"The Woman Behind Door #2": Zeva Bellel on Trusting the Life You Can't Fully Explain

**Episode description** Zeva Bellel has spent her adult life following the same pull more than once: toward a truer version of herself, even when it meant leaving what was stable and secure. First it was a one-way flight from Brooklyn to Paris at twenty-five. Then it was walking away from a decade in journalism to build her own blog from scratch. Then, after ten years at Yelp building a marketing team from nothing, she was made redundant in one of the company's most brutal rounds of layoffs - and instead of going back into marketing and community, she retrained as a certified career and leadership coach. In this conversation, Zeva talks about the pull toward France that started with a French TV programme in a Brooklyn classroom, what it actually felt like to be jobless on a friend's couch in Paris at twenty-five with no plan, the manager who taught her everything about how not to lead, and the single phone call that ended her time at Yelp for good. She also explains why she coaches women specifically, why "transformation" is almost never the lightning bolt it looks like from the outside, and what she's learned writing her first book. **Show notes** Zeva Bellel built a career across three countries and three completely different industries - journalism, tech marketing, and now coaching. Twice, she chose an uncertain, truer path over a stable one. The third time, the choice was taken out of her hands entirely - and what she did next is really the heart of this conversation. This episode moves from a Brooklyn childhood shaped by a French TV programme, through a semester abroad that didn't go to plan, a one-way move to Paris at twenty-five, a decade building a career in magazines and blogging, ten years at Yelp that ended in a single phone call, and into the coaching practice, podcast and forthcoming book she's built since - instead of going back to marketing. **Themes:** - Chasing an inexplicable pull toward another life, and trusting it anyway - What a toxic manager teaches you about the leader you want to be - Building something of your own from nothing, twice - "We're not a family" - what a mass redundancy teaches you about work - Choosing to coach women, and why self-trust is the real subject **Key Takeaways** - Transformation is almost never a lightning bolt - it's a long, messy, doubt-filled process, and the myth that it should feel instant does real damage. - A company can be brilliant and still not be a family - you can love your colleagues completely and still recognise the difference. - A door closing on you without your permission doesn't mean you have no say in what happens next. - Watching a bad manager up close can teach you as much about leadership as a good one. - Coaching is fundamentally about helping someone trust that they already know what they want. If this one landed, send it to a woman who's ever had a pull toward a different life she couldn't quite explain. Leave a review, or send us a message and tell us what stuck with you. And if you're new here, hit follow - Notes from the Not There Yet is out every two weeks. - https://www.zevabellel.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/zevab/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zevabf/ **Find the The Not There Yet Project:** - Website⁠⁠ - Instagram⁠⁠ - LinkedIn⁠⁠ - Substack - https://www.tiktok.com/@notthereyetproject - https://uk.pinterest.com/notthereyetproject/