Balancing It All: Work, Wellness, and What’s Next
00:41
Mara Kamat
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to In Her Land. I'm Mara.
01:05
Carrie Aguilar
And I'm Carrie. And today's episode feels extra special because it's just the two of us.
01:10
Mara Kamat
No guests, no agenda in the traditional sense. Just a real catch up.
01:15
Carrie Aguilar
I love this.
01:15
Mara Kamat
My kids this morning were like, mom, who's on the podcast? And I was like, nobody. It's me and Carrie. And they're like, but I don't understand. I was like, we haven't done it in a long time. So it's just gonna be her and I catching up and checking in.
01:30
Carrie Aguilar
I love that we're doing this in preparation for Galentine's day.
01:34
Mara Kamat
Two friends just hanging out, pausing, actually talking about life, love, work and all the messy middle of parenting and whatever we may face.
01:45
Carrie Aguilar
And I feel like we're living in a very messy middle right now.
01:48
Mara Kamat
So I'm living in a very messy middle right now. Maybe it's because it's February And January has 80 days.
01:56
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
01:56
Mara Kamat
And the cold has really set in. There is an insane amount of snow that Cleveland's experienced. The sun, I don't know what that is anymore. I haven't seen it in a long time.
02:08
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, my gosh. And how it's changing the snow. Yesterday I got stuck on my driveway. We've had this snow on the ground for over a week now, and so it's well packed. And then yesterday was just warm enough to make it very slippery, so. So I had to literally back up and pull forward three times to make it up my driveway, which, by the way, is not a hill. It's not hard. But anyways, that was. Yeah, I almost didn't make it home.
02:34
Mara Kamat
Thank God.
02:35
Carrie Aguilar
Sorry. I had to park on the street and I can't stand that.
02:38
Mara Kamat
Yeah. In the month of January, four people got stuck in our driveway and had to get towed out. So I started shipping packages. Not to the house because it was. I didn't want any more delivery drivers or people to get stuck in the driveway. And I don't really remember a time in Cleveland when it was quite this bad.
02:59
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, my I was Talking to my 96 year old grandmother yesterday and she was like she's I've been in this house for 20 years and it has never been this bad. And she just made it to the Heinens in Chagrin Falls for the first time in three weeks yesterday. She hadn't left the house in three weeks. I mean she's fine. She, my mom lives with her so they're buds but she's literally hibernating so I get that. I do too.
03:22
Mara Kamat
Wish I could a 96 year old used tall in this weather and I'm glad she's been hibernating and I'm also happy for her that she got to Heinen's yesterday.
03:31
Carrie Aguilar
Me too, me too. It's very friendly. Heinen's. They all know her there and they all say hello a little bit.
03:36
Mara Kamat
Carrie, let's zoom out a bit. How would you describe this season of life for you personally and professionally?
03:43
Carrie Aguilar
That's a really good question. I feel like professionally, which is really interesting because even though we have this podcast, I don't really talk about that much on the professional side. I ended the last year, so I ended 2025 making a pretty big decision I'm very excited about. So I have to give you guys the background of the groundwork. I left my last corporate like big corporate role in 2023 and I started my own business where I basically consult, did sales strategy consulting for startups and I really love it. But over the last two years I have really, and I would say over the last six months really I have anchored myself in a couple of things that are bringing me joy and then other things within my consulting work that I kind of realized I'm not really that much more excited about.
04:36
Carrie Aguilar
So I love the flexibility. I love that I can do this with you. I love that I don't have to check in with someone saying I'm going to be gone for an hour a half. With that being said, I miss a team. I miss leading, I miss learning. I miss actually making such a big deep impact in an organization. And so yeah, so at the end of 2025 I made the decision to really start looking for a new position within an organization and start working internally. So stay tuned on really what that looks like. I have some great clients that I'm working with That I really enjoy working with them. So I'm hoping that in the next few months that becomes something. But.
05:17
Carrie Aguilar
But it feels very freeing to make that decision because I really felt like I was flirting with it for a long time. And so, yeah, it feels really nice to be in the space where I'm like, okay, no, I really want to go internal. I really want to. Flexibility is great, but I miss people. I'm an extrovert. I need people to bounce ideas off of and really. Yeah, I don't know, be energized by.
