Reinvent Yourself

Jennifer McKay is no stranger to reinvention. Born and raised in New Orleans, she completed a communications degree before moving to Los Angeles and starting a twenty-year career in marketing. Later, married with children, she moved with her family back to Louisiana and a new career as a stay-at-home mom. After five years, however, McKay was restless. She knew she needed to get back to work but the idea of returning to corporate America was daunting. Her reinvention as an entrepreneur began when her sister started a direct sales company. Soon, McKay was part of the #1 skincare brand in the country, raising a team of consultants and building her own organization within the company. Listen to her conversation with Covey Club founder Lesley Jane Seymour to discover how McKay rediscovered her passion for fine art in her 50s and embraced her identity as an artist. “It’s such a personal thing to create,” McKay advises. “And it’s such a generous thing to offer for the world.”

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Bio:

Jennifer McKay is a Louisiana artist currently living in Lafayette, LA. Her abstract art consists of mixed-media paintings and sculptural pieces.

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Time Stamps:

2:33 – Growing up in New Orleans and starting in marketing

3:20 – Stay-at-home reinvention 

5:00 – Starting sales with older sister

10:48 – Working up to the top of the company

11:38 – The art of failing 

13:28 – How you can balance success and stress

17:37 – Why you need a mentor

23:20 – Joy and learning 

27:05 – The importance of positive self-talk 

30:50 – Success at any age

New York City native Caitlin Meister began teaching even while she was still learning herself. A lifelong learner, she developed a passion for igniting the curiosity in young minds. Her first reinvention came when her son was born, giving her a new understanding of working with children – but as a mom. She went on to create The Greer Meister Group, a NYC-based private educational consulting and tutoring practice. And, like many of us, when Covid hit in March 2020, Meister was forced into another reinvention. She saw the loss of community that kids were experiencing and witnessed the need for connectedness in her own son. In her conversation with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour, Meister explains how she reinvented her approach to teaching, bringing a sense of connection to children in the time of Zoom calls and quarantine. Most importantly, she shares her insights on how parents can reinvent their approach to educating their children, how you can find the “teachable moments”, and most importantly how you can foster a lifelong love of learning in your child.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Bio:

Caitlin Meister is the Founding Director of The Greer Meister Group, a New York City-based private tutoring and educational consulting practice. Her interest in education began when she was young, and she began teaching children and teens while pursuing her own education. Inspired by her own educational experiences at the Little Red School House, Stuyvesant High School, and Wesleyan University, she went on to receive additional training through the Harvard Graduate School of Education and in the Orton-Gillingham approach for teaching students with language-based learning differences. Meister has extensive experience working with gifted learners and supporting neurodiverse students, and she is dedicated to a strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming approach.  

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Time Stamps

02:54 - How giving birth to her first son changed her relationship to teaching

04:30 - Reinventing her personal identity as a mom

09:43 - Perserving the growth mindset in kids

11:07 - How you can foster your child-like curiosity

14:45 - Pivoting business protocols during COVID

20:45 - How to create opportunities for your children without force

26:00 - How to reduce parenting stress 

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Kate Eckman assumed she’d follow the rest of her family into a medical career. Quickly, however, she realized the path wasn’t for her and she turned to journalism. Eckman’s career took her from red-carpet reporting in Hollywood to covering politics in DC, courts in Chicago, and even wildlife in Florida and Africa. When she moved to New York for a television job, Eckman was forced to reinvent–and quickly–after the job unexpectedly fell through just one week later. Being in New York City allowed Eckman, who happened to meet the physical qualifications, to begin modeling for the plus size industry, which brought her face-to-face with her own insecurities about body image. In her conversation with CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, Eckman explains exactly how the trajectory of her life was changed by loss and spiritual upheaval and how it finally led to her telling her story in a book.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Bio:

Kate Eckman empowers high-achieving individuals to actualize their full potential. She leverages her experience as a well-known communications, performance and mindfulness expert, accomplished entrepreneur, and elite athlete to equip leaders with the tools, methodology, and energetic boost they need to excel at the game of life. 

