The Exit Interview On Air Episodes

What happens when you start a business at 16 to pay rent after your father is killed, build a UFC career that wasn't even the original plan, and then turn everything you learned in the cage into a fight promotion, management company, and gym empire that's rewriting the path for the next generation?
In this episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with Anthony "Showtime" Pettis, former UFC Lightweight Champion and one of the most electrifying fighters in MMA history, and his wife Lisette Pettis, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the strategic force behind their growing business empire. From opening a taekwondo gym as a teenager out of necessity to becoming the first fighter ever featured on ESPN's Top 10 with the legendary "Showtime Kick," Anthony built a career most fighters only dream about. But the business started long before the fame and will carry on as he fights again this summer.

What happens when the skills you spent years undervaluing turn out to be someone else's competitive advantage?
In this episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with Munir Haque, President of Cure8, a cybersecurity and IT firm operating in one of the most complex, fast-moving industries in America: cannabis. From graffiti artist to touring musician to retail leader designing stores selling to the Saudi Royal family, Munir had built a career most people would kill for. He was running the best store in the country, making more money than ever, and then one day he couldn't look in the mirror anymore. So he quit. The same week he was about to propose to his wife.

What does it take to lead when one mistake could define your entire career?
In this episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown, Nevada's first Black mayor, who is rebuilding North Las Vegas from economic collapse while facing scrutiny most leaders will never experience. From classroom teacher to running a city, Mayor Goynes-Brown shares her leadership journey from never planning to attend college to becoming to ultimately becoming the elected mayor in 2022.

In this episode of The Exit Interview, Laurel Mintz, Founder of Elevate Your Brand and Fabric VC, joins Kisha and Shana to discuss her unconventional path from a corporate M&A lawyer to an interim CEO at 26, and finally to a venture capitalist. Laurel breaks down why "investing in diversity isn't a charity" and shares the raw, "sad boxing" moments of building a $10M fund from the ground up. We explore her unique "Sweat + Cash" equity model, her decision to turn her agency into an ESOP, and why she believes success in 2026 is defined by one thing: Freedom.

What happens when the institutions you devoted your career to building up were never actually built for you — and the only way forward is to admit the invisible labor is crushing you, the burnout is real, and rest isn't weakness, it's resistance?
In this raw and unfiltered episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with Dr. Zaibis Muñoz-Isme and Dr. Alicia Bates, two scholar practitioners who built careers in higher education to change things from the inside. There struggles in higher education mirror professionals navigating today’s corporate culture. From navigating the brutal reality of being the only Latina or Black woman in senior leadership to the invisible labor of mentoring every student of color who walks through your door without it counting toward tenure or promotion, to the breaking point where you realize the institution recruited you for diversity but built zero infrastructure to retain you, this conversation unpacks what it actually costs to show up every day in spaces that weren't built for you.

Is it better to take a severance package or quit for a new role? We break down the math and the career risks of waiting for layoffs in today’s unstable market. In this raw and unfiltered episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron unpack the seismic shifts happening across Hollywood as major studios face potential acquisitions, mass layoffs, and an existential reckoning with streaming, AI, and the rise of platforms like YouTube that are quietly eating everyone's lunch. From the looming Warner Bros. acquisition by Paramount to the brutal reality that severance packages won't save you when the competition for jobs doubles overnight, this conversation breaks down what's really happening behind the headlines — and what it means for the thousands of professionals who are about to be displaced.

What if the system designed to keep you healthy… was never built for health at all?
In this episode of The Exit Interview | On Air, Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with Dr. Darshan Shah—board-certified surgeon, longevity expert, and founder of Next Health—who pivoted from traditional western medicine after it nearly destroyed his own health.
After decades in high-stress surgery, Dr. Shah found himself overweight, diabetic, and burned out—despite being at the top of his field. What he discovered next challenges everything we think we know about healthcare, stress, and longevity.

Emmy Award-winning actor Lamorne Morris — best known as Winston on New Girl and for his Emmy-winning role in Fargo — sits down with hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron on The Exit Interview | On Air to share one of Hollywood's most earned success stories.
From growing up on the South Side of Chicago, getting cut from his high school basketball team, and discovering comedy at Second City, to landing in LA with literally negative $11 in his bank account — Lamorne's path to Hollywood was anything but straight.

