Everyone told Mylena Maulepes not to bother applying to Harvard. She applied anyway. Now she helps companies beat burnout by fixing how the work is designed, not by asking people to be more resilient.

--

Everyone told Mylena Maulepes not to bother applying to Harvard. She was Brazilian, English wasn't her first language, and she already had offers from other schools. She turned them down and applied anyway. A few months later, an email arrived at work: "Welcome to Harvard."

Mylena started out as a mechanical engineer on a truck engine line, went on to earn a master's in industrial-organizational psychology at Harvard, and came home to Brazil with a better question. Companies keep asking how stressed their people are. She asks what's making them stressed in the first place.

In this episode:
- The night she gave up the sure thing to take a shot at Harvard
- Why an engineer's habit of asking "why" became her edge in psychology
- Why well-being spending isn't moving the needle, and what does
- Crocodiles in the pond: fix the environment, not the swimmer
- What younger generations want from work, and why founders should pay attention
- Selling culture work to numbers-first buyers
- What her eight-month-old son is teaching her about leadership
- The mentor who believed in her before anyone else did

Chapters
00:00 Cold open
00:46 Meet Mylena Maulepes
04:28 The girl who wanted to fix engines
08:01 Why engineering wasn't enough to lead
11:08 When everyone says your dream is too big
13:25 "Welcome to Harvard"
18:06 An engineer in a psychology world
23:25 Stop fixing people. Fix the work.
25:46 Crocodiles in the pond
28:18 What's actually working
29:13 What clients ask for vs. what they need
32:20 Selling culture work with numbers
36:05 Becoming a mom, and a new lens on work
40:13 Why you need a mentor
45:35 Advice for your bigger stage
47:12 Where to find Mylena

Follow Mylena
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylena-maulepes
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylenamaulepes
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maulepes

If this episode was useful, share it with a founder who's trying to build a team people want to stay on.