This is a short and personal episode, recorded on a meaningful date. It is about love, trust, patience, and the unexpected teachers life sends our way.

If something in it stays with you, you will know what to do with it.

In this episode:

This episode didn't come easy, because it was difficult to find the right words. It is a continuation of my previous episode in which I shared that my friend Don McNeill lost his son, Tim. 

In this episode, I am sharing what shifted in me due to Tim's passing. It is a short episode, but it didn't come easily. 

I knew what I wanted to say, but since I wanted it to come from my heart, I didn't want to script it. However, as I started recording, I stumbled, so I deleted quite a few beginnings. But then, I thought I would just let it be and live as is, even if my speech has longer pauses than normally and even if it sounds cheezy, because "Be who you are" is my motto and "Be" is my second name officially in my American passport. 

https://SheBecameCEO.com

This week's episode is personal.

My friend Don McNeill lost his son Tim — a man he chose to love, raised as his own, and loved completely. Tim fought cancer for two years. There were signs of recovery. And then he was gone.

This episode is for Don. And it is for everyone who has ever lost someone they loved deeply — and is still carrying that loss, quietly, alongside everything else life asks of them.

We also revisit a story from Episode 39 — the Padre story — and how I first heard it in a room full of grief, and laughed until I couldn't stop. Because that is what life is like.

In this episode:

The story of Don and Tim — and what chosen love looks like in practice.

A tribute to our friend Lee Tyler, who left us in September 2023 with grace, humor, and peace.

Why grief doesn't ask permission to stay — and what it means to let it be without letting it take over.

The difference between sweeping sorrow under the rug and learning to feel it fully.

Why choosing joy is not a betrayal of the people you have lost. It is how you honor them.

Referenced in this episode:

Episode 39 — Don McNeill: Humor, Mark Twain, and the Art of Telling True Stories

She Became CEO homepage — shebecameceo.com

In this episode, I talk about memory loss and cognitive decline — what actually causes them, how early the damage begins, and what any of us can do right now, without a doctor's appointment or an expensive protocol. I also share my own experience recovering from memory and sleep problems, and why I believe that cognitive decline is largely preventable — not inevitable.

If you are worried about your memory, your parents' memory, or your risk of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease as you age, this episode is for you.

In this episode:

Keywords: memory loss prevention, cognitive decline, Alzheimer's prevention, Parkinson's disease causes, brain health diet, ketogenic diet brain health, environmental toxins brain disease, how to protect your brain, brain health for women over 50, midlife brain health

Everyone talks about following up after networking events. Fewer people talk about why most of that follow-up goes nowhere — and almost nobody talks about the real opportunity that most business owners walk past every single time.

In this episode, I react to networking expert Cass Thompson's five most common networking mistakes. I agree with most of what she says — but I also have some reservations, and I share them honestly.

Then I reveal what I think is the biggest missed networking opportunity of all. It has nothing to do with your elevator pitch, your business card, or your LinkedIn profile. It has everything to do with how you walk into the room and who you're actually looking for when you get there.

I also share a real example from my own event organizing background that shows exactly how collaboration between business owners can create opportunities none of them could create alone.

This is also my second unscripted episode — let me know in the comments if you prefer this format.

In this episode:

Mentioned in this episode:

Have you made any of these networking mistakes? Are you planning to approach your next event differently? Leave a comment and let me know. And if you're enjoying the unscripted format, I'd love to hear that too. Follow or subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.

She Became CEO

She Became CEO is a podcast for women over 50 who are building a business, stepping into leadership, or reinventing their professional lives after a major life transition.

Many women reach midlife — after raising children, navigating hormonal changes, and carrying years of professional and personal responsibility — and discover that their next chapter is their most purposeful one. This podcast is built around that moment.

Hosted by Ilze Berzina, brain health coach, NLP practitioner, and former CEO, the episodes cover entrepreneurship for women in midlife, female leadership, brain health and cognitive performance, hormones and energy, communication as a business skill, and financial clarity after 50.

Guests include entrepreneurs, clinicians, and researchers. Solo episodes go deeper into what Ilze is learning and applying herself.

This podcast exists for women who are done waiting and ready to lead — in business and in their communities.

Topics: midlife entrepreneurship, women over 50, reinvention after 50, female leadership, brain health, menopause and performance, empty nester next chapter, building a business from experience, women's podcast, cognitive health, communication skills.

New episodes on all major platforms.

What if the most valuable thing you have is the thing you've stopped seeing?

This episode started with a breakfast conversation. I had been listening to The Huberman Lab — Scott Galloway was the guest — and I couldn't stop thinking about what he said about the mentorship crisis facing young men today. The statistics are sobering: young men are four times as likely to kill themselves, three times as likely to become addicted, and twelve times as likely to be incarcerated as their female peers. And the single most common turning point? The loss of a male role model.

I bring this home with a personal story about my older son and the rowing coach who stepped in when no one else did — teaching not just sport, but life skills, character, and what it means to be part of a tribe.

But this episode isn't only about men or mentorship. It's about a blind spot most of us in midlife share: the inability to see the value in what we know, simply because we've always known it. I share my own version of this — how I turned my native Latvian language into a structured, properly priced digital offering while others were trading hours for dollars with no certainty of income.

