Zesty Change & Empowering Women: A Conversation with Sharon North Pohl

🚀 Feeling stuck in life, business, or wellness? It’s time for a Zesty Change!

In this episode of Penny for Your Shots, I chat with Sharon North Pohl, a wellness and business coach passionate about helping women over 50 reclaim their health, confidence, and entrepreneurial spirit.

From navigating major life transitions to embracing personal and business reinvention, Sharon shares her inspiring journey and the Zesty Change approach that helps women step into their next chapter with purpose and energy.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How Sharon’s health crisis became a turning point for transformation.
✅ The Zesty Change approach to wellness, mindset, and business growth.
✅ Why women over 50 should embrace reinvention & entrepreneurship.
✅ How collaboration & community create success in business and life.
✅ The power of self-care as a business strategy.

📌 Key Episode Timestamps:
⏱️ [00:00:00] Introduction – How I met Sharon & the importance of life’s wake-up calls.
⏱️ [00:03:00] One wrong step can change everything—Sharon’s health crisis story.
⏱️ [00:05:32] What is Zesty Change? A wellness & business approach for women in transition.
⏱️ [00:08:00] Why women over 50 are just getting started in entrepreneurship.
⏱️ [00:10:45] The role of self-care in business success—how wellness & work are connected.
⏱️ [00:14:20] Surviving a coma, sepsis, and overcoming major health struggles.
⏱️ [00:18:35] The importance of gut health, daily habits, and building a health reserve.
⏱️ [00:22:45] The power of community & networking in building a thriving business.
⏱️ [00:28:30] Hosting women’s networking events, meetups, and tea parties for connection.
⏱️ [00:35:50] Why deep friendships & real support systems matter for women over 50.
⏱️ [00:40:10] The financial power of women & the role they play in shaping the future.
⏱️ [00:43:00] Final thoughts—Say YES to change & trust the process!

 👉 Want to connect with Sharon? Learn more at https://www.zestychange.com/ 

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Transcript

[00:00:34] Penny Fitzgerald: I met Sharon Northpole, yes, that is her real name, through my Sassy Sisters Networking Group. She spoke at one of our events and shared a scary episode she experienced just a couple of years ago. Her story reminded me how quickly your life can change. Her story reminded me of how quickly your life can change.

[00:00:57] This hit particularly close to home for me, [00:01:00] as just a couple of weeks ago, I was helping a friend clean a pool area, was using a broom to knock down cobwebs and debris off the lanai screens above my head, I took a half step backwards, and I didn't quite have as wide a path as I thought. And I tumbled into the deep end of the pool.

[00:01:17] My first thought after realizing I was getting wet was, Oh, wow. My podcast is still playing. My earbuds are waterproof. My next thought was, well, just touch the bottom and stand up. I couldn't touch the bottom then. Oh shit. I need to get to the side of this pool. Okay. Honestly, it's kind of funny right now.

[00:01:36] And I'm sure that if someone had it on camera, it would have made America's funniest videos. Me going ass over apple cart into that pool. At the time, however, it was pretty scary. If you know me, you know, I'm not one to first go jumping into a pool. I ease my way in and I rarely go all the way under unless I'm sure I can touch the bottom.

[00:01:58] In fact, until this incident, I didn't know I [00:02:00] could swim. Thankfully, luckily turns out I can if I'm properly motivated. I didn't realize that I was hurt until later. I must have twisted my ankle and hit my hip and knee on something on the way in. And it took me a few days for the swelling to go down and for the bruises to heal.

[00:02:20] And that really shook me. It took way longer than I feel it should have. Than it used to take. And it made me realize that just one wrong step can change your life. What if I would have hit my head instead of my hip? I'm so, I'm so grateful. That was only a little, I'm so grateful that I was only a little banged up for a few days.

