Podcast
Speak Your Mind Unapologetically Podcast
Hosted by For People Leaders Leading Bold Conversations | Ivna Curi · EN
Speak Your Mind Unapologetically is the leadership communication podcast for people leaders — managers, directors, and VPs — who want to speak up, lead bold conversations, and influence outcomes that matter.
Whether you're addressing conflict, delivering feedback, leading meetings, or navigating difficult conversations, this podcast gives you practical strategies to:
👉🏼 Communicate with clarity, confidence, and conviction=
👉🏼 Influence decisions and build trust across functions
👉🏼 Speak up under pressure — without sounding aggressive or backing down
👉🏼 Encourage your team to share ideas, concerns, and feedback
👉🏼 Tackle conflict, disagreement, and misalignment early and effectively
You'll hear insights, frameworks, and stories from real workplaces — all designed to help you grow your leadership impact through communication.
🎙 With 400+ episodes, the Speak Your Mind Unapologetically Podcast is trusted by people leaders across Fortune 500s, healthcare, tech, startups, and global organizations.
ABOUT THE HOST
Ivna Curi is a Fortune 500 speaker, TEDx speaker, and host of the Speak Your Mind Unapologetically Podcast. She's a Forbes contributor, author of Unapologetic Voice, and founder of the Assertive Way Institute. A former corporate leader with an MBA from INSEAD and over 20,000 leaders trained, Ivna brings global experience and real-world strategies that help leaders drive results through bold communication.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Assertive Way Institute helps organizations empower people leaders to lead bold conversations, influence outcomes, and build courageous speak-up cultures. Our workshops and talks help people leaders become confident, clear communicators — and turn workplace communication into a competitive advantage.
33episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
They Said No — Here's Exactly What to Say Next (8 Steps to Overcome Workplace Resistance)
4d ago00:37:41Tap to summarizeGetting a "no" at work isn't the problem. Not knowing what to do with it is. In this episode, you'll get a proven 8-step framework to turn workplace resistance into genuine cooperation — without pressure, without losing your composure, and without damaging the relationship. Whether you're asking for a raise, requesting flexibility, pitching an idea, advocating for resources, or handling a performance review objection, these steps give you a repeatable approach for any high-stakes conversation where the stakes feel too high to get it wrong. In this episode, you'll learn: How to recognize workplace resistance — even when it's subtle, indirect, or disguised as agreement The most common mistakes that kill your credibility and close the conversation down How to ask the questions that surface the real concern, not just the surface objection How to address objections confidently without being aggressive, passive, or overly apologetic The exact 8-step framework to move someone from "no" to "yes" while keeping the relationship intact If you've ever left a workplace conversation feeling like you gave up too easily — or pushed too hard — this episode is for you.
Transcribe →She Waited for Someone to Offer Her a Promotion. Nobody Did. Ceridian SVP Geetanjali on Owning Your Career
2w ago00:44:08Tap to summarizeA Recruiter She Never Asked for Advice from Told Her to Lower Her Ambitions. It Derailed Her for Months. What Geetanjali Learned About Who Gets to Define Your Ceiling. She was doing great work, getting strong reviews, and waiting for someone to recognize she was ready for the next level. Nobody came. Finally, she went and asked. They said: "Yeah, we think you're ready." She walked away with one permanent lesson: no one knows where you want to go unless you tell them. Your manager cannot promote you toward a goal they don't know you have. Geetanjali is SVP of Financial Planning and Analysis at Ceridian, and she has built her career across multiple industries, companies, and cities, often following her spouse's career moves and rebuilding her network from scratch each time. She has been told she had no career path because of a commute. She has had a recruiter give her unsolicited opinions about her ceiling — someone who had never worked with her and didn't even have a position for her. Both times, she fact-checked herself, pushed back, and moved forward. In this episode, she gets specific about how. You'll learn: Why she walked out of her first promotion conversation wondering why her manager didn't just offer it, and the mantra she built from that moment: "I own my career." How she separates "I can't do this" from "I don't want to do this" — a distinction her husband called her out on, and one that completely changes how you diagnose self-doubt. The worst-case scenario mindset she uses every time asking feels too risky: maximum they say no, and then at least you know exactly what you need to work on. The recruiter who told her to stay put and aim lower, without her asking for any of that advice, and how she spiraled — until she realized: this person has never worked with me, doesn't know what I do, and has no position for me. Why am I listening? The manager who told her she had no career because she was commuting. How she found a better position, and what she said in her exit interview when the CFO asked why she was leaving. How she negotiated leaving at 5 PM sharp with a male manager who was more supportive than she expected — and why building trust first is the prerequisite for every other ask. Her salary negotiation rule, applied to every job offer she has ever received: never accept in one go, always go back at least once, and negotiate the full package not just the base number. How she leads her team by modeling openness about her own mistakes first, which makes it safe for her team to take risks and tell her when she is wrong. Her networking approach: stay in touch with mentors even after years of silence, get involved in community organizations when you move cities, and commit to one lunch a month with someone new. About Geetanjali: SVP of Financial Planning and Analysis at Ceridian, Geetanjali has built a finance leadership career across multiple industries and cities. She is a dual-career couple partner, working mom, woman of color from India, and active member of the Association of Financial Professionals.
