Guler Cortis
Because often we have something, and we only let it go when we have something else. But the best way of overcoming that fear is to let it go first, sit inside it in that fear, and feel it all, feel the anguish and, oh my god, I what have I done something wrong?
Should I go back? And look at the positive?
What am I gonna gain? And then once you're there, you've got the conclusion already.
Wendy Battles
Welcome to Reinvention Rebel. Stories of brave and unapologetic women 50 to 90 years young who have boldly reinvented life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. I need to kick your fears to the curb, do it scared, and step into who you are meant to be in midlife and beyond? These amazing women, these reinvention rebels can help light your reinvention path. Come join us, and let's get inspired together. Hey. Hey, everybody.
Welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I am your host, Wendy, and I'm really excited you're joining me today. If you are a new listener, you found me somehow, some way, welcome aboard. I'm so glad you're here. This is a top 2% globally rated podcast, and it's all about midlife possibility. It's about what happens when we dip our toe in even when we're unsure and we decide that we want to reinvent ourselves even though we might not know the how. So much of this is the journey.
It's our mindset. It's what we think is possible in our lives in midlife. And as we continue to age, and I have the pleasure and honor of interviewing amazing, remarkable, interesting, juicy, joyful women who are like you and me. They don't have all the answers. They start off unsure. They do it scared. They figure it out, and they inspire all of us.
Because if they can do it, and they can do it scared, and they can step out a little closer into the light, a little closer to their purpose, they lay the groundwork for us to do that too. Now if we're not gonna do it the way they do it, we have our own unique path, but they give us courage.
They give us confidence. They remind us that even taking baby steps are steps in the right direction as we reinvent ourselves. And I love sharing their stories. Like a couple weeks ago, my friend Bettina. Did you hear that episode? It was so inspiring. She talked all about midlife courage.
What is possible? How she was able to trans form from midlife crisis to midlife courage? What happened and how she opened her very cool outdoor retreat company for women called Adventures For The Soul. It was such a great episode. I'm looking to it in the show notes in case you didn't have a chance to listen to it yet because you will absolutely love it. And today, my friend, Guler, is joining me for another really juicy conversation. She is so full of life.
She's very inspiring. She's had a super interesting journey at 61. You're gonna hear all about that. So let's get to it. You are in for a joyful and enlightening treat today with my very special guest, Guler Cortis, who is 61. Born in Turkey with a Dutch nationality, Guler moved to London at 25 seeking new adventures. She's done many things over the years, most recently reinventing herself during the pandemic.
Throughout it, she's developed her muscles to look within, spread joy and empower others, her superpower. Especially as part of Toastmasters Reinvention, helping to hone her own and others' speaking abilities. More recently, she launched her 6 part YouTube series Sexy at 60. Doesn't that already sound really good? I want to know more about that. Being in conversation with amazing women in their sixties who are shining their light. You can't help but be inspired by what she shares today.
Guler Cortis, welcome to the reinvention rebels guest chair.
Guler Cortis
Hi, Wendy. I'm so excited to be here and be part of reinvention Rebel, and what a rebel I am.
Wendy Battles
Yes. You are, Guler. You are such a rebel. I'm so excited and really overjoyed that you're joining me today for our audience.
I wanna tell you how I met Guler. I met her actually on LinkedIn. You know, I meet my guests in so many different ways.
Sometimes in social media. Sometimes people are recommended. Sometimes I already know someone and they live locally. And somehow, Guler, I met you through some other amazing women that show up on linked LinkedIn, and we just got connected. And I know that when I saw your sexy at 60 series celebrating midlife women, I was like, what? Who's this woman and what is she doing?
And I'm just so intrigued. So we have a lot to talk about, and I thought we kinda start a little bit at the beginning. I wanted to ask you about your reinvention during the pandemic. What prompted you to reinvent yourself, and exactly what did you do?
Guler Cortis
Reinvention. Well, of course, pandemic hit us all, and I went on an adventure. I left a stick corporate job I had in London to search for love in a different side of England, the UK. I went to North Yorkshire.
And you know what? When you reinvent yourself, you have got to take risks. So I went through the pandemic, took the risk, packed up my stuff, and hit a wall because there were no jobs. And it was like, oh my god. What am I gonna do now? Having work worked since I was 16 years old, it's like, hold on. This is not on.
So I meet this beautiful lady in a shoe shop, and we discuss what I could be doing. And she goes, you know what? Just start up yourself. And I'm like, yes. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?
Wendy Battles
I love it. Right? So this actually, your reinvention was sparked by someone else who saw something in you.
