Work From The Inside Out

As far back as he can remember Travis Scott has always called himself a plant nerd. Growing up in a small town in Indiana, he loved spending time outside in nature and in the public library where he would pour through books about plants and science. Travis thought he would pursue a career in landscape architecture but in college, he decided to major in environmental science. Travis’ career has been anything but linear. He has taken several diverse turns along the way into environmental consulting with the Department of Defense, sales and account management, corporate recruitment, and, for the past decade-plus, marketing - specifically marketing and sales operations. The kinds of companies Travis has worked at are equally diverse including startups (Jobster), Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Comcast, and Booking.com), and private companies (technology, steel, hospitality, supply chain and distribution). Today, Travis is the Founder of RainierDigital, a consultancy helping companies solve interesting operational problems in marketing and sales. In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Travis’ journey:Travis is currently enrolled in Washington State University's Master Gardener Program.He is the author of Think Differently: How Recruitment Marketing Gets You Noticed Over the Noise. Learn more and connect with Travis here:FacebookLinkedInFacebookTwitterWebsiteStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

As Deepa Purushothaman grew up, she always felt different. Being one of a few students of color amongst the 500 in her school in White House Station, New Jersey, she felt challenged to belong. Each summer, Deepa would go to India to visit family, and she didn’t fit in there either, because she was ‘very American’. At home, race was not discussed. She had an inner drive and a competitive spirit, that propelled her through her different-ness. Deepa was the only girl on the boys soccer team. Later, she realized that breaking boundaries and navigating unfamiliar spaces were the paths on which she was to travel.Deepa went on to earn degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard’s Kennedy School, and the London School of Economics, consecutively. She followed her interests in politics and policy, spending her junior year in Washington, D.C. interning at the White House and the U.S. State Department. Upon graduation, Deepa felt private sector experience was important, so she joined the consulting firm, Deloitte, intending to stay for a few years. Two-plus decades later, Deepa was a senior partner at Deloitte, focusing on women’s leadership and strategies to help women of color navigate corporate structures. She was the first Indian-American woman and one of the youngest people to become a Partner in the firm's history.Deepa spent many years growing Deloitte's Social Impact Practice and served as the National Managing Principal of Inclusion and the Managing Partner of WIN, Deloitte's renowned Women's Initiative. In these roles, she advised Fortune 100 clients on inclusion strategy and focused on acquiring and retaining diverse talent in the US firm.Leaving Deloitte in 2020, Deepa co-founded nFormation, a company created for women of color by women of color. nFormation is a membership-based community for professional women of color, offering brave, safe, new space and helping place women of color in C-suite positions and on Boards. Deepa wrote a book, The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America, published in March 2022. In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Deepa’s journey:Deepa practices what she preaches. She is a founding board member of Avasara, India's first leadership academy exclusively for young women.She has also served on the Board of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the UN WEP’s Leadership Group.Deepa is a Women and Public Policy Program Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School where she concentrates on research to combat systemic racism in corporate structures to help Women of Color rise.Learn more and connect with Deepa here: Deepa’s LinkedInLinkedInFacebookTwitterWebsiteStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

Shari Leid’s life started out “a little messy” as she refers to it. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she was abandoned as a baby and has never known her actual birth date, birthplace, or birth name. After being moved to approximately four different locations, Shari was adopted by a Japanese American couple from Seattle. They were older parents, both had been interned in camps during World War Two. Shari reflects on her identity struggles resulting from her own adoption by parents who had their own unresolved issues. Yet, she sees her glass as half full. Shari is grateful for the opportunities she has had, assuming that if her life had not started as it did, she would have grown up under very different circumstances. She studied psychology in college, expecting that she would go on to pursue a graduate degree. Finding that she was moved by her sense of justice, Shari decided to go to law school. She became a litigator because she wanted to have a voice for those who could not speak for themselves. Shari practiced law for 14 years as a criminal prosecutor and as a defense attorney on civil cases for an insurance company. She reached a point where she did not feel as if she was living her purpose. At the same time, Shari was starting her own family by adopting a baby from China who was soon after identified as having developmental delays. Two weeks after bringing the baby home, Shari discovered she was pregnant. She decided to take a break from the law and dedicate herself to being at home with her children. Shari said this was the hardest work she has ever done.During this time Shari got into fitness and became a trainer. Once her kids were in school she opened a fitness studio but decided to close it when she had to have double hip replacement surgeries in her 30s. In her 40s, she went through a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She asked herself, “What am I doing here?” This led her to start a coaching practice and writing.Today, Shari operates An Imperfectly Perfect Life, LLC, a professional mindset coaching business serving clients who are in those tricky middle-age years, helping them create the life of their dreams.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Shari’s journey:Shari is the author of the Friendship Flow transformational book series, which includes The 50/50 Friendship Flow: Life Lessons From and For My Girlfriends and Make Your Mess Your Message - More Life Lessons From and For My Girlfriends.She is a certified Life Coach, a Core Dynamic Specialist, and a graduate of the Happiness Studies AcademyLearn more and connect with Shari here: FacebookTwitterWebsiteYouTubeInstagramLinkedInAn Imperfectly Perfect Life FacebookStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

