#21 Rayan Karaky - The Leadership Skills That Separate Managers From Real Leaders

Rayan Karaky leads international expansion at Amazon Ads across markets from the Nordics to Southeast Asia. But his leadership story didn't start at Amazon. It started in 2005 when he went all in on digital advertising before anyone believed in it. No management role. No authority. His own leaders told him he was wrong. His portfolio dropped from sixty million dollars to a hundred thousand almost overnight. He led anyway. In this conversation we talk about what it actually takes to lead before you have the title, the feedback he kept receiving for over a decade before it finally landed, how to show up for a diverse team when everything around them feels uncertain, and why the most important person you need to lead first is yourself. One of the most honest conversations on the show so far.