Would You Go Anyway?

You earned the title, delivered impeccable results, and some part of you still wonders whether you have done enough.Shelmina Abji grew up in Mwanza, Tanzania, in a town where school ended at tenth grade. She became the first in her family to graduate college, then rose to Vice President at IBM, leading global teams that delivered over a billion dollars a year, while raising two children as a single mom. Today she is the best-selling author of Show Your Worth and the founder and CEO of Show Your Worth AI.We talk about why the world takes you at your own estimate, how to redefine success when the old definition no longer fits, the moment her body told her the truth about her decision, and the words that carried her through: I will figure this out. She shares her rubber band rule for growth, why your attention and energy are your most valuable assets, and how to find the mentors who will say your name in rooms you are not in yet.If this episode speaks to you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.Connect with Shelmina.Website: shelmina.comShow Your Worth AI: showyourworth.aiThe book, Show Your Worth: 8 Intentional Strategies for Women to Emerge as Leaders at Work: Indigo · AmazonInstagram: @showyourworthaiLinkedIn: Shelmina Babai AbjiNew Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

Last week's guest named the fear that comes with choosing to leave a career: what people will think while they watch you do it. This week is about the woman who never got the choice.Ameera shares the day a calendar invite turned into a restructure at 50, what a title carries for you, the meaning you give it, and why rebuilding identity can take longer than replacing the work. You will hear the difference between holding a title and having a design, one weekly habit to build before you need it, and the question to carry into your next season. What would you do if the title didn't matter?This is for anyone who has faced a restructure, or who may be sitting at a crossroads asking Which Way Do I Turn?New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

Kristina Bartold walked away from a corporate career she had spent years building - a career that by every external measure looked like exactly where she was supposed to be. In the five years since, she co-founded The Social Snippet, a done-for-you marketing and podcast agency serving seven-figure brands, and High Vibe Women, a community and events platform for women in business.In this conversation: What the identity shift of leaving corporate actually costs. Why Kristina thinks 'burn the boats' advice leads women into unnecessary struggle. Her clear-eyed read on the current social media landscape and what a small, engaged audience can really do for your business. What she's seeing change in the podcast space right now. The difference between service that fills you and service that quietly depletes you.Kristina is generous, honest and so insightful. You're going to love this conversation.Connect with Kristina:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristina.bartold/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinabartold/?isSelfProfile=falseWebsite: https://kristinabartold.ca/New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

Are you saying yes to goals you picked up from someone else's life? In this solo episode, Ameera walks through:The goals she let go of after a layoff at fifty and diving head first into her businessWhy the goal of owning a beach house she would never use stopped making senseThe two-question test she uses to tell a borrowed goal from one that's truly hers. If no one was watching and there were no likes or applause - what would you design for your life?She also shares the boundary she wrote before keeping her speaking goal so that it never comes at the sacrifice of her Why.Find your true desires and goals with the 21 questions Ameera offers in her seven-day email series. Seven Day Email Series "If No One Was Watching"New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

Louisa Jewell, founder of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association and author of Wire Your Brain for Confidence, has spent twenty years inside the science of well-being. In this conversation she makes the case that resilience, the ability to return to where you were, is not enough for a world being rewritten faster than our brains can track. The skill she teaches now is psychological adaptability, and she walks through the three-part model behind it.IN THIS EPISODE•  Why the brain cannot keep pace with the rate of change, and what to build instead•  The three moves of psychological adaptability: think, respond, recover•  The self-compassion test Louisa teaches to rocket scientists•  What an adaptable leader does differently when her team is under real pressure•  How to raise kids who embrace lifelong learningCONNECT WITH LOUISAlouisajewell.com  |  Book: Wire Your Brain for Confidence  |  Instagram @louisa.jewell  |  Canadian Positive Psychology Association (cppa.ca)CHAPTERS•  00:00  Why this conversation, and who it is for•  01:43  The two Louisas: life before and after positive psychology•  07:24  Daily practice: move your body, nurture relationships, just say yes•  10:24  Loneliness, belonging, and deciding to love the barista•  15:11  Curiosity instead of judgment•  16:55  Self-compassion and the way we speak to ourselves•  23:05  When positivity is not the answer•  29:39  Why resilience is not enough: psychological adaptability•  31:50  The three-part model, walked through•  34:10  Adaptable leadership: clearing the way for high performance•  37:38  Raising kids who are ready for anything•  41:37  The Louisa Jewell Impact Award and the drop in the pond•  44:15  One shift to try tonight, and what a designed life means nowNew Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

You know the relief. The call goes to voicemail, the proposal goes out by email, the price gets typed into a DM instead of said out loud, and for a day you don't have to hear the no.Ameera used to pray for voicemail. In this solo episode, she pulls the threads from last week's episode with Gazzy Amin, on buying conversations, and shares how she rebuilt her sales mindset, from a 15-year-old on a retail floor to a founder making offers in her DMs today.You'll trace your first memory of being sold to and the belief it planted. You'll pause for a short exercise to notice where the fear of selling lands in your body before you ask. You'll see how service can become a hiding place that keeps you from ever making the offer.If you're a high-achieving woman who still feels it in her stomach before a buying conversation, this episode gives you a new way in.Listen now, then send it to the woman in your life who still finds selling is something she braces for.New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