The oldest of four sisters, AnwinMbahalways thought she should set the example as the responsible one.Growing up in a sheltered diplomatic household, her father worked for the Cameroonian embassy and her mother was a homemaker, who received a stipend to run the household wherever they lived across the globe. Anwin shared that her parents slotted her and each of her sisters into four careers. She was the designated medic, her next sister was the designated lawyer, the one after that was an engineer, and the last one was an architect.Anwin went to university in London, and began her studies in medicine. Since she was 18, Anwin could apply for a credit card, her first taste of freedom. Unfortunately, she took more than a few bites, applying for multiple cards, and maxing out every one of them. It all caught up with her when her car was repossessed and she had to borrow money from her younger sister to pay her electric bill. She was supposed to be the big sis. How low could she go? Thus began her financial education. Anwin also admitted to her parents that she was not interested in becoming a doctor. Today, she helps successful driven businesswomen who are struggling with the overwhelm of gaining control of their finances to attain financial independence. Anwin is a certified Business Wealth Strategist, Gender/Racial Wealth Gap Advocate, and founder of Wealthfluency. Having 10 years of experience with major banks in Europe to implement systems that make them a lot of money, she's uniquely placed to help women understand their finances and develop systems that help them build wealth, achieve financial security, and the freedom they are looking for.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Anwin’s journey:Anwin finished university with a degree in biomedical research and then pursued her career in finance.She attended boarding school in Italy and only visited Cameroon to see family so it never felt ‘like home’ there. Today, she lives in FloridaLearn more and connect with Anwin here: FacebookLinkedInYouTubeTake the Wealth Booster QuizWebsiteStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

Janine MacLachlan is on a mission to get ideas heard. She’s a communications strategist with deep experience in brand positioning and business storytelling. Janine works with executives and aspiring leaders in the areas of executive visibility, thought leadership and essentially helps them get out of their own way. How many of us would like a little help with that?Growing up in Saginaw, Michigan with three siblings, she admits that they have different childhood memories than she does because while they were outside in the yard playing ball, she was in her room absorbed in her reading. Janine loved books. She also wrote lots of stories and sketched pictures to go along with them. In fact, when her parents downsized their home a few years ago, they gave her a box full of the stories she authored as a kid. In college, she majored in journalism, working as an editor for the university newspaper. Upon graduation, Janine went to work for a public relations agency where she was able to get a wide range of experience. After several job and geographic moves, Janine became the Director of Marketing and Communications for the American Dental Association in Chicago. She remained there for nine years when she decided to start her own communications firm. Today, Janine is a regular contributor to Forbes in the area of leadership strategy, where she has interviewed executives from AbbVie, Microsoft, and 3M, as well as authors, and academics.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Janine’s journey:Janine is an activator at SheEO, a multi-national organization that provides loans and mentoring to women-owned businesses that support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.An advocate for women at work, she is president of the Chicago chapter of Ellevate, a global network of professional women.Janine authored a book published by the University of Illinois Press, called Farmer's Markets of the Heartland where she traveled to eight Midwestern states to visit farmers' markets, meet farmers, interview chefs, and food artisans. She did all the photography, too. Her background in public relations enabled her to put together the book in a way that she could tell stories about sustainable food production, as well as the people who sell beautifully grown food at farmers' marketsLearn more and connect with Janine here:LinkedInInstagramWebsite Stay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to newsletter

