Create The Best Me

How to Change Careers in Your 40s

• Carmen Hecox • Episode 124

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Have you ever stared at the ceiling, dreading another day at a job that just isn’t working for you anymore? You’re not alone! In this week’s episode, “How to Change Careers in Your 40s,” we’re diving deep into what it really takes to break free from a career that’s lost its spark, especially when you’re in midlife.

I sat down with business strategist (and former corporate executive) Laura Zavelson to discuss the fears, roadblocks, and possibilities facing Gen X women ready for a new chapter. Whether you feel stuck, burned out, or just crave more flexibility and meaning, Laura’s own journey and practical advice will show you that reinvention isn’t just possible, it can be empowering and profitable.

We’ll get honest about financial worries, the myth of “starting over,” how to discover your hidden skills, and why clarity matters more than a fancy website. If you’re ready to explore a side hustle or even plot your full-time entrepreneurial escape, “How to Change Careers in Your 40s” will equip you with actionable steps to start designing a work and life that finally fits. 

5 Key Lessons You’ll Learn:

  • You’re Not Starting From Zero: Your years of skills, wisdom, and networks are assets, not limitations, in a career change.
  • Experiment Before You Leap: Try side gigs, test ideas, and gather feedback so your pivot is calculated, not frantic.
  • Uncover Your True Strengths: Self-assessment, coaching, and a deep dive into all your experiences (in and out of work) can reveal unexpected gifts.
  • Clarity First, Marketing Later: Focus on serving an urgent problem for the right people, don’t waste time on branding or marketing until you know your offer resonates.
  • Build Your “Success Squad”: Community and mentorship matter. Surround yourself with people who cheer you on, challenge you, and support you on your journey.

Call to Action:
Ready to start plotting your own career pivot? Explore resources, Laura’s free guide “The GenX Escape Plan”, links, and connect with Laura. 

📕 Resources: 

https://createthebestme.com/ep124 

https://laurazavelson.com/

Free Guide: The GenX Escape Plan: https://programs.laurazavelson.com/the-genx-escape-plan

https://www.youtube.com/@laurazavelson101 

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I've got a quick question to ask. Have you ever stayed at the job way past it's expiration date? Like you're literally counting the ceiling tiles and thinking, I gotta get out of here. But you're too scared or too comfortable to make that leap. Well, you're not alone. Today's guest, Laura Zavelson, a former corporate finance executive turned business strategist who helps Gen X women flip the script on their careers. And spoiled or alert, by the end of this conversation, you just might be plotting your own corporate escape. So buckle up, Laura's here to make sense of it all, one brave step at a time. Laura Zavelson, welcome to Create The Best Me, this is an honor and a privilege to have you on the show. I am so excited to be here and it's so lovely to meet you. So, Laura, before we get into today's discussion, could you please tell the listeners and viewers who may not know who you are, a little bit about who you are and what you do? Absolutely. So I am a corporate escapee turned serial entrepreneur, former professor of entrepreneurship, and now I'm a business strategist. And I help Gen X women who have been, laid off or pushed out of their corporate careers or just burned out on their corporate careers capitalize on their experience and their expertise to build businesses as coaches, consultants, or independent experts so they can get control back of their time and their financial opportunity. That's great. And that is exactly why I invited you onto the show because you know, I was one of those people that stayed at a job because one, it paid the bills. I made good money. I love the people I worked with. And, you know, to tell you the truth, I used to love what I did, but then I started to like what I did and then I started to lose that passion. And I didn't actually leave that job. I mean, I kept saying, I'm gonna leave that job. I'm gonna leave that job because it's not it's not resonating with me anymore. It's not lighting me up anymore. And, do you know what actually pushed me out of that job? It was when I had my neck surgery and went out on medical leave. Oh wow. Cause I never had the, the courage to leave. And so, I feel like there's other women out there that probably share the same feelings that I share, and you can help us all. Well, I'd certainly love to try. I think that a lot of times it's interesting that you, weren't ready to leave until you, you know, sort of had some space and some things change in your life. And sometimes you just realize that, we spend so much of our lives working, a lot of us are, overachievers. We've always worked. Our work has been something that, you know, I for a long time defined myself in terms of my work. And so, you know, you get to a point where you're like; this just isn't meaningful to me and I'm not passionate about it. When you sort of, uh, hit midlife, you start to think, you know, I really wanna do something that I care about. I wanna work with people that I like. I want to be able to have some choice in the projects that I work on. There's some impact that I wanna create. I'd like to create a legacy. A lot of people start thinking about that. You know, it, sort of that, 45, 50-year-old, you know, those landmark birthdays. