What if the part of you that doesn't take everything so seriously is actually your biggest professional strength? This week I sit down with Mary Hendra, a chief of staff, coach, and consultant who once froze when a branding expert told her, "Your brand is play." She thought it was the reason she wasn't getting promoted. It turned out to be the thing that made her a better leader. We get into why play belongs at work, how it builds presence, creativity, and the ability to let go when something isn't working, and why the smallest, quietest gestures often matter most.

We also go a lot of places I didn't expect. Mary tells me about the tugboats she loved as a kid and the metaphor she still carries from them, the semester she spent living in the Soviet Union because her sixteen-year-old heart refused to believe the people there were evil, and one gloriously disastrous team-building escape room. It's a conversation about community, about being a loud introvert who had to work at connection, and about giving yourself ten honest minutes to play so you can show up as yourself for everyone else.

About Mary Hendra:

Mary Hendra, host of the Lead with a Dash of Play podcast, fosters curiosity, compassion and play as both a mission-driven executive and solopreneur herself. Her career portfolio has ranged from leadership in County government to high school teaching, from co-leading a non-profit to guiding a tech-start-up through an accelerator. She currently serves as Education Director for Making Gay History and as Chief of Staff at a tech wellness start-up. Redefining “play” for the modern, busy adult, her workshops and cohort programs foster self-reflection and build clarity for individuals and teams, so that they can move forward with grace. Her book, Lead with a Dash of Play, is expected in 2027.

Show Notes:

00:00 Why I almost didn't make it to this episode

06:15 Tugboats, and the small things that move the big ones

09:30 Living in the Soviet Union, and what civic society takes for granted

22:00 Where the interest in play actually started

23:30 "Your brand is play," and why it stung

25:00 Play as a leadership skill we sideline

29:30 What play teaches us about letting go

36:00 Small ways to bring play in, starting with how you name your meetings

40:00 A spectacular play fail (the escape room)

46:15 One invitation to play

Links Mentioned:

Mary Hendra's podcast, Lead with a Dash of Play: https://maryhendra.com/podcast/

Playful by Cas Holman: https://casholman.com/book

IDEO Play Lab: https://www.ideo.com

LEGO Serious Play: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/serious-play

What does it take to start choosing your life instead of just pushing through it?

In this episode I talk with Ariela Picciotto — one of my closest friends — about a path that never really went to plan. She left New York years ago to be closer to the people she loves, traded a planned move to London for an unplanned life in Paris, and eventually followed her curiosity out of the corporate world and into coaching.

There was a breaking point along the way: the day she got the offer she'd been chasing, her body finally gave out and she landed in the ER. We talk about what that taught her — about finite time, the choices we make with it, thinking about life in seasons, and what happens when you stop measuring your years and start measuring your moments.

About Ariela Picciotto:

Ariela Picciotto is a leadership and career coach with 15 years of GTM leadership experience mostly in tech scale-ups, including as General Manager at ClassPass, where she launched and scaled France and Southern Europe into one of the top five markets globally.

After building a career that looked impressive on paper, she found herself asking: I built this, I chose it, so why does it no longer feel like me? Those are the questions her clients carry too, and the ones she now helps them answer.

She works with senior women in tech who have built successful careers and yet feel unfulfilled, stuck, or quietly wondering if this is still it. Through coaching that combines strategic career thinking with embodied leadership and inner authority, she helps them get clear on who they are becoming so their next move actually fits.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Certificate in Professional Coaching from New Ventures West, and coaches in English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Connect with Ariela:

• Website: https://www.arielapicciotto.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielapicciotto/

Connect with me:

• quitmyjobpod@gmail.com
• Instagram: @quitmyjobpod
• Substack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/

Show Notes:

00:00 Offer Day ER Wakeup

00:10 Podcast Premise Intro

00:52 Behind on Episodes

03:24 Meet Ariella

06:26 Childhood Dream Jobs

07:08 Choosing Business Path

09:40 Consulting Reality Check

11:22 Ballet Studio Role

14:34 Leaving New York

17:32 Family Time Math

20:13 ClassPass Breakthrough

23:22 Burnout and Reorg

25:30 Getting a Coach

26:41 Stress Sends Her to ER

27:52 Healing Before Day One

29:02 Why Coaching Called Her

33:26 Coaching as a Business

35:31 Rejecting Hustle Culture

38:44 Going All In on Coaching

41:29 Redefining Success

48:55 Balancing Ambition and Play

53:13 Advice to Her Past Self

Michelle Stanek has been dancing since she was four years old. She drew a ballerina in a second-grade coloring assignment when they asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. Decades later, she is a professional pole artist, world-touring performer, national champion, and now — inventor.