05:43
Mara Kamat
Yeah, I think that I always kind of step back to it and say that different situations serve you at different points in your life. Right. So perhaps having that flexibility served you for a period of time and now moving to being in house will serve you for another period of time and it doesn't matter which decision you make. We all, I think so often we get in our own heads and we're like, oh my gosh, this is such a big decision. When in reality it's do what serves you in this moment and at this chapter and when it's stop serving, you re evaluate it.
06:16
Carrie Aguilar
I love that. I also think in general, looking at just the historical, I feel like back, let's call it like even 10 years ago or even 15 years ago or 20 years ago, I just know or feel it was much harder for people to leave, quote, unquote, leave the workforce and then go back if you had a gap in your resume that wasn't, that really wasn't looked highly upon. And if anything, I feel I am such a better, more well rounded asset to any organization based on the work that I've done over the last two years, in addition to all of the corporate building, large business experience that I had before. So I don't know, I'm really excited about it. I think it'll be. Yeah, I don't know. Stay tuned, I guess. So what about you, Mara? How are you feeling?
07:04
Mara Kamat
January and February are a hard month in general in Cleveland, Ohio. I am feeling exhausted in every part of life, if I'm honest, and having to step back and check in with myself and Aaron and I just talked about it earlier in the week, slash over the weekend. I looked at him and I was like, I am exhausted. And he's like, girlfriend, I am with you. I acknowledge that. I feel the same. I see that for you and I think it's also the stage of life of where my kids are and my career is at. So professionally my consulting practice is super busy to a point. Where I brought another person on to work with me. And that's brought me a lot of joy because her and I used to work together many years ago.
07:53
Mara Kamat
And she's super smart and highly capable and she's a friend. And so I bet.
07:59
Carrie Aguilar
That's so nice.
07:59
Mara Kamat
It's so nice to know that you can depend on somebody and be in it with somebody and know that the quality of work you're gonna get out of them is gonna be great and you're not gonna have and redo it or think about it. And so that's brought light, but it's new like the last.
08:15
Carrie Aguilar
And I'm sure there's a learning curve and you're just trying to. Yeah, totally understand.
08:20
Mara Kamat
So that's good. And then in my consulting practice, I am the fractional chief people officer for a company called Aurora Payments.
08:26
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
08:27
Mara Kamat
They're in a great stage where they're. I'm. They're growing, they're building. And so that's a fun space for me in terms of the HR work that I do, building all of the processes and infrastructure and. And I have a small team that I'm working with from an HR standpoint. So there's a lot more work that I have to put in and I can do the work. It's just about having the time and the energy to build. But that's also the space that I love when I think about the work that I do. So that's goodness. In addition to that, I'm working with another company that's part of a broader private equity portfolio and doing an HR assessment and evaluation for them. And that's where I have my friend working with me as well. And so the work is interesting.
09:16
Mara Kamat
It's interesting to see totally different types of businesses in completely different industries getting to work with different leadership teams, different business strategies and projections for growth. So for me, that's really fun work. It's just consuming.
09:33
Carrie Aguilar
Can I ask about the. Just because I'm curious and I really don't know. The work that you do for this other organization, are you. Is that something that you can duplicate for other clients? Have you thought about that? Or is it just a very much bespoke, like just really for them?
09:52
Mara Kamat
So it's a little bit of both is how I would frame it, meaning going in and doing an HR assessment. I have what I would call an HR assessment scorecard that I have created over time, and I've used it with multiple companies to kind of evaluate baseline, where are you at? But to me, to be truly effective in doing that assessment, you have to get to know the organization, because everybody has nuances. And there are going to be things that are tailored to different types of companies that are in different industries, different cultures, different leadership teams. So there's a subset of activities that are pretty similar when you're doing that assessment, and then there's a subset of activities that I would call bespoke, like you said, to that specific company.
10:36
Mara Kamat
I think that's what this private equity firm and the companies that are in this portfolio have appreciated about. My leadership is being able to kind of come in and ask questions and learn. And then in combination, you've got the whole, Olivia's gonna turn 13 in a couple of weeks, and there's all the teenager drama dynamics that are happening with girls. And then Ariana is in her gymnastics meet season, which means every weekend we are traveling to a different city. This weekend, we drove three hours to West Virginia. W. We spent the entire day at the meet. We left West Virginia at 6:30 6:30. We grabbed food really fast. We drove back to Cleveland. We picked Olivia up from a bar mitzvah, and she had three friends. Sleepover.
11:26
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, wow. So it's very full on.
11:29
Mara Kamat
Very full on. It feels like it's never ending. And there's also that balance where you don't want to say no to your kids.
