Skylar Sorkin is still in her 20s and building her company, Regardless, in real time, this isn't the polished, decade-later version of a founder story, it's the real thing as it's happening. She grew the podcast to 36,000+ listeners while working full-time in corporate, and then learned the hard way that burnout isn't the price of success. Skylar gets real about losing her period, hitting a wall, and a co-founder who showed his true colors, and how she came out the other side clearer, stronger, and more herself than ever. She also shares why your first corporate job might be the best MBA you'll never pay for, why "access" beats money every time, and the "shower meetings" ritual she swears manifests her next move. Proof that the hard seasons don't get the last word, you get to keep building.

In This Episode:

• How Skylar's car-ride conversations with her therapist mom became the idea for Regardless

• Why your first corporate job might be the best MBA you'll never pay for

• The five-year grind of building a podcast while working full-time, and the burnout that followed going all-in

• The moment a failed business partnership taught her to trust her gut the first time someone shows their true colors

• Why "access" (to people, resources, and relationships), matters more than money

• Skylar's "shower meetings" and why staying open to multiple paths changes everything

  
  

About Our Guest:

Skylar Sorkin is an inner and outer strategist who works with female creators, entrepreneurs, and brands on the business of being them, from mindset coaching to social strategy, content, community, and events. She's the founder of REGARDLESS, a social and media agency based in San Diego. Connect with her at [email protected] | @skylarsorkin | @regardlessthepod⁠ | linktr.ee/skylarsorkin⁠

Listen, subscribe, and visit pinkgenius.com to keep building your own path.

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Ever wonder what it actually takes to look like you've got life on lock? Courtney Bass Sherizen, Chief People Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation (yes, the org behind Wikipedia), former Director of People at Google, founder of her own travel consultancy in Beijing, and a board member for the Donors of Color Network and Beta Financial Services, is proof it's built, not born. 20+ years into her career, she's still practicing the same things she talks about in this episode: trusting her own voice, managing anxiety, building real relationships.

That practice is the thing that actually gets you there.

In episode 1 of Where Do I Start? A Young Woman's Guide to Business Basics, hosts Natalia Ochoa and Ann Dorgan get Courtney to open up about the stuff nobody puts on LinkedIn: how she actually learned to trust her own voice when everyone else's opinion felt louder, why she still deals with anxiety in her 40s and has made peace with never fully "solving" it, and why your network isn't about clout or the right company logo, it's about who you're actually willing to be vulnerable with. Oh, and she studied the fall of apartheid at Harvard, which is basically the reason she thinks about power (and HR) the way she does.

In this episode:

• Why she studied the end of apartheid at Harvard, and how it shaped her whole take on power (spoiler: HR isn't "the system")

• The literal ranking her own voice held in her head at 18 (it wasn't #1)

• Managing anxiety as a daily practice, not something you fix once and never think about again

• Why "network = net worth" is really about vulnerability, not transactions or vibes

• Mentors as your car's rearview mirror, you can drive without one, you just won't get far

• A dead-simple trick for practicing how to ask for help before you actually need it

Pull up, get comfortable, and follow along at pinkgenius.com.

Hey! Business basics are life basics - and most young women are still being left to figure it out alone! If this hits, share it with a parent, mentor, or young woman who needs this!

We built Pink Genius because the research was loud: 200 young women and 200 parents said the biggest gaps were lack of tools, confidence, and economic stability.

Traditional education teaches theory - we teach practical skills, coaching, and real-life decision making.

The goal is simple: more freedom, more capability, more peace of mind. This is for the young woman who wants to feel ready. For the parent who wants to know she’s supported. For the future that gets stronger when women get equipped earlier.

The PinkGenius PODCAST drops THIS WEEK - Where Do I Start, A Young Women’s Guide to Business Basics. If you believe access changes everything, this is for you!

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