Sofa Series: More Wonder, More Wisdom

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Welcome to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, the podcast for entrepreneurs

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aged 45 to 75 and beyond who've changed lives, challenged status

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quo, who are wise enough to want more and gutsy enough to create it.

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Join me, your host, Isabel Alexander, a seasoned business owner, as I

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serve up the Knowledge and best practices for life and business,

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along with unfiltered wisdom from other women entrepreneurs and leaders.

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Whether you're looking to reignite your passion for your business,

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unlock new ones that build your legacy or simply shake your head at the

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folly of underestimating ourselves.

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You are in the right place.

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We're serious about business.

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And we're serious about loving the life that we've worked hard to create.

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Stay tuned and be part of a community built on collaboration and collective

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wisdom that dismisses old paradigms and celebrates vibrant women just like you

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and our limitless potential at every age.

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//web.descript.com/b961cf36-43d2-426c-b4dd-28f0d479279f

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: You can call us the Bright Sisters

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here with this lighting here.

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We don't, we still haven't solved that, but whatever.

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If you have not already watched the inaugural Sofa Series episode, make

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sure you go back one and Jackie Wazolik and Isabel Alexander, two DOBs, we'll

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explain what the hell we're doing here.

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And why we feel so passionate about spending this time with you.

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Because

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we had an idea that maybe we were on to something.

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Yeah.

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That old age, has been misrepresented possibly, misconstrued, and that we

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would like to share our perspective on I guess we could say we're not

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getting older, we're getting better.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: And really sincerely mean that.

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It's not a platitude.

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It's not on my t shirts.

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Especially right now, because just a few days from when this is

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being recorded, I will celebrate, and celebrate, my 70th birthday.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: which is the

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: best, right?

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What does it feel like to be 70?

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I'm just gobsmacked.

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I'll be honest with you.

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This is Not what the young girl in me, who still, she's still screaming

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and kicking to get out, I gotta tell you, but this is not what she thought.

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I had this idea in my mind, based on the role models that I had in

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my life of my grandmother and my aunts that I would be Quieter.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: That's never going to happen, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, and I think I thought I'd be done

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done doing anything significant.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Oh, hell.

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We've only just begun, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Now we have the time, the space, and the wisdom

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to do some pretty important things.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, and wisdom is a two pronged thing.

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There's the wisdom to do things, and there's the wisdom to go, oh, fuck it,

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I can't ever do that again, yeah, right?

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Oh my god.

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I know, that was the second

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: time again,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Isabel.

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I'm just, yeah, it's the craziest.

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Maybe it's the punctuation in my life.

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Yeah, it's setting the remote on fire.

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This is happening, guys, but if you are watching this on YouTube,

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you will know why we are bursting spontaneously into giggles.

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Because the lighting is going off and on and we are not touching anything.

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And if you are listening to this on audio, because of course,

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we are in all the best places.

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You, oh my God, there you go.

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Wow.

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Swear to God.

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This is too funny.

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Okay.

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So why would we want to be serious, right?

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We are not retiring wallflowers.

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Obviously.

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And some might say that we are pretty admirable role models and trailblazers.

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This is too strange what's going on with Zoom here as we're recording this.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: You have light coming out of your mouth.

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I have it shining from my headlight.

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Oh,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: good lord.

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We will be right back after a brief message from our sponsors.

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This episode of Seasoned Women, Serious Business is brought to you

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by Crossroads Clarity Solution.

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If you're feeling overwhelmed and unsure of your next steps, whether

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Find out why it works at CrossroadsClaritySolution.

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com and don't waste another minute of your future.

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As promised, we are back with this episode, because you

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are wise enough to want more.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I hope that we can keep this sense of childish joy forever,

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because he would want the alternative.

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Oh,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: absolutely.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I know you have had some rough obstacles in your life.

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I certainly have too.

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We've had enough serious moments.

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We've had enough tears and fears.

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Oh, all

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: of

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: the above.

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If you haven't, we've lived.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for that.

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That's right, because if none of that happened, we'd just be plastic people.

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Yeah, it wouldn't be fun.

