Leaders who built something, for the people building toward it.
Most people get the job. Almost nobody gets the briefing.
Every episode is a conversation with a senior leader about one thing they had to learn the expensive way. Where they learned it. What it cost before they knew it. And what it means for someone still climbing.
Not the keynote version. Not a memoir. A briefing for the person coming up behind them.
Hosted by Laura Massetti, former Fortune 100 executive and founder of Real Work Ready, who spent fifteen years hiring, evaluating, and deciding who moved up.
New episodes every Tuesday.
A Real Work Ready podcast. realworkready.com
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Leadership Podcast Trailer: Hard Earned with Laura Massetti
Thursday, August 27, 2026 • Duration 01:02
Most people get the job. Almost nobody gets the briefing.
Hard Earned with Laura Massetti is a leadership podcast for people building toward a business leadership seat. Every episode is one senior leader on one thing they had to learn the expensive way. Where they learned it. What it cost before they knew it. And what it means for someone still climbing.
Not the keynote version. Not a memoir. A briefing for the person coming up behind them.
Laura Massetti spent fifteen years inside Fortune 100 organizations hiring, evaluating, and deciding who moved up. She watched capable people do everything right and stall anyway, and she could never explain it to them in a way that helped. So she started asking the people who got past it. Not what they achieved. What they had to learn, what it cost them, and what they would hand to someone coming up behind them.
New episodes every Tuesday.
WHAT EVERY EPISODE GIVES YOU • The lesson a senior leader learned the expensive way • What that lesson cost before they knew it • What to do with it while you still have time • Career and leadership advice that assumes you are already good at your job
FOR PEOPLE MANAGERS, HR LEADERS, AND L&D TEAMS Real Work Ready is the professional readiness training that teaches the six behaviors determining how work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Companies bring it in for the people they are investing in. Join the masterclass: https://realworkready.com/masterclass
She Kept Raising Her Hand. Here Is the Career That Built. | with Mariza Fotiou
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 25:21
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Learn more: www.realworkready.comMost career advice tells you to find your lane and stay in it. Nobody tells you that the people who move fastest are the ones who keep raising their hand and asking for more, even when nobody is asking them to.
Mariza Fotiou spent 20 years building a global career across financial services and energy, including as Digital COO at HSBC Private Bank and VP of Digital Product Management at BP, across New York and London. She changed roles every two to three years throughout her career by doing one thing: raising her hand when she was bored and asking for more. In this conversation, she shares what that habit actually built, what the hard moments actually taught her, and what she now knows that she wishes someone had told her at the very start.
In this episode:
Why raising your hand when you are bored, not waiting for the right moment, is the single most powerful career strategy most people never use
What the colleague-to-boss transition actually looks like and why nobody prepares you for it
What it feels like to lead a team through organizational transformation when you yourself do not know what is going to happen to you
What AI is actually doing to entry-level work and why early professionals need to understand that the job market they are walking into is not the one that existed two years ago
Real Work Ready
The habit of asking for more is something you can build before you ever need it. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the operating system for a career that lasts.
How to Make Career Decisions When You Cannot See the Whole Plan | Danijel Brener
Monday, August 17, 2026 • Duration 30:02
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Learn more: www.realworkready.com
Nobody tells you that the career you plan is not the career you get. Nobody tells you that some of the biggest turns will come from a decision somebody else makes about you, in a room you are not in. And nobody tells you that the logic of your own path only becomes visible looking backwards.
Danijel Brener leads the Enterprise PMO for Philips Sleep and Respiratory Care. Before that he was Chief of Staff and Head of International Markets. Twenty two years ago he walked into an interview expecting a sales job, was told he was not a sales person, and was sent to a country he had not chosen. Five cities and two continents later, he coaches early and mid career professionals on the thing nobody explained to him: how to tell a right yes from a wrong one.
In this episode:
Why the career you plan is almost never the career you get, and what to do with that instead of fighting it
What it actually costs to say yes to an opportunity you did not choose, and what it buys you that staying put never will
What he believed about how big decisions get made when he was junior, and what he found instead
How to tell a right yes from a wrong one in year two, before you can see anything looking backwards
Why learning to say no early is a career skill rather than a career risk
Real Work Ready
Nobody hands you a map for the first five years. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the six behaviors that determine how work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered, so that when the unplanned opportunity arrives, they are ready to take it.