Guler Cortis
Yes. And to today's date, she is still my client. It is it's really interesting how you meet each other. And again, it goes back to when you always keep yourself open to receive everything, and that is by being, of course, positive. You know, if you throw negativity away and you keep yourself open, It's your arms. Keep your arms wide open, and things will come to you. It is the law of attraction, and it does work.
And it's so beautiful to meet people. They come to your life for particular reason.
Wendy Battles
I've also found that to be true that people show up in ways that are sometimes mysterious. That of the blue, someone will show up or, I don't know, have some impact in our life that might help lead us in the direction we're meant to go. So I agree with you about the art of manifestation. You also said something else that really caught my attention which was about taking risks. And you clearly did that when you one quit your job and then you're like, okay, now what?
But you were open. I heard you say you were really open so you sort of attracted this person that was the catalyst for you creating this new Reinvention. Why
Guler Cortis
is taking risks so important do you think for women that are reinventing themselves? It is very important because we mustn't think that when we are at a certain age, especially after the children have left the homes, and we think, okay. We'll just sit down and do nothing. There's such a big world out there, and the knowledge we have gained through our working life, through basically raising our children, you have got to take that risk and believe in yourself to catch something new. Never think your life stopped there. There is so much more. Because people are like, well, well, I don't know where to go and what to do, but it is again, it goes back to being open and just take that risk because the risk outweighs what you get it back in return.
And you got to have that curious mind, what if. So don't because if you look at what if in a very positive way, what if I take that risk, take that bet is a win situation.
Wendy Battles
I like how you said that what if and one of the things I talk about a lot with reinvention, what I think is so important, one of the key ingredients is what you said, which is curiosity, being open. And I love this idea of a positive spin and what if because I think that we can often get caught up in the what ifs in the negative way. Well, what if this doesn't work out?
What if I fail? What if I I feel, you know, I will feel like I find out I made a big mistake? But I like that because to me what you're talking about is mindset shift. How do we shift our mindset to one of possibility?
Guler Cortis
That and that is a difficult one because, I mean, I can talk my own experience. I mean, I've come from Turkey. I was brought up in Holland, and very quickly, I had to change my mindset. My mindset was focused on serving as a Turkish woman. My father nearly married me out, but that didn't happen. I had to learn at a young age that if I wanted to get somewhere, I was the one that had to do it. And because of my Turkish background, there was a lot of it I just did not like.
I did not want to wear a headscarf. I did not want to listen to, I would say, male and just Yeah. And do everything on order. I I knew that I was an individual, and thanks to my upbringing of a Dutch mother, she really, really helped me with that. It's very strange that a child so young, you know, I was 5 years old when I came to Holland, that already has everything in her, how do you call it, already given all that information of how to behave or within that status of the home. And it took my Dutch mother quite a lot of time to push those thoughts out, to push me into you are you. You can rebel against me, scream at me, shout at me, ask me.
You do not have to stand up when your brothers asked you for a cup of tea.
Wendy Battles
So your mom empowered you.
Guler Cortis
My mom so empowered me.
Wendy Battles
I love that because we don't always see that. And there's so many different variables that determine how empowered do girls feel and ultimately women feel. And there's so many things that you're talking about have to do with our family structure and what we learn and the culture of our family or the larger culture in which we live. That is so powerful that you were able to learn these lessons really early from your mother. And I can see how that's helped you step into being this fierce reinvention rebel where you're like, I wanna do what I wanna do and I wanna take these risks and I don't wanna be all bound up by what society necessarily says.
Guler Cortis
No. And the other one is, of course, we're trying to teach our children. We're trying to teach them, okay. Don't do this because that might happen. Don't do this.
That might happen. But we always do it anyway. So my teaching to my kids is when they say, well, why didn't you stop me? I say, well, I wasn't gonna waste my energy because you were gonna do it anyway.
I love it. Yes. And me having to waste that energy, it's it's much nicer they come to the realization themselves, and we can then discuss it, which is so much more beneficial. And you and you can see that they can talk about it and say, okay. I'm glad you gave me that opportunity to fall down on my nose and stand up. Because as parents, we are really, our main job is to always be there to catch them when they fall, rather than pushing them down at the beginning, and putting them in so much cotton wool that they can't breathe and can't trial everything. They have got we've gotta give them the opportunity to be out there, and we are there to catch them when they fall.