11:35
Carrie Aguilar
Right.
11:36
Mara Kamat
And we're stepping into a season where Aaron and I are both traveling a lot in the month of February, March and April. And so I want to be able to say yes to the kids and I want them to feel supported while still executing at work, while still taking care of myself and all of the things.
11:55
Carrie Aguilar
Right, right. And sleeping and trying to get eight hours of sleep or six hours of sleep a night.
12:02
Mara Kamat
Depends on the night, what my aura ring tells me.
12:05
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, how are you liking your aura ring?
12:08
Mara Kamat
I have a love hate relationship with it.
12:10
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
12:11
Mara Kamat
Do you wear any kind of wearables or metrics that measure?
12:15
Carrie Aguilar
I wear my Apple watch. I also. I was thinking about getting the Oura ring because it's basically free in my AMEX thing. And I just decided that. I don't know. I don't know if I want to know that much about myself.
12:29
Mara Kamat
So we'll come back and talk about that because Carrie's been on this amazing weight loss journey and I want to visit that with you. But in answering your question about the Oura ring, I have a love hate relationship because I did get it free with the AMEX as the benefit. And so then I think it cost you 65 or $67 for the year for the subscription. And I put it on. And around the same time I put it on, I got bursitis in my hip.
12:54
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, gosh.
12:55
Mara Kamat
And so I have a love hate relationship because I can't do as much activity as I was doing because of the bursitis. So it's basically yelling at me and telling me I'm not doing enough activity, which, like, I know already a challenge for me. And then on the other side, on the positive side, it is also giving me all these sleep metrics.
13:15
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
13:16
Mara Kamat
So there was one night where my leg was keeping me up three nights ago. And I was like, I know that I did not sleep and I am so exhausted. And I looked at my Oura ring and it was like I had only slept for less than five hours. And I was like, of course I'm tired, duh. So it was validating in a way. And then on the other side, when.
13:35
Carrie Aguilar
I slept, when I wear a sign the rest of the day saying I slept less than five hours, listen, those.
13:41
Mara Kamat
That worked with me that day knew.
13:42
Carrie Aguilar
I need to tell them.
13:43
Mara Kamat
And so then when I get eight hours, I have good sleep scores and good metrics. It is. It's helped me to set better boundaries when I don't sleep well or I'm not in a good place to then prioritize it for the next couple of days.
13:56
Carrie Aguilar
So I really like the idea of an ordering. I don't like the idea of knowing all the metrics. But I will say in my scrolling that I have done, which I'm keeping to one hour a day. But the other day I got, I started getting all of these notifications that there are now these cages that go around our rings to make them prettier. So if you want diamonds or if you want, I mean, and I got really into it, I was like, I might just do this, I might actually, because I just have never really. They have other ones that you can get that are pink or blue. And so in my head I'm like, I'll definitely get the blue. But then I'm like, do I really want to wear a very obvious blue or ring every day? Probably not.
14:37
Carrie Aguilar
So now that I saw these accoutrements that you can put on your ring, I was like, sure.
14:44
Mara Kamat
I have not seen this yet.
14:45
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, well, now you will. Now that I spoke and your phone is around here somewhere, I know it's.
14:50
Mara Kamat
Going to start throwing them in me. I will save this though, for you. As you're thinking about the Oura ring, I Got the most boring one ever in silver. Because I was like, oh, I don't know if I'm going to wear it and I'm just going to get a basic one. I wish I would have gotten a color or something cool and fit in.
15:05
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. I don't know. But. And also then now I'm thinking maybe blue would look good with diamonds.
15:11
Mara Kamat
I think we should do blue. I think it will inspire me every time I see it. But we'll let you decide.
15:16
Carrie Aguilar
Okay, good.
15:17
Mara Kamat
Thank you. So, Carrie, tell us about your weight loss journey. You look amazing.
15:22
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, thank you.
15:22
Mara Kamat
You've lost a ton of weight. Tell us about your journey.
15:26
Carrie Aguilar
I mean, how do you say words that are like, every woman or a lot of women I know or a lot of people I know have these feelings? I will just say three things. Number one, I love food. I have always loved food. My family, we are the definition of big boned. There is not one naturally thin person in my family. I mean, and I think for a long time I equated that with. I love my family. They're wonderful. But in my head, I equated that with lazy. I was like, I'm not gonna be the person that grows older and gets larger and works with. I have a daughter and constantly talks about dieting. In my head I was like, I'm never going to be that person. And I will just say that after I made the decision to.
