The Courage Curve: Inspiring Stories of Women’s Resilience and Empowerment

Parul Saini
  • 5.0 (1)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT

The Courage Curve is a podcast for women featuring inspiring life stories that show what resilience really looks like in everyday life. Each episode shares stories of reinvention, breakthrough moments, and women’s empowerment that reveal how quiet courage turns pain into perspective, burnout into boundaries, and ambition into alignment. It is a space to name the invisible work of women who choose courage before clarity, rebuild their lives from the inside out, and dare to rewrite the scripts they were handed.   You’ll hear grounded conversations about career pivots, healing, family, community, and the subtle shifts that shape personal growth. If you’re looking for a podcast that blends inspiring life stories with real tools, follow The Courage Curve for resilience stories from everyday women and leaders.   This podcast helps answer questions like: What is the meaning of resilience in everyday life?How can I build resilience as a woman?What are inspiring life stories of women who reinvented themselves?What does women’s empowerment look like day to day?How do I set boundaries to prevent burnout?How do I find courage to make a career pivot?What small habits increase resilience over time?  About the Host   Parul Saini is a human centered leader with more than twenty years of experience in technology and digital transformation. She has led global IT organizations, guided large scale change, and partnered with executives to shape strategy and build systems that keep companies moving forward. Her work spans engineering, consulting, product development, and executive leadership at companies like Zuora, Splunk, and Uber.   Her career began far from the C-suite. Parul started at a call center helping customers fix their computers. That experience grounded her belief that empathy is the foundation of every great system and every great team, and it shaped the way she approaches leadership and complexity.   Parul has reinvented herself many times across continents, roles, and seasons of life. Each transition was quiet at first. A small truth. A sense of misalignment. A decision to move before she had all the answers. Those turning points became the inspiration for The Courage Curve, a podcast for women who feel they are standing close to a breakthrough and want to understand the deeper work happening within them. 

Episodes

  1. 004: The Power of Presence Under Pressure: Susan Bernstein on Listening to Your Body and Leading Differently

    3D AGO

    004: The Power of Presence Under Pressure: Susan Bernstein on Listening to Your Body and Leading Differently

    In this episode, Parul speaks with Dr. Susan Bernstein, a former management consultant turned leadership coach whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, somatic awareness and emotional resilience. Susan has spent years inside fast-moving organizations and high-stakes environments, working closely with women leaders who are expected to stay composed, decisive, and clear no matter the circumstances. This conversation is about what happens when the body speaks before the mind is ready. How ambition can override intuition. And why success under pressure requires more than thinking harder. Susan reflects on spending much of her early career in her head, pushing through exhaustion, and disconnection until she learned firsthand what it costs to ignore physical and emotional signals. She shares how studying mind-body psychology changed the way she understands decision-making. Why regulation matters more than control. And how presence can shift outcomes in moments that matter most. The result is a real conversation about resilience, self-trust, and leading with presence when pressure is unavoidable. Explore the Conversation 02:15 Early Curiosity, Emotion, and Coaching Instincts 09:02 Growing Up Smart in Phoenix 12:45 Choosing Culture, Travel, and Hong Kong 19:21 Witnessing Tiananmen and Global Awakening 26:21 Returning Home and Rethinking Career Paths 29:52 MBA, Consulting, and Imposter Syndrome 31:42 Feistiness, Courage, and Inner Drive 35:50 Consulting Pressure and Ignoring the Body 43:39 Collapse, Burnout, and Wake-Up Call 47:42 Corporate Culture and Body Disconnection 50:41 Women, Feedback, and Over-Accommodation 53:18 Reinvention After Personal and Professional Loss 59:34 Discovering Mind-Body Psychology 01:06:17 From Therapy Training to Somatic Coaching 01:10:41Somatic Tools for Leaders Under Pressure 01:16:24 Five Body Tools for Presence  Explore more: Connect with Susan Bernstein on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsusanbernstein/]

    1h 9m
  2. 003: The Power of Reframing Your Own Narrative: Patty Hatter on Self-Belief, Consistency, and Failing Forward

    JAN 20

    003: The Power of Reframing Your Own Narrative: Patty Hatter on Self-Belief, Consistency, and Failing Forward

