The Curious Middle

Our guest today Katie Fogarty is the founder of LinkedIn Reboot and Reboot for Business, Katie Fogarty's work helps people transform their LinkedIn profiles, personal brands and career opportunities. Katie's background writing for morning TV news, working for a global PR firm and even for a U.S. Senator has given her a perfect combination of skills to help others summarize their personal stories on their LinkedIn pages.

In our second conversation with Katie, we discuss key tips for helping job seekers update their profiles and make the most of out LinkedIn's latest features.

Our podcast with Katie fron 2019

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Laura Vanderkam is a Nationally-recognized time management expert, author, podcast host and a mother of five. Laura’s latest book, The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work From Home offers advice for remote work based on Laura’s 18 years of experience working remotely. In our conversation, Laura shares top tips on working remotely, engineering serendipity into your days, and ideas for trying side projects that can lead to new ways of thinking or unexpected  opportunities.

If you enjoy this conversation, listen in to our conversation with Laura in 2017 where we discussed Laura’s book, I Know How She Does It: What the Most Successful People do Before Breakfast. 

A few topics discussed:

• Setting up your remote work day
• Making effective to do lists
• Engineering serendipity while working remotely
• Pitching a book proposal

Lily Tung Crystal worked for two decades while pursuing her passion on the side until she landed her dream job. Today, Lily is  doing her life's work as Artistic Director of Theater Mu, a theater devoted to celebrating and empowering Asian Americans through storytelling.

Lily shares her journey of pursuing her love of theater and acting on the side while working as a freelance writer and producer. At Theater Mu, Lily is using her skills in acting, writing, producing and leadership training to bring audiences great performances rooted in equity, justice and the Asian American experience. We discuss Lily's passion for bringing diversity to the arts and the evolution of Liily's love for theater and storytelling. Lily also shares tips for pursuing your passion while keeping a day job and building a portfolio career.

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If you want to learn how to tell your career or life stories in ways that will make you memorable and help others, then you will love this conversation with Bofta Yimam. Bofta is an Emmy® & Murrow Award-Winning Journalist, DC-based National TV Correspondent, TV Anchor, International Speaker, CEO and Executive Coach. 

Bofta is a self-made woman and the first Ethiopian American newscaster to receive an Emmy® for her work. Bofta started her own executive coaching business with the goal of helping people improve their lives and careers by learning how to tell their stories. We discuss the bold moves that shaped Bofta’s career path and how she dealt with adversity.

As Bofta shares in this conversation, when you are telling your story, look for the transformational moments in your life and think about the lessons you learned. Listen in to hear how your transformational experiences can help help you advance with your professional and personal goals while also helping others.

A one-time whimsical art project to turn her daughter’s drawing into a dress, changed Jaimiee Newberry’s carefully designed life. After Jaimee saw the joy her daughter felt from wearing her imagination and the comments from people who noticed the dress, Jamie and her partner, Ken, realized they had something special.

Jaimee and Ken used their design skills and tech background to test the idea and create a working prototype. Within 24 hours after launching picturethisclothing, their idea went viral with a write-up in TechCrunch. By the end of the first week, they had mentions on multiple sites and a video with 3 million views that made their site crash. As Jaimee shares in our conversation, everything broke, and when they caught up, things broke again.

In episode #124 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast, Jaimee shares her start-up journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way. She offers listeners advice and industry tips for pursuing an e-commerce business idea on a low budget. She also tells us about the latest exciting service from Picturethisclothing that will allow your kids to sell their own designs.

If you are looking for a creative project or gift idea for the kid in your life or if you want to be inspired by an entrepreneurial story, this conversation is for you.

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Jessica Jackson is the Chief Advocacy Officer for Reform Alliance, an organization working to reduce the number of people in the criminal justice system by focusing on probation and parole. Jessica previously served as a Human Rights Attorney, Mayor of Mill Valley, California and National Director of #Cut50. Jessica is also getting attention for mentoring and helping Kim Kardashian with her law studies and advocacy for criminal justice reform. Kim has been studying 18 hours a week under Jessica's guidance as she pursues a legal degree.

In our third conversation with Jessica, we discuss the progress that has been made in reducing national incarceration rates and Jessica's current role with the Reform Alliance. Jessica's path to criminal justice reform came from a deeply personal story that impacted her family. Shortly after she was married and had a newborn, her husband was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison for a non violent offense. This experience completely changed Jessica's life and set her down a path to fixing the problems she witnessed in the criminal justice system. Listen to our conversation in episode #18 where Jessica shares her personal story of completing her law degree as a single mom, representing clients on death row and running for public office.

As someone who believes in turning anger into action, Jessica has devoted her career to public service. Listen in to hear her story and get insight into recent progress and work being done to improve our criminal justice system.

Listen to episode #18 where Jessica shares her career story.

Listen to episode #78 where Jessica Jackson shares how to get involved in your community and public office.

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A random act of kindness to help furnish an apartment for someone who aged out of foster care altered the course of Georgie Smith's life. Georgie started receiving requests from others who needed the same type of assistance. When Georgie realized there were no organizations providing this help to set up homes for kids coming out of the foster system, Georgie decided to create a Sense of Home with a model that could be repeated by other non-profits. In our conversation, Georgie shares how furnishing an apartment can help to change the future for kids coming out of foster care. We discuss the story of starting a Sense of Home, its impact and the super hero resilience Georgie finds among those she is helping. Growing up Georgie's dad would ask her 'What are you doing to do about it' when she read stories of people struggling. This mindset and the example of generosity from her parents shaped Georgie's career and life path. This story will leave you hopeful, inspired and may encourage you to ask yourself what you are going to do about the problems that move you.

