Midlife Reinvention, Caregiving & Betting on Yourself with Renée T. White

Midlife Reinvention, Caregiving & Betting on Yourself with Renée White

What does it mean to keep evolving in midlife — especially when life asks more of you than you ever expected?

In this thoughtful and deeply personal episode of Reinvention Rebels, Wendy Battles talks with sociologist, academic leader, and longtime friend Renée White about caregiving, leadership, identity, self-trust, and the courage to leave spaces that no longer serve you. From caring for parents with dementia to stepping into leadership roles she never planned to pursue, Renée shares how curiosity, discernment, and community helped her continue evolving through every chapter of midlife reinvention.

Together, Wendy and Renée explore what it means to bet on yourself, move toward possibility instead of simply running from discomfort, and embrace the concept of Sankofa — bringing the wisdom of your past forward as you continue becoming who you are meant to be.

In this episode you’ll hear:

✨ Why curiosity has been the through-line of Renée’s midlife reinvention journey

💜 What caregiving for both parents taught her about identity, patience, and advocacy

🎓 How she discovered unexpected strengths through academic leadership

🔥 The moment she realized it was time to leave a space that no longer served her

🌱 Why “moving toward something” is more powerful than simply running away

🌀 The meaning of Sankofa and how the past can guide your future without defining it

🤝 How trusted community helps us see strengths we don’t always recognize in ourselves

“It’s always better to be moving toward something than just running from something.”

🎁 Free Resource

If this episode resonated with you, download Wendy’s free guide:
 5 Questions to Spark Your Reinvention Journey

Designed to help you reconnect with yourself, reflect on where you are right now, and explore what might be next in your own reinvention journey.

Connect with Renée White

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneetwhite/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boogiedownrt/

🎧 Podcasts We Love

If this episode spoke to you, I’d love to share another podcast I think you’ll really enjoy.

Late Bloomer Living, hosted by my friend Yvonne Marchese, is all about embracing change, exploring what’s next, and redefining what’s possible in midlife and beyond.

If you’re on your own reinvention journey—or starting to feel that nudge toward something more—it’s a beautiful companion listen.

Transcript

Renée:
My philosophy is it’s always better to be moving toward something than just running from something.

And so even if you’re being pushed out of a situation, look for what’s ahead of you that is pulling you toward something positive, as opposed to only framing it as, “Oh, I have to leave this because it’s untenable.”

Intro:
Welcome to Reinvention Rebels, 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. If you 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.

Wendy:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Reinvention Rebels podcast. So excited you’re here, and hello to all of my first-time listeners.

The Reinvention Rebels podcast celebrates midlife boldness, sharing stories of women between 50 and 90 who have reinvented in authentic, powerful, and courageous ways.

I am your host, Wendy. I am a midlife reinvention architect and a huge champion for women who are betting on themselves and building bold, meaningful next chapters.

Today I’m really excited because this is an especially meaningful conversation. My guest, Renée T. White, has been in my life since the early 1990s, which, I don’t want to say I’m feeling old, but you know, we go way back.

We met when Renée was a PhD student at Yale, and I was running a nonprofit that was based there. Back then, neither of us could have predicted the many evolutions that would unfold over the next three decades.

And that’s what today’s episode is about: evolution.

Not, of course, the kind that happens overnight. Not something that comes with a shiny rebrand, because we see people can do that. But the kind that actually unfolds over years through responsibility, leadership, grief, courage, creativity, and the evolutions that we choose.

Renée has served as dean, provost, and executive vice president for academic affairs at major institutions, most recently at The New School in New York City. She is a sociologist, a Black feminist scholar, a global thinker, and a mentor to so many.

But her reinvention story is also deeply personal.

For over a decade, Renée became a caregiver and guardian for her parents as they experienced dementia. She navigated cross-country moves, conservatorship, complex family dynamics, and end-of-life decisions.

She describes the profound shift from being someone’s child to burying your parents as something that transforms your relationship with the cosmos.

