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The Messy Parts
with Maryam Banikarim
23 episodes
5 days ago
Is your biggest mess also your best teacher? Broadway veteran Michael McElroy tells Maryam about his remarkable journey from rejection at Carnegie Mellon to leading Broadway casts and founding the award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices. He and Maryam explore how to find purpose after burnout, the power of community and service, and what happens when you finally stop waiting for permission to begin. Michael opens up about identity, faith, and the messy truth behind resilience — reminding ...
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Is your biggest mess also your best teacher? Broadway veteran Michael McElroy tells Maryam about his remarkable journey from rejection at Carnegie Mellon to leading Broadway casts and founding the award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices. He and Maryam explore how to find purpose after burnout, the power of community and service, and what happens when you finally stop waiting for permission to begin. Michael opens up about identity, faith, and the messy truth behind resilience — reminding ...
Show more...
Careers
Business,
Society & Culture,
News
Episodes (20/23)
The Messy Parts
Turning “No” Into Opportunity: Broadway’s Michael McElroy on Rejection and Resilience
Is your biggest mess also your best teacher? Broadway veteran Michael McElroy tells Maryam about his remarkable journey from rejection at Carnegie Mellon to leading Broadway casts and founding the award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices. He and Maryam explore how to find purpose after burnout, the power of community and service, and what happens when you finally stop waiting for permission to begin. Michael opens up about identity, faith, and the messy truth behind resilience — reminding ...
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6 days ago
42 minutes

The Messy Parts
Finding Light in the Darkness: Writer Jonathan Merritt on Faith, Courage, and Starting Over.
Jonathan Merritt was a pastor’s son destined to preach — until he was publicly outed online and his life imploded. When faith, identity, and ambition collide — what do you do? Jonathan knows that question intimately. But through the wreckage came clarity, courage, and an entirely new way of living. In this candid episode, Jonathan tells Maryam how losing community, career, and certainty opened the door to authenticity, spirituality, and a renewed sense of purpose. Whether you’re navigating a ...
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1 week ago
49 minutes

The Messy Parts
Build a $22M Company While Surviving Layoffs, Lawsuits, Losing Friends: Create and Cultivate's Jaclyn Johnson
At 22, Jaclyn Johnson landed her dream magazine job — until she realized it paid less than her rent. That rejection set off a chain of bold decisions: launching a fashion blog, being sued by a former employer, losing a job she moved across the country to take, and eventually starting her own PR/branding agency. Jaclyn tells Maryam how she turned fear into fuel and turned Create & Cultivate from a side hustle into a brand she eventually sold for $22 million. Along the way, she learne...
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3 weeks ago
41 minutes

The Messy Parts
From Her Parents' Basement to Editor-in-Chief (Twice): Danielle Belton's Comeback Story
Think your biggest breakdown means you’ve failed? Journalist Danielle Belton was hospitalized multiple times for bipolar disorder while she was building her career. In this powerful episode, she opens up to Maryam about a childhood riddled with anxiety, falling into a deep depression after a failed marriage, and drinking tequila at work to power through panic attacks. Danielle hit rock bottom in her mid-twenties and moved home to her parents basement, where she started over and got a job fold...
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3 weeks ago
42 minutes

The Messy Parts
The Real Reason You're Paralyzed in Your Career (It's Not What You Think): Farnoosh Torabi
What if everything you were told about building a career was wrong? Financial expert and host of The So Money Podcast, Farnoosh Torabi, gets raw about the messy reality behind her success—from being forced to give up her dream schools to avoid debt, to getting fired twice, to drowning in $300K of business debt that forced her to sell her home. This isn't another "hustle harder" story. It's an honest conversation about the fears nobody admits: waiting for permission that never comes, taking re...
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1 month ago
41 minutes

The Messy Parts
The Points Guy Couldn't Get His Own Credit Card: Then He Made $28 Million (at 28 Years Old)
Brian Kelly (aka The Points Guy) has been obsessed with credit card and frequent flyer points since childhood. At age 12, his dad challenged him to book a family vacation using only points, and young Brian successfully got his entire family to the Cayman Islands for free. Fast forward to his twenties, and his credit was ruined. He had to resort to payday loans. As he says, "I was in survival mode." He walked to work because he couldn't afford the subway fare. His boss had to give him a raise ...
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1 month ago
39 minutes

