholarship, but ballet is unfortunately one of those things that is quite costly, especially when you think about not only the classes, but all of the equipment, and having to buy pointe shoes constantly because you're breaking them down and wearing them out. In high school, I did more school sports, so that was when I was focused on cross-country, soccer, track and field. But once I went to college, I went back to ballet. And so I've been dancing ballet ever since. It was more so martial arts, where I took a really long pause. Yeah. So I did kung fu also as a kid, and because I had done ballet, I was quite natural. At Kung Fu, they say that it's easier to teach a dancer how to do martial arts than it is, you know, the opposite way around. And, um, yeah, there's just a lot of dexterity I think, that dancers have that is very hard to develop at a later age. 

Guy Segal [00.09.47]
Is it also an aspect of ballet as, as you said, about technique and about control of your body that translates naturally to martial arts? 

Sera Tajima [00.09.57]
It does. Yeah. Because I think you have when you're a dancer, especially for ballet, there's a level of precision in the control that you have over your body. And so it was funny just last week, um, Monday I go to Wing Chun. And so I was at Wing Chun and some of the other people there were commenting about how beautiful my kicks are because I, I, I don't intend to, but my toe gets pointed as I kick. And so there's just things happening naturally. Right. Um, and I think as a dancer, maybe you you articulate more. So, yeah, that precision really lends itself very well. And I maybe this is also something interesting to talk about, but I went to a Shaolin boot camp in Germany, in Otterburn. Um, Qiang Yi is quite well known. I think he did a few Ted talks. So he's the one that leads that. And, um, I think one of the Shaolin monks teaching immediately came up to me and was like, are you a dancer? Because there's you can just tell, I guess, like there's just something in the quality of movement, I guess. 

Guy Segal [00.11.00]
Interesting. Yes. Those are all forms of movement. Belly in kung fu and Wing Chun, but I'm assuming there's different types of movement in each one. Each one centers on a different way of moving your body. Tell me more about that.

Sera Tajima [00.11.12]
Yeah, that's a very interesting question. In ballet, I think it's a lot more about fluidity and grace. There's, you know, an insane level of strength that you need to have in order to to do certain moves, of course, and make it look so effortless. Um, martial arts is different in a in a way. It gives me things that I don't get in ballet. Right? Like, maybe there's a level of, like, I don't know if it's aggression or there's something about fighting that I think is just so natural as humans and primal, and it doesn't need to be about me wanting to hurt the other person, but it's more about just the play aspect of martial arts. When you're sparring with someone that I really enjoy and it's almost like, you know, of course you want it to be instinctual when you start, um, reacting to someone attacking you, for example. But there is a level of like strategy that is involved in martial arts and a level of. I mean, in dance you can do sort of like impromptu dancing, you know? There's different classes for that. But in ballet it's mostly choreographed, so you don't have freedom of movement, whereas in martial arts it is often when you're sparring completely, you know, it's it's whatever you're gonna do and you decide in a split second that is very different. Of course, when you're dancing ballet, there is strength used, but it's very controlled. Whereas I think in martial arts, hopefully if you're attacking someone that is, you know, trying to hurt you, you're gonna use all of your might and you're trying to attack vital organs like in the center of the body. And you know all of that. And you're also defending, right? You're constantly keeping some part of you in front of a central organ, like your chest, your heart, whatnot. So, yeah, they're they're just very different in that sense. And. Yeah. Does that make sense? 

Guy Segal [00.13.01]
It does. And I'm also curious to know about the the effects that these different types of movement have on you personally. So when you go to when you have a ballet class versus having a kung fu class, do you leave those two classes in a different state? 

Sera Tajima [00.13.16]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, what's so funny is I think people would imagine you leave martial arts class wrecked. But I actually leave ballet just completely exhausted. And so ballet for me is a lot more physically intensive. And going through my health journey, I wasn't able over the last two years to do any really intense workouts. I'm I still have a weak heart and lung and I have breathing issues. And so with martial arts, that was something that I just returned to this year, actually, because I felt like maybe a little bit before the summer, I felt like, I think I can handle a bit more strength training now getting back into that. And it does also come with a lot of cardio, of course, like when you're doing bag work, your heart rate really gets up. So maybe twice now I've almost passed out and yeah, not good. Um, when I first got Covid, I had really intense POTS, um, symptoms and ME/CFS, like, you know, there’s chronic fatigue. And if I just stood up, I might pass out, and everything was really dysregulated. My vagus nerve. So this has been interesting, this recovery journey, because as much as it's been really frustrating as someone who's been athletic my whole life and really leans on that to feel good the first year especially, I couldn't work out at all. And it was a really bizarre to, like, exist where I couldn't work out at all. I could barely walk. I would fall down trying to walk. And yeah, just really not in a good state health wise. That has taught me how to really listen to my body and also get in the movement that I can because I, I hope that, you know, if someone's listening to this and they have some sort of chronic illness that they're dealing with or immune disorder or what have you, that it's not about, you know, being you want to be the fittest version of yourself in a way that works with your body. So it's not about I need to, you know, I don't know, have a six pack and run ten miles every day. It's not about that. It's really just about listening to your body and meeting your body where it's at. 

