More Than Your Business Card - Lead, Thrive, and Love Every Stage of Your Life

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Thanks for joining me on Seasoned Women Serious

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Business - Wise enough to want more.

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Before we dive in to the content and the heart of this program, I wanted to take

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a moment first to establish who this program was created for, when I named the

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show, Seasoned Women, Serious Business.

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because if it isn't for Where you should be, although you may find us all highly

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entertaining, and I guarantee you there are applicable life lessons to be learned

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from all of my guests and all of the episodes; I want you to know for sure.

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That this program was designed for you if you are a woman entrepreneur,

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you are in the age range of 45 ish to 75 ish and beyond.

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It does not mean that you are excluded if you are younger.

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Nor does it mean that you are excluded if you do not identify as female,

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because again, the lessons, the wisdom, the lifetime experience, the incredible

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collective wisdom that will be presented on this program will help anybody.

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The demographics of this group, generally speaking, is that if you're in the 45

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to 54 year old bracket, you may still be balancing your family responsibilities

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changing dynamics with your own physical health, maybe some changing relationship

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issues, and really on the first part of the curve that we're talking to.

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And if you're in the mid tier of our audience, you're probably 55 ish to 64.

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And this is the time when you are starting to really think about legacy and

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succession planning and your priorities may be shifting from accomplishments, task

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oriented, to more personal fulfillment.

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If you're in the top tier of age of this audience, generally speaking,

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65 years plus, then your focus is a little different in that

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you're in that curiosity phase of, "Hmm, what might I do next?"

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"Hmm, what have I put off that I may now have time for?"

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And you're very, very decisive, about what you don't want to do anymore.

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Predominantly, this program will be based on evidence and experience

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in North America and Europe, because, that's my larger life

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experience and my larger network.

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However, I am delighted to say, each and every year, and this is very purposeful

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on my part, I expand my network.

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I very consciously have expanded and curated my network over the past five

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years to include more seasoned women and entrepreneurs on other continents

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and other cultures, and really adding to the richness of the diversity

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of the collective wisdom of my life experience, my own resources, but also

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to bring that to you on this program.

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The stats say that generally most women owned businesses are in the professional

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services area, retail, e commerce, big growth in that area, health and wellness,

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creative, education and coaching.

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But hold on, I'm going to be bringing to you Many guests who are outside

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of that traditional statistic group of business type and category.

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And how great will it be to invite conversation with women who have

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grown businesses in the exceptional or traditionally non female sectors.

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I had an industrial chemical business long before it was, evident that other

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women were there that I could network with and I could grow with in the industry.

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Also, our audience is likely to be categorized as small and medium sized

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businesses, small and medium sized enterprises, or SMEs, generally the

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annual revenue of our audience and the clients I work range from half a

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million to five and ten million dollars.

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The interesting thing is that, the bigger the business, same problems.

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They just tend to grow proportionately to the size of the business.

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And sometimes there's an inverse rule in effect.

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Also, statistically speaking, our audience in North America, the majority

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have been in business for over 10 years and I certainly can relate to this,

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have experienced various market cycles.

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We have a wealth of practical experience from hands on.

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We're going to talk about how those cycles affect our appetite for continuing to

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stay in business and how it's helped me and others change and transform our

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business and our roles in our business.

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Who is the seasoned woman we're talking about?

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Who is she?

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I think if you're here listening to the program, she's you.

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The thing that I have noticed that seems to be consistent that runs

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through the veins of the seasoned women that I know is an unquenchable

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desire for knowledge and learning, an irrepressible curiosity a great

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humbleness in terms of being of service, but yet passion and drive to do things

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well and to really make a difference.

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Pretty much uniformly, all of you are very strongly motivated to be

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financially autonomous, so that you are paying your own ticket.

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You are not dependent on anybody else.

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And most of you are also providing the bread ticket for many other

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people, whether it's staff, family members, or contractors.

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We also tend to be generalists in our business because our

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businesses are small to medium size.

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it means that we do a great deal of most things, which leads us to feel overwhelmed

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often by business demands and not enough time in the day to get enough done.

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Consistently, the conversations are about, Oh my God,

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technology, I can't live with it.

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I can't live without it.

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And it is always changing.

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That combined with the changes, the ebbs and flows of market and competition

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really keeps us on our toes All the time.

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And so it's a sense of never feeling really solid, but always, needing

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to be nimble, and not ever having a chance to go, let me take a few weeks

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off and just contemplate my navel.

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Of course, also, we share that most of us are balancing our business

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responsibilities with our personal health and our family needs.

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and not necessarily in that order.

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Generally, what's coming first is either the business or other people's

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needs, and we leave ourselves to last.

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And I'm happy to say that as we come together and we talk about this, more and

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more of us are recognizing that is not sustainable and we're becoming more aware

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of opportunities to put ourselves first, recognizing the value in doing that.

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Unfortunately we all have this t shirt, and that is concerns about financial

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security, and planning for our futures.

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And so talking about that, and certainly, the model of a few decades

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ago of "We'll just work hard for a few decades and put away some money, and

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then we retire, and there's no worries."