The Messy Parts
Debunking Myths About Careers, Generation Gaps, and The Power of Side Hustles: Sam DeMase
If you’re job hunting, eyeing a promotion, or just feeling burnt out—this conversation will remind you that your path doesn’t have to be traditional to be powerful. From bossy kid to bold career coach, Sam DeMase is redefining what leadership and success really look like—with empathy, authenticity, and purpose. In this episode, Sam shares her unconventional journey: from managing 70 people at a fast food chain straight out of NYU to building a business that empowers women to ask f...
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1 month ago
43 minutes

The Messy Parts
Edge of Bankruptcy, Surviving A Toxic Partnership, Starting Over: Gwen Whiting's Messy Truth
What happens when your toxic business partnership implodes and nearly 20 years of work vanishes while you're getting your hair done? Gwen Whiting, co-founder of The Laundress, opens up about the brutal reality behind building a successful brand, selling it to Unilever—and watching everything she created collapse. In this raw conversation, Gwen reveals how early tragedy shaped her resilience; surviving on credit cards for over a decade; why her career path was not marriage; and the devastating...
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1 month ago
45 minutes

The Messy Parts
Overcoming Anxiety and Thriving Through a Twisty Career: Emma Rosenblum
Job opportunities in her industry faded away slowly and then all of a sudden. So Emma Rosenblum committed to her side hustle and found a way to pivot into a new career altogether – she wrote a book. A literary agent rejected it as "too mean,” but she found a way through. Then, when her manuscript accidentally leaked to her real-life community (the location of the book) with real residents' names still in it, the small-town drama was intense. Now a full-time novelist obsessively checking...
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2 months ago
40 minutes

The Messy Parts
No to Wall St. and Yes to Broadway (and Tony Awards and heartbreak) with Tom Kitt
Tony Awards, Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Awards. Next to Normal, If/Then, Hell's Kitchen, and NY State of Mind. Tom Kitt traded a Wall St. job offer (and paycheck) to follow his passion, a life making music, but that decision didn't come without great cost. He spent five years developing his first Broadway show, "High Fidelity," and it closed after just 10 days, sending him into months of depression and self-doubt. In this raw conversation, Kitt reveals how creative heartbreak became his ...
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2 months ago
38 minutes

The Messy Parts
Negin Farsad: Did I Do Justice to My Dreams?
Feel like you're on the “wrong” path? Negin Farsad (comedian, filmmaker, writer, actor, and activist) went from steady job as a NYC policy advisor to chasing laughs on lonely standup stages across the country. As one of the few Iranian-American Muslim women in comedy, she’s built a career blending sharp political satire with deeply personal storytelling—using humor to tackle racism, sexism, and Islamophobia. From touring conservative towns with The Muslims Are Coming! to hosting F...
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2 months ago
48 minutes

The Messy Parts
Sarah Personette: Choosing Kindness
Ever feel like everyone else has it figured out while you're drowning in chaos? Sarah Personette's journey through Facebook, Twitter, and now Puck as CEO reveals the messy reality behind big-name success. She shares brutal truths about workplace bullies who wanted her gone, the isolating loneliness of leadership, and making gut decisions that horrified her father. From losing student elections repeatedly to navigating public failures at major tech companies, Sarah exposes how kindness became ...
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2 months ago
45 minutes

The Messy Parts
Judith Curr: Prince, Tarot Cards, Chat GPT and changing the plan
What do Prince, The Secret, and Colleen Hoover have in common? They all worked with Judith Curr to publish their books. Judith's career has been quite a trip: from selling her brother's engine block to a junk dealer in a very small Australian town. to selling Dior to pharmacies door-to-door, to revolutionizing book publishing—founding Atria Books, discovering tomorrow's bestsellers today, and now steering HarperOne into uncharted territory. From Sydney to New York, Judith has made a car...
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3 months ago
35 minutes