In her first year of business, Gazzy Amin had 113 buying conversations. Eighty-six of them ended in a no.Before founding Sales Beyond Scripts, Gazzy spent nearly a decade running national-level campaigns for Canadian prime ministers, premiers, and cabinet ministers, often as the youngest person and the only woman at the decision-making table. Today she teaches women founders to sell in a way that feels like care, and to lead their businesses as CEOs instead of carrying every task themselves.Ameera and Gazzy get into:The zone of genius audit, and why the work you are worst at quietly costs you revenueWhy profit solves most of the problems founders try to fix with more contentWhere the fear of selling comes from, and how to stop taking a no personallyWhy 3,000 views with zero conversations is an expensive marketing spendHow Gazzy's sales team posts every no in the group chatWhat salsa lessons taught her about control, trust, and letting a team leadIf this conversation shifts how you feel about selling, share it with one woman who needs to hear it.Connect with Gazzy: authenticgazzy.com  |  Instagram @authenticgazzyNew Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

You said the goal out loud and waited for the room to rise. Some rose. Some went quiet. One asked if it was smart, this close to 50.This solo is about the part of change nobody warns you about: the people. Ameera shares leaving a secure job with a pension, getting laid off 18 months later in a restructuring, and choosing to go further into the work instead of back to safe. Inside is the one question that tells you whether you'll hold your vision when no one claps, and the reframe that decides whose reaction gets to move you.The Design Table waitlist is open. Link in the show notes.Highlights:01:20  Why this one matters: leaving the secure job with the pension, near 5002:40  Laid off 18 months later, and choosing to go further in, not back04:00  Callback to the last solo: becoming the person who already holds the change05:00  The uncomfortable truth: you can invite them, you can't carry them05:40  Would you go anyway?06:20  Whose reaction gets to move you07:00  Circle one: the people you build with, and shared authorship08:40  Circle two: the people who love you regardless09:30  Circle three: the lukewarm, and releasing the expectation10:15  The new frequency, the RAS, and what clears out of the way11:30  Grief, quieter roads, envy, compassion, their journey to come around12:45  What I don't want for you, and the Design Table invitation13:45  Community prompt and closeNew Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

Chelsea Andreozzi connected one job to the next for years: bartending through college, interning at a nonprofit that funds small businesses for women recovering from war, spending ten years as a restaurant beverage director, before she built her own consulting business, First Call Imports. Just as that business started to scale, she found out she was expecting her first child, and she and her husband bought their first home, all in the same season. This conversation is a real look at what it took to hold both: hiring help before she could technically afford it, setting boundaries most founders are afraid to set, and telling herself, more than once, that she didn't have to do everything alone or do it perfectly. A story about what happens when a woman designs her own version of holding it all, instead of inheriting someone else's.Connect with Chelsea AndreozziWebsite: https://firstcallimports.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelsandreozzi/Substack: https://chelseawashburnandreozzi.substack.com/New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.

You reached a goal you'd wanted for years, the promotion, the relationship, the money, and you couldn't quite hold it or feel at home with it. This episode is about why, and what to do about it.This is the finale of Ameera's three-part series on why change feels so hard. If you're new to the show, start with the Episode Titled: The Wiring, then come back here. In this one she reaches the heart of lasting change: you cannot transform your life without becoming a different version of yourself, not a better one, a different one, the version who can actually hold what you're calling in. She shares the one question that shows you exactly where to begin, the grief that comes with letting an old self go, and how to give your nervous system the safety it needs so it stops pulling you back to what's familiar.If you're ready to embrace the change, the awakening, you can feel coming, this one will meet you there. The Design Table, Ameera's twelve-week room for exactly this work, is open now, with details inside the episode and in the show notes.Highlights:00:00   Welcome, and where the series has led02:00   The thing you got, and couldn't quite hold04:00   You can't change without becoming someone different, not better06:30   You fall to who you are, not your goals08:30   The series comes together: wiring, energy, becoming10:00   The future-self question (the peak)13:00   The gap is the map, not a verdict14:30   Becoming her, one choice at a time16:30   The grief of letting the old self go, the chiseling19:00   Your nervous system, and how to give it safety21:30   Grief makes space for joy23:00   The invitation: The Design Table25:30   Lead yourself with compassion. Close.New Intro Feb 2026  FREE 7-DAY EMAIL SERIES: If No One Was WatchingOne email a day for seven days. Write the life you'd choose if no one were keeping score, then sort the goals that are yours from the ones you set for someone else's approval.CONNECT WITH AMEERAWebsite: https://www.ameeravirani.comInstagram: @ameera.virani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameeravirani/Substack: @ameeravirani Weekly Publication: The Designed Life Edit Follow the show and leave a review. It helps the next woman who needs this episode find it. Know someone ready to design her next chapter? Send her this episode.DISCLAIMERThe Designed Life with Ameera Virani and all related content are for general information, education and inspiration only. Nothing shared on this podcast or in any linked resource is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. It does not replace the guidance of a licensed therapist, medical professional, financial advisor or other qualified professional. Speak with a qualified professional about your own situation.