High-achieving women can earn the title, build the career, and still wake up wondering why success no longer feels fulfilling.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Colleen Pimentel to talk about redefining success, career burnout, second acts, and what it means to live and work with more intention. Colleen shares her journey through 30 years in big tech, 10 reinventions, and the identity shift that began when her daughter left for college.

Together, Richa and Colleen explore why high-achieving women can feel burned out even when they are not doing too much, how women often lose touch with their own desires after years of caring for everyone else, and why reconnecting with purpose starts by lowering the noise. They also discuss golden handcuffs, imposter syndrome, fear, confidence, career reinvention, and why a second act does not have to wait until later life.

Start listening and ask yourself where you may be chasing the next title, next paycheck, or next achievement instead of the work that actually feels fulfilling. Tune in to the full episode of How High-Achieving Women Can Redefine Success, Avoid Burnout, and Build Their Second Act with Colleen Pimentel.

Colleen Pimentel has spent the past 30 years in big tech, including roles at Oracle and Google, and has navigated 10 career reinventions along the way, starting in accounting before moving into tech sales. Today, she is still a sales executive at Google, but her focus has expanded into helping people live intentionally and uncover their true purpose.

Colleen's own turning point came when her daughter left for college and she found herself questioning her identity, not just as a mother, but as a professional. That period of self-discovery led her to develop the frameworks and exercises she now teaches, centered on stillness, intentional mornings, and reconnecting with personal desire. She has since delivered a TEDx talk, leads coaching workshops, and is the author of the book Second Act. She shares her insights weekly on LinkedIn, where she questions common myths about growth and success.

Ready to build your own second act? Colleen's book, Second Act, is available now on Amazon and unpacks the mindset shifts and exercises from this episode in even more depth, from rebuilding your ability to desire to navigating identity at any stage of your career. Pick up your copy today: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1YP5CZ2

Connect with Colleen Pimentel:

Website: https://www.colleenpimentel.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-pimentel-140790/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@collpimentel

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerBurnout #CareerReinvention #WomenInLeadership #CareerPurpose

For women trying to break into AI, real credibility does not come from reading every newsletter or sounding technical overnight. It comes from building, experimenting, sharing your work, and learning how to trust your own career instincts.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Rachel Wu to talk about building a career in AI, moving into more technical roles, and making intentional career decisions without letting fear, judgment, or other people's experiences define the path. Rachel shares what her work in AI infrastructure and cloud strategy at Google has taught her about technical confidence, hands-on learning, mentorship, and why exposure to AI is not the same as expertise.

Together, Richa and Rachel discuss how women can build AI career skills without waiting to feel fully ready, why imperfect projects are still worth sharing, how to take career advice with a grain of salt, and what it means to make fearless moves while staying accountable to yourself.

Start listening and ask yourself where you may be waiting for more proof, more permission, or more certainty before making your next move. Tune in to the full episode of Women in Tech: How to Build Technical Expertise, Influence & Leadership in the Age of AI with Rachel Wu.

Rachel Wu works in cloud strategy and strategic programs at Google, where her work has focused on reliability and the shift toward agentic reliability across AI infrastructure. She previously worked in Google's global business organization on scaled enterprise customer support products and practical AI implementation, including chatbots, automated triage, and translations. Before Google, she worked across hedge funds and startups, and her career has been shaped by technical curiosity, mentorship, hands-on experimentation, and a willingness to question traditional career paths.

Connect with Rachel Wu:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelwwu/

X: https://x.com/missrachelww

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #WomenInAI #AICareers #WomenInTech

A personal brand is not vanity. It is how people remember a woman when she is not in the room.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Divyaa Ravishankar, a strategy and growth professional with global experience across healthcare, life sciences, and in vitro diagnostics, to talk about building a personal brand on LinkedIn without shrinking into one box. Together, they explore why many women hesitate to post on LinkedIn, how employers can misunderstand visibility, and why a personal brand is really a professional image at scale.