Transcribe →"Success Isn't About Who You Know. It's About Who Knows You." How a J&J Senior VP Went from Waste Picker to the Top
3w ago00:46:46Tap to summarizeHis Boss Told Him He'd Never Rise Above Engineer Level. Three Years Later, That Boss Reported to Him. Samuel Santos on Getting Noticed at Work Early in his career, his manager told him the company had a prototype for success: blonde hair, green eyes. Samuel Moody Santos was mixed race, Black, an immigrant who had started his working life as a waste picker. His manager told him he would never advance past engineer level. Three years later, Samuel was a manager and that man reported to him. He went on to retire as Senior Vice President at Johnson & Johnson, one of the top 40 Fortune 500 companies in the world. He speaks five languages. He holds an engineering degree and an MBA. And he wrote the book on how he did it: "In Spite of the Headwinds." In this episode, Samuel shares the specific mindset shifts, communication strategies, and career moves that took him from invisible to indispensable, as a minority, an immigrant, and someone who was actively told he didn't belong. You'll learn: Why "success depends on who you know" is the wrong mental model, and the one-sentence reframe Samuel used to challenge a corporate trainer in a room of 40 people that changed how he thought about visibility for the rest of his career. Why doing excellent work and staying quiet about it is the same as doing nothing, and how he marketed his ideas without ever bragging about himself. How he turned a direct manager who tried to limit his career into a stepping stone by building relationships with leaders two and three levels above that manager. The "poor photograph" framework: why being visible without being skilled fails, and why being skilled without being visible fails just as badly. Why he treats every "no" the same way: either he didn't explain the idea well enough, or he needs a different audience. The Starbucks founder knocked on 242 doors. Samuel applied that same logic to ideas inside a corporation. How he disagrees with superiors without triggering defensiveness: "I never disagree with any person. I disagree with ideas." The specific language he used to pose challenges as questions so people moved toward his position instead of defending against it. The performance review confrontation where someone tried to penalize a team member for a mistake from two years prior, and how Samuel addressed the entire room to win that argument on the spot. Why he focused ruthlessly on the one skill he could take above average (presenting technical ideas to non-technical executives), and chose not to develop things that wouldn't move the needle, including declining to learn Mandarin during a two-year assignment in Shanghai. About Samuel Moody Santos: Retired Senior Vice President at Johnson & Johnson, Samuel is an engineer, MBA, minister, polyglot (five languages), honorary consul, former university professor, public speaker, and author of "In Spite of the Headwinds: My Journey from Waste Picker to Vice President at a Top-Forty Fortune 500 Company." Book: https://www.amazon.com/Spite-Headwinds-Picker-Senior-Executive-ebook/dp/B09KGRQ61W Connect with Samuel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-moody-santos-56601a10/
Transcribe →She Told Both Job Interviewers She Wanted to Be CIO. They Hired Her Anyway. Calendly's Head of IT Darlene on Being Unabashedly Ambitious
4w ago00:44:50Tap to summarizeHer Dad Found a Rolex and Returned It. What That Taught Her About Asking for Everything. Her father came to the United States in 1989 with next to nothing. He found a Rolex in a locker room while working as a janitor and returned it. The owner gave him a job. He stayed 27 years. In that time, he asked his employer for a green card. They sponsored it. He asked for college tuition. They paid for his associate's and his bachelor's degree. He asked to pivot into chemistry. They made a role for it. Darlene watched all of this and had one thought: if he could ask for all of that with nothing in his pocket and no English, why was she self-editing her ambitions? She stopped. Now she opens job interviews by telling the people who will decide whether to hire her exactly what she wants: to be CIO of an organization. She told her future boss. She told the Calendly interviewer. Both were supportive. She uses it as a filter. Darlene is Head of IT at Calendly, and in this episode she breaks down the frameworks she's built for speaking up, pitching ideas, and asking for exactly what she wants without apology. You'll learn: How to know which conversations are worth inserting yourself into, and which ones to let go based on span of control, stakeholder complexity, and how badly you want the outcome. The self-interest framework: why "selfless" leads to burnout, "selfish" kills collaboration, and the middle zone of self-interest is where real buy-in happens. Why she describes senior leadership as "glorified salespeople" and what changed when she stopped clicking on the backend and started selling visions instead. The "directionally correct" approach to numbers: why giving a C-suite executive "$270K plus or minus 20%" is infinitely more persuasive than "decreased time" or a 6-decimal-point calculation that took two weeks to produce. How self-editing language like "I think the answer might be..." quietly signals low confidence, and how to hit the delete button on it. Why she tells every interviewer exactly what she wants out of her career, and how she uses their response as a filter for whether the organization is actually a place where she can grow. About Darlene: Head of IT at Calendly, Darlene has built her career at the intersection of technology leadership and organizational influence. Originally from a Venezuelan family in Rhode Island, she leads IT strategy and operations at one of the most widely used scheduling platforms in the world. She is candid, direct, and unabashedly ambitious.
