That's What She Said

If you've reached the point where the life, career, or identity you worked hard to build no longer feels like the place you are meant to stay, Susan Dabbar would probably tell you to pay attention.

Not panic. Not burn everything down before lunch. But pay attention.

Career reinvention for women over 50 is often presented as a dramatic leap into an entirely new life. Susan's experience suggests something more useful: reinvention is usually a series of pivots, some subtle and some closer to a full 180-degree turn, made by a woman who is willing to keep asking, "Does this still fit?"

Susan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Provoked, a digital magazine created for bold, curious women over 50. Before launching the publication in her 60s, she had already moved through 13 careers, lived in five countries and six states, created seven businesses, and successfully exited six of them.

Her career began in one of the least conventional places imaginable for a young woman in the late 1970s: a military-style maritime college where roughly 12 women entered alongside approximately 400 men. Susan studied naval architecture, graduated into another male-dominated environment, and began designing submarines and aircraft carriers during the Cold War.

Then, while standing in the basin of a dry dock beneath the massive bow of an aircraft carrier, she had a very clear thought: "What the hell are you doing here?"

That question became the beginning of her first major pivot.

In this conversation, Susan and Dr. Robin Buckley explore how women recognize when it is time to change direction—and how they develop the confidence to act before they have every answer. Susan explains that taking up space is not merely a metaphor. It can mean walking into a room as though you belong there, making eye contact, offering a strong handshake, understanding who holds power, and preparing thoroughly enough that you can respond strategically rather than react anxiously.

Preparation, in Susan's world, is not about perfection. It is how confidence gets built before the meeting begins.

She also challenges the traditional networking advice that tells women success is primarily about who they know. Susan's version is sharper: it is also about who knows you. Your experience matters, but so does your ability to communicate a recognizable point of view, tell your own story, and allow people to understand what makes your perspective different.

That lesson became essential when she created Provoked without a background in publishing or an established network in media. Instead of treating that as disqualifying, Susan studied what was missing, listened to what women over 50 were discussing, identified recurring themes, wrote the first 20 articles herself, and began building authority one reader at a time.

Her story dismantles the assumption that women must be perfectly qualified before they begin. Susan is not suggesting that competence is irrelevant. She is saying that women are often more capable of learning as they go than they have been taught to believe.

The conversation also explores the complicated relationship between confidence and support. Susan speaks honestly about discovering that the people closest to you may not always show up for your work in the ways you expect. Reinvention requires more than encouragement. It requires identifying the people who will actually stand beside you, give honest feedback, and remind you who you are during the inevitable 2:00 a.m. existential crisis.

• Changing careers later in life without treating your earlier experience as wasted time
• Taking up space as a woman in boardrooms, technical fields, and other male-dominated environments
• Using preparation strategically by researching the people, hierarchy, personalities, and power in the room
• Building confidence through practice, trusted feedback, and a personal board of directors
• Recognizing when a career no longer fits, even when it looks successful from the outside
• Starting a business after 60 without direct experience in the industry you are entering
• Turning an unconventional career history into authority instead of apologizing for a nonlinear résumé
• Creating visibility and personal influence by owning your story and letting people know what you stand for

This conversation is for the woman who has accumulated decades of experience but is not convinced that her most interesting work is behind her. She may be considering a career change, building a business, entering a room where she is still the only woman, or wondering whether she is allowed to create something before she feels completely ready.

So if you've ever questioned whether your career still fits, struggled to make yourself visible in rooms that underestimate you, or wondered whether it is too late to build something entirely new… this episode's for you.

To subscribe to PROVOKED and read more from the amazing Susan Dabbar --> https://provokedmagazine.com/

Wondering why That's What She Said even exists? Host, Dr. Robin Buckley, pulls back the curtain on the mission and the unapologetic truth behind the podcast. We're not just chatting; we're sharing why GenX+ women are here to drop wisdom, insights, and sometimes uncomfortable truths for the next generation of women ready to own their power. This is the heart, the drive, and the "why" that keeps us talking because when women speak, the world changes.

