I'm Melissa Punambolam, Founder and CEO.  You may recognize me from socials as Your Life Designer.  My favourite title and role, though is Momma!  I'm the proud mother of one child, with many years and memories of working for bad bosses who didn't quite care about my home life for me as a human for that matter.  What a relief my life has transformed for the better... once I connected the dots...

.... work-life imbalance

.... hustling to succeed

.... being less engaged at home

.... feeling less fulfilled and more dissatisfied

.... hopelessness through conceding with the norms and standards

I lived these patterns for years and I have supported a number of mothers realize and address the same ones.  Hustle Culture and gender inequity are two sides of the same problematic coin.

Let me explain in a bit more...

The Problem:

Working women experience burnout disproportionately compared to men, especially mothers with children. A dismissed epidemic long before the pandemic, current corporate and social realities have brought this need-to-solve-now social issue to light. 

Current work-life balance messaging encourages vacationing, squeezing in self-care and scheduling fun time; they don't actually address the systemic causes and effects of hustle culture on mothers, and certainly fail to empower moms in tangibly addressing gender inequity in their work-lives.

~ Melissa Punambolam | Your Life Designer

Women with children feel enough pressure and self-care shouldn't be yet another pressure point!

The Solution:

Your Life Designer is the one-stop solution for working mothers, mompreneurs, stay-at-home-moms and the companies who want to support their female professionals (with dependants) by providing access to resources, community and products to design a sutainable work/life they love. The magic is in our HOW... and that my friends, all comes down to thoughtfully curated Experiences.

The work we do, as a collective is built on two Experience pillars:

(1) Curated virtual and in-person experiences for the working mothers, stay-at-home mothers & mompreneurs; and

(2) Facilitated workshops, removing burden from Human Resources departments while providing companies with executable tools to improve culture & retention for the mothers they employ. The could also mean servicing small to medium-sized companies (i.e. realtor brokerages, community leaders, etc).

In other words, we support mothers, brands and companies who hire them to start replacing biases, 'shoulds' and inequities with tangible solutions to dismiss hustle culture for good.

It wasn't that long ago that I felt an inner tugging.

After having my baby, Postpartum Depression hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt lost, confused and alone.  In retrospect, it was a gift, because what it exposed is that I wasn't living in alignment with the vision I had for myself.  Unfortunately, I couldn't see my own way out.  I remember sharing that I was depressed to my husband at the time and he said, "you went to school for this... you know what to do."  He reinforced what I was feeling already, that if I've helped countless individuals work through their emotions and challenges in my past roles, why couldn't I help myself??

I went back to work, landing my dream job and shortly after that, became a single momma.  I inherited an oppressive manager who abused her power, a situation so many working moms face to this day. Life's demands weren't letting up and the first habits I let go of were the ones that kept me afloat. The dishes, laundry, cleaning, cuddles, groceries and meal prep were the only balance I had to my day job.

I needed a moment, but didn't take it.  I felt anxious and depressed, but I didn't face it, feel it and work through it.  Until I ended up burnt out, hospitalized and very ill. That moment was the scariest but was also the first time I could pause, reflect and renew my perspective. 

I created a support network for myself, made self-care work for me, studying methods and tools to relieve pressure, regain time + energy while giving me a newfound joie-de-vivre. 

I incorporate my tips, tricks and processes into my Experiences to impact women like you who don't need any more complex programs or lengthy programs ~ because when we're feeling so worn down, we need real, tangibly effective support and solutions.

I'm glad you stopped by to read my story and get to know me. I encourage you to connect with my on socials so that we can continue to get to know each other. I'm currently on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and hey, I'm even on Tik Tok, though I'm not the one dancing....!

If you haven't yet signed up to receive my FREE 3 Steps to No Fluff Self-Care, definitely start there!

With Love,

XOXOX Melissa | Your Life Designer | Epic Retreats Host

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