Hard Earned with Laura Massetti

Laura Massetti, Founder of Real Work Ready™
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Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Most people get the job. Almost nobody gets the briefing. Every episode is a conversation with a senior leader about one thing they had to learn the expensive way. Where they learned it. What it cost before they knew it. And what it means for someone still climbing. Not the keynote version. Not a memoir. A briefing for the person coming up behind them. Hosted by Laura Massetti, former Fortune 100 executive and founder of Real Work Ready, who spent fifteen years hiring, evaluating, and deciding who moved up. New episodes every Tuesday. A Real Work Ready podcast. realworkready.com

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    How to Work With Difficult People Without Losing Yourself with Amy Gallo

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for the first years of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.  Learn more: www.realworkready.com Nobody tells you that great work is only half the job. The other half is people. The manager who second-guesses you, the peer who agrees in the meeting and undercuts you after, the colleague who always seems to be playing an angle. Amy Gallo is an author and Harvard Business Review contributing editor who has spent her career studying how people behave at work. Her book Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) gives a practical framework for the relationships that drain us most. In this conversation, she and Laura dig into why conflict feels so personal and what you can do about it. In this episode: Why early-career professionals struggle when feedback, expectations, and power dynamics are unfamiliarHow your brain turns small moments of tension into negative stories about other peopleThe common difficult behaviors at work, from the insecure manager to the passive-aggressive peer to the political operatorHow to respond with agency and set boundaries when a relationship cannot be fixedWhy every conversation is a negotiation between different needs, values, and stylesReal Work Ready Real Work Ready teaches early professionals how to communicate, handle feedback, and navigate the people side of work before it becomes a problem. The behaviors are learnable, and the earlier you start, the better.  Get started: www.realworkready.com For people managers, HR leaders, and L&D teams: realworkready.com/masterclass Connect with Amy Gallo: Website: https://www.amyegallo.com | Book: Andare d'accordo: https://www.amazon.it/-/en/Amy-Gallo/dp/8836203418/ | Newsletter: https://www.amyegallo.com/newsletter | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyegallo | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyegallo Connect with Laura Massetti: Website: https://www.realworkready.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a Real Work Ready podcast. Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  2. Oct 2

    The Sales System Nobody Builds Until It Is Too Late | with Aleasha Bahr

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for the first years of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Most leaders who are good at sales built that success on instinct. Nobody ever made them write it down. Nobody made them build a system around it. And that works great until the day they try to hand it off, hire a team, or scale beyond themselves. Then everything breaks. Aleasha Bahr is the founder of the Black Sheep Sales Method and the host of two podcasts: Sales is NOT a Dirty Word and Black Sheep Network. She has spent her career helping leaders turn intuitive sales success into something that does not depend on them being in the room. Formerly based in Denver, now building her business from Spain. In this episode: Why 50 to 70 percent of lost deals are actually winnable and what is happening in those conversations that kills themWhat breaks down the moment a leader who sells well tries to hand it off or scale it to a teamWhy hiring a VP of Sales before you have a documented system is one of the most expensive mistakes a business can makeWhat the Black Sheep Sales Method does differently and what a leader can start building this week Real Work Ready Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to grow into the kind of leader who has this conversation. The behaviors are learnable before you need them. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Aleasha: Website: aleashabahr.com Book a Sales Call Audit: calendly.com/aleasha/sales-level-up Assessment: https://assessment.aleashabahr.com/  Podcast: Sales is NOT a Dirty Word Podcast: Black Sheep Network Instagram: @aleashabahr LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aleashabahr Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a Real Work Ready podcast. Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  3. Sep 22

    Your Company Has a Hidden Operating System. Here Is How to Read It. | with Nick Holmes