[00:02:40] It could have been way worse and I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. But seriously, it's so easy to take our health and our day to day for granted. And that little tumble was a wake up call that I needed to be more present and caring for myself, in being intentional about getting and staying strong.[00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] Be careful out there, my friend. You're important to me. Stay healthy. And I will, too. Okay? Deal? Deal. Here is Sharon Northpole. Hi, Sharon. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for rescheduling. My friend had a, um, a really bad event with her daughter today and she called me right around.

[00:03:20] Right around the time I was supposed to meet with you, and it totally took me off my game. So, sorry. but thank you for understanding.

[00:03:28] Yes. Absolutely. thank you so much for joining me for my podcast. And I am really looking forward to hearing and sharing your story. Sure. So, okay. So I have a really silly question to start us with. 

[00:03:46] Sharon North Pohl: It's, it's a combination of my married name and my maiden name. Yes, and it's North Pohl. How fun is that? Right. It is fun. So my ex husband was North and I, [00:04:00] when we got married, I made the decision to put it in the middle rather than at the end, which ended up being a good decision because it left all my, all my, You know, my banking and everything's still in my maiden name.

[00:04:13] Yeah. So, um, and it was backwards Pohl North, so it, you know, so yeah. I kept it because it's a, a cute, memorable name. It is very cute and all Yes, for sure. Very memorable. . Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I don't think, um, men understand the, um, nuances or the, uh, amount of change it requires. To change your last name and what it means, you know, all the significance of all the things that you have to change and right.

[00:04:42] It's a big deal. It is a big deal. And because, you know, 60 percent of marriages don't last long term. Then you're stuck, whether you want to change it back or what are you going to do? So that was my decision was better safe than sorry. And it [00:05:00] ended up being a good choice. Very smart. It was a very good choice.

[00:05:04] Yes, for sure. Right. So tell us, tell us a little about your career. How did you come to, it's called Zesty Change, right? It's called Zesty Change, it is, and it's a, uh, it's a life coaching, uh, offering that helps women with wellness and actually helping them be well in their body and well in their business.

[00:05:32] Because I have a very long career as, um, an entrepreneurial businesswoman, and I've worked in a lot of different industries over the years. And because I'm lucky to have gotten to this ripe age of wisdom. I, um, a lot of my coaching clients, when I start working with them on their wellness and you know, their holistic balance in their life, part of what comes up is a lot of questions around their [00:06:00] business or their field that they're still working in.

[00:06:02] And a lot of them are newly entering into the entrepreneurial world, coming from a career that they've retired from and now are, um, Pivoting and working on building a website and working on social media and all those things that I've worked on in all my businesses for so long. So I realized that a lot of what I'm doing.

[00:06:25] It's a blended thing, so what I offer in my zesty change is a zesty change wherever you need it. So if it's a health change, or it's a business change, or whatever else, I've been there done that for a lot of things. So, I help women in transition pivoting through their life, be it wellness, a divorce.

[00:06:48] Or looking to pivot into a new entrepreneurial effort. And I'm helping two women write a book. Um, both of the women in Sassy, Sassy Sisters. Nice! So I've written a [00:07:00] book and published it and it was an Amazon, uh, well it still is an Amazon number one best selling book. It's called Zesty Changes. And it's about, it's 30 women, including myself, with their stories from kind of lemons to lemonade, how they moved from being, you know, in a really tough situation to, um, finding their way out and thriving through the tragedies.

[00:07:23] So my book, that's one of the things I've, um, helped other, other women do. So I've realized that although my, my focus is wellness, That wellness is a balancing act of all the things in your life. It's not just your, your weight, and your eating, and your, and your taking care of your self care, and your mental attitude, which is a big part of what I do.

[00:07:50] It's also helping women find the structure to, um, not get buried in the So, I'm going to give you a little bit of the details of running an online business, [00:08:00] so that, or writing a book or anything else. So, what I say is, I offer Zesty Big Sister Energy where you need it in your transition. So, if you need a hug or you need a tug, I'm there to help you sort that out.

[00:08:14] Cute. I love that. Yeah. So it's become, it's become, you know, as I've worked with coaching clients, it's become obvious to me that part of what women need is a, is a sounding board as they're moving into their entrepreneurial world, you know, for their branding and their colors and their. And they're email marketing and all the things that they need to do.

