Marqeta Leads

Today, on Earth Day, our guest is Svanika Balasubramanian who is the CEO of rePurpose Global. rePurpose Global's mission is to help people take stock of their plastic footprint and its consequences, offering up solutions to remove and recover as much plastic waste from nature as they use. Marqeta has partnered with rePurpose Global for this exact purpose which we hope will result in 380,000 pounds of waste being removed from the environment throughout 2021 to then be channeled towards sustainable recovery.   In this episode, we talk with Svanika about how she built and leads this impactful organization.   rePurpose Global Website  rePurpose Global Instagram

This episode features Marqeta CMO Vidya Peters. Vidya Peters joins Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings on the mics all the way from the Netherlands. Listen as they dive into a deep discussion of Leadership, Marketing and Communication.   1:05  - The discussion opens with host Ron asking Vidya about her background and what her current focus is.  Vidya comes from an Industrial Engineering background and Strategy Consulting background, listen to her share her professional path leading to Marqeta. 1:45 - Chris asks Vidya about her awe inspiring presentation and presenting skills and if there is overlap. Vidya shares that Presentation skills differ from leadership skills and shares some misnomers about perceptions of leadership. 2:35 - Hear Vidya share about learning leadership the hard way, and the misnomers she previously held about leadership.   Chris and Vidya have an exchange about leadership based on authority.   3:47 - Vidya shares a second misnomer about leadership; and why it is deeper than just managing people. Hear how management, or managing people, isn’t precisely leadership.   4:43 - Vidya shares a third misnomer about leadership; leadership as a popularity contest. Listen further to hear Vidya’s insights about efficacy of leadership and respecting unpopular leaders that are doing the right thing.   6:00 - For a leader what are mission and organizational needs relative to your own leadership style? Hear about some common ground between Marketing communications and Leadership communications as well as how they’re different.   7:08 - Vidya speaks about Marketing communications and how it has a complex set of expectations with certain constraints.   7:30 - Ron asks Vidya about her team building superpower.   8:30 - Listen to Ron Eddings and Vidya share an exchange about what type of talent or qualities she looks for in her own team and why she thinks certain traits are crucial. Listen to learn more about team building strategies and why finding the right people should be a priority for any leader.   9:10 - Vidya Peters speaks about finding new team members based on their talents and mindset. She shares her three most valued qualities and discusses the difference between skills, talents, mindsets and perspectives.   10:00 - Curiouser and curiouser, what is important about intellectual curiosity? Listen to what Vidya and Chris have to say about finding the right people for the right roles.   12:40 - Ron and Vidya have an exchange about the “Tech” workspace and COVID-19, how distanced working and marketing have experienced a digital transformation. Vidya speaks about the great myth-debunking that has occurred in 2020 with regard to proximate work environments and a couple of challenging factors she’s encountered.   13:45 - New truths Vidya has realized about ‘bringing your whole selves to work.’ Vidya shares her awareness of how human empathy and connection with your coworkers can end up being deprioritized with all the uncertainty that the rapid adjustment to remote work has caused for many people.   15:25 - A robust blended workplace model is briefly touched on by Vidya Chris asks how can Leaders can cultivate this environment of empathy and what Vidya is doing to continue team building.   16:00 - Ron, Chris and Vidya speak about the importance of informal connection with your coworkers, knowing what’s going on in their lives. Vidya tries to bring her whole self to work and make space for her team to do the same. She shares a couple things that have worked for her team.   17:23 - Ron Eddings asks Vidya how she leads by example, and how she’s fighting Zoom fatigue. Hear Vidya speak about her family, puppy and being together at home. She explains how encouraging people to honor   19:30 - Vidya speaks about her own style of leadership, and how she approaches leading her team. Listen to hear what the bridge is that she tries to build as a leader. She speaks in detail about finding motivations and generating excitement.  Hear how she breaks down her own priorities as a leader and honoring her team members.   21:40 - Building a great Marqeta and marketing as a service.    22:00 - Fairness v. Kindness — Walking the line Chris and Vidya have an exchange about leadership when it comes from a place of authority compared to when it comes from a place of kindness.    23:00 - Converting leadership challenges to opportunities They dive a bit deeper and Vidya shares how a problem became a leadership opportunity for not just herself but others where she worked.   24:30 - Vidya shares about how opening up to mistakes can become a catalyst for leadership learning moments.   27:00 - Creating a space for truth Chris and Vidya speak more about examples of leadership and cultivating an environment conducive to learning.   28:00 - To anyone thinking about going into leadership; hear about how to have the right mindset.  Vidya cautions us that as a leader you have to be prepared for people to not like you, hear why this is crucial to effective leadership.   Follow Vidya on Twitter Follow Marqeta on Twitter