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for the first years of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Most people spend years inside an organization trying to figure out why things work the way they do. Nobody tells you before you start that the answer is not the org chart, the leadership team, or the company values on the wall. It is the culture. And culture is not a vibe. It is a system. And like any system, it can be read. Nick Holmes is a PhD researcher in organizational behavior, the founder of Culturnova, and one of the most practical voices working on what workplace culture actually is and how to diagnose it before it costs you. In this conversation he shares the framework he has spent years building, and what it means for anyone trying to understand the environment they are working inside. In this episode: Why culture is the operating system of every organization and what that means for how people work, grow, and feel at workThe four domains of culture: Maps, Wires, Patterns, and Sparks — and what each one tells you about whether an organization is working or quietly breakingWhy burnout is caused less by overwork and more by role ambiguity and misalignment, and what to do about itWhat managers can shape in a person's first 90 days and why that window matters more than almost anything elseWhat to ask in a job interview that will tell you more about a company's real culture than anything on their website Real Work Ready Understanding the culture you are walking into is one of the things nobody teaches before you need it. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to navigate any environment from day one. Get started: www.realworkready.com For people managers, HR leaders, and L&D teams: realworkready.com/masterclass Connect with Nick: Culturnova: culturenova.co.uk UNTHINK: weunthink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nickholmeshr TikTok: @nickholmes_culturedesigner Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a Real Work Ready podcast. Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  4. Sep 15

    Why HR Professionals Undercharge (And What To Do About It) | with Sam Eaton

    Real Work Ready  The professional readiness program built for the first years of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.  Learn more: www.realworkready.com Most HR professionals are brilliant at understanding people, organizations, and value. They are far worse at pricing their own. Nobody ever taught them how to quantify what they are worth, so they default to undercharging and overdelivering until it breaks them. Sam Eaton is the founder of MindAbility Business Coaching, a global business coach for the HR and talent profession with 25 years of experience building HR consultancies internationally. In the last five years, she and her team have guided over 260 founders to build 6, 7, and 8 figure businesses. In this conversation she breaks down why HR professionals cannot see their own value, and what a failed gardening business taught her about knowing when to walk away. In this episode: Why HR professionals consistently struggle to quantify their value, and what it costs them with clientsHow Sam scaled an HR consultancy from £650K to £4.3M, and what that growth actually requiredThe story behind her book The Trouble With Pink Wheelbarrows, and what a failed online retail business taught her about forecasting, ego, and knowing when to pivotWhy objections in a client conversation are often an opening for a deeper conversation, not a rejectionHow to turn a founder's personal goals into an actual commercial strategyReal Work Ready Knowing your value does not start with a pricing formula. It starts with the professional foundation Real Work Ready builds in the first years of a career. Get started: www.realworkready.com For people managers, HR leaders, and L&D teams: realworkready.com/masterclass Connect with Sam: Website: mindabilitybusinesscoaching.com MindAbility Business Club: mindabilitybusinessclub.com Book: The Trouble With Pink Wheelbarrows: amazon.com/dp/B0BBJN5CFB LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samanthaeaton1450 Instagram: @sam.eatonagain  YouTube: @mindabilityconsulting5705 Connect with Laura:  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti  Instagram: @realworkreadyhq  Website: realworkready.com Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a Real Work Ready podcast. Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  5. Sep 8

    She Built Her Career the Same Way She Protects Systems. Here Is What That Teaches. | with Salwa Rafee

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Most career advice is about skills. Nobody tells you that the professionals who last the longest are not the most skilled ones. They are the most resilient ones. The ones who built their defenses before they needed them, who knew their vulnerabilities before someone else found them, and who understood that resilience is not a response to pressure. It is a decision you make before it arrives. Salwa Rafee is a biomedical engineer turned global cybersecurity executive who has spent over 20 years protecting the systems that protect patients, including leadership roles at Accenture, IBM, Siemens, Raytheon, H-ISAC, and USAID across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. She is a speaker, an advocate for women in STEM, and the author of Defending Digital Lifelines: Healthcare in the Cyber Age. In this conversation, she brings the framework she built for protecting hospitals into the conversation every early professional needs about protecting their career. In this episode: What twenty years across the world's most complex organizations taught her about how professional environments actually work underneath the surfaceWhat the path of building a career in a technical, leadership-heavy field gave her that she is most grateful forWhat she wants every young professional, especially young women, to understand about building confidence and not waiting for permissionHow the framework inside her book, know your vulnerabilities before threats find them, build your defenses before you need them, applies as much to a career as to a hospital system Real Work Ready The behaviors that protect a career are learnable before you need them. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to build them, before they spend years figuring it out the hard way. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Salwa: Website: salwarafee.com Book: Defending Digital Lifelines: Healthcare in the Cyber Age LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/salwarafee Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  6. Sep 1

