LEAVE YOUR MARK: Freshly Brewed Career Advice with Aliza Licht

Let’s face it: Work can be complicated. Layoffs are widespread, and workplace issues like harassment and discrimination can be daunting. But then there are also less scandalous topics like non-compete agreements and new offer contracts. This week on LEAVE YOUR MARK, I talk with Peter Rahbar, my friend and personal attorney, and we unpack all of this. Peter is the founder of The Rahbar Group and has represented individuals and major companies in nearly every aspect of employment law and other workplace issues. After almost twenty years of representing major international corporate clients in high-profile matters, including over a decade as the chief employment attorney for Hearst, Peter has established a boutique employment practice representing individuals, including C-Suite executives, media personalities, and other professionals working in finance, media, sports, real estate, fashion, and tech. Peter has a unique perspective on workplace dynamics and trends due to the broad scope of his practice. He has real-time insight into hiring trends through his extensive experience in the negotiation and drafting of employment agreements, talent agreements, and separation agreements, and his specialty of representing individuals in negotiating non-competition agreements. Peter is also a tireless advocate for equal treatment in the workplace – representing and advising individuals in the negotiation, investigation, litigation, and mediation of employment disputes, including employment discrimination and harassment claims. Peter is based in New York City. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Pete and I dive into every major employment law issue in this episode and cover their do’s and don’ts. This is the episode you will save and play on repeat. The big topics we cover are layoffs, non-compete agreements, pay transparency laws, how to deal with harassment in the workplace, and so much more. *This episode will provide commentary and tactical career advice from a workplace expert. It is not intended to provide legal advice or counsel.

Erica Domesek is the Queen of DIY and the founder of the innovative DIY lifestyle brand P.S.– I Made This, which launched in 2009. Since then, Erica’s passion for entertaining and hand-making beautiful objects in ways that make everyday life more colorful and fun has become her calling card. She is a distinguished expert in the areas of design and style, as well as a leader in brand marketing for 15 years. Her personal mission is to inspire and encourage people everywhere to embrace the concept of crafting the life they want. Her new book, P.S.- We Made This: Super Fun Crafts That Grow Smarter + Happier Kids!, encourages parents (and kids!) to step away from the screens and help their littles learn essential sensory, motor, developmental, and life skills. From self-expression and imaginative play to problem-solving, these projects keep kids entertained, curious, and growing. Each chapter has simple out-of-the-box crafts, recipes, and ideas to engage kids of all ages. Erica’s success is built not only on her artistic gifts but also on her belief that her network is her net worth. More than that, Erica is an expert on marketing brands and herself. Her pitches are successful because they come from an authentic place where what she asks for will ultimately benefit everyone. Erica has appeared on The Today Show, Rachael Ray, The Martha Stewart Show, E! News, among many others. She was a judge on TLC’s Craft Wars, and her work has been featured in Glamour, InStyle, Teen Vogue, Elle, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal. Erica’s personal brand is happiness, vibrant colors, and creativity, but what happens when you suddenly realize that your world isn’t? In this episode, Erica takes us along her journey from using her talents to bring joy to others to someone who bravely recognized when it was time to say goodbye to her old self and move forward personally and professionally.

Lauren Maillian is a change agent committed to diversity, innovation, equity, and inclusion. She’s an award-winning marketer, prolific investor, advisor, entrepreneur, and board member with a multi-hyphenate career spanning over 15 years. She advised and invested in over 40 startups, and her portfolio represents over $5 billion in market capitalization. She is the CEO of digitalundivided, the leading nonprofit leveraging data, programs, and advocacy to catalyze economic growth for Black and Latinx women entrepreneurs and innovators. Their mission is to create a greater world where all women of color own their work and worth. She is also the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, a strategic marketing, and advisory company. A pioneer in the tech and funding space, Lauren was the first Black woman to start an early-stage venture capital fund as a founding partner and managing director at Gen Y Capital Partners. At 19, Lauren became the youngest winery owner in the country, co-founding the internationally recognized Sugarleaf Vineyards. She is also the author of her best-selling memoir, The Path Redefined: Getting To the Top On Your Own Terms. In this episode, Lauren shares her unapologetic view of the world, how she manages her day, tackles her goals (there are many), and works as a change agent in every room, she is in. Her advice and confidence will leave you feeling empowered to do the same.

