Seasoned Women in Business: The Power of Experience | Episode 110

Speaker: 00:00:06

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

Speaker: 00:00:12

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

Speaker: 00:00:18

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

Speaker: 00:00:23

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

Speaker: 00:00:29

I serve up knowledge and best.

Speaker: 00:00:31

Practices for life and business, along with unfiltered wisdom from

Speaker: 00:00:36

other women entrepreneurs and leaders.

Speaker: 00:00:39

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

Speaker: 00:00:43

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

Speaker: 00:00:48

folly of underestimating ourselves.

Speaker: 00:00:51

You are in the right place.

Speaker: 00:00:53

We're serious about business and we're serious about loving the life

Speaker: 00:00:58

that we've worked hard to create.

Speaker: 00:01:00

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

Speaker: 00:01:05

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

Speaker: 00:01:12

and our limitless potential at every age.

Isabel: 00:01:28

Welcome back to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, and you

Isabel: 00:01:32

know we are wise enough to want more.

Isabel: 00:01:36

If you are new to the podcast and you have not listened to our launch episodes, let

Isabel: 00:01:43

me take a moment and recap those for you.

Isabel: 00:01:45

In the beginning, we talked about more wisdom, more life, and how

Isabel: 00:01:51

celebrating our own experience is an invitation for further growth.

Isabel: 00:01:57

We are not done yet, and we have not even begun to reach our full potential.

Isabel: 00:02:05

Being a seasoned woman with a serious business is simply a

Isabel: 00:02:08

launching pad to whatever else you want more of in your life.

Isabel: 00:02:14

And I talk about that in episode 107.

Isabel: 00:02:19

Next, we talked about more than just a business and how, as a seasoned woman

Isabel: 00:02:25

with a serious business, there is so much more above the bottom line in our lives.

Isabel: 00:02:32

So much living that we are doing and still creating a vision for that going forward

Isabel: 00:02:40

The most recent episode is titled More Than Your Business Card, because that's

Isabel: 00:02:46

a reminder to all of us that we can lead, thrive, and love every stage of our life.

Isabel: 00:02:55

And oh my goodness, we have such a foundation on which to do!

Isabel: 00:03:00

Which is what brings me to today's episode topic.

Isabel: 00:03:05

And that is the power of experience and why I believe that women of a

Isabel: 00:03:13

certain age excel as entrepreneurs and leaders, not only in business,

Isabel: 00:03:19

but in every aspect of our lives.

Isabel: 00:03:23

It is true that sometimes we forget just how fucking awesome we are.

Isabel: 00:03:30

I'm here to remind us that we are not at the end of a season.

Isabel: 00:03:35

In fact, this is the beginning every single day of exciting new possibilities

Isabel: 00:03:41

for us as women, as entrepreneurs, as women with lots of seasons and experience

Isabel: 00:03:48

behind us to create whatever it is that we want more of in our future.

Isabel: 00:03:53

So why am I so certain that we, as women of a certain age, are in the

Isabel: 00:03:59

best damn place that we could be to be the leaders, the role models, the

Isabel: 00:04:06

entrepreneurs, the creators of everything, and the mentors and teachers of others?

Isabel: 00:04:13

It's very simple.

Isabel: 00:04:14

It begins at the beginning.

Isabel: 00:04:16

No matter how many seasons or years, if you think about the cumulative

Isabel: 00:04:24

lifetime value of everything that you know, have learned, even the things

Isabel: 00:04:33

that you want to forget, the hands on experience, the mistakes and the growth

Isabel: 00:04:41

that came from those, if you add this all together, it's an incredibly rich vault!

Isabel: 00:04:50

And every day, we are adding, more richness to our vault.

Isabel: 00:04:57

At the end of every single day in our lives now, with the exposure to what we're

Isabel: 00:05:02

learning, what we are learning to do, who we learn from, who we associate with, the

Isabel: 00:05:09

choices that we choose not to go forward with, those are added to our vault, and

Isabel: 00:05:17

with the power, the magnification of compound value that we have generated

Isabel: 00:05:24

in our own lives, holy frig, gals, no wonder we're a national treasure!

