Burman Books kicks off its inaugural Women Empowerment Week (October 6–10, 2025) with four fierce new titles from trailblazing leaders. From Dina LaPolt’s industry-savvy playbook Street Smart to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s rallying call Speak Up, Sylvie Rodrigue’s confidence manual Own It!, and Vlada Galan’s strategic guide Success Mentality, these books map real-world routes to resilience, agency and influence. Join us for a roundtable Q&A with the authors as they unpack practical advice, hard-won lessons, and why now is the time to lift other women up. —Noa Nichol
Sylvie Rodrigue, Author of Own It
You’ve spent decades in courtrooms—what recurring mental barrier do you see hold women back the most, and how do you help them overcome it?
Recurring mental barriers include feeling like an imposter, being afraid to step out of the comfort zone and paying attention to the white noise.
Conquering imposter syndrome is a lifelong endeavour. It can be controlled and tamed, but it never truly goes away. I still have that little voice in my head reappearing once in a while, telling me “ I do not belong here” or “ I do not deserve this”. Even while writing this book, I felt like an imposter. One way to overcome that feeling is to recognize what it is. It can easily be confused with a lack of confidence. It is not. Rather, it is letting where you come from dictate where you should be going. Once you recognize what it is, it is easier to eliminate that little voice from your head. Another way is through sheer work ethic and time. The more prepared you are, the better you become at what you are doing, the more you will believe that you are deserving.
Stepping outside the comfort zone is difficult and a major obstacle if you do not. No one can thrive staying in a comfort zone. I hate uncertainties and can even have physical symptoms manifest, given my fear of the unknown, which I believe stems from my adoption. It seems strange for a litigator, doesn’t it? A courtroom is very unpredictable. I overcame that fear with planning. Control what you can control. Make a plan, go over it, accept deviations, but keep your eyes on your short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. Find a champion who will have your back and support you. Then jump.
Finally, ignore the white noise. Recognize the pessimists around you and the jealous ones. Know who has your best interest at heart. Take this advice, but ignore those who keep saying your plan will not work or your goals are not achievable.
Own It! pairs lessons with exercises—can you walk us through an exercise from the book that has produced unexpectedly powerful results?
Write down your personal and professional short-term goals (where you want to be in 2-3 years), and the actions you’ll take to achieve them.
Write down your personal and professional medium-term goals (where you want to be in 5-7 years), and the actions you’ll take to achieve them.
Write down your personal and professional long-term goals (where you want to be in 10-15 years), and the actions you’ll take to achieve them.
List the things that make you feel like an imposter. What are your triggers? What are your counter message to this?
List the things that make you feel uncomfortable and why. How does this compare to your comfort zone, and what makes that area feel safe for you?
List one uncomfortable thing you can do per week to practice stepping out of your comfort zone.
Confidence is often mistaken for arrogance. How do you define the difference, and how can women cultivate confident leadership without losing authenticity?
Staying through to yourself is definitely a must. There will always be people calling you cocky when you are assertive, or aggressive when you are firm. Be kind. Confident leadership requires being decisive but inclusive. There is no need to be aggressive. It leads to nowhere.
Results are much more positive with empathy and kindness. Unfortunately, no matter how kind you are, those intimidated by women in power will continue to perceive you as arrogant. It connects to my prior point. It is white noise, and you need to learn to ignore it.
What role does failure play in mastery, and how do you coach clients to reframe setbacks into strategic advantages?
Failures are key. You learn nothing otherwise. It is precisely why many are against the trend of giving every kid a medal in sports. It starts as a child, but as a professional, building resilience and being open to criticism is essential to thrive.
If I mentor a young professional who has just suffered a setback, together we write down what went well and what did not go well, and why. We identify the lesson that can be learned from what happened. Most of all, I teach them to move on and not get stuck on past mistakes. Hard work and demonstrating you can accept defeat, failure, learn from it and move on is what produces confident and successful people, no matter what the profession is.
Reader-ready advice: what are three daily habits you’d recommend for someone who wants to reclaim confidence and start “owning it” today?
Write down your plan for the day with a personal and a professional goal in mind
Take control of how these goals will be achieved by identifying who can help you and what the challenges are to address
Ignore the white noise and own the decisions you make throughout the day, good or bad.
Vlada Galan, Author of Success Mentality
From negotiating with warlords to advising presidents, your career spans intense geopolitical environments—what core mindset consistently predicted success across those vastly different contexts?
The mindset that has always helped me excel is refusing to let fear of the unknown dictate whether I step into an opportunity. Never say, “I can’t do this.” Be a limitless thinker. When opportunity appears, the right response is: “I will do this. And if I don’t yet know how, I will learn.”