Guy Segal [00.15.28]
How do you find that balance of pushing yourself just enough, but knowing when that line is? 

Sera Tajima [00.15.36]
Yeah, I think if you haven't had a relationship with your body, which I think so. Unfortunately, a lot of us don't write because you get into this corporate world and then you start to prioritize work over taking care of your physical health. And it's only when you hit that crisis moment where you're like, I've lost my health now it's the most important thing in the world. So it's if you haven't already established that relationship with your body, really actually waking up in the morning and thinking, how do I feel today? What does my body need? What can I do for it? You know, it sounds so small, but it's also the way that you talk to yourself, the way you think, and the way you talk about your body. Because your body hears everything that you're saying, right? So if you wake up and you're like, God, I look awful today, or, you know, I feel so lazy or that like, that is reinforcing a pattern in your brain that your body is going to listen to and adopt and, you know, likewise, we're meant to move so much more. And that's really the takeaway that I had from the Shaolin camp in Germany. We're meant to move every day so much we we worked out from like 5 a.m. to like 7 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and you would think that that would burn you out, but your body adapts to it really quickly. And we were outdoors like the whole day. And I just had this thought like, wow, humans need to move way more and also be outdoors way more because the I guess, level of health that you feel is completely different. So those are really small things like listen to your body, think about the way that you talk to your body or about yourself. Get outside. You know, first thing in the morning, go get some sunlight. Go on a walk. You don't have to start immediately. For example, by doing, I don't know, an hour of cardio a day, but it's really about the small things. So I'd say it's more just building routines and systems into your life where you, you do listen to your body and you're like, okay, I feel good today, which means I'm going to work out in whatever way I enjoy and not sitting for so long, I think people. You know, at least Western medicine really gets into this trap of dealing with the problem after it has occurred. Instead of living a lifestyle in a way that sets you up for success. And so, you know, we're talking about, well, we're not talking about success in terms of our design career. Right. But I think the whole point of, you know, being alive and thinking about success is really because you want to achieve your pure potential. Right. And part of that, like you are only as great as your body is. And that's not to say if you're a handicapped or something or you have a chronic illness, you can't be great. It's really more. Are you listening to your body and enabling it, or are you kind of repressing what your body needs and saying, I'm stressed, but we're going to keep going. You know, we're gonna push through, we're gonna work ten hour days. That's just not sustainable. 

Guy Segal [00.18.29]
We talked about, you know, you're taking ballet classes and Wing Chun and kung fu. What is your movement outside of those specific areas? What what is your daily movement ritual?

Sera Tajima [00.18.43]
Yeah. Good question. It differs so much. And you know, like I said, the health journey really influenced things. So I was I think I still am a type A person, but you know, I when I got sick, I really wanted to get back to dancing as soon as possible. And that's always how I feel, like if I get sick, I'm like, oh, but maybe I'll just go to class and it'll be fine, you know? But really, when you're when you need rest, you need rest. So for me, it was a very slow process of trying to work out relapsing, like learning my lesson. Okay, I need to actually rest. And then I've kind of built it up very slowly over time. And now, like through that process, I think I've just realized the value of walking, actually just taking multiple walks throughout the day. And I have a dog, so that works out nicely, right? I'm walking at least three times a day. Um, but it's things like that, you know, and whether I'm in Amsterdam and I just go for a walk in the neighborhood or in the park, or I'm in Hawaii and I go to the beach with my dog and get a walk in. It's things like that that just are like the scaffolding, almost for a great day. Yeah, I think it's small things, stretching, obviously really important, taking care of your spine. I meditate a lot. I meditate for like an hour a day, which I think is quite unusual, but that was essential in my recovery process and also just building a better relationship, because I think when you meditate, people might assume that the work happens during the meditation, but it's actually the way that that changes your entire life. You know, when you're awake, when you're sleeping, just everything. Yeah. So it's it's really building that relationship and understanding that your body is an essential part of. Yeah, I don't even want to say a successful life, but, like, really embodying your full self. 

Guy Segal [00.20.30]
So that's interesting. Tell me how you know, meditation, which is a very still practice. Tell me how that helps you move better. 

