Join Cathy and Van for a candid conversation with Jill Kelly, US CEO of EssenceMediacom. Jill talks about her origin story as a Korean adoptee, the path to becoming CEO, and navigating the first 90 days as a CEO of a recently merged organization. 

This time of year is steeped in traditions for many who celebrate Lunar New Year. We're preparing our homes and ourselves for celebration. But many second and third-generation immigrants may struggle to remember all the rituals, dishes, and symbolism associated with Lunar New Year. We sat down to chat with Mai Truong, who found herself addressing the dilemma of a fractured connection to our cultural heritage. Join us for a heartfelt conversation with Mai. And if you're still looking for all the decorations and details to celebrate Lunar New Year yourself, check out www.boandmei.com. #embracingculture #lunarnewyear #aapi

Have you ever asked yourself what you truly want? For many, it’s a hard question to answer. It takes intentional, deep self-reflection and a commitment to excavating your real desires. In this episode, Cathy and Van interview Bonnie Wan, author of The Life Brief, a practical guide to bold living. Bonnie shares her own story, getting messy, getting clear, and getting active when it comes to creatively and courageously living the life you truly want.

What are your 2023 Highlights? The end of the year is a great time for reflection. But let's get our of our routines and take a comprehensive inventory. What are the key categories of your life? When you look at the various areas of your life, how satisfied are you with your year? Tune in to a conversation on a very non-routine intentional reflection. #reflection #lifeaudit #wholeself

In a recent poll published by Fast Company, 52% of U.S. workers are considering a job change this year, and as many as 44% have actual plans in place to make the leap. In this episode we’re talking about making changes in our careers. Changes like shifting roles, industries, or re-starting your career entirely. Doing something like this may seem daunting but with a little self-reflection and planning, you may be surprised how exciting and fulfilling it can be.

As leaders it's an incredible responsibility to be the container for answers, comfort, inspiration, but it's even more fraught when navigating through crisis. Here's a behind the scenes discussion with Cathy and Van as they talk about leading through crisis.

Research has shown that business cultures rooted in kindness are also equitable, more diverse, and have stronger employee retention. Can APIs thrive in this culture when so many of us have grown up in families where praise and recognition are not prevalant? Cathy and Van talk about their own experience cultivating kindness, and discuss pitfalls that can limit kindness cultures from thriving.

Why is it so scary - but so important - to have big dreams? With special guests Sarah Kim-Tomcek, Client Services Lead, Digital Experiences for Avanade, and Jennifer Lin, Sr Manager, Philanthropy Communications at Salesforce, we explore our Career Rising approach to dreaming big, ambitious dreams, and discuss how having a dream is both grounding and uplifting.

We’ve been talking about doing hard things and setting big goals over the last couple of episodes, it only makes sense for us to talk about our own big goal of launching API Rising in 6 weeks. In this episode, we talk about our initial conversation, setting our own ambitious timeline, our strategy to launch, what we had to build, and most importantly what we learned along the way.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the daunting feeling of tacking a challenging goal. We might procrastinate, we might dread it, we might even lose sleep over it. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started and taking that first step, or maybe it’s about the endurance needed to accomplish your goal.  In this episode, Cathy and Van talk about one key ingredient in accomplishing a challenging goal.