Ep. 20 What If Being Single In Your 50's Is Actually The Upgrade?

The world loves to tell women that 50 is the beginning of the fade out. I don’t buy it, and neither does my guest, Colleen Kochannek, a corporate refugee turned reinvention strategist and founder of the Third Act Lab. If you’ve felt that quiet restlessness that says there has to be more, this conversation gives it a name and a path forward: your third act can be your power season.

Key Takeaways 
Colleen Kohannick's journey is a powerful reminder that life after 50 can be a time of profound growth and reinvention. By challenging societal narratives and embracing their unique journeys, women can reclaim their identities and pursue fulfilling lives. Key takeaways include:  

• Life after 50 is not an ending but an opportunity for re-invention.  
• Self-inquiry is essential for personal growth and rediscovering one's identity.  
• Community and open conversations can empower women to embrace their authenticity.

About Colleen

Colleen Kochannek is a corporate refugee turned reinvention strategist for women over 50 ready to claim their 3rd Act as their power season. As founder of The 3rd Act Lab, she helps women design a life - and income - on their terms. Through practical frameworks, candid truth-telling, and smart use of AI, Colleen guides women to rediscover who they are now and turn lived experience into creative, income-generating projects.

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Transcript

Colleen’s Blender Years Backstory

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome to Mama's My Emergency Contact Podcast, Real Conversations, No Filter. I am Lisa, your host. Have you ever noticed how quickly or quietly the world tells women that after 50 we're supposed to shrink, that the spotlight dims, that the adventure slows, that the best chapters are behind us, that maybe we're dead. But what if that's not the ending at all? What if it's an intermission? Today's guest is here to challenge the idea that life after 50 is a slow fade. She calls it something else, a third act, a bold, intentional, deeply personal reinvention. Because maybe turning 50 isn't about losing relevance. Maybe it's about reclaiming authorship. And if you ever felt that whisper inside you saying, there has to be more, this conversation is for you. So today's guest is Colleen Kohanik. Colleen is a corporate refugee turning reinvention strategist for women over 50, ready to claim their third act as their power season. As founder of the Third Act Lab, she helps women design a life and income on their terms. Welcome, Colleen. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me, Lisa. I love thank you. And you and you nailed my last name. I was gonna say, because I've been practicing and I was like, oh shit. Okay. Um, all right, Colleen. Um, first of all, I want people to know that because they're always like, How did you find these people? And I found you blowing it up on Instagram, man, and then I saw you on TikTok as well, and you were saying things that really um tugged at me and touched me because you know, turning 50, everyone thinks that's it, it's over. The best years are behind you. And you were saying, oh, hell no. So that's how I found you. And I'm like, oh, she's gotta be on the podcast. So, with that being said, provide some background on your life so the listeners can know a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah. So I always say, like, the reader's digest version is I'm currently I'm 58. I'm widowed, coming on eight years. Actually, I can't even believe that. That's in a couple weeks, it'll be eight years. I'm child free by choice. I lost my only sibling three years ago to colon cancer. All of that to say I have I'm flying solo in the world. Like I don't have like a big family. I don't have like a big Italian family or anything like that. So I'm literally flying solo. I don't have family. So I always give that as context because I know a lot of the things I talk about, there are family dynamics involved. I don't have that anymore, which I think has freed me up a lot to say many of the things that I say. So, but I am a corporate refugee. I was laid off in 2016 at the age of 50 with like 10,000 people in an industry that was shrinking. So I knew I wouldn't find a job. Uh and, you know, there were 10,000 of us flooding the industry at the same time. And so that's when I started my own digital business and got into the online space and started working with women, helping them start digital businesses. And I've since expanded that over the years as my life has grown and changed. But that's kind of the reader's digest version of me.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Wow, that's that that's a lot. That is a lot. And I was doing the math as you were talking. So the time that you were laid off, was that the same time that you became a widow?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Well, it was. I call it like the I call it an eight-year blend, the blender years. And so I was laid off in late 2016, started my own business. Uh, my husband, my late husband came home one day sick and he got very sick very fast. I became a caregiver for a year. He died. In the meantime, of course, I paused my business because I was caring for him. He died, had this new business. Uh, then I was losing my sister, uh, lots of mental health issues, like a lot of old toxic family trauma came straight up to the surface. So I call it the blender years, but I always say that I have some distance on it because I feel like sometimes when I talk about it, it seems a little flippant. And I'm like, I don't mean that to be flippant. I just have a little distance on it. So I say that because I know some people who are like in the middle of the blender, it it seems a little flippant. I'm like, I have a little space in between now. So it was really, I say the universe flipped my life upside down eight years ago, and uh it's taken me these eight years to kind of upright it again.