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity to do that, but a lot of people either don't think it's for them or they don't know how to start. Yeah. I think that another thing is that people are scared because they don't wanna start all over. And starting all over at in your forties and fifties in a new place, or maybe becoming an entrepreneur, that's scary. Because, the income could be different. And the income flow could also change as well, and so that makes it very scary, especially during that particular time in life. Yeah, I, I agree. I think it is, it, it can be daunting, right? When you, when you think of it as completely starting over, but I'm not sure, it's not completely starting over. It doesn't have to be, it can be. So if you want a career pivot at that point in your life, you can. It's not too late. Don't hear me saying that. But I do think there's ways, to kind of make the risk associated with it more of a calculated risk. So maybe you start out doing it something as a side hustle and you test it a little bit first. And I'm big into talking about how do we test things before we just dive in. So you can test, your ideas that way while you still have a job so you can ease into it. And the other thing is if you take the experience that you have developed over your years and your career, and you translate that into an independent venture that is less risky than if you were say, in finance at your corporate job and you decide that really what you wanna do is be a yoga instructor. You can do that. And if that's where your passion is and that's where your purpose is, by all means, explore that. But you will reduce the risk of a new venture if you use the experience and the networks that you already have. But I think that sometimes people have a difficult time identifying what those skills are because we've done them so for so many years and we're so good at it that I think we sort of take ourselves for granted as far as what we have to offer other organizations or maybe going on our own. Yeah, I think that that's a really great insight. And I think, you know, if you feel like that, one of the things you can do is sort of, you know, making inventory over all of the things you've done. And not necessarily just leave it at the things that you've been paid to do. Like, think about the things that you may have done outside work that maybe you weren't paid for. Because there's, there's a lot of skills, that a lot of us have in our lives that, that go beyond our work. But I think that that's an area where coaches can really help you out. Career coaches and life coaches and people like that. Or even some of the assessments that are out there that can really help you see what you're good at, and also help you think about what you love. And, you know, they talk a lot about, a flow state in work, right? Where you know, the, what are you working on when you don't even realize that time is passing? Because again, if you're gonna make a change in your life, you might as well move towards something that you really love doing and that you're compelled to do and that, you are excited about. I will say, I'm not one of those people who's kind of like, oh, follow your passion and you can make money doing whatever that is. Because it, I will honestly, if you passion is poetry, that's gonna be a difficult place to maybe match a corporate salary. So it's, I'm not saying don't do poetry, but I'm saying if you want to start something that is outside a, a corporate structure, you might wanna look at places where people already pay to have that service done. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And here's another thing is that sometimes we're good at something, Mm-hmm. but even though we're good at it and we've perfected it, it may not light us up. Have you ever found that? I am so glad you said that, that is so true. And I will use myself as an example. Back in my corporate days, I am actually a little bit of a spreadsheet nerd, maybe a lot of a spreadsheet nerd. And I used to make these really great financial models and I was in, mergers and acquisitions. So you have to project what everything that you think is gonna happen. And I'm really good at making those spreadsheets. I do not enjoy making those spreadsheets, and it was just soul sucking for me. And that was, one of the reasons that I moved on and did end up starting my own business. Several businesses actually. And, yes, I think that's definitely something to look out for because you don't have to keep doing it. You probably have other skills that are adjacent to that skill that you could be really, really good at that don't involve maybe doing that. You know, life is too short. It is, it certainly is. Because, I only brought that up because, you know, sometimes people will, come to me and they'll say, hey, can you do