Social Currency with Sammi Cohen

Suzy Welch has built a career helping people answer one deceptively simple question: What should I do with my life? She’s a bestselling author, professor at New York University Stern School of Business, former editor at Harvard Business Review, and creator of the “Becoming You” methodology.

Today Sammi sits down with Suzy to unpack why getting fired can actually benefit your career, why so many people get trapped in what she calls a “B+ life,” and how fear, expectations, and convenience quietly pull people away from who they really are.

She also shares the framework that made her famous: the 10/10/10 method, how to make better decisions by thinking about consequences in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. Plus: why only a small percentage of people truly know their values, how AI is changing career anxiety, and what to do when the life you built no longer fits you.

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Here’s what Sammi covers with Suzy:

00:00 Suzy Welch’s Social Currency02:15 Starting as a Crime Reporter in Miami06:30 What Covering Crime Taught Her About Human Nature09:00 Falling in Love with Business Journalism13:25 Why Everyone Should Get Fired Once17:30 The Workplace Dynamic of “Toxic Handlers”19:45 Rebuilding After Loss and Choosing Life Again23:00 The Origin of “Becoming You”25:15 Why AI Is Changing Career Anxiety28:50 Why Only 7% of People Know Their Values32:40 Can Your Values Change Over Time?34:10 Why Family Isn’t Everyone’s Top Value38:05 The Trap of a B+ Life40:50 The Four Horsemen of Values Destruction48:30 How the 10/10/10 Framework Works

51:43 Social Currency Corner

55:51 How to Show Social Currency Some Love

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If you’ve driven through Los Angeles, you’ve already met today’s guest. Jay Luchs is one of the most influential retail real estate brokers in LA; his “For Lease” signs are plastered across the city’s most valuable streets, from Rodeo Drive to Melrose. But behind those signs is a business built on relationships, taste, and a deep understanding of what actually makes a retail concept work.

In this episode, Jay sits down with Sammi to break down how the business really works: how he wins listings in one of the most competitive markets in the country, what founders consistently misunderstand about signing their first lease, and why picking the wrong landlord can quietly kill a business.

They also go deep on the future of retail in LA—from why food and coffee are now the backbone of any successful retail strip, to how brands like Erewhon can completely transform a street overnight, to why there’s actually less available space than people think. 

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Here’s what Sammi covers with Jay:

00:00 Jay Luchs’ Social Currency

02:22 Real Estate Origin Story

06:40 Why Real Estate Is a Creative Business

09:27 How the “For Lease” Empire Works

12:05 Winning Listings in a Competitive Market

14:19 What Founders Get Wrong About Leases

15:25 How to Spot a Bad Landlord

17:00 Choosing the Right Retail Location

18:46 Why LA Has Less Retail Space Than You Think

21:15 What Makes a Retail Area Thrive

22:24 How Social Media Changed Real Estate

29:03 Inside a Decade-Long Development Project

32:00 Turning Retail Into a Destination

37:23 Building Relationships That Last

40:01 Jay’s Daily System for Clarity

41:21 Can Retail Rebuild Communities?

45:12 What Makes a Brick-and-Mortar Store Succeed
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Shreya Murthy built one of the rare social apps people want to open—and then immediately close. It’s all going according to plan.

Her company, Partiful, has quietly become the go-to way Gen Z and millennials plan parties, birthdays, dinners—and even weddings. But what’s more interesting is how it won: by rejecting everything Big Tech historically has optimized for.

In this episode, Shreya sits down with Sammi to break down why she turned down the metaverse narrative, refused to pivot to virtual events during the pandemic, and built a product designed to get people off their phones… not glued to them.

They also get into what happened when Apple launched a nearly identical invite app, why Partiful draws a hard line on user privacy, and how tiny features like “boops” and “crushes” are actually the secret to product-market fit. Plus: the real monetization plan, why Gen Z hates “cringe” design, and how one party invite helped spark a viral cultural moment.

