Fearless Career Moves with Richa Bansal

Richa Bansal
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How do I overcome imposter syndrome? How do I stand out in a competitive job market? How do I manage a demanding career with little ones at home? Am I too late to make a career change? If you've asked yourself any of these questions, you're in the right place. Fearless Career Moves is a practical, workshop-style podcast for ambitious women who are redefining success and building careers and lives they love on their own terms. Your host, Richa Bansal, is a career coach and brown immigrant mom who spent over a decade at Schlumberger and Amazon and has seen firsthand the challenges women face while rising through corporate North America. She landed five promotions in ten years, graduated top of her MBA class while working full-time and expecting her first child, transitioned into a multi-six-figure tech role without traditional tech experience, self-petitioned for her EB1A green card, and built a thriving coaching business — all while working full-time. Whether you want to advance into leadership, find a role that pays your worth, or pivot into something entirely new, this show delivers expert interviews, battle-tested strategies, and the real behind-the-scenes of a working mom's career, so you can ditch imposter syndrome for good and make your own fearless moves. Women can have it all. We're here to show you how. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

  1. 4d ago

    From a 7-Year Career Break to Tech Founder: How Women Can Find Their Next Career Pivot

    What does it actually take to build a company from zero to one, especially after leaving one of the biggest tech companies in the world, twice? In this episode, Richa Bansal talks with Suchi Mohan, a technologist and former Microsoft leader who took a seven year career break to raise her kids, went back to tech, and eventually left again to found Learn the Ropes AI. Suchi walks through her entire founder journey in order: the mistake most technical founders make by building before validating, how she surveyed 100 plus people to find the real problem worth solving, and the research stat that convinced her onboarding was worth building a company around, companies lose an average of $13.5 million per 1,000 employees to poor onboarding. She also shares the learning science behind her product and how she is thinking about team, culture, and growth as a solo founder today. Key Takeaways: Your skills don't disappear during a career break. Suchi describes coming back to tech after seven years away as "just like riding a bike." The core skills you've built over years don't go away, even if the specific products and features do. Don't apply for a role below what you're capable of. Richa explains why so many women returning from a career break undersell themselves, and how demonstrating you've stayed current with technology and AI lets you plug that gap instead of shrinking your ask. Validate before you build. Suchi's biggest lesson from the startup accelerator process was learning to slow down, talk to 100 plus people, and confirm a problem is real before writing a single line of code, a step most technical founders skip. Bad onboarding is a measurable, massive cost. Suchi's research found that large companies lose about $13.5 million per 1,000 employees to poor onboarding, and 70% of small businesses have no formal onboarding system at all. A pre-test before training boosts retention by 40%. An idea Suchi first saw her own mother use as a teacher is now built directly into her product's AI generated pre and post course assessments. If you're weighing a career break, wondering how to get back into tech, or thinking about building something of your own, this conversation walks through the whole process, start to finish. Tune in to the full episode, Startup Building for Women: The 7-Year Career Break That Uncovered A $13.5 Million Onboarding Problem. Suchitra Mohan is a technologist, former Microsoft leader, and the founder of Learn the Ropes AI, a platform that turns a company's learning content into AI powered, retention tested onboarding. She spent years at Microsoft working directly with enterprise customers, stepped away for a seven year career break to raise her children, then returned to the tech industry before making the leap to founder. Learn the Ropes AI is currently in its beta phase, working with pilot customers to cut the time and cost it takes to onboard a new team member. Richa Bansal is the founder of Pink Careers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. A former Amazon hiring manager, she has spent the past seven years helping ambitious women in tech land $300K plus leadership roles through her signature program, The Fearless Hire. Since launching in 2019, Pink Careers has grown from zero revenue and a stalled B2B pitch into a company running a government of Canada leadership program alongside a seven figure B2C coaching business, all built on a philosophy of niching down, telling the truth about the numbers, and letting real client results do the talking. Client details shared in this episode have been adjusted to protect their privacy. Ready to work with Richa directly? Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300K plus leadership offers. Connect with Richa: Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ Connect with Suchi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suchi-mohan-tech/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suchi.mohan.insta/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/suchimars/ Try Learn the Ropes AI: https://learntheropes.ai/ #FearlessCareerMoves #PinkCareers #WomenInTech #CareerCoach #StartupFounder #CareerBreak #LearnTheRopesAI