16:17
Carrie Aguilar
So I take a GLP one called Zepbound. I've been on it since probably September, maybe August. It has really. I don't know what the words are. It's freed me to think about other.
16:30
Mara Kamat
Things outside of food.
16:32
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, I used to. And I have no, I'm. I used to read. Read Brene Brown and she has this whole thing about shame. And I do not believe in shame. So I'm just gonna be really open. When I was younger, I used to go to Overeaters Anonymous meetings. I mean, I literally did everything I could to eat less so that I could be healthy, smaller, Fill in the blank. And I was never. I shouldn't say I was never that good at it, but I wasn't. Success. It wasn't like I was like, I don't know.
17:02
Mara Kamat
Well, the food noise was loud for you. That's what. That's the reality.
17:05
Carrie Aguilar
Well, that as you grow older and you realize that a lot of what you look like and your health makeup is hereditary. And my dad died at the age of 68, 320 pounds. And it's not like he was 6, 9, or 7ft tall. He was a 5, 10 man. And I'm not saying if he had a GLP1, he would have lived longer, but maybe. And in August or September, I was just like, you know what? I'm kind of tired of this. I'm tired of feeling like I'm not doing enough. I'm tired of feeling like I'm unhealthy. I've always felt I carry weight really well because I'm really tall. And that was like my. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I was just like, oh, well, I'm really muscular. And then I started going to doctors and they're like, you gotta lose weight.
17:51
Carrie Aguilar
And I'm like, yeah, but it's muscle. And they're like, it's not really muscle. It's. You need to lose weight. I think I. I don't actually weigh myself that often, but I think I've lost probably £35.
18:02
Mara Kamat
Congratulations.
18:03
Carrie Aguilar
And I feel I'm not even that much smaller. I just feel so much better.
18:08
Mara Kamat
I mean, you look like you've lost weight.
18:10
Carrie Aguilar
Thank you.
18:10
Mara Kamat
In your face.
18:12
Carrie Aguilar
Now I have this thing called crepe chin. I have these rings.
18:15
Mara Kamat
I don't see it yet. Oh, well, it'll. I don't see it.
18:18
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, that's. The other part of my algorithm is chin exercises. Oh, my God. Which, if I ever show you a picture of my dad, you'll see it's very hereditary. But anyways, that's all to say, I really. I'm a huge fan of GLP1. The fact that I don't have to think about food.
18:34
Mara Kamat
Any extremely negative side effects that you've experienced?
18:38
Carrie Aguilar
I think the one downside that I have found is that the day after I inject, I am so. I'm very nauseous. I have to take Dramamine or Bonine, which is another quote, unquote, motion sickness drug or not drug, but it's over the counter. But anyways, I have to do that. I also am very low energy on that day. So I inject myself typically on Fridays. So I'm not. So it doesn't impact my week day. But, yeah, I mean, I really enjoy it. I don't think about food nearly as much as I used to.
19:11
Mara Kamat
I.
19:12
Carrie Aguilar
This morning I. I was telling Sarah I ate a bagel, when in reality ate 2/3 of bagel. And to tell you that I had 2/3 of a bagel volunt, and I was like, I don't want any more. Like, I mean, if I told myself that two years ago, I'd Be like, there's no way.
19:27
Mara Kamat
Yeah, it's a huge Carrie.
19:28
Carrie Aguilar
It was toasted, and it had tons of cream cheese. This is where you thrive. And yet I had two thirds. So, I mean, I think it's wonderful. I also think generally talking about it is really important because I. There are a lot of people that I know that are walking around that are thinner, and I've always felt a little. Not that I've wanted to ask, but I'm just like, how are these people losing this weight? Before I did it, I was like, oh, my God, I'm doing something wrong. I need to go work out more. I need to play tennis more. And so what I've realized is that by telling people, even just by commenting, I'm not hungry. I've only eaten 500 calories today. It's because of this. People are like, oh, my God, me too.
20:07
Carrie Aguilar
And it really just makes it better because you don't feel so alone. Weird. Anything like that. But I will say. People say it's a lifesaver and the number one life changer. And I will. 100%. I mean, I do not nearly obsess about food like I used to, which is. I mean, I have hours left in.
20:29
Mara Kamat
The day, and you're.
20:30
Carrie Aguilar
I have time for new hobbies.
20:32
Mara Kamat
Wonderful.
