Dee Poku Spalding creates spaces where women can be transactional and ask and receive without the pretense of five coffee chats. As the founder and CEO of The WIE Suite (Women, Inspiration, and Enterprise), a private membership club and peer learning platform for women in leadership, which I am a proud member of, Dee's mission is to redefine the way women and leaders achieve success for themselves and their companies by providing the community and tools for them to succeed at the highest...

Respectfully challenging the status quo and advocating for change in a large corporate organization can seem impossible. In this LEAVE YOUR MARK "snack segment," Andrea Wasserman, a visionary, outcome-driven executive with over 20 years of experience across consumer and B2B2C sectors, shares her secrets to intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship is when you have an entrepreneurial mindset within a company that is self-motivated and proactive. In this episode, we discuss how to be a change agent...

Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator with one foot in the world of practice—serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy New York—and one foot in the world of academia—as a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. His book For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be examines the influence of culture on consumption and unpacks how everyone, from marketers to activists, can...

Welcome to the LEAVE YOUR MARK snack segment on direct-to-consumer marketing for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. Sam Safer Valentine is the co-founder and COO of Norby, an intelligent marketing and communications platform for creative entrepreneurs that helps them grow by amplifying their work through a lightweight website, collecting leads, hosting events, sending text and email campaigns, and analyzing everything. This episode will specifically focus on how to build a...

Theresa Ebagua pursued her dream of becoming a luxury shoe designer after studying computer science, getting her MBA, and working in corporate America for ten years. As a Nigerian-born, LA and London-based luxury footwear designer, she founded Chelsea Paris, a luxury footwear brand, in 2012 inspired by her African heritage and named after her two daughters. Her mother's passing made her realize that life is short and there is no better time than the present to pursue her passion.  Many...

According to serial entrepreneur, author, and Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer, Christina Wallace, pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Focusing on one career path doesn't work anymore for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global pandemic (to name a few). We need a dramatically different relationship with work that allows us to define ourselves beyond our paid labor. In her new...

Jane Green has written twenty-one novels including 18 New York Times bestsellers published in over 25 languages with over 10 million books in print worldwide. She is now giving busy women audio dramas as the new head of Emerald Audio, a new podcast network producing shows from some of the best-loved writers in the world. As if that wasn't enough, she's also navigating her Dear Jane column in the Daily Mail. How does Jane Green manage to do it all? The answer lies in how Jane describes...

"Are you planning to get married in the next two years?" was the question that a hiring manager asked Maricella Herrera on a job interview in finance in 2012. That moment would change her professional journey forever, rerouting her from her finance path to empowering a women+ community. Today, as CEO of the Ellevate Network, with over 200,000 women+ members globally, she is helping to create a culture of equity and inclusion in business. As someone who has been with her company for over ten...

In this episode, Aliza Licht, award-winning marketer, author, and host of the Leave Your Mark podcast, discusses her new book, ⁠ON BRAND: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception ⁠and how to level up your career by working on your personal brand. Aliza is interviewed by culture and trend journalist, award-winning, four-time published author, and New York Times contributor Alix Strauss; they discuss the behind-the-scenes of ON BRAND and dive deep into what the reader can...

Laura Gassner Otting's superpower is seeing your greatness and reflecting it back on you so that you can get "unstuck" and achieve extraordinary results. In her book, Wonderhell, Laura explores "why success doesn't feel like it should and what to do about it." Wonderhell offers a roadmap to creating the mindset that lets you move forward in life, even when your success tells you to stop right there. Did you know fear and excitement manifest in our bodies in exactly the same way? The reason...

Lydia Fenet knows what it feels like to own a room. In her two-decades-long career as the leading charity auctioneer in the world, Lydia has changed the fundraising game—single-handedly raising over a billion dollars for over 800 organizations globally. At night she graces the stage alongside celebrities including Bruce Springsteen, Hugh Jackman, Matt Damon, and Jerry Seinfeld while raising money for the most notable charities in the world. As a keynote speaker, she travels internationally,...

Melissa Nightingale is an internationally recognized expert on management and the modern workplace. She's the co-founder and partner at Raw Signal Group and has helped thousands of bosses worldwide show up with more confidence and competence in how they lead. Previously, she spent 20 years working in tech and held executive roles that spanned marketing, customer success, community, and growth.  Melissa is also the author of two books: Unmanageable: Leadership Lessons from an Impossible...

Noora Raj Brown knows what it feels like to be uncomfortable, but she has never let it stop her. Whether it's been learning on the job or pushing unconventional conversations into the mainstream, Noora is on the front lines of what it means to be an entrepreneurial marketer. As Executive Vice President of Brand at goop, Noora has been instrumental in working with Gwyneth Paltrow to transform goop from a newsletter and multi-brand site into a full-fledged brand (and not a celebrity brand)...

