What happens when you arrive in a new country with a master's degree and discover you aren't allowed to work? Mindset coach and storyteller Niya Desai spent eight years on an H-4 visa before she could start her career, and she shares how she rebuilt her sense of identity along the way.

In this conversation with Anu Arora, Niya talks about the years she thought she'd lost, how interviewing hundreds of founders on her own show taught her that obscurity is expensive, and why she now believes that what we're going through isn't our struggle, it's our story. The episode closes with a playful rapid-fire round on mindful leadership where Anu and Niya each answer the same questions, and the answers are sometimes different and sometimes surprisingly alike.

Key takeaways:

• A hard season is a chapter, not the whole story

• Trust yourself first, before you reach for anyone else's advice

• Stop comparing your life to other people's

• Don't confuse your identity with your productivity, your paycheck, or your title

• A good mentor, who is not your spouse, tells you the truth and holds you accountable

• Mindful leadership is creating a pause between what happens and how you choose to respond

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About Niya Desai:
Niya Desai is a mindset coach, podcast host, speaker, and video storytelling strategist who helps founders, leaders, and high-performing professionals communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and authenticity.

Her own journey has been anything but conventional. After moving to the U.S., she spent years unable to work because of visa restrictions, navigated significant personal and professional setbacks, rebuilt her career from the ground up, and ultimately found her voice through storytelling. Today, she uses those experiences to help others overcome self-doubt, lead with intention, and show up more powerfully in both business and life.

As the host of The Niya Desai Show, Niya has interviewed entrepreneurs, executives, and changemakers whose stories reveal the human side of leadership. Her work has been featured on KING 5 News, and she is passionate about conversations that remind us that success is built not only through strategy, but through resilience, self-awareness, and the courage to evolve.

Connect with Niya:
Website: https://niyadesai.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niya-desai-00bb628/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conversationswithniya
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theniyadesaishow

If this conversation spoke to you, please subscribe, follow, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Connect with Anu Arora:
Website: https://anuarora.com
Podcast home: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindful-leadership/id1675397867
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anu.mindfulleadership
Substack: https://www.mindfulleaders.info

In this episode, Anu sits down with Noeyoni — architect, sustainable community builder, and author of the poetry collection As You Be for a conversation that started as an interview and turned into something much closer to two old friends comparing notes on the same uncanny journey.

Noeyoni and Anu discovered, almost by accident, that they'd each spent almost the same stretch of years writing a book of poetry — without knowing the other even existed.

What unfolds is a conversation about what it actually takes to stop gripping the wheel: the two things Noeyoni had to let go of to feel free, and what she found on the other side of letting go.

In this episode:

• How Noeyoni's nickname — and the meaning behind it — became the name she reserves for her creative work

• The eight-year spiritual journey that ran parallel to her career as an architect

• Seven accidents, one vertebra, and the strange, physical way she was pushed toward writing

• The real difference between living with intentions and intentional living — and why one of them is secretly a checklist life

• The first thing she let go of: needing to control the timeline of her own life

• The second thing she let go of: complaining — and what she believes complaints are actually trying to tell us

• A live reading from As You Be, complete with an explanation of the dance mudras behind them

• Why Noeyoni believes leadership is shifting from a "culture of lions" to a "culture of ants" — and what that means for the next generation of leaders

CORRECTION: Around minute 23:30, Noeyoni references Vinyasa Yoga when she was referring to Vipassana Yoga.

About Anu Arora
Anu Arora is an executive and team coach, speaker, and host of the Mindful Momentum Leadership Podcast. She works at the intersection of mindfulness, neuroscience, and leadership — helping mid-level managers and senior leaders navigate complexity, burnout, and the gap between performance and presence. Subscribe to her newsletter at mindfulleaders.info or follow her online at anuarora.com.

About Noeyoni

Noeyoni is a pen name. She is a sustainable community builder turned poet who synthesizes teachings she has gathered from all of her experiences into moving poetry that can help people make connection, grow, and improve their lives. You can read As You Be here.