Episode #153: Building Meaningful Relationships To Win in Work and Life Tim Sanders is a Best-Selling Author of Love is the Killer App, a VP at Upwork, and an expert on building and cultivating relationships. While Tim’s book was released over 20 years ago, it has stood the test of time as relationships and building connection are critical elements of succeeding in life and in your career. Tim is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller, Love is the Killer App: How to Wi...
May 23, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 153
Niya Dragova is the Co-Founder and CEO of Candor, a company that helps tech employees negotiate compensation packages and advocate for pay equity in the tech industry. After learning on the fly about how to negotiate compensation and becoming aware of the information gap that employees face in compensation negotiation, Niya started coaching friends and colleagues on their compensation negotiation, which eventually led to starting Candor. Through her own experience and with advising hundreds of e...
May 16, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 152
Lindsey Pollak is NY Times Best-Selling Author author, speaker, consultant, and career and workplace expert. For the past two decades, Lindsey has been writing, speaking, researching and advising individuals and organizations on how to navigate and thrive in the workplace. During our conversation, Lindsey shared her observations and insights from her research and ongoing conversations with company leaders, higher education professionals and other career and workplace research that she has conduc...
May 09, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 151
To celebrate the 150 episode of the MBA Insider Podcast, Al Dea jumps on to share some of his reflections from building MBASchooled and the MBA Insider podcast. In this episode, Al shares some of his stories and experiences around going to business school, starting MBASchooled and deciding to launch the MBA Insider podcast. He also shares lessons and reflections of what he has learned about the MBA degree through the past 150 episodes, what he’s learned from starting a podcast, and what to expec...
May 03, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 150
Khe Hy is the Founder of Radreads, an online community and newsletter around productivity, life and careers. After a career on Wall Street, Khe quit his job and went on to pursue his own path, and started writing a newsletter, blogging, and building an online learning business all along the way During our conversation, Khe spoke about his career, and what led him to quit a career in finance to pursue a path to entrepreneurship, and eventually what led him to creating Radreads and the Supercharge...
Apr 25, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 149
This episode features MBA Insider Guest Host, Brad Vonick. A longtime supporter and friend of MBASchooled and the MBA Insider Podcast, Brad takes over the mic to interview his friend, Fernando Gutierrez, a Booth MBA graduate from the Class of 2017. After Starting his career in Management Consulting, Fernando decided to pursue an MBA at Booth, and then transition into tech. During the last 3 years he has been working in Product Management, and today he is the Head of Product at Jointly. During th...
Apr 18, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 148
Ethan Burris is a Management Professor and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business. He studies and researches on the concept of employee voice, and how employees can make their voices heard. Recently, Ethan wrote an HBR article titled “How to Sell Your Ideas Up The Chain of Command” a critical skill for any employee who wants to advance within their company, get their ideas heard and successfully execute projects. During the conversation, we spoke about...
Apr 11, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 147
Ben Jackson is the Founder and Principal of Hear Me Out, a Culture Strategy service that works with fast-growing companies to improve their culture and their workplace. Through 1:1 interviews, Ben and his team talk directly and confidently with the employees of the companies that hire them to understand workplace and culture challenges, and to identify potential solutions to improve company culture. But at the heart of their work is an ability to create spaces for employees to speak openly, dire...
Apr 04, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 146
In this solo episode, Al Dea talks about what to do once you’ve been admitted to an MBA program. He’ll go over some of the common things you need to think through before you accept your offer, and what information to find out from admission weekend events if you’re still evaluating your decision. Finally, he’ll also share a couple examples of things you can do to start preparing for your MBA. Listen today on Apple Podcast s or Spotify Links How to Prepare For Business School MBA Math My Experien...
Mar 28, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 145
Jeroen Verhoeven is the Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment at ESADE Business School. After working in Spain for 19 years with 16 of them at ESADE, Jeroen is well-versed in the value and impact of a global MBA experience. During the conversation, Jeroen spoke about the invisible, but essential aspects of the ESADE MBA experience and what makes it unique, along with the opportunities of attending a global MBA program. He also spoke about his observations of the changes in the MBA deg...
