Niya Desai is a storyteller, podcaster, and neuroscience-backed mindset coach who rebuilt her life through courage, clarity, and reinvention. After eight years of feeling professionally stuck on a spouse visa and navigating the complex identities of motherhood, ambition, and cultural expectations, she chose to rebuild herself from the inside out. Today, Humans of Fuzia is featuring her because her journey reflects the resilience, self-belief, and purpose that inspire our 5M+ community of women and allies working toward a world where both “He for She” and “She for She” lead the way. Her story reminds us that transformation doesn’t begin with external success—it begins with reclaiming who we truly are.
Q: What inspired you to begin your coaching and podcasting journey?
A: I reinvented my life at 40—not in a dramatic way, but through slow honesty. After moving countries, losing eight years to visa restrictions, and forgetting I once had a journalism degree, I kept doing work that didn’t light me up. COVID made me realize I had ambition, discipline, and drive, but not fulfillment. So I rebuilt myself. I studied marketing, project management, neuroscience, NLP, IFS, and mindset coaching. I coached young girls pro bono for two years. Alongside that, I returned to storytelling and launched my podcast. For me, the journey was about becoming the person I knew I always had inside me. I built myself before building anything else.
Q: What has been your proudest milestone so far?
A: Wrapping up six seasons of my podcast completely on my own—and being invited to a local TV channel after just Season One. That invitation meant the world, because I didn’t pitch myself. They saw something in my work and reached out. As a podcaster and storyteller, that moment was huge.
Q: What are your thoughts on women empowerment and leadership today?
A: Empowerment begins with identity. You cannot empower a woman who is trapped in an outdated version of herself. Most women operate at 40–50% of their potential not because they lack talent, but because they’ve learned to shrink themselves while carrying everything. True empowerment is helping women take up the space they were always meant to occupy. My first three podcast seasons were called Women in the Making, and later I began interviewing male allies too—because empowerment needs everyone’s voice.
Q: What is your personal definition of success?
A: Success isn’t a destination—it’s living intentionally rather than reactively. It’s not a title, a house, or an award (though awards are great!). It’s being able to say, “This is the life I chose, not the one I settled for.” Real success is an internal shift when your actions align with your identity, when your nervous system is no longer in survival mode, and when clarity replaces chaos. Success begins in the mind long before it shows up in the bank account.
“Hardships aren’t dead ends—they’re pivots. They turn you into the version of yourself you were always meant to become.”
Connect with Niya Desai
Niya Desai | LinkedIn
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