Manish Vora: Follow the Joy

In this, our final episode with a guest of the Youth Career Readiness podcast, Julie Lammers and I welcome Manish Vora, co-founder of the Museum of Ice Cream (yup, Ice Cream!), to explore how joy, play, and imagination can inspire both careers and educational experiences. Manish shared the story behind building the Museum of Ice Cream and talked about the importance of starting any entrepreneurial journey with what you love, embracing creativity, and following the path of joy and connection. He encouraged young people to invent from their passions—and reminded listeners that even playful, seemingly wild ideas can make a meaningful impact on the world.

Although many of our episodes in this series discourage people to follow their passions—and for understandable reasons!—this hint of joy gives a different flavor to the conversation (pun intended). Enjoy!

Julie Lammers

Today we’re excited to welcome entrepreneur Manish Vora. Manish is the co-founder of the Museum of Ice Cream, an experience that blends art, design, business and pure fun to create moments of connection and joy for people around the world. We’ve been looking forward to this conversation for a while.

Michael Horn

And I’m excited because Manish is a friend of mine. We went to college together. So this will be fun on multiple levels for me, but also because I’ve never gotten to ask him this question before. So, Manish, it’s good to see you, my friend. Your work, of course, has been centered over the last many years around creating experiences that spark real joy. Not just for those that you serve, but also for the teams, your teams that build these experiences. So a lot of middle and high school students today, as you know, they say they want careers or jobs that make them happy and also make a positive impact on others. What advice would you give those young people who want their future careers to spark real joy, both for themselves and for the people that they serve?

Manish Vora

When we built the Museum of Ice Cream, it started with a deep love for museums. Walking through historic homes, exploring exhibits, stepping into spaces filled with stories. Museums protect imagination. They hold culture. They invite us to step inside someone else’s world. And I remember thinking, what if there was more? More play, more joy, more laughter bouncing off the walls and of course, more ice cream. And maybe a million sprinkles.

So we built the Museum of Ice Cream. A place where you don’t just look at a museum