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Well, that went out the fucking window, didn't it?, with repeated

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attacks on the world economy and, other events that rocked our boats.

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I also feel that, our priorities, mirror each other.

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This is why we are here.

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We recognize that we now want more.

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We've done probably decades of really putting everything all in to

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building our business and raising our families and supporting, our

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extended families in our communities.

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One day, all of us started waking up from this exhaustion and going, wait a second.

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Is this all there is, Alfie?

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When is it my turn?

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I'm really not feeling fulfilled with what I'm doing right now.

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And I have a longing inside me to figure out what I want and how to get to that.

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I feel the other uniform condition is this challenge of having clarity

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and making time, to come up with a solid vision for what we want our

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future to be, or at least the next phase of our lives and our businesses.

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We've been homogenized as seasoned women with our businesses, haven't we?

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When we think about, I want more and what does that more include?

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It must always include personal well being and reducing stress and certainly

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having a lot more fun because oftentimes we had to sacrifice that while we

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were chief cook and bottle washer.

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Not only do we have our business and our family life, but we also tend

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to be very involved in community and philanthropy and helping other

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professional or charitable organizations.

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Pretty much consistently, I feel that we share a desire to travel more.

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have more rich cultural experiences.

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I'm pretty sure the majority of us would say, I wish I had more time

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to read, to call up friends that I haven't talked to for a long time,

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to just reflect quietly and meditate.

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You're not alone, and we're all working at getting better at that.

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The other very cool thing about us, gals, is that, oh my god, can you

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imagine what our life would have been if we had not embraced technology?

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And that even thinking back to when we were in high school, life

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did not include the computer in our hand or a purse or a pocket.

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In the past three years.

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there's been a lot of change and transition in my life, as, I divorced.

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I stopped and started some businesses.

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I coached some very diverse client businesses, traveled quite extensively,

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globally and met and became friends with other seasoned, women and business owners.

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I got to think more about what was important to me and really

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what I wasn't going to tolerate anymore and what I wanted to pursue.

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Five years ago, I published my first book, about this evolution

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as a woman, figuring out after reinvention, after reinvention, after

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reinvention in my life, who I am now.

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In fact, that's the title of the book, "Who Am I Now?

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Feminine Wisdom.

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Unmasked, Uncensored".

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At the time of that publication on my 65th birthday, I thought, well,

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that was, pretty comprehensive and pretty conclusive work.

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But five years later, I am wiser, and I know a great deal more, and I've

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experienced a great deal more in terms of loving me more for who I am at this

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age and stage of my life and recognizing that rather than retracting and slowing

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down or stepping back, I feel very motivated, very inspired to expand and

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to grow in different and greater ways.

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I am thrilled to say I'm not alone!

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What I am discovering there is a wave effect that happens, with

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women entrepreneurs in their 50s where they go, "okay, if I can just

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make it to this date, that's it!

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Sister, I am selling this business, closing it up, walking away, letting

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other people run it, whatever."

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And thinking that will be a satisfactory milestone.

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And then there are so many of us that rode that wave and came out the

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other side, me included, because I sold my largest business in my late

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50s thinking Hallelujah, Easy Street.

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Life of Leisure Time, Here I Come!

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Turns out that was way less satisfying than my imagination.

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In fact I've found that now m My big adventure of every day is

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recognizing there is no playbook.

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This me never existed before, and this way of living as a woman who

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is approaching 70 now has a vision for the next decade of my life.

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I would never have guessed that 20 years ago that I would want to be starting

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more businesses and expanding and.

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podcasting and youtubing and writing more books, etc.

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All of this and more was the catalyst for creating this new

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podcast specific to seasoned women.

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with entrepreneurial experience and ambition that also have realized what

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I have, that thinking that, well, it's, it's over, it's done, the parade will

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be leaving town and then we can just relax and chill, would be satisfying

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enough, would be enough, for us.

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It's not true.

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That is definitely a fallacy.

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even if you say, well, it's okay, I have a lot of hobbies.

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Fine.

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As long as you recognize that you cannot be who you are, without being mentally

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stimulated, purposely stimulated, feeling like you have value, which

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was my great awareness when I sold my business, I realized that I was having

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an identity crisis and I did not know really who I was, what my value was

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anymore, who would value me and why they would value me, when I didn't

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have a purpose every day to go after.

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I am gathering a community of women who are in, or have been, in each of those

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stages of awareness as a seasoned woman, and we'll have conversations with you,

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for you, about our experiences and what we learned through each of those experiments,

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if you will, some successful and some not.

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The good news is that for some of that you can learn from us and not

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have to, or at least shorten your own journey there, or perhaps Which is

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even more exciting, to think you will learn and be inspired in a way that

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you have not yet even contemplated.

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So, as you can see, the opportunities for topics are limitless.

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And I'm pretty sure that we will never run out of wisdom to share, or

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laughter or ideas to invoke or provoke.

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And some days, maybe there will be tears and some days there will be, irreverence

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and profanity, but what I can tell you is that every single day, it will be

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generously from the hearts of the women who come on this program to share and, to

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collaborate and lift as we climb together.

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So I do hope you will join me and stay with us as we build this community.