And I know many of us can relate to this role. I know this isn’t new for many of us. We’ve had it, or maybe we’re in the middle of it, so I know it’s very relatable.

But at the same time, she stepped into leadership roles she never actively sought, uncovering strengths and capabilities she hadn’t fully recognized in herself.

As many of you know, this season of the Reinvention Rebels podcast is called How I Bet on Myself and Never Looked Back.

What I love is that Renée shows us that betting on yourself is quiet. Sometimes it’s discernment. Sometimes it’s leaving spaces that no longer serve you. And sometimes it’s choosing joy, wonder, and possibility in midlife.

I can’t wait for you to experience her immense wisdom too.

Renée White, my girl, welcome to the Reinvention Rebels guest chair.

Renée:
Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much. I am beyond delighted to be part of this conversation.

And I have to say, that intro was really humbling to listen to. I was like, “I kind of like that woman, whoever that is.”

Wendy:
Right? Well, I mean, it’s all true, and it really speaks to the exquisite person that you are.

I know that sometimes we kind of play it down, like, “Who, me?” But I also think there’s something to be said for stepping into all these things that we are, because we are all so many different kinds of people and we do so many different things.

And I think it’s good for us to just hear sometimes.

Renée:
Yes, I completely agree with that.

I do think that we are often trained, both in terms of our own personal experiences and what we observe around us, to shrink and diminish and make ourselves smaller.

If I could just share a story that I recalled recently, I was talking to someone about the fact that I’m tall. I’m almost six feet tall. And as a young person, I had a family friend who really meant well and was trying to provide me with what she saw as necessary guidance.

I was probably in middle school or high school at this point. I loved studying. I was a nerd girl. I also was a figure skater. I did all sorts of things.

And she said to me, basically, “You’ve got to kind of contain your shine. You’ve got to shrink yourself because you can’t be both taller than boys and also as smart or smarter than them, and also successful at different things.”

That message of shrink and make yourself smaller and apologize and second guess was part of the story, right? Part of the narrative that I think many of us have probably heard in some form or fashion.

Wendy:
I completely agree. And I think it’s so impactful, not in a good way, that someone was telling you those things, because we often get so many subtle or unconscious messages about shrinking.

But this was so explicit.

Renée:
Yes.

Wendy:
Like, you can’t be all those things. When, of course, in reality, as we learn over time and wisdom and age, I can be all those things. I can be anything, and I can be more than that.

But at that age, it’s really hard. It’s not like we have the skills to unpack that and say, “Let me dismantle this.”

Renée:
That’s right. That’s right.

It’s just like, “Okay, I guess that’s how I’m supposed to be,” and you kind of go on your way.

Again, I know that it was part of how she was probably raised and her sense of wanting to protect me from whatever she thought would be some kind of rejection or disappointment or failure.

But yes, absolutely, those explicit messages, plus also the quiet messages that you get.

Part of the work of your life is holding on to the things that are the important lessons and letting go of the ones that are just not serving you.

Wendy:
That is exactly it. Part of the work is doing that.

You couldn’t have said that more beautifully because it speaks to everything we’re going to talk about today, which is this idea of evolution.

I wanted to kick this off by thinking at a meta level about the many different chapters that you have experienced in your life.

You have been a caregiver. You’re a scholar. You’ve been a provost. You are a global thinker who interacts with people around the world in many different ways. You’re creative. And man, I didn’t even know you were an ice skater, so that’s something else.

You’ve done all these things.

If you had to take a step back and think about a theme or a throughline that connects these different versions of yourself, what do you think that might be?

Renée:
Part of that throughline might be curiosity.

I think it manifests in a lot of different ways. As a young person, not only was I constantly the kid asking why, I was also connecting the why to the world around us.

So I was a baby sociologist before I even knew what sociology was.

I think I was so interested in my family story and our immigration story. That kind of hunger to understand and to make sense of what’s happening around us really informed both what I studied and what I taught, and the kind of work I want to do.

It even informed my interest in immersion and creative practice as a way of understanding the world better and understanding how we relate to one another.

So I think it’s really the curiosity piece.

