About this episode
? Life doesn’t always follow the path we expect, and sometimes it shakes everything we thought we knew about ourselves.In this insightful episode of The Forties Formula podcast, hosts Jasmin Dhillon and Amanda Lim sit down with UMA THANA BALASINGAM, leadership coach, founder of RAW with Uma, and one of LinkedIn’s top voices in Asia. With raw honesty and courage, Uma shares her journey of identity, visibility, and self-reinvention, guiding women to embrace their full selves beyond societal expectations.They discuss career quakes and how these moments can become opportunities to rediscover yourself. Uma opens up about leaving a high-powered career, facing personal challenges, and balancing motherhood, all while learning to show up as her most authentic self.Together, they explore:• The hidden stories women carry about their identity, appearance, and worth, and how to unlearn them• How to navigate workplace biases without losing yourself• Leveraging feminine superpowers to create influence• Finding grounding through friendships, reflection, and nature• Uma’s “Three H” approach: being held, being heard, and being helped• Viewing your 40s as a decade of questions, growth, and reinventionYour career, your relationships, your body, and your mind are all part of the journey. Sometimes the most valuable insights come when life shakes everything up. Reinvention is about letting go of limiting expectations, and giving yourself permission to be fully seen unapologetically.---------CHAPTERS00:00 – Episode Snippet04:22 — Introducing our guest, Uma Thana Balasingam05:31 — Unlearning damaging narratives10:20 – Becoming the uncaged version of yourself12:58 – Why nervousness before posting is a good sign14:40 – Walking the workplace tightrope: Liked or respected?17:35 – Turning likability into a strength19:04 – Living by your expectations, not others’21:00 – Listening to your soul’s knock23:30 – Career quakes: earthquakes of identity and purpose25:24 — Allowing space for grief29:51 — Meeting yourself again31:00 — Finding growth in discomfort32:02 — Redefining life beyond roles34:15 — Raw with Uma36:15 – Oversharing and the “sca
