What does it really look like to build a career from nothing, and what happens when you finally get there?

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Joe Cannon, SVP at Hyperice, shares the full arc of his journey, from graduating into a brutal job market with no clear path, to piecing together freelance work, sleeping in his car, and chasing any opportunity that could get him in the room.

Joe opens up about the uncertainty and pressure of those early years, applying to hundreds of jobs with little response, and the resilience it took to keep going when nothing seemed to be working. That period didn’t just shape his career, it shaped how he sees people, opportunity, and leadership today.

Now at Hyperice, Joe sits at the center of one of the fastest-growing brands in wellness, helping drive partnerships, cultural moments, and global expansion. From the Super Bowl to SXSW, he’s been part of building a brand that’s redefining how everyday people think about recovery, performance, and health.

But this conversation goes far beyond business.

Joe reflects on what it means to navigate a high-performance career while raising two young children and the constant tension between ambition and presence. He shares the realities of modern fatherhood, the guilt, the trade-offs, and the small intentional choices that matter most.

At the heart of it all is a simple but powerful truth: your kids don’t care about your job title, your deals, or your wins. They just want you.

This is a conversation about hustle, perspective, identity, and redefining success, not just by what you build, but by who you show up as along the way.

In This Episode

• From post-college rejection to breaking into the industry
• Sleeping in his car and saying yes to any opportunity
• How Craigslist hustles led to career-defining moments
• Building Hyperice through partnerships and cultural activations
• The explosion of the wellness industry and consumer behavior
• Lessons from early struggle that shaped his leadership style
• The reality of balancing a demanding career with two young kids
• Why being present matters more than being perfect

Key Takeaways

• Hustle creates opportunity, but relationships sustain it
• Early career struggles build resilience and perspective
• You don’t need a perfect path, just momentum
• Success at work means less if you’re absent at home
• Kids don’t care about your title, they care about your presence
• Being a parent is a constant evolution, not a perfect game
• Curiosity and humility are superpowers in business
• The best leaders remember what it felt like to be overlooked

About the Guest
Joe Cannon is the Senior Vice President at Hyperice, a global leader in recovery and wellness technology. He has played a key role in scaling the brand through major partnerships, cultural activations, and experiences across events like the Super Bowl, The Masters, and SXSW. Before Hyperice, Joe built his career through unconventional paths, freelance work, startups, and sheer persistence. Joe brings a unique perspective to leadership, growth, and opportunity.

What happens when a high-achieving career is working on paper, but no longer feels aligned in real life?

In this episode of CEOs and ABCs, Kevin sits down with Charisse Hughes, a senior marketing and growth executive who has led at some of the world’s most iconic consumer brands, including Estée Lauder, Pandora, Kellogg, and Kellanova. But this conversation goes far beyond titles and career highlights.

Charisse opens up about being raised by a single mother and grandmother who instilled in her the values of education, independence, faith, and community. She reflects on the years she spent on the fast track, getting promoted, traveling the world, and building an impressive career, while realizing that work had quietly become her entire identity.

She shares the pivotal decision to step away from a successful role without another one lined up, the fear that came with it, and the clarity she found on the other side. Kevin and Charisse also talk about leadership, ambition, bonus motherhood, and why presence is not something anyone gives you. It is something you have to choose.

This is a conversation about success, identity, reinvention, and building a life that reflects what truly matters.

In this episode

• How Charisse’s mother and grandmother shaped her values around education, independence, faith, and service

• Why starting in finance gave her an edge as a marketer and business leader

• What she learned from moving into beauty, luxury, and global brand leadership

• The hidden cost of life on the fast track and how achievement became her whole story

• Why she left a successful role without another job lined up and what that season taught her

• How Pandora and Kellogg helped shape her leadership and confidence at the highest levels

• What becoming a bonus mom taught her about love, values, and showing up for family

• Why clarity, balance, and presence are not given to us, they must be chosen

Key takeaways

• Success on paper is not always the same thing as success in alignment with your values

• Career momentum can become addictive if you do not stop to ask what it is costing you

• Taking a step back is not always career suicide. Sometimes it is the clearest move forward

• A background in finance can make marketers stronger, more commercial, and more influential leaders

• Leadership is not just about functional excellence. It is about adaptability, conviction, calm, and the ability to influence others

• Children reflect back what matters most and can keep us grounded in what is real

• You do not need to stay locked into a path just because it once made sense

• Nobody is going to hand you the clarity or balance you want. You have to choose it

Guest Links/Show Notes

• Virtuosi League (⁠https://virtuosileague.com/⁠),
• Equal Justice Initiative (⁠https://eji.org/⁠)
• Howard University (⁠https://giving.howard.edu/ways-give⁠)

About Charisse Hughes

Charisse Hughes is a senior marketing and growth executive who has held leadership roles at some of the world’s most recognized consumer brands, including Estée Lauder, Pandora, Kellogg, and Kellanova. She has served as Chief Marketing Officer, led major brand and business transformations, sat on the board of Crocs, and was named CMO of the Year by Consumer Goods Technology in 2022. Known for combining commercial rigor with bold leadership, Charisse brings a powerful perspective on career growth, reinvention, and leading with purpose.