Sera Tajima [00.20.39]
Well, what's really funny is meditation looks still right. But I think for that person, meditating, no matter what stage you're at, you're not still because, you know, it's it's sort of like Einstein's E equals MC squared, right? Like it's matter, but it's it's all energy. And even the matter is vibrating if you look at it like sort of at the most fundamental atom level, you're moving. So you might be very new to meditation, but you're constantly having all these thoughts. Right. So there's still some sort of movement happening where you learn to disconnect and be the observer of your thoughts. But once you get deeper into meditation, there's also still movement happening. Yeah. How how to describe that? I mean, I think for someone that hasn't experienced it's it's very difficult to understand. But when I'm meditating, there are times when I'm not. It's not just like you're seeing, you know, black when you close your eyes, but you're actually seeing visualizations. And yeah, there's still movement there. 

Guy Segal [00.21.46]
You mentioned earlier that, you know, the first time you were taking ballet classes at age four, you didn't like the attention you cried. Yeah. I'm assuming you got better with having the attention on you, whether it's through ballet or kung fu or Wing Chun or Shaolin Temple. Tell me about that. 

Sera Tajima [00.22.03]
Yeah. Oh, that's a it's it's a it's a long journey. I think with that one, I was so painfully shy as a child. Really like, I would hide behind my parents if someone tried to come up and say hi or talk to me, or I was like, oh, she's so cute. And I would just get really embarrassed. And I think that stayed with me in a more manageable way as I like kind of went through high school and stuff. But, you know, it was still there. And I think a lot of that was like the amount of pressure maybe, maybe not so much as a child consciously. Although there are things I think we do inherit from our family, but especially once I got older, it was like the amount of pressure to perform. And to do well. And you know, I was already a type A person, but that was very kind of present in my in my upbringing and then in my childhood. So I remember I got a B one day, I think I was in elementary school, not an A right. And I went to my dad's car, opened the door, and I was so ashamed that I started crying. And I was like, I gotta be, you know, life is over. And so it was. It was really that it's so silly to think about now. And I feel bad for my, you know, child self, but I'm like, oh my God, girl, who cares? You know. But yeah, really, that was the attitude I had. And I had such pressure on myself to perform for self-worth, which is the concept of maybe what Americans learn it culturally. So it was really disconnecting that and learning that my self-worth has nothing to do with performance, like acts, you know, you know, for example, doing something for someone else. It has nothing to do with what I think. A lot of people place a lot of pressure in the US on university, what university you went to? Um, but it was really just about learning to actually love yourself, and that sounds so simple. But I think unfortunately, there are so many people in society that have learned, you know, just from generations and from the people around them. To disconnect from yourself and your body, and to not love yourself and to perform for others and kind of do what society is doing. Yeah. Fit in essentially. Um, so for, for me, that journey, which is quite, quite a well, it's a lifelong journey. Right. But then it's also something that I really started over the past few years, is learning how to really care for yourself, right, and reconnect to your body, because I think so much of society is disconnecting you from your body, telling you you're a mind. Your body is just there to hold your mind. And especially in the profession that we're in. There's a lot of focus on, you know, how intelligent you are and how how long do you work. Um, what kind of impact do you have for your organization? But at the end of the day, if you don't have a connection with yourself, none of that matters. 

Guy Segal [00.25.02]
Is that a reason that you sort of gravitated as you grew older towards areas of movement where it's essentially you challenging yourself instead of you comparing your abilities with others. 

Sera Tajima [00.25.15]
That's an interesting one, because I don't know if this is the perspective you mean it from, but ballet is essentially not viewed as like a team sport. There is in dance a lot of coordination and choreography with other dancers, of course. But yeah, for, you know, I'm not performing right now or anymore. So the day to day is really just showing up for yourself. And I think even as a kid you learn that, right? Like your number one competitor is yourself. You can of course, look at the other girls as a kid and be influenced or feel not good enough for what have you. But there is a level in ballet of the actual thing that I am working with is my own body. And the interesting thing about ballet is that you show up every day and you do the same movements from when I was a kid until now. Right. We're starting with plié at the bar. Uh, we're ending with these really high kicks, you know. So it's it's really incremental gains, which is interesting. It's like today you know was I able to do one more turn. Was I able to, you know, get my body in alignment, in the right position, that type of thing. You're really looking at yourself in such a granular way. It also, I guess there's not a lot of ego involved in that, right? Like it's more about assessing what do I need to do today and can I do that? And it's not really about like, yeah, necessarily looking the best. I want to say that's my experience because I do know some of my friends who are dancers that I talk to. There's a lot of toxicity in the there can be toxicity in certain dance companies when they do it professionally. But yeah, for me it's it's really incremental gains, looking at yourself in a granular way and knowing that it's sort of like the idea that you'll never get to zero. It's just constantly fractions, like you're aiming for perfection, but you also understand that perfection doesn't exist. And so it's more about what do I do today? Now, in this moment, uh, how is my body today? And not like you never have sort of a consistent level of where your body is at, right? It's constantly different. You might have come back from two weeks of vacation. You might be tight in your hip today. You might, you know, have a kink in your neck. You might not be landing well, you might be bad at pirouettes today. So there's all of these things that are going on. And that really forces you to assess at a granular level, how am I physically doing?