Mar 21, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 144
This episode’s guest is Brooke Elliott, the Executive Associate Dean of at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business. Brooke has been involved in the Gies College of Business for over 18+ years, and has seen first-hand the rise of online business education globally, as well as at the Gies College of Business, which offers a number of masters business degrees, including it’s iMBA program. During our conversation, Brooke spoke about the value proposition of the iMBA, and why the degree a...
Mar 14, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 143
David Siegel is the CEO of Meetup, the Author of Decide and Conquer , and well as a Wharton MBA Graduate. After a number of executive roles at companies including 1-800 Flowers, Investopedia and Seeking Alpha, David got his first CEO job as the CEO of Meetup in November of 2019. During our conversation David spoke about his career journey, leadership lessons and some of the more memorable moments of his journey and decision making that he had to make while leading Meetup through it’s journey dur...
Mar 07, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 142
This episode features guest Host and Friend of the MBA Insider Podcast , Jodi Innerfield. In this episode, Jodi spoke to her fellow Michigan Ross MBA Alumni classmate Ryan Bouchard. Prior to attending Ross, Ryan spent almost five years in the United States Army before getting an MBA from the University of Michigan. During the conversation, Jodi spoke to Ryan about his experience in the U.S. Army and his motivations for going to get an MBA. Ryan also spoke to Jodi about his career transitions he’...
Mar 02, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 141
Experiential learning opportunities facilitate hands-on skills application and growth for MBA students, while setting them up for new career opportunities. To talk about how experiential learning facilitates development and growth, we spoke with two UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA students, Jeryon Davis and Olivia Koziol, as well as Karin Cochran, Executive Director of the STAR Program at UNC Kenan-Flagler. During our conversation, Jeryon and Olivia, MBA students who participated in the STAR Program, spok...
Feb 27, 2022•40 min
Right now, many MBA students are in the thick of internship interview season, navigating preparing for interviews, finding opportunities and building relationships with hiring managers and recruiters all while managing all the other academic components of business school is no easy task! In this episode, Al Dea, walks through some common challenges that MBA students face during internship recruiting season, and provides some tips and best practices for staying on course and focusing on your own ...
Feb 21, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 139
Paul Millerd is an MIT Sloan MBA Graduate, and the Author of the Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Life and Work . Like many hard-working and driven college graduates, Paul entered the corporate world after college ready to work hard, achieve success and climb the corporate ladder. But through a series of events before and after business school, Paul ended up taking an alternative path, and evolving his views on life and work. Much of which is written about in his book The Pathless Path a...
Feb 14, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Christine Tao is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sounding Board, a leadership coaching platform focused on providing leadership and executive coaching to companies in a scalable way. After graduating with an MBA from Wharton in Marketing and Operations, Christine began her own journey in the startup and media world, with stints at growth-stage companies. Through these experiences, Christine learned about leadership and executive coaching, and witnessed the power of it herself, and as a result, was abl...
Feb 07, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 137
Breanna Atkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kokada, whose mission is to create good-tasting and healthy food with ingredients from around the world. After her undergraduate career, she spent some time in consulting. She was inspired to pursue her MBA early on, and applied to Wharton while launching her first company. Another large influence has been in her time as an athlete, playing as a student athlete at Duke, and then going on to be a member of the Jamaican national women’s volleyball team...
Feb 01, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 136
Jake Singer is the Co-Founder of Swapstack, and an NYU Stern MBA Alum. Prior to Co-Founding Swapstack, Jake spent his post-MBA career at Amazon, and after a few years left to pursue new career opportunities. During his exploration, Jake started a number of side projects, including his newsletter (The Flywheel) while also participating in On Deck, a Learning Cohort and Online community that connected him with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, which was a catalyst to Co-Founding Swapstack. During...
Jan 24, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 135
Alex Brandwein (UNC Kenan-Flagler, ‘20) is a UNC Kenan-Flagler Graduate and the Founder of Brandwein’s Bagels, a bagel shop located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After working in the Investment Banking industry to start his career, Alex came to business school with a desire to pivot into a new career. Through reflection and exploration and the use of the many entrepreneurship resources at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Alex decided to open a bagel shop, right in the heart of Chapel Hill during the spring ...
