HI, I'M MM

I'm Mariana Missakian, originally Armenian, and I was born in Lebanon and lived there until I fell head over heels in love with a boy, got married and moved to Dubai at the age of 18.

For 15 years I was a corporate superstar, a career driven city approved power thirsty woman, a super achiever in stilettos. Until the day I became a full-time mom, quit my job, moved to Suburbia, and lost my identity. Who I was so tightly interlocked with my job that I didn’t know who I was anymore without a job, a title, and a pigeon-holed work status. In 2017 I became the lady in spandex wearing my hair in a messy bun in a perfectly manicured gated society where I tried, and failed on most days, to figure out how to best answer the question: “So, what do you do?”

In 2019, and after not speaking to a grown up for almost two weeks, I picked up the book “never eat alone” and it said go to a Toastmasters meeting. I stood up and I said: “I lost my voice. I don’t know who I am anymore. Can you help me find my voice?” That was my Emancipation Proclamation. On that stage, in front of 15 women, I started a journey to discover the greatness within me. To figure out who I am stripped from a script, a job and a title.

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I now spend my time writing, speaking and connecting with women to shift conversations from "what you do" to "who are you" to guide women to shape their identity stripped from job and title.

I still live in Dubai with my husband Fady (the same boy I fell in love with when I was 18) and our son Enzo.