[00:08:41] So although they come to me because they're looking for an up level in their health and wellness, um, part of what happens is they start asking me all the questions, well, how did you do this? And how did you do that? And how did you become, I was an Instagram influencer, you know, so all those pieces of my background have become.[00:09:00] 

[00:09:00] What has, um, evolved in my coaching offering is that I'm willing to help women wherever they happen to be. And part of, it seems like a lot of women that are 50, 60 and, and, and beyond, a lot of them are pivoting into some kind of, um, entrepreneurial venture, you know, they might be doing, um, you know, Shaklee, or they might be doing Mary Kay, or they might be, you know, doing something they've always loved, and now they're actually doing it.

[00:09:28] You know, like, doing a, an online yoga class. So, anyway, I, I offer them that Big Sister Energy, wherever they need, need, The accountability and the ideas and the push to move forward with their health and with their business. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, and it, don't you feel too that a lot of us entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, especially you start by filling a need and that grows and that that's what becomes your [00:10:00] business or that's, that's what becomes, I mean, your gift that you can share with others.

[00:10:05] Right. And I, I see a lot of women in that after 50 time getting ready to or leaving their, their traditional career, whatever that might have been. And now they want to do something else and they don't want to just sit in a rocking chair. They want to rock their life. And so that often involves, um, pivoting to a new, a new offer, a new career, a new website, a new, um, A new social media presence, all the things that that women want to do as they move out of their traditional, um, corporate presence or their regular job.

[00:10:44] So a lot of times they're looking to do something. They're passionate about. 

[00:10:48] Yeah. 

[00:10:49] Penny Fitzgerald: And try even remembering that passion is sometimes hard because they've been putting 1 foot in front of the other caring for their families for everybody else, but themselves. 

[00:10:59] Sharon North Pohl: Right. [00:11:00] Yeah. It takes a while. Often we start there with, um, the wellness piece of it is, you know, what are you doing about your, you know, your health and what are you doing about your, your, all your self care and your mental mindset and all those pieces.

[00:11:17] But it often leads right directly to their business offering because they're, they're interconnected when you're an entrepreneur, your home is your business. And so. It's hard to, um, slice them into two different entities because if your business is dragging you down and not leaving you any time for self care, your health will become, you know, on the back burner.

[00:11:43] Yeah. And so I help women find balance is really what it's about. Yeah. Well, and vice versa too. I, I feel like, you know, if you're, if you've got something going on personally, that is either physically or mentally or emotionally challenging, you have to take care of that [00:12:00] first to get your energy up to be able to serve your people in your business.

[00:12:04] Right. So I started at one end of it and then I realized that after, you know, 50 years as an outside sales rep running my own sales organizations and starting a non profit and building an online business, that there's a whole lot of skill and, and wisdom that went into all those pieces. And as they, As my clients that are looking for balance in their life started looking at those things that they needed some help with, I realized that really What I have become is a blended coach, part wellness and part business wellness, which isn't really what I had as my vision in the beginning.

[00:12:46] It is what my, it's, it's where my clients took me. Yeah, did it. Yeah, like, what are we going to do next? And how do I, how do I do this thing? And how do I build a website? And do you have [00:13:00] contacts that can help me do this or that? And, um, how do I. You know, how do I start a Facebook group? All those pieces of the puzzle are things I've done multiple times, and I can help someone figure out how to do it.

[00:13:12] Yeah, very cool. We do very similar things, but just in a different perspective because everyone's, um, everyone's got their own spin and different needs. Yeah, for sure. Are you, are you comfortable sharing some of your personal journey? I mean, and I'm so for my listeners, Sharon and I are sassy sisters together.

[00:13:35] And Sharon spoke at a recent event and shared, um, a bit about her personal journey. And I just felt that was so powerful. I'd love if you would, if you're comfortable, happy to share about my health, about my health journey. Yeah. So two years ago I was at a speaking event where I was, uh, presenting about balancing your life with a group of women in Mexico.

