I've learned so many important lessons through my reinvention experiences. As always, there's that 2020 hindsight thing going on. I wish I’d known so many of these things before. Yet, they were important lessons I needed to learn along the way in addition to understanding that I can go further and be better with the support of others.
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Welcome to Reinvention Rebels, stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reimagined life, on their own terms, to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. Ready for a dose of inspiration? Let's get to it.
Hey, Reinvention Rebels, welcome back to another episode. I'm so glad you're here. I'm your host, Wendy and if you're a first-time listener, I'm really glad you found me. This is the place to come for a pro-age dose of inspiration about what's possible as we age. I happily celebrate, illuminate, and elevate amazing women between 50 and 90, who have reinvented themselves in bold, brave, and unapologetic ways. Women like Carolyn, who started her modeling career at 72. Amazing, right? Or, Mary, who didn't start running until 55 and now at 71 has run in marathons around the world. And Lea, who I interviewed on the most recent episode, who started her award-winning travel podcast at 79. They prove it's never too late. We're never too old and we can start refreshing and reimagining our lives today, if we so choose. They are just a few examples of the extraordinary women I have the pleasure to be in conversation with. You can check out a link to their specific episodes in the show notes. And of course, I encourage you to listen to all of the episodes. Perfect company for spring cleaning, declutter your home, and think about how you can declutter your life, too, by lightening up to see new possibilities for joy and growth.
I will say that there's a commonality among all of these Reinvention Rebels. One, they are sheroes of their own lives. They are living on their own terms. They are creating and enjoying the lives they want to have. And two, they have figured out that to create an amazing life you love as you age it takes a team. This isn't a dress rehearsal for a one woman show. Nope, this is you taking center stage in a play where you're the star, but you have an amazing supporting cast to help you shine. Yes, indeed. Today, we are talking about why a reinvention team, your crew, your posse, your ride-or-dies, your guides on the side is so crucial to reinventing yourself. You need your people, amazing ones and so do I. We all do. I can't wait to dive in and share more thoughts about why reinvention is a team sport. But first, let me share a recent review.
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You know what helps make the Reinvention Rebels Podcast great? Easy. It's you. Thank you for listening, sharing, and rating and reviewing the podcast. I really appreciate you being fans. I want to share a recent review I received on Apple Podcasts. Porter9192 writes, “So inspiring. I feel so blessed to know this podcast exists. It's such an incredible resource on reinvention, a giant permission live for us all.” Definitely, give it a listen. Thank you so much for this lovely review. I really appreciate you taking a few minutes to share your thoughts Porter9192. Indie podcasters love reviews. Well, actually, all podcasters love reviews. But for us, indie podcasters. Reviews help make our podcasts easier to find. With over 2 million podcasts in the world that is no easy task. If you love today's episode or you've been meaning to leave a review, but haven't quite gotten to it, do you mind sharing a brief one? Details are in the show notes to leave a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate it.
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Let's talk not just about reinvention, but reinvention when you've got a team of amazing souls helping you to transform and reimagine your life on your terms. Why is this even important? Well, I'll simply say that in my multi-reinvented life, I've gotten a lot of help from my friends. And not only friends, but family, coaches, mentors, and my spouse, too. It's hard to go it alone when it comes to reinventing ourselves. One of the reasons is that we're so close to our lives that it's hard to have perspective. I have a hard time seeing what I want or need to change when I'm in the situation. It's not impossible, just harder. Don't we want to live with more ease as we age, not make things so tough, and not take forever to figure it out? Let me tell you two stories. One about when I didn't have a team to help me and the second about when I was all in on team reinvention. Here's a quick summary of what I mean.
In my 30s, I reinvented myself as a voice actor. I remember people always told me, “Wendy, you have a great voice.” Okay, they didn't say exactly that, but that's how I like to say it like, “You see what I mean. Leveraging those things that we're really good at.” I took that to heart and enrolled in a fun one-night class, where you get to try voice work on for size in a playful way. That led to creating a demo tape that I could use to get voiceover work. The thing is, I didn't know much, okay anything about being a voice actor. Two, the most I’d done in the acting world was appear as a cast member in a few productions in high school and college. I even dabbled a bit after college in a community theater production where I was honestly pretty terrible. The musical was called Baby and it confirmed that I'm not adept at singing and dancing at the same time.