• (00:00:00) - A single boss's decision to leave her job
• (00:00:28) - CEO and ABCs: Parenting Wins and Fails
• (00:01:49) - How Did Your Mother's Success Shape You?
• (00:06:59) - The Influencers of Luxury
• (00:11:00) - How CMOs Can Connect with CFOs
• (00:13:31) - The Making of Estee Lauder
• (00:16:42) - Ex-Estee Lauder CEO on The Cult of Productivity
• (00:21:37) - If You Had Advice For Your Younger Self
• (00:25:11) - What's Motherhood Like For Bonus Parents?
• (00:29:24) - As a Bonus Mother
• (00:31:45) - What values did you want to help instill in your children as
• (00:35:54) - Pandora's Take a Leave of Absence
• (00:41:35) - Have You Changed Pandora's Direction?
• (00:44:59) - What Does a Leader Need to Know to Lead Today?
• (00:47:09) - What are some ways to develop your leadership skills?
• (00:49:36) - In the Elevator With Kellogg
• (00:53:29) - Sharice Jones on Choosing the Right Balance

In this episode of CEOs & ABCs, Kevin sits down with Tariq Hassan, former Chief Marketing Officer of McDonald’s, to unpack a belief that shaped his entire leadership philosophy: you cannot get to incredible outcomes when fear of failure is baked into the system.

Tariq shares how growing up dyslexic quietly wired him for fear and overcompensation, and how that same “paralysis” shows up inside companies as the ideas people never share, the risks teams never take, and the opportunities no one even knows they missed. From Petco turnarounds to leading at one of the most iconic brands in the world, he explains why psychological safety is not a soft concept. It is a performance advantage.

You will hear the simple cultural shift Tariq used to make risk-taking real: celebrating “Amazing Almosts”, the best failures of the quarter, so teams could learn, pivot, and build confidence without losing accountability. Kevin and Tariq also bring this conversation home, exploring parenting, long-distance seasons, two high-performing careers under one roof, and the daily practices that help a child keep talking, especially when the stakes get higher.

This is a conversation about fear, trust, standards, and the environments we create, at work and at home, so people feel safe enough to grow.

In this episode:

• Why fear of failure becomes invisible, but still drives behavior in high-performing cultures

• What psychological safety looks like in real meetings, not in theory

• How to build “risk with guardrails” instead of chaos or blame

• The “Amazing Almosts” practice, and why celebrating the right failures changes everything

• Repairing after you miss it as a leader, and why it only feels awkward the first time

• The parenting parallel: when to catch, when to let them fall, and how trust is built

• Long-distance parenting, presence vs quantity, and choosing the moments that matter

• Why this mindset matters even more in an AI-driven world of continuous learning

Key takeaways:

• You can’t talk a team into psychological safety. You have to prove it through actions and rituals.

• Fear shows up most in what doesn’t get said: the risks avoided, the debates not had, the ideas withheld.

• The goal is not celebrating constant failure. The goal is learning fast, staying accountable, and building confidence to take smart swings.

• Cultural change feels unnatural at first. Keep going until it becomes normal, and the language becomes part of how the team operates.

• At home, psychological safety is often measured by one thing: they keep talking.

• Presence is less about quantity and more about intentional moments your family remembers.

• The best leaders repair quickly, build truth-tellers around them, and stay open to feedback even when it stings.

About Tariq Hassan:
Tariq Hassan is a senior marketing leader who most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s. Prior to McDonald’s, he held executive leadership roles at Petco, Bank of America, and Hewlett-Packard, building a career across some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Known for blending performance with humanity, Tariq focuses on the cultural conditions that unlock high-performing teams, especially psychological safety, trust, and the ability to take smart risks without fear.

• (00:00:00) - Introduction
• (00:02:00) - Creating Psychological Safety in Organisation
• (00:11:42) - Cultural Implications of Fear in Organizations
• (00:21:35) - Celebrating Failures: The Amazing Almosts
• (00:31:35) - Balancing Risk and Responsibility in Leadership
• (00:33:08) - Navigating Parenting Challenges
• (00:37:49) - Creating Psychological Safety at Home
• (00:42:47) - Balancing Ambitious Careers
• (00:48:24) - Maintaining Connection During Absence