Adam Torres and Shirin Laor-Raz Salemnia discuss the Milken Institute Global Conference
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Show Notes:
Listen to Milken Institute Global Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Shirin Laor-Raz Salemnia, Founder & CEO at PlayWerks Inc and WhizGirls Academy, explore empowering the next generation and the Milken Institute Global Conference.
About WhizGirls Academy
The Academy is designed for tweens and teens, and features an engaging curriculum centered around science, technology, engineering and math, and an exciting, project-driven program with a secret agent theme. Lessons are Briefings, hands-on projects are Missions, and each member is a confident, empowered Agent on the ultimate mission to build practical knowledge about coding, healthy balanced lifestyles, entrepreneurship and more.
About WhizGirls Academy
The Academy is designed for tweens and teens, and features an engaging curriculum centered around science, technology, engineering and math, and an exciting, project-driven program with a secret agent theme. Lessons are Briefings, hands-on projects are Missions, and each member is a confident, empowered Agent on the ultimate mission to build practical knowledge about coding, healthy balanced lifestyles, entrepreneurship and more.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today’s guest is Shereen Loor Raz Sonia, and she is the founder and CEO over at Playworks, Inc.
And Wiz Girls Academy. Shereen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Adam for having me. This is such a pleasure. All right, so good time. So February listing this is, this particular episode is part of our Milken Institute Global Conference coverage. We’ve been highlighting and showcasing some of the participants and guests of the conference.
Mission Matters. Was covering the conference this year as media. We’ve been doing it for the last uh, three or four years now. And Shereen, just to get us kicked off here, I mean, talk to me about the conference. Is this your first time going? Have you been in the past? what’s the connection there?
Yeah. So in 2017 I spoke on the American Dream Panel at Milken. It was a dream come true and I got, I guess into the pipeline and I’ve been going ever since. I think I missed a year or two, and then there was COVID. Mm-hmm. But consecutively, I’ve been going for the past few years and it’s been my favorite conference ever.
Like, I’ve gone to a lot of conferences, spoken at a lot, but this is honestly my favorite. And this year I told everyone that I saw that was working and I didn’t know you were. Part of that too. So thank you for the experience. ’cause it’s phenomenal. what keeps you going back? What makes it so unique?
What keeps you going back? You know, I was explaining it to family this weekend that’s visiting from out of town from New York. And I was like, the conference is a blend of entertainment people, finance people, professors, like I also used to teach at USC actors, musicians, like. Creators, innovators it’s all around the world.
People come from all over the world. It’s the global conference, so it’s the blend of like all the best of all the worlds and it’s just such a great conference to meet new people and get creativity and the fact that they have like. The outside meditation area, and my friend does the sound baths and like there’s like a blend of, and the puppies.
And then there’s this year it was Niles Rogers for the ending concert. And like Chris Tucker was doing the comedy like Monday night. It’s, it’s like a blend of everything that I love in the world and it’s just all there. And I’m so really grateful to Michael Milken for starting this 28 years ago.
Yeah, I missed that whole pavilion of wellness and the sound. I was interviewing people and a couple people told me, I’m like, wait a minute, where was that here? I was busy working. I’m like, man, I should have taken some more time off. I missed that whole thing. Yeah. And then the other thing I gotta mention is also the government, like people from the government. Like there was a great panel from this, you know, CTO and the head of tech at the White House. He was phenomenal. He was being interviewed. The Department of Education woman was there. She was phenomenal. Pitbull was there talking about education, which is my world. It was, it was, like I said, it’s a blend of all of the great things that I love mm-hmm.
And the things that I’m working on as well. So it’s just a great, my favorite like May, the first week of May is always my favorite. Yeah. it’s become mine as well. speaking of your work, let’s get into what you’re up to. So Playworks Inc. And WHI Girls Academy how do you, on this one up, where do you wanna begin?
I. Well, I guess it started when I had a dream job and I wanted to be like Tom Hanks, the movie Big. And that’s what I used to do. So 26 years ago I used to work at Mattel and research on Barbie, and that was a dream come true, just being just like Tom Hanks the movie Big. And I did that for three years and then I went to MGA and worked at.
Starting the research department from scratch and built a play lab and work with the kids. And then I was also the brand manager for brats. And then I found that parents would come in and complain about how they weren’t positive role models for girls and that I needed to create educational games and toys.
And so that’s where my journey starts. I call it being on the tech yellow Brick Road. Of starting Playworks because I grew up with gaming and education like where in the world is Carmen San Diego? And I was like, where? What happened to that? Like that doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s not like it’s old school, but then it is in a way because I’m like a gamer from the eighties and as a child I was obsessed with like Atari and Nintendo and like.