Gaurav Bhatnagar and Mark Minukas are the founders of Co-Creation Partners, a firm that advises, consults, and coaches senior leaders and their teams on how they can design improvement programs and harness the talent and creativity of their people to achieve better business results. They focus on how people show up, communicate, problem-solve, and lead to determine how large the gap is between strategy and execution. Together Gaurav and Mark researched and authored a book, Unfear: Transform Your Organization to Create Breakthrough Performance and Employee Well-Being. They suggest we have two superpowers: the power of imagination, and the power of language, which we use to craft our future. In our imagination, we see fear as something bad that we need to protect against, and as a result, we show up in a certain way. Yet, if we imagine it as an opportunity for learning, shifting the language to ‘unfear,’ it gives us a whole new avenue, partnering with fear to explore new ideas, opening a way for making choices and decisions.Gaurav and Mark had each been helping organizations transform their business performance for over 15 years prior to working together. Previously, Mark served in the Navy, working as an engineer, and then joined McKinsey as a business analyst, progressively elevating his role for several years. He and Gaurav first met partnering on a project there. Gaurav was an external vendor who did mindset and organizational culture work, while Mark brought operations expertise to the project. Initially, Mark was very skeptical about Gaurav’s work, concerned that he might actually harm their project. Interestingly, Mark’s view of Gaurav’s contributions to their work quickly changed. Soon after they completed the work, Mark left McKinsey to start his own consulting firm, and periodically, he and Gaurav would collaborate on projects. A few years later, they officially joined together at Co-Creation Partners.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn about Gaurav’s and Mark’s journeys:Gaurav and Mark each bring their strengths to combine into a cohesive team at Co-Creation Partners. They see that there are two parts to everything: there's a being part and a doing part.Mark is very good about creating discipline around systems and the corresponding implementation.Gaurav’s strength is helping people shift their mindset, and presence, into solid behaviors.Learn more and connect with Gaurav and Mark here:Visit: www.unfearbook.comVisit: www.cocreationpartners.comConnect on LinkedIn: Co–Creation Partners Connect on LinkedIn: Gaurav Bhatnagar Connect on LinkedIn: Mark Minukas Stay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

Eric Vernsten was a kid when the OJ Simpson trial was on TV. He and his older brother would watch it daily and on Friday nights, along with his family, he consumed a lineup of crime programs, such as Dateline. Eric was a talker. He liked to tell jokes and argue with people too. It occurred to him that law school might be in his future, but as he moved through high school, and then college, he turned his attention towards pro sports management. During the summer between his junior and senior college years, he got an unpaid marketing internship with the Austin Toros (now the Austin Spurs) after sending his resume to every NBA minor league team. His parents gave him $500 to get settled in Austin and he jumped into it, as he put it. In the off-hours, he worked as a wine sampler in liquor and grocery stores and waited tables. The following summer, after graduation, he was invited back to Austin to do season ticket sales, a paid role. Within a few weeks, Eric realized he hated the work. He still had law school on his mind and pivoted in that direction, moving back to his college town to live with a friend and study for the LSAT. Like the experience of many 20-somethings, Eric reflects on these decisions as big life lessons.He didn’t get into law school the first time–another life lesson. Eric was not easily deterred. He applied again and earned dual JD/MBA degrees. After graduation, he landed in the wealth management field at a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs and while it sounds glamorous, it was not without its bumps and scrapes. He passed the bar exam but he was not getting any legal experience so he started to do volunteer legal work. Then a friend suggested he apply to the Army National Guard for a legal role. Eric got an offer and took a leave from his wealth management job to train with the Army. Once on board, he was one of a few lawyers who was tapped on January 6, 2021, to be on-site in Washington D.C. to deal with the aftermath of the insurrection. Eric did not return to his corporate role. Today, he is a prosecuting Assistant State’s Attorney in Winnebago County, Illinois. His newest job is father to a nine-month-old baby boy.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Eric’s journey:Building off his earlier career in wealth management Eric recently opened his own business as a Financial Advisor. This is a side gig for him.He dabbles in stand-up comedy and improv in his “spare” time.Learn more and connect with Eric here:Visit: ericvernsten.ghost.ioConnect on LinkedInFollow on InstagramTwitterStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to newsletter

Devon Harris is a founding member of the first Jamaican bobsled team, which competed in the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada. Their exploits inspired the Disney movie Cool Runnings. Devon competed again in 1992 and 1998 as captain of the Olympic teams. His very early years were spent in rural Jamaica with his grandmother, an amazing storyteller. Her stories had a great impact on him, especially those about soldiers and their extraordinary abilities. He then moved to Kingston, Jamaica to live with his Dad and attend school. He describes it as a challenging, rough, violent, ghetto environment. Early on, Devon focused on school and sports as he knew that excelling in these areas was his ticket out of the ghetto. At 15, he discovered the Olympics ABC Wide World of Sports series on TV. “When you think of Olympic athletes, I think of these superhuman beings. What I saw in those series were very average people but they had extraordinary dreams. And they had an equally extraordinary desire to make those dreams a reality. So that's when it dawned on me, wow, anybody could become an Olympian, within reason you need a talent. But outside of that, if you dare to dream that extraordinarily, then backed up that dream with work ethic, sacrifice, and commitment. That's when I decided that I wanted to become an Olympian.” Of course, bobsledding was not on Devon’s radar as his dream Olympic sport. Listen to our conversation to learn how that came to be. While Cool Runnings tells the story of how the original bobsledding team was formed, Devon shared that the movie is highly fictional. Today, Devon is a motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist. He shares his lessons about persistence over obstacles to living one's best life. He wrote a children's book Yes, I Can, and a semi-autobiographical book, Keep on Pushing Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings. In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Devon’s amazing journey:Devon is a graduate of the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England. He served as an officer in the Jamaica Defense Force retiring as a captain.He is a philanthropist creating the Keep On Pushing Foundation, which supports the education of kids in disadvantaged areas and his original schools in Jamaica.Learn more and connect with Devon here:InstagramYouTubeFacebookLinkedIn TwitterWebsiteStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