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Here’s what Sammi covers with Shreya:

00:00 Shreya Murthy’s Social Currency

00:50 The Problem With Social Media

02:22 From Palantir to Consumer Tech

08:22 The Idea That Sparked Partiful

10:04 Turning Parties Into a Product

11:05 Launching During the Pandemic

13:56 Resisting the Metaverse Pivot

15:40 Building for IRL Connection

16:00 Why Gen Z Loves Partiful

18:27 The “Least Cringe” Product Strategy

20:20 Consumer vs Corporate Use Cases

22:05 Why Partiful Protects User Data

24:57 Monetization Without Selling Data

29:27 How Partiful Makes Money Today

31:23 The Philosophy: Get Off Your Phone

32:00 Discovering Events IRL

33:17 Brick and Mortar?

34:38 Features Like Boops and Crushes

38:00 Apple’s Copycat Moment

41:00 Growth Despite Competition

42:00 The Viral Timothée Chalamet Event

47:00 What Winning Looks Like

50:16 Social Currency Corner and Touching Grass
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Seth Goldman built one of the most iconic beverage brands of the last two decades… only to watch it get discontinued by Coca-Cola.

In this episode, Seth tells Sammi the full story: bootstrapping Honest Tea in the late ’90s when the category didn’t exist, educating consumers one sample at a time, and eventually partnering with Coca-Cola to scale what he believed could become a billion-dollar brand. Then came the gut punch: years after the acquisition, Coca-Cola made the decision to shut Honest Tea down.

Instead of walking away, Seth did something few founders would do— he started over. He shares how he launched Just Ice Tea, rebuilt his supply chain using decades-old relationships, and scaled faster the second time around.

Sammi and Seth also get into what it really takes to build a sustainable CPG brand, why most beverage startups fail, and the one mistake founders make before they even launch: focusing on branding before validating taste. Plus, Seth shares his long-term perspective from his work with Beyond Meat—and why he still believes the biggest consumer shifts take decades, not years.

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Here’s what Sammi covers with Seth:00:00 Seth Goldman’s Social Currency

00:50 Building Honest Tea Before The Market Existed

03:03 Creating Demand Through Sampling

05:00 Bootstrapping And Staying Scrappy

06:06 The Coca-Cola Investment Story

09:26 Inside The Coca-Cola Acquisition

10:48 Culture Clash With A Corporate Giant

11:00 The Day Honest Tea Was Discontinued

12:10 Why Seth Decided To Start Again

15:26 Why Beverage Is The Hardest Category

19:29 Launching Just Ice Tea Differently

20:53 The Mission Behind “Just Ice Tea”

23:17 What Makes The Product Different

25:00 From Eat The Change To Just Ice Tea

26:46 Betting Early On Beyond Meat

28:05 The Rise, Fall, And Rebuild Of Alt Meat

35:05 What It Takes To Build A CPG Brand

36:45 The Power Of Relationships And Karma

37:00 Would Seth Sell Again?

39:11 Seth’s Daily System For Clarity

40:03 The Future Of Food

41:18 The #1 Thing Founders Must Validate
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Everyone has a podcast. So, where is the whitespace and what does it really take to break through? 

Sammi sits down with Nayeema Raza, host of Smart Girl Dumb Questions and former The New York Times journalist, for a conversation on the modern media landscape, the podcast boom, and what they tell people who are thinking about starting a podcast. Sammi and Nayeema break down what it really takes to launch a podcast—and share exactly how much they’re making from theirs.

Sammi and Nayeema also get into the bigger shift happening across media: why podcasting is becoming the new “TV” and why creators today need to think more like founders than talent. Plus, they unpack the rise of controversial content ecosystems like the “manosphere,” what it teaches about audience-building (even if you hate it), and where the line between journalism and creators is headed.

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Here’s What Sammi Covers with Nayeema:

00:00 Have We “Made It” In Podcasting?

03:45 Social Vs. Podcast Growth

06:52 Why Everyone Has A Podcast

07:09 The Intimacy And Power Of Podcasting

08:00 The Rise Of The Manosphere

12:41 What Controversial Creators Get Right

17:12 “Is It A Scam?” Rapid-Fire

21:20 The Real Work Behind Podcasting

26:09 Is Podcasting Saturated?

28:38 Why Most Podcasts Fail

31:53 Is Podcasting Overhyped?

33:00 How Much Money Podcasts Actually Make

35:00 Building A Studio And Betting On Yourself

36:08 The Hidden ROI Of Podcasting

41:00 Journalism Vs. Creators

47:00 The Scariest Part Of Starting A Podcast

54:00 How To Break Through
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