What’s sitting in your garage?

For me, it was a chainsaw.

In this episode of Growing Up Late, I share the unlikely story of a chainsaw that sat unused in my garage for years, not because I didn’t own it, but because somewhere along the way, I had decided chainsaws were for other people.

You know…

Other people use power tools.

Other people reinvent their lives.

Other people take big risks, speak up, or start over.

Sound familiar?

What began as a funny story about finally learning to use a battery-powered chainsaw turned into something much deeper: a reflection on the gifts, tools, talents, ideas, and even parts of our identity that we leave sitting unused.

I also share:

• The powerful “Post-It Party” exercise that reveals what you already know and undervalue
• Why we so often dismiss our natural gifts because they come easily to us
• The deeply personal story behind legally reclaiming my name
• Why growth is often less about reinvention and more about reclamation

Sometimes the thing you think you need to go find out in the world…

is already sitting in your garage.

• Why action builds confidence
• The danger of assigning courage and capability to “other people”
• The difference between ownership and use
• Reclaiming identity after divorce
• Hidden gifts, unused tools, and second chances

What’s sitting in your garage?

Maybe it’s in a closet.

A drawer.

A notebook.

A filing cabinet.

Go take a look.

You might be surprised by what you find.

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who may need this reminder.

We’re just getting started.

My mother used to say, "I'm not an inventor."

Which was interesting, because I'm pretty sure she invented the plastic kite.

Or at least she had the idea.

In this episode, I revisit three stories from my childhood: a kite, a fireplace, and a trip to the beach, and what they revealed about permission, self-concept, and the gap between having an idea and acting on it.

My mother was one of the strongest women I've ever known. Widowed young, she bought a home, raised two children, and built a life at a time when women weren't always expected to do those things on their own. Yet she often seemed unable to see herself the way I saw her.

For years, I thought I had outgrown her fears.

I learned to build fires.

I learned to drive.

I built a career.

I checked all the boxes.

But eventually I realized I hadn't outgrown her fears at all.

I had simply traded them for my own.

This episode is about the stories we tell ourselves about who we are allowed to be and the permission we spend years waiting for that only we can give ourselves.

• The story behind "My Mother Invented the Plastic Kite."
• Why having an idea and acting on it are two very different things
• The surprising lessons hidden in a fireplace and a family road trip
• The gap between capability and self-concept
• Why I delayed starting this podcast for more than a decade
• How inherited beliefs can show up in new forms
• The permission we keep waiting for

If this episode resonated with you, please follow, rate, review, or share it with someone who might need the reminder.

Sometimes the distance between the life we imagine and the life we live isn't talent, intelligence, or opportunity.

Sometimes it's permission.

This Is My Teacher. What Is My Lesson?

What if the most important lessons in our lives come from the people and experiences we would never have chosen?

In this episode of Growing Up Late, I explore a question that has fundamentally changed the way I move through the world:

This is my teacher. What is my lesson?

Using the ancient story of the Taoist farmer as a guide, I reflect on the mentors, critics, adversaries, disappointments, and life events that shaped me in ways I never expected. Some of my teachers arrived carrying flowers. Others showed up with flamethrowers.

Along the way, I share:

• What a "frenemy" taught me about finding truth inside criticism
• The mentor who became a teacher in more ways than she intended
• A surprising lesson about boundaries, relationships, and the difference between healthy limits and cutting people off
• How standing my ground in the face of public criticism helped me discover my own authority
• The lessons hidden inside divorce, financial collapse, loneliness, and reinvention
• Why curiosity is often more useful than judgment

I've spent much of my life deciding whether events were good news or bad news. These days, I'm less certain.

What if the question isn't whether something is good or bad?

What if the better question is:

What is this here to teach me?

• Some of our greatest teachers arrive in packaging we would immediately return.
• Criticism may contain a small piece of truth worth keeping.
• Every teacher teaches more than they intend.
• Growth often happens when we stop defending our ego and become teachable.
• Life's most difficult experiences can leave behind unexpected gifts.
• We don't always get to choose our teachers, but we do get to choose whether we learn.

Think about a person or experience you've labeled as difficult, unfair, disappointing, or painful.

If that person or situation was your teacher...

What might the lesson be?

Your Life is Already Telling the Truth

Episode 8 of Growing Up Late explores awareness, avoidance, and the uncomfortable process of waking up to our own lives.

Jeannie reflects on a powerful “168 Hours” exercise that revealed the gap between what she said mattered and how she was actually spending her time. From unopened bills to podcast procrastination, she explores the universal human tendency to avoid discomfort — and the surprising emotional cost that avoidance carries.