[00:13:58] On my way home, I started [00:14:00] feeling kind of. And by the time I got to California, where I was spending, I spent summers in California and winters in Florida. So anyway, I was starting to feel bad. I started to get a cough. I didn't have COVID and I didn't know what it was. Well, it ended up that I had a very bad.

[00:14:20] Um, undiagnosed form of pneumonia, and I ended up in the hospital with a pneumonia that they couldn't get a grip on. I don't know if you remember Mary Lou Rittner, the famous ice skater, recently had a very rare form of pneumonia and was in a coma. It was a very similar thing. So I ended up in a coma for two weeks and in the hospital for two months.

[00:14:44] And after, you know, having a robust. Time in Mexico just a week and a half earlier. So I've always been very active. Well, not always, you know I have another story of gaining weight and losing weight way back in the beginning [00:15:00] of my divorce So that's another up and down story Which is helpful when I help other women who are going through a breakup that drives them to eat which it does So anyway Back then, I revised my whole eating, my whole exercise, and I began what I call the Zesty Toolbox, which is a system of living that is with a lot of organic foods, health foods, um, exercise, gut health, all the things that I teach and love, I took on board and became really healthy and really strong in my, in my And when I got so sick, it was just a rare contagious event.

[00:15:40] It wasn't, um, it wasn't my own. It was something that was a highly contagious pneumonia. So I was on dialysis and on hospice for a period of time. And they said I would probably be on dialysis the rest of my life. And at that point I said, [00:16:00] no, I can't do my bucket list. Asking where the next dialysis machine is.

[00:16:05] So I, I draw, I drew in all of the reserves that I had and a big part of it was the mental reserve and the affirmations and meditations and belief and also the health reserve that I had. I wasn't overweight. I didn't have high blood pressure. I didn't have diabetes. I didn't have any, any, Other kinds of illnesses to compound this, um, this terrible lung disease that happened to me.

[00:16:35] Had I gone in there 50 pounds overweight or had I gone in there on diet with diabetes or high blood pressure or Already compromised liver or kidneys. I wouldn't have made it out because I got sepsis and 30 70 percent of the people that get sepsis die and so It was a minor miracle that I pulled out of that and that I'm [00:17:00] really fully back to normal.

[00:17:02] You know, my leg was paralyzed. I had to learn to walk again. I had to learn to speak again. I had to learn to, you know, use my digits again. My fingers didn't work. You know, everything just shuts down when you get that sick. And you're, and you're in the hospital for that long. So I, I was laying down for two and a half months and when I got out, I was in a wheelchair and I walked with a walker for, for two or three, four weeks, maybe a month.

[00:17:29] I walked with a walker and then a four prong cane and then a cane, but I've become even more passionate to help other women build that reserve, build that, you know, that health reserve. That isn't just a good idea, it saved my life. Had I gone in there carrying the 30 pounds I had on my body after my divorce and the high blood pressure that I was carrying at that time, I wouldn't have made it out.

[00:17:57] So I've become really passionate about helping [00:18:00] women find that balance and use all of the tools that exist. You know, the gut health tools, the, you know, how to understand why organic food is so important, how to understand all of the, the um, fermented foods. And how to have a practice where you understand how to meditate and do gratitudes and do affirmations.

[00:18:23] Because those are the things that gave me the mindset to say, Hell no, I won't go, I'm not ready to leave. 

[00:18:32] Penny Fitzgerald: That's great. Let me back up just a second to you. This was 2 years ago. And you were hospitalized for 2 and a half months or were down for a long time, right? They put you in hospice, which is normally like, end of life palliative care, right?

[00:18:51] Sharon North Pohl: Right. So they, um, I didn't go into a full hospice, but they brought in the hospice people to talk to my loved ones and [00:19:00] gave them the, the, the opportunity that if they couldn't get the antibiotics to work, like it was like, like it's okay now time to think if we. If we can't fix this in the next 48 hours, we need to think about whether she's going to make it out or not because the sepsis was taking over.

