What happens when the life you carefully built — the city, the career, the plan — gets taken away?

And what if every redirection, every closed door, every forced departure turned out to be exactly what you needed?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Julia Villaseñor. Julia has spent years working at the intersection of art, culture and communication, including at Kurimanzutto, one of Latin America's most influential contemporary art galleries.

Julia's story moves across Mexico, Paris, India and back — not by design, but through a series of unexpected turns. A visa rejected after nine years in France. A move to India she never planned. A decision to return home that allowed her to spend her father's final years by his side. A family restaurant closing after seven years.

And through all of it, a growing willingness to trust paths she never planned to take.

This is a conversation about loss, reinvention, identity, and what it means to build a life around trust rather than certainty. And about why art — at its best — is one of the most human things we do.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• What it actually feels like when a carefully built life plan collapses — and what you do next
• How living between cultures — Mexico, Paris and India — shaped who she became
• What India taught her about letting go of control and trusting the unexpected
• Why the most painful redirections often open the most important doors
• What it means to make art accessible without making it shallow
• The difference between curating and communicating — and why she's done both
• How to trust a process you can't see or predict
• How to embrace a future you never planned for

🔗 Check out Julia's work:

Instagram: @julibertad

Kurimanzutto: https://www.kurimanzutto.com/

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

00:30 Episode Starts

01:17 Meet Julia Villaseñor

06:02 Living Between Two Completely Different Worlds

10:16 When a Chapter of Your Life Comes to an End

12:14 Searching for Home Across Three Continents

17:06 The Country That Changed Me Forever

18:14 Why You Sometimes Need to Let Go of Control

20:13 The Opportunity of a Lifetime

22:55 The Turning Points That Changed Everything

24:23 The Visa Rejection That Changed My Life

26:36 Why I Chose to Leave India

27:37 The Decision I'll Never Regret

29:13 Losing My Father and Returning to My Roots

30:17 When Life Keeps Closing Doors

31:14 Learning to Trust the Process

32:40 Do Things Really Happen for a Reason?

38:14 Why Art Shouldn't Be Exclusive

46:42 What Makes Us Human?

48:53 How to Embrace a Future You Never Planned For

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a podcast for people building meaningful things in difficult times. Honest conversations with leaders, founders, investors, and changemakers about what it actually takes to keep going, lead well, and stay hopeful about the future.

New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

Why do some communities thrive for years while others slowly disappear?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Fabian Pfortmüller — entrepreneur, community weaver, and co-creator of the Community Canvas and Community Weaving Framework — about what actually makes communitieswork.

From entrepreneurship and leadership to social impact and human connection, community has become one of the most talked-about concepts of our time. Yet many communities struggle to sustain momentum, engagement, trust, and a genuine sense of belonging over the long term.

Fabian argues that most people confuse networks with communities — and that mistake changes everything.

This is a conversation about belonging, relationships, trust, leadership, and why people stay.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• What a community actually is — and why it is different from a network
• Why purpose attracts people, but relationships keep them there
• The difference between community building and community weaving
• Why many communities fail despite good intentions
• The five elements of the Community Weaving Framework
• How trust, care, and belonging create lasting engagement
• Why consistency matters more than one-off events
• The mistake of treating community like a funnel
• How leaders can create spaces where people genuinely feel they belong

🔗 Check out Fabian's work:

Community Weaving Framework

Community Canvas

Entangled (Fabian's Substack)

Fabian Pfortmüller on LinkedIn

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer: "Networks Connect, Communities Care"

00:20 What Is a Community?

01:28 Why Community Matters for Entrepreneurs and Leaders

03:57 How Do You Build Meaningful Community?

04:27 Community Building vs Community Weaving

05:36 The Five Elements of Healthy Communities

06:12 Fire: Purpose, Values, and Shared Direction

06:53 Web: The Relationships That Hold People Together

08:46 Rhythm: Why Consistency Matters

10:46 Circles: The Hidden Structure of Every Community

13:52 Reciprocity and Preventing Burnout

15:01 Spiral: The Journey Into and Out of Community

16:36 Building Trust and Meaningful Relationships

17:09 Networks Connect. Communities Care.

