Brandbreaker with Lilia Tarawa

Lilia Tarawa
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Every fortnight, bestselling author and TEDx speaker Lilia Tarawa hosts a space where storytelling meets identity, healing, and personal branding. We cuss. We cry. This is where honest conversations and hard-won lessons turn the things that broke us into the ideas that build us. From self-worth and personal reinvention to relationships, visibility, creativity, leadership, and business growth, each episode explores what it takes to build a life and brand with purpose. Hear real stories, and learn how to reclaim your voice to grow your influence, income, and freedom, on your terms.

  1. 2d ago

    035. AI Job Security: Keep Your Voice & Your Seat in the Room

    AI job security and career strategy from a global HR executive who oversaw 17 countries, for executives, founders and women in business. Every coach, consultant and founder is being told to use AI. Almost nobody is being told how. Every executive is being told AI is coming for their job, often by leaders who have never used it. Carrie Allegretti spent her career as a global HR executive, in a role overseeing 17 countries, before building her own business with six AI employees. When AI arrived she saved the posts, took the classes, and then realised she had built it all wrong. That is why she now teaches career strategy and AI side by side. In this episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa sits down with AI workforce strategist Carrie Allegretti to talk about AI job security, the future of work and how women in business can use AI without handing over their voice. Carrie explains why AI hands back half-truths, which jobs are at risk, and the 80/20 rule she will not break. For coaches, consultants and founders building a personal brand, the conversation turns to AI writing and thought leadership, and what happened when Lilia asked her community to guess whether an episode was scripted. You will learn How to spot which parts of your role AI absorbs first, so you move your top three skills into AI work before a business leader who has never done your job decides it for youHow to give AI enough context, so its half-truths don’t damage public relations or your brand reputationHow to feed AI your own material, so your book, keynote and content still read in your writing voiceThis episode is for you if You typed one line into AI this week, hated what came back, and blamed the tool.You are an executive watching your company plan AI implementation while nobody in the room has used itYou are a coach, consultant or founder who wants AI to speed up your content without your audience being able to tellYou have checked whether your job title is on a list of roles AI replaces firstWhether you are an executive rethinking your career strategy, a coach or consultant building a business, or one of the women in business working toward a TED talk, a keynote speaking career or a bestselling book, this episode will change what you believe AI is able to take from you.Lilia Tarawa is a New Zealand author, keynote speaker and personal brand strategist who left the Gloriavale cult, wrote a bestselling memoir, and gave a TEDx talk watched more than 12 million times. She is the founder of Bestseller Brand Academy and the host of the Brandbreaker podcast. Find Carrie Allegretti www.classiecarrie.com @classiecarrie on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com

  2. Sep 7

    034. Your Brand Can Be Unholy: How Patriarchy Traps Your Voice

    Cult survivor, TEDx speaker and bestselling author Lilia Tarawa on religious trauma, self-censorship, and why patriarchy silences women’s voices. The reason your personal brand sounds like every other coach in your industry has nothing to do with your niche, your social media strategy, or the personal branding course you bought last year. It is that you were trained to silence your voice. Lilia Tarawa grew up inside Gloriavale, a high-control Christian cult in New Zealand, where the rules for women were steeped in patriarchy. Be meek. Be quiet. Be submissive. Be a keeper at home. Never speak while a man is speaking. Never preach. Break the rules and you were socially ostracised, publicly shamed, shunned and excommunicated from the church. A solo episode on voice reclamation and healing after religious trauma. Leaving a cult, a church, a patriarchal family or an oppressive culture does not give you your voice back. This is for the woman who left and is still asking whether she should tell her story if it will hurt her family. In this Brandbreaker podcast episode, Lilia breaks down the internal experience that survivors of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, evangelical purity culture, fundamentalist Christianity and other high-control systems describe. Shame. Terror. Smallness. Wanting to be good and never being good enough. The moment you see violence and exploitation, know in your body that it is wrong, and then decide that you are the problem for disagreeing. You will learn Why sharing your story publicly is not only how you spread your brand message, it is the mechanism that heals you, validates what you survived, and builds the thought leadership platform your coaching business has been missingHow to break the internal glass ceilings that patriarchy, religion and family conditioning installed in you so that self-censorship stops costing you visibility, collaborations, the right clients and the money that follows themHow to curate a personal brand without editing yourself out of it so that the woman your audience meets on screen is the same woman your best friend knowsThis episode is for you if You are a female founder, coach, healer, speaker or writer building a personal brand out of lived experience.You have left a high-control religion, a cult, a patriarchal family, or a culture that trained you to stay small.You are in faith deconstruction and trying to uncover your brand voice and what you want to share publicly.You are writing a memoir, launching a podcast, or building toward a keynote or TED stage.You keep drafting the post and then deleting it because of what your mother will think.Whether you are a female founder building toward a TED talk, launching a keynote speaking career, writing a bestselling book, scaling a seven-figure coaching business, or building a personal brand rooted in female empowerment and the full truth of what you have lived through, this episode will change what you believe a female public speaker is allowed to say.Lilia Tarawa is a New Zealand author, keynote speaker and personal brand strategist who left the Gloriavale cult, wrote a bestselling memoir, and gave a TEDx talk watched more than 12 million times. She is the founder of Bestseller Brand Academy and the host of the Brandbreaker podcast. Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com