Dr. Stuart Linder and Blake Linder prove that being a public figure across two generations isn’t about chasing visibility — it’s about passion, mastery of your craft, and knowing when to evolve from the platform that made you famous to the project that will define your legacy. In this episode, hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the father-son duo who built public platforms in radically different eras. Together they unpack the invisible tax of public visibility — the fan love, the relentless criticism, and the responsibility that comes with influence and how to leverage the experience to build a future legacy together. At the height of his YouTube success, Blake stepped away from the platform to pursue filmmaking, studying at Chapman Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and USC’s Cinematic Arts program. Today, he and his father have launched Linder Productions and are developing their first feature film.

Chelsea Grayson proves that running into a burning building isn't reckless — it's the ultimate act of leadership when you're the only one willing to make the hard calls, fire the toxic players, and save thousands of jobs. Hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the former CEO of American Apparel, True Religion, and Spark Networks, a former Big Law equity partner who made the rare leap from General Counsel to the C-suite and built a career as the turnaround expert who gets called when companies are bleeding cash, drowning in lawsuits, and headed straight into Chapter 11. From being recruited out of private practice to save a publicly traded company that had lost over $300 million in five years, to negotiating a debt-for-equity swap with hedge funds as the company teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, to ultimately being tapped by Goldman Sachs to do it all over again at True Religion, Chelsea unpacks her journey of radical accountability — how she went from never planning to go in-house to becoming the CEO boards call when everything is on fire, why communication was her biggest weakness as a new CEO, and how she learned to weaponize transparency and radical honesty to earn trust in companies where trust had been completely destroyed.

Nicole Riehl proves that leaving a six-figure corporate banking career to open a coffee stand isn't reckless — it's the ultimate act of reclaiming your time, your sanity, and your definition of success. Hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the Nicole Riehl, the Cowgirl Barista, a former Chase Bank branch manager who walked away from a six-figure job and corporate life to build a drive-through coffee business from scratch in her small Oregon hometown — with zero coffee-making experience. From spending 10 years climbing the corporate ladder and managing business clients to realizing she was missing her daughter's childhood for meetings and late nights, to quitting six months before opening and learning to pull espresso shots by practicing on her dad's excavating crew, Nicole unpacks her journey of radical reinvention — how she went from helping everyone else build their businesses to finally building her own, why COVID nearly destroyed everything just months after opening, and how one viral TikTok video featuring a 34-ounce lemonade bucket turned into lines out the door and customers driving from out of state.

Moira Conlon proves that controlling your message in the age of disinformation, fake news, and social media isn't just about managing crises — it's about showing up authentically, knowing when to pivot your advice, and understanding that communications is no longer a nice-to-have function but a strategic advantage that creates value and mitigates risk. Hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the CEO and founder of public relations firm Financial Profiles, a communications expert who's spent decades mastering the art of investor relations, crisis management, and corporate storytelling across some of the most dynamic companies in the world. From starting her career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch working on bank IPOs and mortgage origination to moving to Los Angeles and discovering investor relations — a field she'd never heard of but immediately loved — to building her own firm from scratch with nothing but a pitch deck and a prayer, Moira unpacks her journey of radical reinvention and what it takes to navigate the most critical moments in a company's life.

Nick Vandre proves that the skills forged in over 20 years of Army Special Operations — grit, adaptability, radical problem-solving — are the same skills that build successful businesses, if you're willing to do the deep work and face who you really are. Hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the co-founder of Bravory Bakehouse and Director of National Security & Ecosystem Ventures for 21cv, a veteran who completed more than 15 combat tours and missions most of us will never know about. From growing up on a farm in the Midwest watching GI Joe at eight years old to volunteering for Special Operations because he wanted to be part of a team that solved problems differently, to navigating the brutal reality of writing your will before every high-risk mission and updating how you want to be buried, Nick unpacks his journey of radical transformation — how he learned to compartmentalize life and death, why the military taught him to plan for every contingency and protect time, and how exiting service forced him to remove every mask he'd been wearing and face the truth of who he really was beneath the uniform.

John Chaffetz proves that building a billion-dollar asset management firm isn't about chasing size — it's about breaking the echo chamber and never losing sight of the fact that investments are products designed for real people. Hosts Shana Ayabe and Kisha Imani Cameron sit down with the co-founder and principal of Timberlane Partners, a Seattle-based real-estate investment, development and asset management firm managing approximately $1.5 billion in assets (As of 2025, the time of this recording). John unpacks his journey of building his firm from two guys in a truck to a 30-person semi-institutional powerhouse. He reveals why the personal relationship with his co-founder Dave Enslow was the foundation of everything, how their complementary skill sets and ability to debate is rooted in their firm culture, and how their regional niche, nimbleness and client service became their competitive advantage.