The Fuqua Show

E91 — Julia Korn — Trading "Just Getting By" for a Career You Actually Want

What if the ladder you've been climbing is leaning against the wrong wall?  Most of us were handed a blueprint for success. Climb the ranks, check the boxes, keep moving. But what happens when you're excelling on paper and still feel completely hollow inside? According to Gallup, 79% of professionals are operating on autopilot, present in body but absent in purpose. For high-achieving professionals in leadership, that disconnection rarely looks like falling apart. It looks like crushing every goal while quietly burning out from the inside.  In this episode of The Fuqua Show, host Aaliyah Brown sits down with Julia Korn, Executive Career Coach, Business Insider "Most Innovative Career Coach," and founder of the Women's Leadership Accelerator, for a conversation that challenges everything you thought you knew about ambition, success, and what it actually means to thrive.  Connect with Julia:   * LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliakorn/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliakorn/]   * Women's Leadership Accelerator: https://juliakorn.com/wla [https://juliakorn.com/wla]   * Speaking reel: Julia Korn Speaker Reel 2025 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNjfE7LQJT8]   What we unpack in this episode:  *  Breaking Up with "Should" How one word quietly hijacks your mental health, your decisions, and your sense of self, and what to replace it with.  * The Burnout Myth Why you don't have to set yourself on fire to rise. Julia reframes what sustainable, skyrocketing career growth actually looks like.  *  Your Internal Board of Directors Mentors versus sponsors: why the distinction matters more than most people realize, and how to strategically build both into your network.  * The "Team Fuqua" Mindset How genuine human connection, not just networking, becomes the most powerful career accelerator you're probably underusing.  Whether you're early in your career, mid-pivot, or leading teams while secretly wondering is this it? Julia's framework for finding your "magical zone of genius" will challenge you to stop optimizing for other people's definitions of success and start designing a career that's unmistakably yours.  If you've been waiting for a sign to stop living by internalized obligation and start leading with intention, this is it.  Host: Aaliyah Brown  Subscribe: [Apple Podcasts] | [Spotify] | [YouTube]  Follow The Fuqua Show: [Instagram] | [LinkedIn]  For more information on the Duke MBA experience, visit fuqua.duke.edu/admissions.   This is a student-run production. The opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not reflect the views of Duke University or the Fuqua School of Business.

E90 — Gil Vazquez— Grit: Beyond the System's Walls

On this episode of The Fuqua Show, we sit down with Gil Vazquez (Class of '26) for a masterclass in resilience, gratitude, and the audacity to bet on yourself. Gil’s story isn't your typical polished resume; it is a raw look at what happens when the institutions you rely on say "no," and you refuse to accept it.  From his early years moving from Puerto Rico to the U.S. with his professional horse-jockey father, to losing and fighting to regain a Division 1 track scholarship, Gil has always had to forge his own path. We trace his journey through an eight-year military career as an Army engineer deployed across Europe and Africa. He details a pivotal crucible: fighting a toxic military bureaucracy and reaching out directly to a general to secure his exit from the armed forces to care for his ailing mother.  Now a full-ride scholar, an incoming leader in strategy and finance at PepsiCo, and the founder of Built Different Running Company (BDRC), Gil shares how almost losing his MBA opportunity fueled a profound dedication to servant leadership.  In this episode, we cover: * Navigating life and assimilation as a first-generation college student to immigrant parents.  * Bouncing back from lost scholarships, injuries, and being kicked off his team to achieving an undefeated Division 2 cross-country season.  * The sobering reality of military leadership, taking accountability for a team, and advocating for yourself against a broken system.  * Fostering community through the Fuqua Run Club and launching his new entrepreneurial venture, BDRC.