Get started: www.realworkready.com
Connect with Danijel:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dbrener
Most People Have the Wrong Idea About Mentorship Before They Ever Need It | with Dr. Deborah Heiser
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 41:38
Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com
Look to your left. Look to your right. You are looking at a mentor. Most people wait until they are stuck to go looking for one. Nobody tells you that the people who most want to mentor you are already around you, and that the easiest moment to build that relationship has already passed by the time you realize you needed it. Dr. Deborah Heiser is an applied developmental psychologist, TEDx speaker, Thinkers50 honoree, founder of The Mentor Project, and founder of Mental Mapping. Through The Mentor Project she and her team delivered over 3.5 million hours of mentorship. She is the author of The Mentorship Edge. In this conversation, she shares what all of that taught her about what mentorship actually is, why it so often fails, and what it builds when it finally works the way it should.
In this episode:
Why the most accomplished people in any organization are looking for someone to mentor right now, and why they cannot find early professionals to mentor
What most people get wrong about mentorship that makes corporate programs fail and organic relationships never form
What impact amnesia is and why early professionals who are not tracking their contributions right now will pay for it later
What someone in year one or two of their career can do this week to start building the relationships and the track record that real mentorship requires
Real Work Ready Mentorship is most valuable before you realize you need it. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to build the relationships, visibility, and track record that make it possible. Get started: www.realworkready.com
Connect with Deborah: Website: deborahheiser.com Book: The Mentorship Edge LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deborahheiser_phd Instagram: @deborah_heisertmp TikTok: @deborahheiser0
Connect with Laura:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassettiInstagram: @realworkreadyhqWebsite: realworkready.com
The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches You Before You Need It | with Michael Shipler
Monday, August 3, 2026 • Duration 37:01
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Most career advice tells you to work harder, learn more, and build more skills. Nobody tells you that at some point, none of that is enough. The ceiling is whether you can actually get things done with people who see the world differently than you do.
Michael Shipler has spent 25 years building coalitions and driving results in some of the most complex conflict environments in the world. He is VP of Common Ground Leadership at Search for Common Ground, a global peacebuilding organization nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. He is the architect of a leadership development program built around a single conviction: the ability to collaborate across divides is the most critical skill of our time. In this conversation, he brings 25 years of working in the world's hardest places into a conversation about the skill every early professional needs to start building before they ever think they will need it.
In this episode:
What 25 years in conflict zones, from Cambodia to Central Asia to the Horn of Africa, taught about how change actually happens and why most leadership development misses it completely
Why the ability to collaborate across divides is becoming more valuable not less as AI equalizes technical capabilities across organizations
What trust actually is, why dialogue alone does not build it, and what does
What someone in year one or two of their career can start building right now that will distinguish them in ten years when most of their peers have never thought about this
Real Work Ready
The behaviors that let you get things done with people who see things differently are learnable before you ever need them. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the foundation to build them first.
Get started:
What HR Leaders Are Actually Evaluating That Nobody Tells You Before You Start | with Dr. Dieter Veldsman
Monday, July 27, 2026 • Duration 32:28
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Most career advice tells you to do good work and let it speak for itself. Nobody tells you what is actually being observed on the other side of the table. Nobody tells you what HR leaders and managers are seeing, evaluating, and thinking about early career professionals that they almost never say out loud.
Dr. Dieter Veldsman is Chief HR Scientist at AIHR, a global HR academy serving over 65,000 professionals across 180 countries, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a former Group Chief HR Officer, and one of the most recognized voices on the future of work. He has presented at over 100 conferences, authored 80 articles, and co-authored books including Work for Humans. In this conversation, he brings the full weight of 18 years on the evaluating side of the table to an audience that has never had access to this view.
In this episode:
What HR leaders are actually seeing and evaluating in early career professionals that most people have no idea is being observed
Why the gap between university and the workplace persists even when organizations know it exists, and what it costs early professionals who do not know it is there
What the research at AIHR reveals about what is changing in terms of what early professionals need to bring to the workplace right now
What AI is making more valuable in a person, not less, and what someone in year one or two can start building before they ever need it
Real Work Ready
Everything Dr. Veldsman describes from the HR side of the table is exactly what Real Work Ready was built to teach from the professional side. The gap is real. The behaviors are learnable. The program is built for years 0 to 5.
Get started:
What Political Capital Actually Is and Why Every Professional Needs to Understand It with Julia Bardmesser
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 • Duration 29:34
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
At some point in your career you will have the right idea, build the right case, do everything correctly, and still watch it go nowhere. And nobody will tell you why. Not because the work was wrong. Because something else is operating inside organizations that most people never learn to see.
Julia Bardmesser is the CEO of Data4Real, an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business, a bestselling author, and a board advisor to multiple startups. She has spent over 25 years leading data-driven transformation inside some of the most complex institutions in financial services. But the conversation she came to have is not about data. It is about something she writes about in her LinkedIn newsletter that this audience needs to understand long before they have a corner office: political capital. What it is, how you build it, and why being excellent at your job is not the same as being able to move your agenda forward.
