Cindy Villanova is an author, consultant, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also a seventh degree black belt, master instructor and the owner of a martial arts studio in Austin, Texas.

Cindy’s parents were a mixed race couple in the early 1960s in southern California. They faced prejudice but stressed to Cindy and her brother the importance of an education, and growing up to be ‘good’. Cindy worked hard and was an ‘A’ student. She had big dreams to be a lawyer and to enter politics, but instead she became pregnant as a teenager by her boyfriend, a very troubled young man. She chose not to give up the baby. It was one of many forks in the road of her life.

While there were two “failed marriages”, many physical injuries from her martial arts practice and financial troubles along the way, there were also triumphs and turnarounds. Her book Don't Fight Mad generously chronicles these many painful twists and turns. She parallels what mixed martial arts taught her about digging in, when she most wanted to give up.

JS is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder of Real Ventures and Montreal Startups. Both are early-stage venture capital firms that backs entrepreneurs and build the ecosystems in which they thrive. JS has primarily worked with entrepreneurs who are using AI, blockchain technologies, AR/VR and synthetic biology to improve happiness, human creativity, and communication — and transform or disrupt the pillars of our society.

In 2018 he had a profound experience that shifted his perspective of himself, his relationships and the world around him. While he’s loved his work, JS is now taking a slightly different role in the company he founded.

Season 4, Episode 46: Be Who You Are

Lohifa Pogoson Acker is a mother, sister, daughter, entrepreneur, social activist and in Linda’s mind, the unofficial Mayor of Hamilton, Canada.

Born in Nigeria, Lohifa came to Canada at 16, via the UK. Her parents were professionals and she’d had some opportunities to travel but she was excited about this new adventure, embracing a new country, different cultures and the opportunity to get to know people. A great joy in her life.

Her mother was a lawyer and her father a food sciences engineer. While she had chosen biopsychology and economics for her career, she also had a great love of the arts, English and storytelling. She worked at home and abroad in public health including through the Clinton Foundation to fight HIV and AIDS in mothers and their children.

Episode 19 - It’ll all work out

My mom was a homemaker turned business owner after she became a single mother just before my last year of high school. It was 1983. She went back to school for Business Administration after being out of the workforce for about 20 years.