Isabel: 00:05:31

Seriously!

Isabel: 00:05:33

The thing is that some days we forget, I forget, and that's part of the

Isabel: 00:05:38

value of this podcast is to remind ourselves and each other; we are not

Isabel: 00:05:43

diminishing, we are not shrinking.

Isabel: 00:05:50

Now, that doesn't mean necessarily that you want to go out and build

Isabel: 00:05:55

10 new businesses or 10 times your existing business, but High Five to Ya!

Isabel: 00:06:02

if you want to!

Isabel: 00:06:03

So here we sit with that vault and if we don't open up and cash in on

Isabel: 00:06:10

some of that lifetime experience and share the wealth with others

Isabel: 00:06:15

that we can empower, It's a waste.

Isabel: 00:06:18

It's a wasted treasure.

Isabel: 00:06:20

Yes, I am passionate about this!

Isabel: 00:06:25

It needs to be shouted from the rooftops that women of a certain

Isabel: 00:06:30

age are extraordinary treasures and tapping into that will

Isabel: 00:06:37

contribute to success for others.

Isabel: 00:06:41

We are not has beens!

Isabel: 00:06:43

We are not done!

Isabel: 00:06:45

We are building on an incredibly strong foundation that we have,

Isabel: 00:06:50

over our lifetime, constructed.

Isabel: 00:06:54

By tapping into our own vault, It gives us this incredibly confident place to

Isabel: 00:07:02

stand to create a vision for our future based on the priorities that we have

Isabel: 00:07:10

become clearer about as time has gone by.

Isabel: 00:07:14

By tapping into our vault first, by leveraging what we have accumulated

Isabel: 00:07:21

over a lifetime, we're in a fabulous position now, not to have to listen to

Isabel: 00:07:26

outside voices and influences, but to stop, and look in our own vault because

Isabel: 00:07:35

we've had a lot of practice of testing and trying things that we wanted to do

Isabel: 00:07:41

and deciding if really it was as great a deal as we thought it was going to be.

Isabel: 00:07:48

And over that time, if we listen to ourselves and we reflect on, you know,

Isabel: 00:07:53

the rear view mirror of our journey as a business person, as an entrepreneur,

Isabel: 00:07:58

and as a woman at the same time, then we got clearer and clearer over the

Isabel: 00:08:04

seasons about what we liked, what we didn't like, and what we wanted more of.

Isabel: 00:08:11

The other thing that I think is so fabulous for us is that we also have

Isabel: 00:08:17

what I like to call the trampoline.

Isabel: 00:08:20

We have our own personal trampoline of resilience, because over our

Isabel: 00:08:25

lifetimes, stuff has happened.

Isabel: 00:08:27

Shit has happened.

Isabel: 00:08:29

Some stuff that turned out better than we thought it would, and some

Isabel: 00:08:33

things that were completely opposite to our desired outcome or expectation.

Isabel: 00:08:41

But here we are.

Isabel: 00:08:42

We are still standing!

Isabel: 00:08:44

So resilience, we've built that muscle over the seasons of our life.

Isabel: 00:08:51

And especially if you're a woman entrepreneur, a business owner, a leader

Isabel: 00:08:55

in any capacity, you know that resilience, being able to bounce back up after

Isabel: 00:09:02

someone or some event knocked you down.

Isabel: 00:09:06

Resilience is one of our superpowers.

Isabel: 00:09:09

And Resilience has a best friend, that best friend is called Adaptability.

Isabel: 00:09:16

You might want to salt a little bit of sense of humor in there as

Isabel: 00:09:19

well, because, come on, we know.

Isabel: 00:09:22

Yeah, sometimes you just have to laugh at the folly of something

Isabel: 00:09:26

that you've done, or something that someone else has done, and move on.