Along the way, she shares stories, insights, humor, and hard-earned perspective about:

• living on autopilot
• turning on the observer
• procrastination and vulnerability
• recurring life lessons
• why awareness is ongoing, not one-and-done
• and how even chaos may contain “a pony in there somewhere.”

This episode is thoughtful, funny, psychologically observant, and deeply human — a reminder that your life may already be telling you the truth, if you’re willing to listen.

• Anthony DeMello’s “wake up” story
• The 168 Hours exercise
• Why our behavior reveals more than our intentions
• “The carrying cost of avoidance”
• Podcast resistance and perfectionism
• Pema Chödrön on recurring lessons
• Looking for the pony in difficult seasons

If this episode resonates with you, please follow, share, and come back next week. We’re just getting started!

The Human Algorithm

Emotion makes memory stick.

In this deeply reflective episode, Jeannie explores the “human algorithm”, the way our minds feed us more of whatever we focus on most. After years of believing she would always overcome adversity, a devastating personal and financial collapse shifted her thinking into fear, catastrophe, and certainty that everything would fall apart.

Using vivid metaphors like a vinyl record stuck in a groove, a terrible movie you can’t stop watching, and thoughts as trains moving through a station, Jeannie examines how emotional loops form and how awareness can begin to interrupt them.

At the emotional center of the episode is the story of a fairy garden built from anger, resentment, and a cracked terracotta pot. What began as an outlet for rage slowly became an unexpected lesson in transformation, creativity, and letting go.

This episode is about:

• catastrophizing and rumination

• familiar pain vs. truth

• emotional programming

• observer mind and awareness

• creativity as healing

• beginner mind and curiosity

• loosening certainty and rebuilding identity

Key Quotes:

• “Emotion is what makes memory stick.”

• “Familiar is not the same thing as true.”

• “Not every thought deserves a ticket.”

• “Awareness interrupts repetition.”

Thank you for listening to Growing Up Late. If this episode spoke to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone walking their own rebuilding journey.

What happens after everything falls apart?

In this deeply personal episode of Growing Up Late, Jeannie reflects on the collapse of the life she thought she was supposed to rebuild — and the surprising things that survived instead.

From a crack in the house that now feels symbolic to an emotional breakdown in the grocery store snack aisle, this episode explores identity, reinvention, self-worth, and the quiet process of learning who you are when no one else’s preferences are shaping your life.

Jeannie shares:

• Why hardship doesn’t build character — it reveals it
• The moment she realized she no longer knew what she actually liked
• How honey roasted peanuts became a symbol of rediscovery
• The unexpected freedom that can emerge from collapse
• Why “the audacity of organic raspberries” became a personal philosophy
• How rebuilding wasn’t about returning to who she used to be — but becoming someone more honest and authentic

This episode is about trying things on:

Ideas. Food. Friendships. Beliefs. Boundaries. Dreams.

And learning that sometimes the collapse is not the end of the story — it’s the beginning of finally becoming yourself.

If you’ve ever had to rebuild after loss, divorce, disappointment, burnout, or a life transition you never saw coming, this conversation will resonate deeply.

Because sometimes what survives the collapse is the real you.

#GrowingUpLate #Reinvention #PersonalGrowth #DivorceRecovery #WomenRebuilding #Authenticity #SelfWorth #LifeAfterLoss #Podcast

In this episode of Growing Up Late, Jeannie shares what happened after the house was sold and the life she knew was gone.

Sitting alone in a mostly empty house, surrounded by memories, she begins to face the full emotional weight of starting over. Grief, shame, anger, fear, uncertainty. No plan. No clarity. Just the realization that life had changed completely.

Then came the bank.

What was supposed to be a simple fresh start turned into another devastating setback when Jeannie learned that money she desperately needed was suddenly gone. With few options left, she found herself digging through a shoebox filled with currency collected from years of world travel, hoping it would be enough to begin again.

This episode is about:

• rebuilding after collapse
• learning humility
• letting go of pride
• redefining success
• taking the next step before you feel ready
• and discovering that resilience sometimes looks a lot less glamorous than we imagine

From washing her hair with bar soap to learning entirely new skills and rebuilding a life from the ground up, Jeannie reflects on the quiet, difficult, deeply human reality of starting over.

And how sometimes… the humbling becomes the beginning.

• Sitting alone in the empty house after the sale
• The “House of Usher” realization
• The devastating bank account moment
• Funding a new life with a shoebox of global currency
• Being “overqualified” while desperately needing work
• Taking small jobs and learning new skills
• The emotional reality behind the “bar soap” moment
• Discovering resilience through action instead of confidence

Follow Growing Up Late and join Jeannie each week as she shares honest stories about rebuilding, reinvention, financial sovereignty, identity, resilience, and creating a life you never expected—but grow to love.

