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Ever since we started How I Got Here, we have been looking to learn from the various tools, analyses, and thought processes that people use as they design successful careers for themselves. But, as our guest today exemplifies, sometimes good decisions don't come from a pros and cons list or from crunching data -- they come from a strong sense of intuition and trust in oneself. Dr. Howard Murad's career -- which spans pharmacology and medicine, military service in Vietnam, and ultimately building a skincare empire at the age of 50 -- was fueled by a strong sense of conviction in his gut feelings. Listen to how Dr. Murad used his intuition to conquer numerous challenges in his career and life, and become the world renowned skincare expert and innovator that he is known as today. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Omar Shahine, Corporate VP of Product at Microsoft, has had a passion for computers since the fourth grade, but growing up, he never considered going into technology. When it came to thinking about careers, Omar wanted the surest path to success and security, which based on what he knew, meant he should become a doctor. He believed that all he needed to do was study hard, go to a good school, and the rest would take care of itself.  Instead, Omar found himself kicked off that path. Thankfully, through his time using computers as a hobby, he was able to get a job at Microsoft, which is where he’s worked for the last twenty years! In a world where company hopping has become the default, Omar’s career journey offers a great perspective on how you can craft a meaningful career and life without moving from place to place --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

During college, Catherine Halaby developed a strong view of what she wanted to do in the world. Ultimately, she wanted to work for the United Nations and support countries post conflict.  After graduation, she found herself at a desk job in DC, writing grants and itching to be actually out in the field. But when she finally got the opportunity to be in the thick of it, things did not go well. She found herself in a moment of crisis, questioning her path and how she would be able to contribute.  Catherine’s story is one of the biggest “plot twist” career stories we have ever shared on How I Got Here. I hope you enjoy hearing how she went from avoiding all on-campus recruiting to becoming an MBA graduate to where she is today, leading content partnership at TikTok. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Héctor Colón believes that boxing truly saved his life. Bullied for the color of his skin and growing up in poverty, boxing brought structure and discipline to Héctor's life. And he was good at it, to say the least. Héctor became a 7X national champion and traveled all around the world with the US team. At just 19 years old, he was favored to go the Olympics. Soon after, though, Héctor completely quit the sport of boxing to pursue something that was bigger and more important to him. Hear what made Héctor quit boxing despite his immense success in the ring, and the ways in which he has carried his legacy with him throughout his career to get to where he is today. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Melissa Baird describes herself as the best two truths and a lie player in the world. Her eclectic experiences help shed a light on why: Melissa has worked in fields as diverse as marine biology, fashion and e-commerce, hospitality, and now in healthcare, where she serves as COO for hims & hers. Her career switches are guided by her philosophy of bravery and her ability to challenge self-imposed rules to unlock new opportunities. In moments that require courage, she asks herself: "If I do this thing which scares me, what is the most likely worst case scenario?" Hear how Melissa used the answer to this question to navigate inflection points in her career, eventually landing at the job that makes her love going to work every day. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Katie has an amazing ability to navigate her career along two seemingly opposed career truths. First is that you know yourself best and you know what will truly make you happy in a job. And secondly, that you have limited knowledge based on your own experiences, so it’s important to be open minded and not overly rigid. The way Katie threads the needle here is by being firm on her values, but open on the destination. Rather than taking the approach many of take which is to pick some role and work backwards to see how we can get there, Katie leads with her values and what drives her and lets that guide her to the next career step. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

In honor of finishing Season 2 of How I Got Here, Lara and Eric spend some time reflecting on all the conversations and career journeys they’ve heard over the course of this season. Listen in for some cross-episode synthesis, Lara and Eric’s personal career takeaways and some book recommendations to further your own career journey. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Like many of us when we were growing up, Amy Weinblum had big dreams for her future. Her dream was to work for none other than Oprah Winfrey. Once she was in college, though, Amy discovered that she had a passion for lots of different things and she lost track of what exactly she wanted to do with her career. That is, until she asked herself a fateful question. Ultimately, her answer to that question led her to achieving her childhood dream – she became Oprah Winfrey’s Chief of Staff for eight years -- and much more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

As we move through our lives, we never know what experience around the corner could have an outsized impact on our future. For our guest Amrita Saigal that experience was a college internship working on feminine care products, like pads and tampons. From there , Amrita grew her career with a focus on developing sustainably elegant products, combining her engineering background with her passion for the environment. Not only is Amrita a two-time founder, but she is also someone who has enjoyed working in large organization like Google and Proctor and Gamble. The one thing that has remained constant throughout her varied experiences is that Amrita is deeply motivated by solving a problem at hand. Her conversations with new mothers led her to the problem she is currently working on: building a better diaper. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Caitlin Reiche was attracted to the linear, clear cut career path. After she graduated from college, she pursued the natural next step for someone interested in psychology -- she worked in a hospital as a clinical psychologist. However, she soon felt a growing sense that this seemingly logical journey she had embarked on didn't actually make sense for her. That's when Caitlin stopped thinking about her career as a path. Instead, she asked: "how can I make this more exciting for myself?" While staying true to her north star of working in healthcare, Caitlin took some detours within that realm. Rather than optimizing for some specific long term goal, she went searching for roles that she was excited about in the moment.  Ultimately, her approach paid off and she's in her dream job today as Chief Operating Officer at Buoy Health. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Andrew Gazdecki had one goal as he was preparing to graduate college: to not have a job. Instead of a “job,” Andrew wanted to be an entrepreneur and grow something that he himself built. At this stage in his career, Andrew was primarily motivated by money – he viewed entrepreneurship as a pathway to a life that he didn’t have growing up and one that he wanted to provide to his family. After almost failing out of college, Andrew ultimately succeeded. His first company was acquired and he suddenly had the power to buy whatever he wanted. In that moment, Andrew had a realization:  he had no wants. In working towards his goal of making money, Andrew fell in love with the process itself. In his own words, he loves playing startup. In this conversation, hear how Andrew got to the place many dream of – selling a company and not having financial wants – and then figured out what to do next. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

