Samantha Miller on getting out of your head, building resilience and finding humor in everything.

It was my absolute pleasure to welcome Fátima Sani on this week’s episode of Balanceness. Fátima and I were connected by a colleague at work and after a quick introductory conversation over Zoom we became fast friends and penpals. We are both curious souls raising toddlers in cities that are not our own and seeking purpose in both our professional and personal lives. The rest will be history my friends. 

Every stage of your life can be a honeypot, which is how Fátima reflects on her life after working for Google for 13 years, living as an expatriate in London, Spain, Singapore and now Norway. She has crafted an unique path for her career providing technical and commercial leadership for known products like YouTube, Google Analytics, Nest, and Webex. Her career is a testament to how we often don't know where your career will bring you, yet by having clarity of your needs and humility to perform you build the right recipe to create your own success. 

Fátima was born in Lisbon, Portugal and now works as Business Manager for IT Ecosystems at TOMRA, she is a self proclaimed startup CEO drop out turned angel investor. Fátima was in the top 5 women in tech in the Nordics 2022, she studied Business at the University of Wales, UK and later graduated from a Masters program in Energy Management at BI Oslo and Berkeley University. 

In her own words, "The desire to become led me to openly seek opportunities every time I felt barriers or low acceptance. This ability to find solutions unfolded layers of truths that were once unimaginable to me. I believe in building bridges that help more unexpected people to feel empowered, that is my superpower and leadership style" 

In this episode we explore why Fátima eventually decided to leave her career at Google for a less known recycling company and why underrepresented women should consider the industry. We also touch on the more personal topics of setting priorities, defining the minimum requirements for happiness and how that creates balance for Fátima. If you like this episode then you are in for a treat. Stay tuned for Part 2 where we dive deeper into Fátima’s experience with raising children, staying relevant and personal branding. 

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

+LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatimasani/

This week’s guest, Tiffany Caprarella, has lived multiple lives. Tiffany and I met during one of these 22 years ago while on a public bus traveling to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. I noticed that her then boyfriend had a Canadian flag tattooed to his ankle, so being the good Canadian that I am, struck up a conversation with the two. We spent the next few nights ogling over ant formations, diagnosing the wildebeest-like noises coming from the jungle (turns out they were Howler monkeys) and sampling gallo pinto. We learned that we were both slated to move to Toronto, Canada after our Central American adventures and, even more serendipitous, two streets apart from each other. We set upon building an incredible friendship that has taken us to international locations and through life’s ups and downs. 

Tiffany grew up in La Cresenta, LA and attended Los Angelos County High School for the Arts where her love of theater blossomed. She completed her BA in Education and Deaf Studies and has a Teaching Certification in Secondary Education in English and Dramatic Arts. She has taught in both residential schools and public schools for both hearing and deaf students and in wilderness schools internationally. Most recently, she has worked at Paramount as an on set teacher in Canada and the U.S. Tiffany speaks English, Spanish, ASL and Portuguese and has traveled, climbed and surfed in too many locations to list on this page.

After a recent conversation about Janalogue during which Tiffany has limited her online time to 1 hour per day, I wanted to further explore the way in which she thinks about and prioritizes her time. In this episode, we explore what drives Tiffany to explore new environments and how she uses visualization to choose her next destination. We talk about using our working hours to provide structure and grounding ourselves in more itinerant times. If you’ve ever thought about working to live as opposed to living to work, Tiffany is your gal. I hope this episode helps you think about developing new hobbies, staying curious and cracking the code for living multiple lives. 

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

Happy 2024! It was a pleasure to kick off Season 2 of Balanceness with my confidante and sister Samantha Miller, MSW, RSW, a clinical social worker, who has worked in a number of settings including chemical dependency, partial hospitalization programs, and private practice. Samantha currently provides hospice and bereavement services, which entails bereavement support and clinical services for those with a life limiting illness and joins us to shed some light on the levity and beauty of her work. 

When thinking about how to kick off this season’s podcast, I couldn’t think of a better topic than resilience. I don’t know about you, but I never emerge from the winter break feeling refreshed. The pre-holiday end of season work sprint, gift buying, traveling, kids out of childcare, and extended time away from creature comforts with extended family leaves me feeling drained. I feel conflicted about stepping into the new year with a new ‘tude when all I really want to do is return to homeostasis. So, how better to discuss my bounceback than with someone with an expertise in trauma treatment and mindfulness interventions? In this episode, we discuss the overlap of balance and resilience, how childhood experiences shape our coping mechanisms and the practice of getting out of our heads. This episode is great for anyone who needs a reminder to put one foot in front of the other, to drop the judgment (of yourself or others) and to recognize, name and laugh in the face of adversity. I hope this episode gives you some inspiration and tools for conquering 2024. Happy listening. 