So if you when you get all that information from a young age, you become so much more confident that every risk I take, it's not scary. It's excitement. I turn it again always into positive excitement. It's like, what am I gonna learn from this? Yes. So the step to New Yorkshire, what did I learn from it? The and, you know, I learned that I don't have to be scared.
It's not a big thing moving from London to Yorkshire. My biggest step was, of course, because I'd experienced it in my big step from Holland to England as a young girl, you know, when you give everything up to be somewhere. So the big learning I did there was, wow. It's very scary to sit in that middle of the ocean here with something you've left and something ahead of you. You're not there yet, and you're in the middle with nothing. It's a weird feeling, but also as soon as you're there, you're excited you made it. Because often we have something, and we only let it go when we have something else.
But the best way of overcoming that fear is to let it go first, sit inside it in that fear, and feel it all. Feel the anguish and, oh my god. I what have I done something wrong?
Should I go back? And look at the positive.
What am I gonna gain? And then once you're there, you've got the conclusion already.
Wendy Battles
I love how you describe that idea of really moving forward. And I think it's so appropriate as we think about midlife because I know that when we're younger, you know, we're doing all these things.
We're raising our kids. We're working.
And I think sometimes we feel like in midlife, oh, you know, there'll be less of that. But in some ways, there's often more because now we're dealing with our aging parents and still assisting our kids that might be young adults, but they still need some coaching fearful or to be paralyzed by our fear, to fearful or to be paralyzed by our fear, to feel less confident about moving forward. And I'm really appreciating, Gula, what you just said about this idea of you first have to let go.
This is like a masterclass in reinvention. Right? You have to first let go which for most of us is so hard. And I feel like also for midlife women, we're so used to kinda controlling everything to try to keep all these balls in the air and kind of working that we have this little our own little equation for how we somehow magically make it all work in our lives and keep everything moving forward. But I feel like that makes it hard to let go when I have this little personal formula for kinda making things work. So I really feel like that makes a difference and I love what you just said about that.
And I know it's easier said than done. Right? Practicing the letting go, but, like, so important.
Guler Cortis
Yeah. But the ones you've that's the thing. That's why when you have once when you've experienced that incredible fear of that first time letting go of something very, very important, whatever the whatever it is, you know, we can we can turn this into letting go of your children. And how many of us find it hard to let go of our children. And we have to, because remember, they are the arrow in our bow. And because of that experience, every time you get into a different scenario of fear, it's easier. It becomes so much easier.
And it's such a lovely feeling. That's why I love letting go of so many things because even in your home, you know, all the stuff you collect over the x amount of years, let it go because my teaching to our children is, you know, everything what's important is in your heart. It's the memories. So if you have a beautiful pop and you love it dearly, and you can't let go of that gorgeous top because, and you can't get in it because you can't wear it anymore. We don't wanna let it go because one day you may or you may want to give it to your whoever. No.
Wendy Battles
Let it go because it's in your heart, and the memories of wearing that beautiful top as an example will always be there. Absolutely. I like this idea of memories and experiences as opposed to having all this stuff, which I think most of us have too much of this stuff. And to your point about letting go when we do let go of it, I feel like it it creates this opening, right, for new things to come in.
And that's the essence really of what we're talking about. And speaking of opening up a new possibilities, I have to ask you about sexy at 60 because it is so cool. I would love for you to tell us about how you created this 6 part YouTube series, what inspired you to do so, and why you think it's so important for midlife women to be listening to this and watching. Yeah. Love everyone to watch it and listen to it. The idea
Guler Cortis
came, from one of my friends through LinkedIn as well, Francine. I think Francine was on your program as well.
Wendy Battles
She was. Yes.
Guler Cortis
You are. She's amazing. She's gorgeous. And Francine were fabulous at 50.
And I'm like, my god. I love to do something when I'm going to be 60. And it and I had about it was December time, and my birthday was around, depending which one I celebrate, but we won't go on to that one. It's it's in the summer. So at 6 months, and I thought, oh, I love to do something, and Francine was 6 sick sexy at 60. Right? Yes. Sexy at 60.
And, overall, well, what I like to do is I like to do a podcast with 6 other sexy sexier60 ladies. So I had to recruit them.
I had to find them. So I remember doing a post on LinkedIn in June in January. I'm doing a 60. It's, like, sexy at 60 podcast. Who is going to be 60 this year so you can join in? So one lady came forward, which was really nice. Then I had a friend around the corner here in London.
