In Her Words – Details, episodes & analysis

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In this solo episode, I explore a theme that’s been surfacing again and again in my client conversations: how we define success—and how that definition may need to evolve. Many of us fell into our careers through timing, practicality, or opportunity. It worked for a while. But with layoffs, burnout, and shifting priorities, more people are pausing to ask: What does success actually mean to me now?

I unpack the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, why so many workplaces rely almost entirely on external validation, and how that can leave us feeling drained. Most importantly, I walk through reflective questions you can use to reconnect with your values and redefine success in a way that aligns with your current season of life.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• External vs. internal motivation
• Why extrinsic rewards lose their power
• How success shifts across life seasons
• Using peak moments and anger as values data
• Moving from validation to alignment

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

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If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Kitty Gonzalez—coach, yoga teacher, and former L’Oréal marketer—for a grounded conversation about career pivots, identity, and the courage it takes to choose community and alignment over the “shoulds.” Kitty shares what it was like growing up between Mexico City and the U.S., and how living between cultures shaped her adaptability, awareness, and sense of belonging.

We talk about her years in product development and marketing at L’Oréal, the long “slow build” of realizing it wasn’t her forever path, and how COVID created the space to finally listen to what she already knew. Kitty opens up about leaving corporate, the jarring reality of an open calendar, learning how to sell herself, and how yoga became a lifeline—first for her own healing and embodiment, then as a community anchor in every place she lives.

We also explore what Kitty calls the “magic dark”—that uncomfortable in-between season where you’re doing all the right things but the outcome hasn’t arrived yet. Her reminder is simple: keep moving, keep asking for help, and trust that something is unfolding—even when you can’t see it yet.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• Kitty’s bicultural upbringing shaped identity, belonging, and adaptability.
• Leaving L’Oréal took years of journaling and inner knowing.
• Coaching certification revealed the gap between skills and selling.
  Entrepreneurship brought freedom, but also loneliness and constant hustle.
• Yoga supported healing, embodiment, and community through major transitions.
• The “magic dark” demands persistence, trust, and asking for help.

About Kitty Gonzalez

Kitty Gonzalez is an Executive Coach at Athena who helps high-achieving leaders create clarity, alignment, and meaningful change in their work and lives. Born in Mexico City and raised between Mexico and the U.S., she brings a deeply multicultural lens to her coaching. Before Athena, she spent nearly a decade in global marketing at L’Oréal and later built her own wellness and coaching practice, Wherever Forever. Kitty is also a certified yoga teacher, and her approach blends strategy with grounded, embodied wisdom. She currently lives between Michigan and Mexico City with her husband and their cat, Tikka.

Connect with Kitty

Instagram: @wherever__forever

Website: https://whereverforever.com/ 

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Maigen Thomas, Founder of Level 11 Technology, accessibility consultant, and neurodivergent advocate for a wide-ranging conversation about entrepreneurship, digital inclusion, and designing spaces where everyone can thrive. Maigen draws from her experience in enterprise UX, accessibility audits, and coaching early-career talent to show how we can expand our definitions of success, ability, and leadership.

We talk about navigating layoffs, unmasking in business, and how small accessibility shifts can open doors to entire markets. Maigen also shares her vision for apprenticeship models, the long tail of systemic exclusion, and why she’s giving others permission to build differently out loud.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• How Maigen launched Level 11 after a layoff—and why it was the best thing that could’ve happened
• The impact of neurodivergence, masking, and energy management in corporate spaces
• Building accessible websites that serve the 1.3 billion people with disabilities globally
• Creating apprenticeship models that empower underrepresented and neurodivergent talent
• The legacy of "ugly laws" and how empathy and inclusion drive Maigen’s advocacy today

Connect with Maigen:

https://www.youtube.com/@maigen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maigen

https://practicaluxbook.com](https://practicaluxbook.com/

Maigen Thomas is the founder of Level 11 Technology, an Apprenticeship Agency. She has 10+ years of experience in enterprise software design and product development, and almost as many years of experience teaching and mentoring, most notably as a UX/UI Bootcamp Instructor at UC Berkeley. Maigen's specialization is in website accessibility and she gets excited to empower folks at all levels of business and technology experience with knowledge to ensure inclusive experiences for all of their customers, regardless of their level of ability or disability.

 Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Anna Vecchi—a first-generation Chinese Italian American graphic designer—for a deeply honest conversation about identity, generational trauma, and learning to define yourself on your own terms. Anna shares how growing up in a predominantly white community shaped her relationship with culture, creativity, and performance, and how reconnecting with her Chinese heritage through her wedding ceremony helped her reclaim a part of herself she'd long tucked away.

We talk about the complexities of navigating strained mother-daughter relationships, setting boundaries in adulthood, and what healing looks like over time. Anna offers so much wisdom from her lived experience, and I'm honored to share this conversation with you.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• Navigating identity as a mixed-race, first-generation daughter of immigrants
• How wedding traditions helped Anna reconnect with her Chinese heritage
• The pressure of performance and perfectionism in childhood and career
• Setting boundaries with a volatile parent and moving toward acceptance
• The role of community and storytelling in healing intergenerational trauma

Connect with Anna Vecchi

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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This week, I sit down with psychologist, certified coach, speaker, and creative, Dr. Kimberly Murray, to explore what it means to live and lead as a multi-passionate person. Kimberly shares her journey of integrating multiple roles: scientist, artist, strategist, and mom. We talk about what it looks like to honor your full self without burning out or compromising your values, and how creativity can be a quiet act of self-trust in a world that often demands certainty and conformity.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• Finding the through line between seemingly separate identities
• Honoring creativity without needing to monetize every passion
• How motherhood reshaped Kimberly’s perspective on time, values, and perfection
• The power of alignment over obligation when making decisions
• Her THREAD coaching framework for multi-passionate women

About Dr. Kimberly Murray:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkimberlymurray/

https://drkimberlymurray.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dr.kimberlymurray/

Dr. Kimberly Murray is a Certified Life and Leadership Coach, speaker, psychologist, and creative spirit who helps high-achieving, multi-passionate women lead lives that feel as good as they look on paper. With 20+ years of experience navigating both technical and creative paths—including roles in government, education, entrepreneurship, and even a past life as a professional photographer—she knows firsthand that fulfillment doesn’t come from choosing one lane, but from honoring your full range.

Kimberly specializes in helping high achievers tap into their strengths, align with their values, and design lives that support both performance and wellness. Whether she’s coaching, speaking, or hosting her podcast Simultaneity, her message is clear: you don’t have to limit yourself to just one version of success—you can live a rich, resonant “both/and” life.

By day, Kimberly is a strategic planner in the federal government; by night (and often early morning), she’s an entrepreneur, mom of two brilliant kids, wife, and advocate for alignment over exhaustion. She holds a PhD and MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan, an MS in Biostatistics from Columbia University, and a BS in Psychology from Howard University.

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Kenna Lindsay—interdisciplinary artist, producer, and creative technologist—for a vibrant conversation about creative evolution, clowning, and protecting what matters most. Kenna has moved through photography, circus performance, and now video game production, all while holding a deep commitment to community, play, and making the internet a safer place for kids.

We talk about reclaiming joy after injury, the emotional range required in performance art, and how Kenna’s lived experiences have fueled their advocacy work around child safety in games. This conversation is full of heart, humor, and powerful reminders that creativity is a way of being—not just a thing we do.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• How clowning taught Kenna to embody emotion and practice joy daily
• The transition from live performance to indie game development
• Lessons from the circus on collaboration, access, and vulnerability
• Advocating for safer online spaces for kids in gaming communities
• Navigating identity, visibility, and creative integrity in tech spaces

About Kenna:

Website: https://kennamlindsay.com/

Kenna is an interdisciplinary artist and producer. Kenna received a B.F.A from Rochester Institute of Technology. They also studied Physical Theatre at the Circus Center in the Clown Conservatory program. In 2020 they learned how to run an agile distributed circus and in 2021 they were a IGDA Foundation Diverse Game Developers: Virtual Exchange Velocity Program Recipient. They continued to volunteer with the IGDA Foundation in 2022 and 2023 coordinating the Virtual Exchange Velocity Program. Since being part of the Velocity Program Kenna has worked with several global interdisciplinary teams like Soda Den and Coquito Games. Today they endeavor to work with others that promote ethical production practices and focus on players’ fun and safety as key indicators of success through work with the IGDA Child Safety Special Interest Group and the IGDA Foundations in person and virtual programming. Kenna primarily creates out of the Journal Building Artist Residency in the unceded homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe also known as San Francisco, California.

