Ep 82: Life And Lemonade with Leah Marville
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Ep 82: Life And Lemonade with Leah Marville
Episode 82: Show Notes
Today’s guest, Leah Marville, TV Host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Barbados World 2009. When Leah Marville lost her father at a young age, all she could think of was supporting her mother in Saint James, Barbados.
When a person is living life in survival mode, many of the choices they make are unconscious. It is only by processing our pain that we can hear our inner voice and begin to live in alignment with it. The choices Leah made to pick up modeling and eventually get a law degree were all based on survival. Along the way she did amazing things like win Miss Barbados and start a charity, making her life look perfect from the outside.
However, one day she realized that she was not fulfilled and undertook a deep therapy program. All of this led to her starting Life and Lemonade TV, a catalog of interviews and stories of incredible people who show us, example after example, that life's lemons can always be turned into lemonade.
In this episode, you’ll hear the full story of Leah’s transition from survival to intentionality. We also talk to her about the value of leaning into the emotions we feel and the growth that comes with taking a leap of faith into the unknown. Be sure to tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
What life was like growing up in Saint James in Barbados.
The two-storied dollhouse Leah had as a child and why it was her favorite toy.
How Leah’s parents raised her and the freedom they gave her as a child.
Leah’s memories of her father recording songs on his guitar.
The stress Leah felt around her dad leaving for Miami to get an operation.
How the loss of her father made Leah hyper-focused on providing for her mom.
Early jobs Leah got and how she why she took the opportunity to become a model.
Law school versus medical school and why Leah chose the former.
How Leah juggled her law studies with modeling and put them on hold to model internationally.
Living with a model in SA whose brother had HIV and why Leah started her charity.
The story of Leah’s experiences winning in the Miss Barbados pageant.
How winning the pageant gave Leah a platform to give her charity more impact.
The challenges Leah had going back to law school to focus on human rights.
Whether Leah felt she was living her purpose after graduating and living a seemingly desirable life.
The conversation Leah had at a coffee shop in Trinidad that helped her reassess her life.
How Leah took an LA-based deep therapy course, what it was like, and how it changed her life.
Leah’s realization of the stories we carry and why she started Life and Lemonade.
The first few episodes that Leah made and who she interviewed.
Highlights and challenges of building the business of Life and Lemonade.
How Leah finds the persistence to overcome insecurity and continue showing up for her project.
Leah’s obsessions with planners and the intention behind Be.Do.Become.
What success means to Leah and what advice she would give her younger self.
Ways Leah’s father is still present in her life and how she embodies his memory.
Tweetables:
“After losing a parent, life gets very real, and your focus is very much on the present. For me, I didn't have the luxury of dreaming of this big future. I just became very hyper-focused on providing for myself and my mom.” — @LeahMarville [0:15:27]
“I think the reason I operated in a very transactional way in my life is because I was dealing with a lot of pain, or not dealing with it. So, I was very much living as a survivor would, which is just one foot in front of the other and I was letting life drive me and I was passing a lot of time.” — @LeahMarville [0:36:51]
“My friend, Jenna, she approached me and she was like, ‘There's this therapy course that I would like you to do and it's really intense and I think you should do it.’ It took me a really long time to say yes to that. But I eventually did. That is what changed my life.” — @LeahMarville [0:40:00]
“I realized that we were all walking around with versions of stories that we owned, that were affecting our lives, and that in many ways we could learn from each other. So, Life and Lemonade was birthed from my wish to ventilate what I was dealing with and then give other people a safe space to ventilate” — @LeahMarville [0:44:39]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: