Ayse Birsel is a designer based out of New York City, Co-founder and Creative Director of Birsel + Seck, the award-winning design and innovation studio, and creator of the workbook 'Design the Life you Love".

Born in Izmir, Turkey, Ayse later attended the Pratt Institute in 1986. Since then she has been based in New York and owns the studio with life and business partner, Bibi Seck. Birsel + Seck have worked with Herman Miller, GE, Colgate-Palmolive, IKEA and Toyota, among others.

Ayse was identified by Fast Company as one of the world’s most creative people and is on the Thinkers50 Radar List of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of organizations. She is the creator of Design the Life You Love, a book and coursework that teaches designers and non-designers how to create a meaningful life using her design process, Deconstruction:Reconstruction™.

In this episode Ayse recounts how, at 5 years old, she discovered her passion for drawing and tells us of two individuals who played a profound role in introducing her to the world of design. We cover a range of topics including how to tackle a creative block, how design can be a systematic process and what it’s like to work with your life partner.

Ayse shares an array of memories and experiences in ways that are poetic yet simple, interlaced with laughter but sincere and positive yet realistic.

Follow Ayse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AyseBirselSeck

Thanks to our patrons for this episode:

Anna Caroline who coaches leaders in Berlin: http://truthcircles.com/

If you want to help us create The Role Models Podcast in the future, become a patron and chip in $1, $3, $5, or $10 per episode. Read more about the different tiers and rewards on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rolemodels

Lauren Handel Zander is the Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Handel Group, creator of The Handel Method coaching methodology, and author of the book ‘Maybe It’s You’.

Lauren has coached everyone from famous movies stars and business executives to everyday men and women who need support pushing through challenging life and career barriers. The coaching methodology that she created, the Handel Method, is designed to help people be honest with themselves and start taking action on the wishes they want to fulfill.

In this wide-ranging and unfiltered conversation, we talk about her journey towards finding her calling as a life coach, and how her own experiences inform her approach to helping others. From believing in the fundamental equality of others to embracing failure, we explore the lessons and learnings that inspire her namesake method.

We cover topics like:

Get Lauren’s new book ‘Maybe It’s You’: https://www.maybeitsyou.com

Follow Lauren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenZander

Design Your Life with Lauren’s digital coaching course, Inner.U: https://www.inneru.coach/

Schedule a Consultation https://www.handelgroup.com/consultation/

Get weekly coaching sent to your inbox! https://www.handelgroup.com/newsletter-signup/

Thanks to our patrons for this episode:

Anna Caroline who coaches leaders in Berlin: http://truthcircles.com/

Megan Devine is a psychotherapist, grief advocate, and author of the book ‘It’s OK That You’re Not OK.’

For almost 20 years, Megan has dedicated her life to helping people live through things they never thought they’d face. Having witnessed her partner drown almost 9 years ago, today Megan is leading an effort to change the Western culture of grief by proposing new models for grief and by creating an online community and resource that helps people survive some of the hardest experiences of their lives.

This is a conversation about grief, about what to do when you lose someone you love, what to do with grief and this new set of never-experienced emotions, and about how to best help friends and family members who experienced severe loss.

Get Megan’s book ‘It’s OK That You’re Not OK’: http://www.refugeingrief.com/book/

Follow Megan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/refugeingrief

Learn more about Megan, her work, and how to connect with her:

And the ‘Writing Your Grief’ 30-day e-course:

Megan’s role models:

Rene Denfeld http://renedenfeld.com/author/

Anna Caroline who coaches leaders in Berlin: http://truthcircles.com/

Kelly Stoetzel is TED’s Content Director and the curator of the TED Conference.

At TED, Kelly and her team are responsible for all of TED’s programming, content, and editorial and in more than a decade, she has worked with hundreds of some of the best and most inspirational speakers in the world.

If you’re looking to exercise your public speaking skills, this is a great episode for you. In the first part of the interview, Kelly and I talk about her background and how she started to work for TED. In the second part, we talk about TED and the TED conference in general – Kelly shares some stories of working with speakers to develop their talks and about the process she and her team have developed to curate this stellar conference. In the third part we talk tactics and skills: how to practice your public speaking skills, how to play with the fear of public speaking – including techniques you can use to overcome nervousness – and what talks she recommends you to watch in your practice.

The artists Kelly mentioned in the episode:

Here are the TED Talks that Kelly recommends watching that exemplify what she has talked about in our interview:

Thanks to our patrons for this episode:

Anna Caroline who coaches leaders in Berlin: http://truthcircles.com/

If you want to help us create The Role Models Podcast in the future, become a patron and chip in $1, $3, $5, or $10 per episode. Read more about the different tiers and rewards on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rolemodels

Lydia Denworth is an author, science journalist, and speaker.

