Episode 159: A Day In Her Life with Lydia Fenet - World's Leading Charity Auctioneer, Founder, Author, and Mom of 3 in NYC

Episode 159: A Day In Her Life with Lydia Fenet - World's Leading Charity Auctioneer, Founder, Author, and Mom of 3 in NYC

Tell us what you think!!! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2149323/fan_mail/new] This week, we're sitting down with Lydia Fenet, the world's leading charity auctioneer who has raised over a billion dollars for nonprofits, founder of a talent agency for auctioneers, two-time author (her first book optioned by Hulu), and mom of three living in Tribeca. Lydia shares what it's like to spend 90 nights a year on stage, run a household where her day "starts at 7pm," and red-eye home from California just to make the morning school drop-off. In this week’s conversation, Lydia opens up about leaving Christie's after 23 years to bet on herself, the partnership rules that keep her marriage and travel schedule from breaking, and learning to hold life together "with duct tape and Popsicle sticks." We talk about the hangover that changed her career, treating every work trip as a vacation, parenting three very different kids in the city, and why she's letting perfection drop on purpose. What We Cover: * How a brand-new puppy turned her whole life into "a 24-hour clock" — including the English Springer Spaniel who rides the NYC subway to school drop-off every morning * The margarita-hangover night, eight years in, when she dropped the "strict British auctioneer" persona, just joked with the crowd, and realized "comedy is what makes people pay attention and bid" * How she travels as a working mom — first flight out, red-eye home after night auctions, and treating every trip as a vacation so the beautiful hotel rooms never feel lonely * The "big red X" calendar system that protects family dates years out, the trade offs that sometimes need to happen * Why her day "starts at 7pm," and the rule that saved her marriage to her husband (also her company's CFO): "when I'm gone, I slide out" — no quarterbacking from afar * Being Type A about work but refusing to be at home, holding things together "with duct tape and Popsicle sticks," and the one ball she's dropping on purpose: perfection * The Greenlight allowance system (a dollar per year of age), why praise notes work on her youngest where punishment backfires, and why the kids pack their own bags — one sock and all * Why she won't let her 13-year-old have social media even though she lives on Instagram, and how they’ve approached screens and devices for the family Connect with Lydia: * Instagram: @lydiafenet [https://www.instagram.com/lydiafenet/] * LinkedIn: Lydia Fenet [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-fenet-839a413/] Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock

Episode 158: A Day In Her Life with Rachel Hochhauser - Hectic, At Home, Multitasking - NYT Bestselling Novelist & Design Company Founder

Tell us what you think!!! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2149323/fan_mail/new] Rachel Hochhauser was killing time on her phone in a hospital waiting room — her husband recovering from emergency brain surgery, her 18-month-old at home — when a meme of Cinderella's evil stepmother stopped her cold. "This isn't a villain. She's just trying to take care of her two daughters." That spark became "Lady Tremaine," her debut novel, a Reese's Book Club pick and instant New York Times bestseller. And that's only one of her jobs. In this week's conversation, Rachel walks us through a day split between two full careers — novelist and founder of the design company Piecework (which just acquired Areaware) — all run inside the hours her childcare allows. She's refreshingly candid about the half-premade dinners, the outsourcing that's keeping the train on the tracks, and why she's stopped apologizing for any of it. What We Cover: * How a meme spotted during her husband's recovery became a New York Times bestselling novel * How she runs two careers — author and design-company founder — entirely within childcare hours, and calls the system "designed so no one will thrive" * Her honest take on dinner: Trader Joe's goat cheese ravioli, roast vegetables, and zero guilt * Why lunch is non-negotiable, and what it means on the rare day she skips it * Reframing outsourcing from "luxury" to "mental health" — the nanny who comes early, the cleaner, the handyman * The analog notebook sorted by role, her inbox-zero system, and the $5 recipe app that holds it together * Why "forced" creativity inside tight constraints is just as valuable as the lightning-strike kind * Her most middle-aged joys: fancy grocery runs, pickled beans, and collecting 19th-century Blue Flow pottery Connect with Rachel: * Instagram: @hochhauser [https://www.instagram.com/hochhauser/] * Piecework [https://www.instagram.com/pieceworkpuzzles/] * Substack: Great Fanfare [https://greatfanfare.substack.com/?utm_source=global-search] * Read her debut novel: Lady Tremaine [https://bookshop.org/p/books/lady-tremaine-rachel-hochhauser/22515233?ean=9781250396341&next=t] Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock

