She built the life she wanted. The career, the family, the role, the respect. And then one morning she woke up and thought: this is everything I asked for, but I cannot find myself in any of it.

Unyime Oguta is a speaker, author, and leadership consultant who has spent over 20 years working across corporate and ministry spaces. She does not teach women to do more. She challenges them to stop performing, raise their standards, and lead from peace instead of pressure. And she recently lived that teaching in the most public way possible, stepping away from her coaching business, her podcast, and social media to honour a season of stillness she could no longer ignore.

In this conversation, Unyime introduces us to who she calls the exhausted leader, the woman who has learned to wear performance so well it has become a second skin. We talk about what self-erasure actually looks like in real life, why resentment often shows up toward the people and things you love most, and how to recognize the difference between a hard week and a season that is asking you to evolve.

This is not a conversation about productivity or optimization. This is a conversation about coming home to yourself in the middle of a life you built for everyone else.

In this episode, we cover:

• What the exhausted leader looks like and how to know if that is you

• Self-erasure: the pattern high achieving women do not notice until the pressure explodes

• Why resentment toward the things you love is one of the clearest signals something needs to shift

• The AIM framework for setting boundaries from love, not from war

• A real workplace boundary example using AIM in a corporate environment

• Unyime's personal story of burnout, chronic stress, and what her body tried to tell her for months

• Why she walked away from a working business and what she found in the stillness

• How to tell the difference between a hard week and a call to evolve

• What her 14-year-old daughter is already learning about self-leadership by watching her mom pause

Connect with Unyime

Instagram
Website

Connect With Ameera Virani

Website
Instagram
LinkedIn

If this episode inspired you, please hit subscribe and leave a review. 

Visioneering 2026 

Design your next chapter with clarity and confidence in this 90‑minute guided experience. Get clear on what you truly want, align it with your values and beliefs, and map inspired action. Register here.

The Designed Life Publication

Craving more than just another newsletter? Step into The Designed Life Publication, your weekly space for elevated strategy, soulful inspiration, and tools to lead with clarity and live on purpose.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

What would you build if you stopped waiting for permission?

Krystal Jugarap knew she was meant for entrepreneurship since high school, but the path there looked nothing like she imagined. A career in fashion design was shut down by cultural expectations. Years of people-pleasing followed. And then one night, feeding her second daughter in a tiny apartment, she sketched an idea on the back of a diaper box that would change the direction of her entire life.

In this episode of The Designed Life, Krystal shares the full, honest arc of building two businesses while raising three young children. She talks about the manufacturing disaster that nearly broke her early on and how showing up with radical transparency in that moment became the foundation for everything she would build next. She opens up about leaving her government job in March 2025 with three kids in tow, choosing uncertainty over a paycheck that felt like survival, and what it actually looks like to commit to yourself when the evidence has not caught up yet.

We go deep on what community really means when life gets heavy, why vulnerability is not a weakness but one of your greatest leadership strengths, and the difference between balance (which does not exist) and the dance of showing up where it matters most on any given day.

If you are sitting at a crossroads right now, holding an idea you have not acted on, or wondering whether the timing will ever feel right, this conversation is going to meet you exactly where you are.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Krystal committed to entrepreneurship before she had proof it would work

• The manufacturing disaster that became her biggest leadership lesson

• How radical vulnerability built a community of 120+ women across the US

• Leaving a stable government job with three kids and no safety net

• Why she calls it a dance, not a balance

• The difference between doing it messy and doing it perfectly (hint: one of them actually works)

• What designing your life really means when your days are full and your energy is finite

• Her advice for the woman sitting on the fence right now

Connect with Krystal:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/iamkrystalj

Website: empoweredbywomen.com

Connect With Ameera Virani

Website: www.ameeravirani.com
Instagram: @ameera.virani
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/

Join Wealth By Design

Wealth by Design is the two-evening intensive where we identify that gap and start closing it. You will leave with a framework, a blueprint, and a 30-minute private coaching call with me to make it personal to your life. Join Wealth by Design for $57.

Subscribe to The Designed Life Weekly Edit

If this episode inspired you, please subscribe and leave a review. 