this? And I come to you because you're so good at it. And I'm like, yeah, I know I'm good at it. But it doesn't feel good for me to do those things. I don't know if it makes sense. It just, it doesn't feel good, even though I'm so good at it. Yeah, I know, and I think that's a conundrum for a lot of people, right? Because, and sometimes that happens in our, you know, in like a corporate progression, right? Where you keep getting promoted or more responsibility in an area that you're good at, even though it doesn't, you know, it's not necessarily your purpose or it's not necessarily what you wanna be doing. But they keep offering you, oh, you know, do you wanna do this, do you wanna do that? Do you need, want some more people? And so, and you find yourself, you know, six or seven years later, you know, now being in charge of whatever it's, and you don't even like to do it. So I, and I think that that's real for a lot of people, and I think it's great that you point that out. Because I think once you recognize that, you can start to say, all right, I'm good at this, it's a skill. Is there a way for me to leverage that skill but to do something different that does make me happier and that I find more fulfilling. And, I think another challenge that women Gen X women may face when they're trying to leap out of from where they're at and pursue something that lights them up, is that, we don't have the same energy level that we used to have when we were younger, when we first started that career. And a lot of it could be, hormonal. You know, cause we have all kinds, our hormones are just fluctuating in different directions. And so sometimes taking that step to do what you know is going to light you up, is going to give you that passion; could be, kind of like climbing a, a giant boulder. Hmm. Yes, I think so. And I think, you know, you have to recognize that and be kind to yourself. And I do think it's about breaking it down into smaller steps and saying, you know, what is the smallest action I can take that will continue to move me toward my goal? And say, all right, if I do one thing today and it's this small thing, then that's great. And you have to, you know, give yourself a little party for doing it. And the thing is that breaking stuff down into smaller steps is not only going to help you conserve your energy and to use your energy most efficiently. It is actually also gonna de-risk, whatever you're taking on. Because when we take the smaller steps, we get information every time we take action. And if you are listening and you are looking to see what, what information you get from each step, you can course correct along the way. And that actually is a great, I don't know, approach to take when you're starting something new. I always say that, your, your most significant metric that you should be looking for in the very beginning is learning. And so if you learn something from whatever you did, from whatever action you took, then that's, that's the best thing that could have happened. Whether that learning sends you in the same direction or sends you in a different direction. Yeah, and I think, another thing that's really important, cause I was talking to my masseuse, a couple days ago, and I just told her, I said, you know, when you're seeking something, you know, something that you know, you know is gonna light you up. You know, you take small action and don't change things along the way because it doesn't feel like you're heading in the right direction. Just keep going. You'll get to that point to where you'll know you need to adjust, and when you do adjust, make small adjustments. Don't make big dramatic adjustments because those big dramatic adjustments are only going to set you back. I agree, and I also think that's when it can be really useful to have what I would call like a success squad around you. And it's not just, you know, your best friend who thinks everything that you do is great. I mean, those people are fantastic, and you should definitely have cheerleaders in your life. But I think you also need people who, if you're going in a different direction than one that you haven't done before. So I'll just use entrepreneurship as an example. Find somebody who's done it before. Get yourself an entrepreneurship buddy. Get someone who's farther down the line than you are who, who can help you, say, should we go this way or that way? And then let's also have somebody that maybe is at the same place you are because they can help you keep going too, right? Because you're gonna be kind of encountering the same challenges at the same time. And then I think the only other person I would invite into that group might be someone who is strong where you may not be. Like someone, you know, if you're a glass half empty kind of person, do have a glass half full person. But if you are the optimist, maybe have someone who is a little bit more risk averse, right. Just someone to play the other side of, of your conversation. I think that can be a really useful person to have around too. Or hire a coach. Yes. Hire a coach, and that's where you would come in. Yeah. Well, and you as well, right? Because I think it's two things, right? There's, there's skillset and there's mindset, and