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Yeah, and it's because that we know that you can get through those things, and that

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you can choose how to look back over your shoulder and take the perspective, the

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wisdom of those things that, We're pretty glad to be able to share that with other

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people, particularly with other women.

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: and especially as we reach this time of life where we

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do have some time to reflect, right?

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We have some time to think about, huh, how did that ever happen?

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And every once in a while, I still wake up in the middle of

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the night with one of those things that I thought I was over, right?

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But obviously not.

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And so it's, where did that come from and how do I get rid of this and resolve it?

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I'm so glad you said that because I thought it was just me.

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Oh gosh, no.

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That's crazy.

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I think I'm sailing through and doing okay and then middle of the night

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wake up with a thought or I don't know if it's a dream or if it's energy

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that's still stuck in here somewhere.

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Who knows, but.

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Wow,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: that's so interesting to know that because

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I honestly I thought what is wrong with you Isabel, why are you, did

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you even think about that again?

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: why would that matter anymore?

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And some of them are old, yeah, old wounds, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Absolutely, old wounds, old

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moments of oh shit, yeah, right?

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And old, even old Loaf.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Those moments of experience.

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So this is all so good to be able to talk openly and share Yeah, I know.

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I just saw it again too, like what the hell?

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I think there is other energy present with us that wants to share too, right?

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Maybe we're getting some high fives or something, I don't know.

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Okay Jackie.

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What did you have thoughts about what it would be like to be in your seventies?

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: I didn't accept that.

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I had just, I thought I would be retired and a business sold and all

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kinds of things, and I hit the 70 mark going, I should be retired by now.

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I should be, I . All the shoulds started popping up and for me that was

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probably the biggest, obstacle, you might call it, that just said, I had

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to get over the fact that, so what?

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It's just another year.

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I've come this far.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Did you take that was a failure?

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That you pretty

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: much, that it was almost a my goodness, by now

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this should have happened, right?

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And I think I lived with that.

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in my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, right?

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But those decade marks to not view it as a failure, took a little bit of, oh my

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god, the old habits are coming back again.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I'm thinking right now that, yeah, we had these

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sort of paradigms set up for ourselves based on the societal script.

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That we were raised with.

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And so it was like, you had to check off.

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Check off the box.

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Those milestones.

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What I think is happening here is that, wait a second, that script,

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throw that out, get rid of that.

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Yeah, we, because it's not a failure, it's just, it's an entirely new script.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: It's just a different script.

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And I say, you have plan A, plan B, I felt at that moment in time.

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I was on Plan Z and running out of alphabet,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: maybe.

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There are other alphabets, right?

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: So I don't know if you've had that experience

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as you come upon this year or if you're at such a place that you're

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very comfortable with what's 70.

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And, I've lost, a lot of friends in the last few years.

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The last few years have been a season of loss, right?

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And so how do you stay resilient, bright, still good with

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all of that happening also?

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And so my yoga practice has been my greatest grounding in you stand balanced,

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you stand whatever those waves are.

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that come crashing at you, you stand in your greatness, right?

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I hope you experience that as you turn this big old milestone.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I I think, I never seem to be the right age.

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Throughout my entire life according to the check boxes.

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Yeah, because I was a very young teen mom.

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I was working and running people's businesses where the people were 30

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years older than me that I was managing.

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I just did I was always, out of conformity, not intentionally

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thinking that was to defiance, it was life circumstances.

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But when you were talking, it also came to me that, okay, we're saying to everybody

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it's a new day, it's a new script.

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But even more important, I think, Jackie, is that Everybody writes their own script.

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: absolutely.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, so if you want to retire and you have a

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whatever your desire is for that's, we're not saying that's not right.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: No, you can work till you're 90 or 100.

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If you're loving what you're doing and it feeds your soul, go for it, man.

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And I didn't even Think about that until we just started talking about it.

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But I think at that age, it became a point of, whew, I'm done.

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I've done this for a long time and I'm ready.

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So yes, it's flipping the script always, right?

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And that's maybe what we're here for.

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How do we flip that script?