Isabel: 00:09:30

But it's the adaptability, the ability to know when to let go of the idea or

Isabel: 00:09:37

the ideal that is no longer serving you.

Isabel: 00:09:42

When we hit a wall, when we come up against that immovable object, it's

Isabel: 00:09:48

wise to slow down for a moment and reflect, when have we encountered

Isabel: 00:09:54

something like this in our prior seasons?

Isabel: 00:09:59

And how did we go over it, under it, around it, with grace and humor?

Isabel: 00:10:53

Another advantage that we have as seasoned women and is part of

Isabel: 00:10:59

our secret power of why we excel

Isabel: 00:11:03

as entrepreneurs and leaders at our age is the accumulated value of

Isabel: 00:11:13

our relationships and our networks.

Isabel: 00:11:16

Throughout our lifetime, we have either purposely curated and collected the

Isabel: 00:11:23

people that would give us the most positive influence and education and

Isabel: 00:11:30

cheerleading support that we could, or those people came into our lives And they

Isabel: 00:11:37

found enough value in who we were and what we could do for them that they stayed.

Isabel: 00:11:45

The value of our relationships is not one to be underestimated.

Isabel: 00:11:52

In fact, that needs a whole section in your lifetime vault.

Isabel: 00:11:58

And it's true, some relationships come and go.

Isabel: 00:12:02

Not all BFFs are forever, and that we grow at different times with our

Isabel: 00:12:09

relationships, so it's understandable, like the seasons, that they will change.

Isabel: 00:12:15

But never discount how much they have added to your own richness.

Isabel: 00:12:23

The other thing that I believe that we have accumulated and expanded

Isabel: 00:12:28

on in our lifetime is empathy.

Isabel: 00:12:32

As an entrepreneur, as a woman of the world, as a woman in your own community,

Isabel: 00:12:39

if you haven't learned empathy and appreciation for the diversity of

Isabel: 00:12:47

others in the world, then you probably have not succeeded in being the best

Isabel: 00:12:53

person that you could be and making the greatest contribution that you can.

Isabel: 00:12:59

Even the contrast between what someone else thinks and what you

Isabel: 00:13:04

think about a subject creates much more clarity and creates a depth

Isabel: 00:13:11

of color in our own experience.

Isabel: 00:13:15

And because, of course, we are serious about business, I can't help but use

Isabel: 00:13:22

some references here that pertain to our business vocabulary, and that's strategic

Isabel: 00:13:29

visioning and long term planning.

Isabel: 00:13:32

What I love about being this age is that surprisingly my vision has gotten

Isabel: 00:13:41

longer term than when I was younger.

Isabel: 00:13:45

I think it was that need to do everything for everybody, or at least my belief

Isabel: 00:13:50

in that, and to be always hustling and moving and trying to please everybody

Isabel: 00:13:57

and accommodate everyone else.

Isabel: 00:14:00

while, shouldering the responsibilities that I had taken on for myself.

Isabel: 00:14:07

I didn't always think too much farther out in front of me.

Isabel: 00:14:11

Oh yes, I had the strategic business plans with the one year, the three

Isabel: 00:14:15

year, the five year visioning, but now I'm looking at my life

Isabel: 00:14:20

through a much longer term lens.

Isabel: 00:14:24

It's like a telescope into infinite possibilities and I can only do that

Isabel: 00:14:31

now, I believe, because in this seasoned part of my life, I've been able to dial

Isabel: 00:14:39

it in, what's really important to me, what are my priorities, and that has

Isabel: 00:14:45

enabled me to really open up my aperture on what I want more of in my life.

Isabel: 00:14:53

And it's having that vision and also having the patience that I've had to

Isabel: 00:15:01

learn over these seasons in my life, have the patience to know that it

Isabel: 00:15:08

will unfold in the right time and that I can be so involved in the moment,

Isabel: 00:15:18

be present in my life, creating the memories, living the legacy.

