The Empower Podcast

We were thrilled to have Jason Kottke join us on the podcast this week. Jason has been honored by Wired as one of the people who “have shaped the future we live in today,” was the designer of the long-lasting Gawker logo, helped create Buzzfeed, and is currently continuing to blog at the same site he’s been maintaining since 1998, Kottke.org.

Michelle redefined success when she traded in her house for an RV and took her life and career as a financial blogger on the road. She’s inspiration for anyone looking to pursue their own definition of success, find unconventional ways to earn an income, and live the independent life so many of us dream about. Who knew that you can earn over $100K per month just from a blog?

Named the “Millennial Martha” by AdAge, Erica Domesek is a powerhouse in the world of DIY, lifestyle tips, and an authority in building a unique, creative, and engaging brand. Starting from a serendipitous exchange in 2009, she’s built P.S. — I Made This… into a lifestyle brand recognized around the world. She has appeared on on The Today Show, The Rachael Ray Show, has judged TLC’s The Craft Wars, and is constantly making her work known around the world.

However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Erica. As she tells us in this week’s episode, there were ups-and-downs along the way, the path forward wasn’t always clear, and success never guaranteed.

Agnieszka Pilat is a groundbreaking Polish-American artist based out of San Francisco who has made her mark with time-deconstructing conceptual art. Starting out in comics and illustration, which in her words, "a very honest art", Agnieszka hit her stride conceptualizing the cult of technology, often painting in the space of high-tech companies themselves. Her works can be found in private and public collections around the world and she's represented in numerous galleries throughout the US.

In this episode, we talked with Agnieszka about her dream to paint a rocket, the dichotomy of fear and inspiration in the creative journey and how her disbelief in the dogma of talent led her to a career in fine art. We also discuss her interest in visiting the site of one very notable nuclear disaster, Chernobyl. Find out why in this week’s episode.

If you’ve spent any amount of time reading about personal finance, money management, or have just looked for advice on budgeting, there’s a very good chance you’ve come across Erin Lowry (AKA The Broke Millennial).

Erin has been entertaining and educating readers on her blog, brokemillennial.com, for years, published The Broke Millennial to great reviews, and been a fierce advocate of telling people to Get Your Financial Life Together (#GYFLT).

We’re thrilled to have Erin as our second guest, sharing how she got started writing about finances, the importance of getting “financially naked” with your partner, and the path she’s taken to get to where she is today.

For our inaugural episode The Empower Podcast, it may seem strange that we’d interview someone known more for cooking than for budgeting. Yet, as soon as you start listening to Kenji’s story, you’ll see the connection.

Kenji López-Alt had a start in cooking that is probably similar to what many of us face when we’re put in charge of our own financial lives. In his award-winning cookbook, The Food Lab, Kenji describes his early culinary mishaps, “The one time I did exert myself in the kitchen, I produced a batch of what I thought were some pretty awesome almond tuiles coated in chocolate and filled with raspberry preserves. Being the incurable romantic that I am, I’d slaved over them for my high school girlfriend for Valentine’s Day, see? Turns out she wasn’t as into romantic nerds as I thought she was. I got dumped on Valentine’s Day, her dad ate the tuiles, and my fledgling cooking career was put on hiatus.”

He spoke too soon. Kenji’s path from that point in high school, through his time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and various cooking jobs, to where he is now is a story that will resonate with everyone who has struggled to do what they believe they’re meant to be doing.

We’re going to bring you the stories of people who struggled, hustled, took the path less taken, and made a career out of nothing but their own determination.