After a childhood and youth spent rigorously training for professional careers in ballet, Roland Spier and Jaya Puglise each suffered career-ending injuries. With their hopes for careers in dance at an end, both were faced with finding new purpose and identities. They each attended Columbia University in New York. Both in their 20’s, Roland and Jaya work as management consultants now but are giving back to dance and dancers through Second Act, which Jaya describes as ”a network to connect current and former dancers of all backgrounds to streamline the difficult transition and creates a support system for personal and professional growth.” Says Roland, “Second Act was born from my experience struggling to find a path after hanging up my dance shoes due to injury. I want to create a resource for dancers experiencing a similar transition to find support, both personal and professional. I am passionate about this opportunity to bring dancers together, while giving back to the arts.”

Topics Include:

The close identity young dancers develop to the profession, because they start so young, often at three

or four, and then spend time at the dance studio rather than in after school activities.

The strong bonds young dancers form with their classmates as they work towards performances and

reaching milestones in the craft, which are hard to reproduce outside of the dance world.

Feeling gratitude for the skills gained through the years of study and practice, but sadness too for the

dance career that didn’t happen.

Empathizing with young Olympic athletes and the pressure they feel to perform and what happens

when they can’t “deliver".

The difficult transition out of the dance world to finding new interests and pursuits.

Founding the nonprofit mentoring group Second Act, bring together mentors with younger dancers

transitioning to other careers.

Adjusting to enjoying ballet as audience members.

Their advice to others: Don’t box yourself in, there is a lot that’s open to you.

Resources:

Instagram: @secondactnyc

Roland Spier is originally from Washington D.C and trained at the Washington School of Ballet, dancing alongside the company in many of their productions. After graduating high school he was invited to be a trainee in Pacific Northwest ballet’s Professional Division where he performed with PNB also freelancing as a guest artist with smaller companies and studios. He took two gap years, prior to starting at Columbia University from which he graduated in 2020 with a major in architecture and a concentration in East Asian studies. Currently an Associate Consultant at OC&C, Roland focuses on corporate strategy and M&A due diligence across sectors.

Jaya Puglise grew up in Vermont, training at Vermont Ballet Theater. After attending summers at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy summer intensive, she was awarded a full scholarship to train at the school in Moscow for a summer while taking Russian language classes, and later invited to stay to train year round. After a severe foot injury led her to stop ballet, Jaya studied abroad in Russia for her final year of high school.

Jaya graduated from Columbia University in 2020 with a double major in political science and Russian language and culture. She received departmental honors for her thesis “Creating Memory and Commemorating the Wronged: Alexei Ratmansky’s The Bolt and The Bright Stream”. Now working at OC&C Strategy Consultants as an Associate Consultant, Jaya works across a variety of industries in corporate strategy and due diligence projects.

At the first year mark of The Latest Version, I am checking in with my first six guests. These women shared their stories when I didn’t have a finished product yet to share with them. They took a chance with me, sharing their stories about their life journeys and their plans for the future, and I am so grateful to them. Their experiences this past year will sound familiar to many of you. Some are making progress, while others have family issues that may have put their plans on temporary hold, but no one’s giving up. All original episodes are available at www.thelatestversionpodcast.com/episodes.

Danielle Butin started Afya Foundation, a nonprofit in Yonkers, NY that collects unused medical supplies from hospitals that would otherwise go to landfill. Afya receives these supplies in their warehouse, sorts and repacks, then ships them to hospitals around the world, often in response to natural disasters. Today, Afya Foundation’s purpose could not be more vital, as they send off supplies to Ukraine. If you want to donate to Afya, please go to www.afyafoundation.org.

Lucy Filppu is a long-time English teacher at Palo Alto High School in California. Last year We talked about her work at a high performing school district. Lucy shared with us that she was working with a writers group to start on a novel. She also has an entrepreneurial side, as several years ago she started writing boot camp for students entering high school. So how’s it going? Lucy shared with me that she has a sick family member who is her priority right now. Many of us have shared a simiar experience and we send her and her family much love.

Christina McMurray wrote and published a book, “Live, Laugh, Fly,” about her son Scott’s battle with a rare pediatric cancer and death at 22. In truth, the book was a bigger examination of a marriage that hit some rocks but, contrary to expectations, came back stronger than ever when Scott’s illness hit. A big part of Chris’s story are the coincidences and “signs” her family have noticed since Scott’s passing, and her confidence that he continues to be a part of their lives. Chris and husband Gene are doing well, and even have a podcast of their own! Chris’s book, “Live, Laugh, Fly” can be found on Amazon.

Lela Cocoros Goldstein’s life after retirement from a busy corporate and consulting career took an interesting turn. Last year she told me about her discovery of the art of collage. I didn’t know much about collage, other than to think, “wow, that looks like fun.” And my other thought was, “Lela is really good at that!” My question to her last year was, “How far are you going to take this?” She is still growing as a collage artist and is exploring teaching collage. You can view her work on her Latest Version episode page.

Betsy Chappell shows how you can take an interest or a sideline – in this case gardening – and turn it into a business by focusing on a niche. In Betsy’s case, the niche is container gardening, enhancing the outdoor spaces of her clients’ homes in Lexington, Kentucky with beautiful potted plant arrangements. A year later, her business, Blooms Designs is, well, blooming. She is finding new ways to market her business and is building it up with a particular goal in mind. You can see her Instagram feed at Blooms Designs.

Finally, my first interview last year was with Lara Lavi – an old friend who had a promising career as an Americana singer songwriter, but put a lot of that aside to concentrate on her law practice and, more recently, to help manage the career of her very talented son, Cameron Lavi-Jones and his band, King Youngblood. When we talked last year, Lara had just released a single, a cover of Joni Mitchell

Discovering the calm of yoga class at a local gym while her little kids were in the babysitting room was Susie Rubin’s introduction to yoga.  Fifteen years later, Susie is now an inspiring yoga instructor and teacher trainer.  She shares how her understanding of yoga has deepened her compassionate view of others and acceptance of her own vulnerabilities. And how it helped when she was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer. We had a beautiful conversation.  Even if you don’t know yoga, Susie will inspire you and really make your day.

Topics include:

• Her early career as a copywriter with Conde Nast
• No judgement, no mirrors:  the positive early encounters with yoga
• Finding profound meaning in the motto: “The greatest teacher lies within”
• Deepening her practice through study of yoga’s history and philosophy
• Becoming a certified yoga instructor, now running a teacher training program
• How yoga classrooms can be a microcosm of the world
• Getting her cancer diagnosis and getting through it with yoga and meditation
• How she saved her hair through “cold capping” during cancer treatment
• Her advice for getting through anxious days of bad news
• Practicing gratitude even on the toughest days

Susie Rubin has practiced yoga since 2004; receiving her first RYT 200 hours in Yoga, Meditation and Pranayama from NY's Integral Yoga Institute. In the fall of 2016, Susie completed a second 200-hour RYT focused on Hot Vinyasa, Yin Yoga and the Ashtanga Primary Series. Since then, she’s become increasingly drawn to the rigor, discipline and healing properties of a daily Mysore practice. In the spring and summer of 2018, Susie was fortunate enough to train among a small group of teachers led by Manju Jois. He, along with her teachers past and present inspire her to keep studying, stay humble and never forget the joy that compassionate yoga delivers. She recently completed her 500 HR RYT.

Resources:

www.susierubinyoga.com

Melissa Davey retired from a lengthy corporate career at the end of 2015 to pursue her second act and her dream of becoming a filmmaker, which she made a reality when she completed her film Beyond Sixty. It's a feature length documentary about women over the age of 60 who have lived remarkable lives and have remarkable and inspiring stories to share with the rest of us.

Her life-long love of film, reading about how films are made, seeing as many films as she could, put her in a position to take advantage of an opportunity that came her way, when she was the highest charity auction bidder for a day on a film set with director M. Night Shyamalan. His question to her, “What do you really want to do?” set in motion a new chapter in her life when she decided to leave her long-time corporate job and become a filmmaker.  

Topics include:

• Facing the fear of making a big life change
• Her practice of Life Layering through her interest in all aspects of film prepared her for this moment
• Taking a self-inventory
• How taking a detour led her to meet M. Night Shyamalan, who asked her the question that would change her life
• Her film, Beyond Sixty, and three of the women profiled in the film, including Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri; Peggy Bradnick Jackson, who has turned her traumatic abduction as a teenager into a plea for mental illness awareness; and A’lelia Bundles, the great great granddaughter and biographer of Madam C.J. Walker, the first Black woman millionaire.
• Her next project

Melissa Davey, age 71, retired from a lengthy corporate career at the end of 2015. Pursuing her dream of becoming a filmmaker became a reality in late 2018 when Melissa completed her first film, Beyond Sixty Project, a feature length documentary about women over the age of sixty. During 2019 Melissa’s film was accepted by and screened at 8 film festivals throughout the United States and Canada, winning awards and confirming that it is truly never too late to learn something new. The film was picked up by a distributor in late 2020 and was released in Spring, 2021.

