249: Designing Neurodiverse Inclusive Organizations with Ludmila Praslova
Work From The Inside Out
Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, is the author of . She is a Professor of Psychology and the founding Director of Graduate Programs in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. Born in Moscow, Ludmila grew up in a blue collar area where textile mills and farming were predominant, yet, she shared, there was a strange mix of high culture blended in with visits to museums and trips to the theater. She enjoyed reading college text books as a child and writing poetry. Her parents pressed her to use her hands to sew, garden, and play a musical...
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248: Curiosity is Your Superpower with Ehab Bandar
Work From The Inside Out
Ehab Bandar is a sought-after product design consultant for startups and fintech. What's amazing about his career is that he's managed to do it while being both an outsider and an insider in remarkably distinct ways. Ehab attributes credit to his early life as an immigrant to the US from Lebanon at the age of six. His family moved yearly until he was in seventh grade. Ehab was a shy kid with a stutter, yet he was also a natural observer and listener, taking in different cultural norms and personalities. He recalls endearing himself to fit in with new people by throwing a joke into random...
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247: Don't Just Talk About Doing It. Do It. with Chris Fenning
Work From The Inside Out
makes it easier for us to communicate at work. He helps experts talk to non-experts, teams talk to executives, and much more. Chris's practical methods are used in organizations like Google and NATO and have appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Helping people retain and apply what he teaches led Chris to write the book . He has also authored multiple books on communication and training that have been translated into 15 languages. Chris grew up in what he describes as a traditional nuclear family in the UK. As our podcast interview unfolded, he shared that his parents worked hard to...
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246: Be Ready to Say Yes & Try It with Erika Wasserman
Work From The Inside Out
was always good at math. As a teenager, she and her Dad would sit in front of the family computer (then, households had one computer), dial up AOL (America Online), and check out the latest stock market figures. Dad, an optometrist, was keenly interested in the markets and enjoyed bonding with Erika over all things involving numbers. Erika studied finance and international economics in college, and following graduation, she took a finance role at IBM. Early on, she discovered the advantages of being in a large company where opportunities for mobility were readily available. Erika moved to the...
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245: Trust Your Instincts and Follow Your Curiosity with Catie Harris
Work From The Inside Out
Catie Harris is a nurse practitioner who believes nurses are uniquely qualified to be entrepreneurs. As the CEO and owner of , a mentorship program that empowers nurses to monetize their knowledge and develop business skills, Catie inspires them to change how healthcare is perceived and delivered. Through individual coaching, live events, and signature group programs, thousands of nurses have been empowered with the knowledge and skills they need to build profitable businesses of their own. As a child, Catie was quite introverted and didn’t socialize easily. Her family...
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244: Take a First Step and Be Prepared for Opportunities with Donna Serdula
Work From The Inside Out
Donna Serdula is the founder and president of Vision Board Media, a professional branding company that helps individuals and companies tell their unique stories on LinkedIn and beyond. Donna has authored two editions of . Bringing dynamic brand storytelling to the masses and empowering people to dream big – that’s the ink in her pen. Donna’s website, , is where she and her team of over 20 writers and coaches help people collide with opportunities and transform their lives via future-forward career branding. You’d never know it now, but Donna was a shy little kid. During college, she...
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243: Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Fix It with Chuck and Doug
Work From The Inside Out
This week’s podcast features a delightful conversation I had with Doug Lennick and Chuck Wachendorfer from , a leadership development firm serving many industries. Together, they co-authored the book . Their experience and knowledge show readers how to be positive and impactful leaders. Doug and Chuck offer practical and evidence-based guidance through eight key principles that are essential to one’s ability to lead others: Aim to be Yourself Know Your Real Self Ignite Integrity and Responsibility Embrace Empathy and Compassion Decide Wisely Let Go of What You Know Achieve Purposeful...
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242: Beyond Resilience to Rootsilience: A New Leadership Framework with Rimi and Samantha
Work From The Inside Out
and are on a mission to inspire women to redefine success by blending ancient wisdom with modern leadership. They have co-authored a book, to be released on February 14, 2024, . Rimi, a previous guest on my , and Samantha shared their origin stories with me, including how they met and developed the work that evolved into their book. They each made significant changes in their lives towards a deeper sense of purpose and well-being. Then, Samantha and her husband stayed at the owned by Rimi and her husband in the Azores. The women made a fast connection based on their common...
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241: Build Self-Trust to Unlock Your Best Self with Jesse Janelle
Work From The Inside Out
When Jesse Janelle was in elementary school, she experienced a lot of anxiety. When feeling panicked, she went to the nurses' office, visiting there regularly. Jesse didn’t know it then, but this is where her personal and professional development journey began. One day, 11-year-old Jesse was in the nurse's office having a particularly bad panic attack. The nurse called in the guidance counselor, who was asked to help sometimes. Jesse must have been extra anxious this time because the guidance counselor shook her by the shoulders and yelled, “Stop it right now,” in her face. At that...
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240: Demystifying the Path to Self-Employment with Chris Knudsen
Work From The Inside Out
Christopher Knudsen’s first work experience was on a framing crew at 15 years old in his father’s construction company. He credits those early years with instilling the work ethic he has today. Chris learned how to create momentum for himself, which gave him a sense of ownership and pride in his work. Today, Chris is a published author, university instructor, entrepreneur, and consultant. He works as an independent fractional CMO and is the CEO at , an advertising firm focused on direct-to-consumer companies. Chris’s main focus is to help businesses and ideas flourish alongside...
info_outlineWith an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Rimi Chakraborty swiftly worked her way "to the top" from cutting deals on Wall St. to the epicenter of the Boston technology hub in strategy and management consulting roles. Yet, her life could have gone very differently.
Born in Alabama, the only child of immigrant Indian parents (who met on their wedding day via an arranged marriage), Rimi’s early years were deeply troubled. At 8, her family moved to Philadelphia, and soon after, her parents separated. Rimi lived with her mother, who worked evening shifts and developed an alcohol addiction, leaving her unavailable as a parent. While maintaining straight-A grades, Rimi joined a gang, nearly got expelled from school, and was on a first-name basis with the police. By high school, she moved in with her father and stepmother, where her life stabilized. She went to UPenn, graduated, and got a Wall Street job.
As she raced to the pinnacles of success, Rimi realized she was sacrificing her health and happiness. Instead of ignoring the voices in her head, heart, and body, Rimi chose to live and lead with purpose. In 2015 she and her husband moved to his homeland, the Azores, Portugal, and opened a lodge and learning center, Quinta Minuvida, where she leads retreats and leadership workshops. Rimi learned the language, embraced a new life, and redefined her metrics of success, enabling her to live in alignment with her values. This became the foundation for her Mindful Business Leader framework.
Today, she brings her innovative tools and teaching to Fortune 500 companies, private companies, universities, and individuals to bridge traditional leadership with creative and emotional intelligence.
In this week’s Work From The Inside Out podcast, follow Rimi’s journey and work:
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Rimi is the co-founder of Rise Beyond Resilience to ROOTsilience and has a book coming out in October 2023.
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She teaches yoga and mindfulness globally and online, customizing mindfulness programs and courses for private and public companies.
Learn more and connect with Rimi here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimichakraborty/
https://www.instagram.com/rimichakra_/
https://www.facebook.com/rimi.chakraborty/