• Jazmine's story and home creation
• Testimonials capturing the love of strangers
• A Sense of Home warehouse tour

Danielle Gletow was destined to grant wishes. After fostering and then adopting a newborn, Danielle found her life calling. A 2013 CNN Hero, Danielle has devoted herself to finding ways to help more than 400,000 children in foster care. Danielle founded One Simple Wish in 2008 with the goal of granting wishes to children in foster care across the country and those who've aged out of foster care. On One Simple Wish, people can view wishes from foster children and make contributions that make those wish come true. Wishes range from toys to school supplies, music lessons or trips to a theater or pool. Last year, One Simple Wish reached 20,000 youth.

In our conversation, Danielle shares the deeply personal story that led her to foster care, her experiences with the foster system and why the children in the foster system need our attention and support. If you have been thinking of ways to contribute and help others during these challenging times, One Simple Wish was started with the goal of giving people an opportunity to connect with foster kids and easily make meaningful contributions.

Danielle is asking us to go to One Simple Wish and read the stories. She says, "just by you acknowledging their existence and their journey and maybe sharing it with somebody else, or becoming more aware, you then become part of their village." Research studies have shown a strong correlation between foster care and so many other critical issues in our society. Danielle's vision is to connect people with foster kids while bringing light and awareness to the system, that in turn will hopefully lead to positive change. Danielle says, "We need more people recognizing that our foster system is incredibly broken and it is all of our problem." If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with a friend and help us share Danielle's message and goal of helping kids in foster care.

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How often during your college years did you wonder: How are these classes going to help me? What will do I with the information I’m learning? But, what if you had the chance to discover your “why” during a yearlong opportunity — before you kicked off your career? That’s exactly what Abby Falik has created with Global Citizen Year, a program that helps students stretch themselves during a gap year between high school graduation and college.

Abby is the founder of the organization, which also helps students learn about cultures and languages, and gain experiences and memories, while staying with host families in Brazil, Ecuador, India and Senegal, and work as apprentices in local organizations.

In our previous conversation with Abby (during 2018 and featured episode #82), Abby shared the roots of her passion and what made her determined to make the gap year part of every student’s college experience. In our latest conversation, Abby shares the story of the launch of Global Citizen Academy, a new program bringing together high school students worldwide for the opportunity to explore topics like effective communication, systems thinking and ethical decision-making. Global Citizen Academy is seizing this historic moment to help high school graduates find ways they can help their communities within an organization that has proven leadership training.

Abby was once the type of student she hopes to inspire. She was attending college at Stanford when she realized that she was longing for more than simply listening to professors in lecture halls. Abby took a break and spent a year in Brazil working and traveling. After coming back to Stanford after this life-changing journey, she noticed she gained confidence and maturity, which she credits with altering the course of her life. But before Abby realized her vision, she worked in a nonprofit — managing, building and creating ideas — and then attended Harvard to obtain an MBA that would help her create Global Citizen Year.

If you like today’s episode, we recommend you scroll back through our podcast archives to our conversation with Abby in episode #82.

Heidi Kühn, CEO and founder of Roots of Peace, was raised with a pioneer spirit, love for the earth and humanity. Heidi's commitment to peace was further strengthened during her time attending University of California Berkeley in the 1970's.

After a cancer diagnosis, Heidi made a promise to God to help others. Inspired by Princess Diana's commitment to the removal of landmines, Heidi recovered, and lived up to her promise by founding Roots of Peace with a vision of turning "Mines to Vines" – replacing the remnants of war with bountiful vineyards and orchards of peace around the world. Heidi saw the landmines as a cancer of the earth, and devoted herself to saving lives while preventing people and children from tragic death or crippling injuries.

In Heidi's new book, Breaking Ground: From Landmines to Grapevines, One Woman's Mission to Heal the World, Heidi shares the story of starting Roots of Peace 22 years ago from the basement of her home in Marin County, California. For two decades, Heidi straddled her role as a mother to four children, while growing support for the Roots of Peace vision. With help from local Napa Valley Vintners, her friends, a community of supporters, the United States Government, the United Nations, World Bank and other organizations, Roots of Peace has planted seeds of hope and peace in eight countries around the world.

In our conversation, Heidi shares the faith and mindset that gave her the courage and resilience that helped Roots of Peace thrive and allowed Heidi to overcome her fears. "Faith not fear" was the belief that allowed Heidi to walk through live minefields, make difficult decisions and keep Roots of Peace alive through multiple hardships.

Heidi has been recognized for her work by numerous world leaders, including Kofi Annan, H.H. Pope Benedict XVI, H.H. Pope Francis and many heads of state and government.

Heidi's faith, vision and personal story is likely to give you inspiration to pursue the goals that are calling you. Heidi says, "I believe that once we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to a noble cause, there are higher forces that steer us in a certain direction and that come to our aid when we are in need." After listening to Heidi's story, and reading her book, you may decide it's time to pursue your calling, and this is exactly what Heidi is seeking with her book. Heidi's unwavering belief in a world where children are free to walk without fear of death or injury is a mission we can all support. We hope you enjoy this conversation, read Heidi's book and join her on the mission of restoring mines to vines.

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