The conversation also covers how women can start posting before they feel ready, use LinkedIn to show expertise, build thought leadership with a point of view, connect personal brand to values, strengthen articulation, and rethink self-promotion as a way to grow impact. For ambitious women who want to be known for more than a job title, this episode is a practical reminder that visibility is not about vanity. It is about credibility, opportunity, and owning the full range of what they bring to the table.

Start listening and ask yourself where you might be hiding behind your job title, waiting to feel ready to post, or shrinking your voice into one box. Tune in to the full episode of How Women Can Build a LinkedIn Personal Brand That Opens Career Doors with Divyaa Ravishankar

Divyaa Ravishankar is a strategy and growth professional with over twelve years of global experience across healthcare, life sciences, and in vitro diagnostics. She advises product and commercial leaders on market entry, portfolio strategy, and competitive positioning, bringing a hypothesis-driven, data-backed approach to problems spanning next-generation sequencing, point-of-care testing, genetic testing, flow cytometry, and digital pathology. Divyaa partners closely with R&D, marketing, and commercial teams to shape decisions across hospitals, reference labs, and decentralized care models, distilling complex scientific and market insights into clear, executive-level narratives that drive alignment and speed.

Connect with Divyaa Ravishankar:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyaa-ravishankar-7a6a951b/

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerGrowth #PersonalBranding #WomenInLeadership

Confidence is not something women can simply command into place.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Dr. Jean Kantambu Latting, organizational consultant, leadership coach, Professor Emerita, and President of Leading Consciously, to talk about what it really takes for women to speak up, hold their ground, and put themselves first. Together, they unpack why the advice to "just be more confident" misses the deeper issue of worthiness, and why many women are still carrying old messages about being good, quiet, helpful, and easy to work with.

The conversation also covers Dr. Jean's Conscious Change framework, including conscious influence, conscious agility, and you first. Richa and Dr. Jean discuss how women can balance warmth and competence, lead through influence when they do not have authority, use difference as an advantage, rewrite old stories, listen to what the body is signaling, and make small behavioral changes that support stronger boundaries and more authentic leadership.

Start listening and ask yourself where you might be waiting for permission to ask, speak up, set a boundary, or put yourself first. Tune in to the full episode of How To Speak Up, Hold Your Ground, And Put Yourself First with Dr. Jean Latting

Dr. Jean K. Latting is an organizational consultant, leadership coach, and author with over thirty-five years of experience in private and public sector organizations. She is President of Leading Consciously and Professor Emerita of Leadership and Change at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work, where she held the endowed Jean Kantambu Latting Professorship. Dr. Latting is the co-author of Reframing Change: How to Deal with Workplace Dynamics, Influence Others, and Bring People Together to Initiate Positive Change, and has published over twenty-five book chapters and articles on organizational behavior, cultural competence, and change. She holds a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master's in Social Work from Columbia University.

Connect with Dr. Jean Latting:

Visit Leading Consciously: https://www.leadingconsciously.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanlattingconsultant/

X: https://x.com/jeanlatting

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

The Fearless Hire: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerGrowth #CareerConfidence #WomenInLeadership

Fearless is not built by waiting until every step feels safe.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Rathi Gnanasekaran, a senior technical program manager, startup operator, entrepreneur, and former Fearless Hire client, to talk about reinvention, immigrant resilience, career confidence, and learning to take the next step before every answer is clear. Rathi shares how moving from India to Bahrain, then to Canada as a young international student, shaped the way she approaches risk, uncertainty, and first-time roles.

The conversation also covers what happens when a high-performing woman suddenly has to rebuild confidence after a layoff, why persistence matters in a difficult job market, and how community can change the actions someone takes. Richa and Rathi also talk about why leadership, job searching, and promotion conversations are all sales conversations, and how Rathi turned a career pause into the beginning of Lentl, her crunchy lentil seasoning brand. For women who are trying to pivot, recover their confidence, or take a new kind of risk, this episode is a practical reminder that confidence is built through action, not certainty.

