An Interview With Melissa Llarena

Are you a coffee drinker? My coffee palette has absolutely evolved having been in New York City for most of my life, where it was okay to drink a crappy cup of New York City coffee, to now, living in Australia for about three years and solely having a very Italian-influenced, long black coffee. Just to give you a little context, a long black is a coffee lingo here in Australia for a very dark espresso cup of coffee.  Coffee in Australia is very personal, and there are tricks to creating the perfect cup. So I decided to ask Hugh Kelly, who placed third in the World Barista Championship in Milan, Italy, why coffee is so important here in Australia, as well as how you and I can brew our best cuppa ever! Hugh answers so many questions pertaining to how coffee is sourced, some coffee species available, and what it would take to pay a coffee bean farmer. Learn how much you might have to pay for a cup of coffee in the near future. Hint: How much do you pay for a glass of wine?  If you enjoy the quality of my questio

Are you tired? It’s a silly question, right? This is the episode that can change the quality of your life because this is for you if you are tired all the time.  We actually don't have a sophisticated language around our exhaustion. But this week's guest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, wrote the book, Sacred Rest, where she outlines the 7 different types of rest, which you will hear about today. This is a book about honoring rest in a society that values productivity as a way to express your worth.  We also go into why we experience Zoom fatigue which is one type of “tired” as well as why our brain doesn’t always shut off when our heads are on our pillow and we're just thinking about that challenge or that tough conversation of the day. Then there is social rest. Interestingly, there are some people that pour into us, and then there are also some people that pull from us. Dr. Dalton-Smith also shares a quiz you can take to uncover what kind of rest you may need more of in your life. You will also hear about my 5 s

Were you part of The Great Resignation or do you want to be? Is getting out of the rat race your BIG goal in 2022? Whether you left by choice or were let go by your employer or you want to launch a side-hustle, this conversation is perfect for you.  This week’s guest, Amy Guth, has been self-employed for the majority of her career. She has had a portfolio career for decades. A portfolio career concept was first introduced on Episode 65 by former CMO of GE Beth Comstock and I wanted to bring someone who could give us a sense of what it takes by way of courage, self-reliance, and autonomy. Hence, Amy is a great example. She understands what it feels like to hunt for your own food.  In this conversation, she lays out precisely how you can use fear as your beacon rather than let it get in your way from doing the most meaningful work of your life. Anyone new to self-employment has several new choices to make, whether it’s related to what projects to take on, clients to fire, skills to monetize, and even down to ho

Are you looking to lose weight? Let's talk about this top New Year's resolution, which is the desire to lose weight or increase exercise or just improve our overall diet. Sure, we want to improve our health. But how serious are we when it comes to making the changes necessary to turn our health around? Now, what would be possible if we actually got it right this year? Today, we have Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a board-certified family physician, seven-time New York Times bestselling author, and nutritional researcher who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. He's here to help us understand why we get diseases in this modern era when we're supposed to be living longer than ever before. He shares how we can regain that power and how we can start leveraging nutritionally dense foods in our lives and that also taste delicious.  Dr. Fuhrman gives me a sense of hope that despite some diseases being hereditary, they are not a fact in my life nor in future generations. ​​And s

Are you a fan of Sesame Street? I had the opportunity to ask Chris Thomas Hayes, a puppeteer and actor, about what it takes to capture our imagination, along with the imagination of our kids. This episode reveals a lot about what happens behind the scenes of Sesame Street.  Chris walks us through how he gets into character in the field of puppetry and how he approached playing a legacy character that may have even existed when he was a child and watched the show on TV. Listening to Chris, I’m just in awe of the technical sophistication behind what it takes to play our favorite Sesame Street characters including Big Bird, Hoots the Owl, or Ernie. Chris also talks about the way he conveys emotions through a puppet that is made of felt and stitching. In Chris’ words, the characters on Sesame Street were not built out of anger, but they came from love. They were built with the spirit of a child in mind that the more we watch them, the more we forget these are not real entities. So how then is he able to convey an

