In this episode Sara sits down with Aleeza Khan.

Aleeza recently graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a minor in Design. She focuses on community-centered design through her work with a nonprofit organization, Tiny Village Spirit. She is also the social media manager for the Ace of Pentacles Podcast

Aleeza is also the creator and host of the Livin and Loving podcast, where she shares conversations around growth, identity, and empowerment.

She has completed multiple internships at M Designs Architects and currently works at IMG II, her father’s real estate and investment firm. Aleeza is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Real Estate and Real Estate Development at the University of Washington, starting this fall, to grow further and elevate the family business.

Aleeza and Sara talk about the values and perspectives of Gen Z with regards to work and careers. They discuss many topics, including: how this new generation thinks about flexibility and working from home, the type of workplace environment they’re looking for, workplace culture, balancing mental health and work, and Aleeza shares her perspective on using LinkedIn and networking.

The real "organizational culture" problem that companies aren't addressing.

In this conversation, Sara sits down with Psychotherapist and Educator, Dr. Swan Dao. As Founder and Director of the Institute of Devotional Arts, Dr. Dao is dedicated to transforming lives through creative expression. Dr. Dao shares insights on effective communication, conflict resolution, and setting healthy boundaries. Together, Sara and Swan explore practical strategies to help you navigate challenging conversations—both in the workplace and in everyday life.

About Dr. Swan Dao:

Dr. Swan Dao is a psychotherapist, coach, and educator. Swan studied and taught philosophy, theology, psychology, and theatre in Oxford, Melbourne, and Chicago, and earned a PhD from the University Cambridge on the theme of self-transformation and system change.

He is also a certified Conflict Mediator and trained in numerous communication practices such as Non-Violent Communication, Authentic Relating, and Circling. As the founder of the Institute of Devotional Arts, he harnesses the power of creativity and imagination for collective healing and transformation.

You Can learn more about Dr. Dao’s work at: https://www.devotionalarts.org/

Claus Raasted helps organizations both big and small become better at GETTING S**T DONE. He also serves as Director of the College of Extraordinary Experiences. He travels the globe as a keynote speaker, and has been both a Coach and Senior Advisor at the consulting giant McKinsey. Raasted is the author of 46 books, the latest of which is fittingly titled “Claus Raasted’s Little Book of Getting Shit Done”. He also has a past in reality TV, but these days, who hasn't?

Last year, Sara attended the College of Extraordinary Experiences. She met many very cool people doing really cool things in their careers (you’ve met a few on this podcast), and she came back with a renewed perspective on how she navigates her own life and career.

In this episode, Sara and Claus talk about how the college is designed to help people bring more creativity, imagination and innovation into their work.

For more information on the College of Extraordinary Experiences, visit extraordinary.college

In this episode, Nishant Badami, founder of Ubuntu, shares her journey and the philosophy behind creating soulful, transformative travel experiences. She explains that transformation isn’t about changing who you are, but how you see yourself - a distinction shaped by her own evolution through travel.

Nishant debunks common myths about personal growth and emphasizes subtle inner shifts over dramatic reinventions. Ubuntu treats each journey as a living, evolving experience.

Nishant designs these trips to create space for reflection, connection, and vulnerability, encouraging travelers to engage deeply with themselves and others. 

Travel, she says, is a unique catalyst for mindset change - it breaks routines, challenges beliefs, and opens people to new perspectives. Community and honest connection play a central role, as does ensuring cultural immersion is respectful and reciprocal.

About Nishant:

Nishant Badami is a creator, communicator, and connector. As the founder of Ubuntu, she creates meaningful experiences that help bridge cultural gaps and connect people with the world as well as themselves.

Nishant studied history and then went on to become a copywriter, working in the world of print advertising and later writing for television programming. Travel started as a deeply personal passion for Nishant - something she designed with love and intention for her family and herself.

In time, this passion was recognized and transformed into a profession, an opportunity she remains profoundly grateful for. As her journey progressed, Nishant came to a realization: lasting change requires a shift in how we perceive the world and each other. Her involvement with the Transformational Travel Council gave voice to this belief and reinforced her conviction that travel can be a powerful tool for transformation and connection.

Today, Nishant designs conscious travel experiences rooted in the principles of transformational travel. She is also a painter – what began as a passion has evolved into a professional pursuit, with her artworks being sold and commissioned.

Is she someone different outside her professional life? Not at all. As a mother, daughter, wife, friend, and sister, travel and art are interwoven into every version of who Nishant is.

Set up your next travel journey with Nish at: https://theubuntu.life/

In this episode, Sara sits down with Christiana, the Training Sales Manager and Certification Specialist at the HeartMath Institute (HMI) a pioneering non-profit organization that’s been at the forefront of researching heart-based tools and technologies to improve emotional well-being, performance, and human connection.

A passionate advocate for heart intelligence, Christiana shares her personal journey to HeartMath and how its science-backed approach to resilience and coherence deeply transformed her own path. Together, they explore the meaning of resilience from a HeartMath perspective - how it's not just about bouncing back, but about bouncing forward with greater emotional regulation, clarity, and inner alignment. They discuss heart coherence, heart intelligence, and even practice a tool that you can use to increase your capacity for resilience. Christiana also shares how HMI supports organizations, educators, and first responders in building group resilience, and reveals compelling data on how heart coherence practices can lead to better performance, reduced stress, and stronger interpersonal connection in the workplace.

 About Christiana Bishop:

Christiana Bishop is a senior staff member of the HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, California. Christiana creates certification programs, and develops alliances with nonprofits, educational systems and first responder organizations around the USA and internationally. Formerly, she was a Senior Trainer and Director of HeartMath’s Women’s Division. Currently Christiana is the Training Sales Manager and Certification Specialist for the Institute and additionally, helps support and operationalize HeartMath’s programs as needed.

In this episode Sara sits down with renowned archetypal coach and consultant, Dr. Laurence Hillman, a renowned expert in archetypal psychology and co-creator of Archetypes at Work™, a powerful framework designed to help individuals, teams, and organizations uncover their deeper motivations, values, and mindset. Dr. Hillman shares the personal and professional journey that led him to this transformative work and explains how archetypes, which are ancient patterns of behavior, can be used as a practical tool for modern workplaces.

They explore the origins and functions of archetypes, what inspired the development of Archetypes at Work, and how this approach differs from traditional psychometric assessments and team-building models. Dr. Hillman introduces the concept of archetypal coaching, and explains how knowing your archetypes can positively influence collaboration, leadership, and organizational culture.

Dr. Hillman shares examples demonstrating how archetypes show up in both empowering and dysfunctional ways at work, how to recognize when a particular archetype needs to be activated, and how to consciously develop these patterns for personal and professional growth. We also discuss how archetypes manifest differently across cultures, and the implications for leaders navigating global, diverse teams. 

Whether you're an executive, HR leader, coach, or curious individual, this episode offers practical wisdom on how to bring deeper self-awareness and purpose into your work.

Connect with Dr. Hillman: You can connect with Dr. Hillman and learn more about his work at: https://laurencehillman.com 

About Laurence Hillman:

Born and raised in Zürich, Switzerland, Dr. Laurence Hillman is an archetypal coach and consultant with over 48 years of experience. He specializes in helping individuals and organizations uncover their deeper purpose using archetypal patterns and astrology. As co-creator of Archetypes at Work™, he has developed innovative tools for personal and organizational development.

An international lecturer, Dr. Hillman has taught at institutions such as Pacifica Graduate Institute, Meridian University, and Washington University. He has also presented at notable venues like the Globe Theatre in London and the Cycles & Symbols Conference. He is currently teaching practical archetypal astrology through Kosmos Institute and is a registered Vistage® speaker.