In the world is Carmen San Diego and Oregon Trail and blending those with like ai and now also starting with Girls Academy with the Obama administration. They were like persuading me to start doing the coding and the hackathons with the kids. So we’ve been doing. That part, I guess for 12 years now on the WHI Girls Academy side.
Wow. We’ve had like 50 plus hackathons, and I don’t know if you know what a hackathon is or mm-hmm. Your, audience does, but normally I say it’s kind of like the Facebook movie, the social network movie. And usually a hackathon is three days and people get together and they hack, and they’re usually coders or creative people that have an idea.
But when we do it with kids, it’s a one day experience and we teach the kids meditation and fitness and healthy eating. So in the past we’ve done basketball with Michael Jordan’s basketball clinic and dancing with Lady Gaga’s choreographers and like sound baths and meditations while we’re teaching the kids project-based learning coding.
And at the end of the day, they pitch Shark Tank style to real investors. Hmm. I notice a theme, if I look across your work, and correct me if I’m off on this, is that you’re really working to empower and shape the next generation. Like, like what drives that? Like, and I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, if that’s part, is that part of your mission?
Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s definitely my mission and my purpose. And I go back to, like I said, I had a dream job and that was media that made a difference in my life back in the eighties. Mm-hmm. And everybody thought I was like. Joking and kidding. When I said I wanted to be like, Tom Hanks the movie Big ’cause, you know, it’s like, what?
Everybody’s going to med school or dental school or law school or like the typical things. Yeah. And I was like, no, no, no. That’s what I wanna do. And I, and everybody kept saying, well, is that a real job? I was like, I don’t know. Mattel’s, only a Fortune 500 companies. Just an imagination in my head. And it has a big research department and research market research is, you know, a big industry.
It’s a huge industry. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That’s interesting. Yeah. So you really had that dream as early and then when you, after you achieved it, like, well, what was that like? That’s interesting to me. That’s actually really wild because I was so dazed and confused. It was like did you know finding my awakening?
Did you know, were you like, were you aware when you were going through it? Like it’s almost like to me it’s like you master’s a couple things I wish, and then you asking, well these, see, that’s the thing. So it’s like what do you do when you get your dream? And ironically, I ran into Deepak Chopra, this is in 2005.
I didn’t know who he was. My mom took me to this charity thing. And that’s when I was questioning, what am I doing? ’cause I’m listening to parents complaining all the time about how Barbie and brats aren’t positive role models. Mm-hmm. And I’m like, wait, I got the corner office, I got the toys. I got everything I ever wanted.
What’s going on here? Like I even have the post drive, the trampoline. I literally am like Tom Hanks in the movie Big. That’s what I do all day long, like what is going on here? So I went through this quest and the first person that I ran into was Deepak Shepherd. Like said, I didn’t know who he was. This is 2005.
And I asked him at a charity event, he was the keynote speaker. I ran up and I said, you, I have a billion dollar question. What is it? And he laughed and said, what is it? And I said, what do you do when you get your dream? Because I don’t know what to do with myself. And he was like, you have to give back.
And I was like I volunteer my time. I give money to charity. I was part of a organization. I was a part president of this charity organization in addition to working in the toy business. He was like, no, no, no. Trust me, you’ll figure it out. I was like, can you tell me, get back to who, what, where? Like another word please.
He was like, no, no, no. Trust me. You’ll figure it out. I was like okay, so that’s a clue. And then the next clue was Simon Sinek had just come out with his book, the first one, which was Start with Why. And at this time, Koft was just opening in Santa Monica and that was our first coworking space here.
Mm-hmm. I don’t know if you remember that. So my friend from high school’s boyfriend actually was running eo. He was the president. I didn’t know this. I just heard there’s this event with this book. Guy that wrote this book, do I want to go to this book signing? And I was like, okay, cool. I’ll check this out.
I’m like searching for meaning and purpose, so sure. I love reading. Why not? So I walk in and my friend’s ex-boyfriend is like, Hey, what are you doing here? I’m like, what are you doing here? He is like, this is my friend. I’m like, what? Like what? He’s like, yeah, I’m the president of eo. I’m like, what’s eo?
Okay, this is interesting. So then I run into Simon and he does this talk and I ask him the same thing. I’m like, what do you do when you get your dream? And he goes. What’s your purpose and why? I’m like, wait, what? Like why is everybody giving me like a dangling clue? Like Deepak Chopra told me to give back.
Simon Sinek is telling me what’s my purpose and why. Like, wait, what? Like, okay. And then. A couple years ago when the Steve Jobs commencement speech came out with his connecting the dots, I was like, oh, I wish I had that. I was doing that already. Like I was like, I gotta give back. I got like, what’s my purpose and why?
