S2 - Ep1. Women Should NOT Stay Quiet at Work: How to Find Your Voice with Seema Bhansali

#WomenInLeadership #FindYourVoice #HitTheBuzzer  Women stay quiet more often than men. Why? For fear of being labeled as aggressive or insensitive. But this has to change. In this episode of South Asian Success, Parul L. Bhandari sits down with Seema Bhansali, former Chief of Staff to a U.S. Congressman, former VP of Employee Experience at a Fortune 500 company, and author of the upcoming book "Hit the Buzzer". Seema shares her journey from pre-med to religious studies to law school, from Congress to corporate boardrooms, and why she believes confidence is the end result, not the starting point, of finding your voice. 👤 ABOUT THE GUEST: SEEMA BHANSALI Seema Bhansali's path to becoming one of Corporate America's most distinctive voices began with a bachelor's degree in religious studies and a law degree, an unusual combination that gave her both the intellectual framework to understand systems and the human lens to understand their impact on people. 🔗 CONNECT WITH SEEMA  Website: https://www.seemabhansali.com/ LinkedIn:   / seema-bhansali-esq-principal   Book: Hit the Buzzer anticipated 2027 💡 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN  Why women stay quiet at work and why it's not a confidence problem  How early messaging (movies, books, culture) teaches girls that using their voice is risky  What "Good Indian Girl" conditioning does to South Asian women, and how to unlearn it  The "Silence Tax": what companies lose when voices aren't heard  How to build an "open voice" culture: meetings, speaker selection, public speaking support  Seema's mantra for fear and imposter syndrome: you either do the thing or you learn  ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00  Hook 0:35 Welcome to South Asian Success Season 2  1:25 Meet Seema Bhansali  2:34 From pre-med to religious studies to law school  2:53 Working for a Member of Congress  4:05 Joining a Fortune 500 company ("Nobody looks like me")  5:48 Why Seema's parents encouraged risk-taking  9:05 Why she wrote "Hit the Buzzer"  11:39 Why confidence isn't the first step  13:20 Unlearning the "Good Indian Girl" messaging  14:30 Be careful what influences you take in  16:49 Entrepreneurship, writing and imposter syndrome  19:41 Fear, purpose and why Seema keeps going  23:01 The Silence Tax and open voice cultures  26:31 Fashion moment: the suit jacket with a sari  27:26 Where to find Seema and her book club  28:52 Outro This podcast episode is sponsored by CustomerXSuccess. We're building customer experience and building better businesses. http://www.customerxsuccess.com 📌 Subscribe to South Asian Success and join us as we explore the stories, journeys, and people redefining what success can look like. #SouthAsianSuccess #WomenInLeadership #FindYourVoice #SeemaBhansali #HitTheBuzzer #SouthAsianWomen