Really, this wasn't my natural inclination to shine on the stage, at least not then. After my demo was done, I started shopping it around, sending it to production studios. Interestingly, I got some work very quickly. I met some great producers. I was having a ball. Some of them asked me back for other jobs. I was in the zone. That is until I ran into challenging producers, the kind of people it's hard to satisfy. The kind of work that made me super nervous. Getting super sweaty with a pit in your stomach, kind of nervous. I almost got fired from a job on the spot. I was trying to play a distressed mom, who was fed up with apartment living and needed a mortgage, so she and her family could move. But I couldn't quite get it right. We took five, so I could try to get it together, get into the role more fully as in display the appropriate emotions. It worked. I was able to do it and I didn't get fired, thankfully. But don't you think that might have been a wakeup call that I could use some help? Coaching, acting classes, how to manage my stress in the moment, really any and probably all of these things? Well, you think so, but it wasn't. Nope.
A team to help me realize my reinvention dreams of making it big or at least getting steady work wasn't even on my radar screen. I didn't get that I could take classes to help me get better and feel more confident. I didn't understand that there were many ways to reach my goals like hiring a coach. Mind you, this was before the internet exploded. Information wasn't as easily accessible as it is today with everything at our fingertips. So, what happened? Well, I never got that coaching that could have helped. I continued on with some other jobs, some super successful, one where I did get fired because I couldn't do what the client wanted. It was one of those crazy fast-talking paragraphs at the end of a commercial, but fine print. But over time, I lost confidence. I didn't think I could do it. I started to doubt myself and I absorbed the messaging about how hard it is to make it as a voice talent that most of the work was for well-known actors, that I couldn't make a living. Sure, it's tough, but not impossible. A coach could have helped me see that. But left to my own devices, I quit, stopped, moved on to other things without giving it more time.
Hey, Reinvention Rebels, if you're enjoying the inspiration I'm sharing, I want to invite you to join me on social media, where I am sharing inspiration to get you moving in the direction of your dreams just about every day. You can find me on Instagram @reinventionrebels. My Facebook page, Reinvention Rebels or on Twitter @rebelsreinvent. Come join me and let's get inspired together.
That's what can happen when we're a solo act, going it alone, thinking we can figure everything out. We can do some of it sure. But to really grow, a team approach is so much better. Fast forward to my next big reinvention in my 40s. This time, I was all about reinventing myself with the help of others. It was 2005. I was antsy. I didn't like my corporate job. I was grieving the loss of my father the year before. I knew I wanted something different, but I didn't know what it was. I couldn't put my finger on it, so I hired a career coach. If your career isn't working, you get help, right? She was awesome in helping me explore my values, my desires, what makes me most happy. I recognized that I love to be of service to others. I uncovered the idea of public health. I was particularly drawn to helping communities of color with chronic health problems.
But long story short, I didn't want to invest the time and money to get a public health degree. I chose a different path of going to nutrition school. I figured I could still do a lot of work in the community, but in a way that worked better for me. It led me to start my own coaching practice where once again, I leaned into a team of people to help me reinvent myself as a health coach. My reinvention team included a business coach, a marketing expert, and a virtual assistant. Let me not forget my husband, who was always encouraging me playing sous chef to help me prep for Good Morning Connecticut TV segments, helping me set up at community health fairs, being my roadie and crew when I was filming videos about healthy food at the Montreal Jazz Festival. You name it, he was there for me. Yes, it takes a posse, a village that right there is the team approach to reinventing yourself. Being open to asking for and seeking help, acknowledging that you can do more and go further with the help of others.
