Alison Garwood Jones

In these clips with my interview with Nargiz Mammadova, I talk about:

• Learning magazine writing on the job
• Preserving my naivete, and not giving in to fear
• My dashed dreams of being a newspaper columnist (don’t be a dinosaur, Alison)
• Why the media business model is still in flux
• Adapting constantly
• Why the old markers of success — where you went to school and who you know — are losing their power.

Nargiz Mammadova, the co-founder and CEO of the Destin AI app, an AI-powered virtual guide that simplifies the immigration process to Canada. (@destin.ai)

Nargiz and I met a few years ago after I delivered a talk for IABC Toronto. She came bounding up to me. 

It turns out, while building the Destin AI app with her team, she was simultaneously filming a web series of interviews with creative entrepreneurs, both as a way to fuel and encourage herself through the day-to-day challenges of building something that didn’t yet exist, but as inspiration for her friends, also trying to make their way through disrupted workplaces and the evolving technological landscape.

Our conversation was shot pre-Covid. 

You can check out all of Nargiz’s full interviews (including this one) at “Insights With Nargiz.”

• Produced by Nargiz Mammadova • Videographer: Gary Chen • Video Editing: Elnur Valiyev • Extra family photos added by Alison Garwood-Jones