
Smashing The Ceiling
Naomi Mellor

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5.0
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5 Listeners
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Justine Nagaur - on holistic care, spiritual healing and recovering from chronic pain
Smashing The Ceiling
04/08/22 • 38 min
5.0
If you’re into meditation and healing, you may know what a Tibetan sound bowl is. If not, you’ve got a treat in store, as we’ll be digging deep into the world of holistic health in this episode. My guest today is Justine Nagaur, a spiritual healer, teacher, mentor, and creator of bespoke crystal malas.
I met Justine a couple of years ago, and she’s one of those rare people with a degree of warmth, insight, intuition and care for others that is incredibly striking. But like many of my guests, Justine’s career is multi-layered, with twists and turns along the way. She went to finishing school, and we chat about that, she ran a very successful company in private members’ clubs and she’s worked in social media along the way, before starting her current business, Aurora Facets Transformational Healing after a long period of chronic illness. She is the queen of the pivot you might say.
Useful links
Justine's website: https://aurorafacets.com
Justine's LinkedIn profile: https://www.instagram.com/justinenagaur/
Follow Justine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinenagaur/
Follow Justine on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurorafacets
Music
Provided by ZakharValaha, AleXZavesa, Coma-Media SergeQuadrado JuliusH, Lesfm and lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay
04/08/22 • 38 min



4 Listeners
4 Comments
4
Caroline Kremer - on healing injuries, unexpected circumstances, and career re-invention
Smashing The Ceiling
03/19/22 • 50 min
5.0
How often do you think about your own breathing? I bet you are right now. How fast do you breathe? How deeply?
Most of the time it’s completely unconscious. We just do it, and we rarely consider how we breathe unless we’re exercising and out of breath, or ill and out of breath, as many of us have been during the pandemic.It’s only when our capacity to breathe is reduced that we ever consider - without stating the absolute obvious - how important it is
My guest today helps people to breathe better. She helps people to feel better. She reduces their pain and helps them with many other conditions besides. Her name is Caroline Kremer, and she’s the owner of Pulborough Natural Health, a clinic in a beautiful part of England, West Sussex. Caroline is a Bowen therapist, and a practitioner of Evans Alignment and her own Kremer Method to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is known as the “rest, digest and repair nerve”.
Her business and interest in health and wellbeing is one of the reasons that Caroline is on the podcast this week. The other is her remarkable capacity for career reinvention. From being kicked out of school to becoming a chef and working in restaurants, to running a ski company with her husband before being widowed at 34 with 3 small children, Caroline has an incredible sense of resourcefulness and a can-do attitude that I really admire. She is full of stories and in this episode we barely had time to scratch the surface of the people she’s met in life and how colourful her career has been.
We recorded this episode deep in the Covid lockdown and the sound isn’t the best on Caroline’s line at the beginning, but bear with it - she’s worth it.
Useful links
Caroline's website at Pulborough Natural Health: https://www.pulboroughnaturalhealth.co.uk
Caroline's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-kremer-69b644a/
Follow Caroline on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kremermethod/
Follow Caroline on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKremer
Music
Provided by ZakharValaha, AleXZavesa, Coma-Media SergeQuadrado JuliusH, Lesfm and lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay
03/19/22 • 50 min


2 Listeners
2 Comments
2
Season 6 Trailer
Smashing The Ceiling
02/13/23 • 1 min
We’ve been away for a little while, but we are back! I’m Naomi Mellor, and I’m delighted to let you know that there’s a new season of Smashing The Ceiling just around the corner, with all sorts of delights awaiting you.
In this podcast we chat to women with unusual, interesting and inspiring careers, and we’re kicking off Season 6 with comedian, author, actor, podcaster and deaf activist Samantha Baines, one of the funniest women I have ever met. My chat with Sam ranged from meeting Channing Tatum whilst working in an art gallery at Heathrow Airport, to becoming a writer of children’s books with a hearing-aid-wearing protagonist, with a lot of twists, and laughs along the way.
