Could getting fired be the best thing that ever happened to you? In this deeply personal episode of The Messy Parts, journalist Brooke Baldwin sits down with Maryam to discuss her journey from heartbreak to healing after she was let go from her dream job at CNN. Brooke talks about speaking truth to power, walking through fear, and redefining success on her own terms. The two explore what happens when your identity is tied to your career — and how to rebuild when it all unravels. Whether you’re facing a layoff, a breakup, or a life transition, Brooke’s story will help you remember: sometimes losing it all is how you finally find yourself.

Key Moments:

Trusting Your Gut: When You Know Something’s Off
Brooke shares how that inner “spidey sense” told her something wasn’t right at work—and why we so often ignore it.

Kill Them with Kindnes💄
How politeness and perfectionism can hold women back and the high cost of always saying yes.

When Your Dream Job Stops Feeling Like One 💔
Brooke reflects on how the news industry changed, and how her joy slowly faded at CNN.

Being Sidelined and Staying Silent 🤐
What it feels like to be removed from your own job and how masking pain becomes a survival skill in corporate culture.

Speak Up (Before It’s Too Late) 🗣️
Brooke reveals what she wishes she’d done differently and how to find the courage to speak up with both grace and strength.

Fired but Not Free Yet 🔒
The truth behind her on-air goodbye, the NDA that silenced her, and the emotional toll of pretending everything was fine.

The Charade of the Perfect Life 🎭
Brooke connects her workplace silence to her childhood, where appearances mattered more than truth.

When It All Unravels: Career + Marriage 💥
Two major endings collide, and Brooke learns that sometimes losing everything can be the start of becoming yourself.

Make Your Own Money 💲
Brooke explains how saving money over the years gave her the freedom to bet on herself after she was fired and her marriage fell apart.

Healing at the Hoffman Institute 🌿
A week of deep emotional work helps Brooke find clarity, courage, and connection after loss.

Living Without the Armor ✨
Brooke embraces her natural self, her truth, and the “messy middle”—and reminds us that the mess is life, so we might as well surrender to it.

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Is your biggest mess also your best teacher? Broadway veteran Michael McElroy tells Maryam about his remarkable journey from rejection at Carnegie Mellon to leading Broadway casts and founding the award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices. He and Maryam explore how to find purpose after burnout, the power of community and service, and what happens when you finally stop waiting for permission to begin. Michael opens up about identity, faith, and the messy truth behind resilience — reminding us that the hardest lessons can help us develop our greatest strengths.

01:30 – 🙏 The Son of a Preacher: Growing Up in a Life of Service
Michael reflects on his Cleveland roots, family faith, and how service shaped his art and leadership.

06:30 – 💔 From Golden Child to Rejection at Carnegie Mellon
Michael shares the painful story of being cut from his college program — and what it taught him about resilience and self-worth.

09:30 – 💪 The Do-Over That Changed Everything
With his mother’s support, Michael fought his way back into the program, learning how to turn pain into purpose.

14:00 – 🔄 Stop Reacting, Start Acting
Michael’s breakthrough moment — learning how to reclaim power by responding with intention, not reaction.

17:30 – 🎭 Teaching Life Through Art
 How Michael teaches young artists resilience, failure, and courage in an age of perfectionism.

19:30 – 💡 Breakthroughs and Busts
As Michael’s star climbs in NYC, he is also reminded how unpredictable the business can be and that he can’t attach his identity or his worth to his job.

26:00 – 🚀 Say Yes Before You’re Ready
Michael explains how leaning into side projects and passion work opened doors he never expected.

29:00 – ❤️ Healing Through Helping — Founding Broadway Inspirational Voices
The story behind his award-winning gospel choir and how service became a form of healing.

37:00 – 🔮 The Little Voice That Changes Everything
Michael describes the quiet inner voice that guided him to teaching — and how to trust your intuition when it’s time to pivot.

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Jonathan Merritt was a pastor’s son destined to preach — until he was publicly outed online and his life imploded. When faith, identity, and ambition collide — what do you do? Jonathan knows that question intimately. But through the wreckage came clarity, courage, and an entirely new way of living. In this candid episode, Jonathan tells Maryam how losing community, career, and certainty opened the door to authenticity, spirituality, and a renewed sense of purpose. Whether you’re navigating a career change, questioning what you believe, or trying to rebuild after loss, Jonathan’s story offers hope that healing starts with honesty — and that being messy is part of becoming whole.

00:01:45 – Growing Up in a Mega Church World 🙏
Jonathan shares what it was like being the child of a famous Southern Baptist pastor — living under constant pressure to appear “perfect.”