Transcribe →Every Man in the Room Ignored Her and Started the Meeting. She Interrupted. What Happened Next. (with Lisa, CSIO at Lee Health) — Part 2
May 100:35:55Tap to summarizeThe Mirror Method, the WAIT Acronym, and Why "Learn Fast" Beats "Fail Fast": Lee Health CSIO Lisa on Challenging the Status Quo — Part 2 She walked into a conference room as the only woman in a room full of men in technical data roles. They introduced themselves to each other and started the meeting without acknowledging her at all. She paused, said "excuse me," stated her name, her role, and why she was there. It startled them. She was glad she did it. Because if she hadn't, she wouldn't have belonged in the conversation that followed. In Part 2 of this conversation, Lisa, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Lee Health, moves from personal story into the specific leadership tools she uses every day to challenge the status quo, orchestrate high-stakes conversations, and move organizations through change without creating enemies. You'll learn: The Mirror Method: why the most dangerous thing you can do when entering a new organization is come in with a fix-it mentality, and the structured listening approach that gets people to agree the status quo needs to change before you ever propose a solution WAIT — "Why Am I Talking?" — the acronym she uses to decide when her voice advances a conversation and when silence does more How she reads the nonverbals of an entire organization the same way she reads body language in a room, and what signals tell her when trust is building and when it isn't Why she stopped relying on PowerPoint and what changed when she started looking people in the eye instead of at her slides, including the mentor advice that saved her: "be ready to deliver a 5-minute version of what you just created" The difference between intellectual sparring and debate, and how she creates conditions for divergent thinking that actually leads to decisions, not just more discussion Why she says "learn fast" instead of "fail fast", and how she navigates naysayers, skeptics, and the inevitable "you paid how much for what?" moments in healthcare innovation What she looks for when building a team: curiosity, courage, and comfort with ambiguity, and why trustworthiness ranks above everything else About Lisa: Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Lee Health, Lisa leads strategic planning, innovation, and organizational transformation across one of Florida's largest health systems. She is a passionate advocate for women in leadership and women of color in senior roles.
Transcribe →She Was a Shy, Introverted Child Who Became a Chief Strategy Officer. The Realization That Changed Everything. (with Lisa, CSIO at Lee Health)
May 100:40:01Tap to summarizeShe missed the scholarship deadline for her MBA. She asked anyway. She got it. She was the only woman in her group project cohort, a single mom with a one-year-old, living paycheck to paycheck. She told her group on day one exactly what she could do and when she was leaving. They respected it. On a business trip with a relatively new manager, she admitted mid-conversation that she wanted to move into a strategy role that didn't even exist yet. That manager became her greatest champion. That pivot launched the career that led her to become Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Lee Health. Lisa has spent her career figuring out what fearless authenticity actually looks like in practice: not as a concept, but as a set of specific choices made in specific moments of risk. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, she walks through the mindset shifts and early career moves that built her foundation. You'll learn: The exact moment Lisa realized intimidation was her own internal problem, not something others were doing to her and how that realization changed every difficult room she walked into after Why the post-it on her monitor reads "no one wants to feel insignificant, incompetent, or unlikable", and how she uses it to decode defensiveness in herself and others The MBA-as-single-mom stories: how she advocated for a scholarship she'd missed the deadline for, set hard boundaries with her group project team from day one, and created an independent study that wasn't in the curriculum How a candid conversation on a business trip, admitting she wanted a completely different role, launched her entire strategy career, and what she learned about speaking up to managers about your real aspirations Why her first attempt at people management felt completely wrong, and the leadership philosophy she arrived at: "developing leaders, not amassing followers" How conflict made two of her most important professional relationships stronger, not weaker About Lisa: Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Lee Health, Lisa leads strategic planning, innovation, and organizational transformation across one of Florida's largest health systems. She is a passionate advocate for women in leadership and women of color in senior roles.