Okay, now I gotta connect the dots going forward. And literally I have been, and that’s what I’m gonna write a book about it and I wanna call it on the Tech Yellow Book Road. ’cause that’s what it feels like. So connecting the dots going forward led the starting Playworks, which is. The IP and content similar to what I used to do at Mattel and MGA, working on Barbie and brats, and then with Girls Academies where we do social good in person with the hackathons.
Hmm. So go, further into Playworks, what kind of projects are you working on right now and what, what’s going on there? So the first project is very similar to where in the world is Carmen San Diego, except I created my own IP and we’re in beta right now. It’s called Girls and we’re. Well, I just launched an exclusive line of jackets, like I mentioned.
Mm-hmm. And I wore the jackets every day at Milken this year and everyone stopped me and they’re like, oh, what’s your jacket? That’s so cool. I love it. Like, so that was fun. And yeah, we’re planning all of these different things. We started with the hackathons originally, that was in real time. And then last year I launched a podcast with NASA for WHI Girls Academy on YouTube.
And that’s showcasing 20. Or actually originally 36 women including an astronaut and Cody Sanchez and Mary Ruth. For Mary Ruth Organic. So 36 women in stem. So everything I do is really relative to STEM for girls and underserved kids for the first project. But then I have plans for other like boys and preschool and everything, like I said, I used to do in the toy business minus the physical actual doll.
Yeah. what’s been one of your favorite parts of of going down the podcasting path? Obviously I’m biased. I mean, I’m a big fan of podcasting podcasters and the, the whole nine. what’s been one of your favorite parts of that, of that? That was unexpected. ’cause there was a call from NASA that was looking for speakers for STEM and working with kids at schools.
And I’m like, I’m doing that anyways. So I persuaded them to actually turn into a podcast on YouTube. And that’s because the kids were actually live asking the astronaut questions and one gonna hit. Kids ask this if like aliens were real. And I thought that was hilarious. You know, so it’s a little bit of a different twist.
Did evolved that they’re real. Did they admit it or no? Well, she didn’t say no. So that was interesting. That scared you. That scared me. Yeah. Well, so yeah, so I think the podcast world for me is a little bit bit different because I envisioned, first of all, like, like I said, it was a call from NASA and they were like, we’ll, we’re gonna go to schools and do speaker series.
I was like, no, no, no. This is a podcast because it’s not just me going to schools like. Closed doors, like this needs to be on YouTube, kids are on YouTube. Like they need to see the role model because that’s a huge part of the STEM thing that’s missing as well. So yeah, so that was, it’s a little bit of a different angle.
‘Cause I think most podcasts are originally just audio only. Although NASA has a ton of audio only, only, and they kind of. I was like, we gotta do video. And they were like, what? Really? I was like, yeah. Yeah. Kids need to see, because when you hear someone, it’s great, but as an adult you can connect with the kids.
It’s not, it’s hard for them to connect. Hmm. Well, Shereen, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today and learning more and getting a glimpse into your world and your in your process. I’ll just ask, I mean, we’re in 2025. What’s next? What’s next for you? What’s next for your projects and your companies?
My goal is to build a transmedia brand, and many brands are not just this first one that we’re working on. So there’s a lot of different moving parts, and I’m sure everyone’s probably seen the Barbie movie by now. When I was at Mattel, that was like not happening 25 years ago, 26 years ago. It was like not a thing that was, okay.
So with kids brands, it’s one of those things where you build, you know, multi-platform experiences. I’m sure everyone’s heard of Mr. Beast, and that’s another thing that’s been interesting to watch. Now he is not necessarily in the kids space, but a lot of kids watch him. Mm-hmm. That’s my goal is to build like a multi-platform brand out of what we’ve done with WHI Girls and Whi Girls Academy.
And like I said, it’s blend of like my life purpose, making a difference, giving back. And, and now I realize what Deepak Shop was said. I connected all the dots. It was like what Tom Hanks did for me in the movie Big I’m doing with my brand Whiz Girls for the next generation to be told they can be smart into stem.
Careers into gaming and doing all those things, and it’s cool and you can be all of those things in one. There’s no divide. Amazing. Shireen, how do people follow up? How do they learn more? How do they connect? So I’m on LinkedIn re Nia, I’m on Instagram, same thing. Shereen Nia. I’m also, you can email me Shereen at play Sign works, WERK s.com.
I also have a website and my personal name, shirine lara nia.com. So many ways, and I would love to hear from you all. Awesome. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on it and head right on over and connect with Reen.
And speaking to the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Shireen, thanks again for coming on the show. Thanks so much for having me. This was so much fun.