you actually need both in order to be successful almost in anything you do. Whether it's a career change or it's, habit change or whether, a relationship change, you need both. You probably need a new set of skills to be successful in whatever direction you're going in, but you have to also have the mindset that's gonna help you keep going because change is hard. I mean, that, that's just the reality. You know, there's a lot of people out there, and again, I can only speak from the entrepreneurship side who are like telling people, oh yeah, you know, you can make $10,000 a month in six months and you only have to work four days a week and like two hours a day and you can go to the beach. No, I wish, I wish, I wish I could have a magic wand and do that. And when I figure out how to do that, I will promise I will come back and I will tell everybody. But I've been doing this for 25 years and it, it's work. It doesn't happen that fast and there are always bumps in the road. But, if you build it, if you have patience, if you have persistence, you can definitely build a business that gets you to that mix of, you know, income and time flexibility and impact that you are looking for. But it is all three pieces, right? If you want maximum flexibility, you, you may end up making a little bit less money, right? You know, if you really don't wanna work that many days a week, great, but then you may have a slightly lower income ceiling. And, and that's just the reality of it. But what you want is for those three pieces of your life to come out in a balance that works for you. Does that make sense? It does. And that leads me back to what you said earlier where you said that maybe testing. You said testing and you also said, doing like a side gig. So you, keep your job, but you're doing this as a side gig. Because then you are setting yourself up for success so that when you're ready to turn on your resignation, you already have a business that is providing some kind of income that may be close to what you were making at your corporate job. Or maybe you're making a little bit even more than what you were making it your corporate job. Yeah, a hundred percent. And you know, I'm all about, you know, it's a series of experiments until you get it right. And so it's easier, you take a lot of pressure off yourself if you need income, if you stay employed while you run these experiments. Because it does take some time to figure out what works. I mean if we're talking about high growth startups, you know, sort of on the business side, they call it something called product market fit. And all that means, is that you find a person that you wanna help and then you find a problem that that person has that you can help them with. And we have to put those two things together. And when you figure that out then, it's gonna be a whole lot easier for you to sell your service. And I'm talking specifically coaching and consulting, but actually that works for product-based services too. But it does take some time to find the match. And so give yourself some space to do that and some financial runway to do that if you have the ability to do that. If you are still employed, give yourself some financial cushion, because it's gonna make the whole process just so much less stressful. Now if you're not an entrepreneur by choice, if you're an entrepreneur by necessity, you've been laid off or pushed out of your job, then hopefully you'll have some kind of severance that you can work with. But you are going to need to take the plunge a little bit faster. But again, then you will have the benefit of having more time to run these experiments. And so you can speed up the process a little bit. But I, I fully agree my first recommendation is see how much of this you can figure out while someone else is paying you. And so Laura, let's say a Gen X female comes to you, she's working in a corporate job and she says, you know what, this isn't lighting me up. I know there's more for me out there, but I don't know exactly what that is. But what I do know, it's, it's not what I'm currently in. How would you help her figure that out? Well, we would start by doing some of the things we were talking about earlier, which is trying to, um, get our hands around experience, skills, interests, talents, and and what you really enjoy, right? Liking it is really important. And a lot of people haven't really taken the time to sort of catalog that or they haven't thought about it in a long time. And usually by the time someone comes to me, they do have some business ideas. But they're usually kind of all over the map. And so what we do is we, we get all of those out in front of us where we can look at them, and then I have some ways that I can help people evaluate them. Because we look at it in terms of first of all, is there a problem you can solve? People buy things to solve problems, and the thing is, we have to normalize the conversation around if you're gonna build a a for-profit business, it actually needs to make money, and that means that someone's gonna have to pay you at some point. And so we do look for which of these opportunities have the best chance of being profitable for you, depending on how much money you're looking