    You Don't Have to Pick a Lane. Here Is the New Career Model. | with Andreia Fernandes

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for the first years of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Most of us were handed the same career map. One employer. One ladder. One title at a time. Nobody told us the map was drawn for a world that no longer exists. Andreia Fernandes is the founder of the Portfolio Career Institute in Zurich, a keynote speaker on failure culture, and the creator of the Portfolio Career Canvas framework. She has spent over a decade helping professionals build careers that do not fit one title, one ladder, or one employer, and she is making the case that this is not a risk. It is the strategy. In this episode: What a portfolio career actually is and why it is fundamentally different from a side hustle or an inability to decide what you wantWhy the professionals who build the most fulfilled and financially resilient careers are the ones who stopped trying to fit one boxWhat failure culture is and why your relationship with failure determines more about your career than your skills doWhat someone can do right now, before they enrol in anything or quit anything, to start building a career that reflects their full range Real Work Ready Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to grow into the kind of leader who designs a career on their own terms. The behaviors are learnable before you need them. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Andreia: Portfolio Career Institute: portfoliocareerinstitute.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andreiarfernandes Instagram: @andreia_r_fernandes YouTube: @andreiafernandesPFC Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a Real Work Ready podcast. Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  7. Aug 27

    Leadership Podcast Trailer: Hard Earned with Laura Massetti

    Most people get the job. Almost nobody gets the briefing. Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a leadership podcast for people building toward a business leadership seat. Every episode is one senior leader on one thing they had to learn the expensive way. Where they learned it. What it cost before they knew it. And what it means for someone still climbing. Not the keynote version. Not a memoir. A briefing for the person coming up behind them. Laura Massetti spent fifteen years inside Fortune 100 organizations hiring, evaluating, and deciding who moved up. She watched capable people do everything right and stall anyway, and she could never explain it to them in a way that helped. So she started asking the people who got past it. Not what they achieved. What they had to learn, what it cost them, and what they would hand to someone coming up behind them. New episodes every Tuesday. WHAT EVERY EPISODE GIVES YOU • The lesson a senior leader learned the expensive way • What that lesson cost before they knew it • What to do with it while you still have time • Career and leadership advice that assumes you are already good at your job SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Realworkreadyhq Podcast: https://realworkready.com/podcast Also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. FOR PEOPLE MANAGERS, HR LEADERS, AND L&D TEAMS Real Work Ready is the professional readiness training that teaches the six behaviors determining how work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Companies bring it in for the people they are investing in. Join the masterclass: https://realworkready.com/masterclass CONNECT WITH LAURA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq TikTok: @realworkreadyhq Website: https://realworkready.com Subscribe now so the first episode lands in your feed on Tuesday. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  8. Aug 25

    She Kept Raising Her Hand. Here Is the Career That Built. | with Mariza Fotiou

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.comMost career advice tells you to find your lane and stay in it. Nobody tells you that the people who move fastest are the ones who keep raising their hand and asking for more, even when nobody is asking them to. Mariza Fotiou spent 20 years building a global career across financial services and energy, including as Digital COO at HSBC Private Bank and VP of Digital Product Management at BP, across New York and London. She changed roles every two to three years throughout her career by doing one thing: raising her hand when she was bored and asking for more. In this conversation, she shares what that habit actually built, what the hard moments actually taught her, and what she now knows that she wishes someone had told her at the very start. In this episode: Why raising your hand when you are bored, not waiting for the right moment, is the single most powerful career strategy most people never useWhat the colleague-to-boss transition actually looks like and why nobody prepares you for itWhat it feels like to lead a team through organizational transformation when you yourself do not know what is going to happen to youWhat AI is actually doing to entry-level work and why early professionals need to understand that the job market they are walking into is not the one that existed two years agoReal Work Ready The habit of asking for more is something you can build before you ever need it. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the operating system for a career that lasts. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Mariza: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariza-fotiou CuriousIQ: curiousiq.org Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

