Every day I hear from women who feel stuck. As a coach, my job is to help them release what’s holding them back, and get them moving forward. This conversation altered my perspective on "stuck." A word that our culture patholgizes. “Quick, let’s fix the problem!" This conversation reframes growth, suggesting there’s a lot to celebrate in the fallow, neutral space of a woman’s life, when a metamorphosis is happening out of view. And yet this liminal, in-between phase can be terrifying, especially if we’re prone to overachieving the heck out of life, tackling one ambitious goal after another, like the guest of my program did for most of her 56-years.

About Melissa Unger:

Melissa Unger is a Brooklyn-based, Franco-American author, artist and creative director. In 2011, she founded Seymour Projects, a collaborative initiative devoted to nurturing human consciousness in a world increasingly dominated by technology. Over the course of her 30+ year career, she’s worked with many renowned organizations including Tribeca Productions, The Ad Council, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, artnet, and the Creative Growth Art Center. Early in her career she was also the personal assistant to Robert De Niro and Daniel Day Lewis! Melissa and her projects have been featured in The Huffington Post, Die Zeit, ELLE Magazine, Le Monde, El Pais, and New York Magazine. Her visual art has been exhibited in various art spaces, as well as featured on a variety of products. She’s a member of the Intentional Spaces/NeuroArts, Kinnernet and DLD communities and a participant in evolutionary behavioral scientist Tamás Dávid-Barrett’s discussion group Human Beast.

Highlights of of conversation include:

• Why our society pathologizes inertia
• Why the in-bewteen feels so icky when you’re in it
• Moving from mind over to body driven intentions
• How capiltalism perpetuates the feeling of “not enough”
• Identity shifts after moving home after a decade in France
• Why fallow is a fertile phase of invisible growth
• Embracing all emotions, like a full color palette
• How art and creativity impact personal growth
• The power of intentional spaces and neuroaesthetics
• The importance of feeling heard and understood when you’re wired differently

Links:

Melissa's IG

Website

Gag

Credits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice Fortin

Want to get in touch with Zeva, the host of On Becoming?

Book a free discovery call or leave me a message speak pipe.com/onbecoming.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is Lili Barbery-Coulon, one of the most influential and prolific voices in wellbeing and personal development in France today. She's a published author, yoga & meditation teacher, podcaster, blogger and soon-to-be novelist. She's kind of the Oprah of France (but don't tell her I said so).

Lili and I met back in the early 2000s when she was a PR at the Paris concept store, Colette, and I was a beauty journalist. Our friendship was born over beauty samples and press releases, but has matured into a collaborative camaraderie and mutual cheerleading squad. Beyond our friendship, I know her through my coaching clients who admire her voice and talent, but who have a glorified vision of her journey. The price? Their comparison syndrome limits their own ambitions. My aim here is to complete Lili's portrait—not just showcasing the inspiring and luminous aspects, but the challenging and uncomfortable facets that she rarely explores publicly.

About Lili:

Lili began her career in PR before becoming a journalist for Vogue France and later M magazine at Le Monde. In 2010, she launched, Ma Récréation (which later became Lilibarbery.com), where she writes delicious essays to an audience of tens of thousands. In 2018, she published, Pimp My Breakfast; in 2019, La Réconciliation; and in 2021, she collaborated with her artist husband, Bastien Coulon, on "L’Oracle des Mantras," published in French and English. During the COVID quarantine, she gave live meditations on Instagram and her popularity shot through the roof, leading to her own yoga and meditation channel, Lilibarbery.TV and the Lili Barbery podcast.

Tune in to to hear about:

• Lili's early years as an avid writer and "blogger" before her time.
• The self-doubt she faced when launching her blog in 2010.
• How she handles criticism and the fear of being judged.
• How she deals with persistent "Am I good enough?" insecurities as a yoga teacher.
• Identifying when she's creating from a fear of lack, rather than joy.
• Finding balance between vulnerability and self-protection on social media.
• The impact of intergenerational trauma.
• Learning to accept, rather than trying to fix, old wounds.

Credits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice Fortin

Want to get in touch with Zeva, the host of On Becoming?

Book a free discovery call or leave me a message speak pipe.com/onbecoming.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is someone who's weathered the storm of change right alongside me. Back in 2016, Cyrielle Thomas and I got laid off (with 200 other colleagues) from our beloved jobs at Yelp. As her hiring manager, I was honestly concerned for her future. I knew she'd get snatched up in a second (which she did, by UberEats and later Airbnb), but I feared she'd never find a position that lit her up as much, as her community manager role did with Yelp.

Well, boy was I wrong! Not only did she find her footing, she used all of her local-loving, community-building, connection-making wisdom to brew up a whole new tourism genre, one that, quite literally, fits her to a "T." (sorry for the puns, I can't help myself)

About Cyrielle Thomas:

Born in France and raised in Africa, Cyrielle Thomas moved back to France at 18 but felt like a stranger in her home country. After experimenting briefly with medical studies she moved to Bordeaux to get her marketing masters at INSEEC. In 2013, she joined Yelp to oversee all local community and marketing efforts in Bordeaux. After Yelp closed its international marketing division, she launched UberEats, and then Airbnb "Experiences" in Bordeaux. In 2017, she discovered the world of Japanese tea but was frustrated by how difficult it was to find and connect with the best tea and producers and businesses. Inspired by wine tourism in France, she came up with the idea for Dokocha, the first tea tourism platform in Japan, making her the first female foreign entrepreneur in the tea tourism industry in Japan. In 2020 she moved to Fukuoka, Japan (Bordeaux's twin city), where she oversees a team of ten to grow Dokocha and its sister company, Digitomenu.

In our delicious conversation we cover:

• Cyrielle's upbringing in Cameroon and how that shaped her outlook.
• Why coming back to France was a shock to her system.
• How she manifested landing her dream job at Yelp.
• What was holding her back from succeeding at Yelp.
• How our "special 1:1 time" together freed her to embrace risk.
• What her experiences at Yelp, Airbnb and Uber taught her about entrepreneurialism.
• How she fell in love with Japanese tea.
• How she came up with the idea for her tea tourism company.
• What she did after every single French bank rejected her.
• Why she decided to relocate to Japan to build her business.
• Facing gender bias and overcoming stereotypes as a female founder.

Links and mentions:

https://www.dokocha.com/

https://digitomenu.com/en/

Bossypants (the book I gave her that she keeps on her desk)

To leave Zeva a voice message with feedback/questions:

Speak Pipe

Credits:

Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner

Editing Matthew Jordan

Music © Fabrice Fortin

Interested in career coaching with Zeva, the host of On Becoming?

Book a free discovery call here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.