20:33
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. Well, I know that we are kind of celebrating Galentine's Day, which is also around Valentine's Day.
20:39
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
20:40
Carrie Aguilar
So I wanted to ask, is there anything that you and Erin do to keep the spice in your life?
20:49
Mara Kamat
So this Valentine's Day, we will be in Deer Valley with friends. It's also Olivia's birthday, and so we typically take this long President's Day weekend to do something special, skiing for her. And so we're heading to Deer Valley, and I just don't think we are. Either of us are gonna have time to. We're not a big celebrate Valentine's Day kind of family anyway. Him and I try to sneak away and do a couple strip once or twice a year to just kind of reconnect. So we actually have a wedding in Florida for a family friend coming up in late February. And so we're looking forward. So we could have taken the kids with us, because my parent. My dad and mom have a house down there. My dad's down there.
21:37
Mara Kamat
And I looked at Aaron, I was like, let's just go, the two of us. We need some time to just hang out, to just be. To sit in the sun and just not have an agenda and not be running around. So we'll get three Days, the two of us. That's awesome. And then I'm actually heading to Austin, Texas.
21:54
Carrie Aguilar
Fun.
21:54
Mara Kamat
Where I will work remotely for a week and take care of my niece and nephew in the evenings while my sister and her husband are on vacation. So I have a week and my mom has a week and I'm just looking forward to the time with I have a three year old nephew and a six year old niece. So I'll really have the evenings of feed them dinner, give them back, put them to bed. But I always want to have a relationship with them even though they live far where they feel like they can lean on their auntie and they know me and I'm a key part of their life. And so Erin said, I can't believe you're leaving us for a week to go take care of your sister's children.
22:33
Carrie Aguilar
Take care of more children, different children.
22:36
Mara Kamat
During a moment when we have so much kid stuff. And I'm like, but I want a relationship with them and that's really meaningful to me.
22:43
Carrie Aguilar
It's important. I think about that a lot. So for us, I'm not 100% sure, but I think what our plan is for the weekend because it's also, it's over a weekend, it's President's Day weekend and we have, I think we have Friday and Monday off.
23:00
Mara Kamat
We do.
23:01
Carrie Aguilar
We're planning on going to D.C. to see my sister and my brother in law and their kids. And I am just so excited because you're right, you live far from your sister. It is so important to. And I think so en not enriching, but it's like you have to work to create that relationship. And my sister has young kids and I really, for me, I really want Penelope to be able to be close to her cousins. Important to me. I love my cousins. I have a lot of them and she doesn't have any siblings. So anyway, so we're, I think what we're gonna do is go to D.C. although if Liza hears this and she's not on board, then I did send an email late last night being like, hey, what do you think about this?
23:47
Carrie Aguilar
And I did also bribe her in the question in this email, I was like, oh, by the way, James and I would be very happy to babysit for your kids so you guys can go on a Valentine's Day date. So who knows? Hopefully that's sweet enough. My guess is that it's a yes unless they are going out of town, which they do travel quite often. But anyways, I'm very, I'M hoping that works because I, I agree with so important to have those sorts of relationships with nieces, nephews and cousins and family.
24:19
Mara Kamat
Is there anything that you and James do to keep that relationship connection? Whether it's Valentine's Day or throughout the course of the year, you have kind of a ritual or moments where you pause and you try to make sure you stay connected in the midst of all the kid chaos.
24:35
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
24:35
Mara Kamat
In life.
24:36
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. I would say I'm trying to think there have been times when we have definitely traveled by ourselves and I really do enjoy that. I think that it looks a little different. Just candidly it looks different when you have one child. It's not, it doesn't always feel as pressing. You need to have that time. But what's interesting, and this is just in our day to day is recently we've just started talking more before bed and we didn't, I didn't really realize this but we had kind of, I had gotten into this is this could be an entire podcast about Korean dramas, K dramas. But I have, I had gotten into a sort of self medication cycle of watching my Kindle before bed.
25:27
Carrie Aguilar
And though it was very pleasurable for me because I really enjoy K dramas and my husband really enjoys reading, what we realized was that we just stopped talking between the hours of 8:30 when Penelope goes to sleep and 10:30 or 10. And so just literally last week we had this amazing conversation right before bed. We went to bed and were just so much happier the next day. And were like, what's different? Well, it's probably because I wasn't binging K dramas in bed. So that's all to say that really it's just the talking.
