Episode #29: The Next Level
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Level Up with Wondr is entering it’s third year! Rotating hosts Anika Howard, Dyani Marvel, and Jordyn Mihok discuss their favorite conversations from Season 2 and reflect on lessons learned while sharing their own tips for leveling up personally and professionally.
Notes
Level Up with Wondr is your window into the exciting world of gaming, tech, and innovation. Join us as our hosts dive into captivating conversations with a diverse group of industry experts, learning about their paths to success and unique perspectives. Whether you're a gamer, tech enthusiast, or innovation seeker, subscribe today to elevate your knowledge and stay ahead of the curve.
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Jordyn: Hello and welcome to another episode of Level Up With Wondr. We are entering our third year of the podcast, and once again, we're looking back at some of our favorite conversations from the past year, while also looking forward to a new era of Level Up with Wonder.
Over the past two years, we've enjoyed featuring the work and insights of professionals from all corners of the gaming technology and innovation industries, and in 2026, we can't wait to continue to do that.
Dyani: All righty. So let's all introduce ourselves here. So I'm Dyani Marvel, vice President of Marketing Strategy and Operations.
Jordyn: My name is Jordyn Mihok. I am a marketing specialist at Wondr Nation, but also the podcast is kind of my project. And so I've been producing, editing doing all the planning process for the past couple years.
Anika: And Jordyn has done an excellent job and love to see the evolution in the podcast and even in us as I guess co-host and the other team members that have been able to come and participate as well.
My name is Anika Howard. I'm the president and CEO of Wonder Nation. This was really my brainchild along with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
And just every day and every year that we get a chance to do this, I'm super thankful and appreciative for this opportunity that I've been given to, you know, be a steward of the resources for the tribe and to push us forward in this industry. So, very excited to be here with Jordyn and Dyani and to kick off our third year.
Dyani: Absolutely. So I think what we're gonna do is similar to what we've done before, which is do a look back on some of our favorite conversations, but we're also going to have some conversations about really what does it mean to level up and how we want to lean into that as we look at where this podcast is going.
So let's first start with some of our favorite episodes of this past year. So I'm gonna actually hand it over to Jordyn to kick us off.
Jordyn: So I did a couple different interviews . My first one was with Shebrikea Warburton from Connecticut Council problem Gambling. She runs their multicultural problem gambling program.
I learned a lot from her in terms of the different kinds of services that they offer and how they kind of tailor those programs to hit different populations. And I. I always love talking to different people when it comes to problem gambling or responsible gaming because I just love hearing about all those different resources and how we've been able to kind of help and contribute to that program and help them build that up.
Dyani: Talking with Shebrikea was just really good to see not only how they're really helping with responsible gaming, but how they are reaching in to bipoc communities for a very special programming. And I know that's what Shebrikea was brought on to do.
I know we've been out in the community with some of the programs and it's just great to have the conversations one-on-one, learn more about what they're doing and, and how we can all do better at the end of the day.
Anika: I really agree, especially with Shebrikea, you know, I'm really kind of understanding that, focusing in on targeted and culturally informed prevention, and that requires a level of dedication and understanding and motivation because a lot of those protective factors that are required for different communities are different.
And so I feel like it really also helped lean into a lot of things that we do in terms of being inclusive and being very intentional in making sure that kind of voices are amplified. And so I really like the way that one particularly tied back into a lot of our core values as well.
They've been a great partner and she's been a great advocate for the work that she does.
Jordyn: One of my last interviews I did this year was with Elaine Gomez, who is the president of Latinx and Gaming. She's a game designer. It was something that was a little bit different for me because game design is a little bit outside of the work that we do here at Wondr Nation, but was really fun to kind of learn about her process and then also how she's being very intentional with her game design to just be more inclusive, usually when it comes to players, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later because Elaine's episode is one of the biggest lessons that I learned in this past year from podcast.
Anika: I really liked when she talks about just kind of community building and how that's e essential for not just career sustainability, but also when you think about building communities for players. We've talked a lot about how that is kind of a key too, so really tying it back to community, I like that aspect of that episode.
Dyani: Absolutely. And it reminded me too, and I'll kind of switch over to some of my favorite episodes, when I spoke with Nia Grace, although it was different and she was an entrepreneur and she was talking about restaurants, she also spoke about building community and how important that was. And that's what she was trying to do with her work, as well as providing some really amazing insights about entrepreneurship in general.
Nia is an amazing storyteller, so if you haven't listened to that episode, I recommend you do. She has some great stories about right time, right place and how she got to her restaurant and just evolution of a career and believing in yourself and what you do, and again, building that community within what she wants to do with music and food and, and all of those things that make us all feel great and wonderful.
Just a great person.
Anika: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think one of the things she kind of laid out, is that community building is business building. I think we are seeing that in Wondr as well. So I agree. Nia is a amazing storyteller.
Dyani: She is. That makes me also think about my conversation I had with Rebecca Naragon, who's in tribal economic development with USET. And so she is just a beautiful person. She has such a great personality. And she talked with us for a Native American Heritage Month and she talked about economic storytelling.
