"Build Relationships Broadly." Don't Just Stay In Your Lane!

Maryam Banikarim 🗽🚕 ❤️ hosts The Messy Parts, a podcast exploring the real stories behind success. With over 25 years as a C-suite executive, she's served as Global CMO at Hyatt, CMO at Gannett, and held senior marketing roles at Nextdoor, NBCUniversal, and Univision, most recently as Managing Director at Fortune Media revitalizing the Most Powerful Women and Brainstorm Tech franchises. A sought-after speaker whose TED talk captured national attention, she led the award-winning WE ❤️ NYC campaign and co-founded NYCNext. Today she is focused on building community via The Longest Table, a nationwide potluck movement, and The Messy Parts podcast. 

What role have networking & relationships played in your career?

"Most of my roles have required soft skills that demonstrate genuine win-win outcomes—bringing others on board rather than leading from a top-down approach. For me, networking is about organically building relationships everywhere I go. I maintain connections from every job and from all the various intersection points in my life."

"While many people have been influential, I like to tell the story of reaching out via mail (this was pre-internet) to Mickey Drexler, the CEO of Gap in the 1980s. I had an idea that someone suggested I send his way, so I did. That experience confirmed for me early on that if you have a good idea, you shouldn't be afraid to reach out. Often this approach didn't pay off, but then there was that time when it did. While I didn't end up working at Gap, that interaction convinced me to go into marketing."

"Not everyone responds to me—I'm not for everyone. But the right person, who I would want to work for, immediately gets that I'm not only strategic and creative, but I also have a "go-get-'em" attitude that means I can execute with urgency. For the right person, that combination can be a game-changer."

What advice would you give to women about building their network of business relationships? 

"Build relationships and think about this from a long-term perspective versus being transactional. Do a good job at whatever you're doing while you're doing it—many of my relationships are based on us having worked together, and that becomes your brand and reputation. Also make sure you widen your aperture by building relationships broadly, not just in your lane or at your company. This will help you see a bigger playing field."

While women seem better at building personal relationships, men seem to be better at building - and especially leveraging - business relationships. Why do you think that's the case? 

"Women often excel at building meaningful, purpose-driven connections but may hesitate to leverage them strategically. Men might be more comfortable with transactional networking. The key is combining authentic relationship-building with strategic thinking about how those connections can be mutually beneficial."

Talk about your new podcast and what you mean when you say your new company "mobilizes communities".

"I launched The Messy Parts Podcast to share the real, unfiltered career stories that never make it onto LinkedIn—the pivots, failures, and vulnerable moments behind success. Having lived through 20+ years in the C-Suite myself, when we sit down to talk, we find each other as friends, willing to talk openly about the journey, including the ups and downs. One viewer captured it perfectly when they said, 'I loved watching your podcast on YouTube. It was like being in your living room for a cozy work gossip session.' I hope you check it out and subscribe."

"In recent years, I've been driven to build community—whether at a neighborhood level with The Longest Table, city-wide with NYCNext or the WE❤️NYC campaign, or in the world of work through this podcast. My WHY is simple: helping people find belonging. Sometimes that happens over dinner with your neighbors, sometimes through an Emmy-winning Billy Joel video, and sometimes through hearing someone else's messy story and realizing you're not alone."