Reshma Saujani is not satisfied. As a leading activist and the founder of Girls Who Code and MOMS F1RST, Reshma is not waiting around for change to happen. She's making it happen.  She has spent over a decade building movements to fight for women's and girls' economic empowerment. Girls Who Code has taught over 500,000 girls through direct in-person computer science education programming, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector. Her newest non-profit, Moms First, advocates for...

If you had to reflect on your life, what would be your defining moment? For Harper Spero, it was walking in NYC one day and, out of the blue, being unable to breathe. Harper has a rare Immunodeficiency called hyper IGE syndrome (there are only 300 people diagnosed in the world) and, after a life-altering surgery, decided to change the entire trajectory of her career. "The doctor said, 'You have a cyst the size of a golf ball in your right lung, and you need surgery immediately to remove it.'...

What happens when you don't take a no for an answer and look at it with a win-win mindset? Answer: Great partnerships. Felita Harris is a forward-thinking executive with extensive experience driving sustainable revenue growth, formulating business strategies, and cultivating collaborative partnerships. During her career, Felita has served in senior positions, including those of Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer at Harlem's Fashion Row (HFR)/ICON360, Executive Vice President of Alexander...

How many times can you reinvent yourself? The answer lies in how many career risks you are willing to take. For Bee Shapiro, it's been many. After starting a career at a major law firm, Bee leveraged her strong skills and love of writing and pitched herself cold to the New York Times, where she landed a job covering fashion. When the Time's beauty columnist left, she raised her hand to take on beauty. It turned out to be one of the best things to happen in her career. When Bee became...

Candace Nelson, a serial entrepreneur, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, and author of Sweet Success, got laid off during the dot-com bubble, leading her to reevaluate her career path. Growing up baking, Candace decided to fill her unemployed free time by attending pastry school. This experience unlocked her passion, making her realize that she needed to pursue a career that brought fulfillment and joy. She took a considerable risk and poured her life savings into creating the world's first...

Is career cushioning a new Olympic sport? It may as well be. In this special LEAVE YOUR MARK snack segment, I sit down with Catherine Fisher, Vice President of Integrated Data and Consumer Communications for LinkedIn. Because who's better than Catherine to share the information we need right now to ensure we navigate our careers strategically? Catherine is an established marketing and communications leader and has worked for some of the most notable consumer brands, including Netflix and...

Ever wonder how someone builds up enough credibility to become quoted in the media or a regularly booked public speaker? Peter Shankman is a five-time bestselling author, entrepreneur, and corporate speaker. It's been 24 years since he had a typical job after he lasted one week at a magazine. As someone with ADHD, Peter learned later in life the driver behind his "faster than normal" brain and why he couldn't focus at work in the way an office job requires. Today, he travels the world as a...

Emily Palmer is an investigative reporter whose work has taken her from a jail cell at Rikers Island to small mountain pueblos in Durango, México. She has traveled across the country inspecting child welfare laws, uncovered environmental damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and embedded with the Sinaloa Cartel to tell the story of the drug war from across the border.  Emily has daily covered high-profile trials from New York, including drug lord Joaquín Guzmán "El Chapo" Loera and R&B...

This week’s episode is a little bedtime story from me to you. I decided to record the introduction of my upcoming book, ON BRAND: Shape your narrative. Share your vision. Shift their perception. as a podcast episode narrated by me! Get ready for some self-reflection! In less than 20 minutes, I guarantee that you will start to think about yourself and your career in a totally new way.  In ON BRAND, I share my strategies for developing your own personal brand to ensure your name gets dropped...

In the early years of her career, Kimberly Lee Minor rose through the ranks quickly. But at the exact moment that her star was on the rise, she had to make a personal choice to leave her role and take care of her family. Today, Kimberly is an accomplished executive with an impeccable record of building brands and developing strategies to keep business competitive and nimble. As an executive member of leading domestic and international retailers and brand organizations, Kimberly is currently...

Some people can't master one job, but if you're Rachel Johnson, you own your own 19-person law firm and double as a health and wellness founder. While working the high-stress life of being a lawyer for venture-backed high-growth startups, Rachel found herself never leaving her desk. Couple that with being a working mom, and it was time to make some profound health changes. In addition to being the co-founder of J&O Law, Rachel is the founder of @ahmi.health. She is on a mission to change...

Let’s face it: Work can be complicated. Layoffs are widespread, and workplace issues like harassment and discrimination can be daunting. But then there are also less scandalous topics like non-compete agreements and new offer contracts. This week on LEAVE YOUR MARK, I talk with Peter Rahbar, my friend and personal attorney, and we unpack all of this. Peter is the founder of The Rahbar Group and has represented individuals and major companies in nearly every aspect of employment law and other...