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PODCAST

The Messy Parts

with Maryam Banikarim

New career advice and messy stories, every Monday.Whether you’re at the top, or striving to get there—you may have noticed the one thing people rarely talk about: how hard it is to achieve success. The Messy Parts is the answer—a podcast where you’ll hear about the twists, turns and pivots that shape extraordinary careers. The real messy parts along the way. Host Maryam Banikarim has been through it, so she gets it. Maryam has been a transformative leader across media, hospitality and tech. Her

business careers

All Episodes

49:45

Finding Light in the Darkness: Writer Jonathan...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/10/27

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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41:27

Build a $22M Company While Surviving Layoffs,...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/10/19

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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42:44

From Her Parents' Basement to Editor-in-Chief ...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/10/13

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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41:41

The Real Reason You're Paralyzed in Your Career (It's...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/10/06

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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39:37

The Points Guy Couldn't Get His Own Credit Card: Then...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/09/29

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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43:10

Debunking Myths About Careers, Generation Gaps, and...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/09/22

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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45:36

Edge of Bankruptcy, Surviving A Toxic Partnership,...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/09/15

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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40:29

Overcoming Anxiety and Thriving Through a Twisty...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/09/08

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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38:28

No to Wall St. and Yes to Broadway (and Tony Awards...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/09/01

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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48:50

Negin Farsad: Did I Do Justice to My Dreams?

The Messy Parts ·

2025/08/25

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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45:00

Sarah Personette: Choosing Kindness

The Messy Parts ·

2025/08/18

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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35:26

Judith Curr: Prince, Tarot Cards, Chat GPT and...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/08/11

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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39:48

Irina Novolselsky: Will I Ever Get a Job Again?

The Messy Parts ·

2025/08/04

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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41:36

Vanessa Barboni Hallik: Where is the rest of me?

The Messy Parts ·

2025/07/28

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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39:56

Fede Garcia: Fired at the top and giving up on the...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/07/21

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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45:21

Ana Gasteyer: SNL, Wine, Fame, and Staying Funny |...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/07/14

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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42:09

Vicki Freeman: Finding Your Calling Through Trial and...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/07/07

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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37:50

Safe Choice, Wrong Choice

The Messy Parts ·

2025/06/30

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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41:39

Radical Transparency: The Billion Dollar Burnout

The Messy Parts ·

2025/06/23

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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39:40

Cindi Leive on Reinvention, Resilience, and Rewriting...

The Messy Parts ·

2025/06/16

Cindi Leive has shaped the media world—from her tenure as Glamour's editor-in-chief to co-founding The Meteor. In this intimate conversation, she joins Maryam to talk about losing her mother young, surviving the “command and control” culture of Condé Nast, and building something new from the ground up. They explore the messy parts of starting over, raising kids in a digital age, the loneliness epidemic, feminism under fire, and why collaboration always wins. Cindi shares the lessons she’s lea...

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21 results

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