Jan 17, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Yannell Selman is a UC Berkeley Haas MBA Graduate and the Founder of Cultiveit, an online wellness platform that human resources departments use to recommend “high-quality time-off” experiences to treat worker burnout. Selman built the company partially based on her own experiences with burnout in her career, and during her time in business school used many of the entrepreneurship programs and offerings at Haas to develop, test and scale her product and organization. During this conversation, Se...
Jan 10, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 133
One of the questions that is top of mind for any professional who is considering an MBA is around value - what is the ROI of an MBA degree, and is it worth it for me? In this solo episode, Al talks about how an MBA is one of many potential accelerants for career growth and learning, and why someone might value an MBA degree. He walks through key questions around figuring out if an MBA is worth it to you, the common reasons why people see value in an MBA, some alternatives to MBA degrees, and how...
Jan 05, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 132
This week, we’re flipping the format on the MBA Insider Podcast, with the help of a former guest and friend Eryn Schultz, and putting Al Dea (MBA Insider Host) in the guest chair. In this episode, Eryn, a fellow entrepreneur, talks to Al about his own entrepreneurial journey with building MBASchooled. Al spoke about his motivation for creating MBASchooled, why he recently left his corporate career at Salesforce to focus on his entrepreneurial journey, and what’s next for MBASchooled. Listen toda...
Dec 13, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 131
In this episode, we spoke to Tanvi Lal (UC Berkeley Haas, ‘22) and Faud Lagali (UCLA Anderson, ‘23) 2 Members of the Founding team of VC Unleashed, a global community of BIPOC and women MBA investors. VC Unleashed was Founded by Michelle Dhansinghani (CBS, ‘22) as a means to improve pathways to the Venture Capital Industry for BIPOC and women investors. During our conversation, Tanvi and Faud spoke about their interest in the VC industry, why they were motivated to participate in building VC Unl...
Dec 06, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 130
Alan Quigley and Chris Anen are Founding Members of the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund, a Venture Capital Fund they helped create that is affiliated with Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. During our conversation, Allen and Chris spoke about the ideation process for coming up with the idea for the fund, the actual process of building and launching the fund, and why they are looking to invest in underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs. Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify ! Link...
Nov 29, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Felix Watson Junior is a UCLA Anderson Alumni, and the Founder of the PM Mastermind Group. After starting his career as an engineer, Felix pursued an MBA to pivot into a career in product management, and has done PM stints at Microsoft and Google. Now, Felix helps educate current and aspiring Product Managers through his PM Mastermind Group. During our conversation, Felix spoke about his journey into Product Management, and his advice to aspiring Product Managers. Listen today on Apple Podcasts ...
Nov 15, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 128
In this episode, we spoke to TJ Scott and Kelsie Carter, two MBA students in the Class of 2022 in UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Full-Time MBA program. TJ and Kelsie both come from different backgrounds and experiences, but are both advocates of allyship and honoring the intersectionality of whole human beings. TJ and Kelsie spoke about their own unique journeys to UNC Kenan-Flagler, why they chose to get an MBA degree, and how the role of allyship and intersectionality play in creating a diverse and inclu...
Nov 08, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 127
Elizabeth Davis (Tuck, ‘20) is a Tuck MBA Alum and Investor at Anthemis. In her role at Anthemis, Elizabeth works closely with the Female Innovators Lab, a Venture Fund and Studio dedicated to helping female entrepreneurs start and scale businesses in the financial services ecosystem. During our conversation, we spoke about Elizabeth’s career journey to, some of the experiences behind how she found her interest in the intersection of female entrepreneurialism and financial services, and her moti...
Nov 01, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 126
Andrew Crisp is the Owner of Carrington Crisp, and works with top business schools around the world. He is also the Author of a recently whitepaper titled “The Future of Lifelong and Executive Education,” where he conducted research on prospective MBA students, employers and hiring managers to better understand how higher education needs to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of professionals. During our conversation, Andrew shared some of the insights he found in his report and what those in...
Oct 26, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 125
Shyvee Shi is a Kellogg MBA Alum and Product Manager at LinkedIn. During our conversation, Shyvee spoke about her journey to Kellogg, and her post-MBA career, both as a management consultant and now product manager. She also gave a detailed look into the transitions that she’s made, first from consultant to product manager, and then making another internal transfer to another product management team. She also shared more about her recent experiments with producing content on LinkedIn, and some o...
Oct 24, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 124