And also the ways in which I try to practice being a humanist and really understanding the fundamental value of each individual, and that all of us have some core of dignity, if you’re a decent person, I would say, that really needs to be respected.

I think those are some of the throughlines for me that connect all of those pieces.

Wendy:
I completely see both of those in the work I see you doing in the world.

This curiosity that you’ve had ever since I’ve known you, which was, I don’t know, 1991 or something like that when we met. I see that.

And yes to this humanistic approach to how you work with students, to how you see the value in them and other people with whom you interact.

I see that reflected in your social media, in the things that you share, whether it’s on LinkedIn or Instagram. It’s all about the human experience and really elevating the people with whom you connect.

I appreciate that so much in this world that sometimes feels like it’s falling apart, that feels much less humane. Even from how we grew up, it just seems like there are all these hard edges and so many things that are upsetting and make your head spin and think, “What world am I living in?”

So I appreciate so much the throughline, as we put it, that helps you see and move forward in the world.

Because what I see in all of that is hopefulness. And we need hope. We all need hope, whether it’s more personally or looking in a meta way at the world in which we live right now.

So I think that’s so key. And I just really appreciate that about you, girl. I’m just going to say that.

Renée:
Well, I accept that. I accept it.

I do think that the hopefulness in part comes from what I study.

Early on in my academic career, I did work on HIV/AIDS and Black communities, looking at African American kids in particular. And when I taught, I taught all of the social inequality classes on poverty and race and ethnicity and urban inequity.

Those were the classes that were about why our society is unjust, right? What are the structural factors that cause the things that we want to change?

So there could be an inherent hopelessness in that, right? That things are hard and there are explanations for it.

I think, in looking at how my students would sometimes take that in, it became really important to connect that to understanding that if you know that, then you can come up with solutions. You can resist that. You can find other strategies.

One of the places where I really tried to encourage my students to see the possibility of what we could be and do was actually through art, songs, films, and theater.

So I do think that the hopefulness is parallel with my perspective on the things of the world that I see as being broken and hopefully can be part of helping to change or fix or improve.

They really have to go hand in hand, or you will be completely destabilized and unable to actually do anything.

Wendy:
Absolutely. And I’ve seen how you’ve integrated the arts into so much of what you do, just seeing you at The New School and all these amazing people you have coming and the things that you’ve done.

Now that we’ve talked at this meta level, Renée, I want to dig into your reinvention as a caregiver, because that was such a profound experience for you.

What did that decade teach you about power, love, and identity when you were caring for your parents? Because ten years, number one, is a very significant period of time.

Renée:
Yes.

In terms of identity, the complexity is that any child assumes that at some point they may have to serve in some capacity to support their parents as they get older.

So there’s a sense that you intellectually understand that, but it’s different from what can actually happen in practice, what the reality of that might look like.

In my case, the change, and really my mother was the one who first started to manifest some unusual behaviors, was on a very unpredictable timeline.

She seemed sort of fine and then started to not seem fine.

When her doctor said the timeline for this could be really fast and progress quickly, or it might be really slow, and we just don’t know, there was this sense that time suddenly felt different.

It was both rapid, but it was also really slow.

I had to make some critical decisions professionally.

At the time, I was at Purdue University. I was a faculty member, and my mother was in New York. It was clear that, as the only living child, because my brother had passed away years before, it was up to me to do something.

I ended up making the decision to leave my job at Purdue, to find a job in Connecticut, and to move across the country so I would be nearer to her and be responsive in case something happened.

So there’s the sense of a professional change, right? My trajectory was different.

My friends were all really worried about what this might do for my job future. And yes, there’s a consideration there, but I was really more focused on being present and being able to respond when and how and if my mother needed it.

That sense of time and my plans for myself had to change.

Even my plans for what I thought my mother’s aging would look like were disrupted.

And my sense of relationship to her changed because I went from having a parent who had been in long-term care herself and had worked in elder care herself. So I learned a lot, which actually came in very handy.

But then I started seeing her manifest the same things that she used to be responsible for taking care of.