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

You check your bank account and there’s enough, but your body doesn’t believe it. The knot in your stomach, the white-knuckle grip on every dollar, the feeling that it could all disappear tomorrow - that didn’t start with your income. It started at a kitchen table you haven’t sat at in years. In this deeply personal solo episode, Ameera opens up about her own earliest money memory watching her widowed mother stretch every paycheck and walks you through the research on money scripts: the unconscious beliefs about money we absorb in childhood and carry, unquestioned, into every financial decision we make as adults.

You’ll learn how to name your money memory, define your “wealth feeling” (because the number was never going to be enough), and begin separating your caregiver’s money story from your own; not to blame anyone, but to build something new. If money makes you anxious, controlling, or avoidant and you’re not sure when that started, this episode is your starting point. Listen now and begin designing wealth on your terms

Highlights

• The Kitchen Table -Where Your Money Story Began
• Opening meditation and earliest money memory exercise.
• The Money Story That’s Running the Show
• Three listener archetypes: the anxious earner, the impulsive spender, the secret hoarder.
• The Four Money Scripts
• Brad and Ted Klontz’s research: avoidance, worship, status, and vigilance.
• Ameera’s personal story, survival math, grocery-store moments, and the silence that taught her more than words.
• This Is Generational and Cultural
• Women, banking access, and the scarcity that was really about power.
• The Number Was Never Going to Be Enough
• Why wealth is a feeling, not a figure and what “wealth by design” actually means.
• What the Old Story Has Cost You
• Rest, relationships, health, joy, ambition, generosity and compassion
• How to Begin Rewriting Your Money Story
• A Message to the Mothers and Daughters
• The legacy you’re leaving and the inheritance that’s worth more than a savings account.

Wealth By Design April 21 & 22 

https://ameeravirani.com/wealth-by-design-masterclass

Website: www.ameeravirani.com

Instagram: @ameera.virani

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/

Facebook: @ameera.virani

If this episode resonated with you, please hit subscribe and leave a review - it helps this conversation reach more visionary women who need to hear it. Share this episode with a woman in your life who deserves more time freedom.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

What if the chapter you’ve been quietly bracing for, is actually the one that brings you home to yourself?

In this episode of The Designed Life, Ameera Virani is joined by Kena Paranjape, founder of Supernova, a community devoted to women 35+ who are ready to step into their fullest expression and redefine success on their own terms.

Kena shares her deeply personal journey through executive leadership, profound loss, caretaking, motherhood, and reinvention; and the wisdom she has gathered along the way. Together, Ameera and Kena explore what it truly means to design a life from the inside out, why midlife is not a breakdown but an initiation, and how alignment often begins as a quiet discomfort we can no longer ignore.

This conversation is an invitation to slow down, listen inward, and trust yourself enough to move toward what feels more true, even when the path isn’t fully visible yet.

Episode Highlights

• Why midlife is not a crisis, but a powerful initiation into deeper self-leadership
• What alignment actually feels like and how to recognize when something no longer fits
• The “messy middle”: why we avoid it, and why it’s often where the real transformation happens
• Quieting external noise so you can hear the voice that’s been guiding you all along
• The role of community and why women are not meant to navigate major life transitions alone
• What it means to go “all in” on your life without needing certainty or approval
• The truth about entrepreneurship, identity shifts, and staying committed when no one is watching
• Kena’s experience stepping away from social media and what it revealed about inner authority

About Kena Paranjape

Kena Paranjape is the creator of Supernova, a membership community for women in midlife who are ready to reconnect with their truth, expand their capacity, and lead their lives from within. Through Supernova, Kena creates spaces for women to be witnessed, supported, and reminded that this chapter of life is not about shrinking, it’s about becoming.

Connect with Kena

Supernova Membership

Website

Instagram: @kena_allyouare

LinkedIn: Kena Paranjape

Connect With Ameera Virani

Website - Instagram - LinkedIn

If this episode inspired you, please hit subscribe and leave a review. 

Visioneering 2026 

Design your next chapter with clarity and confidence in this 90‑minute guided experience. Get clear on what you truly want, align it with your values and beliefs, and map inspired action. Register here.