Episode 157: A Day In Her Life with Emilie Dayan Hill - High Net Worth Investment Advisor & Creator of Finance That Feels

Tell us what you think!!! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2149323/fan_mail/new] Emilie Dayan Hill got her start in finance by pure luck — a phone call that came as she was literally climbing into a moving truck, leaving Mississippi for Atlanta with no job and no connections. A decade later, she's a partner and high net worth investment advisor at a major investment firm, and the writer behind Finance That Feels, where she's reshaping the way women relate to money. In this week’s conversation, Emilie traces a wildly non-linear path — a violin scholarship, a theater-kid past, a dream grad program in Paris she walked away from — and the identity crisis that came with not having it all figured out. She's refreshingly open about the anxiety and postpartum depression she's lived with, the introversion most people never guess, and why she describes her days, only half-jokingly, as a "snowball." What We Cover: * The 5:00 AM "nook" — a converted-attic nest with a lamp and a rocking chair — where she writes before her daughter arrives "fully dressed in sequins and sparkly boots" to announce the day has started * How a single phone call, mid-move from Oxford to Atlanta, turned a 24-year-old executive assistant into a CFA charterholder and firm partner * The dream Paris grad program she dropped out of — "one of the lowest points in my life" — and why she trusted her gut anyway * Why she started Finance That Feels: women weren't showing up to their own money meetings, and the statistics on who outlives whom * Her case that money is "just a tool" — and why the finance industry is completely unprepared for how personal and psychological the work really is * The standing Monday-night babysitter, BeltLine bike rides, and bar-hopping that brought "so much lightness" back to her marriage * Her anti-snowball toolkit: hot yoga twice a week, a 45-minute infrared sauna, tennis, and 15 rose bushes that drop her cortisol on contact * Her take-every-day PTO philosophy — she refuses to roll over vacation — and how it mirrors the way she thinks about money Connect with Emilie: * Substack: Finance That Feels [https://financethatfeels.substack.com/?utm_source=global-search] * Instagram: @emiliedayanhill [https://www.instagram.com/emiliedayanhill/] * Website: https://www.emiliedayanhill.com/ [https://www.emiliedayanhill.com/] Listen and Review Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-day-in-her-life/id1676700021] - Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6dqV5AhULcp0yi5Cb1DudQ] - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5lpOsifLJoO4BNEnwywEw] More A Day In Her Life @adayinherlifepod [http://instagram.com/adayinherlifepod] adayinherlife.com [http://adayinherlife.com] adayinherlife.substack.com [http://adayinherlife.substack.com] Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock

Episode 156: Melissa Hines - Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist & Founder of Wellest Integrative Health