Transcribe →Years of Being Called "Hardworking and Quiet." How Revolut's Head of Strategy Daisy Rewrote Her Professional Brand
Apr 2400:49:15Tap to summarizeFor years, Daisy's performance reviews said the same things: hardworking, great team player, result-driven, quiet. Cycle after cycle, different managers, same words. Then she realized: those were her brand hashtags, and they were never going to get her to where she wanted to go. She wanted "confident," "influential," "driven," "leadership." And nobody was going to give her those labels. She had to earn them by using her voice. Daisy is Head of Strategy and FP&A at Revolut, one of the world's fastest-growing fintechs. Originally from China, she built her career navigating the cultural expectation that hard work and results would speak for themselves. They didn't. In this episode, she breaks down exactly how she changed that, and what she now teaches every junior person who reports to her. You'll learn: The performance review pattern that finally made her realize she was building the wrong brand, and the specific words she decided to own instead Why she stopped being the silent note-taker in every meeting, what she lost by doing it, and why AI has made that role completely obsolete The 4-phase framework for asking questions in town halls and large meetings, from canned questions that still get you seen, to strategic dialogue that opens collaboration doors with senior executives The "golden three months" strategy: how to use your newness as a security blanket to ask anything, map broken processes, and deliver visible value before anyone expects it Why there is no such thing as over-communication at work ,and how staying quiet to avoid being "too much" is actually the riskier move The one mandate she gives herself and every person she mentors: say something in every meeting, even if it's just a rephrasing If you've ever been called "hardworking" but not "leadership material," or if you have great ideas that only come out in one-on-ones but never in the room, this episode is the blueprint. About Daisy: Head of Strategy and Financial Planning & Analytics at Revolut, Daisy leads strategic and financial operations at one of the world's largest fintech companies. Originally from China, she coaches and mentors junior professionals on speaking up, building visibility, and translating strong technical work into leadership presence. Stop Taking Notes, Start Getting Noticed: Revolut Head of Strategy Daisy on Building Your Brand Through Your Voice
Transcribe →Be Brief, Be Bright, Be Gone: How Newell Brands VP Malvika Challenges Senior Leaders, Manages Type A Executives, and Turns Conflict Into Opportunity
Apr 1700:56:10Tap to summarizeWhen a new business leader walked in and told Malvika they were going to restructure the entire segment — 60% of company revenue — in a room with just the two of them, no leaks, no one else in the room, she didn't say no. She said: "I hear you. And here's how we get to the same outcome with the right people involved." Six months after implementation, he came back and told her it was the right call. That's the ABC method — Acknowledge, Build, Challenge — and it's the framework Malvika has built her career on. As VP HR, Learning & Development at Newell Brands, she's spent years figuring out how to challenge senior leaders without triggering defensiveness, manage rooms full of type A executives without losing the thread, and find genuine joy in the conversations most people dread. In this episode, she gets specific about all of it. You'll learn: The ABC method for challenging leaders without coming across as aggressive, and the Project Panther restructure story that proves it works How she handled a client in Oman at 24 who kept making inappropriate comments — alone, in a foreign country, with a relationship and additional business on the line, and still won the next assignment The "be brief, be bright, be gone" framework for capturing and keeping the attention of type A executives in high-stakes meetings How she gamified a full-day leadership talent review to keep a competitive senior team engaged, and still got all the work done Why leading with facts instead of emotion is the only way to challenge the status quo without losing credibility Her personal technique for staying calm when everything is tense: painting, choosing to laugh, and the line about "not my circus, not my monkeys, but I do know some of the clowns" If you work with strong-willed leaders, navigate difficult conversations across cultures, or just want to bring more effectiveness, and more joy, into the hardest parts of your job, this episode delivers. About Malvika: Vice President HR, Learning & Development at Newell Brands, Malvika has led organizational transformation, talent strategy, and cross-cultural teams across global markets. Originally from India, she has built her career navigating high-stakes leadership conversations across cultures, industries, and executive levels. She Was 24, Alone With a Difficult Client in Oman. What She Figured Out Built Her Entire Leadership Playbook.