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Time Stamps

5:17  -  Growing up, going to Penn State, starting her journalism career

7:10 -  Moving to New York

7:48 -  Modeling, body image struggles, and beginning to write more vulnerably

8:20 -  Losing two people to suicide and focusing on public speaking

11:09 -  Writing Full Spirit Workout 

15:20 – Why questioning who you are is a good thing

22:00 – Normalizing losing a job as an opportunity to grow

29:12 – Kate's tips for mitigating judgment

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With a family of 12 physicians, Hasti Nazem didn’t hesitate before going pre-med. Her beloved aunt’s passion for medicine and emigration from Iran had sparked a family-wide love of healthcare. But for Nazem, lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression left her feeling burned out, and she did what few in her family had done before: she chose to put her mental health first and reinvented. Unfortunately, she moved into the world of finance just before the 2008 market collapse. When a personal loss prompted her to return to school, she found herself connecting with two partners and starting a wellness company focused on sleep. Today, Nazem is the head of product and education for CoveyClub sponsor Kindra, a women’s wellness company that focuses on menopause. Listen in to her candid conversation with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour as they dig into the science of how to fall asleep–and Nazem’s secrets to staying asleep during these years of hormonal disruption.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Bio:

With nearly 10 years of experience at the intersection of life sciences, health and wellness, and consumer brand-building, Hasti Nazem integrates product development with technical advancements. She is particularly passionate about drawing from deep scientific communications experience to empower consumers to better understand their health, encourage engagement with the medical community, and bridge gaps often overlooked in menopause.

Kindra special offer to podcast listeners:

Try any of the specially-designed Kindra products for 20% off using the coupon code COVEY20. 

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Time Stamps

07:10 - Growing up pre-med; reinventing for mental health

10:16 - When her aunt dies, Nazem decides to return to school, meets partners, launches a wellness business

12:02 - Leaving her start-up 10 days before the pandemic shut-down

12:31 - Learning the signs of burn-out

16:33 - Discovering Kindra; exploring the underlying relationship between sleep and menopause

20:00 - Why is there a lack of visibility for women going through menopause and post-menopause?

25:00 - Nazeem’s 5 unexpected tips for falling asleep

28:23 - Journaling for menopause and better sleep

32:19 - Finding the right bath products during menopause

36:34 - Stay-asleep tips

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Mississippi native Janet Gurwitch was destined to join the fashion industry. Her father owned a chain of shoe stores and she herself graduated college with a degree in retail. After spending 14 years with Houston department store Foley’s, Gurwitch went on to become the Executive Vice President for Neiman Marcus. While there, she met make-up artist Bobbi Brown, then just beginning to launch her make-up line. Although she never intended to become an entrepreneur, Gurwitch was inspired by Brown to start her own business. At the age of 42, Gurwitch left Neiman Marcus and sought a makeup artist with whom she could build a beauty brand. After networking with beauty editors at Vogue and other magazines, she made her choice, invested her life’s savings, and created Laura Mercier. But after 13 years, when Nemain Marcus was sold to a private equity company, their 51% investment in Laura Mercier went with it. Gurwitch was forced to sell and she once again faced a career reinvention. Listen in to her conversation with CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, to learn how Gurwitch joined the private sector and bought five beauty brands in the course of ten years.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Bio:

Janet Gurwitch is an operating partner with Advent International, where she serves on the board of Olaplex, Inc. Gurwitch is the founder and former CEO of Laura Mercier Cosmetics & Skincare, a global brand of high-end niche cosmetics.  Prior to founding Laura Mercier, Janet Gurwitch was the Executive Vice President of Neiman Marcus, where she developed strategy and managed 80% of Neiman Marcus’ $2 billion sales volume across 35 doors. 

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Time Stamps

4:40 – Growing up in Mississippi and fashion

5:38 – What being an entrepreneur means and makeup brands

7:33 – Giving up everything to start a business 

14:16 – The secret to a good elevator pitch

19:00 – The importance of headhunters in private equity 

23:13 – Knowing the industry vs educational background 

29:50 – How you can work past doubt

30:53 – How to use networking to your advantage

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Paula Floyd is no stranger to transition. After seventeen years working with giants of the beauty industry such as MAC, Benefit, and Urban Decay, she felt the need for a shift. In her 50s, she was making $500,000 a year with an incredible title, but something didn’t feel right. She decided to look at what stood to be changed within the industry, and she found self-reinvention along the way. Leaving her six-figure job and selling her house, she founded HeadKount, a retail education service for small beauty brands looking to get their products into big retail stores. Things were going well...until the global pandemic. “Part of my business model was planning for the worst,” Paula says. Worried she might have to lay off the team-members who were relying on her, she stepped back and figured out how to shift her approach during a once-in-a-lifetime disruption. “How do you sell a skincare item you can’t open up and smell or touch on your hand?” she asks. In this conversation with Covey Club’s Lesley Jane Seymour, Paula explains how the many transitions in her professional life have impacted how she lives and thinks. “Follow what you love,” she advises us. “It’s really true: you’re worth it.”