The path there was anything but straight. A toxic dance director who made her cry in the car at 16. A grad degree in art history. A job she loved and lost in the 2009 economy. A random Tuesday afternoon pole class a coworker dragged her to. And then — millions of views, workshops in Japan, Russia, Australia, Iceland, and a competition performance in 2012 that people still show their moms and aunts when they want to explain what pole dancing actually is.

In this conversation we get into what it really takes to make art your career (hint: the "find something you love and it never feels like work" line is, in her words, bullshit). We talk about teaching philosophy, neuroplasticity, going deeper instead of harder, and the difference between being a sellout and just trying to pay your rent. We also talk about the Stanek Spinner — the pole accessory she's been prototyping and bringing to market — and what it means to make a physical art form accessible to more bodies.

Michelle is one of those people who makes you think and laugh at the same time. This one runs long because I couldn't bring myself to cut it.

About Michelle Stanek:

Michelle Stanek is a NYC-based pole dancer, boy mom, part-time art fair producer, and newly-self-appointed entrepreneur whose motto is "I'll figure it out."

Connect with Michelle:

• Instagram: @michellestanek
• 2012 USPDF performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih2yztRNTFg
• Michelle on the Stanek Spinner at Pole Theatre Canada June 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPwq1-pdA38

Connect with me:

• quitmyjobpod@gmail.com
• Instagram: @quitmyjobpod
• Substack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/

Show Notes:

00:00 - Work You Love Myth

00:23 - Show Mission Intro

00:54 - Life Updates and Substack

03:02 - Editing vs AI Debate

05:46 - Meet Michelle Stanek

09:34 - Childhood Dance Dreams

10:35 - Quitting Ballet at 16

14:05 - College and Real Job Track

16:11 - First Pole Class Spark

18:29 - Layoff to Pole Career

21:55 - Gig Economy and Income Streams

25:47 - Pole Grit and Empowerment

28:18 - Competing and Going Viral

32:02 - Why That Performance Hit

34:24 - Imposter Syndrome After Winning

37:43 - Cancer Fueled Mantra

38:56 - Winning Then World Tours

40:36 - Art Business Not Sport

41:41 - Aging And Sustainable Income

43:08 - Money Passion And Pressure

49:13 - Beyond Basic Teaching

52:07 - Building Self Directed Students

57:24 - Inventing The Spinner Platform

01:03:57 - Prototypes Patents And Process

01:05:46 - Daily Progress Mindset

01:10:01 - Advice To Younger Self

01:11:47 - Closing

Alana Winter spent 25 years building a national video distribution business before realizing she'd built something successful without ever asking herself what she actually valued. In this episode, Alana and Maricella talk about being raised by a serial entrepreneur dad who taught her to control her destiny, the moment the business became a grind and she didn't know who she was without it, and the three-year process of figuring out her own core values, and how she helps leaders do the same in a much shorter time frame. They get into the difference between needs, values, and your why (and why most people confuse all three), what she means by "the how matters less than the what," and her story about the bathroom attendant at the Beacon Theater that made me tear up.

About Alana Winter:

Alana Winter is an executive coach, facilitator, and serial entrepreneur who helps leaders navigate the moments when outward success no longer matches their inner truth.

After building and running businesses for more than 25 years, including a nationwide video distribution company and the internationally covered Stiletto Spy School and MI6 Academy, Alana found herself in the disorienting space that comes after a major chapter ends. That experience led her into a deep exploration of identity, core values, and what it really means to build a life and business from the inside out.

Today, Alana works with founders, CEOs, executive teams, and leadership groups around the world, helping them clarify their values, communicate more honestly, make better decisions, and lead with greater self-awareness. Her work blends psychology, lived entrepreneurial experience, and a highly intuitive ability to see the patterns beneath the surface.

