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The Ambition Code

The Ambition Code

By: Julie Kellman Reading
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The Ambition Code is a premium podcast and conversation series about ambition, identity, career, reinvention, leadership, and the defining moments that shape who we become. Hosted by Julie Kellman Reading, the series features deeply human conversations with remarkable people who have built extraordinary lives across business, culture, creativity, entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal evolution. At its core, The Ambition Code explores ambition as a force that moves through every part of life - how we start, how we rise, how we navigate the unexpected, and how we break through into what comes next. Through honest and powerful conversations filled with humanity, humor, hard-earned experience, and real-world advice, the podcast gives listeners the knowledge and clarity to build momentum and move forward with confidence through every pivot, transition, risk, reinvention, and defining moment in their lives. Built for those entering the workforce, entrepreneurs, creatives, leaders, and anyone standing at the edge of a new chapter, The Ambition Code asks the bigger questions: What would you tell the younger version of yourself? How do you keep moving when the path is unclear? What does your journey teach you about purpose, resilience, legacy, and becoming who you are meant to be? The Ambition Code is a guide to running through open doors, and a bold reminder that your life is waiting for you.2026 Career Success Economics Relationships Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Raquel Bruno + Music, Motherhood, and a Life Off-Script

    Raquel Bruno + Music, Motherhood, and a Life Off-Script
    Sep 10 2026
    Raquel Bruno + Music, Motherhood, and a Life Off-Script

    The Lessons of an 8-Year IVF Journey

    Raquel Bruno is a powerhouse.

    The thing I've always loved about Raquel is that she understands perseverance. She knows how to keep going, how to find another way, and how to keep believing when the answer in front of her is no. And nowhere was that perseverance tested more profoundly than on her eight-year road to motherhood through IVF, loss, uncertainty, and ultimately, two incredible children.

    Raquel and I have something in common: neither of us has ever been particularly good at accepting the word "no." In our careers and in our lives, "no" has often meant something else entirely:

    "So, you're telling me there's a chance".

    Raquel is an executive producer, talent manager, CEO, DJ and entrepreneur who has spent decades fiercely advocating for the talent she works with while making sure producing teams get what they need to create an excellent project. She understands that great work happens when talent feels protected, heard and supported—and when everyone involved is working toward the same goal.

    But Raquel has never been just one thing.

    She grew up surrounded by music. Her mother was a jazz singer. Her father was a songwriter. They rubbed shoulders with Frank Sinatra and Casey Kasam. Music has remained a constant through every version of who she has become, and even now, while running a company and raising two children, she is still behind the turntables. For Raquel, music isn't a hobby. It's a life force.
    And then there is her road to motherhood.

    Raquel opens up with extraordinary candor about eight years of trying to become a mother, pregnancy loss, multiple rounds of IVF, the emotional and physical toll of infertility, and reaching a point where she felt financially, emotionally and spiritually depleted. Ultimately, a different path led her to become the mother of two incredible children.


    It's a conversation about perseverance -but also about learning that not everything can be solved by pushing harder. Sometimes persistence has to make room for patience, surrender, trust and a path you never expected.

    And after decades of achieving, producing and proving, Raquel's definition of ambition has changed too. Today, success is about alignment, her children, creativity, choosing the right work - and understanding that freedom is a form of payment and time is a commodity.

    Come for the stories. Stay for the lessons.

    In this episode, we discuss:

    • Why "no" doesn't always mean no- it can mean not this way

    • Raquel's eight-year IVF journey and road to motherhood

    • Pregnancy loss and the loneliness of infertility

    • How she found the strength to keep going when she felt depleted

    • Becoming a mother later in life

    • Learning when to persist - and when to surrender

    • Why your life doesn't have to follow anyone else's timeline

    • Building Drive Entertainment Group and betting on herself

    • Recognizing the human being behind the celebrity

    • Why kindness and relationships matter so much in entertainment

    • Growing up in a musical family

    • Why DJing has remained essential to who she is

    • Building community through music on Twitch

    • Refusing to abandon your creative identity as your life evolves

    • A different kind of imposter syndrome

    • The danger of shrinking yourself to make other people comfortable

    • Why failure can be one of our greatest teachers

    • How her definition of ambition has changed with age

    ✨Follow Raquel Bruno✨

    Instagram: @RaquelLovesDrive
    LinkedIn: Raquel Bruno
    Twitch: DJ Aviva - twitch.tv/DJAviva
    Website: driveentertainmentgroup.com

    ✨The Ambition Code✨

    Creator / Host / Executive Producer: Julie Kellman Reading
    Produced by: Love + Daydreams
    Music by: @Moby.Gratis

    The Ambition Code: Your Life Is Waiting For You.
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    56 mins
  • The Risk of Wanting More

    The Risk of Wanting More
    Sep 4 2026
    The Risk of Wanting More

    How do you stay open after life changes you?

    What happens when you survive something that changes you - and then life asks you to believe in possibility again?

