The Balance Dilemma

Episode 104 From Madison Avenue to the Kitchen: Reinvention, Chopped Champion, and Building a Life on Your Own Terms with Silvia Baldini

Silvia Baldini built a successful career as an award-winning art director and creative director on Madison Avenue — then walked away to start over in a kitchen. The result? A Le Cordon Bleu education, training at the Ritz in London, a Chopped championship, two cookbooks, and Strawberry and Sage, a culinary venture built around food, sustainability, and community — with other women at the table alongside her. In this episode, Maura and Christie talk with Silvia about what it actually takes to reinvent yourself mid-career, how advertising trained her for the kitchen (and vice versa), navigating male-dominated workplaces in two industries, the Italian philosophy of food that America has largely lost, and why — even with all of it — she doesn't believe you can have it all at the same time. Topics covered include: career reinvention, identity and ambition, work-life balance, food and sustainability, Refettorio NYC, the Dames d'Escoffier, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and the real cost of starting over. Find Silvia at silviabaldini.com and on Instagram @silviabaldinistrawberryandsage Episode recorded on June 3, 2026 at the LMC Media Studio in Mamaroneck, New York. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com [thebalancedilemma.com/episode-104]

Episode 103 From Night Sweats to Oprah with Katya Eckert, Founder of A DOMANI®

Postpartum. Cancer treatment. Perimenopause. Menopause. Night sweats don't care why you have them — and for too long, nothing on the market did either. Katya Eckert decided to fix that, and A DOMANI® was born. She came to the US from Russia at age seven. Her family arrived with a hundred dollars, a box of books, and a guitar. She spent 15 years on a Wall Street derivatives desk. And then one very long, very sweaty postpartum night changed everything. With zero fashion experience and a beginner's instinct, she built the luxury sleepwear brand that Oprah noticed — three times. What followed was not a straight line. While launching her brand, her mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Her mother wore A DOMANI® through treatment and into hospice. Eight weeks after she died, Katya had a baby. The business kept going. In this conversation, Katya talks with Maura and Christie about building a product from 650 fabric samples, what thermoregulating actually means (and why your moisture-wicking leggings are lying to you), and what it looks like when both parents are building startups while raising kids ages 2 and 6. She doesn't believe in balance. She believes in triage. Recorded May 27, 2026, at the LMC Media Podcast Studio in Mamaroneck, NY. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-103

Episode 102 Reading Belle Burden’s Strangers with a Divorce Attorney: The Legal Wake-Up Call Belle Burden Needed with Lisa Zeiderman, Esq., CFL, CFDA

Belle Burden's memoir Strangers [https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Memoir-Marriage-Belle-Burden/dp/0593733312] — which began as a viral New York Times Modern Love essay and is already being adapted for film starring Gwyneth Paltrow — is the story every married (unmarried) woman needs to read. It's the account of a woman whose husband of 20 years walked out during COVID with no warning, leaving her exposed because of  financial and legal decisions she'd made throughout her marriage without fully considering the risk. But what would a top divorce attorney have told Belle before any of it happened? Lisa Zeiderman, managing partner at Miller Zeiderman LLP, certified divorce financial analyst, and certified financial litigator, read Strangers and had a lot to say. In this episode, she walks us through the pivotal moments where Belle's financial and legal decisions put her at serious risk — the prenuptial agreement changed six days before the wedding, the inherited trust money placed into jointly-owned property, the career she gave up without negotiating any protection in return — and what Belle, or any of us, could have done differently. Lisa also explains when a postnuptial agreement makes sense (hint: it's not just for troubled marriages), what women who've handed financial control to a spouse need to do right now, and how to turn major life transitions — having children, receiving an inheritance, buying property — into smart negotiating moments. She covers how to protect assets in a high-net-worth divorce, what stay-at-home spouses need to know about marital property law, and why financial independence is the most important divorce strategy of all. This isn't a story about the ultra-wealthy. It's about the quiet financial decisions every woman in a marriage makes — or doesn't make — and what's actually at stake when love and money collide. Recorded April 23, 2026. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com [thebalancedilemma.com/episode-102]

Episode 101 The Woman Behind 80+ Events a Year Talks Career Pivots, Connection, and Having It All with Amanda DePalma of the Business Council of Westchester

Amanda DePalma didn't plan on a detour. She had a self-designed college major, a passion for events, and a clear vision for her career — until 2008 arrived and the bottom fell out. Getting laid off early in her career was a blow to her Type-A perfectionist soul. But that "stop" on the way to somewhere else led to her husband, her master's degree, and ultimately, her role as Senior Vice President of Events and Development at the Business Council of Westchester — the county's largest and most influential business membership organization. Now she orchestrates 80+ events a year, launched a podcast network with over 40,000 listens, and is bringing an AI upskilling program to Westchester in partnership with Google. In this episode, we talk about playing the long game, why every job is a footprint in the world, and how the connections you almost didn't make end up changing everything. Plus — can you really have it all? Amanda's answer is honest, a little nuanced, and exactly what you need to hear. Episode recorded December 2, 2025. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-101

Episode 100 The Women Who Hold Everything Together with New York Times Bestselling Author Annabel Monaghan

Annabel Monaghan didn’t set out to become a bestselling novelist—at least not on a straight path. She worked in finance, raised three kids, said yes to things she didn’t want to do, and put writing on hold longer than she’d like to admit. Now, she writes the kind of love stories readers can’t stop talking about—funny, deeply relatable, and full of women who are holding everything together… until something shifts. In this episode, we discuss the pressure to do it all, the power of saying no, and why “having it all” might actually be about timing, not balance. Plus, a first look at her new novel DOLLY ALL THE TIME—a fake dating romance with real emotional stakes. Episode recorded on March 18, 2026. Show notes available at thebalancedilemma.com/episode-100