Intern to Empire

Hosted by Ava Swinton and Inna Swinton - Intern to Empire features candid conversations with high performing students and young professionals and some more experienced guests reflecting on what worked (and what didn’t). We explore how they found mentors, built proof, and created momentum from high school to college to first key opportunities. We explore the mentors, decisions, and pivots behind each path, so that listeners can find their next step faster.

Intern to Empire is a business podcast hosted by Ava Swinton, with 26 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Ava Swinton hosts Intern to Empire, a business show with 26 episodes published.

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  Episode #1

  Intern to Empire S2 Ep. 1 w/ Will Mckelvey - Capitol Hill to Venture Capital: The Art of the Pivot

  Aug 31, 202637 minS2

  Intern to Empire Season 2, Episode 1 is live! We are back for a new and incredible season!! This week we sat down with Will McKelvey, an investor at Lerer Hippeau in New York. Before Will moved to NYC, he got his MBA at UC Berkeley where he started his own small venture fund. And even before that he spent almost five years working in Congress on economic policy. Will argues that venture-backed companies are the most powerful economic engine in the US economy. Will did not have much of a network in the venture world when he decided to make the pivot. But everything he did, every extracurricular, every internship, was oriented around how to achieve the goal. Watch the episode to hear exactly what his mentor told him to do to land his job at Lerer Hippeau. We discuss why your hit rate on good decisions matters less than the volume of them, and why the best thing you can send a mentor is an update with no ask. Our favorite line: “All advice overtime nets to zero. Follow your gut. Intuition is the only thing we have that artificial intelligence does not.” Co-hosted with @innaswinton writer, actress, producer, and lawyer). Link in bio for the full episode! #VentureCapital #Investing #EarlyCareer #Internships #Podcast

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  Episode #25

  Intern to Empire Ep. 25 w/ Alexander Bello - Broadway at 10, USC at 18, and Making Your Own Work

  Aug 18, 20261h 1mS1

  Intern to Empire Ep. 25 is live! Our Season 1 finale. This week we sat down with Alexander Bello to talk about what happens when the roles stop coming and you decide to write your own! Alex made his Broadway debut at 10 in All My Sons, then did Caroline, or Change and The Tap Dance Kid, booked his first feature in Theater Camp, won a Sundance award with the cast, and recurred on HBO's And Just Like That. Then he hit the age where Broadway mostly stops casting teenagers - so he picked up a camera. This spring, during his senior year of high school, he wrote and directed Hide, a horror-thriller about a mother and son at odds over a family heirloom. He raised $6,000 on Kickstarter, pulled together a 30-person crew ranging from 15 to 50 years old, and shot the whole thing in three days. It's about to start its festival run. In the fall he heads to USC film school. We also get into why he calls it redirection instead of rejection, the 156-page screenplay he wrote at 13 for himself and a friend, turning down a big Broadway role at 14 and booking Theater Camp four months later, staying humble about the work at school, and the mom who told him he could quit anytime - which is why he never did! One of our favorite lines from the episode: "No one can ever stop you from going out and getting a camera and making a film." Co-hosted with @innaswinton (writer, actress, producer, and lawyer). Link in bio for the full episode. #Filmmaking #Broadway #USCSCA #IndieFilm #YoungCreatives

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  Episode #24

  Intern to Empire Ep. 24 w/ Aanchal Save - Georgia Tech to Germany: Finding Her Own Way to Publish

  Aug 14, 202658 minS1

  Intern to Empire Ep. 24 is live! This week we sat down with Aanchal Save to talk about what happens when you stop waiting to be handed the interesting work. Aanchal is a rising junior at Georgia Tech studying aerospace engineering and computer science, and she has already interned at NASA, SpaceX, and Palantir. During her NASA internship, there was a robotic arm sitting in the lab that nobody had assigned her to. So she read a stack of books, built a presentation, and pitched her mentor on working on it in her spare time. She got the green light, wrote a paper, and filed it through NASA’s internal new technology process. When she learned there was no funding to publish independent work, she found a conference in a small town in Germany, went while she was studying abroad in France, and presented it herself. We also get into cold outreach and why forty emails for one reply is a fine trade, being the only girl in the lab and learning to own it instead of shrinking, what it actually means to be a good mentee and not just a good mentor, and how she chose the harder summer over the comfortable one. One of our favorite lines from the episode: “You don’t really need to know what you’re passionate about. It’s more of like, what are you curious about?” Great way to start. Co-hosted with @innaswinton (writer, actress, producer, and lawyer). Link in bio for the full episode. #WomenInSTEM #Robotics #Aerospace #GeorgiaTech #Internships

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  Episode #23

  Intern to Empire Ep. 23 w/ Daniel Sung - Follow Your Gut. Build Your Own Path

  Jul 27, 202650 minS1

  Intern to Empire Ep. 23 is live! This week we sat down with Daniel Sung to talk about what happens when you stop waiting for opportunities and start creating them! From growing up in his family's Mexican restaurant to becoming the youngest intern at the LA Clippers. Daniel launched a LinkedIn agency before turning 20. Daniel shares how following your instincts can completely change your career. We also get into building a personal brand and why LinkedIn is one of the most powerful platforms for young professionals. We discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with ambitious people, and how small decisions can lead to opportunities you never expected. Whether you're looking for your first internship, thinking about starting something of your own, or trying to stand out in our incredibly competitive world, this episode is filled with advice you can start using right now! #InternToEmpire #Podcast #CareerAdvice #Networking #Mentorship #Community #Internships #YoungProfessionals #Leadership #PersonalGrowth

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  Episode #23

  Intern to Empire Ep. 23 w/ Will & Sachin - Intern House That Turned Connections into Opportunities

  Jul 15, 20261h 10mS1

  Intern to Empire Ep. 23 is live! This week we sat down with Will & Sachin to talk about how one idea, a house full of interns in New York City, turned into a community that opened doors, created lifelong friendships, and sparked unexpected opportunities! We dive into why the best networking doesn't feel like networking, how to build genuine mentor relationships, and the importance of showing up in person. A thought we kept going back to was why creating your own luck often starts with simply reaching out. We also discuss embracing discomfort, balancing AI with critical thinking, and why the people you surround yourself with can completely change the direction of your career. Whether you're looking for an internship, building your network, or just figuring out your next step, this conversation is full of practical advice on creating opportunities instead of waiting for them. Their intern house is called Chelsea Commons. Check them out! #InternToEmpire #Podcast #CareerAdvice #Networking #Mentorship #Community #Internships #YoungProfessionals #Leadership #PersonalGrowth

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