Think about what 2022 could look like for you. What does it take for you to make 2022 amazing? Imagine using your capabilities and resources as an adult and pairing those up with the confidence, resilience, curiosity, and energy you had as a kid. During a coaching engagement, a client asked me something that illustrates how we might be keeping ourselves stuck by relying purely on thinking like an adult.  In this episode, I’m doing a 2021 wrap-up and sharing with you some of my upcoming guests in 2022. Specifically, I’m giving you a sneak preview of next week's episode which features a Sesame Street puppeteer who offers some words of wisdom about reconnecting with our inner child being the key to harnessing our imagination. There's no better way to approach 2022 than with oodles of imagination for you to dream bigger.  My goal for this podcast is to bring you world-class thought leaders across disciplines from around the world who courageously and creatively went after their curiosities until they felt ready.

Being a mom to three little boys, I could have inherited this notion of delivering on a perfect Christmas experience – from the hot cocoa and the annual outing to seeing the best neighborhood Christmas decorations. Then I realized that perfection was the worst possible ambition I could ever have in my own life.  No matter how hard you try to deliver perfection, there would always be an imperfect Christmas table setting for someone seated at the table, or an imperfect Christmas Eve menu for someone who disliked my brown rice, Latin-dish alternatives. And there’s always going to be an imperfect Christmas party outfit for a party guest. There's always been a difference in how we define the perfect Christmas. Yet, we have this notion of striving for perfection when we know there's no one universal definition for perfection. So much time and effort go into ensuring that our kids have the perfect Christmas, maybe it's a Christmas that we never had. This idea of perfection that we show our kids is stressing out a lo

Just because you have comfy sofas does not mean that you have to sit down. You could still stand up for your goals and your ambitions and treat this December just as you would next January – with enthusiasm, optimism, and a deep desire to continue to evolve. It's almost the end of 2021 and I want to be sure that you do everything in your power to end this year with a bang! In this episode, I've decided to share with you some key ideas or ways to evaluate what you can do or should be doing during these final weeks of the year. And so, I want to share with you three key ideas that I think are going to help you rethink how to approach the end of this year while keeping in mind what you want to accomplish in 2022. I'm also sharing the approach that has helped me become successful, something that requires consistent movement, either at a turtle pace or as quickly as a hare. You will also hear this concept pertaining to celebrating your wins and pulling forth the person you have become. You will also have a good se

If you want to come close to fulfilling your life purpose, then challenges definitely come with the territory. And when it comes to going after something big and facing these rejections, setbacks, and failures, the most important piece to the puzzle is IF and HOW you choose to get back up, and ultimately, learn from them as well.  But how exactly can you go about this mental gymnastics? The key is to reframe rejections and reimagine how a setback can just be that thing that gets you ready for your comeback, especially when things might feel quite devastating in the moment.  This week, I have curated 10 unique excerpts from my 100+ podcast episodes, where my guests share how we can all reinterpret or use those tough times, and ultimately, how we too, can get back up with earned wisdom we can use to move forward towards the direction of any big ambition. My guests include a former volleyball referee, professional dancer, an Olympic gold medalist, an entrepreneur with the ambition to help a billion people, a pol

In this episode, I've curated another 10 excerpts from my 100 episodes where my guests have shared about happiness – how little it takes to feel happy and more inspired. It's also amazing how short of a time someone can go from feeling anxious to feeling grateful, joyful, and truly supported the moment you take heed of your guiding light. We're constantly told to appreciate the little things and be grateful. We're also told that happiness is within our reach. And so, I want to help you make happiness within your reach, especially during those hard moments.  Maybe you’re living in a humble New York City apartment with chipped paint on the walls. And then you’re seeing all those things on social media with everybody living big, glamorous lives. Or maybe you're reading or watching the news bringing about feelings of anxiety. Maybe you’re in a similar situation where you’re in a panic mode, and you don’t know how to break out from that feeling. Maybe you’re in the process of writing a book and you find yourself s

