The Gold Standard Podcast

John Flannery: From Notre Dame Track & Field to Programming Strategy at Nickelodeon

John Flannery '18 shares his journey from recruited track athlete at Notre Dame to Director of Programming & Content Strategy at Nickelodeon. In this conversation, John opens up about his years on the track team and how that experience pushed him deeper into the Film, Television, and Theater major. He discusses doing a fifth year at Syracuse's Newhouse School and landing an internship at Showtime that turned into his first full-time role in the industry. John walks us through his role at Nickelodeon in one of the most rapidly changing media landscapes. He explains how kids' viewing habits have completely shifted across YouTube, streaming, and gaming - making it nearly impossible to predict what works day to day. He shares behind-the-scenes details about Nickelodeon's live sports strategy (including NFL games with SpongeBob commentary), competing against cultural juggernauts like Disney's Bluey, and why understanding the business side of media has become crucial to his career growth.

Brendan King: From Professional Soccer to Fintech Founder on Career-Ending Injuries, Managing Billions, and Building Wavvest

Brendan King '12 shares his journey from playing professional soccer across Europe and MLS to founding Wavvest, a tech platform transforming how wealth managers operate. In this conversation, Brendan opens up about moving away from home at 16 to train with the U.S. U-17 National Team, his years playing at Notre Dame, and getting drafted by the Portland Timbers. He walks us through playing professionally in Ireland and Norway, then coming home to Chicago - only to suffer a career-ending hamstring injury that forced him to rethink everything. Brendan discusses his transition into wealth management, spending nearly seven years at Bessemer Trust and JP Morgan working with some of the world's wealthiest families - clients with $20M minimums and portfolios in the hundreds of millions. He explains how watching firms doing billions in revenue still struggle with basic workflows led him to quit his job and start Wavvest. He talks about the early days of founding - getting 150+ no's before that first yes, signing their first billion-dollar AUM client, and why he believes the future of wealth management is a hybrid of cutting-edge tech and human advice. Plus, he shares what it's like building a startup while expecting his first child.

Bryan Enriquez: Founding Team Member of Hallow on Faith, Notre Dame, and Building a Prayer App for Millions

Bryan Enriquez '15 shares his unlikely journey from being the one of the only Latino student in his Mississippi high school to being on the founding team of Hallow, the Catholic prayer and meditation app that's been downloaded over 24 million times worldwide. In this conversation, Bryan opens up about arriving at Notre Dame without ever visiting campus , how studying abroad in Toledo, Spain became the most formative 100 days of his life, and his work at the Department of Justice. He walks us through the founding story of Hallow - how a phone call from his Notre Dame roommate Alex led him to leave his government career to build what would become one of the most successful prayer and meditation apps in the world. Bryan discusses the challenges of scaling from 9 pieces of content to a platform featuring everyone from Mark Wahlberg to Jonathan Roumie, and how AI is transforming the way they support millions of users.