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I like it.

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I like that a lot

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: because

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: the light

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: switches are flipping.

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So let's flip the script.

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Let too flip the script.

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Yeah.

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What?

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Let's do that and we'd like you to help.

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Yeah, let's toss it up.

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What could it be Like, what if you just said, oh, I got nothing in here to follow.

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I'm gonna write my own script.

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What would you choose?

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And whether that is that you want to devote all your time to your

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grandchildren and ensuring that they know you and that's your legacy, high five.

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Because we both love our grandchildren.

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If you want to go track the Himalayas or the Himalayas, whichever way it's

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said, as a recent guest on the podcast has done, that's your thing too.

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If you want to start a brand new business, which there are so many of us in our 70s

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and 80s doing so And I have a whole theory on why that makes a lot of sense, but

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we'll talk about that in another episode.

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Whatever it is that you want to do, get married, have an affair, cut your

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hair, dye your hair, it is totally open.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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And I think this is the season to do that.

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We can lose our self consciousness.

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We can give ourselves grace.

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We can understand that we've got this.

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huge ball of stuff that we can flip into a script that works for us.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I'm pretty excited about this.

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I like it.

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Just thinking back, if you took every single moment, experience, learning,

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skill, strength, oh, fuck, that hurt.

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Yeah.

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And you go, all right, let's just lay those all out end to end.

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What do they.

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What do they mean?

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What's the story?

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What's the character that's developed?

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What's the role I want to play next?

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And you don't, you're never ever starting from scratch.

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Because you're starting from experience.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah, how beautiful is that, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: That's nice.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Okay.

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Because our lighting is getting even sillier.

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We leave it upon you that and really encourage you.

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Reach out and share your thoughts with us.

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And, hey, propose some more topics for us to discuss because if you haven't gathered

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yet, you're pretty transparent people.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: And we think it's a mission.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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And we enjoy each other's company so much because we're able to talk about

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things that maybe we don't always share.

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And yeah.

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It's just nice to be this age and I welcome you into the 70s.

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Get our disco ball.

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I've

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: been playing on YouTube music, 60s and 70s music and

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dancing here and thinking, oh my gosh, truth is, I didn't always feel this great.

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I just had a hip replacement a couple months ago, and before that, I felt

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like I was a pretty crotchety old lady, and wasn't as much fun as I knew.

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And pain will do that to you, right?

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Pain will do it.

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So it's

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: getting out of pain, finding those joyous moments,

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and finding a sense of humor.

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This week I was at a a day of celebration, and I was asked to speak

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about stepping into our greatness.

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And so what I shared with the audience, and I'll share it with

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you really quick, because when we quiet down and listen to the

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whispers of our heart, And the echoes of our soul.

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We know what we want.

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We know what we need to make us feel good, right?

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And we also know from really young age, we learned a lot.

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One of the things we learned was Stepping into greatness takes putting your left

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foot in, putting your left foot out, putting your left foot in, shake it all

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about, and the real joy of that is, the last line of that is, put your whole

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self in, put your whole self out, put your whole self in, you shake it all

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about, you do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around, because folks,

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That's what it's really all about.

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Oh

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: my god!

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That is the perfect!

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Let's learn ourself

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: about today and figure out what that script is

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for the next decade of our lives.

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I'm dying to get up and dance.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: All right, you just hokey pokey yourself around and

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come on back and join us because I have a feeling this is going to be contagious.

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Bye.

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Bye.

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Thank you for spending your time with us today on Seasoned Women, Serious Business.

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We really value you and are thrilled to be part of your journey.

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If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to the channel and then share it

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with other women who would receive value.

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Now, if you'd like to share your wisdom or become a co host or a

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show sponsor, please reach out to me at hello at theencorecatalyst.

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com or visit our website, seasonedwomenseriousbusiness.

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com.

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Also, I'd appreciate it if you submit questions and suggestions for future

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topics and guest experts to interview.

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Let's lift as we climb, magnify our impact, and create more

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for ourselves and others.

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Until next time, keep thriving, keep vibing, and keep living your legacy.