This is Success

The coronavirus pandemic has brought widespread layoffs, and with that, a sense of job anxiety. If you're worried that layoffs may be coming to your organization, how can you best prepare? And if you are laid off, what are the first things you should ask?Susan Peppercorn is an executive and career coach who guides people through job transitions. She shared what steps you can take to ensure you're not caught off guard if layoffs strike, and specific benefits and services you should ask for when they do.Available now to Business Insider subscribers: https: bit.ly/insideredge

Feeling overworked is nothing new to many Americans, and the coronavirus pandemic has only made matters worse. While there are some benefits to working from home, it can also feel like there are no boundaries to when the day starts and when it ends. So, if you're feeling overworked, what can you do about it?We asked Sabina Nawaz, an executive leadership coach, to share her advice for lightening your workload and doubling down on the tasks you really care about.Available now to Business Insider subscribers: https: bit.ly/insideredge

What's the next big thing in business? How do you turn an idea into a profitable startup? Convince investors to support you and customers to trust you? Each month, host Charlie Herman sits down for live conversations with founders who are reimagining business to talk about how and why they built the companies they did.Available now to Business Insider subscribers: https://bit.ly/thisissuccessTune in Tuesday, July 28 at 4pm EST for a live interview with Poshmark’s Tracy Sun: https://bit.ly/tracy-sun

Stacey Cunningham lives and breathes the New York Stock Exchange, which she’s led since 2018. She spent her early career as a trader in “the pit” on the floor of the NYSE, and after a few years away, returned to rise up its ranks and become the first female president of the 227-year-old organization. Now she’s on a mission to change how the exchange operates and how companies think about public markets in general.

Stephen Schwarzman is one of the most influential figures in finance. Not only does his firm, Blackstone, manage more than $500 billion, he has the ears of world leaders like Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Ahead of his new book “What It Takes,” Schwarzman told us how he knew it was time to start his own business and why he’s still on the lookout for opportunities to grow.

Yeardley Smith has been the voice of Lisa Simpson since “The Simpsons” first started airing in the ‘80s. More than 30 years later, the animated series is now the longest-running American sitcom. Smith never planned to become a voice actor, and was even bullied for her voice as a child. But now, she appreciates all the doors the role has opened for her.

Alexander Wang started his own label at just 20 years old. Today, his brand is worn all over the world and recognized by some of the most influential figures in the fashion industry. Over the last decade and a half, Wang has learned whose criticism matters, how to balance the business and the creative, and what it means to create meaningful work.

Ray Dalio is the billionaire founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Dalio is as well known for his unique philosophy as he is for his investing prowess. Dalio takes us through key moments from his career, including when he almost lost it all.

Melinda Gates is one of the world’s most influential philanthropists. In her new book, “The Moment of Lift,” Gates argues that empowering women is the ultimate solution to eliminating poverty. Gates spoke with Business Insider about how her time as a Microsoft executive and raising three children taught her what it means to be an effective leader.

Mark Hurd joined Oracle in 2010 and almost immediately dramatically changed how the tech company does business. He saw a need for a shift to cloud computing, and transformed the way his team built and sold products. It wasn’t easy. Hurd tells us why he believed his plan would work even when hundreds of employees pushed back, and what the experience taught him about leadership.

This week, an unexpected success story. Household Name's Dan Bobkoff and Sally Herships bring us the tale of how a Japanese businessman made KFC a Christmas tradition… in a country that didn’t celebrate Christmas.Subscribe to Household Name.

Danica Patrick is the most successful female race car driver ever, but she didn't want to be a trailblazer for women. She got into Nascar and IndyCar racing because she wanted to win. Patrick may have retired from racing earlier this year, but she's still applying that winner-take-all philosophy to her work — this time, in business.

Nick van de Wall, known professionally as Afrojack, is a world-famous Dutch DJ. He writes original music and collaborates with artists like Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, and David Guetta. After 15 years of playing everywhere from small clubs to big arenas, Afrojack is now using a hands-on approach to discover and mentor young DJs. He’s the CEO of the talent management company LDH Europe and the head of his own record label. One piece of advice he’s giving new artists: put the hours in, even if you don’t see success for years.