    In this solo episode of The Ambition Code, Julie Kellman Reading explores what it means to want more after heartbreak, disappointment, reinvention, or any experience that fundamentally divides your life into a before and an after.

    Surviving something difficult doesn't make you smaller. It can introduce you to a version of yourself you had forgotten was there.

    Julie talks about rebuilding after divorce, meeting herself again after decades, and discovering an unexpected kind of fearlessness on the other side.

    This episode explores the psychology of staying open when your brain has learned to protect you, the difference between fear and intuition, why our past can begin writing our future, and believing in the future without knowing exactly how it will turn out.

    Because reinvention isn't only about recovering from what happened.

    It's about deciding what happens next.

    In this episode:

    • Why difficult experiences can change the way we approach possibility

    • The instinct to protect ourselves from disappointment

    • How your past can begin making decisions about your future

    • Rediscovering yourself after a major life transition

    • The unexpected fearlessness that can come from survival

    • Choosing curiosity over certainty

    • Learning to stay open without abandoning everything you've learned

    The Ambition Code is a podcast about ambition, reinvention, creativity, career, and the defining moments that shape our lives - and how we keep moving forward when the path doesn't look anything like we expected.

    Credits

    Creator, Host + Executive Producer: Julie Kellman Reading
    Produced by: Love + Daydreams
    Music: @Moby.Gratis

    Connect

    Email:podcast@loveanddaydreams.com

    Julie Kellman Reading on LinkedIn:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekellmanreading/

    Love + Daydreams:
    https://www.loveanddaydreams.com

    Listen to The Ambition Code on Apple Podcasts:
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ambition-code/id6790585618

    Follow The Ambition Code wherever you listen to podcasts, and please like, subscribe, and share!

    ✨Because - your life is waiting for you.✨

    🩷✨🔥
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    16 mins
  • Dave Holmes + A Life Written Outside the Lines

    Dave Holmes + A Life Written Outside the Lines
    Aug 25 2026
    Dave Holmes has spent a lifetime being easy to recognize and nearly impossible to categorize. He is a writer, humorist, host, cultural observer, Editor-at-Large at Esquire - and someone with the rare ability to make you laugh very hard while casually saying something devastatingly true about being human. But this conversation isn't really about the things Dave has done. It's about how he became Dave Holmes. He grew up feeling different before he necessarily had the language for why. He loved music, television, writing and pop culture in a world that gave boys a fairly limited menu of ways to be. He tried being practical. He tried fitting in. He tried becoming the person he thought he was supposed to become. Thankfully, none of it entirely took. And somewhere along the way, he learned something bigger: your life rarely arrives in the form you expected it to. Success doesn't have to mean becoming the person everybody knows. It can mean becoming the person you finally recognize. And often, the choice that makes the least sense on paper is the one that opens up your life. Dave talks about the power of boldness and putting your work - and yourself - into the world, even when it makes you cringe. About the freedom that comes with no longer trying to fit into somebody else's idea of who you should be. About being gay, being visible, being fully seen and eventually taking control of your own narrative. He talks about writing, reinvention, creativity, masculinity, belonging, success, failure and why there is more than one way to make a life in a creative industry. Most of all, Dave makes a compelling case for doing your thing - whatever that may be. Because if you don't, we - aka the world - don't get to experience it. And when I ask what he would tell the younger Dave - the boy who was looking around wondering where exactly he fit - his answer says almost everything: You will not believe it. Because the life ahead of him would be stranger, funnier, freer and far more interesting than anything he could have planned. This is a conversation about what happens when you stop trying to color inside someone else's lines. And begin writing a life that actually feels like your own. The incomparable Dave Holmes on The Ambition Code. IN THIS EPISODE Why not fitting in can eventually become your greatest advantage The difference between being visible and being fully seen Putting yourself out there before confidence arrives Why boldness can take you places good sense never will Learning to stop editing yourself for other people Coming out, identity and taking control of your own narrative Finding your voice as a writer Why creating something that embarrasses you a little might be a very good sign Redefining success when life doesn't follow the original plan Why there is more than one way to build a creative career The freedom of becoming more completely yourself What Dave would tell the younger version of himself about the life waiting for him CONNECT WITH DAVE HOLMES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveholmes/ Dave at Esquire: https://www.esquire.com/author/9774/dave-holmes/ Cocksure on Substack: https://cocksure.substack.com/ Dave is an Editor-at-Large at Esquire, hosts on SiriusXM's The Spectrum, and hosts the podcast International Waters with Maximum Fun. THE AMBITION CODE Creator, Host + Executive Producer: Julie Kellman Reading Produced by: Love + Daydreams Music by: @Moby.Gratis Connect with Julie + The Ambition Code Love + Daydreams on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveanddaydreams/ The Ambition Code on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheAmbitionCodePod The Ambition Code on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAmbitionCodePod The Ambition Code on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ambition-code/id6790585618 The Ambition Code on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033P0xatKPFsBNimqb32rb Love + Daydreams: https://www.LoveAndDaydreams.com Julie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekellmanreading/ Your life is waiting for you.
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    43 mins
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