#4 - How to make balanced meals when you hate cooking. - Lisa Marie Hunstock, with Steluta Leu

#6 - Real Queens Fix Each Other's Crowns. How to nurture growth & collaboration as a female leader - Payal Khantwal Bhadola, with Steluta Leu

Woman 1 - “Women are taught not to see each other as good people, I mean we see each other as the enemy. We're competition for men. We're competition for jobs.” Woman 2 - “It's true, we have this terrible competition going on.” Woman 1 – “I really hated women. And then I met you guys and you're like, you know you're like me, and why it's important because I know that you can be my friends.” Dialogue from the movie Jerry Maguire Can you relate to this convo? I sure can. And so can my guest from today’s episode, Payal Khantwal Bhadola. Be it in our professional or personal lives, we either brought this separation and competition mentality, witnessed it or experienced it firsthand. How do we recover from that mentality? How do we learn to foster a growth, supportive and collaborative environment as a female leader? How do we teach our daughters to be different? To be better? That’s what I’m talking about with my guest in today’s episode of The #BalancingLife Podcast. Payal is a female IT leader with 18+ years of experience under her belt. She majored in IT Service design and has led multiple high-performing teams in the IT vendor management & Technology Governance space. She worked for General Electrics, Western Union, and Sapient in the past and is currently working for Avaya International, as a Strategy Partner and Programs leader. Her formal education is in Software Engineering & Information Technology, graduating from Bangalore University. Payal holds an MBA (Business Management) from Cambridge Judge Business School, United Kingdom. She’s noteworthy for contributing to supporting women's leadership initiatives by being a mentor to budding Women Leaders and Core committee member for diversity and inclusion at Cambridge. She is Avaya International Chapter lead and also a founding member of the Women Panel at Western Union. Payal loves traveling, spending time with her family, and enjoys reviewing foods from India and around the world.

#5 - How To Achieve Success Despite Feeling Inadequate - Maryam Nizam, with Steluta Leu

I don’t belong here. I’m not good enough. I don’t know enough. I’m not the right person for the job. I’m not beautiful enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not skinny enough. I’m not enough! …Despite the evidence, more often than not… Ever felt any of them? I sure did. Not only one of them. And not only once. All these debilitating thoughts create feelings that are shades and manifestations of feeling inadequate. And they’re all hindering us from pursuing our goals. From achieving our dreams. From becoming the person that we’ve always dreamed of becoming. From bringing our unique contribution to the world. In today’s episode of The #BalancingLife Show we’re gonna dive into the rich topic: achieving success despite feeling inadequate. Joining me for today’s meaningful and inspiring conversation is Maryam Nizam. Maryam is an operations and growth leader with a proven track record and extensive experience in growth stage and startup organizations across diverse industries. In her most recent role as Senior Vice President of Operations at Citco Fund Services, the world’s leading Alternative Investment Fund Administrator, Maryam was responsible for managing customer success and acquisition while also driving process transformation and product innovation to scale and optimize operational capacity. Being a lover of all things food and an avid follower of emerging technologies, Maryam co-founded The Revolving Kitchen, a digital marketplace that automates the commercial kitchen rental process and connects aspiring food entrepreneurs with established players in the restaurant industry. Currently, Maryam also advises modgarden, inc. a smart home indoor farming startup as well as Trybe.ID a digital credentialing/ID platform. Maryam has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & International Relations from the University of Toronto and a Master in Business Administration from York University & Northwestern University.

#4 - How to make balanced meals when you hate cooking. - Lisa Marie Hunstock, with Steluta Leu

This might come as a surprise to you, but many women hate cooking. Or maybe it’s not a surprise, and you’re one of them. I definitely know I hated it until about the time my daughter was 2. It felt like a chore. It didn’t make any sense to me why would anyone waste 2 hours of their time to prepare something that vanishes in less than 20 minutes. Meanwhile, things changed for me. Now I came around and love it. Some might say that I’m even quite good at it. Yet, I still have days when I don’t feel like cooking, because of various reasons: Being under time pressure from work. Feeling tired in the evening and would rather be ordering in. Lacking any inspiration on what to cook. The thought of doing all the cleaning after. Or simply for no reason at all… If cooking is not your jam but you still wanna feed your family a healthy, balanced meal, while being under time pressure, stay tuned for this new inspiring conversation I’ll be having with Lisa Hunstock. Lisa is a certified nutritionist, holding a bachelor's degree in nutrition science. She’s the creator of the Limar diet and of the course “Wisdom of food providing”. She’s currently living in Tokyo, Japan, having her third child just in a matter of days now. Lisa’s vision is to make overweight history for everyone who wants it. Her goal is to show people that they CAN even eat everything they like while doing it. It's just important for them to learn HOW to balance their diet to make it happen. We’ll be talking about all that and also about meal prepping, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning the kitchen. And how to simplify it all.

#3 - The Power of Choice. How to successfully balance life and work when you’re a single mom - Laura Beth Hunley, with Steluta Leu

There are million single moms out there. And million other moms staying in unhappy relationships because they’re afraid. Afraid of being alone. Afraid of causing pain and suffering to their kids. Afraid that they’re not gonna be able to pay the bills and support their kids. Even afraid of being judged, in some parts of the world. But there are very few more toxic and traumatizing things, for both mom and kids, than being in a bad relationship. Sometimes you gotta just take a deep breath, quiet all the voices in your head and make THE choice. The choice to set yourself, your kids, and even your partner free. The choice to start over. The choice to have faith in something bigger than you. The choice to believe in yourself. That YOU can make it happen. That YOU are the master of your own life. The creator of your own story. This episode of The #BalancingLife Show is about choosing to be a single mom, despite everything. It’s about empowering women to believe in themselves and their own inner strength. My guest today is Laura Beth Hunley, a single mom, and a professional sales executive. Professionally, she serves product development companies that are looking to build a new product line. Personally, she is passionate about helping women and other mothers provide a safer home and healthier environment for their families through non-toxic living supported by essential oils.

#2 - How To Turn Your Life Around. From Suicidal Thoughts To Successful Multipreneur - Kara-Lynn Palmer, with Steluta Leu

Life is a rollercoaster: one day you’re up, the next you’re down. Hitting rock-bottom usually happens fast. Coming out of there? Well, that’s a totally different story. The process of recovery, most of the time, takes much longer than the fall. And it requires a lot of hard work, commitment, and determination to turn your life around. In this episode, I’m chatting with Kara-Lynn Palmer, a successful single mom multipreneur, about overcoming physical and emotional trauma, the importance of having the proper guidance and support, and the secret to her successful life turnaround. Kara-Lynn Palmer experienced a traumatic brain injury that turned her life was upside down. She was placed into survival mode. Needing to learn to walk, talk, eat, enjoy sounds and light again. Going from super single mom to suicidal wishes was traumatic. She was blessed to turn this around, which gave her the grace and strength to get to where she is today: a strong independent survivor of her challenges and running multiple businesses.