  2. Sep 22

    Job Offer Negotiation for Women: 3 Strategies That Added $200K to a Client's Offer

    Most clients come to Richa Bansal with the same question when an offer lands: should I negotiate? In this episode, she explains why the answer is almost always yes, and why the mindset you bring into that conversation matters more than any script. Richa, founder and CEO of Pink Careers, opens with two real client wins, a $1.4 million offer that grew by $200,000 in August, and a $174,000 offer that grew by $78,000 just days ago. She traces those results back to her own money story, growing up in a household where finances were never discussed, and explains why that same scarcity shows up in so many of the women she coaches inside The Fearless Hire. From there, she breaks down the exact mindset shift, the right way to answer the salary expectations question, and the three negotiation strategies that make these increases possible. Key Takeaways: Negotiation starts with mindset, not tactics. Walking into a negotiation believing any company is lucky to have you changes every conversation that follows. Scarcity around money is often inherited, not personal. Many women, especially from immigrant backgrounds, grow up without ever discussing finances, which can make the first offer feel too risky to turn down. How you answer "what are your salary expectations" sets your anchor. Saying yes and asking for the recruiter's budgeted range first, instead of naming one number, keeps you from underselling yourself before the process even starts. The two option negotiation strategy turns tension into collaboration. Presenting two full compensation packages that both meet your target, instead of asking for one number, made the difference in a recent $78,000 increase. Unvested stock can become one time compensation. Companies will sometimes offer a lump sum to offset equity you are leaving behind at your current job, even if you never think to ask. A lower first offer compounds for your entire career. Because bonuses and future offers are benchmarked off your base, underselling yourself once can cost as much as one to two million dollars over a career. You do not get what you want, you get what you ask for. Every strategy in this episode comes back to that one line. If you have an offer on the table right now, or expect one soon, this is worth listening to before you respond to the recruiter. Tune in to the full episode, Job Offer Negotiation Tactics Women Aren't Taught. Richa Bansal is the founder of Pink Careers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. A former Amazon hiring manager, she has spent the past seven years helping ambitious women in tech land $300K plus leadership roles through her signature program, The Fearless Hire. Since launching in 2019, Pink Careers has grown from zero revenue and a stalled B2B pitch into a company running a government of Canada leadership program alongside a seven figure B2C coaching business, all built on a philosophy of niching down, telling the truth about the numbers, and letting real client results do the talking. Client details shared in this episode have been adjusted to protect their privacy. Ready to work with Richa directly? Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300K plus leadership offers. Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ #FearlessCareerMoves #PinkCareers #SalaryNegotiation #WomenInTech #CareerCoach #JobOffer2026

  3. Sep 17

    The Three Interview Engines Applications, Referrals, and Inbound

    Job seekers keep asking what they are doing wrong this year. Richa Bansal's answer is that the market itself changed in 2026, and her own numbers back it up: over 5,000 applications tracked, and only 3% of those roles remote. This episode is adapted from a live training Richa led inside The Fearless Hire, her coaching program for women in tech navigating today's job market. We are sharing it here because the shift she breaks down affects anyone running an active job search right now, not just her own clients. In the training, Richa, founder and CEO of Pink Careers and a former Amazon hiring manager, explains why recruiters and hiring managers are struggling just as much as candidates in 2026, names the unicorn syndrome behind today's impossible job descriptions, and breaks down the only three ways anyone actually gets an interview. She also covers why LinkedIn has become an interest based platform, how to use the program's referral network, and why she tells every client to keep building their pipeline until the day they actually start a new job. Key Takeaways: Recruiters and hiring managers are struggling too. Harder approvals, understaffed teams, and budgets shifting to AI have made 2026 a different market for everyone, not just candidates. Cold applications alone are not enough anymore. Spam applications and auto apply tools have broken traditional ATS keyword matching, so the return on cold applying has dropped. The unicorn syndrome is real on both sides. Hiring managers are asking for impossible skill combinations because they are still figuring out what a role actually needs. There are only three ways to get an interview. Cold applications, referrals, and LinkedIn inbound, and 2026 requires working all three at once instead of leaning on just one. Strong LinkedIn positioning and warm referrals are outperforming cold applications. A clear point of view and real relationships are carrying more weight than ever. Domain expertise plus AI fluency is landing the biggest offers. The candidates getting the highest offers can show both deep industry knowledge and hands on AI skill. Never stop building your pipeline. Interviews can fall through for reasons that have nothing to do with performance, so only day one of a new job is ever truly secure. Start listening and take stock of your own three channels this week. Tune in to the full episode of The Three Interview Engines: Applications, Referrals, and Inbound. Richa Bansal is the founder of Pink Careers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. A former Amazon hiring manager, she has spent the past seven years helping ambitious women in tech land $300K plus leadership roles through her signature program, The Fearless Hire. Since launching in 2019, Pink Careers has grown from zero revenue and a stalled B2B pitch into a company running a government of Canada leadership program alongside a seven figure B2C coaching business, all built on a philosophy of niching down, telling the truth about the numbers, and letting real client results do the talking. This episode is adapted from a recorded training session inside The Fearless Hire. Some names and identifying details from the original session have been left out to protect participant privacy. Ready to work with Richa directly? Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300K plus leadership offers. Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ Apply for The Fearless Hire: https://rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh #FearlessCareerMoves #PinkCareers #JobSearchStrategy #WomenInTech #CareerAdvice #JobSearch2026

