Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay ConnectedNew York Times bestselling author Dan Schawbel distills the most actionable and tangible advice from a variety of world-class humans including entrepreneurs, authors, Olympians, politicians, billionaires, Nobel Prize winners, TED speakers, celebrities, astronauts and more.
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My guest today is a video blogger, author, and entrepreneur, Nas Daily. Born in Israel to a Muslim-Arab family of Palestinian descent, Nuseir Yassin graduated Harvard University, while co-founding his own social media search engine. After Harvard, he became a software developer at Venmo for two years before creating the Facebook page “Nas Daily”. His ambition was to create a new video every day for 1,000 days in different countries, from The Philippines to North Korea, which is now captured in his new book “Around the World in 60 Seconds.” I had the opportunity to meet with Nas in Singapore recently when I was on vacation to learn more about who he is and how he’s been able to grow his platform to over14 million followers and over 4.5 billion video impressions.
My guest today is the bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Michael Peter Balzary was nicknamed Flea as a teenager based on his inability to sit still. After moving to California, he attended Fairfax High School, where he started his lifelong friendship with Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis. Originally a jazz trumpet player, Flea later was introduced to rock music and the bass guitar by Hillel Slovak. Flea co-founded the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1984 and since then they have released 11 studio albums that have sold over 80 million copies worldwide. In 2012, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Flea as the second-best bassist of all time. Flea is also the co-founder of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit music education organization for underprivileged children. I was very excited to speak to Flea about his relationships, life experiences and views that he wrote about in his new memoir “Acid for the Children” for this podcast.
My guest today is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, Steve Schwarzman. Born in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, Steve went to Abington Senior High School before enrolling in Yale University. When he graduated, he had a brief stint in the U.S. Army Reserve before enrolling and graduating from Harvard Business School. Steve’s first job was at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Then, he became a managing director at Lehman Brothers at age 31, before co-founding The Blackstone Group with his former boss and former CEO of Lehman, Peter Peterson. Today, Blackstone manages about $545 billion in assets, with over $7 billion in annual revenue, leaving Steve with a net worth of over $17 billion. I had the opportunity to visit Steve at his New York City offices to talk about the lessons he’s learned and his business perspectives, that are captured in his book “What it Takes”.
My guest today is the 25th U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ash’s father was a doctor and military veteran and his mother was a teacher. In Philly, he was fired from his first job at a local car wash. After graduating Abington Senior High School as the president of the Honor Society, he went on to Yale College then became a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. From 1993 to 1996, Ash served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during President Bill Clinton’s first term. During this time, he was responsible for strategic affairs, including the U.S.’s nuclear weapons policy. He continued to work his way up the hierarchy until 2014, when President Barrack Obama appointed him to be the 25th U.S. Secretary of Defense. After over 35 years of service, Ash wrote a book called Inside the Five-Sided Box about what he learned during his time at the Pentagon. In this episode, Ash gives us his insider perspective of his decision-making process, relationship with the troops and advice that’s applicable to our lives outside of the Five-Sided Box.
My guest today is video producer and lifestyle host for Refinery 29, Lucie Fink. Born in White Plains, New York to a radio DJ father and designer mother, Lucie has been a natural creative her entire life. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University, she worked as an Associate Producer at Ogilvy & Mather then became a producer and on-camera talent for Refinery29. At Refinery 29, Lucie created and hosts the award-winning YouTube series “Try Living with Lucie”, where she performs and documents her regular social experiments. She’s worked with brands such as Under Armour, M&M’s, Chase, Revlon, Reebok and many others. I’ve admired Lucie’s thoughtfulness and creativity when it comes to both content production and audience engagement for a while now so I was excited to speak to her for this podcast episode.
My guest today is the co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, Marc Randolph. Born in Chappaqua, New York, Marc’s father was a nuclear engineer, his paternal great-granduncle was psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud and his paternal great-uncle was PR legend Edward Bernays. After he graduated college in 1981, he began working at Cherry Lane Music Company based in New York and was in charge of the small mail-order operation. It was there where he learned marketing techniques, how to sell music directly to customers and used technology to track buying behavior. Marc continued to gain experience building direct-to-consumer marketing operations at Borland, then at various Silicon Valley start-ups, before becoming a founder of Integrity QA. A year later, Pura Atria acquired his startup and CEO Reed Hastings retained Marc as VP of Corporate Marketing. Later that year, Rational Software acquired Pura Atria for $850 million. Marc and Reed decided to join forces to launch Netflix in 1998, with Marc as the first CEO. Today, Netflix has over 150 million paid subscribers worldwide watching over a billion hours of video content each week with $15.8 billion in revenue annually. I sat down with Marc to learn more about his fascinating background, hear stories from his new book “That Will Never Work” and get advice on everything from pitching an idea to overcoming criticism.