I've come to realize that while the central themes of this podcast have been creativity, courage, and curiosity, the deepest core of this is our identity. Today, I'll be covering how some of my guests have uncovered their truest identities, whether you can truly change your identity, and what this whole identity crisis and searching is really all about.  You'll be hearing 10 excerpts from my last 100 episodes that I carefully curated because they've meant something to me, and I surmise, they can change the way you think about getting to know yourself. When it comes to our personal evolutions of who we are, I have noticed three types of moments that truly make an impact on our identities.  The first type is how traumatic experiences can put our identities in question. Such as Cepee Tabibian, Co-Founder of She Hit Refresh, who lost her two parents back-to-back and decided to leave a good Texan life for a great Spanish existence (Episode 45), and Marshall Dun, who after losing his brother to suicide, he learned

Have you been feeling like your life is on auto-pilot? Then consider this conversation a stop sign. Or if you’ve ever struggled with FOMO, then be sure to listen to this episode as Dr. Brad Elphinstone shares how his brain surgery at the age of 18 helped him appreciate the risks we all face of feeling like we missed out on our own lives.  Based in Melbourne, Dr. Brad Elphinstone shares his insights that will help you better understand how varied our interpretation of human experiences can be no matter how common they are. Our discussion today focuses on three main topics – self-determination, equanimity, and non-attachment, which all can have life-long implications that will allow you to stop living on auto-pilot and never miss out on the things that truly matter to you.  Be sure to take this episode to heart and get some actionable guidance by picking up your free copy of my Courage Makerspace (™) Playbook on www.melissallarena.com/courage. It will help you boost your courage in 7 days' time. If you currentl

What does it mean for a person to find their purpose? And how does a person go about doing that? In Laura Carney’s case, her life purpose found her – and in a situation where she was finally ready.  Laura’s dad was killed by a female driver who was distractedly talking on her phone. 13 years later, Laura and her brother found their dad’s bucket list of 60 dreams he wrote at 29 that they didn’t even know existed. Today, Laura is living her purpose of finishing that list. Do you want to know whether you are on the right track to fulfilling your personal life purpose? Might you already be living it? Or are you still waiting for it to find you? Hopefully, this episode will inspire you as you uncover key insights to help you gain some momentum around your own life purpose. Discover the kind of mindset she had to consciously bring to the table, how she pursued this list of 54 possible items (out of the original list of 60), and how the universe conspired with her to finish her dad’s list. Also, as a mom with incomp

Have you been neglecting your own interests, wants, and desires, all in the pursuit of making other people happy? They may be your family colleagues, society, or your close friends. Has the time come for you to draw a line in the sand and make a really hard decision – a decision that brings up guilt and shame – to finally put a stop to your patterns to live the often "unlived" lives of others? It's time you create your own unique colorful life. One that is only limited by your own imagination and one where you can feel good about your choices, and occasionally, spoil yourself and allow yourself to thrive.  Today, we're going to talk about two major consequences of not taking the time to reassess why you do the things you do, and whether you're actually living your life or someone else's. I'm also going to leave you with three questions to help give you clarity as to whether you may need a bit of help with your own reassessment process.  Think of this as a hair detangling session. For those of us with curly ha

Want to finally accept that it is you who may need to be the cycle breaker in your family? It’s a tough pill to swallow. Personally, I’ve gagged a couple of times whilst holding onto this thought – the thought that it’s me who needs to ultimately take full ownership for my own happiness and release any need for others to accept or acknowledge my path.  You may also have to contend with certain emotions or clear up some dark clouds, and swallow a similar metaphorical pill. If this rings true, then tune in to today’s episode featuring Dr. Nima Rahmany.  You’ll uncover how to start your healing journey as a way to uplift your emotional well-being, the types of different attachment traumas you may have never worked through, and how a present-day conversation that could trigger you could actually be coming from a place in the past when you were a child. Consider today’s episode your chance to learn more about how you can become the cycle breaker in your family. Dr. Nima Rahmany’s Biography Dr. Nima Rahmany, DC, CC