In this episode, Ron and Chris speak with award-winning filmmaker Julie Cohen. They talk about the lessons she has learned from her time making films and most notably her time making the RBG documentary focused on the world-renowned Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.   To learn more about what Julie is working on you should Follow Julie on Twitter —@filmmakerjulie Check out Storyville Films - the production company behind RBG and get the inside scoop on some of the upcoming projects.    0:00 - 3:00 — Meet Julie Cohen, hear about her work as a journalist and what motivates her and about why accuracy is important. [What inspires Julie to tell stories. Photography, reading, theatre, many sources.] [Julie pulls in many diverse sources of inspiration for her drive to tell stories accurately in her documentaries.]  3:00 - 5:15 — Hear why truth can be stranger than fiction and where her storytelling magic comes from. [Hear the two factors Julie thinks are important to telling people’s stories and the responsibilities of a film director. ] 5:15 - 6:00 — Julie speaks about how creating documentaries for WNET connected experiences from folks of different walks of life. [Making stories about New Yorkers for WNET. The experience of running into previous co-workers and gaining new perspectives].  6:00 - 8:00 —  Julie speaks about working on the documentary RBG, things she learned. She speaks about RBG’s personality and her insights into who RBG was.  8:00 - 10:00 — Julie shares what it was like to get to know RBG, hear what RBG’s reaction was to Kate McKinnon’s SNL portrayals in RBG-ception.  [Scalia’s and Ginsburg’s friendship.] 10:00 - 11:30 — Chris asks if, and how, has Julie’s understanding of leadership changed through getting to know RBG.  11:30 - 12:40 — Julie speaks about the stereotype of a leader and what children might respond with when asked what a leader looks or sounds like. [Hear about RBG’s leadership style from Julie and how it might contrast with the current archetype of a ‘leader.’] [Hear about leadership and stepping into power in male dominated spaces.] 12:40 — Julie speaks about the leadership qualities RBG lived that were the most impactful to her. 13:17 — Chris and Julie speak about the positive role model that RBG is for children. [Who loves RBG? Kids do.] [The RBG factor. Julie speaks about the RBG cosplayers.] 14:26 - 15:30 — Julie speaks about the impact of being able to tell RBG’s story had on her life and outlook on documentaries. [A global impact of telling a story, being able to see it resonate.]  15:30 - 16:30 — Hear Julie share some of the different people that are inspired by RBG. [Julie speaks about learning about the type of leaders that people want to hear about. All different types of people, introverts, men, attorneys and the inspiration that it brought to people. Seeing the Women’s equality movement was important still to people and that representation matters.] 16:30 - 17:30 — Ron asks Julie about the documentarian process and the virtues of patience [Julie speaks about the amount of time it took to tell this story, even being able to tell the story took effort and a journey.] 17:30 - 19:00 — Julie shares some insight into the film-making process and speaks about resiliency [Julie speaks about the long process of creation and the trials and tribulations that might be faced.] [Julie speaks about the persistence it takes to see a creative process through points of failure, technical difficulty or outright rejection.] 19:01 - 20:30 — Julie speaks about the 94 different times things can fall apart. [Who makes a film and who doesn’t? Who can step through adversity.] 20:30 - 21:20 — Hear Julie’s perspective about the best type of cliche for any storyteller.  21:20 - 23:00 — Julie sheds some light on her experience working on shows like Dateline. Hear what it’s like compared to documentary filmmaking work. [Julie shares about being able to be comfortable blazing her own creative trail.]  [The differences between working in a major network environment v. working on her own.] 23:00 - 25:00 — Chris asks about another type of leadership shown in American Veteran a documentary about Sgt. Nick Mendes. [Hear about the impact of American Veteran on podcast host Chris Cochran; Julie and Chris have an exchange about her work on this documentary about Sgt. Nick Mendes] 25:00 - 26:00 — Julie speaks about the origins of the documentary American Veteran.  [Hear about Julie learning about the adversity and triumph of Nick despite being paralyzed from the neck down.] 27:00 - 29:00 — Hear about what it was like to attend a Veteran’s Day  parade with Sgt. Nick Mendes  Chris and Julie have an exchange about America and the support of its disabled and otherwise injured veterans. 30:00 - 31:00 — Julie and Chris have an exchange about why accessibility matters; they speak about impacted American veterans. 32:00 - 35:00 — Julie talks about journalistic license and some upcoming projects with Ron and Chris [Julia a story about Julia Childs, a feminist love story about food and emotion.]  [An upcoming film about gender race and gender identity.]  35:00 - 37:06 — Julie and Chris share an exchange about RBG and the recognition that she deserves.    

In this inaugural episode, Ron and Chris sit down with Marqeta CEO, Jason Gardner, to discuss his journey through leadership and explain the tools he has used over his successful entrepreneurial career.   1:00 - 3:00  — Learn about Jason’s first business venture and starting business in tech. Jason speaks about mindsets for entrepreneurship.  5:30 — Jason speaks about the importance of leading from values and finding his own style of communication.  7:30 — Learn where Jason’s leadership comes from and how it lent itself to a more steady vision. 10:00-12:00 — Communication is key, Jason speaks about his superpower and why he views leadership as a type of service. 13:00-15:00  — Jason shares about the weight of responsibility that a leader must become accustomed to. He shares how he navigated a very difficult time in Marqeta’s development as a company and platform. 16:00-20:00  — How Jason adjusted to physically distanced work and the gifts and challenges it has presented.  20:00 — Jason speaks a bit about leadership culture and why is it important to Marqeta’s values. 22:00 — Some advice from Jason on how to be a leader. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with Marqeta and Jason, follow Marqeta on social media!   Thanks for listening please do check out our social media for the latest. Marqeta's Twitter   Marqeta's Linkedin