Aya Kanai has done what most people don't know how to do— change industries. Over twenty years, she rose through the fashion industry ranks, with experience as a Fashion Director at publications including Cosmopolitan, NYLON, Women's Health, and Teen Vogue, ultimately becoming Editor-in-Chief of Marie Claire. But then Aya started having the desire to evolve. She was genuinely curious to understand how the tech platforms that impact our lives daily shape their own narratives. Connecting the dots between fashion and tech was possible because of her expertise in visual storytelling. Today, Aya is the Head of Editorial and Creative for Google Shopping, where she oversees the development and execution of merchandising and consumer content. She was previously the head of content and creator partnerships at Pinterest. In this episode, Aya takes us on her journey from her college days, where she trained as a Puppeteer, to that junior year college moment when she wanted to put off getting a job and instead applied for an experimental puppet theater fellowship. That opportunity would take her to Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Japan, and the UK, with the only rule that she could not have her feet on American soil for that entire year. That experience taught her to be courageous, independent, and resourceful in challenging circumstances; remember, there were no cell phones or laptops! Aya explains her transition to tech, how she remained fearless while tackling her new experiences, and what she has learned from her peers. She also shares why it's okay to be a beginner and that at various points in your career, you will be a beginner again and again, for better or worse, so you better start getting comfortable with it.

This week's episode on LEAVE YOUR MARK is really important to me. My guest is Carly Pildis, Director of Community Engagement for the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). The ADL fights all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact. They are a global leader in countering extremism and battling bigotry to protect democracy and ensure an inclusive society. Carly has dedicated her career to fighting for justice and equality on a global and national scale. All four of my grandparents survived the Holocaust camps. They witnessed and persevered through the horror in several extermination camps in Poland and were ultimately liberated from Aushvitz. I don't consider myself a political person, and I am not an activist. Still, the recent public antisemitic incidents have made me feel responsible for using my platforms to educate on this. The media largely ignore antisemitism; if it is covered, it's usually covered incorrectly. Carly Pildis is highly educated on this subject, and I hope you'll listen to this episode with an open mind. We all come from different perspectives, but I firmly believe in supporting everyone. But there are a lot of extremes at play right now, and we know that when things go to the extreme, whether at the far right or the far left, nothing good comes of it. I think you will learn a lot if you listen to the whole episode. Thank you in advance for your attention. In this episode, Carly shares the demands of her role, educates on the forms of antisemitism, why it's critical to abolish it, and behind the scenes of the ADL tackling some of the biggest headlines of late. She sheds light on one of the real misnomers about antisemitism which is that it only affects Jews. Antisemitism is hugely corrosive to democracy. "You'll see very well-meaning people be like, I support tolerance and support people of all faiths, and you're like, well, that's not really what antisemitism is. Antisemitism isn't about faith. It's about picking a group of people, an ethnic group, Jews, and blaming them for the world's ills, and sometimes that ends in violence or discrimination." The ADL's Never is Now is the largest antisemitism conference in the world. It's happening on November 10th at the Javits Center. If you're thinking about antisemitism, want to learn about antisemitism, wanting to know what you can do about antisemitism, you can learn more here. Thank you for listening, Aliza

What happens when you land your dream job and it isn't a dream in the end? Jenny Galluzzo started her career in journalism and spent many years researching, writing, hosting, and producing for Good Morning America, News 12, and Plum TV. She was excellent in her role, but after she had two children, she didn't see a path forward. Through her experience and that of her friend, Gina Hadley, they realized firsthand how hard it was to shift careers, especially after having children. Jenny understood that too many women are sidelined when family and work become overwhelming. That inspired them to come together to start The Second Shift, an innovative professional network connecting thousands of highly-skilled vetted women to flexible work opportunities with partner companies, including J.P. Morgan, Twitter, Etsy, and more. A fierce advocate for flexible remote work as a means for retaining female talent, Jenny is committed to placing women in the driver's seats of their careers so they can build lives rooted in confidence, intention, and optimism. In this episode, we discuss workplace trends, including Quiet Quitting, hustle culture, and the benefit of the limited engagement roles, aka "trying before you buy.” Jenny shares tactics for starting a gig, how to immerse quickly into a company even if it’s unorganized and there’s no direction, and why if you're a high performer, your role will be protected even during a time of layoffs.

In her own words, Hitha Palepu, a consummate multi-hyphenate who is incapable of saying no, drinks tons of coffee and admits that her secret to doing it all is not doing it all at the same time. She began her career at Cisco, but her path would eventually lead her back to her family-owned business. Today, as CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, she oversees financing, partnerships, and strategy for the company. She led the raise of a $5M seed round and a licensing agreement with Hyloris Pharmaceuticals for the company's lead product. But along her journey to this point, she had to work harder to prove herself as someone who could handle the role when she was always the youngest and only woman in the room. Not to mention, most of her father's colleagues knew her from birth. Hitha learned that being herself was the best strategy, and instead of conforming to the conservative nature of her work environment, she would lean into her personal flair. Hitha's sense of style and mompreneur juggling know-how has made her a must-follow. Her longtime blog, Hitha On The Go, established her as an authority on lifestyle topics and gave way to her book How To Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip. She's collaborated with leading brands (Delta, Headspace, and Google) and has a highly engaged Instagram following and newsletter. She curates the Webby-honored #5SmartReads every weekday, which reaches nearly 100,000 accounts. In this episode, Hitha shares how she learned to show up in rooms where she was the minority while still being true to herself. She explains how she developed a confident voice. Spoiler alert: The answer for her lay in talking less, being firm, and establishing boundaries. Her mantra of "stop talking and listen more" is written on post-its on her computer. Ironic advice considering she's the author of WE'RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris, someone she credits as a virtual mentor who has taught her to embrace rejection and never be put in a box.