to make. And that's another thing, that we talk about really early on is what does success look like for you? What is your enough number? Because for most women that I work with, they're not in a, they don't wanna make a gazillion dollars. They're salary expectations are, are very reasonable and I'm not, women do tend to undervalue themselves. But in general, they want a business that they can manage that gives them some flexibility with their time. And that also, again, has this meaning component. And I think that all three of those actually, there's a lot of data that shows that that's what women are looking for, when they start their own businesses. And so that's one of the things we talk about first is what is your own definition of success? And then from there we look at your ideas and we evaluate them back against that definition of success. And then we usually pick the one that you're most excited about and we set up a plan to do little experiments, just like I was talking about. What's one action you can take? Who can you talk to? And that's something I recommend to anybody who has a business idea. Don't just start your business right away. Don't, don't throw up, the first thing to do is not to put up a website. The first thing to do is to actually go out and talk to people, like the people that you would like to have as your clients. Or the people who you want to purchase your whatever it is. Go talk to them and don't ask, would you buy this. Just try to understand what their challenges are. Understand sort of what they really want and that there's not a good solution for right now. Because if you can be the person that provides that solution, that's a business. That's a profitable business right there. uh-huh Yeah. And that's also copy; copy to be able to market your business. Absolutely, yes. If you can use the words of your customers in your marketing copy, that is gold. It's because, cause you're like, oh my goodness, Laura's been, she's reading my mind. Yeah, that's exactly what you wanna do on the marketing side. But again, to get there, what I've seen, and this is both on the, you know, I worked with, high growth startups for a long time before I shifted to working with women. And that was just because I really wanted to like my clients a lot more than I do now. But over all of the years that I've been working with entrepreneurs, I've found one thing, pretty consistently is that, a lot of them just start marketing too early. Before they really have a good handle, good clarity around the problem that they're solving, around who they wanna sell that to, and actually even around what they're selling, like even what the product is. And if you can get those things nailed down and then layer some of this messaging that we were just talking about, on top of that, now's a good time to start marketing and you're actually giving that marketing effort a chance to work. Because if you don't have those other things in place, you can do all the marketing things you want and it's not gonna work. So it sounds like you're saying you need to have clarity. You need to have clarity of what you're going to pursue before anything else. Well, the thing is, I don't think that people buy what they don't understand. So if you are vague about, again, the solution that you provide, if you're vague about who you want as your clients, if you're vague about what that product is. You know, I love my clients, but, you know, people come to me and I'm like, well, what are you selling? Well, I provide a container for people to get aligned. And I'm like, okay, but no one understands what that is. And so you've got to be clear. Like I offer a daily meditation practice where you, you can do 15 minutes a day that's going to help you sleep better, alleviate anxiety, whatever the thing is. You've gotta be that clear, and this, is for teenagers, who are having trouble in school. Like the more clear you can be about what your thing is and the problem it solves, and who you solve it for, that's, that's how you build a successful business. That's golden. So, so you help them get clarity. Mm-hmm. Do their market research and then, then what? Then we build a product. So the first thing we do, so again, it's what problem are you solving? Who do you solve it for? Why does it matter to them to get it solved? Why do they want your solution? And then we say, all right, well then how can we solve it? And we look at, how to get them from point A to point B. So the transformation that they want in the fastest amount of time, based on the skillset that you have, but also on how you wanna work. So you know, if you really want to be able to, if you wanna build a business that in, let's just say 24 months to three years, right? You have the ability to take summers off and travel well, then I am not gonna say, you know, what you really need to be doing is one-on-one coaching where you have 17 appointments a week. That's just not gonna be, that business is not gonna make you happy. So we design a program that gets you to the kind of revenue goal that you want, but also allows you to deliver, your solution in a way that's gonna give you the flexibility that you want. And so the next thing we do is we design