Start listening and ask yourself where you might be waiting to feel fully ready. Tune in to the full episode of Every Role Is a First Time: Rebuilding Career Confidence After a Layoff with Rathi Gnanasekaran

Rathi Gnanasekaran is an accomplished Senior Technical Program Manager with deep expertise in program management, portfolio management, and engineering operations. She has worked across high-growth B2B FinTech startups and enterprise SaaS environments, leading complex initiatives in AI/ML, cloud infrastructure migration, scalable SDLC processes, and engineering operations. She is also the founder of Lentl, a crunchy lentil seasoning brand inspired by South Indian podi.

Shop Rati's crunchy lentil seasoning blends at www.lentl.co, with free shipping on orders over thirty dollars.

Know more about Lantl:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lentl.co

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lentl.co

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/07eigfs2a9c8m12xyi1ri2x3v31m3t/lentl-crunchy-lentil-seasoning/?invite_code=c8429693c7d84fb1bc264203b9c885ee&sender=1086001035052674329

Connect with Rathi:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rathi-gnanasekaran-41377bb/

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #WomenInLeadership #CareerConfidence #CareerGrowth #CareerReinvention

Executive presence is not just how someone sounds in the room. It starts with whether they have given themselves permission to be there.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Colin Boyd, communication and business coach, author of One Presentation Away, and host of The Expert Edge Podcast, for a practical conversation on executive presence, storytelling, and taking up space in high-stakes rooms. Colin explains why presence begins with being present, how grounding changes the way someone shows up, and why the best communicators do not rush to prove themselves.

They also talk about the communication shifts ambitious women need in interviews, promotion conversations, presentations, and senior leadership rooms, from using stories and case studies to show expertise, to slowing down, using body language with intention, handling dominant personalities, and deciding not to wait for someone else to "knight" them as a leader.

Start listening and ask yourself whether you've truly given yourself permission to take up space. Tune in to the full episode of How to Build Executive Presence in High-Stakes Conversations with Colin Boyd.

Colin Boyd is a communication and business coach who helps experts, coaches, and speakers sell and command the stage on virtual and live platforms. He is the author of One Presentation Away: Become an Irresistible Speaker and Convert More Clients, published by Wiley, distilling over 17 years of experience as a professional speaker and coach. Colin also hosts The Expert Edge Podcast, where he explores influence, persuasion, and communication with leading industry experts, and created The Conversion Story Formula™, a framework for connecting with audiences and filling programs through storytelling.

Grab Colin's book, One Presentation Away, on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/One-Presentation-Away-Irresistible-Speaker/dp/1394324316] his step-by-step framework for becoming an irresistible speaker who connects, captivates, and converts without feeling salesy.

Connect with Colin Boyd:

Website: https://colinboyd.co/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinboyd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colinboydglobal/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/colinboydcoach1

X: https://x.com/colingboyd

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

Apply for The Fearless Hire: https://rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #ExecutivePresence #WomenInLeadership #CommunicationSkills #LeadershipPresence #CareerGrowth #OwnTheRoom #TakeUpSpace #SpeakWithConfidence #CareerConfidence

The strongest interview answers do not just explain what happened. They show why the problem mattered and why the candidate was the leader who could solve it.

In this solo episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal breaks down her SOARR storytelling framework for answering behavioral interview questions, especially for women targeting senior IC, manager, staff, director, VP, and other leadership roles. She explains why the popular STAR technique can fall short, how it can lead candidates to over-explain details, bury the real business challenge, and miss the opportunity to show leadership maturity.

Richa walks through each part of SOARR: Situation, Obstacle, Actions, Results, and Reflection. She shows how candidates can organize their stories with stronger business context, clearer stakes, measurable impact, and a reflection that demonstrates maturity. This episode is especially useful for ambitious women preparing for interviews, internal promotions, networking conversations, resume updates, and salary negotiations.