No Version Left to Believe: When the story stops working

There comes a moment when the story you’ve been telling yourself stops working, and the truth is no longer optional.

In this episode of Growing Up Late, Jeannie walks through the unraveling of a life that once looked picture perfect. From a historic home filled with meaningful memories to a quiet divorce marked by denial on both sides, the illusion slowly gives way to reality.

What happens when you finally stop looking away?

And what does it take to stand still long enough to see the truth clearly?

Jeannie reflects on the life she built inside a story she wanted to believe—a home filled with beautiful moments, including her daughter’s wedding, that became anchors for a version of reality she wasn’t ready to question.

As inconsistencies begin to surface, the truth becomes harder to ignore. What starts as quiet awareness turns into action: meeting with a lawyer, filing for divorce, and navigating a surreal separation where denial exists on both sides.

But the real turning point comes later.

After discovering the full weight of the financial reality, Jeannie is faced with a decision: fight to save what remains or let it all go.

Instead, she chooses something harder.

She walks alone to the courthouse to witness the final moment, her home being sold on the steps, so she can fully face what is real.

This episode marks the shift from holding onto the story… to finally letting it go.

• The moment denial stops working
• Choosing illusion over reality—and why we do it
• Participating in the story we later question
• Emotional and financial avoidance
• The power of consciously facing the truth

• A vivid memory of a wedding in a historic 1875 home
• Realizing there were no victims, only participation
• A quiet, almost unreal divorce process
• Living in the same home after the relationship ended
• The decision to let everything go instead of trying to save it
• Walking alone to the courthouse to witness the truth firsthand

Where are you holding onto a version of your life that feels better than the truth… even when you know it might not be real?

Facing reality didn’t feel like strength.

It felt like everything was falling apart.

But it was the moment the story ended and the truth finally began.

For years, I believed I had married a white knight.

The truth? I didn't marry one, I created one.

In this episode, I share the moment I began to see what I had been avoiding for a long time: I had outsourced my power. My finances. My security. Even my happiness.

When a simple question about money revealed something wasn't right, I had a choice: seek the truth or stay comfortable. I chose comfort.

And that choice changed everything.

This is the story of waking up. Of recognizing the quiet ways we betray ourselves and ultimately reclaiming ownership over our lives.

Because here's the truth:

No one is coming to save you.

And once you accept that… you're finally free.

• How I "invented" a white knight and believed my own story
• The subtle ways we give away our power without realizing it
• The moment a financial question cracked everything open
• Choosing comfort over truth and what it cost me
• The wake-up call that changed my life
• What it means to stop outsourcing your happiness
• Reclaiming ownership of your money, your choices, and your life

"Don't you love me? Don't you trust me?"

And just like that, I chose comfort over truth.

If you've been waiting for someone to save you, fix things, or make it all okay…

This is your invitation to take your life back.

In the next episode, I'll share the decision that changed everything, and how the real transformation began.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

If you're ready to stop playing small and start reclaiming your life, follow along. This journey is just getting started.

Oh, the things I gave up to be loved.

In this episode of Growing Up Late, I share the quieter side of my story, the parts that didn’t feel dramatic at the time, but mattered just as much.

This isn’t about one big moment. It’s about the small, almost invisible ways I slowly set parts of myself aside. The things that once brought me joy, skiing, travel, and friendships, became negotiable. And without even realizing it, I stopped choosing me.

What felt like love… looked a lot like disappearing.

If you’ve ever overgiven, over-accommodated, or shaped yourself to fit someone else’s life, this episode might feel uncomfortably familiar and deeply validating.

• How self-abandonment happens gradually, not all at once
• Why overgiving can feel like love—but isn’t
• The subtle ways we lose connection to ourselves in relationships
• How “reasonable” choices can lead to losing what brings you joy
• Why awareness is the first step to reclaiming yourself

• You don’t lose yourself overnight; it happens in small decisions over time
• Over-accommodating can come at the cost of your identity
• Love doesn’t require you to give up what makes you feel alive
• The biggest loss isn’t what you give, it’s who you become without it

“Oh, the things I gave up to be loved.”

“I didn’t lose myself all at once—I let it be chipped away over time.”

“The money wasn’t the real loss. I was giving away my power… and I didn’t even know it.”

Growing Up Late explores the gap between the impressive lives we build on the outside and who we actually are on the inside.

If you’ve hit a wall, experienced a setback, or you’re ready to own your role in your story, the comeback is possible.

If this episode resonated, follow Growing Up Late and share it with someone who might need to hear it.

New episodes drop every Thursday.

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This episode explores how personal identity can be gradually shaped, and sometimes diminished, through relationships and unconscious choices over time.