[00:19:20] That's all organ failure. So, when you're in all organ failure, The doctors bring in hospice because it's a, it's a crapshoot whether you're going to make it out or not. So that's why they had them in there because I was in hospice. I mean I was in, I was in sepsis. So luckily they used an experimental antibiotic and it finally worked and it started to turn the pneumonia around.

[00:19:48] So I got out of the coma at that point. And so I was in a coma on a, on a respirator and on dialysis, on a breathing machine, on a feeding tube, the whole work, like you'd [00:20:00] expect, like you'd expect your 90 year old mother to have a stroke, you know, and so that, that. Whole recovery process was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

[00:20:11] Mm-hmm . You know, learning to walk again, you know, I had mm-hmm . I had a physical therapist and a, and a nurse that came to my house. When I went home, I had to have a, you know, potty chair by the bed 'cause I couldn't walk to the bathroom. Mm-hmm . I'm just lucky that I didn't have to use a catheter. I mean, they, they said I may be on one of those bags and a catheter forever.

[00:20:32] So anyway, I just want to impress to the people that are listening, how important your health is. Cause really nothing else matters. If you don't have your health, the wealth doesn't matter. So. 

[00:20:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Well. One thing can change your life in a heartbeat. Just one instant. Oh my gosh. Like a, like an automobile accident.

[00:20:53] Sharon North Pohl: I mean that, that, that could have happened as well. You know, that isn't how I got there. It was from [00:21:00] a really rare form of pneumonia that I contracted in Mexico. But nonetheless, it brought that same kind of incapacity. Like, you know, in an instant. In an instant, you know, like, or, you know, it took a few days to get there, but it was there and there's nothing you could have done.

[00:21:17] I mean, there's nothing you could have changed, but it's not. It's not a slow moving, you know, something that comes at you that you can see coming. It's just like, Ooh, wow, my life has changed. It just happened. And it was, um, it was a shock for me and for everybody that knows me because I've always been so active.

[00:21:35] I'm a skier. I paddleboard. I play tennis. I play pickleball. I hike. I'm just out there, you know, doing stuff all the time. And to see me in person. In that totally compromised way was shocking to everyone. Well, especially you, I'm sure it was like, yeah, when you, when you were waking up and first realizing that, wow, here's my new reality.

[00:21:59] Penny Fitzgerald: I mean, [00:22:00] that had to have been a really difficult thing emotionally to grasp and to fight.

[00:22:07] Sharon North Pohl: I remember when I first, when I first woke up and my husband was there, my daughter was there. I couldn't understand why he wouldn't take me home, you know, I was kind of, I was kind of foggy in my mind and couldn't talk very well.

[00:22:20] And I said, I just want to, I want, I want to eat and I want to go home. Because a feeding tube is not satisfying, you know, it gives you your nutrition, but it's not satisfying. You can't chew anything. Yeah. So I said, I, he said, when you first started talking, it was, I want to eat and I want to go home. And he said, well, you can't go home.

[00:22:38] You can't even get up. You know, I couldn't get out of bed by myself for the first month and a half. I had to call aids to just get to the bathroom. So I've never had a situation like that and I hope that your listeners don't ever have that, but I just encourage everybody to be aware of how those daily habits that you do every day, [00:23:00] um, the 1 percent that you change to improve your health can be a life saving change.

[00:23:07] You know, um, I had a rare form of pneumonia that was a sideswipe, but something to know is that 80 percent of chronic diseases are lifestyle preventable. 80%. Wow. So that's blood pressure, that's strokes, that's heart disease, that's heart attack. All of it. So all of it. So helping women get a grip on their health.

[00:23:32] It's really what my passion is, and then helping them get a grip on their business is what helps them get a grip on their health. So their business isn't dragging them down into the, I can't take care of myself. I've been there. I ran a horse ranch, it was a non profit horse ranch, and towards the end of my marriage, Um, we were struggling and it was during 2008 during the economic shutdown and I wasn't taking care of myself.