Heather Dietrick joined news site The Daily Beast in 2017 after rising through the ranks at the now defunct news blog Gawker. As president of Gawker, Dietrick was on the frontlines of the lawsuit with Hulk Hogan that ultimately bankrupted the company. Dietrick’s background is in business and law—she’s got both a JD and an MBA—and her strategy has always been to take risks.

Some of the world's top founders, executives and CEOs built their businesses with the help of their family, friends, and coworkers. In this master class episode of "This is Success," we’re revisiting some of our favorite stories about business partnerships, and how our guests have made them work. Featuring John Zimmer (Lyft), Jeff Raider (Harry's), Alli Webb (Drybar), Eddy Lu (GOAT), and restaurateur and event planner Larry Morrow.

Dan Brown’s writing career took off in 2003 when his novel “The Da Vinci Code” became an international bestseller. Now, he's one of the world's most popular writers — with 250 million books sold — and is passing on his best insights in a new MasterClass video series. But when he was starting out as a writer, Brown had trouble getting his books to sell. In order to achieve success, he had to choose between trusting his own taste and writing what he thought others wanted to read.

Daniel Schwarz leads Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King, Tim Horton’s, and Popeye’s. He started out his career at the investment firm 3G Capital. In 2013, when he was only 32, the firm’s managing partner, Alex Behring, took a big chance on him and promoted him to CEO of Burger King. Now, Schwartz is returning the favor by betting on young talent to lead his businesses.

Stanley McChrystal led the United States and its allies in the War in Afghanistan before retiring as a four-star general in 2010. He revolutionized the Joint Special Operations Command, and he’s best known for killing the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. General McChrystal recently co-authored a book about famous leaders, where he argues it's time we all re-visit our definition of leadership.

Over the last eight years, Ben Silbermann has quietly built Pinterest into a global brand with 250 million active users. He's the cofounder and CEO of Pinterest, the image search tool that lets users save and share their favorite photos, designs, and recipes. Pinterest could hit $1 billion in ad revenue this year, and it is valued at $13-15 billion. But Silbermann doesn’t want to be just like all the other big tech brands. He wants his site to feel like a real community, even as it grows larger than he ever expected.

Beth Comstock spent almost three decades at NBC and General Electric. She left GE last year after rising to one of the corporation’s highest roles: vice chair. Her recent book, “Imagine it Forward,” offered her a chance to look back on her career and nail down the lessons she learned about both business and herself. Its subtitle, “Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change,” captures the themes of her story that stood out.

Christene Barberich is the cofounder and global editor in chief of Refinery29, a media company focused on empowering women by starting conversations about body image, politics, and careers. Refinery29 says it will connect with 425 million people this year across its site, social media, videos, and live events. Before launching Refinery in 2005, Barberich spent her career in media, and helped build the scrappy City Magazine. The lessons she learned there gave her the confidence she needed to take on Refinery29, which would turn out to be a more ambitious project than anyone expected.

When Steve Case was in college, he read a book that said a digital revolution was coming. A little over a decade later, he led that revolution as the founding CEO of America Online. AOL became a giant, and Case became a billionaire. Now, Case is focused on driving what he calls the “third wave” of the internet by touring the U.S. and investing in startups in overlooked markets.

Brad Katsuyama never considered himself a maverick, or entrepreneur. He had a cushy job at the Royal Bank of Canada, but he became alarmed the more he learned about high frequency trading, where computers can trade a bunch of stocks in a fraction of a second. He felt so strongly that it was harming the market that he left to create his own exchange – the Investor’s Exchange – where this type of trading is prohibited. Investors can trade stocks from other exchanges on IEX, with the idea that it’s a level playing field. As CEO, Katsuyama has become the face of IEX, and became the face of the bestselling book "Flash Boys," by Michael Lewis.

If you want to know where to go and who to talk to in New Orleans, Morrow’s your guy. After he dropped out of college, the 27-year old entrepreneur committed full time to his event planning business. Now Morrow’s a million-dollar business owner with a plan to take his ventures national. But he started out as a gambler, both at the casino and with side projects, like a T-shirt brand he started in high school.

