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Often, people view life transitions as weakness. Whether you became a parent, a caregiver to a family member, or other life-altering changes in your personal life, you are perceived to be vulnerable and distracted. However, Riccarda Zezza, Founder of LIFEED, strongly disagrees. She believes in using life transitions as strengths, not weaknesses, and has made it her mission to help anyone going through transition be perceived as more valuable than they were pre-transition. 

"Science shows that when people have more roles, they have more opportunities to develop skills and strengths because they have more places where they can find their balance." - Riccarda Zezza.

Genesis of LIFEED

It all started when Riccarda was demoted from her managerial role after being pregnant. It also wasn't a coincidence because it happened twice in two different companies. She started feeling like motherhood was perceived to be a problem by these big companies. 

She did more research and found out that she was not the only one. This is happening all over the world, where motherhood is viewed as a distraction to their current role. While big companies want work-life balance, Riccarda believes that it doesn't exist anymore. Work and life are integrated, and you cannot separate them anymore. 

The fact is, companies spend a lot of money training leaders' soft skills. As a mother herself, Riccarda believes that motherhood is a perfect place to practice and learn soft skills required to be a leader, and demoting her is a big mistake that the company is making. 

This led her to create her business with a mission to change the perception of all companies worldwide; That all life events and its complexities are seen as a positive factor and not a conflicting factor with one's work. 

Business Model

To help people use transition as strengths and companies maximize their people during transitions, LIFEED developed a learning methodology called "life-based learning." This method guides people to find their skills, feel better about themselves and practice soft skills during their transition. 

Employees going through transitions will get access to this digital learning program. The goal is to help people redefine themselves and to continue learning while they go through a life experience.

At first, their platform only had programs for mothers. Now, they also have fathers and caregivers. Their business is solving two problems: Letting mothers come back to work with all their strengths instead of feeling demotivated and finding the soft skills that the companies need.

Keys to Success

According to Riccarda, innovation is very fragile at the beginning. She didn't try to educate companies about her product that they didn't realize they needed. She looked for the ones that were ready for her innovation, and that made starting easier. Once she had proven her solution, other companies followed. Finding the right customers is vital for her success. 

Finding the right people to work with is also something that you need to focus on. You need to find people that you can trust and can add their own experience to your work.