There’s a joke that nurses and healthcare providers can be bad patients, and there’s truth to that. When you know that something’s wrong medically and you know what the solutions are, it can be really confusing when you, as a practitioner, become the person who has to be on the receiving end of care.

I also had to watch the way decision-making had to change.

I had to make decisions for my mom in ways that I knew she would be mad about because she would want to make them for herself.

So having to be the decision maker on really small things, like what kind of clothing does she need, what kind of dietary changes need to happen.

But then the bigger ones included having to make the decision to move her from where she was in her apartment out on Long Island to an elder residential community in Connecticut near me.

I had to find the place. I had to make the decision to make the change. I had to learn about her finances so I could take care of all of that.

So it was also about having to be the parent to the parent, having to be the discoverer of information about my mom that I would need in order to be the best advocate for her.

It was all of those things that happened in a relatively short period of time.

Wendy:
Yeah, I think it’s just so much.

When this happens, we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what to expect. Every case is different.

Even when someone has dementia, every dementia patient is different. So there’s no set way things unfold.

It’s a mystery. It’s scary. It’s overwhelming. It’s so many details, both for you and for her. So much change also for her.

Renée:
Yes, that’s right.

That’s part of the challenge too. When she was especially more aware, she knew there was something going on and was clearly mad at her body, mad at science, that there was no easy fix and easy solution.

She masked her symptoms because she knew what they were. So she would find really clever ways of deflecting so you wouldn’t see what was going on.

I also had to become really good at translating that, understanding what was behavior intended to redirect your focus and what was actually a symptom.

I think through both taking care of her and later taking care of my father, my parents were divorced and lived in two different states. When I was caregiving for both of them, one of the things that really struck me was that if I didn’t have the resources I had, if I didn’t have the academic training to know how to ask questions, how to stand my ground when I needed to have certain things addressed, where to go to get information, and if I didn’t have the financial resources to help out, the experience that I had and the experience that my parents had would have been dramatically different.

Wendy:
I can absolutely see that. Thankfully, you had access to those things to help navigate things and make something difficult at least easier with some of those resources.

Because in any circumstance, it’s very difficult, and even more so without some of those things.

What would you say, Renée, is the biggest thing you learned from that experience of caring for both your parents?

Renée:
I would say one of the greatest things I learned was patience.

I say that because being somebody who asks a question, investigates, and knows how to get answers, this was a situation where the rules and strategies that usually worked didn’t always work.

I had to exercise a lot more patience in terms of unearthing and discovering what I needed to know.

But even more than that, patience with my parents in particular. Patience with the ways in which this disease changes you and changes your personality, or it can. And it did in the case of one of my parents.

So I learned to tap into a deep well of patience that I actually didn’t know I had. I really didn’t think I had it.

When my patience was tested and I found myself getting really upset with my parents about their behavior, I either had a friend who would intervene and say, “Okay, you need to just take a step back,” or I was able to talk myself down off the cliff and say, “Look, this is what it is.”

Being mad isn’t going to change the circumstance. But how can I take that anger, sadness, frustration, impatience, and channel it into something useful and productive, and maybe get an answer to a question?

Wendy:
I think that’s very interesting because one of the things I see in reinvention for women, especially in midlife, is that we often unexpectedly develop new skills.

Renée:
Yes.

Wendy:
Patience, to me, is a skill because it’s hard.

Dealing with our aging parents, this role reversal, declining cognition, and all the things that come with that is very, very difficult.

So I appreciate that you learned this skill of patience.

At the same time that you were doing all this caregiving, you still had a career.

So as you were on your professional trajectory, what did leadership reveal to you about strengths you hadn’t recognized in yourself before?

Renée:
Oh my gosh.

I would also say that, for sure, tapping into patience came in very handy in my administrative leadership roles all the time. All the time.

Certainly the things I didn’t realize or didn’t see in myself, and that, funnily enough, other people said they had always seen in me and I just never really put the pieces together, were things like being able to listen really intently and take what might seem like disparate voices or disparate types of information and synthesize.

