The Road to the Right Work: James Warren on storytelling and entrepreneurship (pt 1)

We kick off Season 2 of the Push-Pull Podcast, we widen the lens from career transitions to how people build durable careers amid rapid change. In this episode, I interview James Warren, founder and CEO of Share More Stories, who is a storyteller committed to helping organizations understand their employees’ and customers’ experiences. James recounts early storytelling and entrepreneurial interests, studying at Princeton before transferring to Columbia for creative writing, and learning persistence through rigorous workshops. After marrying young, he entered corporate roles at MetLife and then Altria, where self-advocacy and mentorship fueled moves from communications to brand/marketing to sales, revealing shifting generational expectations about “job hopping.” He eventually left Altria with a package to pursue entrepreneurship, describing a difficult first year, early failed ventures and a failed crowdfunding campaign, and a pivotal partnership that provided the material and experiential resources to build Share More Stories.00:00 Season Two Mission00:50 Building Durable Careers02:24 Meet James Warren04:19 James Today Snapshot05:14 Early Storytelling Roots07:41 Writing Path to Columbia09:59 Pressure Intuition Pivots15:07 First Corporate Breaks18:48 Altria Growth and Moves23:52 Jump to Brand and Sales29:53 Sales Role Reality Check31:50 Resentment In The Field32:26 Work With Lunch Lesson33:42 Reorgs And Returning HQ35:40 Choosing To Leave Corporate37:19 First Year Entrepreneur Reality39:36 Origins Of Share More Stories45:32 Crowdfunding Failure Wakeup47:31 Mentors And Finding Ken51:48 Partner Deal And New Runway53:10 Host Reflection And Wrap