What's Your Story?

Aja Edmond, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomi , enjoys learning new things. She's spent most of her life seeking to learn so that she can provide value no matter the situation she finds herself. From the south side of Chicago to the cities of Portugal, she has let that desire to explore and curiosity of human behavior guide her steps. Her story is a great example of what can happen when you d...

Walter Geer III, Chief Experience Design Officer at VMLY&R , says that he's stumbled into opportunities in his career by remaining inquisitive. However, a review of his achievements and accomplishments will reveal that he has continued to invent a future where he was able to uniquely do great work and make an outsized impact thanks to his collection of skills, experiences and actions. His...

Colette Shelton, Founder of Chirpyest , has always been an ambitious person since she was very young. This is likely thanks the excellence that she was surrounded with in her family and community. Her journey is filled with moments where she ran into walls or obstacles but found a way to shift into new opportunities that became available. This path has helped her develop her superpower of enduranc...

Rebecca Alvarez Story, Co-Founder & CEO of Bloomi, has spent most of her life creating her own path to her goals and dreams. Her trailblazing spirit was energized by the values her immigrant parents displayed and the community of supporters that surrounded her growing up. She has on multiple occasions had to activate "figure it out" mode to navigate the journey as a mother and founde...

Elicia Azali, Mother Hustler and American Family Enterprise Chief Marketing Officer, shares in our conversation that she has been grindin' her whole life. When looking at her list of accomplishments (e.g., Ad Age 40 under 40 ) , it would seem that has paid off for her and the organizations she has joined through her journey. She was able to recognize early on that what made her unique and dif...

Reversing the mic this week, the pod host, Matt Story, sits down with Dr. Johnathan Goree to share his story and unveil how we developed his superpower of facilitation. He shares how having his mom as an advocate early on in his journey enabled him to reach his full capabilities later in life. Throughout the discussion, he answers the fun, hard and interesting questions that he's been asking...

Copeland Bryan, NFL Player, real estate & tech investor, can be also found acting and speaking when he's not busy taking a crack at corporate life with the Visa Crypto team. Across all of these forums, he aims to be the kind of person that his family would be proud of. His story saw his love for space and aeronautics take him to the University of Arizona where his love for competition ext...

Mikel Thomas, 3x Olympian, Orator and Strategist, admits that he has always been addicted to seeking progress and accomplishment. At the same time, the consistent thread through his journey has been operating in service to his community. He sees the hurdles (both figurative and literal) that he has faced as his testimony to what is possible no matter where you come from. From a kid seeking affirma...

Michelle Gethers-Clark, Chief Diversity Officer & Head of Corporate Responsibility at Visa, knows first hand the importance of being put in the right rooms. Her story doesn't stop there though. She recognizes the responsibility to pay it forward and help put others into the right rooms as well. She describes herself as a collection of everything and everyone she has encountered on her jou...

Cameron Lynch, retired NFL player turned business leader and media strategist, has consistently sought to be a champion for his community and change. During a pivotal moment with a good friend that shared his interviews in high school were "trash", Cam decided that he would raise his game off the field as his game on the field took off. He leveraged his football community to build lesson...

Sophia George, PhD, is a Cancer Control and Population Health researcher with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. George is also an Associate Professor in the Division of Gynecological Oncology within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Said another way, she is a real-life superhero. Her story began in Dominica, a Caribbean islan...

Laura Knights, CEO & Founder of Knights Consulting LLC, grew up as the knot that connected her family together. She also found herself drawn to intrapreneurial roles within organizations before making the decision to step out on her own and formally transition into an entrepreneur. Her collection of diverse experiences led her to recognize her superpower of building communities and ultimately...

Chantel George, CEO of Sistas in Sales, carried an invention book around as a young person so it's not surprising that she would go on to be a successful sales executive. Growing up with parents from the Caribbean, she absorbed her parent's zest for life and willingness to try new things. As she successfully moved through her career in sales, she did not often see other women like her in...

Dr. Marcus Collins, Head of Strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York & Clinical Associate Marketing Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, was born and raised in Detroit. Before sharing anything else, he is proud to share that everything he is today is a product of being from the D. Even though he didn't reach his early dream of becoming the fifth member of Boyz II M...

Maxwell Griffin, host of the Your Black Friend podcast, has found the beauty in failing on multiple occasions. He transitioned from his first passion of Soccer to his next passion in creative & storytelling through a focus on building a network that opened doors and also helped him learn from the experiences of others. He describes his super power as making the things more human which is proba...

Jerry Won, CEO & Founder of Just Like Media , didn't start off as Jerry but he has made a name for himself and built a legacy for his family along the way. His family came to the U.S. and like many immigrants practiced assimilation to fit in including taking on American names. Lucky for us though he didn't continue trying to fit in as he sought to blaze his own trail and find what he...

Victoria Russell, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Beam Suntory , didn't know her journey would take this path but listening to her story tells you she is right where she is supposed to be. Her family helped to instill a love for learning and confidence in exceeding all expectations set on her. She also learned firsthand early in her career the importance of good people leaders to b...

Shelly Bell, founder of Black Girl Ventures Foundation , has always had a big imagination that she has integrated with a number of different career experiences to make her feel invincible. She now spends her time seeking out ways to disrupt systems in a diplomatically radically manner. In our discussion, she shares her secret sauce of combining her computer science training with on stage experienc...

Brian C. Patterson, Managing Partner & Business Attorney at Gunderson Dettmer LLP, had the chance to grow up in multiple diverse communities and believes it helped him develop patience and a broader understanding for all types of view points. Since his diverse exposure growing up, he has turned his experiences into his superpower of helping others navigate high pressure and at times chaos with...

Jerome Gumbs, CEO/Founder of Empower ME Academy, is running a leadership program that just so happens to improve your jumper and dribbling skills. Jerome, or Coach Gumbs as many know him, has leveraged basketball to travel the world and collect many lessons that have made him the person he is today. Through that journey, he recognized the power of coaching and how much impact it can have on the li...

Nicholas Love, VP of Digital Marketing at G&S Business Communications, was taught at an early age that preparation often finds opportunity and has spent much of his life putting this into action. While his path is not the specific one he imagined as a kid, he has built a journey that uniquely leverages his capabilities and super powers to make wide reaching impact. From his time as on-air tale...

Kristin Harper, Founder & CEO of Driven to Succeed LLC, is a businesswoman, author, speaker, wife and mother that has channelled all of her experiences into a journey that truly brings her joy. The good news for the rest of us is that she's also taken notes along the way so that we can learn from her story. In this pod, she shares how she was able to develop an entrepreneurial spirit very...

You could say that Nate Nichols, Founder & Creative Director of Palette Group , found himself and his voice within the four corners of the computer screen. In this inspiring discussion, Nate shares how he found acceptance for his skills in design on the internet where he received feedback from basically strangers. He also learned a lot from his IRL community as he found his tribe with others t...

Lauren Scott, TV Producer, sought out adventures from a very early age growing up in Boston. As she navigated her early career and fear of being stuck in cubicle life, she found ways to do the things she enjoyed professionally and personally. This journey took her from a life in consulting to being a TV Producer. However, she came to a point where she had to ask herself what her contributions to t...

Friend of the pod, Ebony Wyatt , returns to share her thoughts on the trauma that many of us have had to witness and process over the past year since the murder of George Floyd. In this episode, we explore not only what she's done to help her community of Minneappolis move forward but how she has had to start at home with her children. While there remains more work to do, Ebony shares example...