The Messy Parts
Irina Novolselsky: Will I Ever Get a Job Again?
Irina Novoselsky landed her first CEO gig at just 32 years old. She’s now CEO of Hootsuite, a social media management platform with 16 million users in 175 countries. Even though her career has been a rocket ship, she’s had a lot of messy parts and pivots that’s shaped who she is and how she operates. That includes being out of work for months at a time and really questioning whether she was ever going to get a job again. If you’ve ever felt like you were on the wrong path entirely, this epis...
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3 months ago
39 minutes

The Messy Parts
Vanessa Barboni Hallik: Where is the rest of me?
Discover the real story behind Another Tomorrow with Vanessa Barboni Hallik, who left Wall Street for a mission in sustainable luxury fashion. In this candid interview with Maryam Banikarim on "The Messy Parts Podcast," Vanessa reflects on career pivots, making meaning from hardship, starting a business during COVID, and how purpose and authenticity drive her leadership. If you’re looking for a boost of inspiration, lessons for entrepreneurship, or an inside look at sustainable fashion, this ...
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3 months ago
41 minutes

The Messy Parts
Fede Garcia: Fired at the top and giving up on the power, the prestige, and all of it
What happens after the dream job ends? In this deeply honest conversation, Maryam sits down with Fede García, who (in a matter of a few weeks) went from an award-winning Global Chief Creative Officer at one of the biggest agencies in the world to writing a vulnerable LinkedIn post about being fired. Together, they unpack the reality of ego, identity, burnout, and reinvention after “success.” Fede opens up about imposter syndrome, health battles, the creative grind, career pivots, and what it ...
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3 months ago
39 minutes

The Messy Parts
Ana Gasteyer: SNL, Wine, Fame, and Staying Funny | The Messy Parts Podcast #6
Saturday Night Live, Wicked, American Auto, Sugar & Booze, many lifelong friendships, and close family relationships are just a few of Ana's string of incredible accomplishments. It turns out none of it was easy. As she says, "It's not for the faint of heart." Even though creating and preforming for a living is "intoxicating and beyond fun" it's also "miserable and challenging." In this episode, Ana talks about how she gets over rejection in one night; how she's felt like an outside...
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3 months ago
45 minutes

The Messy Parts
Vicki Freeman: Finding Your Calling Through Trial and Error
What happens when you try nine different schools and still don't know what you want to do? Vicki Freeman, co-founder of the Bowery Group, shares her winding journey from serial student to successful restaurateur. After searching for her purpose through child psychology, fashion photography, film school, and art history, she discovered her calling was right under her nose - in the restaurants where she'd been working to pay the bills. Her story is about the power of persistence, recognizing op...
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4 months ago
42 minutes

The Messy Parts
Debra Martin Chase: Safe Choice, Wrong Choice
What happens when you choose the "safe" path and it nearly kills your soul? Debra Martin Chase went from Harvard Law School to becoming the first Black woman producer with a major studio deal. In this episode of The Messy Parts, she shares her journey from corporate lawyer to Hollywood trailblazer, including the near-death experience that made her quit law, the weekend of initiative that launched her film career, and why Vernon Jordan told her she was "too old to start over." It's a mastercla...
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4 months ago
37 minutes

The Messy Parts
Kass & Mike Lazerow: The Billion Dollar Burnout
Kass and Mike Lazerow sold their company for nearly $1 billion—and felt completely numb. In this episode of The Messy Parts, they share the brutal reality behind entrepreneurial success: kids struggling, health failing, friendships lost. Together with Maryam, they explore what radical transparency actually looks like when you strip away the corporate mask. It's a conversation about the hidden costs of achievement, the messiness of working with your spouse, and why showing your failures might ...
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4 months ago
41 minutes

The Messy Parts
Is your biggest mess also your best teacher? Broadway veteran Michael McElroy tells Maryam about his remarkable journey from rejection at Carnegie Mellon to leading Broadway casts and founding the award-winning Broadway Inspirational Voices. He and Maryam explore how to find purpose after burnout, the power of community and service, and what happens when you finally stop waiting for permission to begin. Michael opens up about identity, faith, and the messy truth behind resilience — reminding ...