The Designed Life Publication

Craving more than just another newsletter? Step into The Designed Life Publication, your weekly space for elevated strategy, soulful inspiration, and tools to lead with clarity and live on purpose.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

This International Women's Day solo episode is a love letter to every woman who has been giving generously to everyone around her and has quietly left herself off the list. Ameera moves through the invisible labour women carry in a single ordinary day, the extraordinary lineage of women who transformed what the world handed them, the real and rarely named; qualities that constitute women's strength, the conditioning behind female competition and the power that unlocks when we choose to call each other higher instead, and a direct invitation to the men listening to show up as everyday allies. The episode closes with four grounded practices and a woman-to-woman closing that connects every listener to a lineage larger than herself.

Highlights

• What women hold in a single ordinary day and why the word 'fine' is the most under-examined word in the English language
• Why capacity and invincibility are not the same thing, and what that distinction changes
• The women in our lineage who transformed what the world handed them: Gloria Steinem, Tina Turner, Michelle Obama, Viola Davis, Shonda Rhimes
• What strength actually looks like in women and why stoicism is performance, not power
• The real cost of female competition: what it has taken from us in friendship, trust, and creative collaboration
• Why the scarcity was never real and what becomes possible when we stop managing each other and start calling each other higher
• A direct invitation to the men listening: what everyday allyship looks like beyond International Women's Day
• Four practices to carry into your week: affirmations, box breathing, walking in nature, and soaring above your timeline
• The IWD 2026 theme Give to Gain and what Ameera believes it is really asking of us

THE FOUR PRACTICES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

AFFIRMATIONS

When self-doubt arrives, speak over it with an affirmation. 

-I have survived everything that was meant to stop me.

-I do not have to earn my place at the table. I was born with the right to be here.

-My light is not in competition with hers. Together we are undeniable.

 BOX BREATHING

Inhale for 4 counts · Hold for 4 · Exhale for 4 · Hold for 4. Repeat 4 times.

A physiological signal to your nervous system

WALK IN NATURE

No agenda, no podcast, no phone calls. Move, breathe, and look. Nature doesn't have expectations of you.

SOAR ABOVE YOUR TIMELINE

Close your eyes and rise above your own life, high enough to see the full arc of your journey. Every challenge survived, every version shed, every hard thing you found a way through. Come back down carrying that knowledge.

Explore Visioneering
Connect With Ameera

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review & share this episode with the women in your life .

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

Health is a relationship you invest in, and strength isn’t just about what you lift, it’s about what you’re willing to claim.

In this episode of The Designed Life, Ameera Virani sits down with Kalish Morrow, founder of True Grit Fitness, to talk about building strength, resilience, and sustainable wellness, especially as we move through midlife and beyond.

Kalish shares her extraordinary story: navigating autoimmune disease in childhood, surviving cancer as a teenager, and learning early that life can change overnight. That lived experience shaped her belief that your body isn’t something to battle, it’s something to build with. From skydiving to interior design, to city council and serving as mayor, to ultimately becoming a fitness and lifestyle coach, Kalish’s path reveals a powerful through-line: purpose is often found through reinvention.

Together, Ameera and Kalish explore what it really takes to feel strong in your body, how to reduce pain and reclaim mobility, why muscle matters more than ever as we age, and how true transformation begins with identity and self-trust, not quick fixes.

This is your invitation to stop outsourcing your wellness and start designing a body and life that can carry you forward.

Episode Highlights

• Kalish’s story of resilience: autoimmune disease, cancer survival, and the life philosophy it shaped
• The truth about how quickly life can shift and why that can become fuel for living more fully
• Strength as self-trust: moving away from punishment-based fitness and toward sustainable change
• The real reason many women feel worse “with age” and what to do.
• Why Kalish now starts with lifestyle first: habits, nutrition, goal-setting, and mindset before intensity
• Her MOVE Method:
  • Motivate (root into the deeper why)
  • Optimize (support movement + strength intelligently)
  • Visualize (goal-setting and reverse engineering)
  • Embody (becoming the woman who follows through)

About Kalish Morrow

Kalish Morrow is the founder of True Grit Fitness, a coaching practice devoted to helping women build strength, resilience, and long-term wellness in a way that’s intelligent, sustainable, and rooted in self-trust, not punishment.

A cancer survivor and someone who has lived through autoimmune disease, Kalish brings lived wisdom and deep compassion to her coaching. Her unique background spans multiple industries, including interior design and public leadership - shaping her holistic approach to health that integrates mindset, movement, nutrition, and lifestyle design.

