Before the Emmys, the iconic stages, and the spinning red chairs of The Voice, James Pearse Connelly was a wildly imaginative child who already knew what he wanted to do.

He could see worlds that did not yet exist.

Then he built a career bringing them to life.

James is an Emmy Award-winning production designer and one of the defining creative forces in modern television. As the founder, principal creative, and CEO of Studio Connelly, he has designed more than 1,000 productions and earned three Emmy Awards, eighteen Emmy nominations, and nine Art Directors Guild Award nominations.

His credits include The Voice, The Masked Singer, Top Chef, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Wheel of Fortune, RuPaul's Drag Race, Red Table Talk, the MTV Video Music Awards, Nailed It!, Craftopia, The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady, and many more.

But James is so much more than the credits.

He is an artist, architect, creative visionary, and truly one-in-a-million human being who has never lost the curiosity, joy, or imagination of the child who first understood what he wanted his life to become.

In this episode of The Ambition Code, James takes us through the remarkable journey from being a young designer establishing himself in the business to becoming one of the creative voices that now defines it.

James also takes us inside the creative production design world of The Voice.

The chairs. The lights. The scale. The anticipation. The moment a singer steps onto the stage and one turn can change the direction of their life.

James helped give that moment its visual identity, movement, emotion, and magic.

We also talk about what it takes to build an extraordinary creative career: trusting what you see before the rest of the world understands it, sharing powerful insights about following your dream, empowering yourself to move forward, leading with confidence and grace, and trusting that whatever you decide, you are going to be okay.

IN THIS CONVERSATION, JAMES PEARSE CONNELLY DISCUSSES

• Being deeply creative from childhood • Turning imagination into an Emmy-winning production design career • The design, architecture, emotion, and magic behind The Voice • How production design gives a television show its identity • Creating visual worlds for music, competition, reality, talk, and live television • Building what only you can see • Creating opportunities rather than waiting for permission • Becoming the creative voice that defines your work • Leading enormous creative productions with ease and grace • Following your dream through uncertainty • Why believing you will be okay gives you the courage to move forward

CONNECT WITH JAMES PEARSE CONNELLY + STUDIO CONNELLY

Studio Connelly: https://studioconnelly.com/

James on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpconnelly

Studio Connelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/studioconnelly/

WATCH: THE HISTORY OF TOP CHEF PRODUCTION DESIGN

James explores the creative evolution and production design history of Top Chef:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4abio1WuKc

THE AMBITION CODE SHOW CREDITS

Creator + Executive Producer: Julie Kellman Reading Produced by: Love + Daydreams, Inc. Website: https://www.loveanddaydreams.com Love + Daydreams on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveanddaydreams The Ambition Code on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theambitioncode Music by: @moby.gratis

ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Ambition Code is a premium podcast and conversation series about ambition, identity, career, reinvention, leadership, and the defining moments that shape who we become.

Created and hosted by executive producer and Love + Daydreams founder Julie Kellman Reading, the series features deeply human conversations with remarkable people who have built extraordinary lives across entertainment, business, culture, creativity, entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal evolution.

Through candid and powerful conversations filled with humanity, humor, hard-earned experience, and real-world advice, The Ambition Code gives viewers the knowledge, encouragement, and clarity to build momentum and move confidently through every pivot, transition, risk, reinvention, and new chapter.

Your life is waiting for you. Let's go.

Subscribe for new episodes of The Ambition Code.

#TheAmbitionCode #JamesPearseConnelly #TheVoice #ProductionDesign #EmmyWinner #CreativeCareer #CreativeLeadership #StudioConnelly #TopChef #EntertainmentIndustry #WomenWhoPodcast

Some people walk into a room.

Abby Girvin arrives like sunshine with a business plan. ☀️🔥

She is a force of nature, a professional possibility-maker, and the kind of person who makes you believe you could completely change your life before lunch.

In this episode of The Ambition Code, Julie Kellman Reading sits down with Abby, Owner and Agency Director of DDO Artists Agency, for a joyful, hilarious, and wildly motivating conversation about starting before you feel ready, and trusting yourself enough to figure it out along the way.