Jen and Wendy Yuengling are two of the four sisters in charge of the Yuengling beer company. Their father, Dick, took over the family business back in 1985. He was the one who turned it from a local brewery into America’s largest independent craft brewery—last year it produced more than 2 million barrels of beer. Now it’s his daughters’ turn to take the business in new directions, and they're rising to the challenge.

Pnina Tornai never imagined she’d become one of the world’s most sought-after bridal gown designers. She spent most of her childhood dreaming of becoming an actress, but by the time she was in her early twenties, that dream felt far-fetched. She was a single mom, struggling to support herself and stay healthy. Tornai pulled herself out of that slump by relying on her unshakeable faith in the possibility of a better future. Now, her gowns are popular around the world, and she and her work are prominently featured in the longrunning TLC reality show “Say Yes to the Dress.”

Jeff Raider is the cofounder and co-CEO of the razor company Harry’s, an online subscription service that sends high-end razors to customers at a low cost. The company raised $112 million earlier this year to move the brand beyond shaving to include all kinds of men's grooming products. Before cofounding Harry's, Raider also pioneered the eyewear company Warby Parker, which became successful using a similar model of online retail. Raider's focus is on building brands he'd like to use in his own life. But before he became an entrepreneur, he was at Wharton Business School on a typical path to finance.

Success means something different to everyone, including the world's top company founders, executives, and CEOs. In this Master Class episode of "This is Success," we revisit some of the most interesting answers to the question at the heart of our show: how do you define success and stay on track to get there?

Alli Webb is the founder and visionary behind Drybar, the hugely popular blowout salon that took a regional trend mainstream. Today, Drybar is a multi-million dollar business with more than 100 locations across North America. But it started out as a side gig for Webb, who went door-to-door delivering blowouts while her kids were at school.

Caroline Hirsch has discovered or helped develop some of comedy’s biggest names—people like Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle, and Michelle Wolf. She's the namesake and cofounder of the iconic New York comedy club Carolines, and the visionary behind the New York Comedy Festival. But when she got into the business in 1982, Hirsch’s only qualification was a love of standup.

Adena Friedman has the top job at Nasdaq, one of the world's biggest stock exchanges. Early in her career, she learned how to impress her bosses by taking initiative, and when she became the boss, she found ways to make the whole company more efficient. Friedman tells us about competing with the New York Stock Exchange and shares her thoughts on cryptocurrency.

This week, we feature the first episode of Business Insider's new podcast, "Household Name," which you can find on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.Before TGI Fridays was the suburban strip mall staple it is today, it was a wild place in Manhattan, and likely the first singles bar in America. "Household Name" brings you surprising stories behind our biggest, household name brands. Host Dan Bobkoff finds tales of tragedy, love, strange histories, unintended consequences, and accidental success. And in each episode, we find out how these brands changed our lives – for better or worse. Enjoy this preview, and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen.This is Success is back next week.

Ryan Serhant moved to New York City when he was 22, hoping to launch a career on Broadway. When that dream didn’t pan out, he found a different route into show business—as a real estate agent. Serhant is now the star of Bravo’s reality TV show “Million Dollar Listing” and the Serhant Team is one of the top real estate groups in the United States.

Marie Forleo is a life and business coach with hundreds of thousands of followers online. When she first started giving strangers advice almost 20 years ago, Forleo barely had her own life together. She was working two jobs to scrape by, and when she wasn’t bartending or teaching dance, she collected emails for her newsletter. As Forleo’s business grew and she learned what it took to be an entrepreneur, she shared those lessons with her audience. Today she’s managed to incorporate all of her passions—including dance—into her YouTube channel, podcast, performances, and online lessons. And she’s found followers who want to be there every step of the way.

You may know Bethenny Frankel from her lead role on the "Real Housewives of New York." But her name is also the driving force behind an expanding empire of brands. She’s the brain behind Skinnygirl cocktails—a company she sold in 2011 for $100 million. And in her spare time she runs B Strong, a charity which provided disaster relief aid to Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria. Frankel says she doesn’t always have a grand plan, but she knows a good opportunity when she sees one.