We have all heard the term 'quiet quitting' circulating online. Before it was trendy, Jenny Blake referred to it as 'quietly unsubscribing from burnout.' From a young age, Jenny found herself promoted or exceeding expectations professionally, which always led to burnout. So the decision to work sustainably, setting aside the fears of being fired if she didn't give 200% at all times, led her to pivot again and again until she figured out her secret recipe for success. In her new book Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business, Jenny teaches that it's not about working as little as possible. Nor is it about creating a lifestyle business purely for one's own gain. It is about creating a life-giving business that energizes everyone who is a part of it, from the owner to team members, clients, and the community. Free Time is about making small investments now to create greater optionality in the future. It's a playbook to free your mind, time, and team for your best work. This book will teach you and your team to operate efficiently and intuitively while earning abundantly, so you can make your greatest contribution as a business owner. You'll learn much from Jenny's philosophy, even if you're not a business owner. In this episode, Jenny shares how to go from friction to flow in all areas of your life, how micro guilt and focusing on what you should have done is not benefiting you, and so much more!

Lauren, aka “Lo” Harris, began her career in journalism. Early on, she was crushing whatever came her way and quickly became “too good.” Supervisors would suggest she slow down while she saw men around her moving up. Feeling like she was suffering from the “pet to threat” syndrome that many Black women experience, she felt stifled by the ceiling above her and decided that she had reached the limit of people-pleasing and trying to prove herself. As someone who had studied art in high school and loved art as a personal passion, Lo decided to explore her creativity. It wasn’t until 2020 that her work became more than just a hobby. After creating her personal illustration, Justice, reacting to COVID, the election, George Floyd, and the ongoing cause for BLM, the partnership inquiries started coming in. Suddenly, Lo was an in-demand artist. For someone who had never considered starting her own company, she faced the reality that one was beginning around her. Today, Lo is an NYC-based artist, educator, and children’s book illustrator, who uses bright colors, strong figures, and relational compositions to create celebratory work that promotes visions of a better world. The important themes incorporated into Lo’s work deal with social justice, female empowerment, and mental wellness. With an impressive client list including Amazon, Old Navy, Hulu, Warby Parker, Bombay Sapphire, and the United Nations, Lo Harris will inspire you to find a way to use your voice. She’s even been on The Ellen Show. As someone who sincerely wants to abolish gatekeeping, Lo dedicates time to educating other artists on the business. She has created her business with intention, clarifying her own brand pillars and vision for a Lo Harris Universe, which will evolve into a future lifestyle brand. In this episode, Lo takes us along her journey from the days when she had to fake it til she made it to today and how she structures her business and time. She shares why she is building a team around her instead of waiting to be chosen by an agency and why she’s not waiting for brands to call her. This episode will leave you motivated and inspired!

Melissa Ben-Ishay is not afraid to say it like it is, a characteristic that didn't go over well at her first job when she asked her boss why he didn't write the email himself if he had so many corrections. She knew she wasn't passionate about doing well in that role, and it showed. After she was fired, she was faced with what to do next. Melissa decided to turn toward her passion, baking. In 2008, together with her brother, they embarked on the journey to create Baked by Melissa. Love, passion, and dedication are part of the recipe Melissa has followed both in business and life. Today the company operates 14 stores and has sold over 150 million cupcakes. Every cupcake is made by hand using only the most delicious ingredients. Bite-sized flavors, gift boxes for every occasion, and custom nationwide shipping packaging ensure their treats arrive safe and fresh. Baked by Melissa has become an endlessly popular gift-giving brand across the U.S., and Melissa has one goal: to be happy and make people happy, one bite at a time. In this episode, Melissa transparently shares how she gathered the courage to take on the CEO role after eight years in the business. As the face and keeper of the brand, Melissa knows firsthand what it takes to create and maintain a strong brand and why she won't compromise on those principles. Melissa's strong work ethic and belief that your team is everything contribute to her success. She also believes in the importance of surrounding yourself with people who have the skills you don't. This episode is a refreshing breath of fresh air because Melissa is as real as they come. We also learn how she came up with her now famous Green Goddess salad with her 21 million views on TikTok and made by Lizzo!