If you've reached the point where taking care of your health feels like one more full-time job you are somehow failing to perform beautifully, this conversation offers a different approach. Preventive health for women does not have to begin with elaborate meal preparation, an hour at the gym, or another app tracking every bite, step, hormone, and mildly judgmental glass of wine.

Sometimes it begins with a bag of salad, a can of tuna, frozen vegetables, and the decision to stop waiting until something is wrong.

Dr. Mary Ann Martin is a double board-certified physician in internal medicine and endocrinology, the founder of Dr. Hormone Hacker, and the author of The Type Zero Diabetic. Her work became deeply personal when she faced her own prediabetes and had to reconsider the habits she had carried into adulthood, motherhood, and perimenopause.

That experience changed the way she approached women's metabolic health. Instead of waiting for high blood sugar, high cholesterol, weight gain, or hormonal changes to become bigger problems, she began helping women understand what they could influence earlier—and why the traditional healthcare system often does not provide enough time to have those conversations.

Dr. Martin and Dr. Robin Buckley explore why women frequently postpone their own care during the decades when they are carrying the most responsibility. Careers, children, relationships, aging parents, household management, and everyone else's needs tend to consume the schedule. Self-care gets whatever energy remains, which is usually very little and occasionally accompanied by cold coffee.

But this conversation is not about building the perfect routine. It is about creating habits strong enough to survive real life.

Dr. Martin explains why every woman needs a fast, realistic meal she can prepare on her most chaotic day and a simple way to move her body without requiring an hour at the gym. Missing one day is rarely the issue. The behavioral problem begins when several missed days create a domino effect: energy drops, motivation disappears, and restarting feels significantly harder.

The conversation also takes a direct look at the return of the ultra-thin body ideal and the influence of GLP-1 medications. Dr. Martin challenges women to stop treating the number on a traditional scale as the full definition of progress. Weight loss can include muscle loss, which makes body composition, strength training, adequate nutrition, and muscle preservation essential parts of the conversation—especially for women approaching or moving through perimenopause and menopause.

Her message is not anti-medication. It is anti-oversimplification.

The episode also moves beyond physical health into self-trust. Dr. Martin shares how she once planned a career in broadcast journalism and was offered a position at CNN—only to recognize that the opportunity she had worked toward did not feel right for her at that moment. Her decision to change direction eventually led her to medicine, endocrinology, and a career that combined her ability to ask questions with her desire to help people make meaningful changes.

Her story raises a question many women eventually confront: Are you making a decision because it fits you, or because you need to prove something to the people who doubted you?

• Building preventive health habits before high blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, or weight changes become larger medical concerns
• Creating five-minute meals and short movement routines that remain possible during the busiest seasons of life
• Understanding women's metabolic health during motherhood, perimenopause, menopause, and healthy aging
• Recognizing the difference between weight loss and fat loss, especially when GLP-1 medications are involved
• Protecting muscle mass through body-composition awareness, resistance training, movement, and adequate nutrition
• Questioning the ultra-thin ideal and replacing appearance-based goals with strength, energy, and long-term function
• Listening to intuition when the opportunity you thought you wanted no longer feels right
• Keeping your own passions alive while carrying the roles of partner, parent, professional, caregiver, and household CEO

This conversation is for the woman who knows she should be paying more attention to her health but cannot tolerate one more impossible wellness routine. It is also for the woman who has been using the scale as a verdict, giving everyone else her best energy, or quietly wondering whether the path she chose still fits.

So if you've ever postponed your health because life was too busy, struggled to separate weight loss from actual wellness, or wondered whether trusting yourself could change your next decade… this episode's for you.

You can learn more about Dr. Mary Ann Martin (aka Dr. Hormone Hacker) at https://www.drhormonehacker.com/ and purchase her book, The Type Zero Diabetic.