[00:23:58] I was working my butt off. I wasn't [00:24:00] doing any of the things that I talked about. I, I gained about 45 pounds, my marriage was failing and I was really in a compromised situation. My blood pressure was high. I wasn't doing well. And then I got, went through a divorce and went through the doldrums from all that.

[00:24:16] And then through that, I. I, you know, one day looked in the mirror and said, you got to change, this isn't going to work. And so that's when I made those lifestyle changes that I call the zesty toolbox, you know, which isn't easy to get to, you know, it takes a lot of discipline and a lot of change and, you know, small incremental changes every day so you can get back on a healthy track both physically and mentally.

[00:24:45] Bravery takes bravery and it takes, um, letting go of the shame that is making you eat, you know, like I was ashamed of the divorce. I was ashamed of my weight. You know, it [00:25:00] was that shame piece of it. So, you, you gotta find out what is driving it and, you know, for me it was the loss of my, my horse ranch and, and my husband.

[00:25:11] And that's what drove me to self medicating with food. And I was never, um, I, luckily I wasn't, I didn't turn to drugs or alcohol. But a lot of women do, and that's even a bigger problem when, when they spend a lot of time, um, self medicating with drugs or alcohol. But all of them compromise your, your wellness and your sense of well being, both mentally and physically.

[00:25:39] So, I learned a lot of lessons, and I've learned a lot of shortcuts to help women not take as long as it took me to move back to a, Healthy place and luckily my demise with that wellness came after my changes after I dropped that weight and after I'd started Meditating and using affirmations and all the things [00:26:00] so I had instigated all those things in this zesty toolbox and That's how I made it Out of that, um, out of hospice and back to living fully again.

[00:26:14] That's amazing. I'm grateful that you were, that you did, that you were able to go through. And I'm here. Yes. I'm here. Yes. I'm here. Celebrate that. That's, that's, that's all that. So, yeah, it's um, You know, and I, I'm, I'm launching a, a, I have redone a course. I have a 13 week course. It's on wellness and it goes through all those things.

[00:26:39] And I'm getting ready to offer that to the Zesty Sisters, you know, to the Sassy Sisters and, um, some other women to do the first five weeks at no charge. Because I'm looking for feedback, and I've twisted it, you know, I've changed it, I've, I've fine tuned it, I've updated it, and so it's a 13 week [00:27:00] program, but I'm going to deliver the six weeks to whoever would like to join me, and all I ask is that They, that they, uh, fill out a feedback form after every lesson.

[00:27:11] It's an online lesson, so they can do it at their own pace and they'll get a feedback form after that week that they do the lesson. And I asked them within 48 hours to send back the feedback form and then show up for one, uh, every lesson comes with a weekly group coaching, a live coaching. So show up for the, for the group coaching, which is you, you know, that's an expensive offer that is, I'm offering.

[00:27:36] Just for no cost. Yeah. Just for your feedback and your participation. So if you know anybody that's interested in that, I'll be, I'll be putting it out there. I'll put it out in the, in the, um, in the Sassy Sisters group and I'll put a link for people to sign up and then it'll start, um, around the middle of March.

[00:27:56] That'll be the first, the first lesson will drop and then every week for six [00:28:00] weeks. And then a group coaching lesson that we'll decide as a group,

[00:28:07] So I'll see what works and we'll figure it out. And I will record them. And so if you can't make it, I'll send you the recording and, but it's a good place to come live because you get to ask questions.

[00:28:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And everybody learns, you learn from each other when you're in a group coaching situation. That's always wonderful. Right. That's my latest thing I'm going to do. 

[00:28:28] Well, I appreciate your time and your flexibility to reschedule when I had that, that situation happen this morning.

[00:28:36] Yeah, no worries. Stuff, things happen. I'm just glad that everyone's okay and hope that continues. We're doing okay. They're, um, they're now searching for, um, A service dog that can help her with epileptic fits. So that's a whole big thing for them to figure out how to do that. Because the dogs can notice it and part of the problem is they fall.