Then I found 2 more people from America. But what I really wanted was I wanted an hour's show, but not dedicated to one person, because I felt that sometimes a 1 hour show is too much for people to listen to. And also people like to resonate and connect with different people. They so I thought if I had 10 minutes slots for each one of us, then if people like the content, they could just zoom in on the person they really enjoyed listening to and listen for 6 sessions what we were talking about. So each session had different topics. So we had taking risk and personal, development, health and beauty. I mean, health with midlife is is very, very important.
And where you know, it doesn't matter which age you are, but we need to look after ourselves in in which capacity that is diet and exercise.
Wendy Battles
This is great. I think this is, like, such a great flavor for what you did. And I remember it was just very energizing. Women the women were so insightful. They had so much to share, and I feel like we all need inspiration. We all need hope. We all need to see possibilities.
And there's so many different ways to do that, and I thought this was such a beautiful way that really showcased it's amazing to be 60. It's a gift to be 60. It is. It's being proud of it and loving it and Yes. And and just seeing our next phase growing because we we've got another 30 years ahead of us. Exactly. What I saw in it was so much possibility.
Helping women lean into what's possible so that when we really take care of ourselves, it is a catalyst for those other things that we really wanna do. So I highly recommend that y'all watch sexy at 60. There's a link in the show notes so you can easily go right to her YouTube channel, Google's YouTube channel and watch it. But it's just more inspiration, which I think these days in a world that's very complicated and often chaotic and feels uncertain and can be stressful, I am always leaning toward the light who can help enlighten me, who can help fill me with joy. And I feel like because midlife is both joyful and sometimes difficult that we need more things like sexy at 60. Even if you're not 60, even if you're over it doesn't matter. Like, you I just think there's so much wisdom to be gained from watching this.
So I'm a big fan, Guler. Right? I am. Thank you.
Guler Cortis
Thank you. And I hope to gain more fans and, who knows, maybe start the podcast again.
Wendy Battles
Yes. It's part 2
Guler Cortis
Part 2. Season 2. Right? Season 2. Definitely. There's
Wendy Battles
so much more to talk about, and I think people would love it. I know that many women have, you know, all these dreams as we're talking about. Right? We have ideas. There's things that we wanna do. Other women have these ideas. And it feels like this can be anyone's time to shine if they're willing to kinda step into that as we're talking about.
Because what I know is that you took action. You had dreams from when you moved to London when you're 25 to now. You still are in this trajectory of I'm gonna lead into what I wanna do. I'm gonna shine my light as evidenced by sexy@60. But I know that not everyone is where we are. Not everyone can just be like turn it on and say, oh, this is it and I'm gonna just go for it and I feel so confident. What advice do you have for women that might have that inkling?
So maybe they're listening and they're thinking, I love what Guler is talking about. I'm so inspired by this but I don't know how to take a first step. What would you say to encourage women that are listening that thinking there is something there and I wanna I wanna get there and I'm not ready to just let it all go and make that big leap. But what can I do to kinda get started? What advice do you have?
Guler Cortis
The advice I have is for people to reach out. For people to reach out, whether to myself, to you, to many lovely people around them, and reach out and explain. Because it's very, I you know, especially in my role as a business manager, if I have a client, I need to understand, first of all, what it is? What where is that difficulty? You know, the the risk is not made because they wanna get to taking that risk, but what is exactly the reason for it? Is it because you're excusing your time? You have no time, or is it pure confidence?
And if you want to start building confidence, of course, I can direct you straight to Toastmaster. Right? I mean, that would be number 1. But also, have a conversation with with a person that really, really help. I think have the conversation and really try to work out, well, what is it? What is it exactly you need to do to take that first step? Understand the call first because people can come up and say, oh, I wanna create a podcast.
I can say, yeah. You just do x y zed, and there you go. Voila. A podcast. But if it's the missing step because they still haven't got that confidence or they don't have the tools the tools to do it, And that's why, again, it's so important always have to have a base conversation. Where are we gonna where is the starting point?
Wendy Battles
I heard you say 2 key things in that. 1, to really uncover what is your why. Like, why do you wanna do this? Why is this important to you which can help move us forward. And also doing that with help. You said go to someone, ask for help. And I think that is so key because I think especially as women, we tend to go it alone.
Well, I'm just gonna take care of all these things. We're so capable and we've spent so much time doing that that I think sometimes it's hard to ask for help. We don't have to
Guler Cortis
go it alone. No. Nope. Nope. Never ever. Never ever.
And it is, sometimes taking away your pride because it's all pride that stops you from asking. And again, because you're so in in such a mode of especially as a mother or even as a young carer carer when you used to maybe care for your parents, we're so in the mode of always doing it ourselves that we start distrusting others. And if we can rewind and go back and say, you know what? I am going to be fully trusting everyone around me. And once you have that trust in people again, then you can go up and easily ask. Yeah. But Yes.
