The Courage to Start Again | Aylar Macky

Building a successful business is never easy. For Aylar Macky, resilience became a way of life as she transformed her personal health journey into a thriving nutrition company, grown from her home kitchen into an operation producing thousands of meals daily across the Middle East. I today’s episode, Dr. Eiman Jahangir welcomes entrepreneur and Joule founder Aylar Macky for a conversation about building businesses against the odds, embracing your cultural identity, and finding purpose through adversity. Born in Iran and raised in Canada, Aylar reflects on how her family's immigrant experience shaped her determination and ultimately her business journey, as well as the difficult decision to leave behind what she had built to pursue new opportunities in the United States. Eiman and Aylar dive into the lessons entrepreneurship teaches about resilience and personal growth, before discussing her mission to bring Persian-inspired health products to a wider audience. Aylar shares why meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose matter more to her than financial success alone, and her ongoing journey towards recognising her own worth beyond her achievements. 00:00 Welcome to A Heart for Space 00:24 Meeting Aylar Macky: From Tehran to Canada to Building Juul 01:41 The Weight Gain That Changed Everything 02:56 Starting Juul: From Home Kitchen to 15,000 Meals a Day 07:25 The Immigrant Identity: Shaped by Leaving Everything Behind 09:45 Becoming the Adult in the Room at Nine Years Old 11:52 The Decision to Return to Iran: Going Back to the Motherland 13:21 Seeing What's Missing: Vending Machines and Business Ideas 16:47 The Common Thread: Connecting People and Building Community 24:05 Learning Resilience: The Business as Therapist 29:07 Building in Iran vs. America: Solving Problems That Aren't Yours 32:00 The Backpack Decision: Leaving Everything Behind Again 32:57 The Waymo Moment: Culture Shock and Catching Up to Technology 33:59 Bringing Persian Flavors to America: Functional Foods with Heritage 34:46 Living Between Two Cultures: The Ugly Duckling with Something to Offer 38:32 The Power of Cause: What Gets You Out of Bed 40:22 Mom: The One Who Hallucinates With Me 42:02 Building Again: Stuffed Dates, Functional Beverages, and Secret Podcasts 45:49 Finding Enough: The Space She's Still Reaching For Discover more about Dr. Eiman Jahangir, and preorder your own copy of A Heart for Space, now at https://aheartforspace.com/