Work with Erika Ayers Badan

This is an episode for people grappling with how to manage and how to embrace AI. Good managers in the future will seamlessly balance being human, creative, fallible, empathetic and visionary with tools, systems and services which automate all that isn’t differentiated nor distinct. Managers and people who refuse to adapt and evolve will be extinct in a workplace soon to be fueled by agents (and not the good looking Hollywood kind).Good managers use AI to buy time and insight. Bad ones either ignore it or dump garbage prompts into it and call that progress.The myth of management is that more people equals more power. The reality that managing people is hard, bureaucratic, and often inefficient. The future of good leadership looks like fewer people doing better work, supported by better tools.This is WORK. Unsolicited Advice. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Selena Rezvani, leadership coach and four-time author known for work on generational dynamics, explores why work feels harder than it should. Short takes on suffering at work, side hustles as career insurance, Gen Z’s co-creation expectations, psychological safety and dissent, and the squeeze on middle managers. Conversation is pragmatic, timely, and focused on improving everyday work life.

The most vibrant channel on Work Like A Girl’s slack is the working mom channel. It’s also the most honest, acute and to the point. It goes something like this:One woman says - I need help.The others say - I got you.In this episode of Net Net we talk about the politicization of the mom brand and the idea of motherhood - namely: Motherhood as a proxy for what women should want, do and be.Being a parent is hard. It takes patience, sacrifice, energy, and restraint. It also requires juggling more variables than most jobs ever will.What’s interesting to me is how women are increasingly becoming pitted against one another based on how they do it. Or if they decide to do it.There’s no one way for women to grow and flourish. The same is true for kids. The real work is creating systems that support different choices, different needs and different outcomes.This is WORK. Net Net. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Today we are talking endurance.We breakdown the quote: “The trick in any field, from finance to careers to relationships is being able to survive the short-run problems. So you can stick around long enough to enjoy the long-term growth.” from Same as Ever by Morgan Housel’s.Housel basically says the real trick is surviving the short-term problems long enough to benefit from the long-term ones. Which sounds obvious until you are in the middle of the short-term problems and losing your mind.In case you were wondering, the short-term problems never go away. They just change shape. Different job. Same stuff. New title. Same annoyances. Different company. Same human behavior.Endurance does not get nearly enough credit at work. Talent gets praised. Intelligence gets rewarded. Big ideas get airtime. But most careers are built by the people who can stay steady when things get boring, messy, repetitive, or just plain annoying.We talk about what endurance actually looks like in real life. Not grit as a poster on the wall, but the ability to compartmentalize, keep perspective, and not spiral every time something goes sideways. Showing up with energy even when you do not feel inspired. Doing the work in front of you instead of obsessing over everything else.We also get into effort. The stuff that takes no talent. Being prepared. Paying attention. Staying focused. Not quitting early just because something got hard or uncomfortable.If work feels heavy right now, if you are tired of the short-term problems and wondering when it gets easier, this one is a reminder that staying power matters.This is WORK. Underlined. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Ariana Ferwerda is the innovative founder of Half Days, a women's ski and outdoor apparel brand that launched in 2020. In this discussion, she reveals how she identified the gap in ugly yet technical women's ski gear. Ariana shares her journey of raising $850K early on and the challenges of building a team in a competitive market. They delve into issues like gatekeeping in the outdoor industry, the importance of blending functionality with personal identity, and Ariana's design inspirations from vintage aesthetics. This conversation is a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs!

Discover why worry often masquerades as productivity, yet rarely yields results. Explore the illusion of control and its toll on mental health, as well as the importance of trusting the process. Erika shares insights on how candid conversations can break cycles of anxiety and reframes problems as opportunities for growth. She encourages listeners to embrace imperfections in their problem-solving and highlights activities that can reduce anxiety. Trusting yourself to handle future challenges is the ultimate takeaway!

On this episode of Unsolicited Advice, we talk about what actually makes teams work. How clarity beats charisma. Why initiative matters more than experience. Why most partnerships fail long before the deal is signed. And why avoiding hard conversations always costs more than having them early.If you’ve ever felt stuck, frustrated, or exhausted by the way work actually functions day to day, this one will feel familiar. And hopefully useful.This is WORK. Unsolicited Advice. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Meet Katrina Gazarian. She’s an HR professional who decided the best way to talk about work right now was through satire, whiskey, and a YouTube show called Drunk at Work.Here’s what I liked about this conversation and why you should listen:Katrina has seen the same problems play out across every kind of company:Bad communication.Poor leadership.Control disguised as process.HR taking the heat for decisions they did not make.She talks honestly about what people get right and wrong about HR, why so many workers are angry right now, and why humor has become such a release valve for how work actually feels.We also get into Gen Z, letting go of control, focusing on the quality of your work instead of the chaos around you, and why most people would be better off worrying less and executing better.If work has been making you tired, cynical, or angry lately, this one will feel familiar. And maybe even a little relieving.As my friend Gayle would always say - Laugh or run.This is WORK. Conversations. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

I got a text the other night from my friend Erin letting me know that the year of the horse is in fact coming but it’s ok to not be ready yet because we are still in the mysterious hang-time between the lessons of 2025 and the light of 2026.Whew.I’m ready not ready for the fire horse of 2026. Still have some stuff to get organized and work thru.I was talking to my GPT agent this weekend and we were having a conversation on how AI is going to change things for humans. Obviously, we should consider the source, but my GPT was pretty firm that the things that make humans, human is what’s going to offer the greatest protection and antidote to everything AI:The ability to feel, the mess, the vices, the insistence on fixating on the past and the ability to imagine freely into the future. Being creative. Making the same mistakes more than once.This, in a nutshell is what makes work awesome (and terrible).In this episode we look back at 2025 at WORK. Launching Work Like A Girl, evolving to Substack, and a lot of conversations and ideas about failure, resilience, opportunity, creativity, perseverence, and a hope for new and better work - and a new and better you at work.If you’ve been listening along this year, this one closes the loop.This is Work. Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Explore the realities of career setbacks with practical insights on failure. Learn to view failures as lessons that accelerate growth rather than personal defeats. Discover the importance of taking ownership instead of adopting a victim mentality. Small, consistent actions can lead to recovery, and pausing before reacting helps preserve future options. Erika emphasizes the skill of rebounding, reminding listeners that resilience is key to success. Lastly, consider your audience’s perspective when setting intentional goals for the future.