Once you open yourself to opportunity, success depends on several key pillars:
Strategic Optimism
Hold a steadfast belief that you will succeed—even if the path isn’t fully clear. Optimism isn’t blind hope; it’s the discipline of confidence while navigating uncertainty.
Adaptability
Circumstances will change. What works in one environment may not work in another. Stay flexible, experiment with new approaches, and lean into discomfort. Growth only happens when you embrace the unfamiliar.
Discipline
Success thrives on structure. Maintain a consistent schedule, follow through on commitments, and build systems that keep you accountable. Avoid the trap of blame—own the outcome, adjust, and move forward. Every moment spent pointing fingers is a moment stolen from progress.
Resilience
You won’t always feel motivated, and mistakes are inevitable. What defines long-term success is your ability to bounce back, push forward on the hardest days, and keep showing up. True resilience is forged when you keep going precisely when you want to quit.
Tell us about a high-stakes moment where a tiny behavioural tweak made the difference between failure and progress. What was the tweak and why did it work?
I once had a meeting scheduled with a president in an African country I had never worked in before. The place wasn’t safe, and I was strongly advised against going. But my curiosity and sense of adventure outweighed the warnings, so I accepted the meeting—and the opportunity it represented.
The location was set. After a 45-minute drive through what felt like jungle roads outside the capital, we arrived at a building. As I stepped out, security informed me the location had changed. What followed was more than 40 minutes of being driven in circles with no explanation. My frustration boiled. I wanted to call it off. For all I knew, I was about to be kidnapped.
When we finally arrived at the new site, I stepped out to find the president himself, casually dressed, waiting outside. At that moment, I realized: this was a test. He wanted to see how I would react to chaos, delay, and fear. He expected anger, entitlement, maybe even an outburst. Instead, I smiled as if nothing had happened and joked that I had thoroughly enjoyed the “guided tour” of his property. He laughed, the tension broke, and the meeting began.
That day turned into the start of a long friendship and multiple impactful projects in his country. But the real lesson was this: power lies in mastering your emotions. I had been placed in a situation designed to unsettle me to make me frustrated, fearful, and impatient. But by refusing to show my cards, by staying composed under pressure, I passed the test. That control didn’t just save the meeting it paid dividends for years to come.
You emphasize habits and mindset—what is one underrated habit that ambitious young women often ignore but should adopt immediately?
Make a schedule and honor it. It sounds simple, yet most women don’t do it. Structure is the foundation of success, and without it, time slips away.
On that schedule, carve out weekly time to build your knowledge base. If you need to learn something new for work, master it. If not, choose a subject that expands your mind: politics, world history, business, science. It doesn’t matter what, as long as it helps you grow. Replace mindless distractions with value-added learning, and you’ll become more capable and confident in any environment.
Once a month, schedule an event that pushes you outside your comfort zone. Go somewhere new, put yourself in rooms with people you don’t know, and open the door to connections you wouldn’t make otherwise. Growth never happens in comfort, it happens in challenge.
Consistency is where the transformation happens. Following a schedule eliminates wasted time, expands your knowledge, and builds your network. These small, disciplined choices compound into massive change. Make them and watch your life elevate.
How do you teach people to build resilience when systems are stacked against them—practical rituals, not platitudes?
As an immigrant, a non-native English speaker, and someone who grew up in poverty, the odds were never in my favor. And that is exactly why I succeeded.
You must learn to turn every obstacle, every voice, every circumstance stacked against you into the fuel that drives you forward. Let anger and frustration ignite you, but don’t let them consume you. Channel them. Master them.
Carry yourself with unshakable confidence. Never allow hardship to break your spirit. Show up every day as if nothing stands in your way. Don’t complain. Don’t claim victimhood. Instead, rewrite the narrative: from “the system is stacked against me” to “watch me defy the system and prove you wrong.”
Even when you stumble, keep showing up. Refuse to be chased away. Persistence, not perfection, wins the fight. Be defiant. Assert dominance. Make your very existence the proof that no odds are too great to overcome.
For readers hungry to advance: what three strategic steps should someone take this quarter to start building a “success mentality” that produces real, measurable momentum?
Assess Your Circle
Start by examining the people around you. Then shrink your circle. Not everyone is your friend, and not everyone is there to support you. Many are quietly draining your time and energy. The larger your circle, the more your life force gets scattered.
Learn to separate the relationships that elevate you from the ones that hold you back. Stop being endlessly available. Not everyone can come with you as you climb the ladder of success. In fact, keeping the wrong people close will be one of your greatest obstacles.