In this episode:
What political capital actually is and why every professional needs to understand it whether they think of themselves as political or not
The gap between technical excellence and organizational influence, and what it costs you when you only develop one
How to start building political capital when you are new with no track record, no relationships, and no formal authority
How to hold your integrity and your standards while learning to navigate organizational dynamics, and where the line is
Real Work Ready
Understanding how organizations actually work is one of the six things Real Work Ready teaches early professionals before they spend years figuring it out the hard way.
Nobody Told You That Being Great at Your Job Is Not Enough | with Wes Towers
Season 1 · Episode 16
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 • Duration 24:31
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Most people spend the first years of their career believing that if they do great work, everything else will follow. The opportunity. The recognition. The trust. Nobody tells you that being excellent is the floor, not the ceiling. The ceiling is whether the people around you understand what you bring, trust that you can deliver, and actually choose you when it matters.
Wes Towers is the founder of Uplift 360, an Australian digital agency that helps construction and industrial brands get found, get trusted, and get chosen online. When he was told that AI could make his business less valuable, he did not retreat. He rebuilt his entire approach around it, while doubling down on the thing no algorithm can replace: human clarity, trust, and the ability to communicate your value in a way that actually lands. He is also the host of the podcast Built. Trusted. Chosen.
In this episode:
Why being excellent at your job is the starting point, not the finish line, and what you have to build on top of it
What it actually means to be built, trusted, and chosen in a professional context and where most people stall in that sequence
What AI cannot replace in a human professional and why that makes certain skills more valuable, not less
What someone early in their career can start doing right now to communicate their value more clearly and be chosen for the things that matter
Real Work Ready
Being great at your job is the starting point. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the six behaviors that determine how that work gets seen, understood, and chosen by the people around them.
The Leaders You Most Want to Become Are Not Born That Way. They Are Built. | with Eric Nitzberg
Season 1 · Episode 15
Monday, July 6, 2026 • Duration 22:26
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Nobody tells you that the skills that get you into the room are not always the skills that help you lead once you are there. Nobody tells you what it actually costs to carry responsibility for other people, or what it feels like to make decisions when the answer is not clear. Nobody tells you what the best leaders actually do differently on the inside.
Eric Nitzberg is an executive coach and trusted advisor to CEOs and C-suite leaders across technology, software, and life sciences. Before launching his coaching practice, he spent several years as a communication coach at Stanford Graduate School of Business teaching executive presence and persuasive storytelling. He is known for his ability to help successful leaders evolve, and for bringing a deep humanity to that work that builds the kind of trust most people spend their whole careers looking for.
In this episode:
What early professionals consistently get wrong about what leadership actually requires of a person
What executive presence really is, how it actually develops, and what gets in the way of it for people who should have it
What the most effective leaders do differently under real pressure and genuine uncertainty
What someone in year one or two of their career can start building right now, before they ever have the title
Real Work Ready
Being great at your job is the starting point. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the six behaviors that determine how that work gets seen, understood, and acted on by the people around them.
What Happens When You Bet on Yourself Before Anyone Else Does with Susana Goitia
Season 1 · Episode 15
Monday, June 29, 2026 • Duration 33:13
Real Work Ready
The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does.
Most people wait. They wait for the right moment, the clear path, the validation from someone above them that says they are ready. Susana Goitia did not wait. She left her home country with a one-year-old baby, walked into rooms that were not built for her, rose to CEO, transformed the culture of her organization from the inside, and then walked away from it all to start over.
Susana Goitia is a LATAM Commercial Strategy and Growth Advisor who spent 27 years leading commercial strategy and business growth across Latin America, rising to CEO before leaving the corporate world to build something of her own. She was the first woman in multiple roles that had never had one. She is also the host of the podcast Creer X Crecer. In this conversation, she tells the real story of what it takes to bet on yourself before anyone else does.
In this episode:
What it actually costs and gives back to make a career bet before the path is clear or the outcome is certain
What it means to walk into rooms that were not built for you and decide how to show up anyway
How she moved female leadership in her organization from zero to fifty percent and what changing a system from the inside actually required
What leaving the C-suite to start over taught her that 27 years in corporate never could
What she would tell her younger self before she got on that plane, and what she wants every early professional to hear before they spend years waiting for permission
Real Work Ready
The bet on yourself starts with knowing what you are actually working with. Real Work Ready gives early professionals the operating system for a career built on their own terms.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds.
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