Inspired by great content, cool people, and boring courses

Season 2, episode 3

Author

Jacob Gross
June 20, 2025

Welcome to season 2, episode 3. You’re part of an exclusive group. 0.0000003659% of the population to be exact. 

I remember in my first graduate program taking a class on career counseling and absolutely loathing every minute of it. It was dry, uninteresting, slow, and it lacked substance. It turned me off from having any conversations that were career-related.

Fast forward to today and all I tend to focus on is exactly what I wanted to avoid way back when I took that career counseling class.

I enjoy reading about, posting on, engaging with content about career-related topics, among other things. Why? Because what it means to have a career today looks loads different than it did even a few years ago (shall I say pre-March 2020?) and everyone has their own very unique story to tell. Everyone has their own approach to their career; I’m fascinated by this uniquness.

If there’s one thing about me, I love seeing people in their element. You play the flute? I want to see you play the flute. You build apps? Show me the app you built and what it can do. You’re an artist? I want to see what you’ve created. What’s better than seeing someone in their element, doing something they’re really good at, and thriving?

A couple years ago I started following Erika Ayers Badan, now the CEO of Food52, but I started following her when she was CEO of Barstool Sports. I believe she now has a podcast called “WORK.” (Complete side note and trivia: Pre-acquisition of course; Did you know Slack’s stock ticker symbol was WORK?)

Back to Erika. I was really inspired by her honest and practical approach to work and career. She also started a series called 1:1s (great name) where people would write in and ask for her advice on some work/career-related topic. Simple and straightforward, but it had substance to it. I would never skip a video once a new one got published. I loved hearing people’s stories and what Erika had to say.

I even gave her a shoutout on Linkedin, connecting it back to Slack (because, what else?). Speaking of that Linkedin post, she also wrote Nobody Cares about your Career, which includes a bunch of Erika’s stories and insights from over the years, including her time at AOL, Barstool Sports, and her transition out over to Food52. Highly recommend.

This week, I was struck (in a good way) by how Disneylandy Canva’s activation looks at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Everything Canva has been doing recently has been a 10/10 for me.

Did you see this? They enlarged key elements of the Canva platform and user experience (inclusive of logo) as part of their recent OOH ad. So good. I’ve been seeing a few different OOH campaigns with enlarged branded items. It works for me.

I’m also inspired by s’more things:

Thanks for reading and for being here. I don’t take for granted that you care what I have to say. Or even if you don’t care, and you’re still here; thanks for being a fan anyway. ❣️