What happens when you leave behind security, move across countries with almost no plan, and trust that life will somehow work out? I talk with stand-up comic and creative entrepreneur Sadia Carone about her wild path from Ohio to Paris, New York, Brazil, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Sadia shares how she walked away from a difficult family life, built careers in software testing and entertainment, survived 9/11 in New York, took huge risks to chase comedy and acting, and learned how to handle rejection, failure, and negative people without losing herself. You will hear honest lessons about resilience, creativity, career pivots, faith, comedy, and why success is rarely instant. Highlights: 00:01:32 – How music helped Sadia teach English in Paris. 00:10:32 – Why she left tech to pursue comedy and acting. 00:14:45 – What it was like living in New York during 9/11. 00:27:07 – Why she moved to Las Vegas with no real plan. 00:35:41 – How faith helped her through major setbacks. 00:51:21 – Why creative careers take patience and preparation. About the Guest: SADIA CARONE was born in the Midwest and has since lived in Paris, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where she regularly performs stand-up comedy. Sadia was brought up to choose "the safe path" and she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with a BA English and a BA in French. She wanted to go to music school -- but at the time, that was out of the question ( = her parents forbid it). Well her parents were wrong! Sadia took voice lessons and started writing songs. Atlantic Records was going to sign her -- then 9/11 happened and both the record executives and her music producer had other things to deal with. And now Sadia has a comedy album! She performs her original songs on stage! Along the way, she got her SAG card (national actors' union) and earlier this year, she taught a stand-up comedy workshop in Reno, Nevada for the SAG Conservatory! Sadia's approach to life is "follow your heart" and "carefully assess the risks". In other words -- timing is everything! Do your research. Make informed decisions. Then when the time is right -- take that leap of faith! Sadia's career highlights include * IT manager for the USPTO * software tester for the National Red Cross HQ * TEDx Speaker * Host, Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club * Karaoke DJ at Vegas #1 karaoke spot * Tour Guide, Big Bus Las Vegas * Yellow M\&M, The M\&M Store in Las Vegas * Apartment Building Manager, West Hollywood / Northern Hollywood / Studio City, California * Official SongBird and Queen of Culture and Creativity, Shitshow Creative * Founder, Music for Emotions which received a grant from SEED Vegas. Sadia speaks English natively, fluent French and Portuguese, business-level Spanish, intermediate Hindi/Urdu and bits of Russian and Arabic. Ways to connect with Sadia: LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/sadiacarone Instagram @sadiacarone About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT\&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! 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Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson 00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe Welcome to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. I'm your host. Michael hingson, speaker, author and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head on and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear, together, we focus on mindset resilience and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Well, hi everyone. I want to welcome you to another episode of unstoppable mindset. I am Michael hingson, your host. I've been your host for all of these so that should be recognizable by now, but you never know anyway. Our guest today is Sadia Carone, or in America, Carone, I wonder what it is in Texas, we'll have to talk about that. But by the same token, Sadia is a stand up comic. She speaks a number of languages and has a lot of talents that we'll get to we're supposed to start this 15 minutes ago, but we've been talking about comedy and other things, so we're late at getting started, but you won't notice it, because the recording goes as the recording goes anyway. So Sadia, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Sadia Carone 01:44 Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. Michael Hingson 01:46 And Sadia lives in Las Vegas, which is about three hours sort of east of where I live in Victorville. So lovely weather out there, just like here. Sadia Carone 01:57 Yes, three hours as the crow flies, probably six and a half with the Thanksgiving Michael Hingson 02:02 traffic. I'll bet it is, yeah, and so I'm staying home. You're staying home. And by computer, it's, it's lightning fast. By computer, Well, I'm glad you're here. And I'd love to start with maybe learning a little about the earlier Sadia growing up and all that. Sadia Carone 02:20 Sure, I grew up in what some people would call a dysfunctional family. You and I were talking before about how everybody has a disability, and I have a social disability in that, I went no contact with my parents for good reasons. I grew up. My dad was a lawyer, my mom was a school teacher, and I wanted to do music, they made the mistake of giving me piano lessons, and I loved it more than school, which I loved. I would get up early and play piano two hours a day before school, and then play again after school, and I just loved it. But people from our family don't go to Juilliard or don't do music. We listen to music, but we don't make music. So I went to college, and in college, I spent two years in Paris. That was eye opening. I went for my junior year abroad, got a job, was able to stay there and support myself. So I did that. Was absolutely amazing. I was teaching English as a foreign language and using songs, because that's what the students wanted. I taught adulteration ministry they dealt with, like the French colonies in Africa and Asia, and so I was translating things from the UN It was an amazing opportunity, but I found that my students were way more motivated when I would write down the lyrics to the songs that they would tell me they liked, and then we would translate the lyrics, so we would talk about grammar and vocabulary, and then we would sing the songs to help with their pronunciation, and they grew rapidly, way faster than with the boring old book. So to kind of compress a whole lot of time, I now have a startup that's based on music. It's called Music for emotions, and it's in development, but I found a way to put music first foremost, I put out an album of comedy songs that are not appropriate for children. Okay, you should be 21 or older. They're not nasty. Well, they're not nasty. Anyone under 21 to listen to them. I hope we don't get believed. But one of my songs is called your boner is not my problem. Michael Hingson 04:43 I get it. So, Sadia Carone 04:45 yeah, adult topics in a cheerful, light hearted way, Michael Hingson 04:49 okay, we won't BLEEP you. You're safe. Well, Sadia Carone 04:58 I won't tell you some of the other. Titles, but yeah, Michael Hingson 05:01 yeah, that's okay. Well, as as you pointed out, you spend time in Paris, and of course, as we all know from Humphrey Bogart, they'll always be Paris. So there you are. Too much time in front of the movie screen. Sadia Carone 05:14 Beautiful, beautiful city. It's changed. Never too much time in front of the movie screens. Paris is amazing. I'm sure it's changed a lot since I was a junior in college, but it sort of is the center of the universe, with my apologies to New York City, which is, of course, the best city in the whole world, of course, but Paris, it's closer to Africa, it's closer to Asia, it's closer to S