  4. Sep 1

    How High-Achieving Women Can Redefine Success, Avoid Burnout, and Build Their Second Act with Colleen Pimentel

    High-achieving women can earn the title, build the career, and still wake up wondering why success no longer feels fulfilling.  In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Colleen Pimentel to talk about redefining success, career burnout, second acts, and what it means to live and work with more intention. Colleen shares her journey through 30 years in big tech, 10 reinventions, and the identity shift that began when her daughter left for college. Together, Richa and Colleen explore why high-achieving women can feel burned out even when they are not doing too much, how women often lose touch with their own desires after years of caring for everyone else, and why reconnecting with purpose starts by lowering the noise. They also discuss golden handcuffs, imposter syndrome, fear, confidence, career reinvention, and why a second act does not have to wait until later life. Start listening and ask yourself where you may be chasing the next title, next paycheck, or next achievement instead of the work that actually feels fulfilling. Tune in to the full episode of How High-Achieving Women Can Redefine Success, Avoid Burnout, and Build Their Second Act with Colleen Pimentel.   Colleen Pimentel has spent the past 30 years in big tech, including roles at Oracle and Google, and has navigated 10 career reinventions along the way, starting in accounting before moving into tech sales. Today, she is still a sales executive at Google, but her focus has expanded into helping people live intentionally and uncover their true purpose. Colleen's own turning point came when her daughter left for college and she found herself questioning her identity, not just as a mother, but as a professional. That period of self-discovery led her to develop the frameworks and exercises she now teaches, centered on stillness, intentional mornings, and reconnecting with personal desire. She has since delivered a TEDx talk, leads coaching workshops, and is the author of the book Second Act. She shares her insights weekly on LinkedIn, where she questions common myths about growth and success. Ready to build your own second act? Colleen's book, Second Act, is available now on Amazon and unpacks the mindset shifts and exercises from this episode in even more depth, from rebuilding your ability to desire to navigating identity at any stage of your career. Pick up your copy today: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1YP5CZ2  Connect with Colleen Pimentel: Website: https://www.colleenpimentel.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-pimentel-140790/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@collpimentel Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.   Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.    Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/   #FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerBurnout #CareerReinvention #WomenInLeadership #CareerPurpose

  5. Aug 25

    Women in Tech: How to Build Technical Expertise, Influence & Leadership in the Age of AI with Rachel Wu

