Grateful Living

Grateful Living

By Arnav RoyHealth & FitnessMental Health
Download on the App Store

Grateful Living episodes

  • #19: Founding a Sustainable Period Care Company at 22: Katie Diasti on Viv

    Katie Diasti is the Founder of Viv, an earth-friendly direct-to-consumer period care brand innovating in the sustainable consumer goods space.

    In this interview, I talk to Katie about her life and business journey.

    Topics Covered:

    - Katie's background as an Egyptian American

    - Katie's respect for her mom being a single mom and how that's shaped her

    - Katie's experience with her period, what she's found out in her research about what others have said about period care products, and period care stigma

    - Why she chose to attend Boston College (BC)

    - What she liked about BC and what she would recommend to anyone just entering college

    - How the idea of Viv started from a class assignment in one of her business school classes

    - The point at which Katie decided to go full-time with Viv and not pursue a corporate job

    - Her thoughts on the impact of business and voting with your dollar

    - The importance of affordable, sustainable products

    - How running a company has been for her

    - Her advice to entrepreneurs thinking about starting their own business

    1 hr 5 min
  • #18: Consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Triston Francis, talks about his business journey
    Triston Francis is currently a Consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the Singapore Office.   
    He is a Harvard MBA Graduate of 2019 and a Wharton graduate of 2014.  
    Triston's prior experience also includes working at Morgan Stanley for 6 years in Investment Banking, Sales & Trading Associate, Client Strategy and Human Resources.   
    Topics Covered in this Interview: 
    - Triston's Biracial Background 
    - Triston's move to private boarding school in middle and high school from city public school and what that taught him  
    - Triston's experience with dyslexia and being an introvert in high school  
    - Triston's experience at the University of Pennsylvania and graduating from Wharton - How Triston obtained Internships at Google, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley during his college career 
    - Triston's experience at Morgan Stanley 
    - Triston's experience at Harvard Business School  
    - Triston's experience so far in consulting at BCG  
    - Triston's coaching he does to mentor future business leaders  
    Triston's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trisfrancis12/?hl=en  
    My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en
    1 hr 23 min
  • #17: Fei Wu, Founder of Feisworld, talks about her journey to starting a digital marketing company

    Fei is a 1st generation immigrant from China to the United States.   

    After studying at Northeastern University, she worked in the corporate world for 10 years.  

    Throughout her journey in the corporate, she knew at some point she wanted to start her own company. In February of 2016, she formed Feisworld LLC.  

    Among the many things Fei has done - she has her own podcast, produced a documentary on her life, and created a company that helps small businesses and individuals tell better stories, find more customers, create new revenue streams.  

    Topics We Cover in the Interview: - What her childhood growing up in China was like - Moving to America - what were some of the big adjustments - Her experience at Northeastern and what she liked about the university - Working in the corporate world and what that was like - Her experience with the immigration system in the US and getting a green card - Starting her own digital marketing company - Her advice to people looking to start entrepreneurial gigs

    49 min
  • #16: Widowed Parent Podcast Host and Creator, Jenny Lisk, on Her Life Journey
    5 years ago Jenny’s husband lost his battle with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.
    In the years following her husband’s passing, Jenny searched for resources/communities for widowed parents and found there weren’t that many resources/communities to help those going through this experience.
    So, in November of 2018, she launched the Widowed Parent Podcast to help those in this grieving processes. The podcast explores real-life stories of widowed families and brings in experts on a wide variety of topics related to childhood grief, parenting and loss.
    Jenny's Website: https://www.jennylisk.com/
    Jenny's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liskjenny/
    My Website: https://www.gratefulliving4.com/
    My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?
    1 hr 56 min
  • #15: Christine O'Donnell, Owner of Beacon Gallery, Talks About Her Life Journey

    Christine O'Donnell is the Owner of Beacon Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Boston's South End which showcases emerging and mid-career artists working in the contemporary arts.   