18:42 Why Belonging and Psychological Safety Matter

19:56 The Power of Hospitality

20:39 Leadership Through Role Modelling

21:09 Resources and Where to Find Fabian's Work

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a podcast for people building meaningful things in difficult times. Honest conversations with leaders, founders, investors, and changemakers about what it actually takes to keep going, lead well, and stay hopeful about the future.

New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

Why do so many people wait to feel ready — before starting, before speaking up, before stepping into something new?

And what if the question you're asking is the wrong one entirely?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Servane Mouazan — coach, mentor, board member, and one of the most thoughtful voices in leadership and social impact.

For more than two decades, Servane has helped entrepreneurs, investors, and changemakers build careers, organizations, and lives they can actually sustain. Her approach is radical in its simplicity: slow down, ask better questions, and stop looking for other people to give you the answers.

Together, they explore confidence, mentoring, leadership, resilience, entrepreneurship, and what it actually means to build a meaningful life and career in uncertain times.

This is a conversation about getting out of your own way, learning to think for yourself, and understanding that confidence doesn't come first.

It comes from doing.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• Why the best mentors give less advice — not more
• The difference between coaching, mentoring, sponsorship, and peer learning
• Why most people ask "how" before they know "what" or "why"
• What actually makes someone board-ready
• How to navigate being the only different voice in the room
• The difference between endurance and true resilience
• Why pushing through isn't always the answer
• How to build confidence step by step — without waiting to feel ready
• What sustainable leadership actually looks like from the inside
• Small daily practices that help you stay grounded while doing demanding work

🔗 Connect with Servane Mouazan:
Website: https://servanemouazan.co.uk/
Podcast: Be & Think in the House of Trust
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/servanemouazan/
Instagram: @servanemouazan

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

00:46 Welcome Back: Meet Servane Mouazan

03:15 "I'm a Thinking Partner for People Who Want to Get Out of the Numbness"

05:30 What Makes a Mentoring Program Actually Work

10:42 Coaching vs Mentoring vs Sponsorship vs Peer Learning

14:22 What the Best Mentors Actually Do

18:24 "Shut Up and Not Give Advice"

21:08 How to Help Someone Find What They Actually Want

28:45 The Entrepreneur Who Thought They Wanted Freedom

38:54 What Actually Makes Someone Board-Ready

42:12 How to Get a Board Seat — Without Asking Directly

49:33 "You're Not There to Sit. You're There to Serve."

56:14 How to Navigate Being the Only Different Voice in the Room

01:04:22 The Difference Between Endurance and Resilience

01:11:18 "You Don't Know You're Pushing Too Hard Until You Collapse"

01:17:45 How to Build Wellbeing Into an Organization From Day Zero

01:24:30 What Servane Wishes People Had Known Earlier

01:28:52 Daily Practices That Keep Her Grounded

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a podcast about leadership, resilience, entrepreneurship, psychology, and building meaningful things in difficult times.

Honest conversations with founders, investors, creatives, and changemakers about what it actually takes to keep going, lead well, and stay hopeful about the future.

New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

#Leadership #Confidence #Mentoring #Coaching #Resilience #Entrepreneurship #CareerGrowth #BoardLeadership #ImpactInvesting #CatchTheUpswing

Why do so many people trying to create positive change end up exhausted?

And why do so many workplaces and “inclusive” spaces still make people feel unseen, unsupported, or forced to hide parts of themselves?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Bonnie Chiu and Tara Sabre Collier about burnout, invisible labor, identity, caregiving, ambition, and the emotional cost of trying to change broken systems while still protecting your own humanity.

Together, they explore leadership, parenthood, capitalism, belonging, impact investing, language, power, and what it really means to build a more inclusive world.

Bonnie Chiu is the founder and CEO of TSIC, a global social impact advisory firm focused on diversity, inclusion, and systems change in finance and entrepreneurship.

Tara Sabre Collier is an impact investor, entrepreneur, and advisor working across inclusive finance, economic development, and emerging markets.

