Reinvent Yourself

#59: “Even at 63 years old, I can’t imagine sitting by the pool; I’m not done” (Susan Feldman)

Though Susan Feldman had worked in retail eight times (creating, among other things, swimwear for Ralph Lauren and Polo Jeans), it wasn’t until she moved to L.A., bought a home and had to decorate it that she hit it big.  “We launched One Kings Lane in five months in March 2009. We sold it to Bed Bath & Beyond which just celebrated its 10th anniversary,” Feldman tells Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com. Feldman launched Get in The Groove (https://getinthegroove.com/) as a high-to-low “Lifestyle Destination for Age-Defying Women” selling cosmetics, clothing, accessories, vibrators, even a menopause registry. “Our demo has an incredible amount of wealth,” Feldman says. “This is information and products that will keep women in the groove.” Follow them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/getinthegroove1/).

#58: Reinventing after a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder II (Shaillee Chopra)

She was a high-flying, ambitious, mother, wife and healthcare strategist. On a flight home from meetings in Saudi Arabia she had what she thought was a heart attack. It turned out to be a panic attack and it turned her life upside down. “I’d dealt with depression all my life—since I was three…I overcompensated by achievement,” she tells Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com. “I didn’t want to admit my imperfections.” Using psychotherapy, prayer, medication, exercise, meditation, and yoga, Chopra has “learned to be more compassionate with herself. “ Chopra speaks nationally and internationally about raising awareness of mental illness and how it impacts policy changes at the corporate level. “Why can’t we be vulnerable?” she asks.

 

Chopra recommends NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness https://www.nami.org/#) as a good starting point for your research.

#57: Always be in the mode of reinventing (Adrienne Garland)

Her first reinvention happened when she was getting her MBA: the investment bank she was working for was fined and she had to move over to marketing. That’s where she spent her life—working for a toy company, then at a news wire for PR until it was hit by internet disruption. In 2013 Garland put together a conference for entrepreneurs and She Leads Media was born. “Don’t wait to reinvent yourself when the situation arises,” she tells Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com. “Be in the mode of always reinventing.” The next She Leads conference takes place on November 22, 2019 (https://www.sheleadsmedia.com/upcoming-conferences-events

) and will be “looking at different business models that benefit humanity.” 

 

Garland suggests entrepreneurs look for alternatives to venture capital when raising money. She suggests crowdfunding and Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Women (https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000women/)program which she credits for catapulting her business forward.

#56: Reinventing because of life’s randomness (Lisa Lori)

“When you get sick, you learn about the randomness of life and you have to accept it and get on with it,” says Lisa Lori, owner of Perfect Provenance, a unique live and online outlet in Greenwich, CT (https://www.theperfectprovenance.com/).  Lori was a top PR maven creating memorable Absolute Vodka campaigns for Tom Ford and Gucci. Then at 33 she was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease. “I had to rethink my life,” she tells Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com. After taking time off to recover, she started her own PR firm which took off. But 9/11 struck and her family lived just blocks away from the World Trade Center. Pregnant with a second child, she packed up her family and “drove to Connecticut and picked a spot.” When she turned 50, she realized she was “not dying” and decided to open Perfect Provenance which “offers unique things you can’t find elsewhere.” “Everything in America is about being huge,” Lori says. “But I employ 20 people and change lives. I take pride in that.”

#55: Take back your life by reinventing your relationship with your phone (Tim Kendall)

When Tim Kendall was president of Pinterest he’d come home from a long day at work and notice he was sneaking off to the pantry to look at his Instagram feed. Even when his two kids, 2 and 3, were excited to see him! “Facebook has a profile on me and understands timing that will maximize my time spent there,” he tells Lesley Jane Seymour, founder of CoveyClub.com. “They hold messages at bay. The pings and emails are carefully crafted and precisely timed to send to you.” He also noticed: suicide rates among teens up 30%, up 40% for females. He bought the app called Moment (https://inthemoment.io/) and created courses and programs to wean ourselves off our digital addiction. “We’ve duped ourselves that services like Twitter and Facebook will bring us connection. It does the opposite. It’s shallow and frivolous, not the high sustenance relational communications human beings need,” Kendall says.  “People do feel lonely; it’s fake sugar.”

For extra insight, Kendall recommends reading: “How to Break up With Your Phone” by Kathryn Price (https://amzn.to/2JqHxLq) and Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism” (https://amzn.to/2HazuAP).

#54: Reinventing after losing yourself in motherhood (Nicole Jennings)

“I used to be outgoing, confident, loving fashion," says Nicole Jennings, wife of famous football player Gregg Jennings, who after having her fourth child, discovered that she’d immersed herself so deeply in motherhood that “I found myself lost in that world.”  Clothes in her closet ran from size 4 to 14 and her identity felt equally amorphous. Jennings talks with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour about how she found her way back to her true self by pulling in a trainer and a grief counselor (her beloved great grandmother had died) and eventually opened one of Minneapolis’s coolest stores, Queen Anna House of Fashion (https://www.queenanna.co/),  and a fabulous online site OnePoshCloset.com  (https://www.oneposhcloset.com/). 

#53: Helping lawyers reinvent (Julie Anna Alvarez)

She was a lawyer with degrees from Harvard who “loved helping others” more than practicing law. So she segued into feng shui then career planning. Now she’s the Director of Alumni and International Career Services for Columbia Law School and guides other law grads as they reinvent. Join CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, as she speaks with Alvarez about her unique ability to understand the barriers (financial, identity) and how to transfer a lawyer’s unique communication, analytical,  and personal skills into finding their real bliss. “Transitions happen at all levels,” she says, “five years or coming close to retirement. You take one step a day.”

#52: Failure was not on her menu (Evelyn Isaia)

 "In the end, it will be ok. And if it’s not ok, we’re not at the end.” That’s what Evelyn Isaia, who left a 30 year career in finance to create RatatouilleAndCo.com, a catering company that trains and employs refugee women, told herself to get through the hard times of becoming an entrepreneur. Isaia talks with CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, about how to identify the intersection of your passions and interests and how to simply refuse to entertain failure.

#51: Reinventing after burnout (Debra Boulanger)

“The key to happiness is to not believe what you’re thinking”—or so says serial reinventor Deborah Boulanger of TheGreatDoOver.com. Join her conversation with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour in which she discusses her radical first step in reinventing herself at 55 when she hit burnout in her job, menopause, and a failing marriage all at once (hint: it started with a 10 day silent retreat). What she discovered: “Once you have the intention to create the life you want to live, it falls into place.” 

#50: When she couldn’t find great career advice, she invented it herself (Kathryn Minshew)

Kathryn Minshew wanted to work for the CIA. But she ended up in Rwanda working on the HPV vaccine, then consulting for McKinsey & Company. Then she got involved with tech and discovered there were no online sites with actionable tips for managing your career. That’s when The Muse, a site that now attracts 75 million users, was born. Join CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, in discussion with Kathryn Minshew who discovered that helping others reinvent,  helped her reinvent herself. “Everyone has to reinvent themselves today,” Kathryn says, noting that some of the highest engagement on the site comes from “intergenerational job searches.” She also points out, that if women 40+ are often dismissed as serious entrepreneurs, women in their 30s have the same fight. “When I started the company, I’d be in a room with three women and 100 men. I was treated as a flirting target, not a founder.”