The ability to synthesize complex things into something a bit more understandable or clear was something that definitely came out of, or that I discovered, in doing my work in academic leadership.

I like being a student.

One of the things I also really appreciated is that in these administrative roles, any institution you go to, you have to understand the culture of the place. You have to understand how process works and how things operate.

I didn’t realize how much I liked that, how much I liked figuring out and understanding a process or uncovering why something doesn’t really work, and systems.

Those were things that, as a sociology and Black studies professor teaching my classes, hanging out with my students, and doing my research, I would never have described myself as a future administrator who likes process, who likes to connect ideas with how you get things done and figure out that puzzle.

I would have argued to the end of time that that was not me.

Wendy:
And I think it says a lot about us being open at any point in our lives, but especially in midlife when things shift and change and we go through all the things that we’ve all been through or are going through.

Being able to see things from a different perspective, to challenge ourselves to try something new, to dip our toe in and be open to what we could learn, like, “Oh, I didn’t know I’d like this, but I do.”

Renée:
That’s right. That’s right.

And I like big ideas. I like having a thing I want to do, some vision of a topic, a question, a project, and then being the architect of how it happens.

I really love that.

And I think administrative jobs in higher ed are really about going from the macro to the micro. At the end of the day, colleges and universities are about people and about students.

Then it’s about how you link that with the way they operate at the structural level, the cultural level, and the mission level.

Discovering that I like the big picture and understanding how all those elements connect to one another and function was a real discovery for me.

I wasn’t just like, “I want to teach my classes and do my research.” I had always been interested in these larger systemic things, but just didn’t know that was a place where I could actually exercise that.

Wendy:
Those are big ahas to uncover and discover. It’s like, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Renée:
That’s right.

Wendy:
Until we figure out, “Oh, maybe I don’t know that.” And then I feel like it opens up this whole new world.

So no matter what it is we’re doing, whether it’s in the academic world, some other field, or our personal lives, I think we can apply the same idea to reinventing.

But there’s such a corollary between opening up and expanding into new things, and then recognizing, “This is no longer serving me.”

It’s like two sides of a coin.

Because so often, I think as women, we stay too long. It could be any area of our life. It could be a job. It could be a relationship, a friendship, you name it.

So I’m curious about how that manifested for you, and if you have an example of when you realized, “This is no longer serving me and I need to make a change.”

Renée:
Yes, I have a few.

One of the interesting traits that I associate with us in higher ed, especially my generation of academics, is that you attach yourself to your institution. Your identity becomes kind of wedded to the institution, and it becomes hard to imagine yourself apart from it or separated from it.

When I returned to Connecticut and I was at Central Connecticut State University for a while, it was a very different kind of place and a wonderful experience. I made a lot of friends there that I have to this day.

And also, I experienced certain issues tied to questions of race and power during my time there that came to a head with a particular situation that resulted in some state-level scrutiny.

A group of us organized an event that was controversial on reparations, and we started receiving national attention, hate mail, racist voicemails, things left in my little cubbyhole, messages left without any postage, so I had no idea except that they were hand-delivered, clearly.

So my sense of safety felt compromised.

I went to talk to someone in a leadership role and said, “This is what I’m observing. It’s happening to my colleagues and me, who were the co-conveners of this event.”

There were faculty who were active and really trying to gin up criticism of what we had done. It was in the newspaper. I mean, it was really just everywhere. Luckily, pre-social media. Luckily.

I went to talk about this and said, “Look, these things are happening. I don’t feel safe. And I’m worried that in the fall, I might have people in my classes who are going to record my lectures,” because a number of watchdog groups had been making themselves known and basically saying to us, “We’re going to keep our eye on you.”

The response I got was, “Freedom of speech. We can’t really do anything. That’s too bad.”

And in that moment, I thought, “Oh, I can’t. Oh, I can’t stay here.”

My worth, my safety, my value, my identity as a Black woman is core to who I am.

This is an institution, or at least the leadership of the institution, that didn’t see that. Or they thought it was second to me being able to serve their mission.