The First “What About Me”

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, but you know, I'll I'll say this when you talk about it the way you do, it actually gives hope, you know, like wow, okay, I'm gonna be okay, to be honest with you. It really does. Um, all right, so let's get into some of the things that you've been talking about on social media. Um, so you know, like I said during the intro that you are talking about something that a lot of people might feel a little triggered, especially women, when we're talking about that, hey, you know, you can live the I want to say the non-traditional life. So, at what point did you realize that the traditional script wasn't the only plan for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

So I started questioning the universe and more so the patriarchy in my early 40s. And I'm sure it was perimenopause was kicking in. I went thenopause very early. I was in my early 40s when menopause hit, which is normal, but really young, normal. And so, and I didn't know the word perimenopause or menopa I didn't know it. But I did know I started waking up every day, and the first question that would hit me is what about me? What about me? Where am I in this life? When do I count? When do I get a turn? And it was just like this gnawing, it wouldn't go away. And that prompted um my late husband and I to get in marriage counseling because I was ready to leave him. I was getting ready to leave. I'm like, this is not Tonya. We got in marriage counseling, which did not really fix him at all, but it fixed me. I learned, you know, he was incredibly narcissistic and he wasn't gonna change. So I changed. And but it was that wake-up call that I started thinking, like, wait a minute, what are we doing here? Like it was kind of a realization that I had built a life that I chose, that I was all in on. I, I mean, I was in hook, line, and sinker for the whole Disney script. I wanted it. And then I was like, wait a minute, but this isn't really what I signed up for. And they're just kind of that realization. And I think perimenopause and menopause is that wake up call for many women. Like, wait a minute, what's going on here? So that was kind of what triggered it for me.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

You know, it's funny, I never heard of perimenopause either. Um, so that's like a new buzzword. Wow, I did not expect you to say that. So you and you know what, to be honest with you, I mean, that's probably why I'm divorced, um, because I started asking myself those same questions. And I I think that a lot of women do ask themselves those questions, but they bury it. So I guess my next question is, what was it about what you did? Because you didn't bury it, or did you? Or were you like, no, I need to like say what I need to say? Like, what was it that you had that did not bury those those questions?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah, I don't know. Just something in me in those early 40s, I was just like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I and I described my husband, you know, gotta rest his soul. He was in charge of everything, responsible for nothing. And I the imbalance of that set became so incredibly clear to me. And then I started questioning myself, like, why am I tolerating this? And I really kind of turned it on myself, uh, which has been, you know, a hard kind of story to come out of because you do have to look back and be like, oh shit, I I chose it, I built it, I tolerated it, I was all excited about it. So it's mine to fix now as well. So I don't know what it was that triggered it, but once that genie was out of the bottle and I was asking that question, there was no putting her back in. Like it just wouldn't leave me alone.

How Patriarchy Trains Self Abandonment

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I love that you say it like that because it's like a constant like whisper or maybe a smack in the face. Um, that's like it doesn't stop. Yeah. Um, so when it comes to identities, I I think the next question I had for you is, and and just from your perspective, why do women, do you think, lose parts of themselves when they get partnered up? And it's did you lose any part of yourselves when you be yourself when you become when you became married?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