Start listening and ask yourself whether your interview stories are showing what you did, or why it mattered. Tune in to the full episode of Fearless Career Moves: How to Ace Your Next Job Interview Using the Proprietary SOARR Storytelling Framework

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

The Fearless Hire: https://rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #InterviewTips #JobSearch #CareerGrowth #CareerConfidence #WomenInLeadership #BehavioralInterview #SOARRMethod

Motherhood should not be treated as a reason for ambitious women to shrink.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Nikita Kawdiya, a product leader and former Fearless Hire client, to talk about ambition after motherhood, self-promotion, leadership language, support systems, and getting comfortable talking about the business impact behind your work. Nikita shares what it felt like to be told she might need to take a step down after becoming a mother, why she refused to let that define her next move, and how she learned to own the big numbers behind her product leadership.

The conversation also covers how women can stop reducing their work to task lists, start connecting their impact to dollars and outcomes, negotiate with more confidence, and replace default apologies with stronger language. For women who are tired of being capable but under-credited, this episode is a practical reminder that owning your value is not bragging. It is leadership.

Start listening and ask yourself where you might be underselling your own impact. Tune in to the full episode of Motherhood Is Not A Step Down: Owning Your Ambition After Becoming A Mom with Nikita Kawdiya

Nikita Kawdiya is a Director of Product with 16+ years of experience leading CX-driven transformations, defining product vision, leading high-performing teams, and managing $20M+ annual budgets across Fortune 100 FinTech and Digital Banking organisations, including Prudential Financial and Citibank. She has led 0 to 1 product launches, scaled platforms to 1M users, and delivered measurable customer and business impact across mobile, web, B2C, B2B, and B2B2C SaaS environments.

Connect with Nikita:

Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikitakawdiya/

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

The Fearless Hire: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #WomenInLeadership #CareerConfidence #WorkingMoms #SelfAdvocacy

High-performing women are often told they are doing great, but doing great is not always what gets them promoted.

In this solo episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal breaks down why ambitious women in tech can have the experience, education, expertise, and strong performance reviews, and still get overlooked for promotion. She explains why hard work often leads to more work instead of more power, why promotion decisions are grounded in business impact, and why a direct manager liking someone is not the same as having the right sponsors in the room.

Richa also shares tactical ways to stop waiting for recognition and start building a stronger promotion case. From creating an impact tracker to using the SOARR storytelling formula, connecting work to leadership priorities, and knowing market worth before it is needed, this episode gives ambitious women practical tools to be seen as ready for the next level.

Start listening and ask yourself whether your work is being seen as leadership-ready work. Tune in to the full episode of Why High-Performing Women Still Get Overlooked For Promotion.

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

The Fearless Hire: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #WomenInLeadership #CareerGrowth #CareerOwnership #KnowYourWorth

AI is changing product management fast, but not every PM needs to panic, pivot, or chase the same role.

In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, I sit down with Aakash Gupta, also known as the AIPM guy, to talk about what product managers actually need to do to stay relevant as AI changes the role. Aakash is a product and growth leader who has led teams at thredUP, Affirm, and Apollo.io, and he now writes Product Growth and AI by Aakash, hosts The Growth Podcast, and helps product managers break into AI PM.

We get practical about what AI PM really means, why every PM needs to understand both AI productivity and AI feature building, and how to build credible AI experience even when your current product does not have AI work. Aakash breaks down courses, certificates, side projects, candidate market fit, niche positioning, LinkedIn strategy, and how to show proof in interviews instead of relying on polished talking points.

Start listening and ask yourself where your next career move needs more strategy, more proof, and less panic. Tune in to the full episode of How Product Managers Can Stay Relevant in the AI Era.

Aakash Gupta is a product and growth leader who has led growth and product work at thredUP, Affirm, and Apollo.io. He writes Product Growth, hosts The Growth Podcast, and runs Land a PM Job, a live cohort for product managers looking to break into AI PM and future-proof their careers. If you're a product manager ready to make that move, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow his newsletter at product-growth.com for practical advice on building AI skills and shipping real product value.

Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.

Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/

The Fearless Hire: https://www.pinkcareers.com/

Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/

#FearlessCareerMoves #ProductManagement #AIProductManagement #WomenInTech #CareerGrowth