Reinvent Yourself

Laura Dinsmore had the perfect life. Then a drunk driver killed her husband and left her alone with a two year old child. “Responsibility moved me forward,” she says. Join CoveyClub Founder Lesley Jane Seymour in discussion with Dinsmore who explains how visualization and “flipping negative self-talk" helped move her through several reinventions and finally to Founder, President and CEO of Quadrant Health Strategies. 

She wanted to be an aid worker in Zambia but after college, got sucked instead into management consulting.  After she quit, she couldn’t find a job but noticed her $300 interview dress was burning a $1000 dry-cleaning hole in her budget. Sarah LaFleur, CEO of MM.LaFleur, talks with CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, about how that simple problem prompted LaFleur to explore and create a multi-million dollar fashion  business based on her “idea for better workwear for working women."

She had a southern accent, wore a leotard and cowboy boots with holes in them. She even had a learning disability. Louise Phillips Forbes talks with CoveyClub founder, Lesley Jane Seymour, about how she used hard work,  her "gift of gab,” and an incredible spacial memory to create a $200 million real estate business. 

She was a successful magazine and newspaper writer whose photographer husband had wanderlust—forcing them to uproot and home-school their kids around the world—from South America to Mexico.  She even wrote a book about the successful lavender farm she ran outside of Dallas. Then when her last child left home Ralston launched NextTribe.com, a virtual and IRL space for women 45+ to connect and create new friendships. 

Join CoveyClub.com founder Lesley Jane Seymour’s rollicking discussion about reinventing in the fashion world with Barbara Warren, co-founder of White + Warren and now PerennialProject.com a fashion site for women 50+. Learn how her eye for seeing the missing items in a woman’s wardrobe led to the invention of the cashmere “Travel Wrap” and perfect cashmere T-shirt.  Warren reveals hot new labels to watch that will make women look fabulous while staying comfortable. 

“Life comes with an end date—so we have to make the best of whatever we have now.” So says former television producer Tamika Felder who was given a cervical cancer diagnosis at age 25.  Felder joins CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour to explain how beating the odds gave her a new direction in life and offers her tips for women facing the ultimate reinvention mandate from cancer.

She claims she’s not a coach but a “transitional life strategist” who uses her own reinvention—from corporate cog to entrepreneur—to help others reimagine themselves. She instructs on shifts in thinking, time management, and most important, on how to catch your inner confidence thief: “fear.” 

Vani Murthy came to the U.S. from India and was totally economically dependent on her husband. She talks with CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour about how, when he became abusive, she made a plan—and escaped.  Vani's miraculous story tells of believing in herself, finding help, getting her accounting degree, and forging a new life. Lesley and Vani are joined by Yesenia Maldonado, who runs BetweenFriends.com, the agency that helped Vani (and women like her) escape abusive relationships. 

Fran Pastore grew up in a tight male-dominated Italian family.  She watched how all her female relatives were disempowered and forced to become dependent on a male for their future. Fran talks to CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour about how and why she decided to gather her fate into her own hands by applying to college (her mother stopped talking to her because of it!) and eventually opened the Women's Business Development Council of Connecticut (CTWBDC.Org) that supplies free support services for female business owners.  Fran's #1 tip for reinventing out of your disapproving family: “Surround yourself with people who have skills and knowledge you don’t have.”