  3. Aug 19

    033. The Hardest Lesson For Female Founders: You're The Problem And The Solution

    Discover how female founders hold their ground in male-dominated business leadership rooms and the two managers that create toxic company culture. If you are a woman in business, or coach building a company and a business leadership culture that reflects the leader you are becoming, and something inside that culture is not working the way it should, this conversation will tell you exactly where to look. Carrie Allegretti spent 30 years as a global HR executive and the right hand to CEOs across various industries. She sat in boardrooms where male executives silenced her. A male CEO told her to be quiet in front of an entire business leadership team. She is not a female founder who waits for permission to be heard. She spent three decades watching companies quietly collapse not because of their HR leadership, but because of managers given titles instead of skills, and business leaders who look the other way. In this episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa sits down with global HR executive Carrie Allegretti to unpack what HR leadership actually does inside a company, why weak managers are the single most consistent threat to company culture, and what women in business do to hold their ground inside male-dominated business leadership teams when the room was never designed to include them. You will learn: - How to identify the two types of weak managers breaking down your company culture, so you can shut down the business leadership failure before it becomes the employee relations crisis that costs you your best people and everything you have built to keep them - What the founder-to-CEO transition actually demands of women in business, so your instinct to control everything stops being the ceiling your business leadership cannot grow past - How women in leadership win inside male-dominated business leadership teams, hold the line on their authority, and stop weak managers from quietly dismantling the company culture it took you years to build Whether you are building toward a TED talk, a keynote speaking career, a bestselling book, a seven-figure coaching business, or a personal brand built on the full weight of what you have led and survived, the company culture inside your business is either proof of your business leadership or evidence against it. The wrong managers do not just cost you good people. They cost you the legacy you are trying to build. Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com Find Carrie Allegretti on Instagram at ⁠⁠@classiecarrie⁠⁠

  4. Aug 9

    032. Trauma Survivors Don't Need Hustle Culture To Get Rich

    Follow @liliatarawa on InstagramFollow @liliatarawa on ThreadsFollow @liliatarawa on TikTokFollow @liliatarawa on YouTubeSend questions to: media@liliatarawa.com Hustle culture says a successful business demands 4am starts, constant launches and growth at any cost. For coaches and founders who are trauma survivors, that pace is a fast track to burnout. This episode is about trauma informed business growth that protects your nervous system and generates business profit. Lilia Tarawa is a survivor of a high control religious cult who went on to run a seven figure business. That experience taught her to grow a seven figure business, with a regulated nervous system as her measure of success. If you are a coach, healer, consultant or founder building a personal brand and a coaching business after trauma or a high control religion, and the personal development industry’s obsession with hustle culture is creating exhaustion and burnout in your personal brand, this episode was made for you. In this episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa teaches trauma informed business growth She breaks down the difference between seven figure revenue and actual profit, why a lean business model can out-earn a seven figure business and how she approaches high-stake business decisions. You will learn: Whether you are building toward a TED talk, a keynote speaking career, a bestselling book, a seven figure coaching business or a personal brand built on your real story, this episode will change how you measure business success and how you grow toward it without burnout. Growth that costs you your nervous system is not success. Lilia learned that inside a seven figure business, and this episode is for coaches and healers scaling their personal brand.