My guest today is bestselling author, marketer and entrepreneur, Ryan Holiday. Born in Sacramento, California, Ryan dropped out of college at age 19 to apprentice under notable authors including Tucker Max, Tim Ferriss and Robert Greene, supporting their book marketing campaigns. After helping launch The 50th Law, Robert connected Ryan to American Apparel founder Dov Charney. Ryan served as the Director of Marketing for the company from 2009 until 2014, where he was responsible for many notable media stunts, which became the inspiration for his first book Trust Me, I’m Lying. Since then, he’s written several other books, including The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is the Enemy and his latest, Stillness Is the Key. I’ve known Ryan for many years and have always been impressed by his dedication to writing a book each year, how he supports the author community and his unique lifestyle, living on a farm outside of Austin, Texas. I was especially excited to have a discussion with Ryan about his new book because it’s relevant to my book, further emphasizing the importance of taking time away from technology to be present.
My guest today is nationally syndicated radio host, Elvis Duran. Born in McKinney, Texas, Elvis started his career as an on-air personality at WIOQ, Philadelphia’s top music radio station, and eventually became the program director before getting fired back in 1990. A year later, he became the program director and morning show host of KGSR in Austin, Texas. From there, he had a stint at Z-93 in Atlanta and 104 in Houston, before finally landing at Z100 in New York City. As the daily host of the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, he and his team grew to thirty stations in a single year. Today, the show is America’s most-listened-to Top 40 morning show and one of the 10 most-listened-to programs in all of radio, heard live by nearly 10 million people in more than 80 markets across the country. Like me, Elvis has interviewed many successful people, but is rarely the one being interviewed. That’s why I was excited to talk to him about his new memoir “Where Do I Begin?” at his legendary studio here in New York City.
My guest today is photographer and CEO of CreativeLive, Chase Jarvis. Born in Seattle, Washington, Chase attended San Diego State University on a football scholarship. While his original goal after graduating was to attend medical school, his plans changed after his grandfather died and Chase inherited his photography equipment. He instead went on a trip to Europe to follow his passion to be a photographer, leading to an extremely successful career. He was hired by the likes of Volvo, Nike, Apple and Pepsi to shoot lifestyle, sports and landscape photography and has won numerous awards for his work. In 2010, Chase co-founded CreativeLive, an online education platform, with millions of students globally and three billion hours of education consumed. A year later he started his podcast, Chase Jarvis Live, and you can listen to my episode on it called “Less Phone, More Human.” I’ve known Chase since the early part of my career, which is why it’s a pleasure to have him on my podcast to talk about his book, Creative Calling. As a fellow creative and entrepreneur, I was interested in learning more about how he sees himself and how his creative pursuits ended up turning into a business.
My guest today is actor and comedian Kevin Pollak. Born in San Francisco, California, he’s had a multi-decade career in both film and TV, spanning over 80 movies and over 40 TV shows since I was born back in 1983. His most notable movie roles in the 90s include A Few Good Men, End of Days and The Wedding Planner. As a standup comic, he’s had his own HBO and Showtime specials and Comedy Central named him one of the Top 100 Comedians of All Time. In 2009, he started Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, a podcast where he interviews his friends in the entertainment business. In 2017, Kevin joined the cast of the original series from Amazon called The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show will be in its third season and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2017 and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2018. We sat down on the set of the show at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, New York, to talk how what he’s learned throughout his career.
My guest today is the founder and CEO of charity: water, Scott Harrison. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Scott spent his early years as a nightclub promoter and was eventually hired by the likes of MTV and VH1 to throw parties. After experiencing a nightclub shooting in Paraguay, he quit his job and volunteered as a photojournalist for Mercy Chips, a charity that provides humanitarian aid for terminally ill patients. During his time there, he was exposed to the impoverished conditions in Liberia and started charity: water to serve Liberia and other developing nations by providing drinking water. Since it’s founding in 2006, charity: water has funded over 38,000 water projects supporting 9.6 million people around the world. After making such an impact, Scott wrote his book, Thirst, in order to use his story to inspire others. In this podcast, we delve deeper into his story to uncover how he was able to realize his life’s purpose, take action to realize his purpose and how his journey changed how he lives his life.