You know, we're I this is the way I always describe it. We're conditioned from the second we're born in this patriarchy. And I think that it's so nuanced and unconscious. You're as a woman, the second you're born, you're given like this permanent judge who's watching you 24-7 to make sure you're doing it right and being the good girl, being the good girl. And so your whole life becomes about winning status in this game of the patriarchy. You don't even realize it. You're, oh, I'm doing it right, I'm doing it right. Like one day I'm gonna get a big prize, I'm gonna get a knight in shining armor, you know, that type of thing. And so our whole life, we're not encouraged as women to self-actualize or individuate. We're encouraged to, you know, win the prize, is what it is, and to do the right thing. Whatever your family system is, your cultural system, you know, everybody has their own belief systems, but we're conditioned from birth. And women, you know, we're taught our value comes from self-abandoning and being okay with having less, because you get to let other people have more. Their preferences are met. And so we're taught that from day one. And so I think it's um it's so insidious that you don't see it until you do see it one day, and then you can't unsee it.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And then it becomes like you you tolerate less and less and less until it becomes intolerable, is kind of how I see it.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

I I completely agree with you. And when you think about like how you woke up and you're like, hey, what about me? Um, what are your thoughts when you see other women, you know, younger women um celebrating, you know, the marriages and and all of those other things? Like, what are your thoughts in regards to that? Like, do you think to yourself, have they woken up or are they woken, or do you like, you know, maybe that's just her journey?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of things. One, I see a lot of younger women having these conversations, much younger. I think social media has been a great equalizer. We share our stories, all of those types of things. When I see other people now getting all excited to be married, it's kind of like, um, yeah, I don't know. Like it's A, none of my business. None of my business. You're a grown woman, like none of my business. But it's also you kind of look at it like, maybe, you know, maybe wait or whatever. On the other hand, I understand that conditioning. I was so damn excited to get married, like, God, yay, the wedding, the dress, you know, it was um, so it's kind of hindsight that you bring that knowledge to. So I don't know. I personally don't see the point of marriage anymore as somebody who was married almost 30 years. Um, I think it's a very outdated institution. There's really no specific reason for it. A committed relationship is a committed relationship, you know, all of those things. So I don't know. I do think younger women are having these conversations, much younger.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, I I I agree. I and I I think you are you hit it on the nail that it's the social media of these uh conversations. And it's funny because I I never wanted to get married. And I recall crying at my wedding day. But anywho, that's another story. Um, so when you came to this, like, okay, um I want to say almost like this enlightenment, like you know, you said you lost your sister, which is horrible, and your husband your ex-husband, um, and then not now being on your own. And I'm sure that there was some sort of grieving process with all that. And at what point did you then say, okay, wait, I gotta do something about this? And what did that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, I mean, it is a massive grieving process. And I had lots and lots of therapy because when you start flipping your life upside down, the universe is like, hey, while she's down, let's take her back to childhood. And because I came from a very abusive background. I mean, it's no, it's no, uh now looking back, it's you know, it's no surprise that I wound up with a very narcissistic man. I married my mother, whole other conversation. Uh, but it anyhow, so a lot of therapy and the grieving process really is nothing ever is as it seems. Everything is temporary, even if it lasts for decades. And it was just this um I think the hardest realization I've had is life can be really hard. Suck it up, buttercup. Nobody's and I know that sounds cold, but I see a lot of people get we we get very humans do not like discomfort. Of course we don't. Nobody wants to be uncomfortable, but we will often waste our entire life avoiding discomfort. We avoid the hard conversation, we avoid leaving the toxic X, we avoid, avoid, avoid to avoid the discomfort of that. So you sit in the discomfort of this. And I think I just realized um one of the greatest lessons I've learned is you will never be happy in life. Happiness is very fleeting. You will find peace and contentment and ease, but there will always be a fly in the ointment somewhere in your life. But we think if I do this, this, this, and this, one day I will be happy. And it doesn't exist. And I think that's been the most um freeing realization that yeah, life life is hard all the time and life is good all the time. And that's been the most freeing.

The Second 50 Has No Script

SPEAKER_01 15:19

You're giving me goosebumps because that's exactly, you know, I was it, I was like freeing, and you said freeing. Yeah, that whole um, like, and I think I saw one of your posts, like, oh, I'm gonna get to that point, and oh, my grieving uh process is done. Okay, then it's done. Then I can be happy. I do all this, then it's done, and I can be happy. And that's such a hard pill to swallow when it doesn't work that way. Um, okay, so now that you are you you've been through all of that and you're doing um great things for women by being on social media and talking about this different type of life. But what is that different type of life? What is that different type of perspective that you are talking about on social media?