Later in the series there’ll be conversations around major career changes, building a career as a documentary maker, how a diagnosis of ADHD affects your working life, and more. Follow us now for more, and if you’ve ever enjoyed an episode of Smashing The Ceiling previously, why not leave us a review. You know you want to.
Check us out at Everybody Media
Don't forget there's also the International Women's Podcast Awards!
02/13/23 • 1 min

1 Listener
Samantha Baines, Part 2 - on starring in Magic Mike Live with Channing Tatum and accidentally writing a children's book
Smashing The Ceiling
03/06/23 • 41 min
5.0
This is Part Two of my chat with Sam Baines, my first guest for Season 6 of the podcast, and a woman that I’ve know for a few years after she was shortlisted at the inaugural International Women’s Podcast Awards back in 2021. It’s fitting that she’s first this season, because she’s been the first woman to do a few other things too.
Sam is an award-winning comedian, podcaster, author, actor, broadcaster and general legend. In 2014 she won the Funny Women Awards, and subsequently went on to scoop of the 2015 ‘What the Frock’ Best Newcomer Award.
But that’s not all. As an adult, Sam experienced hearing loss, and is now a deaf activist, hearing aid wearer, and an ambassador for the RNID.
She’s written two children’s books, Harriet Versus The Galaxy and The Night The Moon Went Out, and she tells me in this conversation about how she got her first book deal (spoiler alert: she wrote it without an official offer). Her new book, Living With Hearing Loss and Deafness, is available to pre-order now. As well as all this, she’s got an award-winning podcast, The Divorce Social, discussing, surprise, surprise, divorce, and her acting credits include The Crown, Call the Midwife, and Magic Mike Live in the West End.
There is nothing this woman can’t do.
We covered SO much ground in this chat, which was recorded aaaages ago live at The Podcast Show - basically I had to give myself a good kick up the arse to get the podcast moving again in 2023, so that’s entirely on me. There was so much good stuff that I cut it in two. This is part two. Enjoy.
Useful links
Sam's website
Follow Sam on Instagram
Follow Sam on Twitter
Follow Sam on YouTube
Music
Provided by ZakharValaha, AleXZavesa, Coma-Media SergeQuadrado JuliusH, Lesfm and lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay
03/06/23 • 41 min

1 Listener
1 Comment
1
Samantha Baines, Part 1 - on life as a comedian, becoming a deaf activist and the secret bit of Heathrow airport
Smashing The Ceiling
02/20/23 • 42 min
5.0
We're back for Season 6!
My first guest is a woman that I’ve know for a few years after she was shortlisted at the inaugural International Women’s Podcast Awards back in 2021. Her name is Samantha Baines, and it’s fitting that she’s first this season, because she’s been the first woman to do a few other things too.
Sam is an award-winning comedian, podcaster, author, actor, broadcaster and general legend. In 2014 she won the Funny Women Awards, and subsequently went on to scoop of the 2015 ‘What the Frock’ Best Newcomer Award. Sam was the first ever woman to reach the finals of the UK Pun Championships, and we speak extensively in this interview about being a woman in comedy, and her experiences in the early days.
But that’s not all. As an adult, Sam experienced hearing loss, and is now a deaf activist, hearing aid wearer, and an ambassador for the RNID.
She’s written two children’s books, Harriet Versus The Galaxy and The Night The Moon Went Out, and her new book, Living With Hearing Loss and Deafness, is available to pre-order now. As well as all this, she’s got an award-winning podcast, The Divorce Social, discussing, surprise, surprise, divorce, and her acting credits include The Crown, Call the Midwife, and Magic Mike Live in the West End.
There is nothing this woman can’t do.
We covered SO much ground in this chat, which was recorded aaaages ago live at The Podcast Show - basically I had to give myself a good kick up the arse to get the podcast moving again in 2023, so that’s entirely on me. There was so much good stuff that I cut it in two. This is part one. Enjoy.
