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The Women’s Network is driving conversations on topics such as gaining confidence and making strategic financial decisions in its new podcast “Redefining Ambition.”

Syracuse University alumna and The Women’s Network founder Jamie Vinick launched the podcast in June. She came up with the idea for the podcast as she was looking for ways to broadcast the organization’s content and mission more publicly.

The podcast releases episodes weekly on Tuesdays at noon on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Episodes have featured speakers such as Betsy Morgan, former CEO of The Huffington Post and founder of Magnet Companies, and Kathryn Ordower, vice president of legal affairs at Glossier.

“The podcast enables us to share publicly with everyone these conversations we are having with The Women’s Network on individual college campuses,” Vinick said.

The Women’s Network has expanded to 16 new campuses in the past few months. Courtesy of Jamie Vinick

The premise of the podcast is celebrating ambition, a message that is central to the culture, mission and values of The Women’s Network, Vinick said.

The podcast currently comprises fifteen episodes, each exploring topics such as imposter syndrome and sexual harassment of women in the workplace.

The podcast has invited high-achieving women in a variety of fields to talk with the network.

“We’ve had so many powerful women, including the former chief marketing officer of YouTube and the former personal attorney of Jay-Z of 17 years, come and talk to us on the show and speak so openly about topics that we don’t often discuss,” Vinick said.

Marissa Goldberg, president of the Syracuse chapter of The Women’s Network said one of the things that she loves most about “Redefining Ambition” is how it provides internship opportunities to members of Syracuse’s chapter of The Women’s Network.

Vinick said that they currently have about 10 people working on the podcast, many of them SU students.

Jade Taylor, the head of marketing for “Redefining Ambition” and the vice president of the Syracuse chapter of The Women’s Network said that it has been rewarding getting to be a part of the growth of the podcast. Taylor is in charge of all of the social media content for the podcast and also helped to design the logo and podcast cover.

“Especially during quarantine this summer, everyone’s new thing is to listen to podcasts,” Taylor said. “So it was awesome when I heard The Women’s Network was starting their own because I feel like it gives them such a larger platform to reach not just students at Syracuse, but really anyone.”

However, Vinick said that while the podcast has been successful it requires a lot of time, energy and outreach. It took months of planning to understand and decide the direction the podcast was going to go.

Max Onderdonk, the executive producer of “Refining Ambitions” spends around 5 to 10 hours a week working on the podcast. Producing the podcast involves being up late at night, along with blasting music and drinking coffee, he said.

Vinick said that the exposure the podcast has provided for the network has been incredible. Throughout the past few months the organization has grown to over 13,000 members and launched onto sixteen new campuses, she said.

Vinick has a list of women who she hopes will come onto the podcast and share their stories in the future.

“Our listeners are the next politicians, scientists, lawyers, CEOs and founders, and the list goes on,” Vinick said. “My hope is that the podcast will help more people learn about us and be able to consume high-quality, inspiring, empowering content that will enable them to push harder in whatever ambitious endeavors they want to pursue.”

Published on September 28, 2020 at 9:50 pm