No matter how difficult challenges may seem, there’s always a way to find a solution. The power lies within!
This week, listen as Jen sits down with, President and CEO of IP Resilience Global, Ilona Parunakova. Ilona shares how her hardships in life have helped her gain the knowledge and strength to help others Master and Overcome their Circumstances to be successful!
Are you a successful professional, ready to share your story?
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Listen to the episode here:
Mastering and Overcoming your Circumstances with Ilona Parunakova
Hi everyone. And welcome back to Success to Significance, Life After Breaking Through Glass Ceilings.. I am so delighted that you have joined us today. And I wanna say thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day, whether you’re riding a bike or sitting on the porch, listening to us. It means so much to us and today’s guest.
I am excited to tell you about Ilona and you know, one of the things that I know about Ilona is that we are both authors. We are both using the same publishing company for a couple of our books. And, um, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet her when we were both in Dallas. With Michael D. Butler, who is the owner and CEO of Beyond Publishing. And so there you go, Michael, I gave you a little push here as well, because I know he’ll be listening to this podcast. So, Ilona welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me and I had such a great time with you already before the show.
I know, I know we’re in the green room, we were yick yacking and, and, you know, and thank you so much for having me on your podcast as well.
So this is, you know, my, uh, gift back to you, but let me introduce you just for a quick second here so that everyone knows who you are. Um, Ilona is a. X 10 time bestselling author of diversity and inclusion expert and speaker. She’s the president and CEO of IP Resilience Global, which we’re gonna have to figure out what that is.
Publisher of IP Resilience Global Magazine, and Ilona TV, producer, and host. Um, she is a direct descendant of the Armenian genocide survivors, um, from World War I and survived the war time in the Republic of Georgia. Right after the collapse of the USSR. Over the years, Ilona has succeeded in turning her disparities from war losses and struggles to fit in every ‘NO’ in her life, which you and I are gonna talk about into her ‘Superpowers’!.
She rose above all the odds and became a graduate for doctorate degree in family, Christian counseling and her PhD in Christian philosophy . As a master coach, she empowers people to find their voice, even in the darkest of their times of their lives and imparts courage, and self-confidence so that they too can experience Liberty in all of its best.
She’s an international TEDx speaker and has been featured in Fox on Fox NBC, CBC, Influencive,, uh, Powerhouse and Forbes magazine. Uh, she introduces herself unapol…. I loved this by the way, when I read it, she introduces herself unapologetically as God’s masterpiece and puts God as the CEO of her life, which is very near and dear to me.
So again, welcome to the show. Ilona I’m so delighted to have you.
Thank you for such an amazing introduction, Jen. I really appreciate it.
Absolutely. So I wanna kind of dig into this, you know, talking about, um, it, it’s kind of, it’s kind of along the lines of resilience too. Right. And, um, you know, for my listeners, they know that my, uh, Uh, you know, I’m a producer of my TV show as well.
And it’s called ‘Tell Me I Can’t’, which I love when you say don’t tell me no. right. Um, because the whole show is about don’t tell me, I can’t, I’m gonna, I’m gonna persevere, you know, through this. So I know one of the topics that you like to talk about is mastering, uh, your circumstances and how to overcome them.
So share with us a little bit about your history and what you’ve overcome and how you, you know, it’s brought you to the point that you are here today.
You know, like, uh, you hear this story, you know, when you grow up and you re realize what happened to you when you, when you were growing up as a child, but as a child, I was rejected because I was the first born and my dad wanted the boy, not the girl.
My grandparents also rejected me because my mom is Ukrainian. My dad is Armenian, so I didn’t look nothing like Armenians. Therefore they never included me as the package deal as the family member, because they were embarrassed of me showing me off as a blonde girl, blue eyes and a light skin, because Armenians don’t have that.
Um, you know, some, you know, different features, but that
Yet they made you
Yes!. Yes. And, uh, it was. . And even though, as I was growing up, and then when I, when I had to receive my Christian name in Armenian church, the priest refused to gimme name because he had a doubt that I was Armenian. So I had to speak with him in Armenian.
My dad had to convincing that that’s my daughter. You have to give her name. And even though I didn’t look nothing like them, he gave the name to all of my siblings and my cousins. And skips me. He makes the anger face and he barely through his teeth. He gives me the name and the name that he gave me was like through his teeth, light. Your name is light with the anger. What? He didn’t realize that he’s prophetically spoke into my life because I became that light in people’s life that they weren’t looking for. And, uh, I’ve been rejected from the universities because I had the Russian last name, which is Parunakova, it’s hard to spell and pronounce.
Right. And, uh, doctors told me that I cannot run and do anything with my feet or legs. So just be careful. And my, my family know my relatives called me ugly. So there’s a lot of things that, you know, I had to hear listen, But the biggest thing that I have discovered that it’s all about the voices that you hear, those 90% or 99% of the voices got overshadowed by the voice of my mom, who, who was always at Ilona, forgive those who have, you know, hurt you.
Or wronged you. That’s not our job to pay back to them. That’s God’s job. All you need to do is just, you need to realize who you are and you need to not to listen to everything that is around you. And that’s like tiny, tiny voice. I was, you know, when your mom says something to you, you’re like, Ugh, your mom, of course, you’re gonna say that to.
Right. Right. So you’re like, where’s the truth, you know, who I really am. And, uh, I use that power of knowing my life to completely transform where I am today.
Yeah, because you know, it is an inside job, right? It’s what, it’s the voices we hear inside. So a couple things that you said about that, first of all, I love what your mom said about it’s God’s job to, so say that again, because I thought that was so powerful.
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Listen to the FULL Episode HERE
Learn more about Ilona Parunakova
BIO:
Ilona Parunakova is a 10x Best-Selling Author, Diversity and Inclusion Expert/Speaker. President and CEO of IP Resilience Global, Publisher of IP Resilience Global Magazine, Ilona TV Producer and host.
Ilona is a direct descendant of an Armenian Genocide survivors during WWI and survived the wartime in Republic of Georgia right after the collapse of the USSR. Over the years Ilona has succeeded in turning her disparities from war, losses, struggles to fit in, every “No” in her life, into her super powers.
Ilona rose above all odds to become candidate for Doctorate Degree in Family Christian Counseling and her PhD in Christian Philosophy. As a Master Coach she empowers people to find their voice even in the darkest times of their life and imparts courage and self-confidence so that they, too, can experience liberty in all of its best.
She is an International TEDx speaker and is featured in Fox, NBC, CBC, Influencive, Powerhouse and Forbes Magazines. Ilona introduces herself unapologetically as God’s Masterpiece and puts God as a CEO of her life.
“My mom, who, who was always said Ilona, forgive those who have, you know, hurt you. Or wronged you. That’s not our job to pay back to them. That’s God’s job.” – Ilona Parunakova
Get in touch with Ilona:
EMAIL: Ilona@ipresilienceglobal.com
WEBSITES:
www.ilonaparunakovaempowers.com
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