My guest today is New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich. Born in my hometown, Boston, Massachusetts, Ben is the son of a lawyer mother and radiologist father. He graduated Harvard University in 1991 with a degree in social studies. Over the course of a near two-decade career as a professional writer, he penned twenty books with over 4 million copies in print. His most famous work was Bringing Down the House, which was the story of MIT graduates who used a card counting system to make millions playing blackjack. The story was turned into the movie 21, which was released in 2008. Another notable book Ben wrote, and my favorite, was The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted by Aaron Sorkin into the hit film The Social Network. In the story, he paints Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a villainous college student who steal the idea for Facebook from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. In his latest book, Bitcoin Billionaires, Ben tells a redemption story of how the Winklevoss twins got rich by investing in Bitcoin. Dozens of people have tried to explain Bitcoin to me over the past few years and I still don’t get it, which is why this interview focuses more on Ben’s advice for becoming a professional writer.
My guest today is former Saturday Night Live star, comedian and author, Chris Kattan. Born in Culver City, California, Chris had an unusual upbringing. His father who was an actor, his mother was a model and his stepfather was a monk. He was raised on a Zen retreat outside of LA and lived in Bainbridge Island, Washington where he attended high school. Chris was a member of the improv comedy group The Groundlings in LA then moved to New York City to work on SNL from 1996 to 2003. With fellow SNL cast member Will Ferrell, he starred in the hit 1998 film A Night at the Roxbury. Chris also appeared in many other films including Hotel Transylvania 2, Superbad and Undercover Brother. In 2017, he was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and in 2018; he reunited with SNL alumni at The Tonight Show. His new memoir is called “Baby, Don’t Hurt Me”.
My guest today is songwriter, producer and author, Moby. Born Richard Melville Hall in Harlem, New York City, Moby was named after Herman Melville, who authored the classic Moby-Dick. His father died in a car crash while drinking when he was only two years old. His mother struggled to support him, relying on food stamps and welfare to make ends meet. His first job was a caddy on a golf course then took up music when he turned nine. Moby played guitar and his mom taught him how to play the piano. In 1983, he became the guitarist for the punk band The Vatican Commandos and started producing electronic music. After dropping out of college, he pursued his career as a DJ, eventually signing with Instinct Records in the mid-1990s. In 1999, Moby released his fifth and most well known album entitled Play, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide, and he went on tour for almost two years. He’s written two memoirs, Porcelain and his latest Then It Fell Apart, which we will be discussing in this episode.
My guest today is former co-host of MythBusters, host of Savage Builds and author of Every Tool is a Hammer, Adam Savage. Born in New York City and raised in Westchester, New York, his father was a creative known for his work on Sesame Street. As a teenager, he regularly visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed, where he learned how to do repairs himself. At five years old, Adam started acting and his early credits include Sesame Street and Star Wars. He later abandoned his acting career in favor of doing things with his hands like graphic design, animation and specific effects. This led him to co-host the 17 season 296 episode show MythBusters, which originally premiered on the Discovery Channel back in 2003. He worked as a model maker on the films Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys. Savage is currently an editor and contributor at Tested.com and his new show Savage Builds will have him collaborating with notable experts in their fields, friends, colleagues, and some of his favorite people on the planet.
My guest today is fashion designer and entrepreneur, Rebecca Minkoff. Born in San Diego, California, she became interested in design in high school working in a costume department. Then, she moved to New York City at age 18 to pursue her dream as a fashion designer. In 2001, she designed an “I Love New York” t-shirt, which appeared on NBC’s The Tonight Show and became an overnight sensation. Then in 2005, she designed her first, and now iconic, handbag called “The Morning After Bag”. It was so successful, that she started her company with her brother Uri under her name. In 2009, she created her first ready-to-wear apparel collection. Then in 2011, she received the Breakthrough Designer Award from The Accessories Council. Today, she’s grown her lifestyle brand to include accessories, footwear, watches and a men’s line, distributed in over 900 stores worldwide. Rebecca hosts the “Superwomen” podcast, where she talks to women in different professions to show you what their lives are really like.
