Ideas Elevated

Bree Kellum Balogun is the Senior Director of Account Management at Revolt Media and TV. Throughout her career, she's worked with major brands such as Walmart, Fiat, Coca-Cola, and more. In this episode, Bree chats with Aize Asowata, the Marketing Manager at Comcast NBCUniversal. You'll walk away with tips on how to build trust, set boundaries, and develop new strategies to gain and maintain client relationships.

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson is a digital marketer, brand architect, and entrepreneur. She's worked with companies such as Ralph Lauren, AT&T, Under Armour, Sally Beauty, helping them develop the next evolution of their digital media. In this episode, Kendra chats with Kia Brooks, the founder of the Gotham Film and Media Institute’s Owning It program. They discuss Kendra’s career path, including her experience, partnering with Halle Berry in 2020 to build the health and wellness company, rē•spin. You'll walk away with tactics to help you tell your brand story, and you’ll learn Kendra’s strategies for maintaining balance in her life as a busy entrepreneur.

Marlin Williams is the vice president of diversity and inclusion at StockX, where she’s responsible for driving the development, execution, and maintenance of a comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. Tani Brown is Jopwell’s head of community. In her role, she leads marketing and growth, while creating spaces for the community of Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals to learn, connect and advance.

In this episode, Marlin and Tani join my colleague Khalilah Lawson during one of our Live@LIFT virtual events to chat about the best hiring practices for creating an inclusive work environment. They’ll explain how technology impacts your ability to build diverse teams, and how to use your company’s demographic data to set D&I goals.

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is a professor at the University of Colorado who studies how unconscious bias affects the evaluation of leaders, and Andrea Perdomo is the network catalyst of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at Techstars. In this episode, Stefanie and Andrea chat with Juan Otero about how both founders and employees can foster a more inclusive company culture. They’ll also share steps that you can take right now to start building the foundation for a more equitable future in your workplace.

Rashaad Lambert is an award-winning marketing architect, philanthropist, and community builder. In his role as director of culture and community for Forbes, he's establishing the media brand as a preeminent community for black and brown entrepreneurs.

Chris Anderson is the director of community learning and love, and Alicia Agnew is the people operations manager at Guru, one of the fastest-growing startups in Philadelphia. Chris leads community programs, customer education, and marketing. Alicia is a DEI-driven people operations pro.

In this episode, Rashaad, Alicia, and Chris chat with Kendra Lee, Senior Director, Leadership Development and DE&I Portfolio Management at ‎Comcast during one of our Live@LIFT virtual events. They’ll discuss the role that management plays in fostering inclusive work environments and explore the difference between reactive and proactive inclusivity. Plus, they’ll give you tips on how to create and lead an inclusive workplace that values, protects, and creates opportunities for all employees.

Nir Bashan is a creativity expert and the CEO and founder of The Creator Mindset Consulting. Through his business, Nir has taught thousands of people how to harness the power of creativity to improve profitability, increase sales, and ultimately create more meaning in their work. His clients have included big-name companies like AT&T, JetBlue, and Ace Hardware, but most recently, he's made his expertise available to everybody through his new book titled The Creator Mindset. In this episode, Nir and Danielle will discuss why a creative mentality is key to building a sustainable business. They'll also give you steps you can take to unlock your own creativity and improve your company.

Chip Conley began his career as a hotel entrepreneur when, at age 26, he founded some of the first boutique hotels in the industry. Chip sold his business at 52 and was recruited by Airbnb to serve as its head of global hospitality and strategy while also mentoring its CEO, Brian Chesky. His experience led him to open the Modern Elder Academy in Baja, Mexico, offering a roadmap for entrepreneurs and others to make the most of midlife and beyond. For this episode, Chip joins Danielle for a LIVE@LIFT virtual event where he shares insights on how entrepreneurs can stand out in today's ultra-competitive landscape. He’ll also discuss future trends in travel and hospitality, and the daily practices he says have made the biggest impact on his life.

Emily Heyward is a ground-breaking entrepreneur and branding expert that has helped companies like Casper and Allbirds become household names. She was named as one of the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc. Magazine and was selected as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Most Powerful Women of 2019. In this episode, Emily and Danielle will discuss the questions that entrepreneurs should ask themselves when they build their brands. You’ll learn why strong, authentic branding is vital to a company’s success. And, you’ll hear Emily’s advice on how to stand out from the competition in the hyper-competitive start-up scene.

Shanel Fields is the dynamic Founder and CEO of telemedicine service MD Ally. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Techstars, a startup accelerator. Throughout Shanel’s career, she has combined her technology expertise and passion for healthcare equality to bring innovation to the public safety space. In this episode, Shanel and Danielle will discuss how Shanel obtained the funding and partnerships she needed to grow her company. You’ll learn what to look for in an investor-entrepreneur relationship. And, Shanel will discuss how current public safety events have inspired her future plans for her business.

Yancey Strickler cofounded Kickstarter, the global crowdfunding platform for founders. Kickstarter went on to become the number one network in the world for supporting and growing new creative ideas.

More recently, he has written a book called This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World.

In this episode, Yancey chats with Comcast's SVP of Community Impact, Dalila Wilson-Scott.

They’ll relive moments that challenged Yancey and his co-founders as they built Kickstarter, and eventually how he knew it was time to move on.

Yancey will also share his decision-making framework that will help you and your team build better decisions for your startup.