    Some topics we covered:

    • Christine’s love for travel and foreign languages and where that came from
    • Christine’s experience living abroad for 10 years in France, Hong Kong and Singapore
    • Christine’s experience teaching English abroad
    • Christine’s journey to starting Beacon Gallery
    • Christine’s son getting bacterial meningitis as a 9 month year old and being put in a medically induced coma

      • Beacon Gallery's Website: https://beacongallery.com/index.php  

      Beacon Gallery's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beacongallery/  

      Grateful Living Website: gratefulliving4.com  

      My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?...

      1 hr 5 min
    • #14: Keith Benson, Ed. D., President of Camden Education Association, Speaks about Urban Public Education
      Keith Benson, Ed. D. started his career as a social studies teacher for 8 years in Camden, New Jersey, he then worked as an education program specialist for 6 years for the Camden City School District, and then in August of 2017 he was elected President of the Camden Education Association.   
      In this interview, Keith talks about: - His Life Journey and Juggling Multiple Identities (he lived in a predominantly black neighborhood but went to high school at a predominantly white private high school)  
      -How Having His Daughter Changed His Life  
      -The Good Parts and Bad Parts of Teaching in Urban Public Schools  
      -What Changes/Hopes He Has for the Camden Education System and Camden, NJ  
      -Thoughts on Camden NJ's change in police tactics and his thoughts on improving relations with the community   
      Keith's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-e-benson-ed-d-20a16091/  
      My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en  
      Grateful Living Website: gratefulliving4.com
      54 min
    • #13: Poet Osamase Ekhator on Publishing His First Book
      Osamase Ekhator is a poet, writer and author of "Situationship" - a collection of poems detailing his journey with love and race as an African American.
      “Situationship” was invited to the 2019 Brooklyn Book Festival on behalf of AZURE Literary Group.
      Topics Hit On In the Interview:
      - Osamase describes his upbringing and life story: his Nigerian background, going to a charter school for high school, graduating from Boston College as an English Major
      - Where His Love for Poetry and Writing Started From
      - The differences in performing poetry and writing poetry
      - How He Gets Into the Zone of Writing and His Poetry Process
      - How influences from hip hop and sports inspired him to want to write
      - Why He Decided to Publish and How He Got Over the Mental Hurdle
      - How He Self-Published His Book and His Advice for Other Authors Looking to Publish
      - "Featured Poets" section of his website where he highlights poetry from many different poets
      Osamase's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/osamasetorbest/?hl=en
      Osamase's Website: https://www.osamasetorbest.com/
      Grateful Living Website: https://www.gratefulliving4.com/
      My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/
      1 hr 20 min
    • #12: Sean Perry, Founder of We R H.O.P.E., non-profit that brings anxiety education services to schools talks about his life journey
      After working as a Residential Coordinator in the private mental heath field, Sean saw that though they were doing great work, the work was only available to those with access to a tremendous amount of money (for example, a 3 months stay at these facilities could cost $90,000).   
      Sean felt economic standing should not determine whether people had access to these services.  
      So, in 2017 he co-founded We R H.O.P.E, a non-profit that that brings anxiety education, coaching, trauma informed interactive services, suicide prevention, collaborative problem solving and Emotional CPR,  to individuals and schools struggling to find affordable support options.   
      I talk to Sean about his entire life journey - growing up in the 1980s and his experiences with being called the N word, his take on mental health issues and anxiety and the importance of coaching and therapy, how being a dad changed his life and how he co-founded We R H.O.P.E.
      We R H.O.P.E. Website: https://werhope.org/  
      We R H.O.P.E. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/werhopeinc/
      1 hr 30 min
    • #11: Former Professional Hockey Player Kaliya Johnson on her sports and life journey
      Kaliya Johnson is a former women's professional hockey player (Kaliya played for Connecticut Whale and the Boston Pride) and a former Division 1 Hockey player at Boston College but she's a rare breed in the sport as an African American.   
      Kaliya talks about her journey in the hockey world and what it was like often being the only African American on the ice rink. We also dive into a bunch of other topics - being raised in a single parent household, her mental health journey and much more.  
      Kaliya's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwanialunis...   
      Kaliya's Website: https://www.owningklea.com/  
      Grateful Living Website: https://www.gratefulliving4.com/  
      My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/
      51 min

    About Grateful Living

    From the publisher's feed

    I try to share and learn from positive and inspirational stories by interviewing people in different industries.