26:05
Carrie Aguilar
We also do this thing where we and I don't even know if I'm allowed to say this but Penelope does aftercare at Laurel and sometimes James will just leave and he and I will go on the coffee date after school and Penelope's just at aftercare and that's really nice because he and I can just hang out. We get an hour and a half or whatever and then we pick her up at 5:30 or whatever.
26:33
Mara Kamat
So in general though, I feel you're much better than I am at going on dinner dates with your husband. Do you guys have moments where you're like oh yeah, went on a date tonight?
26:43
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah, I think that we've definitely ebbed and flowed. We. I'm very fortunate that my currently my sister in law is living with us and my mom has lives in town and my Brother lives in town. So we do have these kind of built in babysitters. I will say we're not nearly as good as we probably could be at taking advantage of that candidly. But it is really nice. Sometimes we'll just be like, hey, we need to go to dinner. Although, let's be Honest, enter the GLP1 conversation. I am now apathetic as to where we go to dinner, which is a little sad, but yeah, I don't know. Or I'll just eat three bites of the steak and be like, oh, that was good.
27:25
Mara Kamat
Our kids have been coming home so lately. And because of activities. And so this week Aaron's asked me to go to dinner twice. And he's, hey, we have this little window. Let's like go out to dinner.
27:36
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
27:37
Mara Kamat
And I was like, okay, stop asking me to go out to dinner. I love you. We can go out once, but we need to look at the calendar because I'm so tired by the time they're getting home, because they're getting home at like tonight, we'll have one kid that gets home at 8:30. We'll have another kid that gets home closer to 9 or 9:15.
27:53
Carrie Aguilar
Wow.
27:54
Mara Kamat
Because she has ski club. And by the time we pick her up and drive home. And then the other has gymnastics. Gymnastics. And we still gotta feed the one, shower them both, put them to bed, all the things. And we have upcoming travel quite a bit.
28:07
Carrie Aguilar
Right.
28:08
Mara Kamat
And I have to, last night, for example, were packing kids till 9:30 at night for different activities that they have different weekends in suitcases. So they're ready to go.
28:20
Carrie Aguilar
Right.
28:20
Mara Kamat
So I was like, okay, we can go to dinner one night this week.
28:22
Carrie Aguilar
But I still have to do the admin stuff of life, keeping the train on the track. Yeah. I will say went through a period where we. Where Penelope was very scheduled with lots of activities. Literally every night she had something going on. And I will say, starting this fall, she was like, I really don't really enjoy tennis. I don't like Mom. I really. I'm not gonna be you. Which is fine. And so it was actually. And my first inclination just candidly was to replace it with something else. I was like, okay, so you're not gonna do tennis. What's the next thing? What do you want to do? Do you want to take? Do you want to do theater? I was just, anything. And James, my husband, is so good. And I think part of it is because he's an educator. He's.
29:06
Carrie Aguilar
Listen, they go hard all day. So If Penelope doesn't have something for one or two nights a week, that's a gift that we should give her. And then just take the time to hang out with her, play games with her, do something that's not on our phones. We. So we've. We've started playing. We play a lot of dominoes. We play a lot of. There's this game that we play called Subjective that we really enjoy. But it's been so nice because. An intentional break with her. We've also started this thing called family Book club that happens every night at 8 where we read all together for 30 minutes before she goes to bed. And that's been really nice because we, again, used to be just hang out on our. We would be really busy.
29:49
Carrie Aguilar
She would be reading, but she'd kind of be with us, but we wouldn't necessarily be like. It wasn't an intentional pause this way. It's an intentional pause. It happens right before bed. And it is so nice.
30:01
Mara Kamat
That's a beautiful ritual.
30:02
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. So I'm sure that your chapter of being super. I can't imagine what that's like.
30:08
Mara Kamat
It's not even a choice right this moment.
30:10
Carrie Aguilar
It's hard.
30:11
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
30:11
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
30:12
Mara Kamat
It's just the activities they've chosen to do.
30:14
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
30:15
Mara Kamat
And even if it's just one or two, it's the anchor of the time that it takes to get them to practice them and do them, because we.
30:21
Carrie Aguilar
Don't know how to. We haven't figured out teleporting yet, so it's still. And everything In Cleveland is 25 minutes away.
30:27
Mara Kamat
And I'm not getting in a wayo.
30:28
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We can live in Phoenix and have in wayos. I know that we've been talking about quality time, so shifting gears to how we spend time. You and I spend time together. This amazing podcast. What do you. Looking back on the last season. So I guess since September, how. What is ringing true for you? What are you thinking about? What are the conversations that have really stuck with you?