Through her coaching, Kalish helps women reclaim mobility, reduce pain, strengthen their bodies, and step into an identity that supports the life they actually want to live.

Connect with Kalish

Website
Instagram

Connect With Ameera Virani

Website
Instagram
LinkedIn

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

In this insightful solo episode of The Designed Life, life and business design mentor Ameera Virani reframes everything you thought you knew about time management and why more optimization is not the answer.

Drawing from her own experience of burnout, illness, and a pivotal moment of clarity, Ameera introduces her Timeless framework: a values-aligned approach to creating genuine time freedom for professional women who are tired of running on empty. This episode explores why time freedom isn't about squeezing more into your day  it's about releasing what no longer belongs, getting radically honest about where your energy is actually going, and making intentional choices that reflect the life you truly desire.

Whether you're overwhelmed by your to-do list, struggling to say no without guilt, or wondering how other women seem to "do it all" while you're barely keeping up,  this episode will shift your perspective and give you a practical place to start.

Highlights

• Why most women don't have a time management problem, they have a time belief problem
• The burnout wake-up call that forced Ameera to stop and completely redesign her life and career
• Why time freedom is about releasing, not optimizing and how to identify what no longer belongs
• A powerful three-question framework to get clear on your responsibilities, expectations, and desires
• The difference between what you're actually responsible for and what has simply become an expectation, and why it matters
• Why success often means saying no more often than yes and how to do it without guilt or fear of missing out
• The Time Audit exercise: how to track where your energy is actually going (not where you think it's going)
• Why scheduling yourself first is not selfish it's the foundation everything else flows from
• Why designing your time is about freedom, not control and the difference between the two

Connect With Ameera

Website: www.ameeravirani.com

Instagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/

Facebook: @ameera.virani

If this episode resonated with you, please hit subscribe and leave a review  it helps this conversation reach more visionary women who need to hear it. Share this episode with a woman in your life who deserves more time freedom.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

Episode Summary
What happens when you stop waiting to feel “ready” and start saying yes anyway? In this episode, Ameera sits down with Lindsay Knowlten, Founder + CEO of Iron Lady Golf, to talk about confidence, community, and the surprising life lessons golf teaches on and off the course. From elite competition (including representing Canada) to building a women-led golf community across North America, Lindsay shares how Iron Lady Golf was born from listening to what women actually needed: a safe, welcoming way to learn, play, and belong. You’ll hear powerful insights on self-trust, leadership, entrepreneurship, and why “one foot in front of the other” can change everything.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• Why golf is a masterclass in patience, emotional regulation, and self-talk
• The hidden reason many women turn down golf invites (and how to change that)
• How Lindsay built Iron Lady Golf by taking the next step instead of chasing a perfect plan
• Why community is the glue that makes new habits (and new identities) stick
• What motherhood clarified in Lindsay’s leadership, boundaries, and business
• A simple mindset shift that helps you stop overthinking and start moving

About Lindsey Knowlton:

Lindsay Knowlton’s relationship with golf began as a teenager, when her dad invited her to join him on the course — simply because he needed someone to play with. What started as a casual introduction quickly became something much deeper.

Lindsay went on to compete at the highest levels of the sport, representing Canada internationally and captaining a Division I university team. After years of competitive golf, she transitioned into the corporate world, where she began noticing how many women were being invited into golf spaces — but didn’t feel confident, prepared, or welcome enough to say yes.

That realization led her to found Iron Lady Golf, a community built to empower women, increase confidence, and create meaningful connection through the game.

Connect with Lindsay:

• Website: ironladygolf.com
• Email Lindsay: [email protected]
• Social: Iron Lady Golf on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn (most active on Instagram)

Connect With Ameera

Website: www.ameeravirani.com
Instagram: @ameera.virani
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/

If this episode inspired you, please hit subscribe and leave a review. It helps us reach more visionary women like you and share this episode with a woman you want to rise with.