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

It’s always a treat (and a brain workout) having Aaron at GrasshoppHer. Aaron Thweatt, a Certified High Performance Coach and Principal Compensation Consultant, is on a mission to connect talent, ambition, and purpose for those intent on achieving their life’s work while feeling engaged and joyful. He built a successful career spanning financial services, oil and gas, sales and marketing, human resources (compensation), and satellite ground station site acquisition at AECOM, Activision Blizzard, and SpaceX before founding Respark Coaching to deliver transformation in the six principles of high performance for you; productivity, persuasion, psychology, physiology, purpose, and presence. He is a passionate believer in your potential. 

I invited Aaron on the podcast to talk about the intersection of negotiation and balance. The potential impact of the conversations we have with ourselves and others on our ability to manage our work and personal lives felt very important, but also very fuzzy to me, until Aaron broke it down as he always does. You see, Aaron sees negotiation as a form of managing the conversation, which is extremely helpful for those, who, like me, find negotiating tough. If we do our pre-work to understand the fears, traumas as well as qualitative v. quantitative factors that influence our decision making process, we have a reasonable chance of a win-win outcome. If you are interested in learning more about maintaining yourself under pressure, using empathy to influence outcomes and preparing for one of the biggest negotiations of your life (your salary), you’ve come to the right place. 

+Website: https://www.resparkcoaching.com/

+LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronthweatt/

+IG: https://www.instagram.com/aaronthweatt

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

It was more than a pleasure to get to reconnect with Salesforce’s Senior Solution Engineer Robin Holloway, whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for 5 years now. Robin and I met in Buenos Aires, Argentina through our involvement with Fora during the G20 Summit and have nurtured the international nature of our relationship by meeting up in exciting cities, such as New York, and now virtually via Austin and London for this podcast. Robin worked her way into Business Systems before it was even a thing and rode the wave to titles, such as Systems Architect and Solution Engineer, understanding that companies’ internal platforms needed problem solving and love before the companies did themselves. Now she’s on a mission to level up her knowledge and ramp up on her career at a time when her peers may be staying the course. 

This podcast felt really special to me because I got to learn more about what makes Robin tick and how many more things we have in common than we previously thought. In this episode of Balanceness, we talk about finding a pace that feels right for you despite what everyone else around you is doing and how to deal with the emotional consequences of swimming against this current. We also discuss recognizing times in your life when you might lose the balance you’ve worked so hard to cultivate, and communicating this with friends and family, and more importantly yourself, so that you are supported during the turbulence. Finally, we talk about how to know when to ramp up and when to ramp down. To me, this convo felt like I was staying up late with a friend bonding over the trials and tribulations of getting a handle on life. I hope this conversation resonates with you and that you pocket some of Robin’s nuggets of wisdom for moving towards self-acceptance. 

+Resource: https://www.nextmatter.com/blog/product-management-for-internal-tools-the-secret-weapon-to-great-business-operations

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

Today we are speaking with Style Coach Liz Wendler, who works with clients who are experiencing a life transition.  Whether you're a business owner, a business professional, a new parent, retired, experiencing an age or weight transition, or someone looking to rediscover their personal style, Liz is here to guide you through your life transition, style transformation and style journey. 

With 10+ years experience in personal styling, Liz works with individuals that are feeling stuck with their wardrobe. Her passion is to help clients step into their signature style with confidence and purpose so they can unlock the next level of your authentic self.

In this episode, we hear about the making of Liz Wendler from her early days of modeling and climbing the corporate Marketing & Sales ladder to the launch her own style coaching brand. We get deep on how she met her life partner, how that impacted her career and how children entered the equation. Maybe because I was in the throes of trying to understand how someone juggles early entrepreneurship and family, I wanted to know the nitty gritty of exactly how and who runs the ship at home. Who keeps the house in order? Who manages the kids’ social schedules? What happens when one parent travels? These are all answers one needs to have locked down in order to feel some sense of peace on the homefront while entrepreneurship threatens to wreak havoc on the career waters. 

We hope you enjoy this episode of the Balanceness Podcast. If you take anything from this conversation it should be that while entrepreneurship and family are hard, there’s nothing a little communication and planning cannot overcome. Whether you are in a life transition, starting your own business, raising kids or feeling the burn of starting a business, this episode will give you the tools to plan your next steps, to decide what is worth adding to the balance equation and to eliminate what is not. 

Resources:

+Website: https://www.lizwendlerstyling.com/

+Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizwendlerstyling/

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

I was really excited to welcome Penelope Przekop to Balanceness. Penelope was dubbed “an industry triple threat” by Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Magazine and designated an “expert contributor” by Life Science Leader Magazine as she applies her diverse brand of creativity across multiple disciplines. She is the Founder and CEO of PDC Pharma Strategy, a consulting firm that develops and provides strategic solutions and operational services to the pharmaceutical industry. As a speaker, writer, artist, and pharmaceutical industry leader, Penelope weaves her diverse experience and knowledge together to motivate and inspire others to rethink how they define, build, and manage quality, both at work and at home. 

To be honest, I made some incorrect assumptions about Penelope’s book “5-Star Career: Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management”. Based on the title, I was expecting a chat about powering up your career and the success you’ll achieve when you do, however, this book and our conversation were so much more. Using her years of quality management experience, Penelope teaches us how to be masters of our own destiny. She leads us to design our careers, track and test the data and execute in the name of personal fulfillment. The conversation is for anyone who is seeking a roadmap for satisfaction at work or anywhere for that matter. Penelope give us tangible frameworks for how to define what is important to us and how to go get it. We hope this episode empowers you to fulfill your dreams and more. 

+Website: https://penelopeprzekop.com/

+Penelope’s Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001HMTS1M/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=dc9f6929-a7b9-4ecf-bb62-e82e7abbb2d9

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

Have you ever sat down with your doctor for an hour to talk comprehensively about what’s going on with your mind, body and spirit? No? Well, neither have I. That’s why I was so interested in speaking with Lauren Colletti, Director of Clinical Services at Alive and Well. As a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner come Functional Medicine specificalist. Lauren has dedicated her career to helping facilitate wellness and empowering her patients’ to take an active role in their health. She has a particular interest in helping her patients’ get to the root cause of health problems by listening, asking detailed questions and understanding that the majority of health problems are in large part due to our past experiences. Through guidance and patient education she is able to give her patients the tools to heal, stay well and thrive.

This episode is going to make you want to pack your bags and fly to Austin (or Dallas and Boulder in 2025) to set your health priorities straight. We talk about the pillars of wellness, why women are seekers of answers and how to ensure that we stay in the safety zone. Ever wondered how physics and frequency impact your body? Well, Lauren is here to tell us about the next frontier of your health. Join us as we learn how to be advocates in our own health journey and why Functional Medicine is where it is at. 

+Website: https://aliveandwell.health/

+Clinic phone: 512 599 4009 to enjoy a $400 off promo for November and December

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

It was my pleasure to welcome seasoned social worker Jenny Frisch on this episode of Balanceness. Jenny is a Social Worker registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers and is a member of the Ontario Association of Social Workers. Jenny’s areas of focus include working with adolescents and adults experiencing anxiety, trauma, grief and loss, separation, divorce, and parent-child relationship issues. She provides support to parents and caregivers around parenting practices, managing children’s behavior and supporting healthy development. Jenny received her certification in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness with Children and Adults from the Sick Kids Centre for Community & Mental Health as well as her MSW from the University of Toronto. In addition, she has done training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy from the DBT Centre of Vancouver  

Jenny came into my life over 30 years ago at sleep away camp and is my SOS call when I’m struggling with work, relationships, or childcare issues. It was during a call when, naturally, we were venting about our own hardships with maintaining boundaries with our families that I realized she would be the perfect person to discuss the impact that boundaries (or the lack thereof) can have on one’s ability to maintain balance. Jenny describes her personal balance as “a felt sense”, which I loved, because a lot of people feel the concept intuitively. For example, she has a good sense of what recipe of sleep, movement, friends and schedule needs to look like to support her balance and, conversely, what breaches in boundaries upset her sense of balance. In this episode we talk about boundary development, boundary myths and how creating boundaries can help manage anger. We talk about boundaries in the context of family, friends, romantic partners and even how we need to maintain healthy boundaries with our children in order to secure their healthy detachment. This episode is great for anyone who has undergone trauma or feels as if they are being selfish when putting up boundaries and is also good reminder for those who feel confident in their boundary creation on how to nurture and support the self-respect you’ve created for yourself. We hope you enjoy the conversation. 

+For consulting: jenny@jftherapy.ca

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com

In our fifth Balanceness podcast, we talk with Kathleeen O’Malley, who is a full time working mom and blogger for Forever Chasing Fireflies. Kathleen is on a mission to share her journey  of resilience, hope and journey to motherhood. As a breast cancer survivor and IVF warrior, she’s learned that life is worth every struggle and inner strength knows no bounds. She is celebrating the things that tie us all together, sharing her story with a touch of humor and hoping to inspire others to overcome their obstacles with grace and determination. 

Kathleen and I have known each other for a few years and, funny enough, she is my former manager. Over the years of working with Kathleen I learned bits and pieces of her story, but it wasn’t until doing the research for this episode that I learned about her years-long struggle to have a successful pregnancy and her eventual cancer diagnosis the day after her twins were born. I feel so honored to have spent the time with Kathleen learning how these experiences challenged and strengthened her faith, how she built a toolkit to fight depression and how she continues to balance “wanting to do everything and never missing anything”.

This episode is for anyone who has struggled with fertility or illness or who wants to hear an unadulterated account of how sickness can test our will to persevere. It is also for anyone who needs to hear an inspiring tale of how little by little we may see glimmers of light that remind us how to take back our lives and live it to its fullest. 

+Blog: https://www.foreverchasingfireflies.com/

+Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/komalley77

+Vote: https://votefab40.com/2023/kathleen-o-39-malley

+Website: https://www.heathermillernow.com/balancenesspodcast

+Website: www.grasshoppher.com