The larger question I'm asking in this episode is one worth sitting with: what did our elders used to do that the modern world forgot to replace? And what happens to a society when the people with the most to give don't realize they have anything to offer?

In this episode:

Resources & mentions:

If this episode resonated, share it with someone in midlife who has more to offer than they realize.

Most of us try to build a business with words. A mission statement. A vision document. A goal-setting template. But what if the most important things you want to build toward do not actually live in language at all?

In this episode, I open with something unexpected — a summary of myself generated by an AI after a week of working together. What came back was not just a professional profile. It was a mirror. And it raised a question worth sitting with: what does it mean to be genuinely multifaceted in a world that keeps asking you to pick one thing?

From there, I move into territory She Became CEO has never explored before. The neuroscience of how the brain processes symbols differently from words. The oldest continuously used symbol system in Europe — hiding in plain sight in Latvian folk costumes and woven belts since the Iron Age. Tesla's 3, 6, and 9. A birth date that encodes yin and yang and 111. And the ancient practice of sigil work — encoding intention into a personal symbol created by your own hand — as a starting point for building a business from the inside out.

This is episode 60. The bridge number. Something has been growing underground. Today it comes above the ground.

In this episode:

What the AI said about me after one week — and why it matters for anyone who has ever struggled to explain what they do in one sentence.

Why symbols activate a broader network in the brain than words do — and what that means for how you set intentions.

The Latvian ornamental tradition and why women have been encoding prosperity and protection into geometric symbols since the Iron Age.

What a sigil is, where the word comes from, and how to create one using NLP principles.

Tesla's numbers, vortex math, and one very interesting birth date.

Four in-person experiences I am designing around vision, numbers, colors, and voice — and the larger vision they are building toward.

A Midsummer night in North Carolina on June 20th into June 21st — and an invitation to be there.

Mentioned or referenced:

Tesla's 3, 6, and 9 — vortex math

If something in this episode made you feel seen:

Reach out directly or stay close via the newsletter — including what is coming this Midsummer.

🔗 shebecameceo.com/podcast-newsletter-subscription/ 

About She Became CEO

I am Ilze Berzina — Amen University Certified Brain Health Coach, business mentor, and guide for women navigating midlife transition. I come from a maternal lineage of Latvian women with intuitive gifts and bring thirty years of entrepreneurial experience to every conversation.

This episode brings together two themes that run through this podcast: health and money—and how closely they are connected, especially in the second half of life.

I sit down with Dr. Heather Skeens, a physician with a rare combination of expertise in ophthalmology and functional medicine, and the founder behind multiple ventures that aim to rethink how we approach health. In this conversation, we talk about what happens when the traditional healthcare system looks at the body in parts—and what becomes possible when someone chooses to see the whole person instead.

Dr. Skeens shares the personal turning point that changed how she practices medicine, and why she believes patients must become active participants in their own care. Her message is simple, but not easy: listen to your body first, ask questions, and do not stop until you understand the “why.” At the same time, she speaks directly to healthcare providers, reminding them that patients often reveal the answers—if someone is willing to listen carefully enough.

We also move into entrepreneurship. Dr. Skeens explains how she made the decision to leave a traditional practice model and build something of her own, even without formal business training. Her perspective on risk, independence, and purpose will resonate with anyone in midlife who is questioning whether it is too late—or too complicated—to start over.

If you are someone who feels that your energy, clarity, or health is not where it should be… if you have been told everything looks “normal,” but you know it is not… or if you are thinking about building something new but worry your body may not keep up—this conversation will give you a different way to look at both your health and your choices.

Dr. Skeens is the author of Unshackled: Why Medicine Is Failing Doctors (and Patients) —and How We Can Break Free, a book written for both patients and physicians, calling for a more human, connected, and root-cause approach to care. You can learn more about her work through her website (BellaSeeBeauty), her company Aligness, and her presence on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

This is a conversation about responsibility, awareness, and possibility—at a stage of life where many people begin to realize that both health and financial freedom require more intentional choices.

Host: Ilze Be Berzina

https://ilzebe.com 

https://shebecameceo.com  

Guest: Heather Skeens, MD CFMP

Link to Heather Skeen's book "Unshackled: Why Medicine Is Failing Doctors (and Patients) —and How We Can Break Free" on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Unshackled-Medicine-Failing-Doctors-Patients/dp/1953183972/ 

Links to BellaSeeBeauty and Aligness, Heather Skeen's businesses mentioned in this episode:

https://bellaseebeauty.com/ 

https://alignessq.com/ 

Three Stories for Easter: A Boat, a Rope, and a Seed

Stories have a way of reaching us differently than direct advice.

In this episode, I share three simple stories—not to explain them, but to invite you to think.

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of communication. It works through images, metaphors, and meaning that often speak directly to the subconscious. That is why the same story can feel different depending on when you hear it and what you are going through.

This episode is an opportunity to slow down and notice how stories influence the way we interpret situations, make decisions, and structure our thinking.

Without overanalyzing, you may begin to see:

If you are interested in communication, messaging, and the role of storytelling in personal and professional life, this episode offers a different way to learn—through metaphors that resonate with you.

Sometimes, the most effective way to learn is not through explanation, but through reflection.

Listen, and notice what stands out to you.