Visioneering 2026 

Design your next chapter with clarity and confidence in this 90‑minute guided experience. https://visioneering.showit.site/

The Designed Life Publication Step into The Designed Life, your weekly space for elevated strategy & soulful inspiration to lead with clarity and live on purpose.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

In this deeply reflective solo episode of The Designed Life, Ameera shares a powerful message inspired by her time in Lisbon, Portugal - reconnecting with family, honouring legacy, and witnessing a culture rooted in presence, connection, and shared humanity. Through stories of love and grief existing side by side, she invites us to zoom out beyond personal growth and consider the world we are actively co-creating through our daily choices.

This episode is a reminder that designing a life is not just about individual goals - it’s about designing a world anchored in love, intention, and conscious values. Ameera explores how small, intentional acts of presence and compassion can ripple outward, shaping culture, community, and legacy for generations to come.

Highlights

• Reconnecting with family and legacy in Lisbon and what it reveals about continuity, roots, and belonging
• Holding love and grief at the same time and why both are part of a fully lived life
• Observing a culture that prioritizes connection, presence, and shared meals over rushing
• The idea that culture is built through daily choices passed down over generations
• Why designing your life also means co-creating the world we live in
• The shared human desires for safety, health, belonging, and love across all borders
• How fear-driven living shapes society, and how love-based choices transform it
• Simple, intentional acts of love as powerful tools for cultural change
• Choosing gratitude, presence, and humanity over autopilot living

Connect With Ameera

Website: www.ameeravirani.com
Instagram: @ameera.virani
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/

If this episode inspired you, please hit subscribe and leave a review. It helps us reach more visionary women like you. Please share this episode with a woman you want to rise with.

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.

Episode Summary

Some moments don’t just change your life… they change who you are.

In this episode of The Designed Life, Ameera Virani sits down with Carly Ottaway -storyteller, author, creative leader, and founder of Web of Words; for a conversation about identity, rebuilding, and the kind of surrender that doesn’t ask you to give up… it asks you to come home.

Carly shares how her lifelong love of storytelling led her from journalism into entrepreneurship, and how a pivotal career ultimatum became the spark that pushed her to bet on herself. She also opens up about the moment everything burned down- literally - when the family home she had poured her savings and dreams into caught fire during renovations. What followed was a profound journey of uncertainty, healing, rebuilding, and a deep reorientation toward what safety and success truly mean.

We also explore the creation of Carly’s memoir, Coming Home, and what it takes to tell the truth on the page, especially as your story is still unfolding. This episode is an invitation to loosen your grip, trust your inner knowing, and remember: the peace you’re chasing externally is something you can begin building from within.

Episode Highlights

• Carly’s early love of storytelling and how childhood wonder shaped her life’s work
• The career moment that changed everything: being told to “choose” and deciding to choose herself
• Entrepreneurship as a path of self-trust: taking the leap before you feel ready
• What intuition feels like in real life (and how to strengthen that inner muscle over time)
• The fire that forced a full reset: losing the house, navigating insurance uncertainty, and rebuilding from the ground up
• Surrender as deep trust (not giving up) and how it transforms perfectionism and control
• “Favorite self” vs. “future self”: a powerful reframe for living more anchored and embodied now
• The truth about writing: letting it be messy, getting the words down, and trusting the editing process
• Writing and creativity in the age of AI: using tools without outsourcing your voice
• Presence as leadership: building a life and business that supports what matters most in this season

About Carly Ottaway

Carly Ottaway is a storyteller, author, and the founder of Web of Words, a brand storytelling agency that helps entrepreneurs and creative leaders share their message with more clarity, confidence, and truth. With a background in journalism and digital marketing, Carly has spent over a decade supporting others in finding their voice—while also being called to reclaim her own.

Her memoir, Coming Home, was born from a life-altering turning point when the family home she had dreamed of rebuilding was lost in a fire, an experience that reshaped her relationship to identity, safety, surrender, and what it means to rebuild from the inside out.

Connect with Carly

Instagram:
@itscarlyottaway 

Book + Website:
https://carlyottaway.com

Book Landing Page:
https://cominghomebook.com

Connect With Ameera Virani

Website: www.ameeravirani

New Intro Feb 2026 

Disclaimer

The Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all associated content is intended for general informational, educational, and inspirational purposes only. The insights shared on this podcast, as well as any linked resources or materials, are not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor, or other qualified professionals. Always seek the advice of your personal support team.