In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Neha Bhatia, a strategist, designer, researcher, collage maker, wannabe artist, and writer.Neha grew up in India with dreams of being a fashion designer. After getting a scholarship to study at Parsons School of Design then a letdown working in the fashion industry which led to a full-blown identity crisis, Neha pivoted her career into advertising and innovation. As a highly ambitious person working in an industry that encourages long hours and full dedication, she found herself questioning her relationship with work, what she actually values and her worth beyond work. She ultimately realized that what she wanted was freedom and to her, freedom is the gift of time.She is now an independent strategist and researcher who expresses her identity through art, teaching, community and exploring different definitions of a life well-lived.We talked about working in the US with a visa, what happens when your dreams get crushed, finding more of herself after an identity crisis, defining her own version of a success, untethering our identity from work and more!This is Neha Bhatia for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Emily Kessler, a meditation teacher, artist manager in the music industry, solo traveler across the globe, and fantasy romance novel lover!While working as a marketing director in the music industry managing artists like Big Gigantic and the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival, Emily got into meditation as a way to recenter herself in her hectic, busy life. Her personal interest in meditation and professional role in music marketing led her to work with The Big Quiet. Together, they created the first mass meditation ever to take place on the main stage of an American music festival and spent the next 5 years producing mass meditation events all across the country.She is now a freelance marketing consultant & event producer, a partner at the Big Quiet, a content creator on meditation with over 140k subscribers, and a certified meditation teacher who specializes in helping busy humans make friends with their minds so that they feel calm, happy, and empowered inside their lives.We talked about how she got into meditation, why meditation is such an important investment for people carving their unique paths, why we should be bored, self-awareness and so much more!This is Emily Kessler for 5to9.***Use code "5to9" to get a 20% discount for Emily's upcoming "Meditation for Busy Humans: A 3-Session Learn to Meditate Course". on Jan 16 - 18!  You'll learn how to become a self-sufficient meditator for life & start to feel more at peace inside your busy mind. 

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Hailin Liu, aka DJ Hailife. She’s a musician, brand strategist, lover of fashion, cat mom, and a tarot enthusiast.Growing up with traditional expectations of her career, Hailin started in investment banking due to her family and peer’s influence. She quickly realized that she hated the environment and pivoted to brand strategy. While working at Landor and McCann, she realized that she was yearning for more creative expression in her life, which led her to experiment with music and fashion. She is now a brand and design strategist at Pepsi while moonlighting as a DJ playing at dope venues in New York like TBA and elsewhere. She also just released her newest single, Call Me Baby, and is slotted to perform at Groove Cruise, a festival also featuring DJs you might know like Diplo and Tiesto.We talked about her unconventional journey into music, how knowing what she didn’t want led her to find what she wanted, following her joy, the power of taking small actions, what she calls “creative courage”, the role of her 9-5 job as a strategist while pursuing music and more!

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Shyne Webster, a multidisciplinary designer, brand strategist, design education creator, Adobe Ambassador, extreme extrovert, and sneakerhead.At 17, Shyne created her business, Designed by Shyne - a passion project turned clothing brand. After realizing her creative skills can be used as a service to brands, she evolved her business into an agency, offering design, brand strategy, and workshops on innovation and design thinking to over 100 clients. After graduation this year, she’s decided to scale down her business to freelance more freely with the clients she’s built up over the years while making space for slowness and new creative ideas.We talked about how she started and evolved her creative business at such a young age, how Gen Zs view their careers, self-learning creative skills, the importance of mindset as a self-employed creative, and more.

This is a special solo episode where I'm going to give you some updates on what I've been up to, a topic that I'd like to unpack with you and talk about something that I've been really excited about! Hope you enjoy it!!! And remember to hit me up on Instagram @spacetogrow.world. I want to know you!!!! 

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Olivia Owens, a creator, writer, business coach, lover of personal development books, and digital nomad who's passionate about helping creators and entrepreneurs make impact & money.Olivia started her career at Under Armor’s HR department then spent 5 years at IFundWomen where she launched IFundWomen of Color, a platform for women of color to raise capital through crowdfunding, grants, coaching, and connections to launch and grow successful businesses. This effort put her on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2022 among other accolades.She's currently a Creator Partnerships Manager at Teachable, a no-code platform for creators to get paid on their own terms.We talked about her first then second identity crises and how she navigated them, who we are outside of our work, trusting the universe, changing her narrative, separating facts from feelings, and lots of other juicy topics.This is Olivia Owens for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Ximena Vengoechea, a writer, speaker, illustrator, UX researcher, mother, and lover of fiction.Ximena has always loved bringing design thinking to our everyday world, which led her to spend a decade in the tech industry at companies like Linkedin, Twitter, and Pinterest as a user researcher. During that time she also manifested many side projects such as The Life Audit (which got written about on Life Hacker, CNBC, and INC), while contributing to articles in Fast Company, and many illustration projects. Her side projects led her to author two books - Listen Like You Mean It (which is about building better relationships through listening) and Rest Easy (a book that’s about reclaiming rest in our work-obsessed culture.)We talked about her early career, why she’s insistent on not picking a lane, the importance of side projects, her experience with burnout and how it led her to write a book, a deep dive into what is rest, why we need rest, how to rest and more!This is Ximena Vangoechea for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Justin Bridges, a photographer, holistic financial coach, fractional CMO for tech startups, writer of the Growers newsletter, and a proud plant dad.Justin started his career as a Wall Street analyst at Goldman Sachs, and quickly realized that he disliked the culture and was craving to do something more creative. He then pivoted into fashion, working as a planner and buyer at Jcrew and Saks Fifth while pursuing fashion and lifestyle photography on the side. He then worked for an OG fashion blog, the Sartorialist, as a photographer, which took off his lifestyle fashion career, shooting for brands like Kith, Pyer Moss, GQ, Highsnobiety, and Everlane just to name a few. He is a also top instructor on Skillshare teaching photography and personal finance to over 150 thousand students. In 2021, he joined the team at El Camino Travel, a company that curates conscious, intimate group travel experiences for women as their co-founder and CMO. After leaving El Camino, he now runs a photography studio, is a fractional CMO for tech start-ups, writer of his newsletter Growers, and continues to tinker with many different projects.We talked about his ever-evolving creative career, theories on networking, why you shouldn’t pursue your passion, a reframe of imposter syndrome, his policy of constantly trying something new, and more.This is Justin Bridges for 5to9. 

Erin Claire Jones, a Human Design Guide & Leadership Coach, discusses energy types in Human Design, applying them in work and life, her career journey, curiosity, trusting the unknown, and more. She emphasizes aligning with natural tendencies for success, empowering team dynamics, and finding balance in work-life harmony.

In this episode of 5to9, I chatted with Paff Evara, a writer, creator, founder, and public speaker empowering queer people of color to be their most authentic selves.Originally from a small village in Australia, they’ve spent their career in digital marketing and most recently heading up a paid digital agency in Scotland. They are now a creator with a community of over 100k people, consultant for companies like Meta on diversity, a touring speaker, and co-founder of Take up Space, a decentralized community-driven media company for BIPOC and queer voices to connect, learn and heal.We talked about their journey to burnout, their trust fall into the universe aka quitting their job with no plan, how they became a paid touring speaker, why they always strive to get out of their comfort zone, the difference between delusional and abundance mindset and more!This is Paff Evara for 5to9.