Growth and innovation in tribal industries and and talked about resources and tips for native entrepreneurs and the importance of community development. So it's another, really great episode and just always love to have conversations with Rebecca. She's come to our entrepreneur symposium multiple times and another good one to take a listen back on.
Anika: Yeah, I mean it's another great storyteller and you know, I think she touched on, how framing your growth narrative matters and really talking to entrepreneurs about those things and what they need to do to tell their story as a way to connect.
Dyani: Manjit Singh and his was an interesting one. He talks about cybersecurity and it's, you know, maybe not the most sexy topic, but it is so important to us in our business. In digital gaming and online gaming its so important for us to understand cybersecurity. And with all of the amazing tools that we take advantage of to be more effective and efficient, those are also tools that bad actors use to infiltrate systems. And so just kinda learning more about that and what he sees as important, what he sees as what's next was very informative. Definitely.
Anika: And then really staying on top of those trends are so important. I mean, I very thankful for you and all the work that you've been kind of doing to stay ahead of AI for us and even to being, sharing that more broadly with our partners in the community to do that because that is critical as we move forward.
Dyani: Absolutely. And then my last one was with Melanie Keen, and that was for responsible gaming education Month and very interesting to have a conversation with somebody who was an expert in gambling addiction and a person who has had lived experience.
You can approach problem gambling or responsible gambling from so many different angles, but it's always so important to also get some expertise when it comes to addiction and treatment and tools and tips.
She had over 40 years of experience and so she's a great depth and wealth of knowledge in terms of how we do better, but also understand those who are impacted.
Anika: Yeah, I mean, even with her, you know, really kind of focusing on you know, problem gambling, being a mental health disorder and like treating it as such, because a lot of the things that we've started to see is that , it's treated as kind of a character flaw instead of, something that needs to be treated.
And so listening to her for that episode really helped me reframe how I was thinking about some of the programs that are out there.
Dyani: Yeah, no, that, that, thank you for bringing up, 'cause that was a great point that she talked about. It's an addiction and it is about the mental health and that holistic person.
The way that we think about problem gambling changes the way that we support it.
And so if we have a broader mindset, we support it in a more holistic manner. So that is critically important.
Anika: No, no, absolutely. I even in preparation for this kind of went back and I was just like, wow, we just had an amazing set of people and, definitely saw recurring themes. I'll kind of touch on Steffi Bau. And so I really liked Steffi's journey for a number of reasons.
One, I felt like it was one of resilience.
For those that don't know Steffi she was a professional motocross champion and she's founded the world's first woman led sim racing company. She had a career ending accident and that didn't really stop her it just allowed her to pivot and to become a resource and a mentor and inspiration for other women.
So I thought her message was very inspirational.
And then of course what's not to love about Chairman Butler. We got a chance to interview him. He's on the board of directors for Wondr Nation, in addition to being the chairman for the Mashantucket Pequot tribe.
With him there was just a lot of core lessons about perseverance and community engagement and how these two things are very foundational for leadership.
It was a appropriate message during Native American history month about, respecting sovereignty and building strong partnerships and balancing.
Dyani: Yeah, those were definitely two really powerful sessions. Like you said, with Chairman Butler, fortunate to have him as a leader of the tribe that we work for I think he always drops so many poignant lessons and perspectives.
And of course Stefy, a great story and I really loved how she, like you said, she pivoted, but then she leaned so heavily into trying to make a space that felt more inclusive for women.
To be the advocate for others and to pay it forward is always so inspiring to hear those types of stories.
Jordyn: All right. So looking forward to 2026. Like I kind of talked about at the top of the podcast, we're ushering in a little bit of a new era. Coming up, our listeners can still expect the same great stories, fresh perspectives, but we wanna kind of present them in a way that's really helping you, the listener, level up your skills, whether you're a marketer, game designer, tribal leader, et cetera.
So we're gonna continue to stay committed to that diversity and these focus months, but with a more refined structure and purpose. We've learned so much from our guests and now wanna make sure that our audience is getting those key takeaways.
Dyani: For me. When I think of Level Up, it's how are you not only just taking it to the next level, but how are you being your best self? Right?
Really leaning in and saying what is the best version of me that I can be, whether that's personal or professional with your friends or your family. And then leaning into those things you can do to get to that optimal you that you wanna be.
Anika: I think it's about, you know, taking an active role in recognizing where you are and understanding where you want to be and taking the actions of what is required to bridge the gap to be there. And so for me it's about intentionality.
Jordyn: When I was thinking about it, I was also thinking about the word intentional too. And just, being very focused.
Dyani: So now we wanna go on and share our top three things that helped us level up in this last year or so, or just our advice and as we look forward to our new episodes, this is something that will be regularly asked of all of our guests, their top three tips to level up.
So we'll all have something that's tangible that we can all take takeaway. So who wants to start?
Anika: I vote you.
Dyani: Okay, I will start .
So I'll start with what I learned from the podcast. And I learned a lot, lots of tips on how to level up, but the one I kind of pulled out is it really just stuck with me. It was when I had a conversation with Manji, and again, this was about cybersecurity but the level up to is actually not about cybersecurity. It was really about how he came to found his company.