00:03:45 – Always Knew I Was Different 🌈
Jonathan opens up about knowing from childhood that he was “different” — and how that difference was seen as dangerous in his community.

00:10:15 – The High of Being Seen 👀
Jonathan describes his early writing success and the addictive rush of external validation — and how it left him feeling empty.

00:13:30 – Feeling Trapped in My Own Life 🌀
He shares how fear, faith, and career expectations left him feeling stuck — and how that became a lifelong trigger for anxiety.

00:17:00 – Preaching What I Didn’t Believe 💔
Jonathan confesses that he preached sermons he no longer believed, torn between loyalty to his community and honesty with himself. He wonders what he really wants to do with his life, and how he might find the courage to make a change.

00:21:00 – Outed — and Everything Changed ⚡️
The moment that shattered everything: Jonathan is publicly outed by someone he considered a friend, and forced to confront his family, his church, and his identity. Standing before thousands, he tells his truth — learning that vulnerability can invite compassion, not condemnation.

00:27:45 – Courage Takes Time ✨
Jonathan gathers the courage to make the biggest change yet: he sells everything and moves to New York to pursue his writing career, a leap of faith that begins his rebirth and new life in alignment.

00:34:00 – Finding Light in the Darkness
Jonathan draws on his spiritual roots, explaining how there is always light in the darkness, and how this mindset can keep anyone from falling into a pit of despair — even through the hardest times.

00:45:45 – Messy Is the New Strong 💫
Jonathan reflects on why he trusts “messy” more than “perfect” — and how real strength comes from embracing imperfection and truth.

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At 22, Jaclyn Johnson landed her dream magazine job — until she realized it paid less than her rent. That rejection set off a chain of bold decisions: launching a fashion blog, being sued by a former employer, losing a job she moved across the country to take, and eventually starting her own PR/branding agency. Jaclyn tells Maryam how she turned fear into fuel and turned Create & Cultivate from a side hustle into a brand she eventually sold for $22 million. 

Along the way, she learned what women aren’t taught and don’t discuss in business, why women sometimes don’t support one another professionally, and the magic that can happen when they do. Jaclyn doesn’t sugarcoat the toll success can take — panic attacks, burnout, isolation — but she also shows how failure, when faced head-on, can be the greatest creative act of all.

Key Moments

*  “You can’t eat makeup.” Learn why saying no to underpayment was the first bold move that shaped Jaclyn's multi-million-dollar career. 

* If you want to run your own business, you need to understand every role first. An early magazine internship taught Jaclyn Johnson a lesson most entrepreneurs miss: sales runs the show. She realized editorial might look glamorous, but it’s marketing and revenue that keep the lights on — and that knowing how every piece fits together is what makes a great founder. 

* Her advice for anyone just starting out: believe in yourself enough to show up. You might not be the expert today, but you can be tomorrow. Confidence comes from action, not perfection.

* Being the Squeaky Wheel Can Get You Fired — And Set You Free. Jaclyn Johnson shares how being the one who questions, challenges, and moves too fast ultimately got her fired… and turned out to be the best thing that could’ve happened. Her story is a reminder: sometimes getting fired just means you’re meant to be your own boss

* Jaclyn shares the turning point when Create & Cultivate went from side project to full-blown brand. After one breakout event, major clients started reaching out — and she realized the momentum was real. Encouraged by a mentor to bet on herself instead of building for others, Jaclyn took the leap and never looked back

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Think your biggest breakdown means you’ve failed? Journalist Danielle Belton was hospitalized multiple times for bipolar disorder while she was building her career. In this powerful episode, she opens up to Maryam about a childhood riddled with anxiety, falling into a deep depression after a failed marriage, and drinking tequila at work to power through panic attacks. Danielle hit rock bottom in her mid-twenties and moved home to her parents basement, where she started over and got a job folding sweaters at Macy’s. She tells Maryam how writing an anonymous blog during Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign led to other jobs that ultimately landed her a dream gig — editor-in-chief at HuffPost — and why she eventually walked away from it. Determined to defy the mental illness stigma, Danielle promised herself she’d live publicly with her illness no matter what. A raw, honest conversation about mental health, ambition, and resilience for anyone who’s ever thought their worst moment ended their shot at success.

Key Moments

00:00 – Danielle shares her promise to be open about bipolar disorder to show others there’s life after diagnosis.

02:30 – She reflects on her anxious childhood, feeling old before her time and misunderstood by other kids.

10:00– Danielle opens up about leaving a toxic marriage and reclaiming her ambition.

11:30 – Danielle describes the physical ways her anxiety started to manifest

13:00 – A raw confession about masking panic attacks with alcohol during her early reporting career.

15:00 – The first of four hospitalizations for bipolar disorder — a turning point in accepting she needed help.

