Brilliantly Branded Podcast

Episode 141_04 22 August 2021, 8 a.m. Angelique’s husband left for work like it was any other day. She stayed behind in a new country, in a house full of boxes, with two kids and no idea where to go. She had just left central London for Luxembourg, at the end of COVID, already exhausted. What followed was anxiety, then anger, then a hospital bed where she slept for two days straight.  That’s when...

How to Rent in Luxembourg as an Expat: The Mistakes That Cost You the Apartment. 140_03 She landed in Luxembourg on the first of May. Every shop was closed for the holiday. Her parents left the next morning, and she stood there with one suitcase, in a country she had barely heard of. Aukse Poehle came from Lithuania fifteen years ago as a corporate lawyer. She moved from room to room, cried throug...

You walk into the forest tired and you walk out lighter, and you never really knew why. In this episode, recorded in the forest in Luxembourg, psychologist Isabel Van De Voorde explains what happens in your brain and your body when you slow down among the trees. Isabel spent years in HR. Then came exhaustion, sick leave, and long walks in the forest where she felt on her own without feeling alone....

Sara Cantelar left a career, a family and friends she had known since school. She arrived in Luxembourg with a baby and nobody to call in an emergency. This is the story of how a foreign city slowly became home. In this episode she talks about the guilt of leaving her parents behind, the day she stopped trying to be everything at once, and the small habits that told her she finally belonged. Walki...

This is the last episode of the Brilliantly Branded Podcast and the first day of Seeds for a Better World. After 136 episodes over three years, María Lucia Romero sits on the other side of the microphone while Philip Grother asks the questions. She talks about the live podcast event in Luxembourg where she decided not to sell a single ticket, the drive up into rural Colombia, and what she saw on t...

In this episode you will learn something that most of us have felt but never been able to explain. Why some conversations drain you before they even start. Why you can be doing everything right and still feel like you are running on empty. And why the answer has nothing to do with working harder or managing your time better. Dr. Cornelia Kawann is an electrical engineer who built a method around s...

What happens inside you when you build something from nothing, and it slowly starts to feel like it has a heartbeat of its own. Claudia Glass spent over twenty years as a high school English teacher. One day, driving home after class, a voice said her name. It said: it is now time. She did not have a business background. She did not know what a textile engineer was. She had never built a product i...

Moving to a new country looks simple on paper. A job, a flat, a fresh start. Then you arrive, and the real life begins. In this episode, María Lucia talks with Denis Niedringhaus, who has spent eight years supporting expats and their families through relocation and cultural integration in Luxembourg. María knows this from the inside. She left the corporate world to build her own business here, and...

You have the stable career. The title, the salary, the clear path. And still, something keeps pulling at you. A small voice that says this is not it anymore. In this episode, Tine Van Camp shares how that pull turned into a decision. She spent seven years in the Big Four, became a mother twice, lived through a birth that scared her more than anything in her life, and then lost the job she had give...

A story that become a brand. At 33, Irene Del Olmo went in for a routine checkup. She came out with two pieces of news that changed everything. A rare form of breast cancer. And the confirmation that becoming a mother would not be possible. What she did next is what this episode is about. In this conversation, Irene shares how she rebuilt her health from the inside out, spending years as her own t...

What if your shoes could be a vote for a different world? In this episode, María Lucia speaks with Stefan Woben, co-founder of NOOCH, a 100% plant-based footwear brand built around one question: What if Mother Earth was our CEO? Stefan and his co-founder Lotte have spent 13 years rethinking not just what a shoe is made of, but how a brand is financed, how products are ordered, how customers are ke...

What happens when you lose the one thing your career depends on?  Judit Nagy was a news anchor in Hungary. Her schedule ran on adrenaline and early alarm calls. Then burnout arrived quietly, and not long after, a near death experience during childbirth took her voice entirely. Literally. She woke from a coma and could not speak. Surgery failed. Recovery was not guaranteed.  What she built from tha...

