The Joy of Connecting

Maria Doughty has spent nearly five decades' worth of institutional wisdom at her fingertips — and she uses every bit of it to do one thing: bring people together who never would have found each other otherwise. As President & CEO of The Chicago Network, a 50-year-old invitation-only community of the city's most powerful senior executive women, Maria has turned the art of connection into a leadership philosophy. In this warm and wonderfully candid episode, Maria shares how a leap of faith...

Meg McWilliams knows the sting of networking gone wrong—and she’s building a better way. As the co-founder of Gobby Goblin, an AI-powered event networking tool, Meg is on a mission to make large-scale events more human, one meaningful intro at a time. In this refreshingly honest episode, Meg shares her founder journey, lessons learned from gaming and immersive tech, and what it really takes to create connection at scale without losing the personal touch. ✨ Highlights from this episode: Why mo...

“Human connection isn’t instant—rapport might be, but trust takes time.” — Orlaith Brogan, Co-Founder of Wing People What if networking wasn’t awkward, aimless, or based on chance? What if connection at events was designed—with intention, warmth, and actual follow-through? Shaena Harrison and Orlaith Brogan are the co-founders of Wing People, a company that places trained "wing people" inside events to make meaningful, real-time introductions. In this episode, they share the origin of ...

Connection is not a credit card swipe.  It's an investment. In this heartfelt and energizing conversation, we’re joined by Alli Kushner, Global Operations Lead at LinkedIn and founder of BeeKyn, a startup helping working parents find meaningful playdate connections for their kids and themselves. We dive deep into how modern life complicates authentic connection and how Alli is tackling that challenge head-on. From the emotional toll of postpartum depression to the triumph of building somethin...

We’re pumped to welcome Scott Tran, Founder at Support Driven, a community serving customer support and customer experience professionals, to our show. Scott has built a thriving online community of more than 13,000 members who care deeply about support. In this episode, he shares how the art of listening shaped every stage of growth, why people stay for friendship (not only answers), and what it really takes to scale a community without losing its soul. We discuss the importance of ser...