designer, creating and facilitating engaging and interactive career development learning experiences to help workplaces build cultures of connection and inclusion, and students and professionals build careers of meaning. As a former senior manager at Salesforce, she brought more than one hundred employees together from two internal teams by blending their unique strengths to create a training app that has helped more than ten thousand customers. Over her thirteen-year career, Rebecca has brought out-of-the-box marketing and community-building strategy to more than fifty brands in industries such as financial services, media, hospitality, nonprofit, and tech. In addition to inviting Rebecca to be my podcast guest, I included her best-selling book Knock: How to Open Doors and Build Career Relationships That Matter in the resources section of my recently released book, Work from the Inside Out. I believe she offers a highly valuable guide to readers seeking fresh ways to engage in their professional relationships and extended networks. Today, Rebecca has assimilated her experiences into five actionable steps, known as The Knock Method®, to fill a confidence and education gap. As people grow their careers, they will have the tools to feel empowered, and build high-quality, mutually beneficial professional relationships that don’t just lead to jobs but also strengthen the collective efforts that drive positive organizational change and leadership.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Rebecca’s journey:At the age of twenty-six, Rebecca was named a Rising Star Finalist in the 2012 Austin Business Journal Women of Influence awards after founding a successful small-business marketing consultancy, helping more than twenty-five local businesses, startups, and nonprofits reach new audiences.Rebecca established the first social media policies for the State of Texas at Texas.gov in 2010, and she authored an award-winning blog, The Rebeccammendations. Learn more and connect with Rebecca here:FacebookLinkedInTwitterWebsiteInstagramTwitterContact Rebecca to set up a workshop: Rebecca@theknockmethod.comStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter

Do you remember your first job? Darcy Eikenberg wins the prize for having one of the most unusual first work experiences. During the holidays in her central Illinois hometown, she was a talking mailbox at her local shopping mall. Imagine how a job like that would have made her resume stand out in her early career pursuits!Darcy has roots that run deep when it comes to her relationship with work. She told me the story of her paternal grandfather who lost his father at age 14. He helped his Mom and eight siblings by going to work immediately at a local factory in Baltimore, Maryland, remaining there for over thirty years and retiring as the company’s chairman and CEO. Darcy’s father also worked for the company much of his career. The message was solid, “We had opportunities in front of us, and we needed to share with others and be able to contribute to helping others too and not just focus on ourselves.” Darcy stays true to those who came before her and yet, she has carved her own path in honoring the dignity of work and service.Today, Darcy is an executive coach and the author of Red Cape Rescue, Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job, which shows how to get more of what you want, without changing careers, or finding a new job without sacrificing yourself. The red cape is a metaphor for the confidence you felt as a kid when you grabbed a towel or a sheet and threw it around your shoulders feeling in control, even if all you controlled was in the backyard. Darcy shared, “The red cape feeling is the key to helping us individually as well as across our world. What if you could feel that way every day at work? What would change for you and not only what would change for you, but what can change for your company, your community, and your world?”Darcy wears a lot of hats. She's been an executive coach to leaders at organizations such as The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, StateFarm, Deloitte consulting, and much more. She consults and speaks about career growth, employee engagement, and leadership development all over the world. She blogs regularly on leadership and career issues at redcaperevolution.com. Her ideas have been shared in the Harvard Business Review, Thrive Global, CNN.com, The Ladders, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Forbes, among others.In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, learn more about Darcy’s journey:Darcy is a former communication consulting business leader at Hewitt Associates.She graduated from Northwestern University, studying journalism, speech, and communications.Learn more and connect with Darcy here:FacebookLinkedInFacebookTwitterWebsiteStay Connected:Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn@TammyGoolerLoeb on InstagramWork From The Inside Out WebsiteSubscribe to  newsletter