My guest today is former CEO of HP and former U.S. Presidential Candidate, Carly Fiorina. Born in Austin, Texas to a mother who was an abstract painter and father who had a variety of jobs including professor, University dean, Deputy U.S. Attorney General and judge. She frequently moved in her childhood, living in London, Ghana and North Carolina. Carly studied philosophy and medieval history at Stanford University, while working as a secretary during the summers. While originally aspiring to be a pianist, she attended and eventually dropped out of law school. Carly ended up getting an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and a Masters at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In 1980, she started as a AT&T management trainee and eventually became the company’s first female officer as SVP and then led its North American operations. In 1995, she led corporate operations for Lucent Technologies, playing a key role in an IPO, and then was named group President for their global service-provider business. In 1998, Fortune Magazine named Fiorina as “The Most Powerful Woman in American Business.” From 1999 to 2005, she was the CEO of HP. Since leaving HP, she has served as chairman of Good360, the world’s largest product philanthropy organization, as chairman of Opportunity International, a Christian-based organization that lifts millions out of poverty around the globe through microfinance and chair and CEO of the Fiorina Foundation that donates to a variety of important causes. Fiorina ran for the United States Senate in 2010 and the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Her new book is called Find Your Way: Unleash Your Power and Highest Potential.
My guest today is fashion designer and founder of the Stuart Weitzman shoe company, Stuart Weitzman. Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he worked with his older brother at his fathers shoe factory called Seymour Shoes. Stuart designed shoes for his fathers business from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In 1958, he graduated from George W. Hewlett High School and in 1963; he attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. When his father died, he and his brother took charge of the business, sold it to a Spanish company and eventually purchased it back. Stuart was known for, and got attention from, the use of unconventional and unique materials like vinyl, cork, wallpaper and gold, as well as his objective to produce something flawless. He became famous for creating a “Million Dollar Shoe”, with 464 diamonds for Laura Harring who wore them to the 2002 Academy Awards. In 2015, Coach acquired the Stuart Weitzman Company for $574 million. Stuart stayed on as a shoe designer until retiring in 2017, but maintains his title as chairman emeritus. This year, the University of Pennsylvania announced that the School of Design will be renamed the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of design. I sat down with Stuart a few days before his keynote at the International Trademark Associations March Conference: The Business of Brands held in New York City on March 28th and 29th.
My guest today is New York Times bestselling author and the leader of the strengths movement, Marcus Buckingham. Born in London, he grew up with a stutter leaving him unable to speak until age 13. He overcame it by pretending to speak to one person, instead of 300, when addressing boys at his prep school. He was educated at Pembroke College in Cambridge, graduating with a degree in Social and Political Sciences in 1987. In school, he was recruited by professor Donald Clifton, the founder of SRI, which was later acquired The Gallup Organization. There, Buckingham was part of a team that worked on a survey measuring factors that contribute to employee engagement. Based on this research, he wrote his first book, First , Break All the Rules, which went on to sell over a million copies. He followed up with Now, Discover Your Strengths and The One Thing You Need to Know before launching his own company, The Marcus Buckingham Company in 2006. Fast-forward to 2017 when ADP acquired the company and Buckingham became their Co-Head and Talent Expert. His latest book, that he co-authored with Cisco SVP Ashley Goodall, is called Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World.
My guest today is #1 New York Times bestselling author, podcast host and speaker, Gretchen Rubin. Born in Kansas City, Missouri to a father who was a lawyer. She decided to pursue the same career, receiving both her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University. At Yale, she was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and won the Edgar M. Cullen Prize. After graduating, she clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. After her clerkships, she served as a chief adviser to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt. Then, she went on to write two biographies, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill and Forty Ways to Look at JFK. Then, she wrote Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide, which parodied self-help books by analyzing and exposing the techniques used to exploit those who strive for those worldly ambitions. She then went on to write a series of self-help books focusing on happiness, habits and human nature, including The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies and her latest, Outer Order, Inner Calm. Combined, her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies and have been translated into more than 30 languages. Gretchen teamed up with her sister, who is also a writer, to co-host the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast and Gretchen continues to write on her personal blog at GretchenRubin.com. I’ve known Gretchen for over a decade, right before her book, The Happiness Project, became a global phenomenon. We’ve kept in touch and shared insights into the publishing and media world and I’ve continued to be impressed by her openness to learning new strategies and her generosity towards up-and-coming authors.