  5. Jul 27

    031. Your Money Problem Is Actually Internalised Shame

    Follow @liliatarawa on InstagramFollow @liliatarawa on ThreadsFollow @liliatarawa on TikTokFollow @liliatarawa on YouTubeSend questions to: media@liliatarawa.com Your money problem isn't personal failure. It is internalised shame, the belief that wanting more, charging more, or resting more makes you selfish, greedy, or sinful. Beneath that shame sits internalised oppression, the rules about ambition, income, and permission you were taught to enforce on yourself, still running your personal brand without your consent Bestselling Māori author Lilia Tarawa was raised inside Gloriavale, an oppressive religious cult that enforced rigid gender roles where only men were permitted ambition and leadership. She shares her own story of recognising that even after leaving the church, she would internally oppress herself, carrying shame and guilt into her business and living in accordance with someone else's rules instead of her own. Content creator, entrepreneur, and author Jamie Sea describes a similar moment in her own life, realising her broke identity was never actually about a lack of money. It was her money mindset. If you are a coach, healer, founder, Māori business owner, or marginalised thought leader, and you suspect the real block is not strategy but a conditioned mindset about ambition, shame, or money that you are enforcing on yourself, listen to this podcast. In this episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa breaks down why your money problem is internalised shame, how that shame is enforced by inherited rules and oppression, and shares the future pacing technique that helps you reclaim your own version of success with a regulated nervous system. You will learn: How to recognise when comparing your business to other coaches is internalised oppression, not a money problem.How to identify the specific gender roles or religious rules about ambition and money you inherited, and how you are still enforcing them on yourself without realising it.How shame and guilt operate as the emotional enforcers of internalised oppression, and why releasing them is foundational to trauma informed business development.How to use the future pacing technique to reclaim a definition of success that is entirely your own.How to build and grow positive business habits with a regulated nervous system, rather than from urgency, fear, or a whip you hold to yourself. Whether you are building toward a TED talk, a keynote speaking career, a bestselling book, a seven figure business, or a personal brand as a healer, coach, or marginalised indigenous voice breaking free of colonised systems of oppression, this kōrero will change how you think about money, shame, and success.

  6. Jul 12

    030. Success Energetics Coach on Rewiring a 7-Figure Money Mindset

    Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com Find Tanya Jane on Instagram at ⁠@thetanyajane⁠, and hear more on her podcast, ⁠Big Dreamer's Bible⁠. Most coaches and practitioners feel stuck at the same income no matter how many clients they sign, and the block is rarely business strategy. It is a money mindset problem hiding inside their personal brand. Tanya Jane was a pro dancer who went from struggling to cover an $800 rent to driving a brand new Mercedes in eight weeks once she rewired the self-image beneath her income, and she has since built a seven-figure coaching business teaching clients success energetics. This episode is for the coach, consultant or practitioner who has already done years of inner work, yet still watches her income, visibility and personal brand plateau below where her results should put her. She is ready to build a business and a public platform that actually reflect the life she wants to live. In this money mindset podcast episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa sits down with success energetics coach Tanya Jane to unpack the exact belief shift that took her from a struggling backup dancer in LA to a seven-figure business owner, and why so many high earners stay stuck below the income they are capable of. By the end of the conversation, Lilia breaks down personal brand meaning in the simplest language possible, your personal brand is not a logo or a niche, it is your story translated into how you show up every day. Tanya's dogs, her Mercedes, her matching workout sets are personal brand examples of an identity that existed long before the business did, proof that personal brand traits do not need to be manufactured, they need to be noticed. You will learn: How to identify the money mindset beliefs quietly capping your income, so you stop recycling the same income ceiling year after year, with real mindset examples pulled straight from Tanya's own journeyHow to rebuild your self-image after a career or identity shift, so the version of you running a personal brand actually believes she can hold the visibility and income she wantsHow to design your business strategy and daily schedule around the life you actually want first, so your personal brand and your income never require you to sacrifice freedom and lifestyleWhether you are a coach aiming for a seven-figure business, a practitioner ready to raise your prices, or a consultant building a personal brand and thought leadership platform around your story, this conversation contains the self-image work and money mindset that needs to happen so you can sign premium clients and grow your business.

