meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Shameless Leadership

876: Kristi Coulter: Living and Leaving Amazon and Corporate Sexism

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Education, Management, How To, Business, Self-improvement

4.7800 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kristi Coulter is the author of the acclaimed memoirs Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career and Nothing Good Can Come From This, and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine/The Cut, Elle, Glamour, DAME, Big Technology, and elsewhere. She has been a guest and commentator for media outlets ranging from Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway's Pivot podcast to the Evercore Investor Forum to NPR's Live Wire Radio. Coulter has taught creative writing at the University of Washington, University of Michigan, and Hugo House. She lives in Seattle and Los Angeles. EXIT INTERVIEW tells the story of Kristi’s twelve-year career at Amazon, where she held numerous leadership roles in an obsessively driven, punishing work culture that was particularly unfriendly to women (though not exactly great for men, either!). Her experience included thrills and exhilarating achievements along with alcohol abuse, burnout, and disillusionment. Ultimately, Kristi recognized that for her ambition to live and thrive, she would need to leave the alpha-male rigidity of Big Tech. Her story is incredible. I could not put this book down!   Listen in to hear Kristi share: Her deeply thoughtful and personal story of professional endurance within the “alpha-male rigidity of Big Tech” The significance of unconscious sexism in the workplace and the impact on men and women Her nerves around the publication of the book and what her co-workers and fellow Amazonians might think How her ambition didn’t die when she left Amazon, but it outgrew Amazon and corporate spaces The messaging she received around success as a Gen Xer and how she sees this shifting for younger generations How she had to overcome people pleasing to write honestly and ethically about other people who may feel called out when reading book What burnout looked like and how easy it was to not see it or acknowledge it How her gray area drinking impacted her career at Amazon Links mentioned: Connect with Kristi: www.kristicoulter.com Book: Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career Book: Nothing Good Can Come From This Kristi on IG Kristi on LinkedIn We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://shamelessmom.com/sponsor Interested in becoming a sponsor of the Shameless Mom Academy? Email our sales team at sales@adalystmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Adobe Express makes it quick and easy to create everything I need for my business, from social posts, TikToks and flyers, all in just a few clicks.

0:09.7

Get Adobe Express for free. Search for Adobe Express to find out more.

0:14.8

This is the Shameless Mom Academy episode 876 with Christy Coulter. Show notes for this episode, including any links mentioned in the episode, can be found by going to shamelessmom.com and clicking on episode 8766.

0:32.0

Welcome to the Shameless Mom Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. I'm here to give you and other passionate,

0:38.3

driven, unapologetic moms, stories, tools, resources, and a little bit of humor to help you

0:43.9

lead more powerful, positive, and purposeful lives every damn day. So let's dive in.

0:54.1

Christy Coulter is the author of the acclaimed memoirs exit interview. Let's dive in.

0:59.7

Christy Coulter is the author of the acclaimed memoirs exit interview, The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, and Nothing Good Can Come From This.

1:03.9

She's also a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

1:07.1

Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Cut, Elle, glamour, dame, big technology, and elsewhere.

1:13.5

She's been a guest and commentator for media outlets ranging from Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway's pivot podcast to the Evercore Investor Forum to NPR's Live Wire Radio.

1:23.7

I've heard her on NPR and she is phenomenal.

1:26.7

Additionally, Christie has taught creative writing at the

1:29.4

University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and at Hugo House. She lives in Seattle and Los Angeles.

1:35.0

And I discovered Christy actually through a favorite of the show, Casey Davidson, and another

1:41.5

writing friend, colleague of mine from who I took a writing class with a while back.

1:46.2

And when these two women told me about Christy Coulter, I was like, who is she? I need to know her.

1:50.7

So I did what I always do. I started stalking. I started on LinkedIn and I was like,

1:54.6

oh my gosh, she's phenomenal. Then I got her book exit interview, the life and death of my ambitious

2:00.0

career. And oh my gosh, this book,

2:02.8

I listen to the audio, and I usually listen to my audio on like 1.2 speed, but I listened, like,

2:09.0

on 1.0 speed because I didn't want the story to end because it was so good. So you are in for a treat

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sara Dean, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sara Dean and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.