Lydia Kang is a practicing physician who started writing in her mid thirties but had to overcome some fear about even starting to write.  It wasn’t her area of expertise and she was afraid that she’d be laughed at for even trying.  Now, at the age of 50 she’s written 10 novels and her most recent novel is The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding.  Our conversation covers a lot of territory around the idea of allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in order to try something new.

Ronnie Loaiza found a passion for learning about health and wellness and decided to get certified as a personal trainer at 46.   She also realized that she wasn’t happy in her career anymore and decided to go into personal training full time where she found that she was coaching her clients on mindset.  People kept telling her she should be a life coach, so now at 57, she’s pivoted her coaching program to work as a holistic, high performance life coach.

At 65 years old, Melissa Davey made the decision to leave her successful corporate career and become a filmmaker. Now almost 72, Melissa’s first film, Beyond Sixty, is in distribution and she has completed filming her second film which is in post production. Her films focus on the resilience and continued relevance of older women.

Gail Gould is known as the CPR and Safety Lady.  She’s been a professional CPR instructor for over 30 years and trained 10k people to save lives. Before the pandemic she was doing it all in person and then… well you know what happened… she had to figure out a way forward.  She tapped into her sense of purpose and resilience to find a solution...  just like she did when she became a first time mom at the age of 49.

Lisa Strom is a 30 year veteran teacher and Chair of the English Dept at Norwalk High School in Norwalk, CT.  For her 50th birthday. She set herself a goal to complete 50 acts of service for her 50th birthday, or as she calls it….Mitzvah 50.  She wanted to find a way to incorporate service learning in her classes in a way that highlighted the availability of education in the U.S. compared to accessing education globally. The culmination of her year of service has been fundraising $15,000 through a combination of small, individual donations and a grant from the Fund for Teachers Foundation to build a school in Malawi through an organization called buildOn.

This marks 100 Episodes of Late Bloomer Living... Celebrate with me... Take the 100 Day Challenge!

Karen Herbert is a certified professional wellbeing coach, the founder and CEO of Themelios Coaching, and the creator of the Life In Abundance 6-month coaching program for midlife women, where she helps women find the purpose they crave as they transition to an empty nest. She started her coaching journey as she struggled with chronic Lyme disease and battled the mental health system for her family’s needs.

In a career that’s included work as a journalist, a psychologist, and the founder of a national art consulting company, Maggie Smith now adds novelist to her resume with the publication of her debut, Truth and Other Lies.  She never considered herself creative, but signing up for a creative retreat opened new worlds to her. 

Today is Day One of the Midlife Uprising Summit.  This is a short episode with some inspiring sound bites from our speakers accompanied by an original song composed by Dana Benningfield who started composing music in midlife. 

What does Star Wars have to do with Late Bloomer Living?  Listen to this super short (and silly) episode to find out!  Hint: It has a little something to do with embracing your “weird”.