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Uh, I have no idea. That's the whole point. Is I think it's I'm treating it as one big experiment, this next chapter, because I'm like the first 50 years were scripted and conditioned, I think in ways we don't realize, but you are living by a script, really. You know, what your people do, what our people do, kind of thing. The second 50, there's no script. And with that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility because it's all yours. There's nobody to blame. Like, well, they told me I should. They told me, you know, there isn't any of that anymore. It's all on yourself. But there also isn't a script. And I think as women, you know, I always say the greatest PR hoax in humanity is the patriarchy. Greatest PR hoax ever pulled off on humanity. And as a woman, the second you're born, don't tell people your age, hide your age. Aging is like a crime against humanity. It's gonna be awful. And then I get here, like I'm sitting here at 58 now. I'm like, wait, I've never felt fucking better. I have never felt fucking better in my life. Like, I'm the smartest human I've ever been. I have tons of experience. I know how life works, I know how people work. I'm pretty good in my own skin now. I don't care what other people think. Um, it's an incredibly freeing time, but we're told our whole lives is bad. Oh my God, you're gonna hit 50 and all downhill. Uh, and you're like, wait a minute. I think we've been duped. We've been duped. And the more I talk to women, they're like, yeah, like this is the best time ever. And you it's kind of a magical time because you're you're cast out of the patriarchy, so to speak, because now you're just an old woman. You're of no use to, you know, the men folk anymore. Uh, and so we don't really need you. So you're just kind of free over here to do what you want, like literally, do what you want. But I see it as an experiment because there isn't a script. There really is not a script.

Fear, Certainty, And Micro Experiments

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah. And I, again, I saw I told Colleen that I was trolling her page. Um, there was another thing that you said, and I I love this. You said that I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I don't like I'm just trying this out. I'm gonna go and be a nomad. Um, you know, I'm gonna figure it out. But I think, you know, again, women are seeing this or listening to you and be like, oh my God, isn't she afraid? Like, what well, I mean, what is it that you can tell other women who are saying that they're they're afraid to do this? Or they're being held back by that fear, or what is she doing? That's not what you're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Yeah. They're looking for certainty that doesn't exist. They're looking for, they're looking to make a decision that is absolutely positively right and can't go wrong and they can never be judged. Because the worst thing we fear in the world is what if I make the wrong decision? What if I make the wrong move? What if I look like an idiot? What if this doesn't work out? And I'm like, what if? What if? Like, there's no certainty. So this this idea that I'm going nomadic for a year is is a newer thing. I've just decided it, but it's done. Like I've terminated my lease. I'm going. And people are like, what about safety? What where are you going first? Where do you and I'm like, I I'm gonna figure it out. Like I'm a grown-ass woman. Like I I am concerned about my safety all the time. So that's I'll do that. Where am I going first? I'm, you know, I'm working through this app called Trusted House Sitters. I'm like, I wherever I find a house sit first. Oh, what about your doctor's appointments? I I will figure it out. Like I just, it's not like I'm being dumb about it, but it's like you can't plan everything in advance. And then what it what if you hate it? Okay, then I'll stop doing it. You know what I mean? Like it's we're looking for certainty in decisions and it doesn't exist. And so you can play the what if game forever, or you can just go try. Now, that said, I'm very much into what I call micro experiments, like go try it out first and see if it's something you like. Because, you know, big experiments, potentially big consequences if they don't work out. Smaller experiments, you know, much smaller consequences if they don't work out. So for me, you know, I started weighing the odds. I rent an apartment, I've terminated my lease. If I hate hate it on the road, I'll come back here. Like it's not, it's not the end of the world, so to speak. And so uh I think we we get very much tied to the sphere of failure and the sphere of certainty. So you wind up not living your life at all.

Loneliness Versus Solitude

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Okay, and now I see why there's so many people that are following you and love you. Um, because you're saying things that we're not used to hearing. We're not used to hearing those things. We're hearing, you know, we're told the shoulds and oh, you need what you need to do, and oh, you need to do this and that. And but wait, you got to be careful with that and this. Um, so you're saying the things that we don't normally hear, and you're also living it and you're doing it, and that is amazing. Um, so I'm sure people are watching and they're saying things like, oh, she should, she's probably alone, and don't aren't you concerned about being alone on your own and you know, dying alone. And I wanted to ask you this question because I hear this to, you know, that this comes to me towards me. Like, aren't you don't you want to be with someone? And I'm like, no, I'm great with my two dogs um and my daughter, but then she'll be leaving the house soon. So, what's the difference between loneliness and solitude? And how do you navigate between the two, or do you?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Um, yeah, I mean, so yeah, I'm I'm flying solo now. Oh my god, who's gonna take care of you when you're old and sick? Well, I'm like, please tell me you didn't have children to explicitly be caregivers. Like, obviously, if you have a good relationship with them, they're honored to do it. But I I'm like, you first of all, you can't count on that. What if your child is across the country with a job and like they're living their own lives? There's no guarantee that they are readily available to take care of you in your dying days or what, you know, when you're sick. Uh and I say that about, you know, my good friends too. Like I could call them tomorrow, like my best friend, and she'd be like, I can't help you because she's her husband has like late stage Alzheimer's now. She's busy. Like, so there's no guarantee, anyhow. So again, we're trying to make these plans, have the certainty. And then what happens is you get there and they can't help you. And then now you're pissed and resentful because you planned. So I always say, I'll figure, like if I'm sick and need help, I will figure that out when I get there. Again, I will figure it out. As for the loneliness thing, I've thought a lot about this. Like I am, I'm I've always been a bit of a loner. I'm very introverted anyhow. I do need connection, but very limited. Loneliness is an inside job. It's absolutely an inside job. Being with a million people, we've all been with friends or in a group or with a partner and felt never more lonely in our lives because the expectation is that you're not, but then you are, so it exaggerates it. So loneliness to me rears its ugly head when people don't want to be alone with their own thoughts and feelings. Because it's very uncomfortable. Because then when there's nobody else there, you're like, oh shit, I did that. I did that all by myself. So it's more of a it's a discomfort with being with yourself. Um, I can go have community and connection any day of the week, right? I mean, if you for community, because we do need connection, of course. We're humans, right? But the loneliness thing, I just don't buy to me, that's a that's an inside job. That's you don't you don't like being alone with your own thoughts because there's something there that is uncomfortable.

What Opens Up At 50

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Man, that was that's a mic drop, Colleen. That is a big mic drop. Yeah. Nobody wants to hear those voices in their head and be like, oh yes, you know, I exactly, I did that, and I need to take some accountability. Another word that a lot of people try to avoid. Yes. Okay. All right. So turning 50. What actually opens up at 50 that women aren't told? And and you kind of touched upon that. And then how can women at 50 start rebuilding? Because I gotta be honest, I I'm scared. I was scared when I was reaching that 5-0. And I gotta say, when 5-0 happened, it was like something different happened inside of me in my perspective, um, especially with mortality and all of that other stuff. You know, so what can you tell women who are about to turn 50 or are 50 or in deep knee deep, knee deep in their 50s, um, that maybe no one has told them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

I mean, first of all, I think it's a shock because we're conditioned our whole lives that 50 is some magical detrimental number that once you hit it, it's all over, it's downhill from there. Um it's not, of course. It's just literally an age. The perspective, yeah. I mean, you you touched on it, mortality. We are definitely closer to the exit than the entrance. I mean, at 50, I mean, that's maybe, maybe it's halfway because we're living so damn long now. Uh so I just I just think it's you have to learn to question everything. I think you have to learn to question everything. Is 50 really an awful age, or do I feel really good? Um, do I really want to continue? Like I think you have to come back to yourself. And you have to, I always say there's more unlearning and deconditioning to do than there is learning. It's I I don't know. I mean, like you said, it's a new perspective. You you do learn more about your own mortality. A, you're aging, nothing you can do to stop it. So you are now in a place that you have no choice. Like I'm I'm like, I'm 58. That is my age. I don't know why we were supposed to lie about it. That it is what it is. I can tell you I'm 30, I'm still 58. Um, so I just think there's like a kind of a get real with yourself. Um but with that comes what I call the you know, kick yourself moment, because you do look back with clarity and hindsight, and you're like, God, why did I think that? Why did I, why was I so afraid to show up here? Or why was I so and you have to kind of kick yourself like, yeah, you did that. And maybe you you feel like you wasted time, you didn't, you were living your life, but it's a real kind of uh internal reckoning, I think, and you just need to get real. Not everybody will. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Not everybody will, yeah. Um, so you're basically living your best life ever. I I feel that from you, and I, you know, I compare it to when I got divorced. I was like living my best life ever. And then you get to have this, and it's a lot with your perspective in life and what's to come. And I I wanted to ask you like, how excited are you in this lifetime right now? You know, you're a nomad right now, you're you're getting to that point. How excited are you? And do you have any expectations? Or maybe do you have, or maybe you don't?