Most people think that having more, more experience, more resources, more certainty, is what makes building easier. Arthur Salkin has been doing this for over 20 years and he will tell you the opposite. In this episode we get into the real mechanics of building across uncertainty. How clarity works as a decision tool when emotions are high. How to identify the problems worth solving and ignore the...

Katrijn woke up one morning and couldn't speak, couldn't write, couldn't get back to the person she was the day before, and she had to decide what to do with that. In this episode she talks about what it actually looks like to build work around what you have, not what you planned, including the moment a stranger's creative chaos became her unexpected calling. If you're somewher...

How Your Voice Shapes Your Personal Brand Sound is something we experience every day, yet very few people think about how powerful it really is. In this episode, María Lucia Romero speaks with Christophe Strotz, singer, creative audio producer, and Managing Director of Linster Studios in Luxembourg. Their conversation explores the emotional power behind sound and why tone of voice plays a deeper r...

What does it truly mean to lead when you are the only one of your kind in the room? Sharon March joins me to explore the powerful acronym WIN: What’s Important Now. With over 25 years in corporate finance and international boardrooms, Sharon offers a perspective on leadership that goes far beyond strategy. We talk about the essential "inner work" of defining your values before the world...

Josh’s story does not follow a straight line. From studying psychology in England, to working in luxury fashion at Harrods, to moving into higher education in Luxembourg, to starting his own boutique consulting space… his path looks far from conventional. What becomes clear in this conversation is that none of those chapters were random. Each one shaped his understanding of identity, self-worth, a...

In industries driven by speed and scalability, other ways of building often remain unseen. In this episode No. 124 of the Brilliantly Branded Podcast, María Lucia Romero speaks with Ase Elvebakk, Cofounder of Natural Nuance, about building a circular luxury brand while working with time-intensive processes, artisans, and long-term thinking. Ase shares her transition from tech and innovation into p...

You don’t suddenly lose motivation at work. It usually happens little by little. You feel drained. Less engaged. Less recognised. In this episode of The Brilliantly Branded Podcast, María Lucia Romero speaks with Raphael H Cohen , professor and leadership expert, about toxic behaviors in organisations and how abuse of power impacts people, teams, and performance. Professor Cohen explains how these...

Networking is often misunderstood. For many people, it feels uncomfortable, forced, or even exhausting. In this episode of the Brilliantly Branded Podcast, I welcome Caroline Durand, entrepreneur and corporate trainer, for a conversation about what networking truly means. We talk about why traditional networking approaches often fail, how mindset shapes the quality of our connections, and why buil...

In this episode of the Brilliantly Branded Podcast, we talk about something many professionals recognise but rarely name. Masking to fit. Bruno Wozniak, digital innovation consultant and now author of The Reinvention Playbook , shares how years of adapting to corporate expectations slowly muted his real self. From reading the room and softening opinions, to constantly changing his behaviour to mat...

When you look at athletes at the highest level, you often see the results. You rarely see what happens inside. The pressure. The identity. The fear of failing publicly. In this episode I sit with Adrien Plavsic, former Olympian and NHL player, to explore the mental side of high performance. Our conversation was about the beliefs that shape us, the discomfort we avoid, and the mindset traps that ap...

Andrea Toucinho entered the payments world without a finance background. She was young, surrounded by men, and navigating an industry that can feel intimidating even for experienced professionals. What changed her path was her determination to learn, stay curious, and build her voice one step at a time. In this episode we talk about what it really takes for a woman to create authority in finance....

In this conversation, María Lucia Romero talks with Aelia Kos about bringing spirituality back into the world of business. Aelia shares how her life once looked perfect from the outside — global stages, achievements, and recognition — but inside she felt completely disconnected. That moment became an awakening. They talk about the idea of “spirituality in the closet,” the leaders who hide their in...

This episode offers a clear, practical guide to setting up a business in Luxembourg without losing time, energy, or patience. My guest, Tanyth Blackler , founder of Do Your Thing , helps individuals and small businesses move from idea to structure with clarity and confidence. We talk about what really happens behind the scenes, the real timeline for company setup, and how to prepare before you sta...