Your New Life Blend Shoshanna Hecht

What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under you? This was the collective reality in the United States in March 2020, universally felt (though unevenly experienced) and one that left individual families adrift as they tried to hammer out a semblance of a new normal. For lawyer & executive Candice Cook, it was all about learning to ride the wave - and keeping her family steady and afloat meant keeping herself steady and afloat, too. In this special live episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Candice about how she remade her life with her husband and young son alongside a demanding career that didn't really stop, how she forced herself to find moments of intention in the home-bound togetherness, and how she made "no" her best friend because that made room to say "yes" to the things that really mattered. This episode was recorded live before an audience at SaksWorks, the membership club at Saks Fifth Avenue, in December 2021.

Susan McPherson is an author, founder, speaker and consultant, but ask anyone who knows her and they'll all come up with the same title: "connector." It was more than a little ironic, then, that her book, "The Lost Art of Connecting," was published smack in the middle of the pandemic, at the height of social distancing, masks and faces in tiny zoom boxes. (The book came out on March 30, 2021, when most of us weren't even vaccinated yet). For Susan, who loves connecting with friends, connecting those friends, and then watching those connections bear fruit (sometimes in the form of further connections!), a pandemic book launch meant missing out on in-person events with her community, but a pandemic launch for this book meant bringing it into the world at a time when it was sorely needed. The art of connecting truly felt lost in those times, and Susan found new purpose in bringing connection back through her book events - and more than a little validation that her topic was actually one of vital importance. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks with Susan about and how a foundation of strong connections has supported her in making brave, bold decisions in her life, and how small, simple acts of thoughtfulness can help us build stronger, more meaningful relationships in our personal and professional lives.

Dorie Clark came to reinvention the old-fashioned way: by being laid off. As it happened, she was laid off on Monday, September 10th, 2001 - a terrible time, and a terrible job market. It was around that time that she realized that whether we like it or not, reinvention was going to be a necessary element our lives and how we live in the world. Fast forward to now, and Dorie Clark is a globally-recognized expert on reinvention and helping others make change in their lives, as a bestselling author, professor, and sought-after speaker and consultant - but even with all that, she has felt her own pull to reinvent herself and how she lives her life. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," Dorie speaks with host Shoshanna Hecht about turning dreams into long-term plans so you can reinvent yourself on your own schedule, accounting for your own shifting priorities, and why if you create a long runway for yourself, you can do almost anything.

Who are my teachers when they're not assigned to me? What is the curriculum I choose to follow when it's not in the book? These were the questions that Abby Falik challenged high school graduates to answer when she founded Global Citizen Year, a non-profit that supported students in taking a "gap year" after high school. Abby was a decade into Global Citizen Year when the pandemic ground everything to a halt. Abby realized that this had never happened before, this collective, shared pause in life as we knew it. She made a conscious effort to find the power in that pause. In 2022 she joined the Emerson Collective as an Entrepreneur in Residence to incubate new models to transform how young people learn, launch and lead. Part of that mandate meant examining the default, assumed pathways not just for students, but for us all - and, Abby realized, for her. She and her husband had always dreamed of traveling the world with their children, so they packed up and took off for their own pause, and a return to her own fundamental questions about how we choose to learn, and live. In this episode of “Your New Life Blend,” Abby dials in from Nepal to talk to host Shoshanna Hecht about tuning out “the noise of everybody else's expectations" and finding your own path, because if the road is comfortable, you're on somebody else's road. 

Is your workplace toxic? Benish Shah is an in-demand lawyer and marketing executive, used to ambitious projects with punishing timelines, and she didn't mind hard work. But in the wake of the pandemic, she  started to question not just the work, but the workplaces. Was her work making the world a better place? And were her workplaces measuring up to that same standard? Benish had noticed a pattern in workplace culture: big talk about diversity and inclusion, but little actual follow through for the employees who took the risk of showing up at work with their full selves. As a marketer, Benish recognized the pitch: Big talk about doing great work that's valued. As a veteran of some of those workplaces, she recognized the con: gaslighting, HR doublespeak and a playing field that was never meant to be even. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Benish about how to recognize toxic workplaces, and what tools we can use to navigate them with open eyes, or get out.  

When the pandemic upended our lives in March 2020, Cindy Gallop was one of the few people who did not experience personal or professional upheaval, or even inconvenience. Cindy loved spending time alone in the apartment she loved, she was a sought-after speaker and consultant who was equally in demand online - and she ran a startup that was predicated exclusively on users and customers being online. That company was MakeLoveNotPorn, a social sex platform, with a goal to normalize sex and promote consent, communication, and good sexual behavior. User submissions tripled during the pandemic, and Cindy knew why: people wanted intimacy, love, connection and authenticity. Cindy also saw this in her coaching clients - especially women. Brilliant, accomplished women were hungering to be seen and heard and supported in the full actualization of their goals, lives and selves. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," host Shoshanna Hecht talks to Cindy about how to thrive in the face of what life throws at you, how to exit environments that don't serve you, and how to turn every obstacle on its head to find the opportunity that comes from your unique voice, skills and vision. Oh also, she wants you to have great sex and more money. Happy Valentine's Day from a very special episode of Your New Life Blend!

SHOW NOTES 

MakeLoveNotPorn.tv
Dear Cindy
Cindy's TED Talk: Make Love, Not Porn
@CindyGallop on Twitter
Cindy Gallop on Linkedin
@CindyGallop on Instagram
Bossy Lipstick - "Cindy Gallop Is Unstoppable"