An Authors Kiss with Sara Troy and her guest Virginia Hunter Sampson, on air from May 17th
Superheroes are often role models for our children. They are looked up to because they are strong and bend others to their will. We see them as “powerful”. Is that the message we want to send to our children? What if we could show our children that “power” comes from being kind, compassionate and thoughtful? It can be difficult to teach compassion to our children especially right now. We can begin by planting seeds about the power of compassion and showing them simple ways to practice compassion.
Virginia became a single parent to her four children when her husband died from A.L.S. She had been a full-time caregiver to him for three years. Her children struggled to deal with their loss and grief. Two of them turned to alcohol and drugs. Virginia had faced many other challenges such as being a victim of domestic violence. The world was not a very compassionate place during these trials. She and her children were bitter and angry. She wanted all of them to heal and thrive again. She realized that compassion for yourself and others was the key. She studied the science of compassion and started to practice it for herself, her children and others. She has written a book for adults about compassion – “Compassion Magic” and a book for children, “Superhero Sam Saves His Family”. She wants to spread the message about compassion and to inspire and show others how to discover its power to heal and thrive.
An Authors Kiss with Sara Troy and her guest Jenny Story, on air from May 18th
Jenny is speaking about her Fantasy Fiction Trilogy, Dysnomia her second book of the series that has just been published on May 1st, 2021. Also, she is a 2D and 3D Animator and am doing a short-animated film and also doing a script for her Trilogy books, making them into movies. All this and a self-advocate for Autism.
Jenny is a self-advocate for Autism and shines her light on other Autistics and to go after their dreams and lets anyone say they can’t. She won the 2020 Self Advocate Award at the Autism BC Awards. And the money she was given for winning was $1000.00 and I gave half of it to a Single Mom and two Autistic boys and the other half of it I gave to Spectrum Productions who work with Autistic individuals.
I had a documentary filmed about me through Telus Optik not long ago and again to shine a positive for Autism and give others hope and see anything is possible. To believe in yourself.
Jenny Story was born in Yellowknife but lived the majority of her life in Vernon, B.C. She attended Vancouver Film School in 2011 to 2013 and became a 2D and 3D Animator. She is also an author of a best-selling, award winning book called, “Dysnomia Outcast on A Distant Moon”, the first of a trilogy and her second book, “Dynomia, Home Lies in Your Heart”, just was published May 1st, 2021. She won the ANCA World Autism Festival for Literary Arts in 2016, a finalist for Book of Excellence Awards in 2019, and was the winner of the Self Advocate Award at the Autism BC Awards 2020. Recently, she was in a Telus Original Documentary with another autistic individual called “Stories from the Spectrum: Growing up with Autism”. During the covid-19 pandemic, she has been writing the third book and working on an animated short that she hopes to also share this year. Also writing the script for the first book as making the Trilogy into Animated movies. Despite being diagnosed with Autism, Jenny has always remained focused on pursuing her dreams and is passionate about inspiring others to do the same.
Free Give away: I would like to, through my Mom, give away my Mom’s book about me, “The Autistic Author and Animator”, that takes a person through my journey with Autism, through her eyes, as she was my rock, sounding board, and voice. They can contact me on my website for this and will get back to them.
Ignite your heart and soul with Sara Troy and her guest Yiqing Zhao, on air from May 18th
What would it be like to leap into a purpose-driven life filled with inspiration and love?
What would it be like to claim and harness your innate magical power and transform into your higher self?
We are all creators of our own lives, yet we are often limited by no one but ourselves.
Yiqing Zhao is an actress. writer, and a creative life coach. She came from a medical background, but found her passion in helping people with their minds and souls, after doing depression experiments on rats. She helps artists and entrepreneurs create vision and tap into their intuition, and unlock their potential.
Raising Our Gifted Children with Sara Troy and her guest Dr. Shemmassian: on air from May 11th
For nearly 20 years, our group of super smart admissions nerds has helped thousands of students get accepted to America’s top colleges, medical schools, and law schools at unprecedented rates using my exclusive approach.
Now, we’d love to do whatever it takes to help you achieve your educational and career goals.
Dr. Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world’s foremost experts on medical school admissions, college admissions, and graduate school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school and top colleges using his systematic and proprietary approach.
Dr. Shemmassian received his B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University. Despite graduating with a 3.9 GPA as a pre-med student, Dr Shemmassian’s interests in mental health led him to complete his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at UCLA. Throughout his education and beyond, Dr. Shemmassian successfully guided students into top colleges, medical schools, and graduate programs, and has found his professional calling in helping others achieve their educational and career goals. Dr. Shemmassian’s admissions expertise has been featured in various media outlets, including The Washington Post and Business Insider. Moreover, he has been invited to speak at Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other prestigious institutions about various aspects of the admissions process.
Expert: Dr. Shirag Shemmassian, CEO of Academic Consulting
Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Laila Tarraf, on air from May 11th
Laila Tarraf, author of Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life. As women increasingly claim leadership roles in business and politics, and at a time in our nation when people are seeking authentic leaders, Laila Tarraf offers insights and inspiration for finding a natural balance and leading as a whole person—with compassion and courage, intellect and empathy. To be a successful leader, a woman needs to be tough—for years, that’s what Laila Tarraf believed. She prized her ability to be strong, firm, and impassive, like her hardline immigrant father. Her strength became her power, and, for a while, it served her well in her business life. It enabled her to go toe-to-toe with powerful male leaders and excel in a career that took her from a recruiter for the internet division of Wal-Mart to Chief People Officer for Peet’s Coffee & Tea, the company that launched the craft coffee movement in America. But always being in control and never letting herself be vulnerable bled over into her personal life with disastrous results.
In Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life, Laila Tarraf shares her journey of awakening and profound transformation as a leader, a mother, and a woman. For much of her career, Laila, like many women, struggled to balance courage and compassion, intensity and flexibility, being respected and being likable. It took a series of three crushing losses for Laila to finally unlock decades of buried emotions and integrate the parts of herself that make her both strong and soft. As she attests: “I have come to see that true power comes from connecting your head to your heart.”
As the eldest of three children, Laila took on the dual role of mediator between her two warring parents and her mother’s comforter. At age seven, when her family left Lebanon for Las Vegas, her responsibilities expanded to serving as a bridge between two cultures and two languages. Her childhood training made her a natural for a career at the intersection of business and people: human resources. After seven years at Walmart.com, she landed a plum executive position with Peet’s in the San Francisco Bay Area. She thrived at work. She had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Yet, intimacy eluded her. After two failed relationships, she fell into marrying Daniel, an attractive and seemingly carefree younger man. Despite the gift of a daughter, Nadia, her brief marriage was troubled and ended tragically—with Daniel’s death from a drug overdose.
In Strong Like Water, Laila recounts her shock—first over the loss of her husband, then at her parents’ lack of response. Struck with the fact that her cold, hard father and needy, helpless mother were both incapable of giving her emotional support, Laila was overwhelmed with grief. As she grappled with Daniel’s death and then faced two more tragedies, she knew it was time to seek out professional help for herself.
LAILA TARRAF is a senior human resource executive with over 25 years of professional experience. After graduating with her MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, she became one of the founding team members at Walmart.com. She then served as Chief People Officer at Peet’s Coffee and Tea, an iconic Bay Area premium coffee company. Currently, Laila is the Chief People Officer at AllBirds, a trusted advisor to entrepreneurs and investors, and a regular guest lecturer at Berkeley Law School. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter, Nadia.
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