This is a conversation about exhaustion, purpose, identity, modern work, and the tension between caring deeply about the world… without losing yourself in the process.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• Why so many purpose-driven people feel emotionally exhausted
• The invisible labor of caregiving, parenthood, and emotional responsibility
• Whether people can truly bring their “full selves” to work
• Why some “inclusive” spaces still exclude people in practice
• How capitalism shapes burnout, mental health, and belonging
• Why impact investing can still reproduce inequality
• How language shapes power, identity, and inclusion
• The emotional cost of trying to “do it all”
• Whether meaningful systems change is actually possible
• Practices that help people stay grounded while doing difficult work

🔗 Check out Bonnie Chiu’s work:

TSIC: https://tsic.global/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonniesychiu/

🔗 Check out Tara Sabre Collier’s work:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarasabre/

🔗 Additional resources:

2X Global: https://www.2xglobal.org/

Pathway Fund: https://pathwayfund.co.uk/

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

00:55 Meet Bonnie Chiu & Tara Sabre Collier

01:18 “Which Parts Of Your Reality Are We Not Making Space To See?”

02:21 The Invisible Labor Of Caregiving

04:59 Can We Really Bring Our Full Selves To Work?

06:08 Faith, Identity & The Parts Of Ourselves We Hide

09:09 When “Inclusive” Spaces Don’t Feel Inclusive

11:04 Why Capitalism Wasn’t Built For Mental Health

13:03 How Loss Shaped Tara’s Path Into Impact Investing

16:36 How Bonnie Found Purpose Through Entrepreneurship

24:05 The Inclusion Conference That Rejected A Mother & Baby

27:27 Why Risk Stops Real Inclusion

31:27 Are We Thinking About Development All Wrong?

35:31 How Language Shapes Power & Belonging

40:39 Why “Global Majority” Matters

44:03 The Hidden Power Of Words

46:36 Why So Many Purpose-Driven People Feel Exhausted

49:18 “You’re Confronting Capitalism & Patriarchy”

50:29 Change The System — Or Build Something New?

55:07 The Hidden Cost Of Trying To Do It All

57:21 How To Avoid Burnout While Still Caring Deeply

59:13 Protecting Your Mind In An Overwhelming World

01:01:08 What Keeps Us Grounded Through Difficult Times

01:02:14 Final Reflections + Hope, Community & Recharge

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a long-form video podcast about how people build meaningful lives, lead through uncertainty, and shape the future in a changing world.

Subscribe for conversations with global leaders, entrepreneurs, creators, investors, and extraordinary people navigating ambition, resilience, technology, purpose, and what it means to be human.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing

Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

#Leadership #Burnout #MentalHealth #Entrepreneurship #ImpactInvesting #SystemsChange #PurposeDriven #WomenInBusiness #Capitalism #CatchTheUpswing

Why do some people spend years fighting for change — long before anyone notices the result?

And what does it actually take to keep going when people dismiss your ideas, systems resist change, and success feels impossibly far away?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Laura Coryton and Rachael Crook — two women who turned frustration, setbacks, and difficult personal experiences into movements and businesses that created real-world impact.

Laura Coryton led the campaign to end tampon tax in the UK and helped change legislation across Europe. Rachael Crook built a technology platform helping solve critical shortages in the care sector after witnessing firsthand how difficult it can befor families to navigate care systems.

Together, they explore resilience, campaigning, entrepreneurship, empathy, criticism, leadership, and the “hard years” nobody sees behind meaningful change. This is aconversation about staying in the arena, building through uncertainty, and continuing even when progress feels invisible.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• The absurd policies that exposed sexism in the tax system
• How Laura Coryton helped end tampon tax in the UK
• Why meaningful change almost never happens quickly
• The emotional reality of entrepreneurship and leadership
• What caregiving taught Rachael Crook about resilience and empathy
• Why criticism from the sidelines matters less than staying “in the arena”
• The hidden emotional cost of trying to create change
• Why empathy is one of the most underrated leadership skills
• How to keep going when your first ideas fail
• The mindset shifts that help people persist through difficult years

🔗 Check out Laura Coryton’s work:Website: https://lauracoryton.com/ Sex Ed Matters: https://sexedmatters.co.uk/