20:00 – After her breakdown, Danielle describes the humiliation of moving back to her parents’ house and starting over — but also the seed of her comeback.

22:30 – Her anonymous blog goes viral after Obama wins Iowa, launching her back into journalism.

25:00 – A doctor’s advice pushes her to balance ambition and self-care as she tiptoes back into the working world

33:00 – At The Root, Danielle battles depression but still rises to Managing Editor, proving high-functioning illness is complex.

36:00– Danielle explains why she left her job as Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost to protect her team.

40:30 –  Danielle’s closing advice: feel your pain, but don’t live there. Remember who you are, and gamble on yourself.

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What if everything you were told about building a career was wrong? Financial expert and host of The So Money Podcast, Farnoosh Torabi, gets raw about the messy reality behind her success—from being forced to give up her dream schools to avoid debt, to getting fired twice, to drowning in $300K of business debt that forced her to sell her home.

This isn't another "hustle harder" story. It's an honest conversation about the fears nobody admits: waiting for permission that never comes, taking rejection personally, feeling naked without a job title, watching friends with trust funds lap you, and chasing definitions of success that aren't even yours.

If you've ever felt paralyzed applying to hundreds of jobs, ashamed about a layoff, or terrified of financial dependence, this one's for you. We're talking about the career stuff nobody warns you about—and what actually helps when things fall apart.

You're not failing. The game just changed and nobody told you.

Show Notes: 

Guest: Farnoosh Torabi, a financial expert, bestselling author, and host of the "So Money" podcast and “The Montclair Pod.”

Learn More About Farnoosh: https://farnoosh.tv/

Follow Farnoosh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnooshtorabi

So Money Podcast: https://podcast.farnoosh.tv/

The Montclair Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-montclair-pod/id1785567683

Topics Covered: 

• The Debt-Versus-Dreams Trap
• The Comparison Trap on Social Media
• The Paralysis of Permission-Seeking
• The Rejection-Is-Death Mindset
• The Job Application Black Hole
• The Financial Dependence Fear
• The "Shiny Object" Definition of Success
• The Layoff Shame Spiral
• Ending a Job Without Closure 
• Entrepreneurial Debt Disaster

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Brian Kelly (aka The Points Guy) has been obsessed with credit card and frequent flyer points since childhood. At age 12, his dad challenged him to book a family vacation using only points, and young Brian successfully got his entire family to the Cayman Islands for free.

Fast forward to his twenties, and his credit was ruined. He had to resort to payday loans. As he says, "I was in survival mode." He walked to work because he couldn't afford the subway fare. His boss had to give him a raise just so he could dry clean his suits. Kelly understood he needed to solve his problems, so he tried various side hustles to make ends meet.

One of those side hustles was starting a blog called The Points Guy. In a single day only a short time after he began the blog, Kelly made $125,000. Six months later, he hit his first million. Somehow, this hobby-turned-side-hustle had made him a multi-millionaire at 28 years old.

It was a challenging, messy road. In this discussion, Kelly reveals the reality behind his meteoric rise: the toxic friendships, the fraudulent interior designer who stole from him, and the loneliness that comes with sudden wealth. He shares hard-won lessons about leveraging relationships, knowing your superpowers, and why most career decisions aren't actually binary. This is the unvarnished truth about building an empire from nothing.

Key Takeaways From This Episode

Identify Your Strengths and Double Down: When Brian realized he couldn't compete on analytics with Ivy League graduates, he focused on what he was best at - relationship building - which became his competitive advantage throughout his career.

From Financial Rock Bottom to Millions in Months: Brian went from taking payday loans and walking to work to making $125,000 in a single day through affiliate marketing - showing how quickly fortunes can change with the right strategy.

Turn Your Biggest Expense Into Income: Brian transformed his company's travel expenses into personal profit by volunteering to put all recruiting trips on his credit card, earning massive points while helping colleagues.

Side Hustles Can Scale Beyond Your Day Job: What started as a $500-1000/month blog became a million-dollar business in six months - Brian shows how to test ideas without quitting your main income source.

Leaving Jobs on Good Terms for Future Opportunities: The Points Guy stayed three extra months at Morgan Stanley to properly transition his responsibilities, maintaining relationships that served him throughout his career.

Research Hiring Managers, Not Just Job Requirements: Brian's interview success came from connecting personally with interviewers rather than just reciting qualifications - he'd research their backgrounds to find common ground.

Build Senior Mentors as Career Insurance: When a colleague tried to sabotage him, Kelly's senior mentor at Morgan Stanley protected his job - provin

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If you’re job hunting, eyeing a promotion, or just feeling burnt out—this conversation will remind you that your path doesn’t have to be traditional to be powerful. 