And he talked about how there are lots of crowded spaces and what they were looking for was an emerging space, and they were looking for an emerging space with growing problems. And what they noticed is that there was this growing data that was happening with all these online businesses, but there were not a lot of solutions to actually address it.
And so it's this kind of crystal ball if you would type of approach. Looking for emerging spaces, places where you feel like, hey, if I really think hard about where we are today and what the trajectory is, I can make a prediction on that future. And are there tools or solutions to help any problems that may emerge there?
To me that is a level up type of skill to be able to do that. You're chasing problems that may be large and of course that you could hit or you could miss.
If you never swing, you never get to actually get a hit. So you gotta, you gotta put some skin in the game.
So that's one. From a professional perspective outside of the podcast if you know anything about me, if you see me on LinkedIn, you know that I like to speak a lot about leveraging AI and AI for efficiency or marketing, whatever we do. Of course, everybody's leveraging it now, but one thing I would wanna share is a tool that I think is a little bit under discussed.
Which is Google's notebook, LLM, and it's such an amazing tool to be able to pull in different sources, summarize that information. Even if it's on the free version. It's such a powerful tool. So if you haven't used it, I suggest you go out and try it.
And then last from a personal perspective, I think my level up tip is just to practice gratitude. It's a small thing, but a big thing. And look for as many places as you can to be grateful.
Anika: Eloquent as always. I have to, absolutely co-sign the Google notebook LLM I think you kind of taught, showed me about that and it's been one of my favorite tools since, so appreciate that.
Dyani: Love it. Love it.
Passing the microphone to Jordyn.
Jordyn: So I'll start with what I learned from the podcast. Like I mentioned earlier I interviewed Elaine Gomez a few months ago and that was just a great conversation, very different for me. And one thing that she talked about that really stuck with me is the idea of accessibility in game design, specifically, player centric game design.
Obviously I'm not a game designer, but the idea of being intentional through any kind of creative process, keeping customers in mind, being inclusive. It's not something that everyone in the industry is thinking about, but it can be really impactful and make a difference and set you apart if that is something that you're focused on.
Then When I'm thinking about professional outside of the podcast my biggest level up tip that I have learned over the past couple years would be to just get that first draft done. Dyani definitely knows this about me. I can get so in my head when it comes to just getting the first version of something finished. It's getting out of your head, it's pushing through, and then you can kind of get the feedback and get a better perspective on where it is that that thing needs to go next.
For personal life, I would just kind of say staying optimistic even when I'm stressed and things feel overwhelming, whether that's in work or life I think I've gotten really good at telling myself that nothing is that big of a deal if you believe that things are gonna work out eventually, and just staying kind of positive and grounded in that way.
Anika: No, all excellent points, Jordyn. I suffer from this kind of perfection flaw as well. One of my mentors told me something that has been helpful. It's like almost my mantra, which is perfection is the enemy of progress. It's good enough and like nothing is ever going to be perfect.
For me from a podcast perspective, I'm kind of gonna go back to Stefy. her journey and her emphasis on authenticity and using her platform for broader impact and how she was able to show her personal passion and professional purpose and align those two to create meaningful change. I think that was a blessing for me because in many ways, I think professionals feel like you have to separate the two, you can't necessarily bring them together. But seeing how she did it, it's even more powerful when you can bring kind of your personal passion into it.
From a professional side outside of the podcast, thanks to Dyani and our PR team and a lot of the other things that we do to really elevate Wondr in the industry, I had the opportunity to participate in a Woman in tech podcast and that opportunity led to me actually being able to write a chapter in a book that's come out ' you're on mute'.
So it's kind of an anthology. I was one of the women that they asked me to contribute to the book, and so I think, the opportunity is always being present and always putting your best foot forward, and I learned that just saying yes and being prepared. You just never know what opportunities that leads to and so I was very excited about that.
I enjoy writing. I have a passion for it. It's something that I don't often get a chance to do and that kind of led me to my personal which is I've been more intentional about creating my peace and safe space and I think that's important in this whole environment that we're in today. I mean, Dyani, what you were talking about in terms of showing gratitude and Jordyn staying positive. I think, creating a space that you feel safe and find that peace and that place where you can decompress. And so I think that those are the top three for me.
Dyani: Excellent. Excellent. Well, we all have some amazing tips for others on how to level up and we are absolutely looking forward to this next year of what's to come.
And I will say to our listeners, you may have some folks come back as we talk to them a little bit differently. You know, we're gonna do less storytelling and more leaning into some practical advice and learnings in ways that we can help everybody hopefully level up their skills and advance and grow in the ways that we all want to.
So we want to ask everybody to continue listening. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and also on YouTube, and you can see the videos there as well. Make sure to follow us on our social media channels and stay tuned for future episodes.
And if you know somebody or you yourself would like to be on our podcast, you can go to our podcast page on our website and submit a forum with that information and we will reach out and contact you. So thanks again for listening. Don't forget to level up.
