Reinvent Yourself

#109: Kelley Biskupiak and Susan Rietano Davey (Using their reinvention to help others reinvent)

“I was pregnant with my third kid when I opted out,” says Kelley Biskupiak, co-founder of PrepareToLaunchU.com, a one-stop source for instruction, inspiration and community for women navigating a maternity leave, mid-career pivot, or childcare break.  “I didn’t realize when I made the choice what a sense of loss it was going to be. I could go all in on momhood...but it was not so fulfilling. I had to ask: who are you and where do you want to go?”  She joined forces with Susan Rietano, a mother of four with experience in tech and placement and launched the site. “Women approach the next [job] opportunity with too much gratitude and apology,” says Rietano. “[We] want them to thank you for being at the opposite side of the table.”

 

Enrollment in Prepare to Launch U's Fall Career Relaunch Course is open until September 21st. Here is the link to a recording of a recent info session Susan and Kelley hosted to overview the program and answer prospective students' questions:

 

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/WocwR3_OOulW0Xtehk9NfntE32Ja1y_D7GYckMUT4pKyxXid0-B1ZD2AO6zdgWwH._BNR24RrUlwBlHgn?startTime=1599666775000

 

If you are interested in securing for a spot in their 10-week program (9/28-12/4), you can apply here:  https://bit.ly/Fall2020CohortApplication 

 

Resources:

8 Question Next chapter Questionnaire:

http://bit.ly/NextChapterFreebie

 

Explore and Access Your Next Career Path Freebie:

http://bit.ly/EXPLOREANDASSESSFREEBIE

#108: Anita Devlin (OCD + Film know-how = Her own organizational show)

“I’ve been OCD my whole life,” says Anita Devlin.  “I realized that was why people liked having me come stay with them—because I reorganized their homes.”  Devlin who has been a casting director, co-produced films, and sold luxury real estate put all her experience together and created We Heave Ho (https://weheaveho.com/), a company that will do anything you need help with—from organizing your closet to cleaning out your barn or helping young adults decorate their first apartment.  But even better: she makes comedic reality-show-style films about the process—starring you (and her!) of course! “I love working with people my age and helping them downsize,” she says.  “The dynamics between the husband and wife…you’re the therapist, too.” The videos, she says, “get the conversations going.” She says: “It’s very rewarding to help people and when you walk away they feel orderly and clean.”  

#107: Melanie Curtis (From professional skydiver to life coach)

“Fun and excellence are not mutually exclusive,” says Melanie Curtis, who grew up with a pilot father and sky diving hanger and “drop zone" in her back yard but did not take her first jump out of an airplane until she was 18. “I believe love and hilarity are the two most important things in life. When doing deep work, we can hold space for each other and bring lightness and humor into the work as well.” Curtis, who competed professionally, believes that people can use physical bravery as a “stepping stone into emotional bravery” or it can be an avoidance tactic. She also believes teammates and learning helps us transverse “fear and feeling paralyzed.” Find out more about her at www.TrustTheJourney.today or mel@melaniecurtis.com

#106: Kathi Sharpe-Ross (A self-starter shares her secrets)

Kathi Sharpe-Ross, CEO and President of The Sharpe Alliance, decided that it wasn’t enough to help every top brand from Coca Cola and Mall of America to Walt Disney World create giant and inventive events, she wanted to teach others how to succeed, too.  Born in Australia, but  living all over the world before settling in Hollywood’s 90210 (yes, she went to Beverly Hills High!), Sharpe-Ross knew she always wanted to work for herself and opened her agency right out of school. Thirty-four years later, she’s written a book (Re:invent Your Life, https://amzn.to/3fUhjxt), to share inspiration and concrete tools for what she calls her “continuous reinvention.”  