  9. Aug 17

    How to Make Career Decisions When You Cannot See the Whole Plan | Danijel Brener

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Nobody tells you that the career you plan is not the career you get. Nobody tells you that some of the biggest turns will come from a decision somebody else makes about you, in a room you are not in. And nobody tells you that the logic of your own path only becomes visible looking backwards. Danijel Brener leads the Enterprise PMO for Philips Sleep and Respiratory Care. Before that he was Chief of Staff and Head of International Markets. Twenty two years ago he walked into an interview expecting a sales job, was told he was not a sales person, and was sent to a country he had not chosen. Five cities and two continents later, he coaches early and mid career professionals on the thing nobody explained to him: how to tell a right yes from a wrong one. In this episode: Why the career you plan is almost never the career you get, and what to do with that instead of fighting itWhat it actually costs to say yes to an opportunity you did not choose, and what it buys you that staying put never willWhat he believed about how big decisions get made when he was junior, and what he found insteadHow to tell a right yes from a wrong one in year two, before you can see anything looking backwardsWhy learning to say no early is a career skill rather than a career riskReal Work Ready Nobody hands you a map for the first five years. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the six behaviors that determine how work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered, so that when the unplanned opportunity arrives, they are ready to take it. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Danijel: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dbrener Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

    How to Make Career Decisions When You Cannot See the Whole Plan | Danijel Brener

  10. Aug 11

    Most People Have the Wrong Idea About Mentorship Before They Ever Need It | with Dr. Deborah Heiser

    Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com Look to your left. Look to your right. You are looking at a mentor. Most people wait until they are stuck to go looking for one. Nobody tells you that the people who most want to mentor you are already around you, and that the easiest moment to build that relationship has already passed by the time you realize you needed it. Dr. Deborah Heiser is an applied developmental psychologist, TEDx speaker, Thinkers50 honoree, founder of The Mentor Project, and founder of Mental Mapping. Through The Mentor Project she and her team delivered over 3.5 million hours of mentorship. She is the author of The Mentorship Edge. In this conversation, she shares what all of that taught her about what mentorship actually is, why it so often fails, and what it builds when it finally works the way it should. In this episode: Why the most accomplished people in any organization are looking for someone to mentor right now, and why they cannot find early professionals to mentorWhat most people get wrong about mentorship that makes corporate programs fail and organic relationships never formWhat impact amnesia is and why early professionals who are not tracking their contributions right now will pay for it laterWhat someone in year one or two of their career can do this week to start building the relationships and the track record that real mentorship requires Real Work Ready Mentorship is most valuable before you realize you need it. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to build the relationships, visibility, and track record that make it possible. Get started: www.realworkready.com Connect with Deborah: Website: deborahheiser.com Book: The Mentorship Edge LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deborahheiser_phd Instagram: @deborah_heisertmp TikTok: @deborahheiser0 Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti Instagram: @realworkreadyhq Website: realworkready.com No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com

    Most People Have the Wrong Idea About Mentorship Before They Ever Need It | with Dr. Deborah Heiser
  • 10 Episodes

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About

Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it. Most people get the job. Almost nobody gets the briefing. Every episode is a conversation with a senior leader about one thing they had to learn the expensive way. Where they learned it. What it cost before they knew it. And what it means for someone still climbing. Not the keynote version. Not a memoir. A briefing for the person coming up behind them. Hosted by Laura Massetti, former Fortune 100 executive and founder of Real Work Ready, who spent fifteen years hiring, evaluating, and deciding who moved up. New episodes every Tuesday. A Real Work Ready podcast. realworkready.com

Information

  • Creator
    Laura Massetti, Founder of Real Work Ready™
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 © 2026 Real Work Ready™
  • Show Website
    Hard Earned with Laura Massetti