30:58
Mara Kamat
Yeah. That is such a big question, and I have so many thoughts, but I'll try to keep it succinct where I can. And then I'd love to hear your perspective as well. These podcasts just inspire me so much. The fact that I get to sit with all these unique, interesting women and hear about how they've curated their lives, how they manage children, how some of them have managed through the toughest part of their lives, of death, of changing jobs, of just navigating uncertainty as well Whether that meant losing a job and having to start something new or facing failure and having to reset. I've enjoyed hearing people's stories. I've been inspired by them.
31:48
Mara Kamat
One that continues to stand out for me is when we heard from Simone, hearing her personal story and the challenges that she faced with her son to the fact that she wrote a book and now about dating. Yeah. And now how she curates this very complex life in partnership with her husband and the fact that she's an NBA referee and what that means for the trade offs that she makes in her family life when she's in season, and that partnership that she has with her husband to enable that. So for me, that podcast and some of what she shared really stands out. But I always take away a little bit of something from every person we talk to and then think about how do I integrate some of that advice into my life?
32:39
Mara Kamat
Or sometimes I leave here and I just feel renewed and inspired and not alone in some of the challenges that I face in my life, or how it compares some of the challenges that other people have faced. And I'm like, oh, Mara, your life is beautiful, girlfriend.
32:54
Carrie Aguilar
Right. Well, yeah. Yeah. I think, to echo what you were saying, I think that it's so. I'm trying to find the words, and the words are like, this podcast has unlocked a conversation for me. You talk about being the multidimensional person, and I think that it is such a nice reminder that everyone. This is gonna sound crass, but everyone has their own bag of shit and we all walk around with it and whatever that looks like. I think that there is so much beauty in talking about it, and not that every single person has dumped all this hard stuff, but I think that it's just so important to say, I am a leader and I am totally kick ass at this. This is an area that has been really tough for me, or this is how I have come out of xyz.
33:50
Carrie Aguilar
I think that has been really powerful and a good reminder for me, especially in this chapter professionally, where, you know, six months ago, I was kind of feeling like, if I no longer grow my business, what does that mean for me? Am I a failure at this? And the answer is no, absolutely not. But it was really nice to listen to these women be like, oh, no, you have chapters. You have different versions of yourself. So I really love that. I also candidly loved the conversation we had with our daughters. I think that was just so funny, fun, refreshing. Because I mean, talk about humbling, having your kids talk on a podcast. And then the Things that they say, so smart, so amazing, so silly. The best. And I really loved that.
34:41
Carrie Aguilar
I think that those are the things that have really rung true for me. I think having Erika from the Jewish Federation, that was really. I don't know, the words aren't hard, but as someone who's not Jewish, as someone who has lots of different types of friends, it was very eye opening. It was very. It was very powerful. It was just. It was a lot. What was edited out was a lot of my tears. And it was just there. There was a lot there. So I just think we have people who listen to that we can have an impact on, that can listen to these stories, I think can be really connecting.
35:17
Mara Kamat
If they just take one thing away, right? If somebody listens and takes one thing away, that's meaningful to them in their life, personally or professionally or in their day, that to me is success. And I also think about. Sometimes we walk in the room. Today was an example. We were both not in great places. But then we get to sit here and spend this time with each other or amazing women. And we walk out of here having our cups filled.
35:43
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, my gosh.
35:44
Mara Kamat
And feeling energetic and inspired for what lies ahead. And I also feel this is an opportunity to learn what I heard from Rosemary Mudry about what we're doing in Cleveland and the development and. And with the market. I was just like, wow, I didn't even know that was happening. And it inspired me to go and experience it. So I love that we got the opportunity to hear from women leaders and then also highlighting really unique things in Cleveland, the new Natural History Museum, and having Sonya on here. So it's been a wonderful opportunity for us to connect with our listeners and connect more meaningfully in Cleveland and grow.
36:30
Carrie Aguilar
Personally and I think intentionally with each other. Right. That's. That has been such a gift for me. Okay, so let's. I know that we close our. Our conversations with two questions. My first question for you is what's bringing you joy right now?
36:46
Mara Kamat
This is going to be really funny, but every morning when I get to it, when I wake up, I have a cup of coffee. And in the midst of all the chaos and the lack of sun in Cleveland, that coffee brings me a lot of joy every morning. And you can all laugh at me for that and think it's ridiculous, but I'm not kidding you. Yeah, it is. Getting me through this gray, dark, dreary winter is what is that thing that gets you out of bed in the morning and puts a smile on your face as you start your day. It is my cup of coffee right now.
