Reinvent Yourself

How does a professional musician and self-described “book worm” start a fabulous niche beauty product for under $20,000? By noticing a “glaring hole” with a “low barrier to entry” and jumping in. Amanda McIntosh, was on her way home from a concert when she realized she didn’t have any more washcloths for her special skincare routine. She was grossed out by the grey, half-wet wash cloths left on her shower rail.  “My practical brain got started, asking, ‘How do you change the process?’”  McIntosh began by researching how to make a washcloth that was stain-resistant, quick drying, and would “feel fancy.”  Dozens of trips to the fabric store led her to an incredibly soft polyester used in baby blankets that met all of her qualifications. Her washable makeup remover clothes called Take My Face Off, Inc (TakeMyFaceOff.com) was born. Today, Take My Face Off products  disrupt the unsustainable makeup wipe business by selling amusing reusable wipes that last for 4-5 years.  “I invested a good portion of my retirement account” to get started, she says. “I never wanted to lose more than I could earn back in a year.” 

“Women [who have had a career break] feel dislodged from the rest of the world and they feel everybody sees it,” says Mika Brzezinski co-host of TV’s Morning Joe, founder of KnowYourValue.com, and co-author with her sister-in-law Ginny, of the new handbook “Comeback Careers” Rethink, Refresh, Reinvent Your Success at 40,50, and Beyond” (https://amzn.to/2NqJBUM).  “I want to tell them, it’s all right not to know what’s next. They have value. They may have to take a big step back, use a side hustle or go sideways in the door.” Listen in as Mika and Ginny divulge some of their research on how to network more strategically, how to pitch your volunteer work to a corporate recruiter, and how to short circuit your negative mindset.

“It’s not that marketers are stupid,” says Vaughan Emsley, founder of Flipside, a startup ad agency dedicated to flipping marketer’s perceptions of men and women 50+ away from images of people “sitting home watching daytime TV” to what he calls “The Second Coming of Age”—in which people 50-70 act and feel like they’re 17 again. “It’s just muscle memory. [We’re taught] that the rising generation is more interesting than the previous generation—and that was always true. “  Emsley, a 25-year veteran of Saatchi & Saatchi, believes we’ve reached a “tipping point” where businesses are stalling by focusing only on millennials. “Boomers are sitting on 60 trillion of assets, 10 times the amount held by millennials…and only 5-7% of marketing dollars are directed at them.“

When your adult children have finally moved on to their own lives, some women find the only way to jumpstart their own bliss is by relocating. “I'd always imagined we’d live forever in our big, beautiful suburban home where I'd given birth to my daughter two days after moving in 24 years earlier,” says CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour in conversation with Covey Editor at Large, Deborah Marquardt. “But once she and my older son had vacated the nest, the house felt like a mausoleum to sadness; every inch reminded me of their childhood and reinforced how they were now finally gone. Plus the town is so kid-focused that I could walk down the street naked and if I didn’t have a child with me no one would notice.” Seymour and her husband downsized in New Orleans, a city they’d visited on vacation for 30 years. “We wanted warm weather, a university town—where we can teach or learn, interesting culture, diversity of age and economic backgrounds, beautiful housing, a lower cost of living, and people open to newbies. We got them all—and more. Plus we have a 31-year old marriage. Sometimes you just have to jump off the high dive in order to start learning and rediscovering yourself—and your spouse-- again.” 

What do you do after you work in your family printing business for twenty years and you make it successful enough to sell? You realize you are “loosing [your]self” and you need to reinvent. Because you "love solving customer problems”, you start a digital ad agency named Rauxa. (Never mind that you have zero experience in advertising). And you fill it with 70% women (in a sector that is known for male dominance and is rife with #MeToo issues and complaints).  “Being a woman is an advantage for building relationships and trust,” CEO Jill Gwaltney tells CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour. “That’s an important part of the business.” Gwaltney says she lives by the mantra her mentor father gave her: “Don’t work with a**holes."

When (now) Broadway Producer Candy Gold (The Heidi Chronicles, Hadestown, Jagged Little Pill & more) was a novice reporter in Boston flying around the country to cover everything from politics to entertainment discovered she was pregnant, she knew she'd have to cut back her crazy job. She chose the perfect “mom job”: freelance. Which worked fine until the economic downturn of 2008, when all freelance dried up. A random television ad for a local cable station inspired her to pitch (and win) a slot for a self-produced show called “Neighborhood Cooking with Candy Gold”. Ten years later she leveraged that know-how and her experience producing local children’s theater into becoming a producer on Broadway, eventually winning several Tony awards. The trick to it all, she says: “Persisting."

“High achievers say that all they have to do is work harder or out perform everyone around them in order to succeed,” says Dr. Nayla Bahri, PCC, Leadership and Development coach, Columbia University. “But it may not be productive. [My research shows people] do best if they’re willing to do the inner work [before they] open LinkedIn and apply to 100 jobs.  Burnout is why it’s not working. People are addicted to interviewing—[to the point where] they don’t want to get out of bed.”  Bahri tells CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour that you must “start with a practice of reflection—journaling, walking in the words. Find out what you miss, what you’re glad is over, what brought you great joy, flow, productivity. Then divide your search into thirds: 1/3 applying to appropriate work, 1/3 strategic learning, 1/3 doing the work.” You also have to reframe how you speak. “I rarely talk about jobs,” she says. “I talk about work, which we carry with us. If the work you do in the world is yours, then you have a better chance of saying it’s about me finding a place to offer my work; it changes from a place that needs me to a place where I can add value.”

What do you do when you’ve been “Miss Singapore” and an image consultant, owned a successful cafe retail chain, and have a quarter life crisis? If you're Genecia Alluora, it means you  decide to spend $100,000 in online courses from around the world to learn how to “function in my zone of genius.” Today Alluora runs the Soul Rich Woman, South East Asia empowerment network (https://www.soulrichwoman.com/).  She says it's “for Women who love the ‘F’ word”— “being Fabulous, having Freedom and Financial independence” .  Her programs teach, support and train women in the Philippines to have "confidence, tenacity and grit.” “My calling is to serve women” she tells CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour. “I tell them that alone you’re strong, but together we’re unstoppable.” 

What do you do when you’ve been “Miss Singapore” and an image consultant, owned a successful cafe retail chain, and have a quarter life crisis? If you're Genecia Alluora, it means you  decide to spend $100,000 in online courses from around the world to learn how to “function in my zone of genius.” Today Alluora runs the Soul Rich Woman, South East Asia empowerment network (https://www.soulrichwoman.com/).  She says it's “for Women who love the ‘F’ word”— “being Fabulous, having Freedom and Financial independence” .  Her programs teach, support and train women in the Philippines to have "confidence, tenacity and grit.” “My calling is to serve women” she tells CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour. “I tell them that alone you’re strong, but together we’re unstoppable.”