  7. Jun 30

    029. We Were Pastor's Sons Raised in Cults: Exodus Brothers

    Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com A spiritual theology that demands sexual repression and guarantees forgiveness gives predatory behavior somewhere to hide. So does a hell built to be eternal, for a God who's supposed to be infinitely loving. Three religious cult survivors scrutinise Christianity in this episode, and the math doesn't add up. Jake and Micah Knapp grew up as pastor's kids inside evangelical Christianity, moving through a YWAM missions base, a home church and a converted movie theatre church. They now host Exodus Brothers, a podcast built to deconstruct the harmful mechanics of fundamentalist Christianity and the impact of religious trauma. If you're building a personal brand or thought leadership platform on the back of religious trauma, high control religion or faith deconstruction, this episode grapples with theological logic and exposes the underlying truths of religious politics. In this episode of Brandbreaker, Lilia Tarawa sits down with Jake and Micah Knapp who tell the story of what kept them inside evangelical Christianity, and their faith deconstruction experience. You will learn: How repression and guaranteed forgiveness function as a closed loop, not two separate doctrines, and why that loop is structurally built to protect the system rather than the people inside itHow belief operates as a political mechanism once you strip away the theology, controlling access to information, sexuality and identity the same way authoritarian systems do outside religionHow to identify the internal contradictions inside a belief system using the same logical test Jake applies to eternal punishment and hell, a test that works on any closed system, not just religionThis is for coaches, practitioners, public speakers and writers building a legacy brand that confronts religious trauma and dismantles oppressive systems. Find Exodus Brothers Micah Knapp Substack

  8. Jun 23

    028. The Missing Strategy Behind Your Content That Actually Signs Clients

    Bestselling author, keynote speaker, and TEDx speaker Lilia Tarawa is breaking down the complete story strategy system that took her from silence to a number one bestselling book and a world record TEDx talk, and showing you how to apply that same system to your personal brand, your content, and your coaching business right now. If you are a coach, consultant, healer, or thought leader who knows their story is powerful but cannot figure out how to tell it in a way that reaches the right audience and actually converts viewers into clients and income, this episode is for you. This is for the personal brand who has so much to say but cannot figure out which stories to tell, how to brand and market your services, or get your message in front of media outlets. Listen if you are ready to stop being the best kept secret in your space and start building the brand authority and sustainable income from your business. In this episode you will discover: Why the way you are currently telling your story is costing you clients, and what to do instead.The three types of stories already living inside your lived experience that build a personal brand that compounds over time.How to turn the ideas in your head into a product people will pay for, even if you do not think you have anything to sell yet.Whether you are building toward a TED talk, a keynote career, a bestselling memoir, or a seven-figure coaching business, the gap between where you are and where you want to be is not more content. It is a clearer story strategy. Follow @liliatarawa on Instagram Follow @liliatarawa on Threads Follow @liliatarawa on TikTok Follow @liliatarawa on YouTube Send questions to: media@liliatarawa.com

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Every fortnight, bestselling author and TEDx speaker Lilia Tarawa hosts a space where storytelling meets identity, healing, and personal branding. We cuss. We cry. This is where honest conversations and hard-won lessons turn the things that broke us into the ideas that build us. From self-worth and personal reinvention to relationships, visibility, creativity, leadership, and business growth, each episode explores what it takes to build a life and brand with purpose. Hear real stories, and learn how to reclaim your voice to grow your influence, income, and freedom, on your terms.

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