Business of Being Awesome Business of Being Awesome

Planning your next vacation, #bizoba ballers? If not, by the end of this episode, we think you will be.

In this summer special, we talk to CEO and Founder Gillian Morris about her remarkable journey toward building Hitlist, a travel company focused on helping you turn the trip of your dreams into an affordable reality by filtering cheap flights on flexible dates to droolworthy destinations. If the saying is true, that "traveling is the only thing you spend money on that makes you richer,” Hitlist is on track to make everyone a millionaire.

Tune in to hear Gillian share about the high school choir trip that sparked her wanderlust, the post-college journalism gig that led to an odyssey around East and Central Asia, and the hackathon that took her from Istanbul back to the United States and onto her biggest trip: into entrepreneurship. Riding out the turbulence of startup life and flying higher every day toward making Hitlist the next travel-tech success story, Gillian Morris is very much in the business of being awesome.

Ready for your next adventure? Download Hitlist on your iPhone, check out Wandertab on Chrome, or search hitlistapp.com/flights on your web browser to put the trip of your dreams at your fingertips. Until next episode, happy end of summer, keep calm, and travel on!

#bizobabullets of wisdom from this episode:
1. Everyone experiences turbulence on the journey to finding and doing meaningful work.
2. “Seize the opportunity to travel” because it’ll make you a healthier, happier, more creative person
3. This one isn’t original, but J.R.R. Tolkien had it right: “Not all who wander are lost"

Love what you hear on the podcast? Search and subscribe “Business of Being Awesome” on Soundcloud or iTunes and get connected with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @bizobapodcast. Love notes, ideas for future episodes, and suggestions for improving #bizoba can be sent to us atbizobapodcast@gmail.com.

Making a podcast is far from easy and many of our friends and family have been wondering why we did it and how we did it. So today, we’re putting our brainpower toward going behind the scenes of the Business of Being Awesome while helping Erica graduate (disclaimer: this podcast about the podcast is her independent study project).

In today’s episode, Erica gets a taste of her own medicine, answering the questions we tend to ask our guests and sharing more of her personal story. We hope you get a better sense of what goes on behind the scenes of #bizoba and are entertained by Erica’s reflections on her quest to make a difference in the business world, from her past in foreign languages to her future selling furniture. In other words, we hope you’ll enjoy this podcast about the podcast!

#bizobabullets of wisdom from this episode (Erica’s so far. Lily’s to be added):
• There’s a chance that doing what you love might mean you stop loving it--that might mean you’re not doing the thing you really love, just the thing you think you really love. Take the risk anyway. You’ll know it’s right or not right based on whether you run out of ideas to make it work against all odds.
• “Don’t stop believing. Hold onto that feeling.” Even on the path of doing something you love, it’s likely you’ll meet with resistance: from parents, friends, and yourself--sometimes in the sneakiest ways. Push on through. It’s worth it
• For both the thoughts you think and the people you spend time with—choose the good ones. They’ll define your life.

For more on Erica, check out her blog, www.erica-zendell.com.

Love what you hear on the podcast? Search and subscribe to “Business of Being Awesome” on Soundcloud or iTunes and get connected with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @bizobapodcast. Love notes, ideas for future episodes, and suggestions for improving #bizoba can be sent to us at bizobapodcast@gmail.com.

Mother of four. MIT Professor. Groundbreaking business researcher. Zeynep Ton doesn't believe in keeping these identities separate--she embraces them all and integrates them in the full picture of who she is and what she does. In the conclusion of the second season of #bizoba, Zeynep tells her full story from growing up in Turkey, playing volleyball at Penn State, and picking up her Ph.D. at Harvard Business School. She shares the inflection points along her path that led to changing her view of success and reprioritizing her life in favor of more time with her family and more meaningful work.

While most companies tend to focus just on satisfying investors or creating value for customers, in her courses at MIT and her book "Good Jobs Strategy," Zeynep's research supports that the most successful companies in the long-term are those committed to designing great jobs and investing in the training and development of great employees. In this interview, Zeynep shows just how much she, like the companies she studies, is 100% committed to her values of investing in people and doing work that matters.

#bizoba bullets from this episode are:
1. Continuously improve--it’s far easier to be mediocre than it is to be excellent--in both your work and your personal life
2. Invest in your family--whether that means your direct relations or the people in your life that you would call your family
3. Enjoy your life, make it matter, and make it meaningful

In Zeynep's world of operations management, awesome businesses are made by way of continuous improvement. We think the same is true of awesome lives. So whatever that continuous improvement looks like for you, #bizoba ballers, we look forward to being along for the ride with you on the journey to a happier and more fulfilled life, both on and off the clock.

We can't wait to hear all the ways you've been #busybeingawesome when we return in Season 3. Until then, stay in touch with us on social media @bizobapodcast, share your thoughts with us by emailing bizobapodcast@gmail.com, and rock out to two seasons of power songs on our "Bizoba power songs" playlist on Spotify.

At 22, Miki Agrawal decided to stop putting her biggest dreams on hold. Within four years, she went after all three of them, playing soccer for the New York Magic, filming commercials for the likes of Justin Timberlake and Victoria’s Secret, and opening a chain of locally-sourced, organic, wholesome pizza restaurants in New York City. She didn’t stop there: soon after, she published a bestselling book and co-founded THINX, a company tackling period leaks in America while empowering women in the developing world through tech-infused underwear.

In #bizoba episode 5, we talk to Miki about her incredible story and her newest ventures toward tackling the 3P’s of civilized society--poop, pee, and periods--and turning them from taboo into talked-about topics. After listening to Miki, we think you’ll agree: her most awesome work is only just beginning and nothing can stop her except her own imagination. The same goes for you, too, #bizoba ballers.

#bizobabullets of wisdom from this episode:
• Doing cool stuff requires doing. Not just talking about doing
• Be sure to surround yourself with people that support you in reaching your wildest dreams--they’ll keep you grounded and sane along the way
• When starting a business, it’s cool to build something to help yourself--but it’s really awesome to build is something that also helps others. That’s where you can change the world.

For more on Miki, check out her website www.mikiagrawal.com and book “Do Cool Sh*t”. For more on THINX, check out www.shethinx.com and follow on Twitter and Instagram @shethinx. You can also learn about Miki’s other product lines (pee-proof underwear and a bidet attachment for your toilet) at www.iconundies.com and www.tushy.me.

Love what you hear on the podcast? Search and subscribe to “Business of Being Awesome” on Soundcloud or iTunes and get connected with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @bizobapodcast. Be sure to check out our Spotify "#bizoba power songs" playlist and follow us. Love notes, ideas for future episodes, and suggestions for improving #bizoba can be sent to us at bizobapodcast@gmail.com.