What happens when you're building the life you want, and then life knocks you sideways? The layoff. The rejection. The congratulations-on-your-new-baby-we’ll-just-give-that-account-to-someone-else. That last one happened to Amy Shoenthal, whose upward trajectory in a marketing firm record-scratched when she announced her pregnancy and came back from maternity leave to find herself subtly but unmistakably sidelined.  The subsequent feelings of professional panic, alienation and displacement left her unmoored from her career expectations and goals, which took a while for her to process and regroup from. Fortunately, the regrouping led her to something even better - her new book, "The Setback Cycle" about how we process the obstacles that knock us flat and find our way back to something even better. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht (who is in the book!) sits down with Amy to discuss how to rally when we want to wallow (but go ahead and wallow a bit, it's an essential part of the process), how to check in with ourselves as we course-correct, and how sometimes setbacks are just what we need to wake us up.

Website:
https://www.amyshoenthal.com

Books:

The Setback Cycle: How Defining Moments Can Move Us Forward
https://www.amyshoenthal.com/the-setback-cycle

A Magical Day in Sunnyside
https://www.amyshoenthal.com/book

Forbes column:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyshoenthal

Visionaries Collective:
https://www.visionaries-collective.com

Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshoenthal
https://www.instagram.com/amysho
https://twitter.com/amysho

Welcome to Season 3 of "Your New Life Blend," a podcast about building the lives we want, powerfully and with intention. Join executive coach and licensed clinical therapist Shoshanna Hecht for another round of conversations with dynamic, inspiring women who are living the process of building - and rebuilding - their best and most meaningful lives. This podcast is about crystallizing what YOU want, and how to get there with purpose and clarity, while still navigating the obligations and demands of a needy, time-sucking world. (Boundaries! Learn to love them.) What do you want your life to look like? Every day is a good day to figure out the answer to that question. We can’t wait to join you as you find Your New Life Blend. 

Suzanne Lerner built a business with her husband, Michael Cohen, and that business was Michael Stars, the ubiquitous and long-standing fashion brand that there's a very good chance has, at one point, made your favorite t-shirt or tank top or sweater or dress or otherwise clutch wardrobe staple. Suzanne and Michael built the Michael Stars brand in alignment with their values, prioritizing local production, fair wages, planet-friendly materials, and strong support of social justice causes. In 2015, after almost 30 years of a life and business together, Michael passed away, and Suzanne has continued to carry on their shared vision, purpose and passion for creating positive social change. In this episode of “Your New Life Blend,” host Shoshanna Hecht speaks with Suzanne about how to build a purpose-driven company (and life), and why now feels like her time to teach.

Show Notes

Suzanne Lerner - Website
https://suzannelerner.com/

Michael Stars - Our Story
https://www.michaelstars.com/pages/our-story

Michael Stars - We're A B-Corp!
https://www.michaelstars.com/pages/were-b-corp-certified

Social Media - Suzanne Lerner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannelerner
https://www.instagram.com/suzanne_lerner
https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Lerner

Social Media - Michael Stars
https://www.instagram.com/michaelstarsinc
https://www.pinterest.com/michaelstarsinc
https://www.facebook.com/michaelstars

Lori Leibovich is the editor of the Well section at the New York Times and under her leadership, it has become a juggernaut of essential, chart-topping content about the ways in which we are all trying to live better, healthier, and happier (and the many ways in which we are being challenged in trying to do so). Meanwhile, Lori has been  living all the confusion of the past three years along with the rest of us, leading the section while keenly aware that we all needed information we could trust while we figured out the way forward (and a little bit of grace while we got there). In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Lori about building trust, covering trends and big stories (pandemic, menopause, mental health, Ozempic), and how to actually help people to be happier (and also drink more water).

Show Notes

NYT Well
https://www.nytimes.com/section/well

Getting Well with Lori Leibovich
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/insider/getting-well-with-lori-leibovich.html

Social Media
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorileibovich
https://twitter.com/lorileibovich
https://www.instagram.com/lorileibo (private)

Book

Maybe Baby: 28 Writers Tell the Truth About Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness, Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of Their Lives
https://amzn.to/4aSes5M

Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (contributor)
https://amzn.to/4b1AMKw

How can I do my best? How can I do my best for others? How can I face the world with compassion? These are the questions Malynda Hale is asking herself as she begins this new year. Hale is an entertainer, a creator, an entrepreneur and an activist, and has come off a busy, busy year determined to follow her own North Star of empathy in a noisy, noisy world. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Malynda Hale about how to choose where to put your talents and focus (even if it means ending something), how to use your voice to advocate for what matters, and of course, how to be guided by empathy. 

Website
https://malyndahale.com
https://www.jmv-entertainment.com

Social
https://www.instagram.com/malyndahale
https://twitter.com/malyndahale
https://www.youtube.com/malyndahale

What Would Jesus Do? Not What the MAGA Right Is Doing.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-would-jesus-do-not-what-the-maga-right-is-doing 

S. Mitra Kalita is the CEO & Founder of URL Media, a network of high-performing Black and Brown news media organizations that serve, support and center communities of color, and she has plans for 2024. Fresh off a $500 thousand grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Mitra has a mandate to expand URL Media's essential editorial work and reach — because 2024 is an election year, and Black and Brown communities need news and information they can trust. This has been Mitra's mission since founding URL Media during the pandemic, along with community newsletter EpicenterNYC:  to bring crucial information to her community in a way that would actually reach them, and be trusted by them. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Mitra about how she is is leveraging all the skills of her years in legacy media (CNN, LAT, WSJ, Quartz & more) in order to marry information with trust — all while recognizing that this will be an election year unlike any other, and we will all have a role in fighting for our democracy. 

Websites

http://mitrakalita.com

https://url-media.com

https://epicenter-nyc.com

Social

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-mitra-kalita-377738

Twitter/X
https://twitter.com/mitrakalita

Books

Suburban Sahibs: Three immigrant families and their passage from India to America

https://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Sahibs-S-Mitra-Kalita/dp/0813536650

My Two Indias: A journey to the ends of opportunity 

https://www.amazon.com/My-Two-Indias-Journey-Opportunities/dp/935029012X

The holiday season can be joyful for some and complicated for others, particularly those of us who are mourning loved ones whom we have lost. Rebecca Soffer knows this well, having lost both her parents within just a few years of each other in her early 30s. In a career twist that she never planned for and certainly never would have wanted, Rebecca went on to co-found Modern Loss, a community and events company to support the many of us who are bereaved, without platitudes. In this episode of “Your New Life Blend” host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Rebecca about boundaries, resilience, trusting your gut about what works for you, and why, no, everything does not happen for a reason. 

Books: 

The Modern Loss Handbook: An Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your Resilience
by Rebecca Soffer
https://modernloss.com/the-modern-loss-handbook/

Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome
by Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner
https://modernloss.com/our-book/

Website:

https://modernloss.com

Social Media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccasoffer
https://www.instagram.com/modernloss

We lost our friend Benish Shah last week. Benish was smart, righteous, funny, thoughtful, passionate, loving and brave. She was one of the first people we spoke to when we were launching the podcast and we knew we wanted her voice on the show. Her episode was one of our favorites and we refer to it often. We are sharing it again today in Benish's honor, because her voice felt so necessary at the time and still feels that way, even more so. We've also shared some of her writing in the show notes below. Her "Is It Toxic?" column was so necessary and practical and compassionate and helpful. We hope you will get as much out of this episode as we did. Rest in peace, Benish. You are loved and missed.

Show Notes

Is It Toxic?
Benish Shah, The Muse
https://www.themuse.com/author/benish-shah

Why layoffs hit workers of colour so hard
Benish Shah, BBC
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230308-why-layoffs-workers-of-colour-so-hard

What Happens When Our Longest Relationships Change?
Benish Shah, TueNight
https://tuenight.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-our-longest-relationships

The Splendiferous Spillerella
Benish Shah
https://www.amazon.in/Splendiferous-Spillerella-Benish-Shah/dp/0983539111

The English Meets Urdu 3-Book Set
Benish Shah (author) Maryam Ishtiaq (illustrator)
https://anchorandoakpublishing.com/products/the-english-beets-urdu-3-book-set

Binta Brown is a woman of letters. Two of those letters are "J.D." and they have undergirded her career, first at top Wall Street firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore and then as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis advising global entertainment and media companies, as well as in her leadership roles at iconic American institutions like the American Theatre Wing, Barnard College, Columbia University, and the New York Philharmonic (this is very partial list). Binta is also a lifelong musician (she plays 13 instruments), and took the leap into the music industry and artist management, including at Keep Cool/RCA Records and then with her own omalilly projects, a full-service talent management, media and entertainment company. Binta was quickly recognized as a force, and was named to Billboard's 2020 Hip-Hop & R&B Power Players list, 2020 Women in Music List and 2021 Change Agents List, among numerous other honors, and she worked with critically-acclaimed artists including Chance The Rapper. Binta has also had a number of challenging health issues and between shifts in her professional life, her health, her family and the pandemic, she has a lot to say about how to live life with intention. Binta talks about all of this and more with host Shoshanna Hecht on this episode of "Your New Life Blend," including how to see our own humanity in each others' stories (but maybe to consume a few less of each others' IG stories).

Show Notes

omalilly projects:

https://linktr.ee/omalilly

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/batnib

https://www.linkedin.com/in/binta-niambi-brown-07a303/

Marina Khidekel had anxiety, and a fidget-spinner wasn't going to cut it. She liked the feeling of a weighted blanket, but having it all over her body was way too much. So she came up with an ingenious solution: a weighted stuffed animal. In June 2022, she launched Hugimals World and its anchor product, the Hugimal, a 4.5-lb weighted stuffed animal in 4 varieties that feel like they are hugging you back. Let's fast forward to 300 glowing press clips later: Hugimals is a multiple award-winning product, one of TIME's Best Inventions, and available from Amazon to Nordstrom to QVC. It's an incredible success story, but like all success stories, it didn't happen overnight. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend,” Marina speaks to host Shoshanna Hecht about making the leap to becoming a first-time founder, the path from idea to invention, and the people she's hugged along the way (via many units of Hugimals, of course).