My guest today is Belgian fashion designer and founder of DVF, Diane von Furstenberg. Born in Brussels in 1946, she initially rose to prominence after marrying German Catholic Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. Following their separation in 1973 and subsequent divorce in 1983, she continued to use his family name. After moving to New York, she met Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who admired her clothing designs, giving her the confidence to be listed in New York Fashion Week, which launched her business. A year later, she introduced the knitted jersey “wrap dress”, which became popular and had a big influence on women’s fashion. After the success of the wrap dress, Furstenberg was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1976 and her annual retail sales grew to $150 million. Then in 1985, she moved to Paris, where she founded Salvy, a French-language publishing house. There she started a number of other businesses including a line of cosmetics and a home-shopping business. In 2006, she was elected as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a position she still holds. Since then, she’s expanded DVF to over 70 countries, 45 shops worldwide and over $500 million in annual sales. Her clothes have been worn by many celebrities including, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Jessica Alba and Jennifer Lopez. In 2014, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes and in 2015, she was included in the TIME 100. She’s the author of Diane and The Woman I Wanted to Be. I caught up with Diane back in 2015, where we both spoke at the first annual Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women.
My guest today is Gary Vaynerchuk, the chairman of VaynerX, CEO of Vaynermedia, an angel investor and a bestselling author. Born in Belarus, Gary immigrated to the United States with his family in 1978 at the age of three. He lived in a studio apartment in Queens, New York with eight other family members, eventually moving to Edison New Jersey. There, he started his entrepreneurial journey by operating a lemonade-stand franchise, while selling baseball cards on weekends. At age 14, he joined his fathers wine business, renaming it Wine Library. Then in 1998, he launched Wine Library TV, a daily webcast covering wine, while growing the wine business from $3 to $60 million using email marketing, traditional advertising and Google AdWords. Then, in 2009 he launched VaynerMedia, a digital ad agency with clients including GE, Unilever, Chase and PepsiCo. Since then, he’s launched several other ventures, including The Gallery, which combines his acquisition of the media properties PureWow and ONE37pm, in addition to athlete representation company VaynerSports, and his latest serving small businesses, The Sasha Group, named after his father. Gary is the bestselling author of 6 books, including the classic Crush It!, and has invested in Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and dozens of other startups. This is my 4th interview with Gary in the past decade and the first one to be featured on his daily documentary series on YouTube called #DailyVee (episode #504).
Simon Sinek is the author of Start With Why, The Infinite Game and other bestsellers. Born in Wimbledon, London, Sinek grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, London, and Hong Kong before settling in the United States. He graduating from Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest in 1991, studied law at London’s City University, and then graduated Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in cultural anthropology. Simon began his career at two well-known New York ad agencies: Euro RSCG and Ogilvy. Simon went on to speak at a TEDx Puget Sound in South Dakota back in 2009. The video went on to generate over 40 million views, subtitled in 47 languages, and is the third most watched TED Talk ever. With the success of the TEDx Talk, he went on to write the million-copy bestseller Start With Why, and then followed up with other bestsellers including Leaders Eat Last, Together Is Better and Find Your Why. His upcoming book is called The Infinite Game. This is my fourth interview with Simon since 2010 and I always enjoy his thoughts on all aspects of leadership, the workplace and culture.
Chris Anderson was born in Pakistan. He studied at Woodstock School in India before moving to Monkton Combe School in England. At the University of Oxford, he studied physics, then changed to philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1978. Then in 1984, he was captivated by the home-computer revolution and became an editor at two of the UK’s early computer magazines, Personal Computer Games and Zzap! A year later he founded Future Publishing with a $25,000 bank loan. In 1994, Anderson moved to the United States where he built Imagine Media, publisher of Business 2.0 magazine and creator of the popular video game users website IGN, which expanded to publishing 150 magazines and websites with 2,000 employees. This success allowed Anderson to create a private nonprofit organization, the Sapling Foundation, which eventually acquired the TED Conference in 2001. Since then, the TED Conference has become one of the most prestigious stages in the world, and through the TEDx initiative over 100,000 TED Talks have been published online generating billions of views. Chris is the New York Times bestselling author of TED Talks and host of “The TED Interview”, a podcast where he speaks with some of the world’s most interesting people to dig into the provocative and powerful ideas of our time.