From bossy kid to bold career coach, Sam DeMase is redefining what leadership and success really look like—with empathy, authenticity, and purpose. 

In this episode, Sam shares her unconventional journey: from managing 70 people at a fast food chain straight out of NYU to building a business that empowers women to ask for more—more money, more respect, and more balance.

Shaped by her experiences with toxic bosses, anxiety, and corporate pushback, Sam empowers others to navigate their careers with confidence, clarity, and self-trust.

We dive into bridging generational gaps, debunking myths about Gen Z, and why empathy is essential in today’s workplace. Sam introduces “parallel pivoting,” the power of side hustles, and how to turn nontraditional paths into professional superpowers.

Show Notes: 

Guest: Sam DeMase, Career Coach, author, and public speaker public speaker with a fast-growing community of 800,000+ followers on social media

Follow Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samdemase/

Follow Sam on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@apowermood?lang=en

Follow Sam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apowermood/

Topics Covered: 

• Growing up with strong female role models
• Being called a bossy kid was her being a leader
• A good manager means showing up authentically, making connections and having empathy
• Working for One Fine Day, she moved into HR and found her superpower in people
• Parallel Pivoting
• Find your superpower - ask your friends/family and take assessment tests
• Messy Part of management is letting friends down if you can’t make change or firing people
• Sam bridges the gap between Gen Z and Gen X
• Sam starts a side hustle and gets written up for urging people to fight for equality
• Social Media as a job - being authentic garners the right audience and clients
  • Not forcing yourself to push through, and instead being honest makes people feel seen 
• Job hopping is common - what matters is your impact at a company, not amount of time
• Journey with anxiety and depression showing up in insomnia and trouble breathing
• Side hustles are a great way to build your dream career while having security 
• Dealing with Toxic Bosses - document everything and focus on communicating what will make your work better

Mentioned: 

Gap, One Fine Day, NYU, Columbia, StrengthsFinder Assessment, Clifton Strengths, authenticity, leadership, HR, TikTok, Instagram, ZipRecruiter, Forbes Business Insider, NBC Time, toxic bosses,

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What happens when your toxic business partnership implodes and nearly 20 years of work vanishes while you're getting your hair done? Gwen Whiting, co-founder of The Laundress, opens up about the brutal reality behind building a successful brand, selling it to Unilever—and watching everything she created collapse.

In this raw conversation, Gwen reveals how early tragedy shaped her resilience; surviving on credit cards for over a decade; why her career path was not marriage; and the devastating moment she became "the adopted child nobody wanted" after acquisition. From being dismissed as "too small to care about" to rebuilding what she believed was a tarnished legacy, Gwen shares the messy truth about starting over.

If you've ever felt like you're building on shaky ground or wondered if you have the strength to rebuild after betrayal, this episode will remind you that sometimes losing everything reveals your true strength.

Topics Covered: 

• Armoring up and fighting for myself. 
• Acting authentically/not transactionally, being honest.
• How to do very uncomfortable things and while knowing that your result isn't always gonna be good (and it may even hurt), and then go back the next day and do it again. 
• Relationships are the key to my success.
• My career path was not getting married.  I wasn’t going to marry myself off.
• Lesson learned: have your own financial independence Keeping control, 
• What gave me confidence
• White man chinos: my worst nightmare.

Show Notes

Guest: Gwen Whiting, co-founder, The Laundress, founder, The Fill

• Follow Gwen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwenlwhiting/
• Follow Gwen on Substack: https://thelaundrylist.substack.com/
• Follow Gwen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwenlwhiting/?hl=en

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Job opportunities in her industry faded away slowly and then all of a sudden. So Emma Rosenblum committed to her side hustle and found a way to pivot into a new career altogether – she wrote a book.  A literary agent rejected it as "too mean,” but she found a way through. Then, when her manuscript accidentally leaked to her real-life community (the location of the book) with real residents' names still in it, the small-town drama was intense. Now a full-time novelist obsessively checking LinkedIn daily, Emma reveals how her competitive nature and insider-outsider perspective fuel both her satirical writing and her ongoing anxiety about what comes next.

Show Notes: 

Guest: Emma Rosenblum, Author, Editor in Chief

Follow Emma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-rosenblum/

Topics Covered

• Anxiety, Financial Insecurity, Health Worries, Motherhood, Work-Life Dramas, Side Hustles, Writing and Publishing, Being Competitive

Mentioned

Glamour Magazine, New York Magazine, Elle Magazine, Bloomberg, Bustle/Bustle Digital Group, Google, CAA, Meta

Kevin Kwan, Lucy Foley, Alexandra Machinist, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Natasha Bedingfield, Allison Roman, Carlos Alcaraz 

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