Resources:

Beyond Sixty Project

Are you one of those people who have a photo management problem? Like, spilling out of boxes and envelopes, or taking up more and more space on your phone or laptop or multiple flash drives? You are not alone! So many people are struggling to organize their zillions of photographs that a new profession has been created: The Photo Manager. If you think you would enjoy the challenge of organizing other people’s photos, photo management might make a great full-time business or side gig. Cathi Nelson became a professional photo manager almost by accident.  When she realized it was a new type of business that was needed all over the country, she founded The Photo Managers, a professional organization that offers training and certification. The Photo Managers now has 650 members worldwide and there’s lots of room for new entrants into the profession.

Topics include:

• Her move from scrapbooking to photo organization
• How organizing analog photos is different from digital photos.
• Her move from working with clients to setting up a framework for an entirely new profession
• The “why” behind our motivation for take and saving photos
• The ABC’s of photo organizing 
• Which photos can you safely discard?
• The best way to save your photos before it’s too late
• Steps to becoming a certified professional photo organizer
• Easy-to-do side hustles that are lucrative
• The Photo Managers’ annual education conference
• Tips for DIY photo organizing
• The 80/20 rule for photo curation

Resources:  

The Photo Managers

Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed by Cathi Nelson

Can there be anything more life changing than being reunited with your birth family? For the millions of people who were adopted as infants in the decades after WWII and have longed to know more about their heritage, the field of DNA testing offers great promise. Many people are finally getting the answers they've longed for all their lives. Geraldine Berger is a professional genetic genealogist who specializes in helping adult adoptees identify and locate their birth parents and other family members using DNA evidence. An adoptee herself, Gerri has cracked hundreds of cases, including her own. She is the author of the book “Living in the Know: The Adoptee's Quick Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing.”

Topics include:

• Helping adoptive parents understand that “no one can love you out of your need to know who you are and where you come from.”
• The “Baby Scoop” era from the ‘40’s to the ‘70’s when many infants born to unwed mothers were surrendered for adoption.
• Only 10 states give adoptees the right to their birth records with complete information.
• The first step: registering with a mutual consent registry.
• Taking the DNA test and uploading results
• The unexpected things we inherit from our birth parents
• Gerri’s cautious approach to newly discovered birth parents
• Solving the mystery of the baby abandoned in a hotel room in 1944—and what remains unknown.

Resources:

Gerri’s website: The Genetic Genealogy Coach

Living in the Know: The Adoptees Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing by Geraldine Berger

International Soundex Reunion Registry

Nancy Steiner had a successful career in network news and as a documentary film producer. But after a near-fatal health crisis, Nancy took stock – was she really doing with her life what she was meant to do? She decided to become a certified Life Coach, helping others to do their best and succeed at their chosen project. Nancy takes us through the process of her transformation into a Life Coach, what that means, who she works with and how she helps them. But she also talks about her exciting years as a news producer for The Today Show, when she worked with Katie Couric to bring to the public facts about colon cancer screening after the death of her husband. Couric’s and Nancy’s brave broadcasting of their own colonoscopies have encouraged others to be screened and so have saved many lives. Nancy also shares how she and her second husband have blended families, bringing step-children and even ex-spouses into the fold.  Nancy has a remarkable approach to marriage and relationships that benefits everyone, especially children.

Topics include:

• Life behind the scenes in the fast-paced world of network news, especially when a catastrophic event of historic proportions occurs.
• Why colon cancer screenings are so important:  If you are screened, you are saved.
• Nancy’s work and “The Couric Effect:”  How The Today’s Show segments on colon cancer have saved lives. 
• The near fatal health crisis that brought about a reassessment of life purpose and goals
• The road to becoming a life coach through certification
• The difference between coaching and psychotherapy
• Divorces and blending families 
• The importance of putting the children first

Nancy Steiner comes to coaching by way of a career as a journalist and as a wife, mother and stepmother of a blended family with five children. She is a life coach certified by iPEC, the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. In addition to individual clients, she is a mentor/coach at The Harvard Business School, where she helps student entrepreneurs. She is also coaching a group of women ages 60-plus seeking comfort and joy through a safe and supportive place.

For 38 years, she focused on producing documentary films and non-fiction network television. She has produced profiles about civil rights activists and organizers, performing and visual artists, writers, politicians – essentially, people whose lives offer stories from which others can benefit.

Resources:

Nancy’s article for Maria Shriver’s newsletter:  https://mariashriver.com/nancy-steiner-career-pivots-at-any-age/

Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching:  https://www.ipeccoaching.com/

Neil Braun has great advice for the 50+ job seeker: make your life experience your advantage. He knows what he’s talking about. Now 69 and on his 15th career role, Neil has held jobs as divergent as President of NBC Television Network and Dean of the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. He continues to seek out new challenges – his latest version is co-founder of a health-related streaming service called Mediflix. Neil’s conversation is full of great advice for anyone seeking a new job or more fulfilling career.