a program. And then once we have that and we have the price and the delivery method, the next thing we do is we think about how are we gonna help people find you. Because that's the next biggest challenge that most people who get into sort of coaching, consulting expert kind of businesses have. And that is unique for everybody. But I generally recommend using a thought leadership strategy in order to do that. Because if you are in coaching and consulting people are, people are buying you and they're buying your expertise. And so if your marketing is all about helping them understand how you get results, then your, your product and your marketing are almost the same thing. It just makes it very, clear what you need to be creating in terms of content, which takes a lot of the mystery out of marketing, I think. And do people, do you tell them early on that this might be different than their nine to five? That it may require more hours than your traditional nine to five because it's a whole different model. Well, yeah, and I am, I am one of those people who will tell you the truth every single time. And, and because I do think people don't; here's the thing, the skills that make you or made you super successful in corporate, the skills that actually are going to make you a great coach or a great consultant, they are not necessarily the same skills that are gonna let you build a great business. Building a business and being in business either solo or with some contractors, or even if you have a business partner; it's, it's all you. And all the decisions are you and you are suddenly in charge of the strategic direction of, of your company. And so it turns out that there's just a tremendous amount of decision making that happens all the time. And it's all ambiguous decision making. Like you usually don't have the data that you have inside a large corporation to be able to say, well, what happened when we did this the last time? Or how did we do it the last time? Or can I use the last guy's slide deck to build this presentation? Like there is no last guy's slide deck. It's all you. And so I think that people sort of don't always realize the learning curve that's involved. I guess the good news is it is all learnable. The cool thing about being in the service area, in, in the, you know, coaching, consulting independent expert, like if you're a, an organizer or a retreat person or whatever. The, the cool thing about that is we know how to build this kind of business. It's not like you know the guys who made Airbnb, who there was no Airbnb before they thought that up, or Uber. We know how to build coaching and consulting businesses. And so it's just a matter of saying these are the building blocks, these are the skills you need to learn. Finding someone who can help you learn those or learning them on your own right. The information is out there and then putting them together in a way that makes sense. And I think the value of, working with someone to do that is they're gonna help you do it faster, with less rework. But you can absolutely do it on your own. It is DIY able, there's a lot of information out there. The problem is that not all the information that's out there is good information. That's true. That's true. Or sometimes what I find is that it's misleading information. Cause it gives you, like you said earlier, this unrealistic expectation that you work, four days a week and, you're making $10,000 a month. Yeah. I'm sorry, that's not happening. I agree. And I, I think any entrepreneur that you, you'll talk to, if that's where they are now, that's not where they started. There is, there is a, again, there is, a building component that if that's where you wanna go, you are going to have to put in the hours to build that. And that's, that's where the real work is. And, and you'll definitely hear this, starting your own business is real work and you need to be ready for that kind of time commitment. And also, changing your mindset around working and what that means. Because the thing is when it's your gig, you you worry about it all the time because it's yours. And then if you have employees, that's another level of responsibility as well. So you know if, again, a lot of it depends on where you wanna go with it. You can get to a certain income level with maybe some contractors and a little bit of help. But if you wanna sort of get to those, you know, the million dollar level, you are gonna need a team. And again, once you bring employees to the mix, what you do every day in your business and the responsibility that you have, kind of radically changes. And that's why it's kind of good to know where you're going when you start. And so, Laura, tell me, so when you help people build their business, do you inform them as to when it's time to hire their first employee or a VA? Yes, if someone's in that situation, I'll definitely recommend it. Like I'll see it. I, it's funny, I had a client just the other day, come to me and she's like, can you just look at my to-do list and help me prioritize? And so I'm like, absolutely, you know, that's what I'm here for. And so we went in there and we moved some stuff around and she's like, do I need a VA? And I'm like, not yet, but soon. So, I