Dr. Hillman holds a PhD in psychology (Transformative Leadership), an MBA, a Master’s in Construction Management, and a degree in architecture. He has authored and co-authored several books, including Planets in Play and Archetypes at Work. Fluent in five languages, he has traveled to over 40 countries and resides in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Cindy.

In this episode, Sara sits down with Naveen Khan to discuss the unexpected changes that can impact our careers, often beyond our control.

Naveen shares her personal experiences and offers valuable insights on how to prepare for and embrace change, maintain wellness in the midst of chaos, and adopt a resilient mindset that has helped her navigate multiple career transitions.

About Naveen:

Naveen is an experienced Event Manager at a Fortune 100 company and is currently based in Chicago, IL. As a native of the Bay Area, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree from San Francisco State University.

With over 13 years of experience in the corporate events space, she has specialized in field marketing, large-scale tech conferences, and both B2B and B2C events, with time divided between leading tech companies and startups.

In this conversation, Sara sits down with Sneha Koka to talk about authenticity in leadership and in life.

Sneha opens up about her journey as an engineer, a leader, and a mom, offering a thoughtful glimpse into how she balances these roles. She shares how embracing honesty about her needs and desires—combined with an engineering mindset for solving everyday challenges—has empowered her to build a life she truly enjoys. Sneha also reflects on how her diverse background and experiences have shaped her ability to show up authentically in every aspect of her life. 

About Sneha:

Sneha Koka is a leader in the operations organization at Nvidia with previous experience as a manufacturing engineer at Tesla during the Model 3 launch and at Linde and Caterpillar prior to that. She leads the capacity planning team at Nvidia, ensuring capacity risk mitigation strategies are in place across all verticals post-fab. Her background is in industrial engineering and she has spent about fifteen years tackling complex challenges in dynamic business environments in multiple industries – semiconductor, automotive and chemical. Her recent challenges in the silicon valley have been focused on implementing solutions to enable exponential scalability.

Outside of work, she’s a mom of two young boys, two and four. For fun, she loves biking with her family, hiking/exploring nature in their camper van and doing pottery on the wheel. Sneha loves to create - creating art, creating solutions and creating new memories/experiences is something she thrives on. Sneha also loves to bring people together.

Someone once congratulated Sneha on becoming a mom, with the statement “welcome to the world’s largest fraternity/sorority”. Sneha became a mom for the first time during the Covid 19 pandemic; a time when many parents started to leave the workforce as a result of losing their standard support systems they relied on. Sneha continued to take on bigger challenges at work while intentionally looking to grow in her personal life.

Always having been a lover of nature and the outdoors, Sneha leaned into that aspect of her life even as a new parent and found ways to incorporate outdoor adventures into her family’s routine. A friend told her that following Sneha’s outdoor adventures was inspiring her to come up with innovative ways to balance both work and family time. This in turn inspired Sneha share her outdoor nature explorations & van life on the weekends, hoping to inspire more parents to find creative ways to meet their goals holistically and not have to step away from professional goals unless it’s truly what they wanted to do.

What if life does come with a map?

In this episode, Katie Sweetman, a New York-based astrologer shares how astrology can deepen our understanding of our purpose, talents, and the work that truly brings us joy and wellbeing.

Katie began her consultancy, Empowering Astrology, in 2010 to help people use astrology as a tool for uncovering purpose and meaning in their lives.

According to Katie, each of us comes into this world with a unique map—a blueprint for our life.

Sara found Katie last year and set up a consultation with her. Sara was drawn to her approach because Katie doesn’t treat astrology as a way to predict the future. Instead, she talks about it as a way to understand time—the energy of time. Her style is educational and empowering, helping people discover their own answers through the lens of astrology.

In addition to her consultancy, Katie educates and inspires her growing community with resources on her website, regular articles on astrology and the influence of planetary movements, and a podcast called Empowering Astrology.

You can learn more about Katie’s work at: empoweringastrology.com