    For women trying to break into AI, real credibility does not come from reading every newsletter or sounding technical overnight. It comes from building, experimenting, sharing your work, and learning how to trust your own career instincts. In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Rachel Wu to talk about building a career in AI, moving into more technical roles, and making intentional career decisions without letting fear, judgment, or other people's experiences define the path. Rachel shares what her work in AI infrastructure and cloud strategy at Google has taught her about technical confidence, hands-on learning, mentorship, and why exposure to AI is not the same as expertise. Together, Richa and Rachel discuss how women can build AI career skills without waiting to feel fully ready, why imperfect projects are still worth sharing, how to take career advice with a grain of salt, and what it means to make fearless moves while staying accountable to yourself. Start listening and ask yourself where you may be waiting for more proof, more permission, or more certainty before making your next move. Tune in to the full episode of Women in Tech: How to Build Technical Expertise, Influence & Leadership in the Age of AI with Rachel Wu. Rachel Wu works in cloud strategy and strategic programs at Google, where her work has focused on reliability and the shift toward agentic reliability across AI infrastructure. She previously worked in Google's global business organization on scaled enterprise customer support products and practical AI implementation, including chatbots, automated triage, and translations. Before Google, she worked across hedge funds and startups, and her career has been shaped by technical curiosity, mentorship, hands-on experimentation, and a willingness to question traditional career paths. Connect with Rachel Wu: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelwwu/ X: https://x.com/missrachelww Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.   Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.    Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ #FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #WomenInAI #AICareers #WomenInTech

  6. Aug 18

    How Women Can Build a Personal Brand That Opens Career Doors with Divyaa Ravishankar

    A personal brand is not vanity. It is how people remember a woman when she is not in the room. In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Divyaa Ravishankar, a strategy and growth professional with global experience across healthcare, life sciences, and in vitro diagnostics, to talk about building a personal brand on LinkedIn without shrinking into one box. Together, they explore why many women hesitate to post on LinkedIn, how employers can misunderstand visibility, and why a personal brand is really a professional image at scale. The conversation also covers how women can start posting before they feel ready, use LinkedIn to show expertise, build thought leadership with a point of view, connect personal brand to values, strengthen articulation, and rethink self-promotion as a way to grow impact. For ambitious women who want to be known for more than a job title, this episode is a practical reminder that visibility is not about vanity. It is about credibility, opportunity, and owning the full range of what they bring to the table. Start listening and ask yourself where you might be hiding behind your job title, waiting to feel ready to post, or shrinking your voice into one box. Tune in to the full episode of How Women Can Build a LinkedIn Personal Brand That Opens Career Doors with Divyaa Ravishankar  Divyaa Ravishankar is a strategy and growth professional with over twelve years of global experience across healthcare, life sciences, and in vitro diagnostics. She advises product and commercial leaders on market entry, portfolio strategy, and competitive positioning, bringing a hypothesis-driven, data-backed approach to problems spanning next-generation sequencing, point-of-care testing, genetic testing, flow cytometry, and digital pathology. Divyaa partners closely with R&D, marketing, and commercial teams to shape decisions across hospitals, reference labs, and decentralized care models, distilling complex scientific and market insights into clear, executive-level narratives that drive alignment and speed.   Connect with Divyaa Ravishankar: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyaa-ravishankar-7a6a951b/   Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.   Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.    Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ #FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerGrowth #PersonalBranding #WomenInLeadership

  7. Aug 11

    Stop Waiting for Permission: How Women Can Speak Up & Advocate for Themselves with Dr. Jean Latting

    Confidence is not something women can simply command into place. In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Dr. Jean Kantambu Latting, organizational consultant, leadership coach, Professor Emerita, and President of Leading Consciously, to talk about what it really takes for women to speak up, hold their ground, and put themselves first. Together, they unpack why the advice to "just be more confident" misses the deeper issue of worthiness, and why many women are still carrying old messages about being good, quiet, helpful, and easy to work with. The conversation also covers Dr. Jean's Conscious Change framework, including conscious influence, conscious agility, and you first. Richa and Dr. Jean discuss how women can balance warmth and competence, lead through influence when they do not have authority, use difference as an advantage, rewrite old stories, listen to what the body is signaling, and make small behavioral changes that support stronger boundaries and more authentic leadership. Start listening and ask yourself where you might be waiting for permission to ask, speak up, set a boundary, or put yourself first. Tune in to the full episode of How To Speak Up, Hold Your Ground, And Put Yourself First with Dr. Jean Latting   Dr. Jean K. Latting is an organizational consultant, leadership coach, and author with over thirty-five years of experience in private and public sector organizations. She is President of Leading Consciously and Professor Emerita of Leadership and Change at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work, where she held the endowed Jean Kantambu Latting Professorship. Dr. Latting is the co-author of Reframing Change: How to Deal with Workplace Dynamics, Influence Others, and Bring People Together to Initiate Positive Change, and has published over twenty-five book chapters and articles on organizational behavior, cultural competence, and change. She holds a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master's in Social Work from Columbia University.    Connect with Dr. Jean Latting: Visit Leading Consciously: https://www.leadingconsciously.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanlattingconsultant/ X: https://x.com/jeanlatting   Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.   Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ The Fearless Hire: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/   #FearlessCareerMoves #Pinkcareers #CareerGrowth #CareerConfidence #WomenInLeadership