It was that quick. I had that conversation and thought, “Oh, I have to leave. Okay. I understand.”

I gave myself a timeline. I said, “I have to be out in a year.”

It was incredible because once I said that, I manifested some things, I believe.

I had conversations with my mentor who said to me, “Oh, here’s this job. I think you need to apply for it.”

It was Fairfield University, which is where I ended up going after I left Central.

But it was really that quick. I thought, “I’ve got to go. I have to preserve certain things. It’s about my dignity. It’s about my identity. It’s about my safety and being at an institution that’s going to get that.”

And I did it.

I also realized that if I couldn’t get a job in higher ed, I had skills I could use to do other kinds of work.

So I was really clear that it was more about the need to extricate myself from that unhealthy environment with the leadership, because there were a lot of wonderful people there who were very upset by what happened.

But I realized this leadership is going to be an obstacle as long as they’re there. I don’t know how long that’s going to be. I’m going to vote for me and vote with my feet.

And I did.

Wendy:
That is so powerful.

Really, what we’re talking about this whole season is betting on yourself. That I matter. That my safety and my mental health matter, both physical and mental, and that I’m going to take action.

I think we’ve all had that experience where at some point we’re like, “I really should leave,” but we don’t, for whatever reason. Because it feels scary. It feels like a big leap of faith to do that.

Renée:
Yes, and it was a leap.

I made this decision, and once I did that, I thought, “Oh, I’m not going back on that decision because that’s not healthy.”

Part of my commitment was to tell people. I didn’t tell a lot of people, but I told a few trusted people who I thought might help me figure it out.

And that made a difference.

The trusted people were like, “Okay, yes, we affirm.”

I also realized that it was scary, right? The thought of maybe having to leave higher ed altogether to leave this environment.

And I was a caregiver. This was happening while I was a caregiver to my mother.

But I realized that it was the absolute best thing to do and that I would have to be intentional about what it means to extricate from this environment. What does it mean to prepare to be ready for what’s coming next and to see it as an opportunity that makes sense for me?

All of that work had to happen in order for me to be ready for the next thing.

Wendy:
Absolutely. It’s amazing how, not for nothing, these things happen to teach us the lessons we needed to learn to help us move forward.

It says everything about this broad thing we’re talking about, evolution. This is all about how you evolved, aka reinvented, across these decades.

I feel like this is so relatable for people listening because they have had experiences that might be similar to yours, or very different. But I think there is this commonality in the things we go through and how we learn to trust ourselves as we get older and have more wisdom, and realize that it’s a pretty safe bet to bet on myself.

It’s not this thing that used to be such a big deal and so scary. I’m realizing, “Oh, well, I can totally do that.”

Renée:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s right.

I think once you’ve done it, doing it in the future can still be scary. It can still be the big void in terms of, “What am I doing?” But the world didn’t end.

For me, it was such an incredible lesson that, “Oh, okay, you can still move forward.”

You can be more creative in thinking about what your options might be and having to be really open to that and receptive.

And I’ve done that since.

I left another position when it was really clear to me, and it was under very different circumstances, but it was really clear to me, “Oh, the role I have is not going to be there in the future.”

So am I going to leave on my timeline, or am I going to leave on the institution’s timeline?

I said, “Oh, I’m going to leave on my timeline.”

My philosophy is it’s always better to be moving toward something than just running from something.

And so even if you’re being pushed out of a situation, look for what’s ahead of you that is pulling you toward something positive, as opposed to only framing it as, “Oh, I have to leave this because it’s untenable.”

Sometimes it’s both, but it’s always good to try to see if you can figure out what’s that thing ahead of me that I can look toward, that is pulling me toward it, that is also getting me out of the situation that seems to be really difficult.

Wendy:
I really like that forward-looking approach to it.

As we’re wrapping up, I want to ask you this last question. What’s one thing, just one, that you’re looking forward to as you continue to evolve?

I know, because I know you probably have a ton. I was like, okay, I’ve got to break it down to just one.

Renée:
Oh my God. One thing I’m looking forward to. This is maybe a sneaky way of doing all the things.

