Here are three reasons why their AIGA leadership journey should be your next listen:

What blew my mind: Doug Powell didn’t just mentor Seth and Jenny individually. He strategically connected them after they found him through completely different routes, creating this mentorship network effect that amplified both their careers in ways none of them could have predicted.

Picture this: Jenny cold-emails Doug Powell for coffee in 2009, new to Minneapolis and wanting to connect with the design community. Meanwhile, Seth is working at Woychik Design, where Doug happens to be Dan Woychik’s office mate. Two different paths to the same influential person who sees something in both of them and encourages them to get involved with AIGA Minnesota.

Then comes the masterstroke: at a 2010 conference dinner, Doug introduces them with what can only be described as prophetic precision: “Keep your eye on that Jenny Price. She’s gonna do good things for our design community.”

Fast-forward 15 years, and that introduction has spawned a partnership that's weathered multiple career pivots, geographic moves, and corporate transformations. Doug wasn’t done, though. Years later at IBM, he tapped Jenny to build their DesignOps community, essentially reuniting his former mentees in a professional context.

What you’ll discover: How one well-connected mentor who spots talent can create ripple effects that last decades. It’s not just about individual mentorship, it's about strategic relationship building that creates compound career growth. And it made me realize I need to be more Doug Powell for the people around me.

I’ll be honest. When Seth started talking about human pyramid safety diagrams drawn in Adobe Illustrator, I thought we’d completely lost the plot. But the more they shared about these legendary AIGA leadership retreats, the more I realized I was hearing something profound disguised as beautiful chaos.

There’s the hotel that created an actual security profile for AIGA attendees (spoiler: hilariously accurate and slightly concerning). There’s Jenny accidentally launching someone out of a chair during a 3 AM Denny’s arm wrestling match. And yes, there’s the great million-dollar mirror quest that had me laughing so hard I forgot we were supposed to be conducting a professional interview.

What got me: these weren’t just wild stories. They were describing a community that somehow managed to build lasting careers while having the kind of experiences that bond people for life.

What you’ll hear: How traditions that sound completely unhinged created the kind of relationships and skills that last decades. Fair warning: you might start questioning why your networking events are so boring.

About halfway through our conversation, as Seth and Jenny were finishing each other’s sentences and laughing about shared memories from 15 years ago, Erik and I had to stop and appreciate what we were actually witnessing: a professional relationship that’s also a genuine friendship, forged in the trenches of volunteer work and sustained through multiple career pivots.

When Doug Powell introduced them at that 2010 conference dinner, predicting Jenny would “do good things for our design community,” he couldn’t have known he was facilitating a partnership that would span IBM transformations, cross-country moves, and a transition from scrappy volunteers to major corporate leaders. Talk about the Doug Powell effect in full swing.

Listening to them talk (Jenny calling Seth her “ride or die,” their easy banter about late-night retreat shenanigans) made me think about my professional relationships and wonder: How many of us can point to connections this deep and this lasting?

Why this matters: In an industry obsessed with networking, Seth and Jenny show what happens when professional relationships become something deeper. Their story isn’t just inspiring, it’s a roadmap for those of us who’ve been treating career connections like collecting Pokémon cards.

Please subscribe, rate, and review Cheers & Tiers: Design Leadership Tales Retold wherever you get your podcasts.