  8. Aug 4

    Every Role Is a First Time: Rebuilding Career Confidence After a Layoff with Rathi Gnanasekaran

    Fearless is not built by waiting until every step feels safe. In this episode of Fearless Career Moves, Richa Bansal sits down with Rathi Gnanasekaran, a senior technical program manager, startup operator, entrepreneur, and former Fearless Hire client, to talk about reinvention, immigrant resilience, career confidence, and learning to take the next step before every answer is clear. Rathi shares how moving from India to Bahrain, then to Canada as a young international student, shaped the way she approaches risk, uncertainty, and first-time roles. The conversation also covers what happens when a high-performing woman suddenly has to rebuild confidence after a layoff, why persistence matters in a difficult job market, and how community can change the actions someone takes. Richa and Rathi also talk about why leadership, job searching, and promotion conversations are all sales conversations, and how Rathi turned a career pause into the beginning of Lentl, her crunchy lentil seasoning brand. For women who are trying to pivot, recover their confidence, or take a new kind of risk, this episode is a practical reminder that confidence is built through action, not certainty. Start listening and ask yourself where you might be waiting to feel fully ready. Tune in to the full episode of Every Role Is a First Time: Rebuilding Career Confidence After a Layoff with Rathi Gnanasekaran   Rathi Gnanasekaran is an accomplished Senior Technical Program Manager with deep expertise in program management, portfolio management, and engineering operations. She has worked across high-growth B2B FinTech startups and enterprise SaaS environments, leading complex initiatives in AI/ML, cloud infrastructure migration, scalable SDLC processes, and engineering operations. She is also the founder of Lentl, a crunchy lentil seasoning brand inspired by South Indian podi.   Shop Rati's crunchy lentil seasoning blends at www.lentl.co, with free shipping on orders over thirty dollars.    Know more about Lantl: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lentl.co Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lentl.co Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/07eigfs2a9c8m12xyi1ri2x3v31m3t/lentl-crunchy-lentil-seasoning/?invite_code=c8429693c7d84fb1bc264203b9c885ee&sender=1086001035052674329   Connect with Rathi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rathi-gnanasekaran-41377bb/   Richa Bansal is the founder of Pinkcareers and host of the Fearless Career Moves Podcast. Through her signature program, The Fearless Hire, she helps ambitious women cut through the noise, clarify what they actually want, and step into high-impact leadership roles on their own terms.   Apply to The Fearless Hire at rise.pinkcareers.com/application-tfh, the career accelerator that's helped women in tech land $300k+ leadership offers.    Website: https://www.pinkcareers.com/ LinkedIn (Richa): https://www.linkedin.com/in/richabansal10/ Instagram (Richa): https://www.instagram.com/careersbyrichabansal/ #FearlessCareerMoves #WomenInLeadership #CareerConfidence #CareerGrowth #CareerReinvention

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How do I overcome imposter syndrome? How do I stand out in a competitive job market? How do I manage a demanding career with little ones at home? Am I too late to make a career change? If you've asked yourself any of these questions, you're in the right place. Fearless Career Moves is a practical, workshop-style podcast for ambitious women who are redefining success and building careers and lives they love on their own terms. Your host, Richa Bansal, is a career coach and brown immigrant mom who spent over a decade at Schlumberger and Amazon and has seen firsthand the challenges women face while rising through corporate North America. She landed five promotions in ten years, graduated top of her MBA class while working full-time and expecting her first child, transitioned into a multi-six-figure tech role without traditional tech experience, self-petitioned for her EB1A green card, and built a thriving coaching business — all while working full-time. Whether you want to advance into leadership, find a role that pays your worth, or pivot into something entirely new, this show delivers expert interviews, battle-tested strategies, and the real behind-the-scenes of a working mom's career, so you can ditch imposter syndrome for good and make your own fearless moves. Women can have it all. We're here to show you how. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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