The Afternoon Shift

What do you do when you feel completely adrift, whether you're sensing a career change coming or you're squarely in the midst of one? In this conversation we sit down with executive and team coach Allie Wilkinson, founder of Walden Leadership Group, to talk through the acute challenges of a career shift . We get into the strange magic of the liminal space, why career is a team sport, and the hard...

Alison Campbell spent 20 years working in corporate, most recently as Chief of Staff to the CEO of a billion-dollar company. Excelling. Traveling. Parenting. Pushing through. And feeling grateful. Until she ignored the warning signs of burnout for too long and landed in the ER, needed surgery, and was finally forced to stop. Today she runs unBurnt, where she helps companies with burnout prevention...

There's an art to scene work, whether you're getting out there or creating your own. Matt Crane of MGMT Boston joins to talk about why showing up consistently puts more things in your control, what he's learned building a media company from scratch, and the Boston tech companies that are breaking out right now. ------ Follow Matt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhcrane/ Learn more...

What would it actually look like to make career a team sport?  Not as a philosophy, but as a tangible offering with real structure? That's what we explore in this special episode, an unrehearsed workshop with Jay Acunzo. Jay is good friend and someone who helps leaders communicate their expertise in a creative, compelling, and memorable way.  He's incredibly talented, and trusted by authors, coach...

Today’s episode goes deeper into one of the most important signals that has emerged from our work over the past year. The leaders who are truly flourishing are getting out from behind screens and into scenes. That search for people who truly embody this practice is what led me to today’s guest, Kate Brigham.  Kate’s career spans more than two decades across design, product, and research leadership...

What does winning look when work is full of paradoxes? Today I’m joined by my friend and longtime mentor of more than 20 years, Patrick Jones , a builder at heart and one of the most multidimensional creative leaders I know. Patrick’s career has been spent at the intersection of education, media, and workforce innovation , helping people and organizations adapt to what’s next. He’s a professor, co...

In this episode, I dig into a leadership practice that can seem obvious but is far more nuanced than it looks, and I’ve come to believe it’s a critical discovery in our exploration of what it takes to go from fear to flow and uncertainty to optionality . I'm now referring to the people who embody this as creative leaders . These leaders aren’t stuck in silos. They’re out in scenes, collecting dots...

When I think about career as a team sport, I can’t help but think back to my post-college internship at Disney and the lifelong friendships that started there. That experience, grounded in Disney’s legendary Traditions  training program, taught me the power of hospitality, purpose, and connection. It also introduced me to this week’s guest, Taylor Scott , a best-selling author, speaker, and founde...

Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure how to begin the next chapter? In this episode we sit down with longtime friend and powerhouse coach Katie Benway to explore what it takes to really begin a shift.  Katie shares powerful tools for building emotional stamina, telling yourself the truth, and letting go of the need for certainty. Whether you're in the thick of a career pivot or sensing something...

What if you could find the intersection of cutting technology with your personal passion and expertise?   And what if you could develop a reputation for learning, experimentation, and generously sharing your knowledge along the way? Well, that's exactly what you'll learn from today's guest, Emmy-winning television producer Erich Archer.   He's has spent his career telling stories, from MTV and The...

What does it take to really reinvent your career? This week's episode features a detailed breakdown of exactly that.  After decades of success as a Hollywood producer, and later blending entertainment and tech in Silicon Valley, Derek Stoops found himself at a crossroads. Not long after launching his own production company, the phone stopped ringing. Covid, combined with a reckoning across Hollywo...

By mid-career, Karen Kelly has reinvented herself more times than most people dare to dream. From ad agency burnout in New York City, to scrubs and red tape as a speech pathologist, to moonlighting as a photographer, to running a seven-figure media business, to CMO and later President of a tech company, to volunteer community organizer and change-maker, to present day Co-Founder and CEO of Launch...

What is it really like to work in professional sports? Most of us only see the highlights: the packed arenas, the high-profile players, the big sponsorships.  But behind the scenes, sports is one of the most intense training grounds in business. It is relentless, unpredictable, and filled with lessons that few other industries can offer, especially for marketing and media pros.  Chris DiPierro kno...