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I've learned so many important lessons through my reinvention experiences. As always, there's that 2020 hindsight thing going on. I wish I'd known so many of these things before, yet, they were important lessons I needed to learn along the way. In addition to understanding that I can go further and be better with the support of others, I've also learned that people have our backs. So many people want to help us. They want to see us shine, when we can articulate our dreams, even if in rough form or just share a simple idea or inkling we have. It's amazing how the universe can swoop in to assist us in our reinvention journey.
I'm talking about multi-directional support. When I told a colleague at work that I was planning to start a podcast during my current reinvention, he offered to edit it for me. Boom. Just like that. Put your desires out there and people show up. I believe that so many of us love to be of service to help others and that we can find support in numerous ways, both from people we know and people we have yet to meet. I've learned that I'm not afraid to find coaches who get me, who are all in to help me, and who I will gladly pay to help me be my best.
For me, right now, that's being the best podcaster I can be. That's getting advanced coaching to determine how to grow my podcast reach. Yep, this is definitely a reinvention still in progress. But I love and appreciate that other people have my back as much as I do and want to see me be successful. That right there is a key component of reinventing yourself to shine. and that brings me to my final point about going all in on team reinvention, where you get to be the star of your own reinvention show with the help of a stellar supporting cast, you can get all the help you want and need from a variety of people, but you've also got to develop your trust muscle.
In my episode earlier this season, reinventing yourself means learning to let go. I talked about the trust factor, that when we learn how to trust, we can reinvent ourselves with more joy and freedom. Great actors don't go it alone. They may have a starring role, but ultimately, they are part of a team of other actors. They trust their costars. They work together to create a great performance. Moving towards your reinvention dreams, your fresh start has to start within, you have to believe it's possible. You need to build your trust muscle, trusting that you can do this that you can attract the right people to help you. Trusting that together, you can help move your dreams forward in exciting ways.
In my younger years, not only did I think I could figure it out all by myself, but I also didn't have a strong sense of trust in myself. I guess, that's what wisdom and experience does for us, right? You learn those things over time. When we do awaken to these lessons that we can go further with the help of others, that people are eager to help, that we can learn to trust we can make our dreams a reality, our reinvention journey can be so sweet, so satisfying. Just listen to the episode with Mary Newell, the woman who started running at 55 and now runs in global marathons at 71. How did she do it? With the same approach of creating her own reinvention posse, amazing people to help guide her. Cheer on the victory. People excited to be on Team Mary. All this talk about creating a reinvention team to light your path makes me want to ask you some questions.
Who's on your reinvention team? Who are the people you trust to help you figure things out? What kind of help do you need? Where would you find people like that? How can your family and friends contribute to your reinvention journey? Would a coach help you figure things out? These are all questions to get you thinking. No two reinvention journeys are the same. Each of us has our own unique path. There's no right or wrong way to do it. Who can help you figure out your next move, your reinvention path? It's really about the willingness to lean in and explore, to be curious about what's possible. Perhaps, it means getting out of your comfort zone.
But on the other side of that were new possibilities for growth, joy, and living your life on purpose. So, are you all in? What one action step will get you moving in the direction of your dreams and how can you do it with a team of supporters cheering you on? Let's do this Reinvention Rebels. Let's dig deep and be open to figuring things out one moment on amazing reinvention team member at a time or perhaps collectively. Let's trust ourselves that we'll be able to find the right people. And let's get into action to make it happen. We can go so much further with the help of others. How might you reinvent yourself? I can't wait to hear how this episode resonates with you and propels you forward. So, keep being bold and brave, Reinvention Rebels. You've got this. Keep creating opportunities to shine your amazing light.
Thanks again for listening. I am so grateful that you're part of our Reinvention Rebels tribe. If you love this episode, don't forget to take a moment to leave me a five-star rating on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. I appreciate your support. Until next time, stay true to yourself and shine your beautiful light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.
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Hey, Reinvention Rebels, I'm so excited about the next episode, when my amazing mom joins me in the guest chair. We had the best conversation about how she's reinvented herself over her 89 years multiple times in multiple ways. She inspires me and it's the behind-the-scenes peek into how I've grown into the person I am today. It's a very special conversation and I can't wait to share it with you.
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