Categorize your relationships: inner circle, acquaintances, and professional network. Then set boundaries within each group and protect them relentlessly.
Eliminate Distractions
Distractions are silent killers of productivity. Identify yours. Maybe it’s hours wasted scrolling on social media. Maybe it’s giving away your time at work without value in return. These habits seem small, but they eat away at your momentum.
Replace bad habits with productive ones, one by one. Every distraction you eliminate sharpens your focus, accelerates your progress, and makes your actions more intentional. Discipline is speed.
Build a Vision
Habits and focus mean little without direction. Vision is the compass of success. Without it, you will drift no matter how disciplined you are.
Set a five-year and ten-year plan. Don’t restrict yourself at the start, let your mind expand without limits. Write down the kind of financial, professional, and personal life you want in one year, in five years, and in ten. Be bold and specific.
At the center of that vision is your “Why”. This is your deepest motivator. Why are you doing it all?
• For yourself?
• To prove something?
• For your family?
Whatever your why is, claim it. It’s the fuel that sustains you when discipline gets hard.
Dina LaPolt, Author of Street Smart
You’ve negotiated deals across the music industry for decades—what’s one negotiation tactic you used early on that still surprises people with how effective it is?
Being prepared. It sounds simple, but you’d be shocked at how many people come into negotiations so focused on pushing their agenda that they don’t actually understand the complex parts of the agreement. Early in my career, when someone demanded a provision, I’d say, “If you can explain it to me, then you can have it.” That usually shut things down pretty quickly. And the truth is, no two music deals are ever the same—there are always nuances. Sir Lucian Grainge, who runs Universal Music, calls it “making a pizza”—every deal has its own unique ingredients.
Tell us about a time you turned an impossible-sounding deal into a win. What was the turning point and what should readers take away from that moment?
When I first started working with the Estate of Tupac Shakur, I was still young in my career and constantly underestimated. The men in those rooms didn’t think I belonged there. At one court hearing, I introduced myself to Tupac’s mother, Afeni, and told her everything my own mother had taught me about her role in the Black Panther Party. That moment changed everything—she saw that I truly understood who she was, and from then on, she wanted me in every meeting.
Sometime after that, the firm I was with was negotiating a lucrative option deal with the record company that Afeni wanted no part of. The firm thought it would be a good deal for her but they were not listening. I stayed focused on what Afeni actually wanted — control over her son’s legacy. That trust between us is what made it all work. The deal was ultimately restructured with less money up front but with her having approvals over all the music before it was released.
The lesson? Deals only become “impossible” when you ignore the values driving them. If you stay anchored in purpose and really listen, you’ll find a way forward- no matter which path it takes.
Ethics and respect are central to your book. How do you balance being ruthlessly effective in business while maintaining those values under pressure?
Being effective doesn’t mean being difficult or not treating people respectfully. I can be tough and direct, but I don’t need to humiliate people or cross lines to win. My reputation has been built on results and respect. If you scorch the earth in every deal and act like an ass, no one would want to work with you. What I’ve learned is that you can be both feared and admired when you operate with integrity—and that’s real power.
In male-dominated rooms, tone and language can shift power dynamics. What subtle communication moves do you coach clients to use that instantly change how they’re perceived?
The first thing I always tell people is: read the room. You can learn a lot from body language, which is why I often prefer Zoom over a conference call when a meeting isn’t in person.
If the meeting is in person, it’s important that you are always on time. In fact, I am always early— a trait I learned from deadmau5. When you are early or on time, you have more influence over the energy in the room.
Practical advice for our readers: for someone just starting their career, what three street-smart moves would you recommend they adopt this month to level up their negotiating power?
1. Do your homework. Walk into every room knowing the facts cold—the history, the numbers, the players. Knowledge is confidence.
2. Build your credibility. That doesn’t mean pretending to know it all—it means showing up prepared, delivering on small promises, and letting people see you’re reliable.
3. Find your voice and follow your instincts. Stop asking for permission to speak. Even if you’re junior, your perspective has value. The sooner you start practicing it, the faster you’ll be taken seriously.
Rosemarie Aquilina, Author of Speak Up
Your courtroom career and the gymnastics trial put you in the public eye—how did those experiences shape your belief about the power of speaking up?