Transcribe →Your Job Title Can Evaporate Overnight. Your Internal Power Can't. Leadership Lessons from Equifax SVP Alejandra
Apr 1700:43:37Tap to summarizeShe watched a brilliant female CEO — strategic, skilled, accomplished — get pushed out of her company. And in that moment, Alejandra had a realization that changed how she thinks about her entire career: if it can happen to her, it can happen to any of us. A job title is the most fragile kind of power there is. The only power that can't be taken away is the one you build inside yourself. Alejandra is SVP of Technology, Global Infrastructure Solutions at Equifax, leading teams across multiple countries and continents. She also runs "I Am Remarkable" workshops — originally a Google initiative — helping professionals, especially women and underrepresented groups, learn to celebrate their own achievements out loud. She did not always find this easy. Growing up in Argentina, where the culture does not reward self-promotion the way the U.S. does, she spent years assuming her work would speak for itself. It didn't. In this episode, she shares what she learned late, by her own admission, and what she now teaches others from the start. You'll learn: Why waiting for others to recognize your achievements is a trap, and the mindset shift that breaks it The story of how she walked into a job interview at 22 with no experience and got hired on boldness and a single honest promise Why she left a well-paying job that supported her family to escape bias, and how she made that decision The difference between title-based power and internal power, and why only one of them survives a corporate restructure The single biggest leadership gap she sees across cultures, levels, and industries, and it's not what most leaders focus on How values contain ambition and keep influence from crossing into manipulation The practical system she teaches for tracking and sharing your own achievements before you forget them If you've been doing great work and waiting for someone to notice, this episode reframes that habit entirely. About Alejandra: SVP of Technology, Global Infrastructure Solutions at Equifax, Alejandra leads infrastructure teams across the globe. Originally from Buenos Aires, she moved to the U.S. seven years ago. She is an advisory board member of WATT (Women Advancing Technology Together) at Equifax, a board member of the Start House Foundation, an active facilitator of the I Am Remarkable initiative, and a member of Women in Technology (WIT) Atlanta. Stop Waiting to Be Recognized: How Equifax SVP Alejandra Learned to Promote Herself — and Why You Need To
Transcribe →"I'm Not Responsible for How You Feel": How Melissa Stood Her Ground With an Intimidating Executive and Changed Their Relationship Forever
Apr 1700:44:46Tap to summarizeSixteen years later, she still tells this story. She was called into the office of a 6'4" senior executive she barely knew. He sat with his back to the door and said: "You will either make me a very happy man or a very unhappy man." Something in her snapped. She replied: "I was always told I'm not responsible for how other people feel." He slowly turned his chair around with a smile on his face. That one moment became the foundation of a decade-long mentorship. Melissa is Executive Director and Chief Privacy Officer at Kodiak Solutions, and she's spent her career learning, sometimes the hard way, what it actually means to hold onto your personal power when the professional stakes are high. In this episode, she breaks down the real moments that tested her, and the specific tools she built to handle them. You'll learn: What "giving away your personal power" actually means, and how to catch yourself doing it before it costs you What Melissa said to a senior executive that instantly shifted how he saw her, and why most people would have responded the opposite way How she handled a new boss who made every conversation feel like an interrogation, and the scripting technique that got her through it without losing her composure or her job Why a mentor told her "if you're going to swim with sharks, you need to thicken your skin", and what that actually means for women moving into senior leadership How to stop taking feedback personally when your whole identity has been built around being the A student The self-awareness practice that tells you when to speak up and when holding back is the smarter move If you've ever left a difficult conversation beating yourself up, questioning your own judgment, or wondering why you didn't say what you meant, this episode gives you the tools to stop that pattern. About Melissa: Executive Director and Chief Privacy Officer at Kodiak Solutions, Melissa brings decades of experience in technology and healthcare leadership. She is an active mentor to early-career women in tech and a champion of honest, values-driven leadership. How to Reclaim Your Personal Power When Authority Figures Try to Diminish You
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