37:18
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
37:19
Mara Kamat
How about you, Carrie? What's bringing you joy right now?
37:23
Carrie Aguilar
I think what comes to mind is I have really tried to work hard at playing with my daughter. The last two nights ago as a family, we all went swimming. Usually what swimming looks is like James and I doing laps, Penelope kind of doing stuff on her own. And two nights ago we just decided to play this game in the deep end and we went and got rockets down at 12ft, or I think it's 10ft, but either way, that was really nice in the snow. Yes, it's cold. Yes, it's really, that's a lot. But we, Penelope and I went out when it was blizzarding. I don't know what day it was. And she and I just fell on our front yard, like front lawn and made snow angels. And I just remember laying back and there's a moment when the snow.
38:15
Carrie Aguilar
You haven't disturbed the snow, you've just fallen back in it that it holds you. And it was just so nice. I had tears in my eyes because I was like, oh my gosh, I can listen to the. There are birds. It's very quiet when it snows. It was just such a nice coming to. And then my child was 10ft from me doing the same thing and it was just so incredible. So I think in the mundaneness, I don't know if that's a word, but in those, I'm really trying to capture.
38:42
Mara Kamat
That joy that is calm beauty that helps you kind of recenter. Yeah, I love that for you.
38:48
Carrie Aguilar
And Penelope and James took pictures of it and he's. You know what I love about this? Because he took it from the front door and were far away and he's. What I love most about these pictures is I cannot tell that you are an adult. Like you just look like a kid laying on the snow. He's. It's amazing. And anyways, the other question, if you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you say today?
39:17
Mara Kamat
It's continue to live in the moment. Continue to just enjoy everything that you're experiencing with your kids, with your travels that you have coming up with the work that you're doing and the people that you're working with. Just live in the moment and relish it and enjoy it and know it's only a moment. Like the good, the bad, the great, the ugly. It's a moment. And so just sit in it, enjoy it. Don't spend too long thinking about any of the messy parts because you'll be through it in a minute and relish the beauty in it.
39:51
Carrie Aguilar
That's wonderful.
39:52
Mara Kamat
How about you, Carrie?
39:54
Carrie Aguilar
Today? I think if I. If you had asked me this question probably a month ago, I would have said, keep going. And I think that's true. But now I think I would say, you. You don't have to be liked by everyone. I think that's not something that I have spent a lot of time as an adult or even as a child. I really. I just wanted to be well liked. And so in any experience or any. I moved around a lot. In any chapter, I figured out, how can I be the person that this other person would like? And it's really. I'm 41 now, and I'm just, fuck it. I'm not gonna be everyone's cup of tea. And that doesn't mean that I'm not good, or it doesn't mean I'm not good enough. And, yeah, I think that's today. It's okay.
40:47
Mara Kamat
It is okay.
40:48
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
40:48
Mara Kamat
I'm very accepting of that. Not everybody is going to like me, and that is okay.
40:53
Carrie Aguilar
It's all right.
40:55
Mara Kamat
So before we close out, I just.
40:57
Carrie Aguilar
Made it very sad. No, I'm just kidding.
40:59
Mara Kamat
Before we close out our episode, I wanna give a shout out to Laurel School. They have been amazing and reposting our podcast on their Instagram and we are so grateful. I know we've met with and interviewed a lot of Laurel people that are connected, whether they be alum, current students, or the head of school coming up one of our future episodes. But I want to give a shout out to Laurel School or parents of. Yeah, I want to give a shout out to Laurel School because they keep posting our podcast.
41:30
Carrie Aguilar
They also employ my husband.
41:31
Mara Kamat
They influenced Carrie's husband. But we really appreciate it and I just wanted to take a moment to express that snaps.
41:39
Carrie Aguilar
Thank you. Thank you.
41:40
Mara Kamat
All right. Thank you all for spending time with us today, for listening, reflecting, and being part of In Her Land.
41:48
Carrie Aguilar
We've got so many exciting episodes coming up and we hope that you join and hang out with us for a while.
41:58
Mara Kamat
Thank you for tuning in to In Her Land. If you love this conversation, please share it with us. Friend, leave us a review and keep following along at inherland.com where we highlight more incredible women making an impact. Until next time.