think, you know, and a lot of it is, I think most people, women especially often wait too long to hire a VA. So getting some help is different than hiring a full-time employee. Getting some help is making sure that you as an entrepreneur are putting your time towards the things that, first of all, you're the best at, and second of all, are the closest to generating revenue, because that's what it's all about in sort of the first three to five years. Is figuring out how to bring in leads consistently and how you're gonna generate consistent revenue. So your income's not going like this. Once you get past that, once you have kind of a steady state, or at least you know where your leads are coming from on a regular basis, that's when we can start talking about, well, do you want to make more money? And then what are the things we need to put in place that allow you to do that? Yeah, I'm sure you've heard the term, but you know, people do say, what, what got you, you know to a hundred thousand dollars is probably not the thing that's gonna get you to half a million dollars, right? You are either gonna need more hands or more systems or a different way of delivering your services. And those are all things you can look at. Those are all options and that's again, why, it can be confusing because people get stuck and they're sort of like, why can't I get past, you know, this certain revenue number. Or why do I feel like I'm working all the time. And strategically figuring out which path you should take is often a good sign that you should talk to somebody and get some help. Get a business buddy. Or get a coach or get somebody who can give you an objective and preferably experienced opinion as to what would be the best path to get you where you're trying to go. And I wanna go back to something you said earlier where you said that, you know, like in the beginning stages, starting to talk to people that are already doing what it is that you wanna do. That can be kind of challenging. Because if you're out there and you're looking, if you don't know these people, you have no relationship with these people. You know, it's kind of humbling to reach out to, if I didn't know you, Laura, and I said, Hey Laura, you know, I have some questions I'd like to ask you because I want to do what you're doing. To be able to get a response back from you. Yeah, okay. So a couple thoughts on that. So two different conversations, right? The conversations with the people you want to help, you should probably be able to find one or two of those. If you don't know anybody that's like the client that you wanna help, I think that's a steeper hill to climb. If you wanna talk to somebody that does what you do, it is nice to have a warm introduction. So is it possible, you know, if you don't know anybody, can you reach out to your friend network? Does anybody know anybody? Because honestly, if a good friend came to me and said, I have a friend, would you be willing to talk to her? I'll give you 30 minutes on my calendar. You know, that's also part of, you know, why I do what I do. I'm a little bit mission driven that way, that I really would love to see more women be successful entrepreneurs. I think it's the best way that we can transfer more wealth into the hands of women. And I think what that happens, good things happen. So, I'm always willing to take the time. I think women are often very willing to help each other and talk to each other. It a warm introduction helps though. I mean, I think if you just DM me on LinkedIn and I've never heard of you, I'll be honest, I'm probably gonna ignore that. But if you come to me through a friend of a friend, I'll almost always say yes. Did that help? Was that helpful? That did help. Cause I was thinking, thought, okay, well, you know what, if I, uh, wanted to start now from ground zero and I wanted to be a coach, like you reached out to you either through Instagram or LinkedIn or something, I'd be first, oh my gosh, she's not gonna wanna talk to me. And number two, feel bad when you ignored it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I do think, you know, the more you can do early on with warm introductions, and I'm not saying like, I don't chat with people like on LinkedIn and, and Instagram, I do. But like to get on my calendar, you'd have to probably chat with me for a while. But, you know, another thing if you can find, and I don't just mean me like, but if you see somebody who's doing something that you really like and you think you'd like to do something similar, well first of all, find out if they have a product. That already tells you that cause a lot of people do, especially in around coaching and consulting. The second thing is, can you find somebody that's similar? So maybe, okay, let's say you wanna be a business coach and you don't know any other business coaches, but do you know anybody who's any kind of coach? Start by talking to them and saying, what does it take to grow a coaching business? And then you can always ask them, do you know any business coaches? And that's how you get this warm introduction. So I think that early on, your network does a lot of the connecting for you or lean on your network as much as you can. And so