She holds a B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University and has worked with thousands of leaders through EO, YPO, WPO, Chief, and private executive coaching engagements. Her work has been featured by NPR, The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, and other major media outlets.

Show Notes:

(00:00) - Nothing To Do Identity

(00:21) - Show Intro And Premise

(00:52) - Purpose Values Episode Setup

(02:05) - Meet Alana Winter

(04:54) - Childhood Dreams Icebreaker

(06:19) - Raised To Be Entrepreneur

(07:37) - Building Video Distribution

(13:10) - Meaning Fades Business Grind

(16:16) - Betrayal And Embezzlement

(23:09) - Burnout Signs And Body

(25:57) - After the Exit Void

(28:09) - Meaning Over Opportunity

(30:33) - Purpose Work for Kids

(33:34) - Three Year Values Quest

(38:15) - Values Needs Why Framework

(44:20) - Living Values Anywhere

(47:16) - Clarity Becomes a Calling

(50:06) - Advice for the Goo Phase

(52:18) - Podcast Closing

What if figuring out who you want to be doesn't start with imagining your future self — it starts with looking at your past one? In this minisode, Maricella walks through a deceptively simple exercise: scrolling through last year's photos to find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. What she found was more layered, and more useful, than she expected.

From a trip to Greece to a random Tuesday alone in her apartment, this episode gets into how the feeling behind a photo, the memory it holds, and the moment you're in right now are three completely different things. Plus what nostalgia actually is scientifically, why play keeps showing up as the answer, and how to use your past self as an emotional anchor for the person you're becoming.

Show Notes:

(00:00) Intro

(00:38) No Resolutions

(01:42) Why Feelings Make For Bad Goals

(03:03) Future Self and Manifesting

(06:02) The Photos Exercise

(07:57) Three Layers in Every Photo

(09:54) Greece Trip and Disconnection

(12:38) Cat Costume Joy and Buckets

(15:22) Oven Broke but I Persisted

(18:40) The Through Line Is Play

(21:37) Nostalgia and Self Continuity

(24:59) Closing the Gap to Future You

(26:47) Try It and Final Goodbye

(27:59) Outro Subscribe and Connect

Takeaways:

• Go through your photos from the past year and find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. How you feel right now looking at it is data too.
• Every photo has three layers: how you look in it, how you feel seeing it now, and how you felt when it was taken. They're not always the same thing.
• Play isn't just about fun. The moments that light you up are telling you something about what you need more of.
• Nostalgia isn't only backward-looking. Research suggests it's your brain connecting past you to present you in order to push you toward future you.
• You don't have to picture an abstract future self. Start with a real past feeling and use it as the anchor.

Links:

• Em on the Brain (Emily McDonald) — Planet Em podcast on Spotify / Apple Podcasts
• Emily McDonald on What Now? with Trevor Noah — "Can You Rewire Your Brain?"
• What a Broken Oven Taught Me About Myself — Substack

Find Maricella:

• Substack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/
• Instagram: @quitmyjobpod
• quitmyjobpod.com

Host Maricella Herrera introduces a nurturing, candid conversation with Kvon Tucker, CEO and founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven coaching and consulting firm. They discuss fear, courage, and “spiritual abolitionism,” which Kvon defines as helping people release narratives and conditioning that keep them stuck and move toward liberation. Kvon shares his path from studying psychology and workplace behavior to leadership development roles at Netflix, Amazon, and Google. While at Google, he built a coaching practice during the pandemic and new fatherhood, but fear kept him from leaving his full time role. An internal investigation into his online activity and perceived integrity became a breaking point, and he quit on his daughter’s first birthday, later moving toward Costa Rica. Kvon has a vision of helping leaders escape limiting corporate structures.