Ana Kasparian was born in Los Angeles California. She is the daughter of Armenian immigrant parents and learned how to speak English as a second language after watching Sesame Street. Ana was a performer in her childhood dancing ballet from 3 to 19 years old. She completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and a Masters Degree in Political Science at California State University Northridge. After graduating, she became an assistant producer with CBS Radio news stations in Los Angeles. In 2007, after stints at AOL News, YouTube, TidalTv and On Point, Ana became the producer and co-host with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, a progressive news and commentary program on YouTube with over 4 million subscribers and over 34,000 videos. She’s been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and has won several awards including a Webby for Best Web Personality and Host, and a Streamy Award for Best News and Culture Show. She’s been teaching broadcast journalism at her alma mater and speaks at many universities, conferences and political events.
Beth Comstock is the former Vice Chair and Chief Marketing Officer of GE. Beth grew up in Winchester, Virginia. Her mom was a teacher and was called the unofficial mayor of Winchester because of her outgoing nature, while her father, was a dentist and was an introvert like her. In her 27-year career at GE, she held a variety of the most senior positions in the company. In 1996, she was the SVP of Corporate Communications at NBC, then held a similar role at GE two years year. In 2002, she was named GE’s first chief marketing officer in more than 20 years. Then, in 2005, she became the President of Integrated Media at NBC Universal, where she led the TV ad sales and digital marketing team, and had a hand in the early development of HULU.com. In 2008, she became the Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, leading GE’s growth and market-innovation initiatives, then ended her career at GE as Vice Chair in 2017. Currently, she is the author Imagine It Forward, on the board of Nike, and a trustee of The National Geographic Society. Beth been recognized as one of the of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by both Forbes and Fortune, and one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company. This is my second interview with Beth over the past two years. I remember when I was at her GE office here in New York City and I noticed that she didn’t have an office. Instead she sat with all the other employees. To me, this shows that she lacks ego and promotes collaboration and creativity, which is rare for an executive at her level.
Richard Branson was born in London as the eldest of three children. Despite having dyslexia and a poor academic record in school, his parents supported him. Branson ran both Student magazine and a record business from his church. He interviewed famous people for the magazine, such as Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger and used the magazine to advertise his record business. This enabled him to start the record store that eventually launched Virgin Records. After selling the company years later, he went on to start Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Pulse, Virgin Galactic and over 400 other Virgin brands under The Virgin Group. Combined, his companies employ over 70,000 employees and generate over 25 billion in annual revenues. From 1998 to 2017, he wrote 8 books including Losing My Virginity, Screw It, Let’s Do It and Like a Virgin. Richard has had a variety of remarkable achievements, including being knighted by Prince Charles of Wales, named in BBC’s poll of 100 Greatest Britons and Forbes estimates his net worth at over 5 billion. I’ve been privileged to interview Richard three times in my career. While he may be an intimidating figure, when you meet him in person he’s very approachable and his views have become more relevant over time.
Ryan Serhant is a Bravo TV star, author and top New York City real estate agent. Ryan has born in Houston, Texas and raised outside of Boston, Massachusetts. After moving to New York City as an adult, he began his first day in the real estate business on September 15, 2008, which was the same day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage collapse. While the real estate market slowly recovered, Ryan transformed himself into one of the most successful real estate brokers in the world. Through his hard work and leadership, his sales team was ranked in the top 5 nationwide from 2015 to 2017 by The Wall Street Journal. Ryan is the star of Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Listing New York and Sell It Like Serhant, which is also the title of his book.
Jay Shetty was born and raised in London. At the age of 18, he met a monk and after graduating from college, at 22 he went to live as a monk across India and Europe for 3 years. After moving on from monk life, he started to speak at companies, preaching some of the lessons he learned as a monk. Then, he became Accenture’s Social Media coach for executives and helped them with online branding and their digital strategy. After posting videos online, one was spotted by Arianna Huffington who invited him to be the Host of HuffPost Lifestyle in New York. Eventually, he left the Huffington Post and focused all of his energy on his own brand and content. Now with over 2 billion views, over 12 million Facebook followers, Jay is making his wisdom go viral and having the positive impact on the world that he desired many years ago. I’ve gotten to know Jay personally and I’ve never been more impressed with another human being. He’s able to give extremely deep life advice in an approachable way.
