Moments That Define Us Podcast

In today's episode Iryna is joined by Emily Mara, who is a personal trainer, accountability coach and the founder and owner of EMpower by Emily Mara https://www.empowerbyem.com/. This conversation is extra special for many reasons. One of the reasons is in this episode Emily and Iryna talked about the beauty and challenges of motherhood. Emily lost her mom over 10 years and she spoke about lessons she learned from her mom, her grieving process and her approach to her journey as a mother of two girls.

Emily started dancing at a very young age and the love for dance provide her with great opportunities of travelling around the world and performing in front of amazing audience. As Emily said, "movement has always been medicinal to me". Today, Emily owns her own business EMpower by EM, she is empowering women to look and feel their best though her coaching and personal training. This episode is good for the soul and the heart!

You can learn more about Emily and her business at https://www.empowerbyem.com/ and follow her on social media @emilychristinemara #whatsyourdefiningmoment #sharingourstoriesishealing #thebeststorytellingpodcast #empowerbyem

Michael Sykes is the founder of the organization called Equitable Solutions and the director of culture, equity and leadership for Denver Public Schools. This conversation was deep, meaningful, vulnerable and we talked about variety of topics. Michael was open enough to talk about his life in a very profound way, things he had to learn and overcome to become a person he is today. Michael wrote a book "Easy Equity" and he dedicated this book to some of the strong , powerful and important women in his life and he talked about them with such love, gratitude and respect and how they helped shaped him into the person he is today and how instrument their love has been for me. Because both Iryna and Michael are parents they talked about how parenthood changes us forever and make us want to be a better person for ourselves and our children.

We also discussed topics around racism, black lives matter movement and why self love is so important when it comes to these and other issues .

To learn more about Michael Sykes, the work he does and to purchase his book visit https://equitablesolutions.net/. You can also follow Michael on Instagram @equitablesolutionscolorado

I had a pleasure of having a wonderful conversation with Karen Olson, the founder of national non profit organization call Family Promise. Karen joined me on the podcast to talk about her book "Mean For More" . In her book Karen captured her incredible journey from a single act of kindness to a lifetime of service. Karen wrote a beautiful story about her childhood and tragedy she experienced at a young age and how helping others helped her heal herself alone the way. To learn more about Family Promise, go to https://familypromise.org/ . You can find local affiliate in your state to volunteer and donate.

To learn more about Karen Olson and to purchase her book, head to https://www.karenolsonauthor.com/

#momentsthatdefineuspodcast #whatsyourdefiningmoment #sharingourstoriesishealing #meantformore #author

In today's episode Iryna is joined by an incredible fashion designer Michael Sullivan. Michael went all the way back to his childhood and talked about little Michael, his hopes and dreams for the future and how he is living that dream right now. Michael's grandfather was a big inspiration for him because of his impeccable style and his wisdom. Michael has been honoring his grandfather in his recent clothing collection. Not only Michael is a great fashion designer, he is builds his community for people to feel seen and loved and most importantly be themselves. Michael is a founder of fashion house HAUS. HAUS is a black - queer owned design-haus that creates urban contemporary, gender & size inclusive, clothing with an eco-friendly, gender-affirming, and cruelty-free focus. To learn more about HAUS go to https://www.hausclothing.com/. You can also follow Michael on IG at michaelcsully #momentsthatdefineuspodcast #whatsyourdefiningmoment #nyfw #fashiondesigner #sharingourstoriesishealing

Bella and Iryna were invited to be part of the discussion panel on the Outlier's Edge Podcast. We discussed what it means to be an entrepreneur, obstacles we had to overcome to get to the place we are today and why failure is necessary and perfection is the killer of all joy.

Visit https://niiamahashong.com/oepodcast/ to learn more about the ultimate Outlier behind the podcast and the outliers community Niiamah Ashong.

#whatsyourdefiningmoment #outlierscommunity #entrepreneur #lifelessons

Welcome to Season #4!!!!!! In the first episode of season 4, Iryna and Bella sat down for a beautiful conversation. They talked about why Bella has been MIA from the podcast, the loss she experienced last year that give her clarity on how to move forward and what's in store for the podcast this year. You don't want to miss this episode because there is big announcement on expansion within the podcast!!!!! #momentsthatdefineuspodcast #whatsyourdefiningmoment #bigannouncement #newyearnewopportunities

In today's episode Iryna is joined by Denise Izso, the founder and host of Blacadian podcast. Through social media , Iryna and Denise became listeners of each other's podcast and finally decided to sit down for a conversation on Moments That Define Us Podcast. Denise was born and raised in Canada but both of her parents are from Barbados. She spoke about growing up in Canada , in a predominantly white neighborhood and how she navigated her childhood, friendships and the world around her mixing her two cultures.

Denise talked about Canada and answered the question we all want to know - "Are Canadians really that nice". She also spoke about racism in Canada and the comparison to the United States.

Denise has had to navigate life as a woman of color her whole life so she decided to share her experiences through storytelling and that's when Blacadian podcast was born (she is black and canadian so blacadian, get it?

Check out Denise podcast here https://open.spotify.com/show/2yLBboXfmlaVRZjxPlYTmo

#whatsyourdefiningmoment

We all spend money on a daily basis but do we really know what the organizations we support stand for? Who make those critical decisions for the company? Do they really represent community they serve and who they have on their board of directors and why that is so important to know for us as consumers ? In today's episode we sat down with Sara Finesilver , who is on of the founding partners of Board First Consulting, LLC , a women-owned board effectiveness consulting firm.

We often think boards of directors as bunch of middle-aged white men, which can be true but Sara and her partners through the work they do helping organizations, non profit and for profit have a board that really represent communities they serve.

In this episode, Sara helped us understand how we all can make a difference and change by finding organizations that do the work we truly care about and serving on a board.

You can learn more about Sara and the work she does at https://boardfirstconsulting.com/

#whatsyourdefiningmoment #momentsthatdefineuspodcast #sharingourstorieshasahealingpower #boardofdirectors #whatyourboardsaysboutyourorganization #weallcanmakeachange

Todays episode is a special one! Bella sat down with Iryna to talk to her about turning 40. They covered topics from aging and beauty to becoming more mature and caring less about what other people think of you. Bella took Iryna on a journey though her life, from looking back to her 20 and 30 to what lies ahead for the next decade. Iryna gave some very good advice to young people and shared some of the defining moments that makes a person she is today! If you need wisdom and inspiration in your life, this episode is for you!

#whatsyourdefiningmoment #turning40 #wisdom #gettingolderisbeautiful

In today episode we are joined by an incredible human Assetou Xango. They are a poet, an author , a coach and so much more.. In this conversation we discussed variety of topics from election and the state of our country today to creativity , writing and how being creative can be beautiful but also make us face everything in ourself we are scared to face. When it comes to creativity Assetou said, "You have to listen when spirit is talking to you" This conversation was was real, authentic and vulnerable and it will make you think about the world, your contribution to it and creativity in whole new way.

Check out Assetou's work at https://assetouxango.com/

#whatsyourdefiningmoment