I realized the power of speaking early in my legal career, representing victims who were made to feel that the legal system shunned, shamed and blamed them. Some regretted bringing their case before the court. Often judges used words, facial expressions and body language that demonstrated disinterest in hearing the complete story of the victim. And, even as their attorney, I wasn’t always allowed to advocate due to judicially imposed constraints like time and topic limitations. Consequently, crime victims were left a legal proceeding feeling defeated and unwilling to fight through the appeal process, regardless of whether it was a civil or criminal matter, even when I offered to file their appeals for free.
It was during those moments I made a commitment that once elected to the bench, I would allow everyone to speak, using the language they chose without time limitation. Immediately upon taking the bench, I saw the change. The power of speaking up, regardless of the crime, allows victims to reclaim their voice, choice, power and control.
It was most evident, however, in the People of the state of Michigan versus Lawerence Nassar. It didn’t matter if the victim was directly assaulted by Nassar or if it was someone who was affected by his actions because a loved one, patient or friend was assaulted. Over seven days, 169 people spoke.
Each person visibly grew as they spoke their painful truths. They publicly faced their biggest fear and used their voice to liberate themselves from the horror, pain and injustices they suffered. Courageously, they literally shed their pain and stood taller, firm in their right to be heard, knowing they were finally believed and their voice mattered. The power of speaking up is empowerment that amplifies a knowing conviction that they matter, have value, and are powerful in their own right.
Can you share a story from your book where a simple act of courage changed the outcome for someone who felt powerless?
Shelley had been in a romantic relationship that she valued. She and I became friends and had many conversations. I found her to be thoughtful, brilliant and caring. When I complimented her on those things that I saw and valued in her, she was genuinely surprised, which in turn surprised me. She explained how very disappointed in herself she was because she lost the love of her life, gained weight, quit her job and began smoking too much. I gave her a safe, nonjudgmental space to tell me about that relationship and how it led her into what appeared to be not just disappointment, but depression. She began by explaining that her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. She wanted to win them both back and was trying her best to lose weight and get on a healthy path again.
When she was finished, I complimented her on her strength to walk away from both. I acknowledged that her goals were important, but she needed to make one change. “What’s that?” she asked, wide-eyed. “You need to stay away from them. They don’t deserve you. You deserve to be loved and respected,” I explained. “I want you to write down the qualities you want in a best friend.” “Why?” she quizzed, frowning. “Because you first need to be your own best friend and once you treat yourself as you treat others, you will find positive relationships and loyal people who will prioritize you.” It took a few months and a few encouraging conversations, but Shelley made her list and was able to finally discard the boyfriend and her best friend. Shelley has a new job, lost a few dress sizes, has better friends, and although she hasn’t found her perfect mate, she is happily her own best friend. She has discovered that self-love isn’t selfish, it is necessary to living a joyful life.
Many readers fear retaliation or disbelief if they speak out. What concrete steps do you recommend for building a safety net before voicing a difficult truth?
Building an emotional safety net is important when difficult times arise or when there is a necessity to speak a daunting truth. Living in fear of retaliation or not being believed is a reality that can be overcome with some practice and patience with yourself. It is important to identify where and with whom you feel safe and retreat to that place or that person whenever it becomes necessary. Mindfulness exercises like meditation, deep breathing or taking a quiet walk and engaging your senses outdoors are helpful tactics to develop and maintain. Setting boundaries and purposefully choosing to say yes or no when others prefer you to say the opposite are important, intentional acts that help develop resilience that releases stress and fear. Using these strategies will allow you to shrug off the naysayers and disbelievers and move forward with pride and confidence.
Accountability is a theme in Speak Up. How can organizations design systems that empower individuals to come forward while protecting them from harm?
Knowledge is powerful, transformative and empowering. Encouraging information-sharing in a safe place, where open, honest communication is valued, inspires participation, promotes collaboration and boosts courage. It also creates a positive, encouraging atmosphere where accountability is a normal expectation, the fear of speaking out dissipates, and it is replaced with empowerment. Overall, when practicing, there is a boost in morale, safety and production.
Advice for readers: what is one small, actionable practice someone can do weekly to strengthen their voice and confidence to speak up when it counts?
Practice gratitude and positive self-talk. Write down positive things you have accomplished, make a list of one thing that you will accomplish each day, and/or say one nice thing about yourself in the mirror before you begin your day. I have a combination of all those things written on sticky notes that I have on my bathroom mirror and on a wall that I can see from my bed.
At the end of my day, I note something positive I accomplished or something I felt good about personally. At the start of my day, I say something uplifting and acknowledge one thing that I will achieve, no matter how small. I’ve gotten into this self-care habit and now after many years, I ask Siri to take a note when something positive comes to mind and when needed, I pull up my positivity notes and move forward with a smile.
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