A common career trope we hear constantly is to pick something, anything really, and focus entirely on it from the earliest age possible. Work 10,000 hours and you'll achieve success, or something of the like. Range, a book by David Epstein, pushes back on this advice. David argues that having a diverse set of experiences actually makes us better in the modern working world. In fact, it's important to explore and sample, because if you stick with something you don't like, you'll end up not only unhappy, but failing to achieve your full potential. Our guest today is an amazing case study of this winding and exploratory approach. Natalie McCullough, currently the President and Chief Commercial Officer at Guild Education, didn't start her career off in business. In fact, her first job out of college was as a geologist, doing environmental assessments on groundwater contamination. In this episode, Natalie shares her career journey from geologist, to bike guide, to management consultant, to finally where she is today: an executive business leader at a mission driven company, helping frontline employees get more education affordably. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Hey There, We hope that you’ve had a great start to the new year!  We wanted to share a quick update that we’ve been hard at work interviewing new guests for our upcoming season launching in March. We’re excited to bring you a diverse set of career stories and advice. In this season, you’ll hear from a geologist turned into a mission-driven business leader, a college student with a 2.0 GPA who became a successful serial entrepreneur, an engineer on a mission to build the first natural, disposable diaper, and more. To stay up to date, sign up for our newsletter: https://howigothere.substack.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

This episode is a bit of an experiment. Instead of featuring a guest's story, hosts Lara Mitra and Eric Eliasson will take some time to reflect on what they've learned since launching How I Got Here. You’ll hear what Lara and Eric plan to do differently in their careers as a result of 25 inspiring conversations and get a behind the scenes look of what they're thinking about as they continue to grow How I Got Here in 2021. Whether you've listened to one episode or all of them, we think this episode will get you thinking about your own professional journey and how you can make some changes for the better too.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Lorraine Vargas Townsend is a survivor. She survived growing up in a town where she didn’t always feel welcome as a Latina and a lesbian. She survived cancer – twice – including during her first year in college. These experiences fueled an activism in Lorraine—a desire to stand up for the underdog – which she’s made the singlehanded focus of her career. As an HR professional at Dell, A Cloud Guru, where she is the Chief People Guru today, and more, Lorraine has made it her life mission to fix as many companies as she can to ensure that everyone -- no matter their race, gender, or sexual orientation – is treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Kat Cole is the President and COO at Focus Brands, which owns well-known brands like Auntie Anne's, Moe's, Jamba, and Cinnabon. Kat started her career at the age of 15 so that she could provide for her family. One day during her shift at a clothing store in the local mall, she was recruited to be a Hostess at Hooters. Little did she know that she'd spend over a decade moving up the ranks at Hooters. By age 26, she was a Vice President at Hooters. At 31, she took a new job to be President of Cinnabon, and helped turn around a mall-based brand in the heart of a recession. As you might imagine, this journey did not come without its challenges. Kat's career story offers great insight into what it takes to be a successful business leader: tenacity, a willingness to say yes, and a lot of empathy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Growing up, Brittania Boey moved countries every three years. This shaped her professional approach: throughout her career, B demonstrated a strong ability to adapt to new cultures and situations. Unsurprisingly, then, B's career has been varied: she started by adjusting to the boys' club culture in investment banking, then moved on to a totally new culture at Disney where people valued art and media, only to later move into the start up world which was massively different than the corporate environments she was used to. Ultimately, B's story offers a great lesson for us all as we go through our careers: the ability to read the room and be humble enough to adapt based on the circumstances can be a powerful tool to finding success. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Melynda Barnes had four professional ambitions as a young child: to be an Olympic gymnast, President of the United States, an author of children’s books, and a doctor. For various reasons, she ultimately chose the pursue the fourth and became a surgeon, focusing on head, neck, and reconstructive surgery. But one day, after completing 10+ years of grueling medical training and without an alternative role lined up, Melynda quit her job as a full time physician. She embarked on a new path of entrepreneurship and innovation because in her gut and in her soul, she knew that this was what she was supposed to be doing. Melynda’s story is one of grit, perseverance, and a strong sense of belief in herself, even when those around her thought she was crazy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Meredith Whipple Callahan, executive coach and partner at Evolution, seriously considered going into a convent after high school. She found herself drawn to spiritual practice and questions. She even contemplated becoming a minister. Instead, after graduating from college, Meredith went into consulting to work for Bain & Company where she thrived. But as she got more experienced, she realized that the content of the work didn’t resonate with her anymore, leading her back to questions she has always asked herself: what do I want? What should I do to get what I want? What am I learning? What am I missing? What's next? In fact, during this conversation, Meredith is answering some of those same questions. We meet here in a place of transition that was thrust upon her by the pandemic.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support

Tod Plotkin, CEO and founder of Emmy award winning Green Buzz Agency shares his career story, starting during his early years selling baseball cards. His interest in business and striking it out on his own started at such a young age. In high school, Tod discovered his passion for video production. It was these two passions that eventually led to him founding his own video production agency many years later. Although it may sound like a straight line, Tod's path has had a bunch of twists and turns to get him to where he is today. You'll hear how Tod struggled through his first entry level jobs and even found that his dream job, working for the Washington Wizards, wasn't all it was cut out to be. After years of staying in this job, one bad Friday at work led him to make the jump and see how he could make it on his own. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howigothere/support