🔗 Check out Rachael Crook’s work:Lifted: https://www.lifted-talent.com/

🔗 Additional resources:
Obama Foundation Leaders Program: https://www.obama.org/programs/leaders/
Care Economy Knowledge Hub (Kore Global): https://www.the-care-economy-knowledge-hub.org/

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer
04:19 Episode Starts: Meet Laura Coryton & Rachael Crook
06:54 “Who Is Making These Decisions?”
11:41 Watching Someone You Love Disappear
15:03 “There Was Nothing To Help Us”
20:05 The People Holding Society Together
22:01 How Laura Changed UK & European Law
27:36 “Nobody Sees The Hard Years”
31:18 The Moment Rachael Nearly Quit
35:09 Why Most People Never Start
40:45 The Leadership Skill Nobody Talks About
46:05 The Exercise That Changed How She Lives
50:12 “We Are Making Money And Changing Lives”
56:34 “Be More Ambitious”
01:01:05 Life Belongs To People In The Arena
01:08:42 Rapid Fire Round
01:13:26 “Getting Punched Is Part Of It”

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a business podcast exploring howpeople build, lead, and navigate complexity in a rapidly changing world.

Subscribe for conversations with global leaders, entrepreneurs, and emerging voices shaping today’s economy.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

#Leadership #Entrepreneurship #WomenInBusiness #CareEconomy #Activism #Resilience #SystemsChange #CareerGrowth #CatchTheUpswing

Why do we keep promoting the wrong people into leadership

In this follow-on episode of Catch The Upswing, we continue the conversation with Marijn Wiersma — this time shaped by questions from our global community.

After our first episode, which focused on her book SOS: A Navigation Guide for Women at Work, we invited listeners from around the world to share the questions they’re grappling with in their own workplaces.

From London to Nairobi to Dubai and beyond, this episode brings those voices into the conversation — exploring the realities of leadership, culture, and systems from the ground up.

Together, we go beyond the book to unpack what leaders and teams are navigating in practice today.

In this episode, we explore:

• the most overlooked toxic leadership behavior — and why it persists
• how we confuse confidence with competence
• how insecurity in leadership turns toxic — and why it gets rewarded
• what it really takes to create more inclusive workplaces
• how emotions are judged differently in leadership
• how to navigate resilience, burnout, and long-term change

This is a conversation shaped by real questions — and grounded in the lived experiences behind them.

🔗 Check out Marijn’s work:

SOS: A Navigation Guide for Women at Work https://soswomenatwork.org/ (also available on Amazon and bookstores worldwide)

Marijn Wiersma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marijnwiersma/

🔖 Chapters

00:00 Trailer

01:43 Welcome back — audience questions from around the world

02:16 The most overlooked toxic leadership trait

04:19 Why we confuse confidence with competence

06:45 The hard truth about keeping top female talent

09:32 Emotion, credibility, and the double standard at work

12:48 Why empathy is non-negotiable in leadership

15:42 Authenticity at work — and the courage to keep the coat on

20:02 Resilience, burnout, and why pushing through isn’t the answer

27:14 Systems change, hope, and the case for outrage + optimism

29:54 How to build real allies at work

32:14 The one thing leaders should do tomorrow morning

33:42 How to make unconscious bias conscious

34:35 What Marijn hopes her book will change

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a business podcast exploring how people build, lead, and navigate complexity in a rapidly changing world.

Subscribe for conversations with global leaders, entrepreneurs, and emerging voices shaping today’s economy.

Mentioned in this episode

Christiana Figueres — former UN climate chief and architect of the Paris Agreement.

Watch the full episode with Christiana Figueres on Catch The Upswing: https://youtu.be/GrFJvCvEUp4?si=RV5DwoCmLITTeoIl

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing
Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

🎥 B-roll credits:

Some of the visual material used in the trailer of this episode is courtesy of 2X Global. Original footage supplied by C+A Media, commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

#Leadership #WomenInBusiness #CareerGrowth #Mindset #GenderEquality #FutureOfWork #CatchTheUpswing

Why do great founders still get rejected — even when they have strong ideas, traction, and experience?