#105: Barbara Waxman (Reinventing the definition of midlife as “Middlescence")

For years I’ve been saying that midlife is the same as adolescence—but in reverse. Your body is doing strange things, you can’t stop crying, you notice all your relationships are changing, you no longer know who you are or what you want, and you don’t know why.  Life-stage expert, gerontologist and author, Barbara Waxman, decided to make that observation official with her book “The Middlescence Manifesto: Igniting the Passion of Midlife” [https://amzn.to/3fOeZbb].  “In 1900 life expectancy was 47,” she tells me.  “Now, it’s in your 80s. The [extra] years are not at the end of life, the decrepit years, but are showing up in the middle markers. It starts at 45.”  Waxman says, “women gain power in Middlescence…[have] more agency. They want to do what [they] care about and care less about what others think.” Waxman believes now is the “time to discern what you care about…so you can show up with a powerful ‘yes!’”  

#104: Heidi Diamond (Reinventing your job when your boss is sent to jail)

“My twitter handle is ‘Warrior,’” says Heidi Diamond, “You want to be in the foxhole with me.”  And a foxhole is exactly where she found herself on her first day at work as President of  Martha Stewart Living Ominimedia in August 2002. Stewart was in trouble for insider trading and the television partner wanted out. “Every day I went to the court house,” says Diamond of the trial. “Every evening at five it was crisis management.” By being a “good communicator” and “transparent with the team,” however, she was able to pivot the brand and save the jobs of people who depended on Stewart’s show. “There were days when my eyelashes hurt,” Diamond says. “But we rose [Martha] back up like a phoenix….She’s still relevant to popular culture today.”

#103: Jeanne Rosner (From pediatric anesthesiologist to high school teacher)

“In medical school, they don’t teach you much about nutrition or lifestyle,” says Jeanne Rosner, M.D., former pediatric anesthesiologist and now founder of SOULfoodSalon.com, community-based get-togethers that teach about healthy living and eating. “But kids were receptive. That was my ah-ha moment.” Rosner says she “loved her [surgery] patients” and being a source of comfort for their parents for twenty years. But after her third child was born, the workload became “too stressful to be 100% [doctor plus] mom and wife.” When a life-coach friend asked her to put together a vision board (which she still uses for inspiration) she knew she had to create a more balanced lifestyle. Rosner began by teaching science, health and nutrition to her son’s 5th grade class and the rest, as they say, is her-story. 

#102: Candace Freedenberg (Opting back in after opting out)

She had an engineering degree and an MBA. She had 15 years in leadership roles at companies like IBM and Kodak, a career she was “passionate” about. But Candace Freedenberg also had a baby who had flown 13 times before age 1, just to keep up with her mom’s commute from Washington, DC to upstate New York where Kodak was based. Amidst corporate changes and with a  third child along the way, she realized, "Logistically I couldn’t do it,” she says.  “My husband said, one of us should opt-out.” And so she did. Fifteen years later she opened up Untapped Potential, Inc. to help women like herself relaunch.  “Corporations, businesses, and the GDP are missing out on capital—in women!” she says. "We curate roles with corporations, startups, non-profits.”  Post Covid19, Freedenberg sees opportunity: “Companies would be smarter to work with skilled, mature, flexible talent which offer a cost advantage and low risk."

#101: Mary Lou Heater (Landing her doctorate at age 60)

"To find your fit, it’s not a linear path…but a fluid process,” says Mary Lou Heater, who worked her way up to a Doctor of Nursing Practice at age 60. “It’s not a puzzle piece that fits neatly into one spot.”  Heater left school for early marriage before working for 15 years in sales for a steel company. Around age 40 she asked herself: “Am I giving back? Am I doing the right thing?” After diving into the new age wave of meditation and philosophy, she quit her job to help her husband. When he lost his job (“we had zero income”), she returned to school to study gerontology and get a certificate in aerobics. She later snagged her RN, then followed her interest in psychiatry to her doctorate. At 66, she’s still asking herself “what’s next?”  “Women don’t retire,” she says, “they reinvent themselves."

#100: Celebrating 100 episodes and reinventions

What do you learn by talking with 100 reinventors from every state, industry, financial status, and starting point? The answer is: That anyone can do it —  as long as you have the guts to put your heart’s desire out there and can risk abject failure. And that reinvention is a contact sport  — but it can quickly catapult you into a life you love.  Here, Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com, looks back at her 10 most interesting moments in the podcast so far, where unbelievably interesting and honest women share their most heartfelt learnings with all of us.