Time Stamps:

[00:03:16.00] Introduction to makeup and start of career

[00:06:38.00] Meeting the ‘big guys’ of makeup and maturity

[00:11:44.00] Dealing with loss and insecurity 

[00:16:10.00] Beauty industry secrets you should know

[00:21:35:00] The pandemic and starting a company  

[00:27:55.00] Money, consumerism, and storytelling

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Business was a driving focus for Christine Bader from a young age. Growing up in Manhattan with two parents both working in corporate America, she followed their lead and received her MBA from Yale. Community interest was also a focus for her, working both with AmeriCorps and in NYC government to support misplaced youth. Bader enjoyed serving in communities that needed support, but when John Browne, then-CEO of BP, spoke to her business class in 1998, Bader knew she’d found her company. She went on to work for BP for eight years and fell in love. But then the Deepwater Horizon explosion spilled over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and everything changed. 

Bio: Christine calls herself a “Thought leader, community/program builder, consigliere/facilitator/advisor/evangelist on all things business and society.” She is the Co-Founder, Storyteller, The Life I Want.co. 

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Toronto native Ariel Garten was 23 when she had her first collection showcase at Fashion Week. The owner of a budding clothing label that was making newspapers around the city, she was bewildered when her father suggested she leave the industry. Garten went to school while producing her designs at the same time, eventually graduating with a degree in neuroscience Something in her was prompted to follow her father’s advice, and she found herself on the cusp of a radical reinvention. Having worked in neurological research and early brain computer interface systems, Garten decided to commercialize the technology - a process that involved raising millions of dollars from investors. The result was the award-winning Muse Headband collection, a brain-sensing headband that gives real-time feedback during sleep and meditation. At 5’2”, a petite female in a male-dominated industry, Garten was able to fund and create a product that has now been used in studies by Mayo Clinic and other major research institutions. “I was so scared,” she says, “that it wouldn’t be good enough…but at the same time, I had this deep confidence in myself and I had the ability to really silence my inner critic.” In this candid conversation with Covey Club founder Lesley Jane Seymour, Garten explains her choices and the passion that inspired her along the way.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

Kristine Deer knew from childhood that she was meant to create, and when her mother gave her a box of fabric, some duct tape, and a stapler, she unlocked her passion for designing clothes. Fast-forward to college: Deer, of course, majored in fashion design before moving to New York City to pursue her career as a designer. But when The Great Recession hit in 2000, the industry changed. Deer found herself working menial tasks for other designers and witnessing a harsh corporate environment devoid of creative freedom. When she later lost her job, she was disillusioned and bereft. Leaving the city, she moved back in with her parents, determined to begin again. But how? After discovering her passion for hot yoga, Deer began to design her own yoga clothes—in particular the multi-striped rainbow leggings for which she eventually became famous. Eleven years later, she is the founder and CEO of the activewear brand K-DEER. In an intimate conversation with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour, Deer shares her journey of reinvention both personally and professionally.

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”

For Laurie James, giving birth to four daughters in five years called for necessary life changes. Leaving her career as a recruiter, she took on the role of a full-time mom. “My third pregnancy were a set of identical twin girls,” she says, “so that was a pretty big shock to the system.” An even bigger shock came when her mother developed dementia. This meant Laurie now found herself raising four children while also managing her mother’s care. “I became one of the first people in my friend group to enter into the Sandwich Generation.” The Sandwich Generation, Laurie says, is described as having at least one child you are supporting and at least one parent that’s over the age of 65. Her attention diverted,  Laurie also found her marriage struggling. Turning to therapy and yoga for support, she was inspired when an acquaintance suggested she write a book. Laurie James talks to CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour about how she poured her struggles, her accomplishments, and her lessons along the way into Sandwiched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go. The book chronicles her personal journey through the sandwich generation while also revealing many of the dangerous flaws within the caregiving industry. As a result of writing the book, Laurie found new strength in the power of writing and reflection. “Find that time to reflect,” Laurie advises us, “because that’s where our growth happens.”

FREE GIFT! Don’t start your reinvention without downloading CoveyClub’s starter guide called “31 Badass Tips for Launching Your Reinvention Without Fear!”