Topics include:

• Putting yourself in “the flow of traffic” by building a network of contacts. 
• Understanding that everyone you come across is a potential collaborator or mentor, even if they are currently an adversary
• Knowing when it’s time to leave a job or position
• How he got his two biggest jobs by making his outsider role his greatest advantage
• Preparing for the Big Interview
• His biggest job failure
• Getting through a long period of joblessness
• Advice to the 50+ job seeker
• His newest venture, Mediflix

Neil S. Braun started out as a corporate attorney and has served as President of the NBC Television Network, CEO of Viacom Entertainment, and President of Imagine Entertainment (Ron Howard’s and Brian Grazer’s production company). He has been an internet entrepreneur and partnered with the producer of SHREK to create CGI animation company Vanguard Animation. He has served on the Board, Audit and Governance Committees of IMAX Corporation and chaired nonprofit boards and committees. He was Dean of Pace University’s Lubin School of Business from 2010 until 2020.  Now at 69 he is again an entrepreneur as a cofounder of Mediflix, a video streaming platform providing medical mentorship from hundreds of the world’s top specialists to help individuals navigate their chronic conditions.

The Latest Version host Betsy Bush talks with interviewer Nancy Steiner about her years selling German nutcrackers and other Christmas decorations in the early years of the internet. As a German speaking American who travelled to the former East Germany in the mid-1990’s, Betsy recognized that these genuine handmade wooden crafts were not readily available yet in the U.S., nor were the folk art origins behind the nutcracker figure and many other ornaments well known. Betsy founded her home-based business, Drosselmeier’s Handcrafted Treasures from the Land of the Nutcrackers, in 1998.

Topics include:

• A trip to the former East German state of Saxony, discovering the Village of Seiffen, the center of the toy-making cottage industry in a region called the Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains
• Starting a home-based business in the early days of the internet
• Telling a real German nutcracker from the imposters
• The meaning of the nutcracker and smoker figures in the folk art tradition
• Having a gift business in the awkward space between bricks and mortar and the internet
• The surprising history of the Nutcracker ballet and American Christmas traditions
• What to consider if you go into a holiday-based business
• Using journalism skills to get PR
• “Know when to fold ‘em”

Betsy Hills Bush is the host of The Latest Version. She recently graduated from Columbia University with a second BA majoring in Architecture. She has multiple interests including gardening with native plants and singing in her church choir. She serves on the board of several nonprofit organizations in Westchester County, NY.

Resources

The Latest Version Christmas Episode:  https://youtu.be/LKGFD4lmvFg

YouTube: “Discover Seiffen: Germany’s Christmas Village” https://youtu.be/J9Gw2UEN54

YouTube: Martha Stewart Living: Betsy Bush with her nutcracker collection 

https://youtu.be/AuSvWtvLHVI

An excellent article on Seiffen in the Ore Mountains by Ann Mah for the New York Times Travel Section with photographs and maps:

Dreaming of an Artisanal Christmas by Ann Mah, NYT 12/18/19

An excellent book about the Nutcracker ballet:

Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World by Jennifer Fisher (2004)

At 29, Donna Korren was Advertising Manager for Vogue Magazine when the publication was at the height of its influence in the 1990’s. Now in her 50’s, Donna is encouraging her peers to stand out in the workplace as energetic, technically competent colleagues. Her vision is for an intergenerational workplace in which wisdom is shared both up and down the age range.

Donna’s Tedx talk, The Newest Workforce Disruptors are Over 50! illuminates the increasing number of professionals launching new businesses and creating second careers after 50.  

Topics include:

• Qualities of the 50+ entrepreneur that lead to a high success rate 
• The overlooked advantages of 50+ workers
• The value of intergenerational office culture, from mentoring to fresh ideas
• The absolute imperative to master digital technology
• How advertising to the 50+ consumer is missing the boat
• Tips for moving with intention towards your goals

Donna Korren is also the founder and President of Change, a women owned payment processing company. Her digital platform, Empty Quester™, includes a video series and articles of interest for empty nesters on a quest for a new bold chapter. She is a graduate of Cornell University. 

Resources:

Change:  Payment Processing Done Differently

Tedx Talk with Donna Korren: The Newest Workforce Disruptors are Over 50!

Empty Quester

Washington Post:  Five things you should do right now  if you're taking a break from work to raise children by Donna Korren