Guy Segal [00.27.39]
When we were talking before the show, you said you wanted to convey a message to the people listening about the importance of of movement. What is the thing? Do you want people to take away from this conversation? 

Sera Tajima [00.27.51]
Yeah, I think the primary, I guess, learning for me over the past few years, which especially I think was highlighted at the Shaolin Temple training, is that we need to move our body way more. I had already thought of myself as a relatively active person, and I do think when I talk to people, they're always kind of surprised that I still dance ballet as an adult. And I think. Why do we need to lose the magic of the things that we enjoy? You know, if you were a kid and you absolutely loved soccer or football or swimming, why would you stop that? Just because you started a job? You know, it's really kind of placing the importance of your life or like giving away your power in a sense right to your employer. Instead of thinking, what am I doing in my life that's going to fulfill me? And yeah, again, going back to the it's not about being successful, but it's about being the best version of yourself, right? And being the fullest version of yourself instead of conforming to I have a 9 to 5, so probably I, you know, don't have time to exercise anymore or I'll exercise for 30 minutes every week. And it's also not about going to extremes and completely trying to optimize your body, which is also, I think, a trap that we can fall into, especially in the sort of Silicon Valley culture. So it's really not treating your body like a machine that you're optimizing, but rather really understanding at a very deep level. What like having a relationship with your body and thinking about what your body needs. So simple movement, right? Like just making sure you're getting up from your desk, walking in the morning, getting sunlight, taking a break, not just being, um. Yeah, in the same seat for eight hours a day. Like, that's absolutely not healthy for you. And I think we overlook that connection with how that affects you over the long term with your physical health. 

Guy Segal [00.29.36]
Do you have any tips for people listening who, again, have not built that muscle of movement and respecting their body below the neck? What are some tips you have that for people to build that ritual or that habit of movement?

Sera Tajima [00.29.50]
Right. Well, I think this it's so personal, right? Because everyone's so different. Their journey with their body is so different. Their health might be so different, as I have dealt with over the past few years. Right? And so I would say the first thing is actually like, sit down and be still. And that could be meditating, right? It could also just be like literally having a conversation with your body when you wake up in the morning and thinking, what do I need today? Uh, because I think so many of us in society are actually deeply burnt out, and we're forcing ourselves to keep going and trying to, you know, fuel that with coffee or what have you, when you know the body is burnt out, the nervous system is burnt out, and from there you're just really not going to accomplish much. And so it's kind of taking stock. I would say first, where am I? How do I actually feel? If I kept doing what I'm doing now for the next 50 years, how would I feel? Where would I be? You know, it's simple things, really, I think. Taking a look also at how you feel, your body, of course, and maybe the sort of contrarian advice there would be. Some of us actually just need to rest and to sleep a lot. And that's, that is actually part of rebuilding the relationship with your body. Um, certainly. That's what I did, like the first year or two, even when I had when I was recovering from long Covid. It was a lot of rest and barely any working. The first year I couldn't work at all. And so, you know, whatever the situation is, I have a lot of friends that have immune like immune problems or, yeah, different health issues. So you kind of have to meet yourself with where you're at, right? Like if you know that gluten causes inflammation and you have a thyroid issue or what have you, and you shouldn't eat that, then don't. Right. So it's it's it is taking stock of what's going on with me, where am I and what would be the best for me today. And maybe that's also really helpful when you have a chronic illness, because I, especially in the beginning, got caught in this trap of like, what is it going to be like in one year? Or is this my life now? Is this what my life is going to be like? I just can't move at all. I'm just going to be really ill. Just take it day by day. Just think about where am I right now? And I think that's the largest takeaway, not only from ballet, but also from kung fu. It's like the only moment that matters when you're getting punched in the face is right now. And how you're going to react to that. Right. And blocking it. And then even, like using the opponent's force against them is kind of the unique thing about Wing Chun. It's not just about blocking. It's like they're we have gravity and they have momentum and they're larger than me. How am I going to direct that force in a way that is beneficial to me? Uh, winning. And so, yeah, it's a I think there's things we can take right from the different movements that we do at are actually quite philosophical. 

Guy Segal [00.32.41]
That's awesome. Sera, where can people find you? 

Sera Tajima [00.32.45]
Yeah. So I think the main two channels that people can find me on is LinkedIn and TikTok. I talk a lot about, um, deep tech and my sort of venture capital journey. And the other place that they can find my newsletter is Conscious Tech dot Co. 

Guy Segal [00.33.02]
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Sera Tajima [00.33.04]
Yeah, thank you for having me. 

Guy Segal [00.33.08]
This is all for this episode of Design Downtime. Thank you for joining me. And until next time, I hope you enjoy your downtime.