
Candid Conversations on Food, Wellness, and Finding Joy in the Messy Middle of Life

The Personal Success Podcast with Ryan Watts
April 20, 2026
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About this episode
What does success really mean when your life does not fit neatly into one label?
In this episode, Ryan sits down with Lisa Parda for a rich and wide ranging conversation about ambition, reinvention, food, grief, curiosity, and what it means to build a life that actually feels like your own.
Lisa has worn many hats across her life and career, including aviation professional, real estate broker, radio host, and cookbook author. In this conversation, she shares how a deeply held dream of becoming an air traffic controller came to an end, how she found her way into real estate, and how her love of food became a path toward healing, self expression, and connection.
Together, Ryan and Lisa explore the emotional meaning of food, the stories we inherit about success, the importance of asking better questions, and why fulfillment often has less to do with status and more to do with pride, presence, and authenticity. They also discuss Lisa’s radio show, Lisa and Robin on the Mic, and how open conversation helped her process grief, family pain, and forgiveness in a completely new way.
This is a conversation about living fully, loving deeply, and defining success on your own terms.
In this episode, we discuss: • Lisa’s path from aviation to real estate to radio and publishing • What it feels like to grieve a dream that never came true • Why food became her love language • Healing a difficult relationship with food and body image • The emotional and relational power of sharing meals • Why food can be both nourishment and medicine • How conversation brings hidden pain into the light • What success means when it is no longer based on money, image, or outside approval • Why pride, fulfillment, and connection may be better markers of success than status
Connect with Lisa Parda:
Get Her Cook Book, My Love Language is Food: The Everyday Edition: https://a.co/d/0iUj0QTF
Stars at Night Publishing starsatnightpublishing.com
Lisa and Robin on the Mic You can find Lisa and Robyn on the Mic on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/@LisaandRobynOnthemic
About Lisa: Lisa Parda is a real estate broker, radio show host, and cookbook author whose work blends curiosity, connection, and lived experience. Her journey has moved through aviation, communications, real estate, and media, all shaped by a deep interest in people, meaning, and the many ways a life can evolve over time. Her cookbook, My Love Language Is Food, grew out of her personal relationship with cooking, nourishment, and the way food can communicate care, memory, and love.
ADVERTISEMENT: Steve Lang's Aura Marketing Agency: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/
If Leadership is heavier than it needs to be, visit ryanwattslifecoaching.com/reset.

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