    In this episode, Parul speaks with Patty Hatter, a senior technology and board leader whose career has unfolded inside some of the most complex environments in global business.  Patty has led large-scale transformation and customer strategy at Fortune 500 companies including Palo Alto Networks, Intel, McAfee, Cisco, and AT&T. But this conversation is not about titles.  It is about how confidence is formed early. How risk becomes normal through repetition. And how leadership often looks quieter than we expect. Patty reflects on growing up with steady encouragement, entering engineering when few women were welcomed, and learning to trust herself long before the world offered validation. She shares what it taught her to move abroad early in her career. How listening became her most reliable tool. And why she resists labeling moments as setbacks. The result is a grounded discussion about judgment, self-trust, and staying flexible inside long careers. Explore the Conversation 00:00 Introducing Patty Hatter 01:01 Growing Up With Confidence  02:57 Entering Engineering as a Woman  05:48 Ignoring Critics Early in Your Career  06:18 Being the Only Woman in the Room  08:15 First Job Lessons at Bell Labs  11:10 Moving to Europe at 27  13:37 Why Listening Is a Leadership Skill  15:35 Managing Visibility and Internal Politics  17:54 Customer Outcomes Over Internal Noise  19:22 Leaving an Expat Role  23:07 Building a Non-Linear Career  26:25 Failing Forward in Leadership  29:28 How to Stop Replaying Mistakes  32:03 Leading Through Broken Systems  36:36 Why Leaders Must Take Responsibility  38:34 The Traits of Effective Leadership  41:59 Turning Setbacks Into Learning  44:27 Career Advice for Uncertain Times  47:13 Rapid Fire Leadership Questions  Explore more: Connect with Patty Hatter on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-hatter/]

    41 min
  3. 002: Choosing Depth Over Visibility: Judy Juanita on Voice, Time, and Quiet Breakthroughs

    JAN 6

    002: Choosing Depth Over Visibility: Judy Juanita on Voice, Time, and Quiet Breakthroughs

    Judy Juanita is a poet, novelist, playwright, professor, and lifelong cultural force. She grew up in Oakland during the civil rights era and became part of the original Black Panther Party, working behind the scenes as a journalist and editor at a time when women’s labor often went unseen.  This conversation moves through memory, activism, art, and aging with agency. Judy reflects on growing up in a deeply multicultural Oakland, the discipline and moral clarity passed down by her parents, and the early roots of her writing voice. She speaks openly about what it means to tell the truth without flinching, to work in the background while history remembers the front lines, and to keep choosing depth over speed.  Judy also shares the quieter turning points that shaped her life. Leaving the West Coast. Raising a family. Returning to writing later in life. Publishing her first book at 65. Finding her voice not through urgency, but through patience, study, and spiritual practice.  This episode is a reminder that breakthroughs don’t always come early. Or loudly. Sometimes they arrive after decades of invisible work.  If you’ve ever wondered whether your steady effort will amount to something lasting, this conversation will stay with you Explore more: Connect with Judy Juanita on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/judy-juanita-1892a83/].

    1h 2m
  4. 001 [Welcome Episode] - Why Courage Comes Before Clarity: The Turning Points Women Rarely Talk About

    JAN 6

    001 [Welcome Episode] - Why Courage Comes Before Clarity: The Turning Points Women Rarely Talk About

    Do you feel like you’re close to a breakthrough? Even if everything around you still looks the same? Then you’re in the right place. I’m Parul Saini, and I’ve learned that real change rarely starts loud. It starts quietly, inside moments that look ordinary but feel different. This is where The Courage Curve begins. It’s the point where steady choices start to compound. Where a woman senses a shift before she can name it. Where courage shows up first and clarity comes later. Each episode, you’ll hear from women who have lived through that in-between space and reached their turning point. Not suddenly. Not magically. But through the slow build that leads to a breakthrough. There are many podcasts you can listen to. This one walks with you as you rise. Explore more: Connect with Parul Saini on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/parul-saini-it-management-leadership/].

    4 min
  • 4 Episodes

About

The Courage Curve is a podcast for women featuring inspiring life stories that show what resilience really looks like in everyday life. Each episode shares stories of reinvention, breakthrough moments, and women’s empowerment that reveal how quiet courage turns pain into perspective, burnout into boundaries, and ambition into alignment. It is a space to name the invisible work of women who choose courage before clarity, rebuild their lives from the inside out, and dare to rewrite the scripts they were handed.   You’ll hear grounded conversations about career pivots, healing, family, community, and the subtle shifts that shape personal growth. If you’re looking for a podcast that blends inspiring life stories with real tools, follow The Courage Curve for resilience stories from everyday women and leaders.   This podcast helps answer questions like: What is the meaning of resilience in everyday life?How can I build resilience as a woman?What are inspiring life stories of women who reinvented themselves?What does women’s empowerment look like day to day?How do I set boundaries to prevent burnout?How do I find courage to make a career pivot?What small habits increase resilience over time?  About the Host   Parul Saini is a human centered leader with more than twenty years of experience in technology and digital transformation. She has led global IT organizations, guided large scale change, and partnered with executives to shape strategy and build systems that keep companies moving forward. Her work spans engineering, consulting, product development, and executive leadership at companies like Zuora, Splunk, and Uber.   Her career began far from the C-suite. Parul started at a call center helping customers fix their computers. That experience grounded her belief that empathy is the foundation of every great system and every great team, and it shaped the way she approaches leadership and complexity.   Parul has reinvented herself many times across continents, roles, and seasons of life. Each transition was quiet at first. A small truth. A sense of misalignment. A decision to move before she had all the answers. Those turning points became the inspiration for The Courage Curve, a podcast for women who feel they are standing close to a breakthrough and want to understand the deeper work happening within them. 

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