Design origins: Javier Garcia Sanchez and Victoria Stanell on doing your Inner Work®
Hi from BetterUp design! In our first post, we introduced you to our team by way of their most life-changing books. In the next few posts, we’ll dive a little deeper into each designer’s origin story.
An important ritual at BetterUp is the act of doing Inner Work® — self-reflection that brings about greater self-awareness. It’s the process of exploring who you really are, including your values, inner obstacles and monologues, emotions, and the stories you tell about yourself. BetterUp employees get quarterly Inner Work® days to hit pause on the day-to-day grind and go inward. You might call it a “mental health day” at your company. For us, it’s a practice that looks different for every person. We asked Javier García Sánchez, Design Manager, and Victoria Stanell, Content Design Lead, to share their origins and how Inner Work impacts them in work and life.
What’s your origin story?
Victoria: I’m the daughter of Eastern European immigrants and Holocaust survivors who came to the States in the ’70s in search of a better life. I was born on the east coast, but my family moved to San Francisco when I was 3, so it’s home. As a first-generation American, my story is an immigrant story, but I’m very much a product of Bay Area culture — the Internet and tech startups, wellness, personal development, art and progressive ideas feel very natural to me. I’ve worked at BetterUp since November 2021.
Javier: I grew up in Salamanca, Spain, and after living in Gothenburg and London, I’ve called New York home for the last decade. I’m a curious, creative being. I grew up in a medieval city full of stories inscribed on golden stones, and within a family of inventive carpenters who would find solutions for our everyday problems. The Internet opened the door to further discovery, and set me on a path to help me understand the world around me. I joined BetterUp in May 2019, at a time where the world and the company looked very different from today.
Working here allows me to continuously learn new things (whether it’s using our learning stipend to learn the art Japanese calligraphy or diving into the science of motivational interviewing with expert luminaries) and experiencing life in new environments given our remote-first environment (so far I’ve worked from Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, and Paris).
What does Inner Work® mean to you?
Javier: Allowing myself to tune in. To cancel out external stimuli and let things rise within. That means sometimes I might need to look back and analyze some of my actions, or look forward and sketch the future, or stay present and do something light and fun. Our Inner Work® days at BetterUp are the perfect environment for this kind of exercise, given everyone else in the company takes them. Email stops. Slack stops. Meetings stop. But that doesn’t mean that Inner Work® is limited to those days — it can happen on any given day.
Victoria: Inner Work® is the metaphorical slapping of my face saying “Wake up! You have a very short life in this cosmic timeline! Who are you underneath all the conditioning and stories created about you, and what are your values and intentions for your life?” And the biggest paradox is that for me to do real Inner Work®, I have to accept myself as I fully am right now to transform. I’m not changing or turning into something else, I’m (re)turning to more of my true self. Inner Work® feels like excavation to me — it’s chipping away at everything my family and society has layered onto me and taking ownership of my story. It’s hard and quite uncomfortable at times, but I know it’s the only way to grow. I’m grateful that BetterUp gives us the space and freedom to do this work.
You’re probably not doing Inner Work® all the time. How do you have fun?
Victoria: Honestly, Inner Work® is fun for me and doesn’t feel like a job, but I geek out on personal development (or maybe I’m a masochist). I love anything that lets me express myself artistically. Cooking, baking, theatrical makeup design, skincare, painting, I’m currently exploring stained glass. I love dancing and the house and techno music scene, so I go out a lot. I love food — restaurants galore. During the pandemic, I discovered kettlebells and functional training, and have connected to movement and strength in such an empowering way. I love nature, traveling to new places, and taking in new sights and experiences. In a nutshell, I’m curious about the world and get antsy when I sit still for too long.
Javier: Movement is really important for me. Aikido has been my primary practice for the last few years, and I love bringing my uniform with me and visiting local dojos when I travel to connect with others. I also like to bring additional activities into the mix (yoga, pilates, running…) which is a great way of practicing new skills. Most recently, I’ve been enjoying bouldering. I also need art in my life. It could mean drawing the human figure in a studio, painting at home, or practicing new forms of calligraphy. But also visiting art galleries, museums, films, and dancing. These two areas are important for me to fill my well.
What’s been your biggest a-ha moment in your personal growth journey?
Javier: You have more agency than you think you have.
Victoria: You’re fine. Really. Stop overthinking.
“I love that we get paid to do this.”
We’re a fully-remote 17-person global team (and growing!) of product designers, content designers, and researchers from Hawaii to Amsterdam, and we have the honor and privilege of designing experiences that help people (including ourselves) live with greater passion, purpose, and clarity in their lives. Stay tuned for more stories about designing for human transformation — the process, the principles, the science, the works.
