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Erika Ayers Badan

WORK Podcast offers real, and relatable insights into work, leadership, and culture from someone who’s been there and done that (mistakes included). Through interviews, commentary, and listener questions, Erika provides a funny, unfiltered and unapologetic look at how to be yourself and be successful. 

erikaayersbadan.substack.com

Token CEO

Kerri Rosenthal is an artist, a businesswoman, a mom, not someone giving up her ambition (is that what we’re supposed to be doing at work these days?), someone who’s going for it. 

I watched her this past Saturday stocking pots. I was stacking bedding. 

I like a woman who doesn’t quit, who doesn’t quite fit in and who has a drive to make something. Kerri is one of those people. 

Listen to what she has to say. 

This is WORK What She Said. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work What She Said: You Can Make A Business Around Something That Makes You Feel Alive

This headline somehow feels both shocking and completely unsurprising.

The McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace study is out, and the takeaway is bleak. Fewer companies care about advancing women. Even fewer care about advancing women of color. And somehow, we are now talking about an “ambition gap” like women just collectively woke up and decided to want less.

Let’s be clear. Women are still paid less. Still underrepresented in the rooms that matter. Still doing most of the work at home. Still being asked to show up like nothing else changed after Covid, after MeToo, after the great return to office squeeze.

On this episode of Net Net, we talk about why this moment at work feels so brittle. Why job security feels fake. Why trust in the promise of work is eroding. And why more women are quietly asking themselves what all this effort is actually for.

This is not about one group winning and another losing. That zero-sum framing is part of the problem. The real work is opening the aperture. More voices. More paths. More people being given a real shot, and actually being supported when they take it.

If you work with people, lead people, or care about what work is turning into right now, this one is worth your time.

This is WORK Net/Net.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Net/Net: So Much For Advancing at Work

Hi! Ever felt like you’re on a Disney ride through every big-company headache imaginable? 

Think lawyers, bankers, finance goons, stale conference rooms, staid conversations and the creeping sense that the machine is running you, not the other way around.

Big companies exist for good reason. They build real things - consistently. They deliver at scale. 

But they also can suffocate the people who want to tinker, experiment, break stuff, and dream. The renegades. The builders. The ones who get hives at the prospect of OKRs, KPIs and strategery. 

On this episode of Unsolicited Advice, we get into what it actually takes to keep creativity alive when the machine takes over. How small groups can save big companies. How to protect the spark from the process. How to build something real without getting crushed by the weight of everyone else’s need for control, accuracy and uniformity. 

If you’ve ever felt yourself wither in a big org or wondered why your best ideas show up in small rooms, this one is for you.

This is WORK: Unsolicited Advice! Watch full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Unsolicited Advice: How to Keep Creativity Alive in Big Companies

Kathy Ireland has a big business. She parlayed a modeling stint into a pretty massive licensing business. 

Here’s what I liked about our conversation and why you should give it a listen:

It takes a pretty unique person to not want to do something that’s lucrative and flattering. Kathy shares a lot about her time as a model - what she liked, what she felt she lacked, and how and why she decided to move on.

Her now business began with a pair of socks.

Enjoy!Watch full episode on YouTube. 

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Conversations: 13 Year Old New Hampshire Erika Would Not Believe She Would Talk To Kathy Ireland

Today we’re talking about the Omnicom–IPG merger and what it means for agency jobs, how AI is replacing layers of work inside holding companies, and why middle-layer roles are most at risk in this new ad economy.

This is WORK Net/Net

Watch full episode on YouTube.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Net/Net: The Omnicom–IPG Merger and the Future of Advertising

This is a good listen for anyone needing a push to put themselves out there and to accept imperfect, chaotic and unfamiliar situations as a way to meet people, learn things and enliven yourself.

We tackle the quote: “So I recommend that everybody here join all sorts of organizations, no matter how ridiculous, simply to get more people in his or her life.”

This is WORK: Underlined

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Underlined: Join Organizations No Matter How Ridiculous, To Get More People In Your Life

Please meet Cynthia Pong. She came to me by way of super-connector and personal board director an occasional SVU actor, Sarah Storm. Cynthia Pong packs a lot of punch. A one time public defender turned career coach / founder of Embrace Change. We have a wide-ranging conversation about the disadvantages women, and especially women of color, face in the workplace . We also talk about starting your own business and the elusive topic of helping people answer the question “What Do You Want.”

Watch full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Conversations: Answering The Question 'What Do You Want.' Perspective from a Public Defender turned Career Coach.

Jennifer Fisher came by this week. 

She has a lot of energy and a spicy, strong, fuck-it-let’s-do-it vibe. 

Her baubles are also next level.

We talked about working for what you want, failing and figuring things out, the importance of salt, toothpicks and being happy being yourself.

If you’re looking for a gift for the girl who already has everything - check out our Food52 x Jennifer Fisher toothpick!

If you’re looking for beautiful things for home and table - don’t miss our Black Friday / Cyber Monday bonanza - Everything is waiting for you on Schoolhouse and Food52.

Watch full episode on YouTube. 

This is WORK Conversations.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

WORK Conversations: Jennifer Fisher Gets What She Wants

Hi! I’ve been on 3 red eyes in the past week. I can’t quit a red eye no matter how hard I try. The lure of not wasting the day in a plane always trumps the blur, hangover-esque daze of the next two days after a night of no sleep. 

Sidenote: It’s fall and apparently the changing fall weather causes bumpy sky roads according to the JetBlue guy at 6am today. 

This is what work is like this week.

On this episode of Unsolicited Advice we are talking about geopolitical uncertainty and its bearing on your work. Hello Tariffs. Goodbye Margins.

Listen in if you care to understand how stuff that’s high above your pay grade or that seems way far away from you can impact what you have to work with and what your work is going to be like.

This is WORK: Unsolicited AdviceWatch full episode on YouTube.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

WORK Unsolicited Advice: You Can Only Control What You Can Control

Today we’re talking about group chats and what not to put in them, the problems with meeting culture and what makes A players leave (read: growth).

This is WORK Net/Net
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

WORK Net/Net: Racist Texts, The Meeting That Could Have Been An Email and Why People Quit You

In this episode of WORK, Erika sits down with Dustin Baker and Maya French, the co-founders of Happy Pop, to talk about what it really takes to build something from nothing—twice. They get into the chaos of launching a beverage brand, learning everything on the fly, and why community and confidence matter more than any investor pitch. It’s a story about resilience, reinvention, and making things that make people feel good.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

You Don’t Need an MBA to Build a Brand

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