If you’re leading a company, department, or team, this conversation is for you. If you’re running your own consultancy, doing fractional work, or guiding clients in your role at an agency, you’re in the right place. And if you believe in the power of self expression and the opportunity to make an impact by leaning into your own creativity, yes, this is a must-listen. I met this week's guest, Deo M...

In a year of research on the nature of work and mid-career evolution, one word keeps surfacing: compassion . Compassion for others, yes. But more importantly, self-compassion . It's essential for sustained performance at work, and essential for navigating the messy middle of mid-career. This week’s guest reinforces that idea and expands our understanding with both science and practical tools we ca...

How do you find career clarity when everything feels uncertain? Frank Hwang - now Senior Director of Marketing at Viking Range and formerly a brand and marketing leader at SharkNinja, Sperry, EF Education First, Timberland, Cannondale, and more - has navigated multiple transitions, including a recent move from full-time to consulting and back into a major leadership role. In this candid and energi...

He had a full client roster, was running paid media campaigns, and building lead gen systems before he could legally vote. Aaron Wagenheim had already lived two distinct career chapters before most of us had even picked a major.  First came digital marketing.  Then came the pivot: helping high school athletes build personal brands before NIL had fully entered the mainstream. That decision, and a r...

Brad McNamara has created companies, built teams, and learned how to lead differently at mid-career. We start this episode by diving into Brad’s unlikely journey from on-air personality at Boston’s top station to becoming an agency owner, to serial entrepreneur, and current CEO of a truly innovative healthcare startup. We talk about the difference between running hard and running smart in mid-care...

What if the way your brain works is actually your greatest strength? In this episode of The Afternoon Shift , I talk with Lindsay Binette, founder of The Wavy Brain, a Neurodiversity Coaching & Advisory Practice supporting individuals and companies. We start with her dream career in marketing, leading culture-shaping campaigns for brands like Nike and Levi’s, before diving into her personal AD...

Today we learn from growth marketing expert Anuj Adhiya and 16-year-old entrepreneur Sabrina Bhattacharjya as they challenge what it means to thrive in a rapidly shifting creative landscape. Anuj, who literally wrote the book on modern growth marketing, opens up about the uncertainty he feels around AI and career evolution. And his “reverse mentor” Sabrina, an entrepreneur and viral content creato...

We often think of creativity as the output. But as Kaitlin Maud shares in this episode, creativity is actually a process . A way of thinking. A form of intelligence we all possess, and can strengthen. Kaitlin is a superstar strategist, coach, and now, licensed art therapist based in Austin, TX. Over the past decade, she’s helped shape campaigns for brands like Nike, Beats, Taco Bell, and Google Pl...

Waseem Kawaf spent years leading digital transformation at global companies. Then, in 2023, he left to launch his own firm. But the start of that next chapter didn’t go as planned, and what happened instead forced a deeper kind of reset. In this conversation, Waseem joins The Afternoon Shift to talk about starting over, staying grounded, and why showing up, whether for your family, your friends, o...

As leaders, we’re taught to tough it out. To power through. To "eat last."  And somewhere along the way, many of us learn to support everyone but ourselves. In this episode, I talk with Liza Dube, a marketing and communications executive turned leadership and career coach.  Liza helps leaders rethink how they work, how they decide, and how they treat themselves along the way. Liza is ICF-certified...

What if growing in your career wasn’t about pushing harder, but about reconnecting with what actually fuels you? In this episode of The Afternoon Shift , communications strategist and founder Rekha Sidhu shares her insights from a career spent working at the intersection of global brands and grassroots impact. We talk about what it really means to do good work without burning out, and why self-tru...

What if the thing that keeps derailing you - the frustration, the emotional trigger, the moment you lose it - was actually the key to your next career breakthrough? In this episode, former technology leader, executive coach, and best-selling author Mark J. Silverman shares the framework he uses with leaders to turn reactive moments into powerful leadership tools. If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhe...