An Interview With Melissa Llarena

Are you on a spiritual journey right now? Chances are, if you are in your 30s or 40s, you have been on a spiritual journey of some sort, and maybe you still are going through the motions of it.  As for me, my spiritual journey started here in Australia due to the “at-home time” I had during the pandemic so I had the space to dig deep. As for many of us, it caused us to pause and reevaluate our purpose in life. It was my desire to reconnect with my intuition and keep my head above the water if I wanted to make progress on my business.  This brings me to this week’s guest, Johnson Chong, the best-selling and award-winning author of Sage Sapien: From Karma to Dharma. Johnson is passionate about creating a bridge between ancient wisdom, energy medicine, and direct modern application. His unique experiences offer a profoundly healing self-discovery experience, followed by very practical and actionable steps to create lasting change.  With his background as a teacher who trains yoga teachers and pilates teachers, J

How can pausing or neglecting your hobbies as a busy mom lead to feeling like you’ve lost an essential connection to yourself? In this episode, you’ll uncover what it takes to be an artist and a single mom, especially during those early childhood years. Hear whether it’s worth it to give up on your dreams, your artistry, or your own self. Also, learn about cost-effective and less time-consuming media you can use to express your artistry as a mom.  Belinda Lindhardt provides valuable insights and productivity hacks fit for a creative mom who is busy or overwhelmed yet still appreciates her art as a tool to give herself downtime and help reconnect with herself.  In this conversation, Belinda shares what it takes to continue and persist and work on your passion projects or even your creative business, no matter where you are in your life, whether you're a single mom, or a mom taking care of a lot of unpredictable people. This concept is applicable whether you wish to maintain a hobby or you want to commercialize

Lisa Messenger has lived a full range of entrepreneurial emotions – the ups and downs over the course of being in business for over 21 years.  In this episode, Lisa covered quite a bit, including the idea of finding your purpose, knowing why you're going into business, how to fail fast, and how to assemble and work with a team even if you can't pay them at first, and finally, the numbers that matter. This is actually all in her book, “Start Up to Scale Up,” which makes a great graduation gift or if you simply want to give somebody something that will help spark up an idea within them. (Use the discount code Melissa20 to get 20% off of any of her products. Lisa also shares how she is currently getting to know the North American market, considering the nuances between the U.S. and Canada, especially compared to the Australian market.  Finally, Lisa dishes out some actionable insights into when we should share our big business ideas, how to stay ahead of the curve if someone has already done what we wish to acco

What does it take to earn back the trust of not just anyone, but your kids?  In this week's episode, I invited Tim Taylor as he shares how he tried to earn the trust of his daughter back.  He also shares how fathers can create space for their daughters so that they can open up with their dads. He particularly talks about how not to rob daughters of the experience of having to go through difficult times, and instead, give them the grace and the dignity to go through them. Especially in a divorced family environment, the relationships are fragile. In Tim's situation, his daughter lost her trust in him, having witnessed him going through a spiral, including being addicted to a substance and going through financial woes. Whether you're a dad or a mom, or maybe you're the child who lost trust in their parent/s, you're going to get some ideas from Tim that you can apply to your relationships as well.  Emotional well-being is imperative to us as parents. If you still haven’t gotten on the waitlist for my book, pleas

What if you could create a gorgeous life on your own terms? What if you are exactly where you are supposed to be not behind or broken? What if you gave yourself the permission to envision your fantasy life free of obligations? What if you just want peace in your life in a world that knows how to poke your wounds and feel total and utter chaos? Whether you're a parent with many obligations or you're single and you feel a little bit burnt out, you have a choice to live a gorgeous life. It’s possible! In today’s episode, I want to introduce you to Michael A. Blunt is a master teacher, student, and global energy influencer. He unifies modern psychology, neuroscience, and spiritual energetics into a single path. He teaches creators and business professionals a global model for transformation that is so simple that it can be applied immediately to upgrade the quality of their life.  Michael’s purpose is to teach ancient wisdom in a modern way, and show creators that they can have it all. His purpose also includes e

We want our kids to have a lot less screen time. Yet we keep hearing that the only way to have a scalable business that sells while you're sleeping is online. How do we figure out things to make sure we stay in alignment with our values? How can we continue to be excited about an idea that we bring into the world, and at the same time, be present and enjoy our children?    This is a recent coaching conversation I had with Rianna Alvarado, a mom who wants to limit her kid’s screen time and someone seeking alternative ways to scale her business so that she could align herself to her values and achieve educational goals with her homeschooled kids.    Juggling her roles being a mom of five and an entrepreneur, Rianna has this huge dream of creating something that's scalable, and ultimately, she wants to get all the money she needs to buy her own house.    We covered quite the gamut including key questions such as how Rianna Alvarado feels about her big and juicy business vision, what it would take for her to feel

Happy Mother's Day, or as I like to call it, Happy Warriors Day! If you are an entrepreneur, or even if you're in a corporation, your health is more valuable and more important and should be a higher top priority than your wealth on any given day. One day, VeVette Turner, and her now husband, were at a beautiful resort but they ended up just watching other people do fun things they couldn't do because they were both overweight. This week's podcast episode is specifically for moms because the gift of health is the best Mother's Day gift I could ever give you.  If you take back control of your health today, irrespective of how lethargic you might feel, regardless of the size of the dress or pants you're wearing right now. None of that matters. All it takes is a decision.  VeVette takes us through those early days when she and her husband decided to change their lifestyle and how she made a decision to live a plant-based lifestyle. She managed to use her imagination and plugged a blender into her car so she can

Were you the first to leave your home country to settle in the USA? Were you the first to go to college? If any of these scenarios, whether you are Latina, or not, hold true for you, then it’s important for you to uncover the subconscious cultural narratives that could be affecting you or holding you back today.  Today’s guest is Valeria Aloe, the author of Uncolonized Latinas: Transforming Our Mindsets And Rising Together. It’s an award-winning book that decodes cultural limiting beliefs holding back Latinas from a life of fulfillment and success.  This is what a conversation sounds like between two educated and empowered Latinas, who also happen to be moms who want to ensure their kids are not held back by the subconscious cultural narratives we may have inherited.  Valeria shares how we can take back ownership in experiencing our own transformative process and reimagine what's possible for us. Learn how we all can contribute to society through our differences. She also shares valuable insights from the 55

If you’ve been working in Corporate America, you could find yourself in that rat race and not even be aware that you’ve been running on empty. And having to juggle that with raising your kids and all your other responsibilities in life would most likely put you on the brink of burnout and breakdown.  In today’s episode, Jo Dodd talks about her experience of leaving the corporate world to “living in Jotopia,” a hybrid life that she created on her own terms to make sure she and her four sons are emotionally well. She talks about her decision to leave corporate and how she found the courage to pull that emergency cord and leave. Jo got furloughed in 2020 and when she realized she didn't have work anymore, creativity just flowed out of her and she started to write a book. But when she got called to get back to work, she couldn't breathe. She knew that if she went back, she was going to get completely drained. She was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. While she was watching her friends who had gone back to corp

Today, you are in for an entrepreneurial treat as I feature Kim Pierce, the founder of Babe Australia, a company dedicated to giving customers an experience of just feeling good. You will hear a quote that you'll want to make your own which is, “I'm not here to get a haircut!”  This conversation all started with my love of candles and one of them is called Love Letter made by Babe Australia. Curious and eager to know more about the genius behind this wonderful product, I then reached out to Kim Peirce – and here we are today! As Kim was inching into her 40th birthday, she started to have that nagging feeling about what was next and what she wanted her next decade to look like. And so, she left a high-paying career as a management consultant to forge her own path in the beauty and wellness industry.  She then realized there was just no time like the present, and the safety net will never be there so what was she then waiting for? There is never the right time to make any decision. and this has been the mantra

Are you someone who’s scared to stand up in a crowd and ask questions thinking you might have a silly question? A lot of people hesitate to ask questions, especially because they think that maybe a bull's eye target will be on their back, or they will look silly or dumb. But just when you think you have to pressure yourself into asking the best questions, the irony of it is that not overthinking what to ask and just being present will help you yield the best questions.  The best questions will always surface at the right time. You just have to constantly train your mind to do that and opportunities will show up. And this idea of mental fitness will be explained by today’s guest, Marc Champagne, bestselling author and fellow podcast host. Marc shares with us some best practices that luminaries have leveraged in becoming amazing human beings who are extremely efficient and successful in their lives.  After four years of interviewing wildly successful humans, Marc noticed this pattern: all of them were asking re

What was your first memory of being sold to or just witnessing a sale? For me, it was accompanying my dad to liquor stores who was transacting as a sales professional for over 40 years. This week’s guest, Jason Marc Campbell, is the author of Selling with Love: Earn with Integrity and Expand your Impact. He is on a mission to inspire small business owners with sales reluctance to embrace it as a beautiful activity that transforms lives. He also interviews thought leaders from around the world on topics of leadership, team building, communication, productivity and so much more.  If you are new to entrepreneurship or self-employment, or even if you have an upcoming job interview, be sure to listen to Jason's message. Ultimately, it really does require you to believe in what you have to sell. In this conversation, Jason walks us through the five loves of sales. He also shares his first memory of selling with love as well as what's integral to this entire profession that is present in the world's best sales profe

Now that we’re nearing the end of Women’s History Month, we have Gina Barreca, a distinguished professor and author, to share her wisdom about finding that power to not care about whether people like you or not.  Gina was the third class of women to be admitted to Dartmouth. She was also the first girl in her family to graduate from high school in a timely fashion. Today, Gina talks about how feminism is not about the things you cannot do, but about the things you can do, how power lies in the ability to not have to please anyone, and finally, how you can leverage feminine humor to get your message across.  I’m also sharing with you these two podcasts that are lifting up other women who are metaphorically making a good kind of trouble in their spheres of influence. Gina’s Biography Gina Barreca, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, has written ten books, including the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White, But I Drifted, as well as Babes in Boyland: A Pe

Imagine this: It’s Saturday morning. 6:30 am. You are sitting at the beach on soft sand. It’s warm. You are surrounded by other people who are doing the same thing. And you’re sitting in silence for 20 minutes. You watch the sunrise on a beach in Sydney, Australia. Then you feel heard and supported as each of you has a chance to share what you got or learned out of that time alone with your thoughts. This has become my Saturday morning ritual and it’s just as amazing as it sounds. In this week’s episode, I wanted to bring to you the founder of The Sit, Jason Partington who first thought of this free weekly meditation experience you can find on many beaches in Australia, and later on, even in Portland, Maine. Jason talks about how one day, he was watching the news with his two sons, and then they learned there have been 33 suicides in their local area.  We are constantly looking at the news. For instance, our eyes are so glued to what’s happening in Ukraine and Russia. We might have seen images of X and Y. The

This is a special conversation between two moms: one is at the helm of a neurodivergent family. Every single person in Zoe Martin’s has been touched by autism, including Zoe herself; and on the other hand, me, a neurotypical who doesn't know the realities of a neurodivergent family.  Zoe Martin is a coach and mentor to parents across the world who are leading neurodivergent children. Zoe awakens the sovereign hearts inside the parents, which then brings forth radical healing, connection, and inner and outer freedom that often gets lost when diagnosis hits the family unit.  Zoe wrote the book Making Peace With Autism. If you are a parent of a neurodivergent child, this is the book for you. And even if you aren’t a parent of a neurodivergent child, but your child is in a classroom with neurodivergent kids, then you’ve got to read this book, because your children will be experiencing a world where people have many differences and abilities that may be hard to see on the surface. And this is a wonderful conversat