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Liza Kindred—writer, spiritual teacher, and author of F This Meditation—for a spacious, honest conversation about ambition, healing, and reclaiming our stories. Liza shares how she walked away from hustle culture and leaned into a slower, more compassionate way of being. We talk about the systems that keep us moving too fast, the sacred rebellion of self-trust, and the power of doing less in a world that demands more.

From deconstructing the wellness industrial complex to embracing a life of protection rituals and radical gentleness, Liza’s wisdom is both grounding and deeply human.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• What it means to “retire from ambition” and redefine success on your own terms
• The impact of trauma, hustle, and slowing down on the nervous system
• Liza’s evolving spiritual practices and intuitive client work
• How her memoir reclaims the narrative around systemic harm and healing
• Boundaries, burnout, and why transformation starts with self-compassion

Links & Resources:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liza_k/ 

Newsletter: https://www.lizakindred.com/newsletter

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Sahar Chung—Director of Product Strategy at Multiplayer—for a thoughtful conversation about evolving leadership, redefining research, and navigating growth in fast-paced environments. With a background in UX, visual design, and service design, Sahar brings a unique lens to how we lead teams, shift mental models, and stay grounded through change.

We talk about the mindset shifts from IC to manager to director, how to avoid burnout in people-first roles, and why asking for help is one of the most powerful leadership tools we have. Sahar also shares how she’s building her leadership practice around intentionality, emotional regulation, and community—on and off the clock.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• The mindset shifts from individual contributor to manager to director
• Reframing research as product strategy and leading change with intention
• Emotional regulation, transparency, and avoiding the “swoop and poop”
• Why leadership doesn’t have to be lonely—and how to design your own support system
• Sahar’s tactile, restorative rituals outside of work (including dog stroller walks and swimming)

Links & Resources:

• Sahar’s website: https://saharchung.com
• Sahar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharchung 

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Brandie Smith—senior UX researcher at 5Tran, mother, and young breast cancer survivor—for a deeply personal conversation about navigating identity through unexpected life transitions. Brandie brings vulnerability, strength, and candor as she shares her journey through cancer, layoff, motherhood, and divorce—all in the span of a few years.

We talk about the emotional and physical toll of treatment, what it means to ask for help, and how her definition of success and self has shifted. Brandie also opens up about becoming an advocate for aesthetic flat closure and how she’s using her research mindset to support and educate others.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• The life-changing diagnosis that followed her 40th birthday and a routine checkup
• How being laid off the day after her diagnosis became an unexpected turning point
• The mental and physical toll of treatment—and what she’s still healing from
• Choosing to be public about her journey and advocating for other women
• Redefining success and boundaries in her return to work

Links & Resources:

• LinkedIn: Brandie Ward-Smith
• https://askellyn.ai/the-day-after-i-turned-forty-i-was-diagnosed-with-breast-cancer
• Considering going flat after mastectomy? Not Putting on a Shirt is the go-to source. It includes support, education, and a directory of surgeons experienced in aesthetic flat closure.
• Want to understand your breast cancer risk? Use one of these tools to start a personalized conversation with your doctor:
  • IBIS Risk Calculator — Based on data from white women.
  • BWHS Risk Calculator — Designed using data from Black women.

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Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!

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In this episode, I sit down with Lia Fetterhoff—Director of Product Design and Research at Pathstream, creativity coach, and founder of Swishy—for an expansive conversation about creativity, identity, and honoring personal growth across seasons of life. Lia brings nearly two decades of experience in UX and design leadership, paired with her work as an artist and coach, to reflect on how we stay connected to our creative selves through transitions, setbacks, and changing responsibilities.

We talk about rebuilding creative confidence after early discouragement, navigating the shift from individual contributor to manager, and how Lia’s side project Swishy has evolved into a multifaceted space for inspiration, reflection, and coaching.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

• How childhood creativity and early judgment shaped Lia’s relationship with art
• Reconnecting with creative intuition after burnout and layoff
• Lessons from mentoring, coaching, and managing design teams
• Embracing seasons of creativity as a working parent
• The evolution of Swishy as a playground for curiosity and creative exploration

Links & Resources

• Website: swishie.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liafetterhoff/
• IG: @swishieofficial
• Substack: https://swishie.substack.com/

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn

Season 2 reflection exercises https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Grab Consciously Crafting Your Career Path: https://www.learnmindfully.co/store

Connect with Roberta on LinkedIn 

If this episode sparked new insight, please consider rating, following, or reviewing the show. It’s the best way to help more people find and benefit from these vital conversations. Thanks for listening!