In this solo episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza unpacks one of the most persistent — and least visible — dynamics in venture capital:

The hidden patterns that shape who gets funded, who gets overlooked, and why.

Because what looks like a funding gap on the surface often starts much earlier:

in the questions being asked,
the assumptions investors make,
and the signals they respond to without even realizing it.

🎯 In this episode:

• Why strong founders still struggle to raise capital
• How small differences in pitch conversations shape major outcomes
• The hidden patterns behind many investment decisions
• Why this is not just a pipeline problem
• What changes when capital flows differently
• And why better investment decisions are also a massive economic opportunity

Some of these dynamics are subtle.
Some are systemic.

All of them shape the future of innovation.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction — The question behind the funding gap
00:33 The reality: 2% of venture capital
01:30 This is not a performance problem
02:05 Why the gap persists
02:45 Two founders, two different questions
03:45 How bias shapes investment decisions
05:20 It’s not a talent problem — it’s capital allocation
06:00 What changes when women invest
07:25 The economic case for investing in women
08:15 What’s at stake: markets, growth, and innovation
09:20 The real opportunity

🎙️ Catch The Upswing explores ideas that spark resilience,opportunity, and inclusive growth — through conversations with investors, founders, and leaders shaping what comes next.

If this episode resonates:

→ Share it with someone building or investing
→ Subscribe for more conversations on capital, entrepreneurship, and systems change

#venturecapital #investing #entrepreneurship #innovation #leadership

What happens when the people writing the checks start to change?

In this episode of Catch the Upswing, Jessica Espinoza sits down with Marla Shapiro, Managing Partner of Hermesa, for a candid conversation about angel investing, founders, power, and the real mechanics of capital.

This is a conversation about what gender-lens investing actually means in practice — not as a slogan, but as a question of who gets funded, who becomes an investor, and how that shapes the future of business.

Marla shares why so many women are still underrepresented not only as founders, but also as investors… why access to capital matters more than endless advice… what first-time angel investors need to know… and what founders often misunderstand about fundraising, networks, and how investors really make decisions.

They also talk about the businesses that get overlooked, the discipline required to build a serious angel portfolio, and why long-term change depends not only on opportunity, but on ownership, wealth creation, and who gets to sit at the table.

If you are a founder, investor, operator, or simply curious about how capital really works behind the scenes, this episode is packed with practical insight.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informationalpurposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making financial or investment decisions.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• what gender-lens investing actually means
• why it matters who writes the checks
• how women are becoming angel investors for the first time
• why women are often over-mentored and under-funded
• what founders should understand about fundraising and warm introductions
• how investors think about exits, returns, and long-term value
• why capital allocation shapes what gets built
• what it takes to change power dynamics in early-stage investing

🔗 Follow Marla’s work:

HERmesa https://hermesa.co.uk/

Marla Shapiro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlagshapiro/

🔗 Referenced in this episode:

Research on women angel investors suggests that women investing in women-only groups tend to make more investments than those in mixed groups — highlighting the role of access, confidence, and peer dynamics in shaping participation: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342818236

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Trailer

00:47 Who Gets to Write the Checks

02:15 Why Angel Investing Still Looks the Same

04:12 How to Become an Angel Investor

07:57 “Women Are Over-Mentored and Under-Funded”

10:30 What Gender-Lens Investing Actually Means

13:06 Inside Finance: What It’s Really Like

18:26 The Challenge of Building Something New

21:47 The Kinds of Businesses HERmesa Backs

27:34 What Founders Actually Need from Investors

31:56 AI, Deep Tech, and What Investors Are Watching

36:11 The Biggest Risk Marla Took

44:36 Changing the Narrative Through Capital

49:34 Fundraising Realities & Founder Advice

📺 Watch more episodes:

Catch The Upswing is a business podcast exploring how people build, lead, and navigate complexity in a rapidly changing world.

Subscribe for conversations with global leaders, entrepreneurs, and emerging voices shaping today’s economy.

🔗 Follow & connect:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CatchTheUpswing

Instagram: https://instagram.com/CatchTheUpswing

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@catchtheupswing

#investing #venturecapital #angelinvesting #founders#entrepreneurship #leadership #innovation