Lydia’s most recent book of popular science is I Can Hear You Whisper. The book is a memoir of her youngest son’s deafness and her subsequent exploration of sound and language and the brain. Reviewers called it “rigorous,” “enthralling,” “tender” and “luminous." She is working on her third book--about the biology and evolution of friendship--and writes regularly for Scientific American and Psychology Today. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Parents, Vogue, and many other publications.

Lydia and I talked about her journey of becoming a journalist and reporter – first for Newsweek, then as the London Bureau Chief of People Magazine during the time of Princess Diana’s fatal accident. About her return to the United States, of becoming a mother three times, and learning that her youngest son is deaf.

Connect with Lydia: http://lydiadenworth.com/mailing-list/

Special thanks to our patrons on Patreon:

Megan Quinn who supports Code2040: http://www.code2040.org

Alex Constantinople is the CEO of The Outcast Agency and works with clients like Airbnb, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, or Patagonia.

Alex started her career as a publicist for CNN, NBC, followed by marketing and communications roles at GE before switching coasts to join Wired Magazine and eventually The Outcast Agency, first as their COO and then as CEO. Alex is based in San Francisco and the mother of 3.

In this episode we talk about Alex's favorite books, how she prepared herself and the company for her sabbatical, or how she has learned to take time away from the day-to-day to assess life and work and much much more.

Follow Alex on Twitter:

Books mentioned in this episode:

Thanks to our patrons for supporting the creation of this episode:

Beth Comstock is the Vice Chair at General Electric, one of the largest companies in the world.

At GE, she leads efforts to accelerate new growth. She operates GE Business Innovations, which develops new businesses, markets and service models; drives brand value and partners to enhance GE’s inventive culture. This unit includes Current, GE Lighting, GE Ventures & Licensing and GE sales, marketing and communications.

In this episode, Beth and I talk about what makes a good leader, how to learn to ask for help, how to embrace feedback, how to build a network – both internally and externally, how she defines success and how she decides to spend her time.

Follow Beth on

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Special thanks to our patrons on Patreon:

Megan Quinn who supports Code2040: http://www.code2040.org

Dr. Robin Berzin is a doctor and entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Parsley Health, a service that is redefining medical care.

Robin believes that medicine should put nutrition, wellness and prevention on the front lines of health care, while simultaneously making care smart and data-driven to meet our needs in today’s world.

Parsley Health, the company that Robin founded, is her answer to the question how she would rethink medical care from scratch. Parsley’s mission is to redefine how we think about and deliver medical care, and how we put the patient at the center.

In this episode, Robin shares what it was like to leave a job she didn’t like, how and why she started Parsley Health, and how she spends her time in the role of the CEO.

Robin shares advice about how to fundraise, how to work with investors, and what she looks for when hiring people into the company.

Follow Robin on Twitter and Instagram:

Special thanks to our patrons on Patreon:

Megan Quinn who supports Code2040: http://www.code2040.org/

If you want to help us create The Role Models Podcast in the future, become a patron and chip in $1, $3, $5, or $10 per episode. Read more about the different tiers and rewards on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rolemodels

Lesli Linka Glatter is a film and tv director based in Los Angeles and known for directing tv shows like Homeland, Mad Men, The Good Wife, and The West Wing.

Lesli Linka Glatter started her career as a modern dancer and choreographer before a series of (sometimes lucky) events led her to take a path towards film directing. Today, Lesli is an accomplished film and tv director and has directed countless episodes for shows like Twin Peaks, The Good Wife, Homeland, The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, and many many others.

Photo by Justin Lubin

Special thanks to our patrons on Patreon:

Megan Quinn http://www.code2040.org/

If you want to help us create The Role Models Podcast in the future, become a patron and chip in $1, $3, $5, or $10 per episode. Read more about the different tiers and rewards on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rolemodels

Mollie Chen is the co-founder of Birchbox, a subscription service for makeup and beauty samples.

Mollie shares what it’s like to start and grow a company like Birchbox to millions of customers and 300 employees and also what it’s like to decide to leave the company that you co-founded after 6 years. 

We talk about the early days of Birchbox and the moment Mollie decided to join her friends from college Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna to turn Birchbox from an idea into a real company.

Mollie takes us behind the scenes of the very first months of the startup, how she learned to become a manager, how to navigate the ups and downs over the course of 6 years, what mistakes she made, the biggest challenges she tackled, and what advice she can share with people in startups or those interested in joining a startup.

We talk about the thought process that led to eventually leaving the company that Mollie co-founded and how she dealt with the self-talk and voices in her head.

This episode is recommended for people who want to learn what it’s like to start a company even though you have a different background. It’s a great episode if you want to learn how to navigate the ups and downs of startup life and what it’s like to slowly let go from something you so dearly love.

Read Mollie’s post about leaving Birchbox here on Medium:

Thank You to the following patrons for supporting the production of The Role Models Podcast in the $5 per episode tier:

Johannes Kleske https://johanneskleske.com/

If you want to help us create The Role Models Podcast in the future, become a patron and chip in $1, $3, $5, or $10 per episode. Read more about the different tiers and rewards on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rolemodels