Lessons from a Quitter

This week I have Dawn Kelly on the show. I'm excited for this episode, not only because we cover her career journey but also because we delve into a truly important conversation related to today's social climate. Dawn spent decades climbing the corporate ladder to become the department Vice President at Prudential Financial. She is a proven public relations and strategic communications executive.

A major theme of this episode touches on is that oftentimes we believe we have security in corporate America. We believe that businesses have an equal investment in us, but we regularly see individuals with the rug pulled out from under them. Dawn worked for Prudential for 16 years but was blindsided by a layoff in 2015. It left her with an immense amount of grief. Although this tragedy touched many of us, Dawn's experience as a black woman in corporate America is vital to understand. She realized that her race played an immense part in her treatment as well as her abrupt layoff. It's important to listen to and highlight these stories of discrimination and microaggressions to move forward in a positive way. Understanding the gravity of these demeaning actions will help us show up in the world in a highly impactful way. Today Dawn is serving and feeding her community with The Nourish Spot in Jamaica, Queens. She is committed to serving healthy, balanced meals to underserved communities and works to create programs to help build children up. Dawn really is the epitome of a go-getter and true inspiration to us all.

This week I have Dawn Kelly on the show. I'm excited for this episode, not only because we cover her career journey but also because we delve into a truly important conversation related to today's social climate. Dawn spent decades climbing the corporate ladder to become the department Vice President at Prudential Financial. She is a proven public relations and strategic communications executive.

  A major theme of this episode touches on is that oftentimes we believe we have security in corporate America. We believe that businesses have an equal investment in us, but we regularly see individuals with the rug pulled out from under them. Dawn worked for Prudential for 16 years but was blindsided by a layoff in 2015.    It left her with an immense amount of grief. Although this tragedy touched many of us, Dawn's experience as a black woman in corporate America is vital to understand. She realized that her race played an immense part in her treatment as well as her abrupt layoff. It's important to listen to and highlight these stories of discrimination and microaggressions to move forward in a positive way. Understanding the gravity of these demeaning actions will help us show up in the world in a highly impactful way.    Today Dawn is serving and feeding her community with The Nourish Spot in Jamaica, Queens. She is committed to serving healthy, balanced meals to underserved communities and works to create programs to help build children up. Dawn really is the epitome of a go-getter and true inspiration to us all.

This week I have the incredible Raman Sehgal on the show. As a self-proclaimed recovering marketer and upcoming podcaster, Raman has spent years building a remarkable portfolio. He began his career climbing the corporate ladder with big brands like Proctor & Gamble and Dannon and, later, left the security of corporate America to work at in the startup scene. While we talk about all of his transitions, it's his latest one that I really wanted to highlight on the show. Raman left the startup world to bring his unique perspective to life across his first 3 (of many?) podcasts: "the P&G Alumni Podcast," "Model Minorities," and "Quarantined Comics." These shows share candid conversations that aspire to provide mentorship, solve racism, and debate Superman's management style, respectively. I wanted to have this conversation on the podcast because most of my past guests had already figured out their transitions. With Raman, we get to hear about how he's figuring out this new venture right now, his approach to this new medium, and how he decides which projects to pursue. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope you gain as much from this conversation as I did.

This week I have the incredible Raman Sehgal on the show. As a self-proclaimed recovering marketer and upcoming podcaster, Raman has spent years building a remarkable portfolio. He began his career climbing the corporate ladder with big brands like Proctor & Gamble and Dannon and, later, left the security of corporate America to work at in the startup scene. While we talk about all of his transitions, it's his latest one that I really wanted to highlight on the show.    Raman left the startup world to bring his unique perspective to life across his first 3 (of many?) podcasts: "the P&G Alumni Podcast," "Model Minorities," and "Quarantined Comics." These shows share candid conversations that aspire to provide mentorship, solve racism, and debate Superman's management style, respectively.    I wanted to have this conversation on the podcast because most of my past guests had already figured out their transitions. With Raman, we get to hear about how he's figuring out this new venture right now, his approach to this new medium, and how he decides which projects to pursue. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope you gain as much from this conversation as I did.  

This week's incredible guest is Emily Giffin. She is a former lawyer and 10-TIME New York Times bestselling author. It wasn't until after law school when she had moved to Manhattan to work in a big law firm to pay back her loans, that she began writing in her spare time and dreamed of becoming a writer. In 2001, she decided to quit and move to London to pursue her dreams full-time. It was there that she started writing her first breakout hit, Something Borrowed, which was turned into a movie that starred Kate Hudson and Jennifer Goodwin and John Krasinski. And the rest, as they say, is history! While I'm so excited to talk to her all about her journey and her incredibly inspiring career as an author, I think her story is such a great example of the power of taking a risk. So often we're paralyzed by what we could lose that we fail to even consider the immense opportunities that we could gain if we just tried. Emily and I talk about how timing and luck has a part in all of our stories. But if she had never taken the chance, if she had never decided to take a risk that most people wouldn't take, she would've given up a career so many only dream of. And what a shame that would have been! In this episode, we dive in to talk about her journey, her new book called The Lies That Bind (it is so good!), and so much more!

This week's incredible guest is Emily Giffin. She is a former lawyer and 10-TIME New York Times bestselling author. It wasn't until after law school when she had moved to Manhattan to work in a big law firm to pay back her loans, that she began writing in her spare time and dreamed of becoming a writer.    In 2001, she decided to quit and move to London to pursue her dreams full-time. It was there that she started writing her first breakout hit, Something Borrowed, which was turned into a movie that starred Kate Hudson and Jennifer Goodwin and John Krasinski. And the rest, as they say, is history!   While I'm so excited to talk to her all about her journey and her incredibly inspiring career as an author, I think her story is such a great example of the power of taking a risk. So often we're paralyzed by what we could lose that we fail to even consider the immense opportunities that we could gain if we just tried. Emily and I talk about how timing and luck has a part in all of our stories. But if she had never taken the chance, if she had never decided to take a risk that most people wouldn't take, she would've given up a career so many only dream of. And what a shame that would have been!    In this episode, we dive in to talk about her journey, her new book called The Lies That Bind (it is so good!), and so much more!