if you've been inside corporate lean on those people and the connections you've made over the years. If you haven't, if you stepped away from corporate and you're now thinking you'd like to get back into working, but maybe corporate is not so hospitable; for those of us who are in middle age and you wanna start something on your own. You know, do you have a mom network? Because those can be really, you never know who people know. A community network. And if all else fails, you know, see if you can find a meetup or, an organization that's local, even if you don't want your business to be local, even if you wanna do something online or digital, sometimes just finding those people to talk to, it can be easier in real life than digitally. So Laura, what are three pieces of advice that you would give that woman, that Gen Xer, who is looking at the writing on the wall, the company is asking people to come back into the office. They're laying people off and this job just doesn't work for me anymore. It, it hadn't worked for me for 10 years now. How do I escape this madness? Yeah, I would say start by finding a focus area. So that goes back to what we were talking about before. Think about who you would like to work with and what problem you can solve. And to figure out the problems you can solve again; if you like what you do, if you enjoy using the skillset that you've developed during your career, that's an advantage because you can capitalize on that. And so start with that. If you don't like what you do, then you've got an extra step, in terms of thinking about what you do wanna do; right? Because that's the first thing is you gotta figure out and entrepreneurship's not for everybody as we were talking about. So, but if, if it is something you're interested in, then I always say that your best way to start is asking yourself, what problem can I solve? Who do I wanna solve it for? And why is it important to that person to get the problem solved, right? Because that gives you an understanding of how urgent the problem is for them. The second thing I would say is to start running experiments. Start having these conversations. Start having these conversations way before, you feel like you're ready to leave your job. And when you first start to see the writing on the wall, start having these conversations and say, you know, I was thinking about helping small businesses do market research. Let's say you're a market research person, so go find somebody that owns a small business and ask them questions like, know, you're not trying to get them to hire you. You're asking them questions like, do you ever hire market researchers? Okay, that's gonna give you the information that you need. And if they say, no, we never hire market researchers, then you say, okay, well then I probably need to find what size company does hire market researchers. How big does that company need to be? So again, you're gonna keep getting answers to these questions as you have these conversations. So that is such an important piece of doing it. And you can do market research on the internet too. I mean, you can ask ChatGPT. You can look at Google search, you know, answers in the automatic fill-ins. But I will say the gold standard is to go out and talk to people because you are gonna get insights, in real conversations that you're just never gonna get from ChatGPT. And then the third thing is that when you are ready, I would start to build that success squad. I would start to put some people around you that could support you as you move through this transition because it's a big deal. It is. And so that's where you would come in. So Laura, where can people find information to begin to work with you? Well, thank you so much for asking. The best way to connect with me is, you can start with my website, which is LauraZavelson.com, and I'm gonna spell that L-A-U-R-A-Z as in zebra, A, V as in victory, E-L-S-O-N, LauraZavelson.com. And you can also find me under my name, on YouTube. And I put a lot of videos out about how to get started and how to start your own business. And that is just a great way if you're just kind of looking to build some groundwork, that you can get to know me and you can also get some answers to some of your questions. That's great. I love what you're doing, Laura. Cause you know, I, I think that I'm not the only Gen X out there that knew it was time to jump. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It was so great to be here. Thank you for having me. All right, thank you. So are you ready to hand in your letter resignation yet? Or maybe just dip your toe into a side hustle? Either way, thanks to Laura. We've learned you don't have to jump without a parachute. Remember, the secret is, small steps, clear goals, and surrounding yourself with people who have your back. If you want to connect with Laura or dive deeper into her incredible strategies, head on over to createthebestme.com/ep124 And don't forget to join us next week for another amazing episode made just for you. Until then, keep dreaming big. Take care of yourself. And remember, you were beautiful, strong, and capable of creating the best version of yourself. Thank you for watching. Catch you next week. Bye for now.