Tell us what you think!!! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2149323/fan_mail/new] Melissa Hines never planned to own a business. She just refused to compromise on care — and that single non-negotiable turned a one-woman practice into Wellest Integrative Health, a Back Bay pelvic floor PT clinic with seven practitioners and an expansion already underway. In this episode, Melissa pulls back the curtain on building what she calls her "third baby" while raising two actual ones just outside Boston. In this week’s conversation, Melissa shares the hard transition into motherhood — her daughter was born in June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when she had to close her clinic and struggled to bond — and how it took two years to feel balanced. She talks about the bout of pneumonia that finally forced her to put her own body first, the clarity of deciding two kids is enough, and what it actually looks like to build a business around the life you want. What We Cover: * What pelvic floor PT actually treats — and the 18-year-old patient who'd seen 15 specialists before everything changed for Melissa * The non-negotiable that "forced" her to start her own practice, and the five years she spent just treating patients before letting herself become a CEO * Why she calls her growing business her "third baby" * The honest truth about not bonding with her newborn during a pandemic — and why she now normalizes it for her own patients * How she decided two kids was her number, including a refreshingly candid take on the finances * The winter pneumonia that made her stop "running ragged" — and the healer-trade economy of acupuncture and myofascial release she's built * Her family-as-nanny setup: parents two days, in-laws two days, a babysitter two doors down * The unicorns that pop up in Asana, the shared Google calendar her husband "has no idea" about, and the quarterly women's retreats to Portugal, Vegas, and Savannah * What her shy, rule-following younger self would never believe about the risk-taking CEO she became Connect with Melissa: * Website: wellesthealth.com [http://wellesthealth.com] * Instagram: @wellesthealth [https://www.instagram.com/wellesthealth/] * LinkedIn: Melissa Hines [https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-hines-pt-dpt-b2813087/] Listen and Review Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-day-in-her-life/id1676700021] - Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6dqV5AhULcp0yi5Cb1DudQ] - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5lpOsifLJoO4BNEnwywEw] More A Day In Her Life @adayinherlifepod [http://instagram.com/adayinherlifepod] adayinherlife.com [http://adayinherlife.com] adayinherlife.substack.com [http://adayinherlife.substack.com] Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock

Episode 155: A Day In Her Life with Francesca Cervero - Yoga Teacher, Teacher Trainer, and Mom in VA

Tell us what you think!!! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2149323/fan_mail/new] Francesca Cervero has been a full-time yoga teacher for 21 years — and she will tell you, this is her passion. Francesca has evolved her teaching from 40-50hr weeks in person in New York, to now teaching exactly when her son is in school virtually. In this week’s conversation, Francesca shares how a serious hip injury at 23 (she was walking with a cane while teaching full-time in New York City) redirected her from dance to yoga permanently, why she deliberately compressed her career after becoming a mom, and what she means when she says movement should be "nutrient-dense" — tailored to each person's specific asymmetries, not performed for an audience. What We Cover: * How a hip injury at 23 — that happened in a yoga class — ended her dance career and launched a 21-year teaching career (and why she'd never describe yoga as having simply "healed" her) * The morning routine she protects fiercely before 7:00am: bone broth before coffee, reading, and a 10-to-15-minute meditation practice * What she means when she calls movement "nutrient-dense" — and why she believes yoga cannot be both a healing practice and a performative one at the same time * Teaching yoga virtually since March 13, 2020, and why the transition worked so well she never looked back (even when the world reopened) * Why she keeps dinner so simple you "could hardly call it cooking" (Whole Foods grilled chicken, Trader Joe's orange chicken, sous vide Costco steak) — and the intentional decision behind it * Finding her people after moving to the suburbs eight months pregnant: the PACE new mom group, a neighborhood WhatsApp with 25 families under four, and what it actually takes to make new friends in your 30s * The activism chapter she didn't see coming — going to Capitol Hill with Chamber of Mothers, co-founding a local Singing Resistance chapter, and having to buy pants that weren't leggings for the first time in years * What her 22-year-old NYC self — who was climbing walls at 3:00am on a Tuesday — would think of dinner at 5:30 every single night and lights out before 10 Connect with Francesca: * Instagram: @francescaservero [https://www.instagram.com/francescacervero/] * Website: francescaservero.com [http://francescaservero.com] * Virtual Studio: stillnessandmovement.com [http://stillnessandmovement.com] Listen and Review Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-day-in-her-life/id1676700021] - Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6dqV5AhULcp0yi5Cb1DudQ] - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5lpOsifLJoO4BNEnwywEw] More A Day In Her Life @adayinherlifepod [http://instagram.com/adayinherlifepod] adayinherlife.com [http://adayinherlife.com] adayinherlife.substack.com [http://adayinherlife.substack.com] Episode Music - For Days - Tom Deis via Shutterstock