For more than a decade, Eddy Lu tried to find the next big thing. Golf apparel, 99-cent smartphone apps, Japanese desserts — they all flopped, but he wasn’t headed back to the Wall Street world he left. Then he got into high-end sneakers, with an online marketplace called GOAT— as in “greatest of all time,” like they say in sports and rap. Today GOAT is the world’s biggest sneaker resale market. It has over $100 million in funding, seven million users, more than 300 employees, and 400,000 pairs of sneakers for sale.

Sylvia Acevedo is a trailblazer in business and tech. She was one of the first Hispanic students to get a master's in engineering from Stanford, she worked for years as a Silicon Valley executive, and on top of that, she's an actual rocket scientist. As CEO of Girl Scouts, Acevedo is reinventing the organization to focus on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—and she hopes more young women will follow in her footsteps. Boy Scouts may now be recruiting girls too, but she says it'll never compete with the opportunities Girl Scouts offers.

David Sedaris built a career by sharing his life through essays. He writes about everything from the death of family members to his love of picking up garbage, and his performances are both heart wrenching and hilarious. His comedy albums have been nominated for Grammys, and his books have sold more than 10 million copies. And while he likes the attention, it’s never been what drives him.

Katherine Power worked for years to land her dream job at Condé Nast. But when an offer came, she turned it down. Instead, she joined with a friend to start what became Clique Brands. It includes a mix of companies, like fashion blog Who, What, Wear and a clothing line at Target. Since 2006, Clique has grown to 220 employees and raised $28 million. But before she managed a fashion and media empire, Katherine worked as a dancer in the first Austin Powers movie. And that’s where she made her first big business decision: legally emancipating herself from her parents at age 17.

Dan Gilbert runs a Midwestern empire. In Michigan, he founded Quicken Loans, which made him a billionaire. Now he’s trying to rebuild downtown Detroit. But you may know him as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James’ NBA team. Our host, Rich Feloni, went to Detroit in early May to meet with Gilbert after getting a tour of his properties downtown. All of his real estate is under a company called Bedrock, which is part of Gilbert's larger parent company, called Rock Ventures.

Sallie Krawcheck has run Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, US Trust, and Citi Private Bank, and was Citi’s CFO before that. Now she runs Ellevest, an investment firm that helps women create wealth. She may have been regularly referred to in the media as “the most powerful woman on Wall Street,” but that brought its own challenges. Krawcheck tells us what she learned from navigating the boys club of finance, working through the financial crisis, and dealing with two highly publicized firings. She also explains why she hates the phrase “empowering women,” and why she’s found a better alternative.

Sam Yagan knows he’s been lucky. He tells us that one of the luckiest moments of his life was meeting his college roommates. Together, they built a study guide website called SparkNotes. Then, they built an online dating empire. They started the site OKCupid while Yagan was getting his MBA at Stanford. Yagan is now the CEO of ShopRunner, but he’s best known for his 7-year tenure as the head of the Match Group, which includes OkCupid, Match.com, and Tinder. He says it was his Syrian immigrant parents who inspired his drive to be an entrepreneur.

For Jocko Willink, becoming a Navy SEAL was just like any other career. Willink was the commander of SEAL Team 3, Task Unit Bruiser. It was the most highly decorated US special operations unit of the Iraq War — and the one where Chris Kyle, of “American Sniper,” served. Willink retired from the SEALs in 2010 and started a consulting company called Echelon Front, which he founded with another SEAL named Leif Babin. He and Babin co-wrote the bestselling book “Extreme Ownership” in 2014. He’s also got a hit podcast, a line of jiu jitsu products, and even two bestselling children’s books. Willink says that passing on leadership lessons, whether to executives or kids, is just a continuation of what he did in the SEALs.

Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell was in Berlin last week for the 3rd annual Axel Springer Award, which was an evening honoring Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos sat down with Axel Springer CEO Dr. Mathias Dopfner to talk about his career and future ambitions. (Axel Springer is Business Insider's parent company.) After an intro from Fiat Chrysler chairman John Elkann, Jeff and Mathias spoke about Amazon, and Jeff's investments in journalism and space exploration. This week's episode of "Success! How I Did It" features that conversation in full.

If you’ve verified you’re not a robot online, you’ve used something Luis von Ahn has created. He tells "Success! How I Did It," that he doesn’t read stories about himself, and he’s probably the only CEO our host, Rich Feloni, has ever interviewed who believably says he doesn’t care about money. Von Ahn is the CEO of Duolingo, a popular language learning app. He’s also one of the guys who developed CAPTCHA, those online tests that ask you to type in a word or series of letters when you buy tickets or set up an email account. Von Ahn grew up in Guatemala and he came to the US to be part of the tech scene. He was driven by a goal of getting millions of people to work together online. It made him a pioneer of the now ubiquitous crowdsourcing movement.

Don Katz sounds more like a college English professor than a tech CEO: he’s obsessed with literature and writing. And it’s why he started Audible, the audiobook company now owned by Amazon, in 1995. It was all about the stories, and it was all about the voice of the stories. Katz certainly knows how to run a tech company well, but his passion above all else is storytelling. He was one of the earliest writers for Rolling Stone, where he covered terrorism and revolutions around the world. He then had a long career as a writer. But in his 40s, he decided to take a giant leap into another direction.

Tina Brown gets things done. She’s been a leader since her mid-20s, and she’s built the teams that transformed Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. She also created The Daily Beast. Brown grew up in England and became a media mogul in New York. Editors and writers have often questioned her most ambitious plans, but her resume is marked by major successes. A huge exception is a short-lived media brand called Talk that she launched with, of all people, Harvey Weinstein. Today she runs the Women in the World Summit, which highlights the stories of people fighting for women’s rights around the world. It’s allowed her to inspire a new generation of leaders.

Cecile Richards has never shied away from controversy. In seventh grade, she got sent to the principal’s office for protesting the Vietnam War. As President of Planned Parenthood, she defended the organization in a heated 2015 congressional hearing. Planned Parenthood is a healthcare provider that offers a long list of services, including cancer screenings and STI treatment. It also provides abortions and birth control services, which has made it one of the most controversial institutions in the country. In her memoir ‘Make Trouble,’ Richards discusses leading the organization for the past 12 years, what she learned from being raised by two activist parents, and the value of being 'trouble maker.'

Anjali Sud has always sought opportunities that seem intimidating. That inspired her to leave Flint, Michigan at 14 for the elite Massachusetts boarding school Phillips Academy on a scholarship. And it led her to become the CEO of Vimeo at 34. Vimeo is an ad-free video platform for filmmakers, and the videos on Vimeo are generally more highly produced than those on YouTube. Sud worked at Vimeo for three years before getting the CEO job in July 2017. It was an opportunity she told me she wasn’t expecting -- and so that’s why she had to take it. Sud told us how she had a new vision for Vimeo as she led its creators team.

Tariq Farid was only 13 when his family moved from Pakistan to Connecticut. He started working at a flower shop to make money, and he opened his own at 17. Farid is the founder and CEO of Edible Arrangements. He cornered a market that no one knew even existed: baskets of fruits cut up and carved to look like giant flower bouquets. Today, his business has 900 franchises across 9 countries, bringing in more than half a billion dollars in sales each year. It hasn’t all been easy. He’s had to contend with everything from disgruntled franchisees to conspiracy theories and racist online trolling. But his unwavering optimism has pushed him through struggles from the very beginning.

Scott Kelly spent a year on board the International Space Station. During that time, his identical twin brother Mark — who's also an astronaut — was on Earth. Since then, scientists have been watching how differently the two have aged. Kelly's now retired, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking it easy. He wrote a memoir about his year in space called Endurance, and has become an advocate for improving science and math education in the US. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," host Rich Feloni talks with Kelly about what he saw in space, what he missed back on earth, and how he went from a kid who couldn’t focus to one of the most famous astronauts of our time.