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Erika Ayers Badan

WORK Podcast offers real, and relatable insights into work, leadership, and culture from someone who’s been there and done that (mistakes included). Through interviews, commentary, and listener questions, Erika provides a funny, unfiltered and unapologetic look at how to be yourself and be successful. 

erikaayersbadan.substack.com

Token CEO

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

Work Conversations: The HR Problems No One Wants to Admit

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

WORK 2025 In Review: A Lot of Great Things Can Come Out of A Little Mess.

In this episode of WORK: Unsolicited Advice, Erika talks through what it really looks like to come out of the worst month of your career still standing. Not with hype or false optimism, but with practical clarity about failure, ownership, restraint, and the underrated skill of rebounding. If something went sideways for you, if you are questioning what comes next, or if you are trying to figure out how to land on your feet without burning everything down, this conversation is for you.
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Your Company Is Going to Fail. Know How To Land On Your Feet

This topic comes to us complements of Abby Wambach and a handful of former US National Team players. Net/Net let your kid live, fail, grow, struggle, learn, connect and play in peace. They’ll be better for it. 

This is Work Net/Net. Watch the full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work NET NET: Your Kid Doesn't Need You At Practice. Neither Does Their Future Boss.

Kerri Rosenthal is an artist, a businesswoman, a mom, not someone giving up her ambition (is that what we’re supposed to be doing at work these days?), someone who’s going for it. 

I watched her this past Saturday stocking pots. I was stacking bedding. 

I like a woman who doesn’t quit, who doesn’t quite fit in and who has a drive to make something. Kerri is one of those people. 

Listen to what she has to say. 

This is WORK What She Said. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work What She Said: You Can Make A Business Around Something That Makes You Feel Alive

This headline somehow feels both shocking and completely unsurprising.

The McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace study is out, and the takeaway is bleak. Fewer companies care about advancing women. Even fewer care about advancing women of color. And somehow, we are now talking about an “ambition gap” like women just collectively woke up and decided to want less.

Let’s be clear. Women are still paid less. Still underrepresented in the rooms that matter. Still doing most of the work at home. Still being asked to show up like nothing else changed after Covid, after MeToo, after the great return to office squeeze.

On this episode of Net Net, we talk about why this moment at work feels so brittle. Why job security feels fake. Why trust in the promise of work is eroding. And why more women are quietly asking themselves what all this effort is actually for.

This is not about one group winning and another losing. That zero-sum framing is part of the problem. The real work is opening the aperture. More voices. More paths. More people being given a real shot, and actually being supported when they take it.

If you work with people, lead people, or care about what work is turning into right now, this one is worth your time.

This is WORK Net/Net.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Net/Net: So Much For Advancing at Work

Hi! Ever felt like you’re on a Disney ride through every big-company headache imaginable? 

Think lawyers, bankers, finance goons, stale conference rooms, staid conversations and the creeping sense that the machine is running you, not the other way around.

Big companies exist for good reason. They build real things - consistently. They deliver at scale. 

But they also can suffocate the people who want to tinker, experiment, break stuff, and dream. The renegades. The builders. The ones who get hives at the prospect of OKRs, KPIs and strategery. 

On this episode of Unsolicited Advice, we get into what it actually takes to keep creativity alive when the machine takes over. How small groups can save big companies. How to protect the spark from the process. How to build something real without getting crushed by the weight of everyone else’s need for control, accuracy and uniformity. 

If you’ve ever felt yourself wither in a big org or wondered why your best ideas show up in small rooms, this one is for you.

This is WORK: Unsolicited Advice! Watch full episode on YouTube. 
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Unsolicited Advice: How to Keep Creativity Alive in Big Companies

Kathy Ireland has a big business. She parlayed a modeling stint into a pretty massive licensing business. 

Here’s what I liked about our conversation and why you should give it a listen:

It takes a pretty unique person to not want to do something that’s lucrative and flattering. Kathy shares a lot about her time as a model - what she liked, what she felt she lacked, and how and why she decided to move on.

Her now business began with a pair of socks.

Enjoy!Watch full episode on YouTube. 

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Conversations: 13 Year Old New Hampshire Erika Would Not Believe She Would Talk To Kathy Ireland

Today we’re talking about the Omnicom–IPG merger and what it means for agency jobs, how AI is replacing layers of work inside holding companies, and why middle-layer roles are most at risk in this new ad economy.

This is WORK Net/Net

Watch full episode on YouTube.

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Net/Net: The Omnicom–IPG Merger and the Future of Advertising

This is a good listen for anyone needing a push to put themselves out there and to accept imperfect, chaotic and unfamiliar situations as a way to meet people, learn things and enliven yourself.

We tackle the quote: “So I recommend that everybody here join all sorts of organizations, no matter how ridiculous, simply to get more people in his or her life.”

This is WORK: Underlined

 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

Work Underlined: Join Organizations No Matter How Ridiculous, To Get More People In Your Life

On today’s episode Erika sits down with the founder and chef of Milk Bar, Christina Tosi. Christina created Milk Bar because she didn’t like the perfectionism in fine dining restaurants and wanted to build what she believed should have existed, which was dessert in a unique way. They discuss Christina’s path to Milk Bar, the lessons she teaches her staff, their dirty dessert secrets and much more. In addition, Erika gives us an inside look at Barstool’s Black Friday sale and the Cyber Monday Telethon and as always we answer your career questions in the Q&A. Enjoy! Christina’s new cookbook, All About Cookies: A Milk Bar Baking Book is out now! https://milkbarstore.com/pages/100-all-about-cookies-recipes (00:02:19) Boardroom (00:12:05) Christina Tosi (00:45:15) Q&A

You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/tokenceo

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
 

Get full access to WORK at erikaayersbadan.substack.com/subscribe

How Milk Bar Founder Christina Tosi Built A Dessert Empire

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