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Yeah, I mean, I've never been more excited for a life that I have no idea what it is going to be. Like that's kind of odd because I've always been, you know, here's the challenge we have when we're when you're born, when you're younger, you're given milestones, right? You're born, you're given the script, and you have all these milestones, first steps, go to kindergarten, junior high, high school, get married, kids, career, job, you know, then you want the bigger house, the bigger car, the bigger, you know, all those things. And then you retire, done. You're done. No more for you in the script, right? And you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm 58, I probably got another 30 years. That's a whole nother lifetime. And if you, I think like I'm most excited because what I always say is, my life will never again be a compromise or a negotiation. It is my way or the highway, 100% selfish. Take it or leave it. I don't care that you don't like my glasses. I don't care that you, you know what I'm saying? I just, it's me. It's incredibly selfish, and that's exciting. Cause like we're gonna see what we get up to. We're just gonna see.

Third Act Lab And Where To Find Her

SPEAKER_01 28:44

That empowerment, girl, I'm feeling that. Oh God, you just lifted my Sunday. Okay. So, Colleen, I can talk to you for like hours, seriously. And um so empowering the things that you're saying, and the level of confidence is like amazing. What services are you providing at this time?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

I have an online membership community called the Third Act Lab, which basically helps women figure out who am I now? What do I want next, and how do I build it in incredibly practical terms? I'm I'm not the one that's going to help you meditate and vision board and all those things, which I'm not averse to, but I'm like, you gotta at some point, you gotta get out of the vision board and out of your journal and start doing shit. Um, you got to start experimenting. So I have a membership community. And as part of that, because I've been a digital business coach, there is a track within that membership. If you want to start, learn how to have a digital business income stream. It's completely optional in there, but it's really for women who need to figure out what is next. What's next? And we do, it's a monthly membership. You can cancel anytime, but it's called the Third Act Lab. It's a laboratory. I love it. Oh my God, I love it. Okay, where can we find you? So uh the best place to find me is on social media under my name. My handle is my name on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. And then, of course, links to all of my uh my membership community are there. And my website is also ColleenCohonick.com.

Final Reflections And Reinvention Reminder

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Awesome. All right, Colleen, like I said, I could talk to you for hours. This I hope you ladies are feeling this empowerment like I am right now. Just a really great conversation, and I hope it's opening a lot of your eyes and ears. So this is Mom is my emergency contact podcast, real conversations, no filter. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. If something from this episode stayed with you, I share after hours reflections on Substack, the thoughts that didn't make it into the recording and what lingered after the conversation ended. And you can subscribe for free. The link is in the show notes. And if you prefer to watch, you can find video episodes and clips on YouTube. So if today's conversation stirred something in you, do not ignore it. Maybe the restlessness you feel isn't dissatisfaction, maybe it's possibility. Maybe you're not behind. Maybe you're becoming. If you're over 50 or approaching it and wondering what's next, let this be a reminder. There is no expiration date on reinvention. There's no age limit on desire, there's no deadline on becoming who you were meant to be. Your third act doesn't start when someone gives you permission. It starts when you decide. Colleen, thank you so much. Oh my God. Thank you for having me. I can talk about this all day long. Okay, everyone. Everything that uh Colleen was mentioning will be on the show notes. And until next time, bye.