If you enjoy podcasts in general, or you've ever wondered whether you wanted to launch one yourself, then this conversation is for you! Today, we have Jordan Harbinger, a 15+ year veteran in the podcasting space. Jordan spoke to this idea of fear, whether there's such a thing as good or bad fear, and how do you know? He also spoke to the art of podcasting in general. Could it be the right career for you or just a really good hobby? He also shared how to earn the trust of millionaires and billionaires. Now, I've decided to take Jordan’s advice and open my door for ad swaps with fellow podcasters. So if you're listening to this right now, and you have a podcast, let's have a conversation about doing an ad swap, just reach out to me on Instagram, send me a DM @melissallarena. According to Jordan, the best way to grow a podcast in the early days is to do those ad swaps. So I am opening the opportunity to you if you, or a friend who has a podcast, would like to have their show featured on one of my episodes and ha

Have you ever struggled with finding a toy or any object to keep your kids entertained for more than a day? This episode features an inventor, business owner, and mom Abby Sullivan, who is also the founder of Wundernook, the patent-pending, modular building system that encourages open-ended play for children ages 3 to 10. It is a Scandinavian-inspired, modern heirloom constructed from sustainable materials in the USA. Wundernook's mission is to nurture the wonder of childhood while also simplifying the journey of parenthood. Abby and I met at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth before we had kids. At the time, neither of us could have ever imagined what it would be like to be a parent. And I’m glad we reconnected because motherhood is a shared journey.  In this episode, Abby shares her insights including her realization that parents are imperfect humans too. She walks us through her journey as a mom wondering how she can keep her kids entertained while teaching them useful skills and growing with them. A

Have you ever read those Chicken Soup for the Soul books? In this conversation with Patty Morrissey, it just felt like I was reading Chicken Soup for Women. If you're a woman seeking some answers to life's big questions, then this conversation is for you! We’ll cover topics such as a woman’s intuition, what to do if we hear something we don’t like, the lessons our kids are here to teach us, as well as how you can take baby steps from surviving to thriving. As a mom of three young boys and having a coaching business, I was feeling a little overwhelmed one night. And it dawned on me that other moms must also feel this way. Our kids are going to grow so quickly that if we're not present, we could miss that. But how do you become present without losing your sanity? There has to be some balance there. Out of that meditation, I came up with the idea of creating a safe space for us, moms, who have young kids. It is totally possible to be more present and not lose your mind. Join this one-hour free workshop with me a

Do you believe in marriage? Do you feel left out this Valentine’s Day? Where do you stand on this “need” to even have a partner on Valentine’s Day or forever?  This week’s guest is my husband, Jesus Diaz, Jr., whom I met 25 years ago, and we’ve been married for 18 years. Some of our Valentine’s Days have been remarkable, and others we can’t even remember.  This is Jesus’ second time on this podcast and he’s back due to popular demand. Whether you’re spending Valentine’s Day alone or with a partner, tune in to this conversation as Jesus shares his thoughts on loving ourselves and others too. This is not a gushy conversation between two married couples who feel like we have to recruit the world to follow our path.  We both believe you should spend Valentine’s Day however you choose because you are the only person who best knows what your greatest expression of love is. You know what you need this “love season” more than the idealities that you see about love.  In this episode, Jesus and I cover a lot of ground

Do your kids have a great relationship with their grandparents? Family is everything, but not everyone realizes that. And if they do, sometimes it’s already too late and regrets always come later. But if you can be more intentional with nurturing relationships within your family, you will be surprised by how everyone can uplift each other’s lives. Cal Fussman has interviewed icons from the last 70 years. In this conversation, we had a heartfelt discussion around his personal wisdom as well as some insights that he gleaned from the wisdom of people he had interviewed such as Robert De Niro and George Foreman. Cal shares his insights into the loss of a parent and his wisdom around the importance of family.  Despite being a celebrity and being amongst celebrities, Cal reminds us that we each, at our core, have similar experiences. And so, this interview is less about glitz and more about those special moments. Hopefully, you're able to get Cal's insights and make them personal in your family and ensure your kids