Abby started her first modeling agency at 21. A few years later, she moved to Los Angeles with $500, one connection, and absolutely no interest in waiting for anyone to give her permission to make her mark.

Within days, she began working at DDO Artists Agency as an agent.

By 27, she owned it.

Today, DDO represents more than 2,500 actors across Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta - and Abby is still leading with the same magic combination of instinct, optimism, courage, and let's-just-make-it-happen energy.

Abby opens up about being underestimated as a young woman in the entertainment industry, purchasing a company before she felt fully prepared, and continuing to experience imposter syndrome even after decades of success.

She shares how affirmations and visualization helped change the direction of her life, why intuition remains one of her greatest business tools, and how she built a company culture rooted in trust, autonomy, and giving people room to rise.

We also talk about taking imperfect action, finding purpose without having every step mapped out, and why some of the most powerful decisions in life begin with one simple realization:

If he, she, or they can do it…so can I.

• Refusing to wait for permission to make your mark

• Being underestimated as a young woman in business

• Why success does not automatically eliminate imposter syndrome

• Using affirmations and visualization to create change

• Trusting intuition as a business and life strategy

• Growing DDO into a nationally recognized talent agency

• Building a team through trust, freedom, and autonomy

• Navigating uncertainty in the entertainment industry

• Finding purpose without having the entire plan

• Taking small, imperfect steps that create real momentum

• Abby Girvin's personal Ambition Code

This episode is for anyone who has been waiting to feel more confident, more qualified, more certain, or more prepared before beginning.

Abby's story is proof that you do not have to see the entire road.

You simply have to take the next step.

Come for the career wisdom. Stay for the sunshine. Leave ready to do the thing you have been overthinking for six months. ☀️✨🔥

Thank you, Abby, for such an excellent conversation!

Website: https://www.ddoagency.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/ddartists

✨ The Ambition Code: ✨ Created and Hosted by Julie Kellman Reading Produced by Love + Daydreams Music by @moby.gratis

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ambition-code/id6790585618 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033P0xatKPFsBNimqb32rb YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/@TheAmbitionCodePod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheAmbitionCodePod Love + Daydreams: https://www.LoveAndDaydreams.com

Your life is waiting for you. Let's go!

#TheAmbitionCode #AbbyGirvin #DDOArtistsAgency #StartBeforeYoureReady #CareerReinvention #LoveAndDaydreams #WomenWhoPodcast

What does ambition look like when the career, life, or future you thought you understood suddenly changes?

In the first episode of The Ambition Code, creator and host Julie Kellman Reading shares why she created the podcast - and why ambition is about far more than professional success.

Julie explores the question at the heart of the series: How do you get from seeing the life you want to actually building it?

She reflects on the open doors that shaped her career, the childhood business that first revealed her entrepreneurial instincts, and the moment decades later when enormous changes in both her personal life and the entertainment industry forced her to reconsider what came next.

Drawing on everything she had already learned as an executive producer, storyteller, entrepreneur, and creative leader, Julie began building again - launching Love + Daydreams, creating a line of yoga mats, learning new platforms and technologies, joining The Media Machine podcast, and ultimately creating The Ambition Code.

This episode is a powerful reminder that starting over does not mean starting from nothing. Every experience, skill, risk, failure, breakthrough, and version of yourself comes with you into your next chapter.

In this episode:

• How to move from imagining a future to creating one • Recognizing the opportunities that could change your life and making the choices to go for them. • Rebuilding when your career, industry, or personal life changes • Using everything you already know in a completely new direction • Why ambition is not always a straight climb upward • Beginning again - even decades into your life or career • Finding the courage to run through the next open door

The Ambition Code is a premium conversation series about ambition, identity, career, reinvention, leadership, and the defining moments that shape who we become.

Whether you are entering the workforce, making a career change, rebuilding after a difficult chapter, pursuing an idea, or standing at the edge of something new, this show is designed to give you perspective, clarity, practical wisdom, and momentum.

Because your life is waiting for you.

The Ambition Code is created and hosted by Julie Kellman Reading

Produced by Love + Daydreams.

Music by @Moby.Gratis

Please follow, like and subscribe to hear deeply human conversations with extraordinary people about how they built their lives, navigated change, and kept moving forward.