Useful links
Sam's website
Follow Sam on Instagram
Follow Sam on Twitter
Follow Sam on YouTube
Music
Provided by ZakharValaha, AleXZavesa, Coma-Media SergeQuadrado JuliusH, Lesfm and lemonmusicstudio from
02/20/23 • 42 min

1 Listener
1 Comment
1
Tigz Rice - on burlesque, boudoir and her unique photography career
Smashing The Ceiling
08/19/21 • 42 min
To many people, the world of burlesque may seem distant, mysterious and unknown. You might have heard of Dita von Teese, but how much do you know about the art of it, the glamour, and the people, who are, by all accounts, a brilliant bunch of welcoming human beings?
My guest today is Tigz Rice, who combines her career as a burlesque and boudoir photographer with an ambition to leave her mark on the world creatively. She has shot for Cosmopolitan, and produced work that the HuffPost described as the 'most diverse lingerie shoot of its time'. But like many of my guests, she didn't expect to end up where she is. Tigz harboured a strong desire to be a forensic pathologist, and it was circumstances that led her to art college, then into photography.
She's an amazing advocate for people celebrating their bodies, taking pride and joy in what society may view as physical flaws, but often actually are a sign of strength and resilience. She is storyteller of the highest order, and I hope you enjoy this conversation about her life and career.
Useful Links
Tigz's websites: https://www.tigzrice.com and https://brandingbytigz.com
Follow Tigz on Instagram at @tigzrice and @brandingbytigz
Our website, with details of the International Women's Podcast Awards - www.skylarkcollective.co.uk
Follow us on Instagram - www.instagram.com/theskylarkcollective.co.uk
08/19/21 • 42 min
Kirsten and Aiyven Mbawa - on the power of imagination, and teen entrepreneurship
Smashing The Ceiling
10/07/21 • 32 min
To open Season 4, I’ve got two guests with me with this week, and if you’re looking for inspiring women in your life, then these two are it.
Kirsten and Aiyven Mbawa are sisters from Northampton, England and they’re 13 and 12 years old respectively. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual is that both Kirsten and Aiyven are published authors and business owners. Their love of reading has driven everything they’ve done so far, and you’ll hear in this chat the effect on their lives that they both attribute to books. Their company, Mbawa Books, produces monthly subscription boxes for teens containing diverse titles with relatable, representative heroes from a wide range of authors, as well as stories written by Kirsten and Aiyven themselves. Their output is prolific, and having tasted success with their first books, which they self-published but subsequently got onto the shelves of Waterstones through their hard work and tenacity, they are well on their way with their next novels.
Kirsten and Aiyven are the face of their brand. They have help from their mum, Ndah, but have themselves appeared on Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4 and in various local and national press. Kirsten confidently told me she wants to be prime minister, and I just wouldn’t put anything past these two.
Useful Links
Mbawa Books Website: https://www.mbawabooks.co.uk
Subscribe to Kirsten and Aiyven's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1-zobH5aogUrGF02gIW3lw
Follow Mbawa Books on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbawabooks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbawabooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mbawabooks/
10/07/21 • 32 min
Catie Friend - on unexpected career challenges, solo travel and life in the mountains
Smashing The Ceiling
02/03/22 • 50 min
My first guest of 2022 is Catie Friend, who says of her adventures that she “will always be a completer rather than a competer”. Given the challenges she’s completed, which include the world’s toughest ski mountaineering race and the half Marathon des Sables, and the things she’s done in her career, completing any of them would be considered a strong achievement as far as I’m concerned.
Catie grew up in south west Scotland, and after travelling solo round the world, she embarked on a career in events management, found her way into radio, and is now a multi-lingual sports commentator, presenter, podcaster and coach. She lives in Verbier, in the Swiss Alps, with her family.
In this conversation we discuss (amongst other things) solo travel as a woman, surviving a difficult boss and a nightmare job, the difference between a ‘job’ and a ‘career’, the paradox of age vs. wisdom, and why sometimes it’s best not to overthink it.
