Feedback at Work
Ace of Pentacles
n this episode, a short bonus episode, I share some tips on navigating feedback at work. I talk about: how to reframe how to respond and not react to feedback when and how to get curious and how to help your manager shift their perspective on your performance. I hope this is helpful as you integrate feedback at work (and maybe even in life)! If you'd like extra support: avra.as.me
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Ep. 28 | Breaking the Burnout Script for High-Achieving Asians with Tian Tian (Mary) Li
Ace of Pentacles
In this episode, I sit down with my friend Tian Tian, who is a holistic transformation coach. We discuss her journey from working on Wall Street, tech, earning her MBA from Harvard, and the breakdown that showed her how disconnected many of us are from our wisdom. This sparked her desire to heal and then help others heal. Work with Tian Tian: Follow her on IG: Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanmaryli/
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Ep. 27| Embracing Life's Plot Twists with Justin Oliver
Ace of Pentacles
In this episode, Justin Oliver shares his powerful transition from a career in higher education to his new path as a communication and intimacy coach. After years of professional success, Justin realized he was craving deeper fulfillment and began a journey of self-discovery that reshaped his life and work. Through candid reflection on burnout, personal healing, and confronting sex addiction, Justin explains how rigorous honesty, therapy, and emotional awareness transformed his relationship with himself and others. These experiences now inform his coaching, where he helps...
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Bridging the Gap Between Your Inner and Your Outer World
Ace of Pentacles
A little reintroduction going into 2026! Here’s who I am and what I do - through my coaching, consulting, writing, speaking, and teaching. If you’d like to meet: If you’d like to stay connected: saramirza.com
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The Back Seat
Ace of Pentacles
In this episode, I share a reflection on my year, and some important questions for you to consider as you roll into 2026. The cover photo is from a time in my life when I finally got into the driver’s seat of my own car.
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The Psychology of Employee Engagement & Motivation
Ace of Pentacles
Traditional employee engagement surveys don't work, but there's another way for us to think about employee engagement -- through the lens of motivation. This episode is for leaders, HR, workplace experience designers, AND individuals who might be considering a career change! 🗓️ Need support designing an employee engagement strategy that's rooted in the science of human behavior? Book a Workplace Consult:
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Designing Your Next Chapter
Ace of Pentacles
Great product design starts with deeply understanding the user and building for their experience. Ultimately, the products people keep coming back to are the ones that consistently exceed expectations. And isn’t that exactly what we’re doing when we design a life we’re genuinely excited to live? In this episode, I talk about a specific tool that can help you design your life and work experience more intentionally. For more help with designing your life / career or workplace experience, visit: ; set up a meet & greet and we can design a coaching package that...
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Activating Self-Schemas
Ace of Pentacles
Our environments are constantly activating our self-schemas. In this very short bonus episode, I talk about what that means, how I’ve used this psychological concept intentionally, and how you can use it too, especially as the holidays approach. Need research-backed strategies and support to step into the next version of you? Let's chat: avra.as.me
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The Middle Passage: A Threshold to Second Adulthood
Ace of Pentacles
Midlife is when many people have a profound psychological awakening that James Hollis calls the Middle Passage. Around age 40- 50, we move from first adulthood, defined by external roles, achievements, and societal templates into second adulthood, where the soul demands authentic self-expression. I think that because we don’t have rituals or support for this transition, it often shows up as restlessness. In this episode I look at the middle passage through the lens of the stages of grief, reframing midlife struggles as a necessary grieving process and an invitation to shed false...
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The Desk with the Best View: A Story about Power, Privilege, and Perspective
Ace of Pentacles
If your life feels like it’s in a strange moment, maybe even an absurd one, take a listen to this episode. And if you need some help figuring out how to work with that moment — reach out. Because that’s what I do. I help people turn moments just like these into keys that unlock another chapter of their lives and other version of themselves.
info_outlineIn this conversation, Sara sits down with Sneha Koka to talk about authenticity in leadership and in life.
Sneha opens up about her journey as an engineer, a leader, and a mom, offering a thoughtful glimpse into how she balances these roles. She shares how embracing honesty about her needs and desires—combined with an engineering mindset for solving everyday challenges—has empowered her to build a life she truly enjoys. Sneha also reflects on how her diverse background and experiences have shaped her ability to show up authentically in every aspect of her life.
About Sneha:
Sneha Koka is a leader in the operations organization at Nvidia with previous experience as a manufacturing engineer at Tesla during the Model 3 launch and at Linde and Caterpillar prior to that. She leads the capacity planning team at Nvidia, ensuring capacity risk mitigation strategies are in place across all verticals post-fab. Her background is in industrial engineering and she has spent about fifteen years tackling complex challenges in dynamic business environments in multiple industries – semiconductor, automotive and chemical. Her recent challenges in the silicon valley have been focused on implementing solutions to enable exponential scalability.
Outside of work, she’s a mom of two young boys, two and four. For fun, she loves biking with her family, hiking/exploring nature in their camper van and doing pottery on the wheel. Sneha loves to create - creating art, creating solutions and creating new memories/experiences is something she thrives on. Sneha also loves to bring people together.
Someone once congratulated Sneha on becoming a mom, with the statement “welcome to the world’s largest fraternity/sorority”. Sneha became a mom for the first time during the Covid 19 pandemic; a time when many parents started to leave the workforce as a result of losing their standard support systems they relied on. Sneha continued to take on bigger challenges at work while intentionally looking to grow in her personal life.
Always having been a lover of nature and the outdoors, Sneha leaned into that aspect of her life even as a new parent and found ways to incorporate outdoor adventures into her family’s routine. A friend told her that following Sneha’s outdoor adventures was inspiring her to come up with innovative ways to balance both work and family time. This in turn inspired Sneha share her outdoor nature explorations & van life on the weekends, hoping to inspire more parents to find creative ways to meet their goals holistically and not have to step away from professional goals unless it’s truly what they wanted to do.