Your Career, Unscripted

I interviewed Kimberly Hairston Hicks, CMO of Gold Bond Co., on this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted! I first heard Kimberly speak on a panel at The Female Quotient’s SXSW event this year. I was inspired by her ethos and drive to champion diverse beauty narratives. I immediately asked her to be a guest on my show, and was so excited when she said yes. Listen to learn about Kimberly’s car...

This week on Your Career, Unscripted , I spoke with Gideon Spitzer-Williams, Global Experiential Marketing Lead, B2B at Canva, someone who gave me thoughtful advice years ago when I was trying to break into marketing. What stayed with me most was Gideon’s overall honesty and his intentionality about building a career rooted in joy. Gideon walks through his journey from Snapchat, Tinder, Archrival,...

How do you go from performing as Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway to becoming a web engineer at Spotify? And then what happens when you get all the things you wanted, but then you realize you still want more ? On this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted, Carla Stickler details her career pivot, the growing pains she experienced, what gave her courage to step outside of performing and into tech,...

Isaac Sundsted took an unconventional path into tech and gaming. In this episode of Your Career, Unscripted , Isaac shares his journey from sign language interpreter in courtrooms and emergency rooms to strategy consulting at Accenture, business development at Xbox, and now leading gaming partnerships at Samsung. We talk about career pivots, learning to navigate corporate environments, building re...

Sarah Bond is the President of Xbox, and I am beyond honored to have her as this week’s guest on Your Career, Unscripted ! For some context: when I was brainstorming dream guests, Sarah immediately came to mind. I had seen many of her talks on gaming, leadership, and empathy, and found them deeply impactful. Reaching out felt like a stretch, but I’ve learned it’s always worth pushing yourself to t...

Hamilton hits theaters this Friday! On this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted , I spoke with Broadway Producer Jill Furman, who was there from the very early days of Hamilton . She shared what it was like recognizing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s genius early on in 2003 when she saw an early version of In the Heights for the first time, to the beginning days of Hamilton , to the unforgettable White...

Suba Vasudevan is COO of Mozilla.org and SVP at Mozilla Corp - and I am honored to have interviewed her for Episode 16 of Your Career, Unscripted and to share her story and career advice! With 22+ years of global leadership across technology, AI, trust & safety, and advertising, Suba Vasudevan is responsible for leading Mozilla’s operational strategy to bring better, more relevant products to...

Chris Melissinos is the Principal Evangelist for Video Games and Immersive Technologies at AWS, where he helps influence the next generation of game technology and offerings from AWS while also acting as a developer advocate, ensuring that the needs of game developers are met. Prior to AWS, he was the Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., creator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s...

Very excited to share my interview with Yvoire S. Whittaker on this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted! Yvoire is a Brand Marketing Lead at Nike. I met Yvoire when we were classmates at Columbia Business School - and I have always been inspired by her authenticity, kindness, creativity, generosity, and drive to learn and connect. Born in Plano, Texas, raised with the richness of her Ghanaia...

“The most transformative moments were the moments of transition.” Andra London is a Managing Director at BCG BrightHouse, where she harnesses the power of purpose and strategic storytelling to help organizations grow their people, profits, and impact. I am honored to have interviewed her on this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted! Her career advice has personally given me the perspective to...

“If I don’t try then I’ll never know. ” Originally from Italy, Michele Catano is currently a Senior Product Manager at Electronic Arts, where he's working on a new game based on the famous The Sims IP. Michele came to the US in 2021, when he started his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Previously, he has had a diverse set of experiences. Among many, he got his Engineering...

Be Opportunistic and Be Open. Vicki Dobbs Beck is a veteran entertainment executive with more than 30 years of experience driving innovation and digital transformation in support of storytelling. In 2015, she co-founded Lucasfilm’s award-winning Immersive Storytelling Studio, ILMxLAB (now ILM Immersive), and has since been at the helm. Under Vicki’s leadership, ILM Immersive has produced a robust...

The only thing that actually matters is time. Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) is a renowned executive, author, and tech pioneer with over 30 years of experience in AI, XR, and semiconductors. He is currently Global VP at HTC, having served as China President from 2016 to 2023. His book, Our Next Reality, explores the societal impact of AI and XR. A serial entrepreneur, Graylin founded four venture-bac...

When I asked Pearlé Nwaezeigwe about her career journey, she told me: “One day I woke up and I was like, ‘I want to be the Beyonce of my industry.’ So I ran with it, and I really wanted my goals and my values to just be around that: what it means to stand out, what it means to run the world. And I think I've kind of run the world having lived in four countries now. So it's been very much trying to...

Here is one thing I am 100% confident in. You’ve never met someone like Nanea Reeves. Learning from Nanea, getting her advice, and hearing her incredibly bold, unique, and resilient story has genuinely changed my life and reshaped the way I think about my career. Nanea is the Founder and CEO of TRIPP, an award-winning XR wellness company and the creators of the leading meditation app delivering "M...

Kasia Borowiec is a Director at MediaLink - and a great friend. We have always bonded over career pivoting out of performing, since our time at Columbia Business School. In this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted - we talk about her journey navigating a career shift from being an opera singer, to getting her MBA, to working as a Director at MediaLink, a boutique media and marketing consulta...

Shelley Zalis is the Founder & CEO of The Female Quotient - and I genuinely cannot believe I got to do this interview. I went to their SXSW event earlier this year, with the intention of even briefly chatting with Shelley so that someday, probably years and years down the line when I was hopefully more established, I could interview her. I was definitely too afraid to ask her to be on the show...

Honored to have interviewed Victor Pineiro, Director of Digital Innovation at HBO | Max for this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted. Victor an award-winning digital marketer, author, documentary filmmaker and game designer. Victor’s team has launched emerging tech activations like the House of the Dragon Raise Your Banners AI poster generator experience and DracARys app, alongside brand and...

Stacey Strickland is truly one of the most kind, empathetic, authentic, and generous people I have ever met in business. It was an honor to get to interview her for this week’s episode of Your Career, Unscripted. Stacey is a Director, Customer Success Modern Work/Converged Communications | Americas Enterprise at Microsoft. If you want to learn about leading with authenticity and care, viewing bump...

🎙️ I’m very excited to share Episode 3 of Your Career, Unscripted featuring two-time Emmy award winner Seth Shapiro!  📽 Seth is a global leader in media and technology, and he has built an insanely unique and successful career at the heart of disruption. 💡 Seth's journey is a masterclass in anticipating industry shifts, taking calculated risks, following your intuition despite what everyone else...

🤝 Episode 2 of Your Career, Unscripted, is out! I am so thrilled to share this episode with Julia (Cabral) Flavin, Senior Director of Product Marketing at LinkedIn (where she's grown her career for over a decade). 📈 Julia started her career in Finance, before pivoting first into the Tech industry, then into the Marketing field. Today, Julia leads a team of marketers that cover well-known & l...

I could not be more excited to kick off this podcast with Shawn Layden, former Chairman of PlayStation Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment and former CEO of SIE America. I knew I wanted to start this podcast off with a guest who had an incredibly interesting career and someone who was kind, empathetic, and dedicated to giving back to younger generations. Shawn is all of those thin...