E89 — Jessica Thomas — The Power of the Redirect: From Toy Designer to Sustainability Trailblazer

In this episode, we explore what it means to truly use business as a force for good. We sit down with Jessica Yinka Thomas, a proud Fuqua alumna (MBA '04), the Director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative at NC State University's Poole College of Management, and a founding force behind the B Academics movement.  Jessica shares her fascinating life of "redirects." She takes us through her early years growing up across Miami, Nigeria, and Senegal, and explains how her background in mechanical engineering led her to become one of the first product designers at the educational toy startup Leapfrog. We discuss her pivot from corporate toy design to studying social entrepreneurship at Duke, her double life as a novelist penning social justice thrillers, and her groundbreaking work integrating the B Corp framework into higher education to create applied learning opportunities for students worldwide.  Key Takeaways from this Episode: * Global Perspectives: How a childhood spent in West Africa profoundly shaped Jessica's approach to innovation and global economic development.  * The Leapfrog Ride: The thrilling—and exhausting—experience of designing interactive learning toys while helping grow an early-stage startup into the third-largest toy company in the U.S..  * Embracing the "Redirect": Finding clarity after burnout through a six-month backpacking journey in Australia and reading The Artist's Way.  * Championing B Corps: The creation of the pioneering NC State B Corp Clinic and the scaling of B Academics into an independent global network of over 2,500 members.  * The Team Fuqua Ethos: The power of collective action, lifting others up, and remaining honest about your core values as you build a career.  Listen now to discover how to harness your own life's redirects and leverage business to drive positive change!

E88— Elisabeth Scott — Ambition, Authenticity, and the Rooms You Build for Others

What does it look like to move through an MBA with both strategic clarity and genuine heart? In this episode, host Aaliyah Brown sits down with Elisabeth Scott: second-year MBA, future Kearney consultant, and a leader who has never treated ambition and authenticity as opposites.  Elisabeth's path spans global supply chains in the power tool and sports industries, a GATE trip to South Africa, a tea ceremony in Kyoto, and the helm of Fuqua's InnovateHER conference. Along the way, she's collected hard-won lessons about knowing where to focus, when to say no, and what it really means to build community on purpose.  Inside the Episode:  * The Operational Pivot: Why Elisabeth moved from the "visible, measurable" world of supply chain to the diagnostic landscape of management consulting.  * The "Should" of Ambition: A candid look at whether ambition and authenticity are truly in tension and how to navigate "the rooms you weren't supposed to be in."  * Global Perspectives: Lessons on leadership and communication captured from the streets of South Africa to traditional tea ceremonies in Japan.  * The Power of Community: How serving as a COLE Fellow and a Student Representative to the Board of Visitors shaped her view of "Team Fuqua."  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabethmscott/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabethmscott/]    Host: Aaliyah Brown  Subscribe: [Apple Podcasts] | [Spotify] | [YouTube]  Follow The Fuqua Show: [Instagram] | [LinkedIn]  For more information on the Duke MBA experience, visit fuqua.duke.edu/admissions.   This is a student-run production. The opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not reflect the views of Duke University or the Fuqua School of Business.

E87 — Jon Valdez — Miami Born, Fuqua Made: A Lesson on Pride, Heritage, and Purpose

In this episode, host Sam Shain sits down with Jon Valdez to discuss his transformative journey of self-discovery, identity, and leadership. Jon shares his story beginning with his early childhood in Miami's Little Havana with his Cuban immigrant family, to an abrupt move to rural South Carolina. He opens up about the bullying he faced, the pressure to hide his authentic self, and the challenge of navigating his intersecting identities as a Latino and a queer youth in a conservative environment. The conversation shifts to a major turning point when Jon moved to Washington, D.C.. There, he finally felt safe to come out, build a supportive community, and meet his partner of ten years, Lucas. Jon details how his desire to make a broader impact ultimately led him to Duke's Fuqua School of Business. At Fuqua, Jon transformed into a proud, visible leader, serving as the President of Fuqua Pride and on the cabinet for the American Latinx Management Association (ALMA). In this episode, we cover: * Moving from the bilingual city of Miami to rural South Carolina at age seven. * The struggles of middle school, dealing with slurs, and eventually finding representation through media. * Coming out to himself and his family, and finding his chosen family in the nation's capital. * The modern love story of how Jon met his partner, Lucas, and how they navigated the MBA journey together. * Why Jon chose Duke after MBA Pride weekend and his mission to make the campus more inclusive. * Jon's post-grad plans to join DaVita's leadership development program in Chicago. Tune in to hear a powerful testament to the reality of "Team Fuqua" and the beauty of bringing your authentic self to every space you enter.