What if taking meaningful action steps towards the achievement of your life purpose was a need rather than merely a want? What if working towards your life mission right now today could change the way you feel about your overall life for the better? Well, today is your special day. In this week’s episode, you will have the opportunity to take specific steps towards fulfilling your life’s purpose and boost your courage during the next 7 days. Together, let’s kickstart your journey, even if you still quite haven’t figured out your purpose yet.  First, let’s go back to kindergarten and reconsider what we’ve been taught pertaining to our wants and needs. After much reflection, I have come to realize that what other people were trying to teach me was a want, actually turned out to be my personal need. Now, what if executing on your life purpose was a NEED and not just a frivolous WANT? Then I’ll ask you a few questions (read: my three rules below) to help you pick one purpose. You’ll need to work through those bec

Why is a sense of humor and humanity so important that you should bring both to work and keep them in your life? In fact, a sense of playfulness can be your superpower. It certainly was for this week’s guest: Kathy Klotz-Guest.  In today’s episode, Kathy shares her story as a woman in technology who excelled in Silicon Valley by being funny and smart. We delved into the #1 fear most of us share: the fear of judgment especially by others (particularly from our coworkers). Kathy also shares how you can avoid living a fragmented life at work and instead bring more of your personality to the table as an asset. We talk about what you may need to feel psychologically safe enough to let your guard down a bit and show your humanity.  Kathy shares where the magic is as well as other lessons she has learned from her ‘improv’ experiences, including a concept called the “yes, and.” Hopefully, after listening to this episode, you’ll be inspired to add more humor and a spirit of playfulness into your life.  I also want to

Think about the last time that you balled your eyes out in front of someone other than a therapist. How emotional can you be in front of your family? On the flip side, what range of emotions can you handle being on the receiving end of?  In this episode, I'm going to share with you an excerpt from the book I'm writing about having the courage to imagine a better life for yourself while you are looking at your next life chapter or you're trying to pursue your life's purpose or fulfill your mission. Whatever is next for you has to be imagined in order for you to bring it into your reality. And central to that is being able to feel the fullest range of your emotions.  And so, I’m going to talk very specifically about just how emotional you can be right now. I'm also going to share with you how I've witnessed a lot of sanitizing of emotions in the workplace, as well as the numbing of emotions at home. We're also going to go through how you can access your emotions today. Now, there are some maladaptive ways that

This week’s guest is Genevieve Lang, a fellow mum who also sends her children to a Montessori program here in Australia. Now, this was one of those school situations when you realize that amongst us parents, we are still interesting adults with extraordinary life experiences. And it was during the recent lockdown that I had the opportunity to hear her play the harp for us all during our very own harp half hour.  What began as an intimate and very personal performance over Zoom turned out to be an opportunity for me to follow my curiosity and ask Genevieve to be a guest on this podcast. I have to say, I needed to muster my courage to make this ask. And this is the kind of bravery that I want to teach you too as a coach. It’s the type of courage to share your talent with a new crowd or to reach out to a fellow parent and ask them how they decided on their career. It’s the kind of bravery that we all need to live more enriching lives and to ultimately find it within ourselves to finally pursue our purpose right

Have you been seeking to change how you feel on a daily basis from feeling tied down to a boring or uninspiring life into one of meaning, fulfillment, and presence? Whether you want to start a business, write a book, produce a podcast, do a TEDx talk, start vlogging on YouTube, produce a documentary, launch a non-profit, or be part of a foundation – whatever that looks like for you – what do you think has been stopping you from doing what you really want to do in your life? What is stopping you from fulfilling your purpose? This is all about having to stop making excuses for not taking care of your dreams and desires. You have to overcome every single excuse that has been holding you back from seeing how powerful, masterful, and needed you are right now. It doesn’t mean you have to quit your job right away, although you probably have been contemplating your great resignation.  All the self-limiting beliefs and the lies you tell yourself have to stop otherwise you just keep delaying your purpose. The issue her