Today's podcast is supported by Fem Foundry, a one-of-a-kind global community for womankind to discover, learn, connect and thrive. One of the key components that sets Fem Foundry apart is their focus on the multi-faceted aspects of a woman’s life, from her career to her wellness, from her spirituality to her mental health. This, along with their founding team and Fem Foudnry’s global partners, mean they are uniquely positioned as a media powerhouse for women’s empowerment on a large scale. With a new improved 2.0 version of the app just launched, Fem Foundry has huge global ambitions, with a mission to become the Bumble of humanised female networking, learning and support. So download Fem Foundry today and have a look.
Useful links
Catie’s website: https://www.catiefriend.com
Listen to her podcast, Chatting To A Friend: https://pod.link/chattingtoafriend
Follow Catie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catiefriend/
Music
The Show Must Be Go by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4509-the-show-must-be-go
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
02/03/22 • 50 min
Nikki Trott - on conscious business, the value of service and selling umbrellas
Smashing The Ceiling
07/09/21 • 48 min
Have you ever had a moment when you met someone for the first time, but you felt like you'd known them your entire life? It's a weird and rare but wonderful thing. I had that feeling when I chatted to Nikki Trott prior to this interview, and I knew I had to have her on the show.
Nikki is an entrepreneur, podcaster and coach on a mission with her company, Conscious Accelerator. That mission is to help entrepreneurs with a real purpose in their business to thrive. She believes that purpose and profit don't have to be mutually exclusive (something I wholeheartedly agree with) and that business can be ethical, meaningful and financially successful all at the same time.
But she started her working life singing in a choir and working in Topshop during her teenage years, before beginning her career post-university at a tech startup. She's had huge experience in business development, branding and the tech sector, and has done a variety of different and roles that have led her to where she is today. We talked in this interview about how experience in retail and service early in Nikki's career shaped her attitudes going forwards, why 'success' isn't always what it seems, and how the realisation that her personal values and professional life were poles apart led to some pretty significant changes.
Useful Links
Nikki's website: https://www.nikkitrott.com
Find Nikki on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkitrott/
Follow Nikki on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkitrott/
Our website, with details of the International Women's Podcast Awards - www.skylarkcollective.co.uk
Follow us on Instagram - www.instagram.com/theskylarkcollective.co.uk
07/09/21 • 48 min
Vicki Prais - on international human rights and a lifetime of advocating for others
Smashing The Ceiling
10/21/21 • 38 min
When you think about human rights, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Maybe it's the treatment of prisoners overseas, or working conditions and pay in a place of employment, or freedom of speech, or the right of an individual to live freely and safely in whatever manner they choose? Maybe it's a multitude of other things, because the subject of human rights is broad and deep. It's also vitally important.
My guest today is Vicki Prais, a human rights lawyer and consultant, podcaster and writer. We love women with adventurous and challenging careers on this podcast, and Vicki has that in spades. She's worked for the UN in Kosovo, Amnesty International, Penal Reform International and the British Government. She's worked in Ukraine, Russia and Armenia, and consulted on cases involving Guantanamo Bay.
"We are all experts in our own little niches" she says. Vicki Prais, welcome to Smashing The Ceiling.
Useful Links
Vicki's Website: https://vickiprais.com
Connect with Vicki on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicki-prais-5862151/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickiprais?lang=en
10/21/21 • 38 min
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FAQ
How many episodes does Smashing The Ceiling have?
Smashing The Ceiling currently has 81 episodes available.
What topics does Smashing The Ceiling cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Podcasts, Business and Careers.
What is the most popular episode on Smashing The Ceiling?
The episode title 'Justine Nagaur - on holistic care, spiritual healing and recovering from chronic pain' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Smashing The Ceiling?
The average episode length on Smashing The Ceiling is 38 minutes.
How often are episodes of Smashing The Ceiling released?
Episodes of Smashing The Ceiling are typically released every 7 days, 3 hours.
When was the first episode of Smashing The Ceiling?
The first episode of Smashing The Ceiling was released on Jul 16, 2018.
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Comments
5.0
out of 5
8 Ratings
Claire Waite Brown
@clairewaitebrown
May 13
I love the inspirational stories from the guests on this show. Keep up the good work.
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