Isabel: 00:15:24

I don't have to wait till that final moment, the grand finale to say,

Isabel: 00:15:30

"Oh, she was such a good person.

Isabel: 00:15:32

She lived a good life."

Isabel: 00:15:34

Instead, I am now looking at it from the perspective my vision for life is to live

Isabel: 00:15:43

my legacy while I'm here, to experience it, and to influence it, and, just like in

Isabel: 00:15:53

business, to measure my progress towards that goal, and make the adjustments along

Isabel: 00:16:03

the way to make sure that I get there.

Isabel: 00:16:07

And, I know you're like me, you probably also noticed that you keep making that

Isabel: 00:16:16

vision bigger, which is so fabulous!

Isabel: 00:16:20

That's why seasoned women really excel at being entrepreneurs and leaders because

Isabel: 00:16:27

we have the confidence, the experience, the perspective of having lived through a

Isabel: 00:16:36

lot, and now are in a position to create a new version of who we want to be.

Isabel: 00:16:43

Which leads me to another aspect of legacy and for me, that is mentorship.

Isabel: 00:16:50

We're at the front.

Isabel: 00:16:52

We are leading as seasoned women.

Isabel: 00:16:55

We're creating our own playbook as we go, because life is different.

Isabel: 00:17:01

The world is different than it ever was before.

Isabel: 00:17:04

And we are different than we have ever been before because

Isabel: 00:17:09

of the seasons we have lived.

Isabel: 00:17:12

I wish that I had more women to look up to and give me a hand up

Isabel: 00:17:18

to at m y earlier stages of life.

Isabel: 00:17:22

And so now, I want to be, I want to fulfill that role for others.

Isabel: 00:17:29

I want to be able to reach back and give a hand up to other women as they grow.

Isabel: 00:17:36

That's one of the best parts of our legacy as seasoned women, is we're

Isabel: 00:17:41

here, we have that capacity, we have that vault to share with others.

Isabel: 00:17:49

If you agree with me, because what we have already done in our lives, what

Isabel: 00:17:56

we have learned, and especially what we have learned not to do, to bring

Isabel: 00:18:04

us to this place today of establishing what's our priority, what we want more

Isabel: 00:18:12

of in life, because we have learned through time what things really don't

Isabel: 00:18:19

matter, and who doesn't matter anymore, that this makes us the best possible

Isabel: 00:18:27

teachers and mentors, then I ask you:

Isabel: 00:18:32

Why keep that a secret?

Isabel: 00:18:33

Why keep that hidden in your vault?

Isabel: 00:18:37

Who could you mentor?

Isabel: 00:18:39

Who could you help build their success ladder by sharing more

Isabel: 00:18:46

of what you have and who you are?

Isabel: 00:18:50

I know I'm going to appreciate you for that.

Isabel: 00:18:52

And I know there are so many others who will do so also.

Isabel: 00:18:56

And just keep on sharing and keep on building on that.

Isabel: 00:19:02

Let's create that wave of seasoned women sharing wisdom around the world.

Isabel: 00:19:10

Hey, you can even start by sharing this podcast.

Isabel: 00:19:14

And until next week, I hope you are having a great time thinking about

Isabel: 00:19:19

what you want more of in your life.

Isabel: 00:19:32

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

Isabel: 00:19:37

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

Isabel: 00:19:42

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

Isabel: 00:19:47

with other women who would receive value.

Isabel: 00:19:50

Thanks to our sponsors, all episodes are available in audio, video, and

Isabel: 00:19:55

transcribed format on all major platforms.

Isabel: 00:20:00

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

Isabel: 00:20:04

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

Isabel: 00:20:10

com or visit our website, seasonedwomenseriousbusiness.

Isabel: 00:20:15

com.

Isabel: 00:20:17

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

Isabel: 00:20:22

topics and guest experts to interview.

Isabel: 00:20:26

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

Isabel: 00:20:32

for ourselves and others.

Isabel: 00:20:34

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