I’m looking forward to the next thing.

And the next thing is not fully defined yet for me.

I am excited about that.

I am excited about pulling all the things that I’ve learned, all of the sage advice I’ve gotten from my beloved community, my kin, and having that be the stuff that positions me for what comes next.

I’m really excited about moving into not unknown territory, but certainly a new space of redefining myself, a new space of how I want to be in the world.

That is actually really exciting in a way that I didn’t think it would be.

So I’m looking forward to what that discovery is going to portend and what will come out of that.

Wendy:
That’s so in keeping with what you initially said about your throughline, which was curiosity.

Renée:
Yeah, that’s right.

Wendy:
And you are leading with curiosity and openness and possibility.

I think that if any of us, when we’re reinventing, no matter how old we are or where we are in that process, can keep that in mind, then there are so many things that can happen that we sometimes can’t even imagine right now.

Renée:
That’s right.

And if I can just add to that, I think the thing I’ve been really drawn to, both in my more recent scholarship on Afrofuturism, is that concept.

This idea that you don’t forget your past. You bring your past, your history, however you want to define that, your ancestors, your lessons with you, and you keep moving ahead to the future.

So you’re connected to your past.

I refer to it as you’re connected to your past, but you’re not tethered. You move to your future.

And your future may be unknown, but it will be informed by all the lessons that you bring with you.

Wendy:
It’s so powerful.

Renée:
Yeah, I think so.

Wendy:
And so key to reinventing. All those experiences aren’t for nothing. They’ve informed our thinking along the way as we’ve evolved.

I know people who are listening are saying, “How can I check out Renée and the stuff she does? How can I follow her?”

Where can people find you?

Renée:
I’m a few places.

I’m on LinkedIn. If you just look for Renée T. White, you can find me there.

I’m also on Threads. Just put my name in and you’ll find me. I’ll come right up.

I’m on BlueSky, but I’m mostly on Threads.

And I’m in the process of launching a new website. It’s in the works, but I’m going to put it out there because hopefully it’ll be done when folks hear this conversation. It’s reneewhite.org.

Wendy:
I love it. And all of those things are in the show notes. We will link to them so people can easily find them. They don’t have to do searching. We’ll link directly to them.

Renée, oh my gosh, this has been such a joy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining me today.

Renée:
It’s been a real joy and a pleasure. I’m just so proud to see the work you’re doing and excited by it too.

Wendy:
And that, Rebels, wraps up my beautiful conversation with my friend Renée White.

What I loved most about this conversation is that it reminds us reinvention isn’t always loud or dramatic.

Sometimes it’s quiet discernment. Sometimes it’s caregiving. Sometimes it’s choosing yourself, leaving spaces that no longer serve you, or staying open to what’s next, even when you can’t fully see it yet.

I also love Renée’s reminder that we can move toward something new without abandoning everything that came before us.

That idea of Sankofa, bringing the wisdom of our past forward as we continue to evolve, feels especially powerful in midlife.

And honestly, I think curiosity is such a beautiful thread running through this entire conversation.

Curiosity about who we’re becoming. Curiosity about what’s possible. Curiosity about the next version of ourselves.

So if this episode resonated with you, I created a free resource called 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity and Inspire Your Reinvention Journey.

It’s designed to help you reconnect with yourself, reflect on where you are right now, and explore what might be next for you.

You’ll find the link in the show notes.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little reinvention inspiration today.

Before we wrap up today’s episode, I want to share another podcast I think you’re really going to love.

It’s called Late Bloomer Living, hosted by my friend Yvonne Marchese.

Yvonne is all about helping women embrace change, step into new possibilities, and redefine what’s possible in midlife and beyond.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re starting something new a little later than expected, or you’re simply ready for what’s next, this podcast is such a beautiful companion on that journey.

I’ll include a link in the show notes so you can check it out. Definitely give it a listen.

Until next time, keep trusting yourself, Rebels.

Stay curious and keep saying yes to what’s possible.

The world needs you and all that you have to offer.