We're in the midst of a societal shift - typical definitions of success have changed dramatically as our personal stories and values play a bigger role than ever in our professional journeys. She Pivots empowers women to redefine success for themselves. The series celebrates those who have made bold moves with a view towards inspiring others to pursue their own non-linear growth paths.
She Pivots was born out of Emily Tisch Sussman’s need for inspiration after going through her own personal pivot. In 2018, she was at the height of her political career – working as an executive at one of the largest think tanks in Washington, D.C., taking on huge fights like repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (the military’s ban on gay service members) and going head-to-head with the NRA. After having three kids in four years during the chaos of the Trump Presidency, she decided to pivot and leave behind her decade-long career in politics. Without her career as an anchor and political professional, she slowly began to lose her grip on her personal identity. In 2022, Emily started She Pivots to highlight the pivot stories she needed when she took the jump. Pivoting is about choosing yourself, even when it’s scary.
She Pivots is proud to be an independent podcast created by a small team! Including Emily, a team of six people create the show.
We release She Pivots in seasons - we’re currently in the midst of Season 2. We take a holistic approach to each season of the show by planning out our roster months in advance. This process begins with a two-day all team planning meeting 100 miles outside of New York City. Emily and our in-house team gather to hash out themes and goals, followed by the review of around 500 guest pitches.
She Pivots is a highly-edited program, designed to tell the life stories of our guests centered around a personal pivot point. In order to do this, we supplement our guest interviews with narrative and archival audio that contextualize key points in each guest’s journey.
Unlike other weekly podcasts, our episodes are almost never recorded the same week as they air due to the rigorous research and production that goes into each one. We feel honored to be able to share our guests’ incredibly personal pivot stories, and believe that this level of care and detail is necessary. With this process, prospective bookings have fallen through in the past due to guests looking for a more immediate turnaround. We understand the machine that is press and PR and respect that our show may operate at a different pace. We often problem-solve by rescheduling these guests for a future date or season that makes sense for everyone involved.
As the show has evolved, we’ve added in “Candid Convo” episodes that feature more casual, current conversations between Emily and friends of the show. These raw conversations allow our audience to form a better, deeper relationship with our host, all while learning a thing or two about our favorite topic: pivoting.
Our goal for She Pivots is to share pivot stories that resonate with our listeners. While our audience is predominantly high-achieving women, we want to provide the largest variety of stories possible from guests of all walks of life. With each personal pivot we share, we know a listener at home may feel inspired, validated, or seen for the first time. For example, Paula Neira (a transgender Navy veteran featured in Season 1) had to make the difficult choice to leave the Navy so she could live authentically. We share these stories in an effort to highlight that it's never too late to make a big change -- and that you aren't alone.
Our results have been overwhelming. The show has won six awards, including Best Host from the 2022 Davey Awards and listeners’ choice for the Most Inspiring Podcast from the 2022 Signal Awards. As a show that challenges the idea of traditional success, we do the same with our delivered results. We couldn’t be more excited to have an engaged listenership that loves our guests’ stories as much as we do. While we aren’t in the top ten podcasts on Spotify, we feel incredibly fulfilled by the work we do. We know that our listeners come back each week to hear an episode that was created with care. As we continue releasing She Pivots, we know that our new listeners will appreciate this too.