Because we we've cocooned ourselves in such a little shell, like and feel powerful by, okay. I'll do it because there's no point asking because I can do it quicker.
Or, oh, no. No. To explain that, it's gonna take 2 hours, 5 hours. I don't wanna do that.
It it is us. We keep controlling it, so let go of that control. There's let go comes back again. Let go of control. Be vulnerable and say, I trust others, and I will go out and ask. Well, that let go, trust ourselves, trust others are all such important ingredients for moving forward and navigating midlife and beyond.
Wendy Battles
You know, really and no matter where we are in our lives, I think that those things can make such a big difference. As we're wrapping up, I wanna ask you this question because this season of the Reinvention Rebels podcast, the theme is own your awesome. Own your awesome. And you just embody that. As you step back and you look at yourself at 61 and think about the whole trajectory of your life and all the things you've done and where you are right now, tell us about one way that you are owning your awesome, aka owning your greatness.
Like, you're amazing. How are you how does that show up for you? I like that question, Wendy.
Guler Cortis
When I think of my awesomeness, and especially now, especially this year, it has really truly come up, and that is by truly giving the gift of giving to others and, of course, myself. And that's by listening, learning, and empowering others to shine. Because I feel I'm at the stage, and you can be there as well. You can be at a stage where your light is so powerful that it's now taught. It's also now time to shine that light on others and empower those to come up.
Wendy Battles
If that's not an amazing way to own your awesome, I don't know what is when you're being of service to others. From the I think of that from the perspective of Toastmasters definitely because I feel like it's a service organization. It's about being of service to others, other members as well as ourselves and how you are empowering people. I see pictures of you on LinkedIn. I see you at all these different events. I see how you shine a light on other people. So I truly see how you're owning your awesome in this way that also helps other people shine their light.
And I have to say, I love that Guler. That is just makes me so happy to see it. Right? To see us serving others as well as ourselves and you embody that so beautifully. I know that people who are listening are saying Google is amazing. Not only do I wanna check out sexy at 60, but I wanna find out how can I find her?
How can I connect with Guler? How can I be in this light that she's shining around the world and soak some of that up? Where can people find you online?
Guler Cortis
The best way to find me is on LinkedIn. And if they spell my name, g u l e r, Guler Cortis, you will find me straight away.
Wendy Battles
That is in the show notes. So you can tap or click and easily get connected right to Guler and really soak up her wisdom. She is just someone full of joy and possibility as you heard in this interview, and she's just a great person to follow. So, Galore, I can't thank you enough for joining me, for gracing me with your presence, for sharing your wisdom and your joy.
And you know I'm excited about season 2 of sexy at 60. I'm waiting for it.
Guler Cortis
No. It's been such a lovely show, and I've been really, really enjoying it. And, you know, people who want to connect to me, the first thing I do is let's have a chat. I think we truly connect when we chat. We do. We do. Thank you so much.
This is wonderful.
Wendy Battles
Rebels, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Guler as much as I did. I loved being in conversation with her. I love what she had to say. And she's so joyful. Right? She's full of life.
She's full of ideas. And this mindset she has of going for it and really growing in a way that's both of service to herself and other people, I love what she's doing. I love how she's owning her awesome. And I just wanna remind you that you can figure it out too. She figured it out during the pandemic. She was unsure. She found her way.
I think that many of us are still struggling trying to figure out what are we meant to do. What is next? What can I do with my life that will add value? How can I be of service to the world in some way? And hopefully, this conversation perhaps sparked something in you. Maybe made you think, what could I do? So if you're feeling unsure, if you're thinking, I don't know where to start, I do wanna share my free gift with you.
It's my do it scared, do it anyway free guide. I map out my 3 step process to get out of the starting block. Isn't that the hardest part? So easy to just keep saying, someday, I'm gonna do this. But, of course, someday never comes. So we have to make that someday today. We have to decide we're ready to take some action.
And this is such a super simple thing you can do. Just sign up. You'll instantly get this download. You can get started thinking about how you can build your courage muscle to get out there and get started on reinventing in the way that suits you and lights you up. So check out the details. They are in the show notes. I'd love to send it to you. And I'll be back very soon with another amazing guest joining me in the Reinvention Rebels guest share as we talk about what is possible in midlife and how we can shine our brightest light.
Until next time, rebels. Keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.