Alice Milligan left home at 19 to escape a dysfunctional family life. Her peers went to college right out of high school. Meanwhile, Alice spent ten years getting her college degree while working full-time to support herself. She had no choice but to be resilient, independent, and patient. Decades later, and faced with choosing between a dream job or staying near her husband awaiting a liver transplant, Alice shares how the patience she cultivated as a young woman guided her choice.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Alice shares: 

• Her deep cut bagel order (cinnamon raisin fans, rejoice)
• The strong women in her life who helped her navigate leaving home 
• Why working in HR in her early career served her well throughout her career
• How she rationalized her choice of remaining close to her family or taking on her dream job 
• How Morgan Stanley prioritizes women feeling financially empowered – and how the company’s new marketing initiatives reflect that  

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She’s an icon, she’s a legend, and she is the moment. Connie Chung is the trailblazing veteran broadcaster who worked her way up from being a copy-girl at a local news station to anchoring one of the most popular nightly newscasts, CBS Evening News. To get there, she had to make it through the “boys club” of the 70s newsroom. Think: Mad Men, but news. She says it could’ve been worse. But she made it work by being just as confident as they were.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Connie shares: 

• The impact of growing up around four strong-willed sisters  
• How she defied the racist and sexist stereotypes men had of her
• Her biggest regret of her career and how she reconciles it now 
• Why getting fired from CBS Evening News proved to be serendipitous
• A cameo from her husband, Maury Povich. Yes, that Maury

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Welcome back to a new season of 9 to 5ish. We’re kicking things off with Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, two best friends and co-hosts of the show “Honest Renovations” on The Roku Channel. There are plenty of home renovation shows out there. But theirs highlights the importance of mom having their own space to recharge. As moms of three kids each, they learned that the hard way. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Jessica and Lizzy share: 

• Their friendship origin story and why Lizzy lied to Jessica about her age for years
• How they took the jump from being friends to becoming co-hosts of a show 
• Why surface-level friendships don’t last in business partnerships 
• The burnout of filling others’ cups before their own, and how they fixed it 
• Tips on dealing with the highs and lows of the holiday season 

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Early in her career, Sharon Price-John literally put pen to paper and wrote what she dubbed her “price values.” AKA: the qualities that guided her in work and life. She reasoned that if she had time to write a grocery list, she could take a second to define what was important to her. Although her price values have inevitably evolved as she got older, Sharon shares that defining her values made the path to achieving her goals a lot clearer.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Sharon shares: 

• The brownie points she scored from her kids being a toy company exec
• Why she follows the age-old advice “love what you do” 
• What influenced the changes to her “price values” list
• How she managed to bring Build-A-Bear its three most profitable years ever after COVID
• The difficulties of succeeding a founder-led business, and how she overcame them

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Through her twenties and thirties, comedian Jenny Slate couldn’t find peace. By all accounts, she was succeeding. She earned a spot on Saturday Night Live, and became recognizable through her on-screen appearances next to actors like Amy Poehler and Nick Kroll. But she still felt stuck in a cycle of self-criticism and a pressure to always be on. Then she became a mom and it all clicked. Listen as Jenny shares why becoming a mom made her feel less desperate to get jobs, please others, and “perform her tricks”. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Jenny shares: 

• Why living in Massachusetts instead of Los Angeles is helpful for her creative work
• What traits her parents were most concerned about in her upbringing
• How leaving Saturday Night Live led her to a major learning about success 
• Why perfection isn’t worth aiming at, and how she unlearned doing that  
• How the unconditional love she feels for her kid helped heal her own inner child
• A skimm of her new memoir, “Life Form”

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Erin Andrews has become one of the most recognizable sideline reporters in the sports industry. She started out at ESPN in her early twenties, and eventually moved to Fox NFL where she continues to give fans updates on their favorite players and coaches. While Erin’s worked in the biz for nearly two decades, she says she knows there’s a “shelf life” to her job. But the only way she’ll stop is if they drag her off the sidelines – and Erin says, it ain’t gonna be pretty. 