About Kvon Tucker:

Kvon Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven coaching and consulting firm helping leaders grow with clarity, freedom, and purpose. A Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with nearly 20 years of experience in leadership development, Kvon has coached and developed executives at companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Tesla. His mission is simple: all I know is how to help people grow.

www.consciously.one

Show Notes:

(00:00) Teaser + Intro

(00:52) Welcome to the Episode

(03:25) Meet Kvon Tucker

(05:17) Childhood Dreams

(07:16) Spiritual Abolitionist

(09:18) Fear and Courage Practice

(12:43) Fearlessness vs Recklessness

(15:44) How He Got Into Tech

(17:06) From Depression to Purpose

(24:46) Netflix Amazon and Ego

(29:29) Google Exit Reflections

(32:39) Coaching Origins And Certification

(34:11) Pandemic Dad And Coaching Boom

(37:05) Fear Of Leaving Corporate

(39:26) Investigation And Breaking Point

(41:37) Quitting And Moving To Costa Rica

(44:41) Support Systems Through Crisis

(48:27) Underground Railroad For Leaders

(51:34) AI And Identity Beyond Work

(55:25) Finding Clarity What Do You Want

(57:00) Advice To Past Self And Closing

Dr. Sofia Pertuz spent 25 years in higher education before realizing the skills she'd been using her entire career — coaching, training, building systems, facilitating hard conversations — were exactly what she should be doing on her own. In this episode, Sofia and I talk about the long road from resident assistant to associate VP and dean of students, the burnout she didn't have a name for, pivoting through the nonprofit world and Billie Jean King Enterprises, and what it finally took to bet on herself. Plus, she's revealing something publicly for the first time on this show.

We dig into why the things that come most naturally to us are often the last things we recognize as valuable — and what happens when you finally flip that switch.

About Dr. Sofia B. Pertuz:

Dr. Sofia B. Pertuz is a certified executive coach, consultant, and workplace culture strategist who partners with leaders and mission-driven organizations to strengthen culture, performance, and leadership capacity. As Founder of Mainstream Insight, she designs executive coaching engagements, leadership development programs, and team retreats grounded in values alignment and organizational growth. Sofia’s career spans senior leadership roles at Billie Jean King Enterprises, The Jed Foundation, and Hofstra University, where she advanced leadership pathways, workforce engagement, and organizational resilience. A bilingual facilitator and international speaker, Sofia leads transformative conversations on leadership, cultural identity, organizational change, and LGBTQ+ advocacy in both English and Spanish. She holds a PhD from Seton Hall University, serves on nonprofit boards, and is certified as an ICF Professional Certified Coach, Certified Diversity Executive®, and certified practitioner of Intercultural Development Inventory ®, Everything DiSC® and CliftonStrengths®.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiabautistapertuz/

https://www.instagram.com/sofiabpertuzphd

Show Notes:

(00:00) Teaser + Intro

(05:00) What Sofia wanted to be growing up — and the secret audition her mom never knew about

(10:00) How a raffle ticket explains the curse of competence

(14:00) 25 years in higher ed — from RA at 22 to associate VP and dean of students

(17:00) The weight of life-and-death decisions on campus

(21:00) Getting recruited out of academia and discovering what freedom feels like

(24:00) The standup comedy class — and why trying something totally new matters

(27:00) From Jed Foundation to Billie Jean King Enterprises

(34:00) Seeing the DEI backlash coming — and pivoting early

(39:00) The moment she decided to bet on herself

(42:00) Quitting, grief, and why she wasn't ready to talk about it until now

(45:00) A first-time public announcement: Sofia wrote a book

(49:00) The change implementation model she keeps coming back to in coaching

(54:00) Earning your freedom with discipline

(56:00) Her mom, Avon, Tupperware — and why "hustle" isn't the right word

Alysa Liu's gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics has everyone talking about joy — about following your bliss, about how the universe rewards you when you stop chasing the outcome. Maricella watched it and felt something more complicated.

In this minisode, she uses three figure skaters to explore what it actually looks like to perform for yourself versus performing for something external. Alysa Liu, whose comeback is being held up as proof that joy is enough. Amber Glenn, who moved from 13th to 5th after years of publicly battling anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation — and who still couldn't fully escape the pressure. And Ilia Malinin, the "Quad God" with 14 consecutive wins going in, who still got in his head.

What does it really mean to do something for joy? Is Alysa's story as simple as we're making it? And why is Amber Glenn's comeback — the one that didn't end in a medal — somehow the most moving thing Maricella watched all week?

If you've ever wanted to believe the "just do what you love" story but found yourself not quite buying it, this one might help you figure out why.

Topics: Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Winter Olympics 2026, figure skating, joy vs. outcome, mental health, comparison, burnout, career, imposter syndrome