 In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Erin shares: 

• The news junkie side of her, and how it’s ruined family vacations 
• How she’s proactively addressing the “shelf life” of her on-camera career 
• The trauma she endured after being stalked, and how it informs her boundaries today
• How she’s built genuine relationships with her colleagues and the people she covers
• Why work became such a safe haven for her after going through her cervical cancer diagnosis and IVF treatments

PS: Check out Erin Andrews podcast, Calm Down. 

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Before she decided to run for mayor, Kate Gallego was newly divorced with a young child. Her support system drastically changed after her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Her only income was through her job on the city council, and she questioned whether Phoenix could stomach a young, unmarried woman as mayor. She won the race and has led the city for five years now. As mayor, Mayor Gallego implemented one of the most generous paid family leave policies for government employees and established an office to respond to Phoenix’s rising heat. Another part of her legacy so far? Redefining what’s possible for young working moms who don’t have perfect personal lives.

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Mayor Gallego shares: 

• How climate defined her childhood and early professional career
• Why people should run for office even if their personal life isn’t perfect
• The women in government who guided her through her own public service career
• How she implemented a 12-week paid family leave policy for public employees, plus a surprising fact on who uses it the most 

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Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz said “I do” to Kevin Hartz twice: once when they got married, and again when she decided to become a co-founder with him. Julia says she doesn’t even remember the latter moment. All she knows is she trusted Kevin’s entrepreneurial instincts and it paid off. But when Kevin needed to step down as CEO and have Julia step in, she describes the transition as going from “Candyland” to “Tron”. 

 In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Julia shares: 

• What her internships on “Friends” and “Jackass” taught her
• The unofficial exit strategy she and Kevin agreed on in case they didn’t work out romantically
• Why it was bittersweet stepping up as CEO while Kevin navigated health struggles health struggled  
• How Eventbrite’s IPO was the most diverse in NYSE history
• Why she takes it personally when female executive leadership exit the business after going public

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On the literal first day Rachel Zoe decided to be a freelance stylist, Tommy Hilfiger called her up to style a 2-week campaign with the biggest celebs and supermodels. She had 0 faith in herself, but he trusted she could do it. Rachel spent her career mainly behind the camera until her clients – who were the it-girls of our time – started pulling her in front of the paps with them. That turned into a Bravo TV show about her life, “The Rachel Zoe Project” and several fashion-focused brands centered around her styling. The best part? She never planned any of it. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Rachel shares: 

• The subconscious impact of growing up near New York City
• Her biggest fashion pet peeve in the workplace
• How she managed her limelight career as an introvert
• Why she decided to allow Bravo to film her life, despite swearing it off initially
• Whether or not she’d be able to launch her styling career in the age of social media
• How not having a plan for her whole career ended up working out 

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Claudette Zepeda grew up as a border kid between San Diego and Tijuana. On top of that, she spent summers in Guadalajara, watching her aunt run a bustling restaurant. She didn’t know it then, but those summers created the foundations for Mexican cuisine and hospitality in her mind. Then, she became a mom at 18-years-old. Claudette was a kid raising her own kid. She needed to pay the bills, sure. But what Claudette wanted more was to figure out how to build intergenerational wealth – and how to inspire young single moms to believe they could do it too. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Claudette shares: 

• Why she never allowed herself to dream beyond getting off food stamps and paying her bills on time
• How she stumbled into being a celebrity chef thanks to “right place, right time” 
• Why it’s detrimental to not talk about failures publicly 
• A recent on-air mess up she can’t stop thinking about, and what it taught her 

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Mary Barra grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, aka: the heart of the auto industry. Her father worked at General Motors for 40 years, and Mary became a second generation GM’er. She worked her way up the company, studying at the General Motors Institute (yes, it was a thing) to eventually becoming the CEO in 2014. Mary claimed GOAT status in the auto industry for steering the company through several crises – and for being a mentor to other women in the biz. 

In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Mary shares: 

• Who would make the cut on her cross-country road trip roster
• Why she’s never blinked twice at the rarity of being a woman in the auto industry
• The most difficult crisis she had to navigate a CEO
• Advice to her daughter and other women on when it’s time to leave a job
• Why she views herself as a caretaker to General Motors and what that responsibility means 

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