[00:28:59] And [00:29:00] so the dog can notice it's going to happen and get underneath, you know, go to where they break the fall. Yeah, help break the fall. But how are they going to help? So she explained that to me when I was talking to her about it today. Well, and I've, I've heard and you know, I'm not. You know, hands on with, I don't have a direct.

[00:29:20] Info to this, but I've heard that the dogs can detect before it happens and alert you to let somebody else know that you need help. Right. It's interesting that they can tell, you know, I, I believe it's kind of an electrical current that they can feel, you know, because everything is energy and the other thing that they do is once someone has fallen.

[00:29:45] They, um, they stay with them until someone comes. So they're trained to stay. Wow. And they bark. So they bring attention to this downed person with the barking dog. And they also wear the medical information on their [00:30:00] collars. So it was interesting to see, you know, because I can understand a blind person using a dog or a Or someone that's, you know, heart, that's, you know, deaf, but I couldn't see how an epileptic person could use a service dog.

[00:30:13] Mm-hmm . But we just talked about some of the ways, which is really interesting. Yeah. So fascinating and so fabulous that a beautiful creature. Our Yeah. Dogs. Yeah. So amazing. That's so cool. And it has to be a big enough dog. And I said, well, can you get a little dog? And she said, no, because it has to be able to break the fall.

[00:30:34] And it has to be able to help when they're unstable. A dog will actually push them over and get underneath them. So that they can create the fall so that the person doesn't, um, randomly fall against something dangerous. So it's a really interesting thing and creative how dogs can do that. Absolutely. 

[00:30:54] Yeah. Okay. at the end of every episode. I also like to like wrap things up with [00:31:00] something fun. Do you, do you drink Sharon? Do you enjoy an adult beverage? 

[00:31:07] Sharon North Pohl: Well, I don't drink often.

[00:31:09] I'll have a glass of wine now and again. Yes. Yeah. What's your favorite? What's your favorite glass of wine? I like a Chardonnay. I like a, like a kind of semi sweet Chardonnay. Okay. . Yeah. Do you like the California style or they're big and silky and buttery? Yeah. I, I usually drink a California style. Okay.

[00:31:29] You know Chardonnay? Yeah. Okay. Okay. And what's a favorite memory shared with girlfriends? You know, either with a cocktail or, or a glass of wine you have a memory of? Well, my favorite memory is we just, I, I have, um. Well, I have a tea party. There's no wine there, but it's one of my favorite memories. Tell us about that.

[00:31:52] Yeah. We have these big tea parties, and they're so awesome. Um, they're at my home, and there's up to ten women, [00:32:00] and we're in, like, uh, fancy dress and hats. It's a high tea, and I, everybody brings something. They're potlucks. And every, I, I have a menu and I have a specific menu that's all healthy, like we bring fresh fruit, I make a clotted cream out of, uh, out of yogurt, I make the, um, lemon curd with, uh, with agave syrup instead of sugar.

[00:32:25] And, um, we have gluten-free crackers. Wow. And, uh, Dave's thin seed bread for the, for the little Oh yeah, yeah. Little, little, um, sandwiches. So we put it up like a high tea, but we use all better healthy things because I'm a health coach and I didn't wanna have a high tea that was just loaded with fat.

[00:32:47] Mm-hmm . So anyway, we do that and then we have a fun little game we play. At the table. I have a deck of cards and it's all set up like Alice in Wonderland. It's the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. So I do a lot of decorations. I have all the [00:33:00] characters, Alice and the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit. They're all around.

[00:33:03] And so it's really a fun environment that we do that in. And then they draw a card and they get a number. And when they get that number, we go around the group and ask them to say something about their life that that number reminds them of. So it can be anything, you know. For one woman, she got the three and she has three sisters, so she talked about her three sisters.

[00:33:24] For somebody else, she got the queen and she talked about her Her marriage, her first marriage, I mean, she was 80 and she talked about her marriage when she was in, in, um, Yugoslavia, uh, you know, Croatia now, and how that made her feel like a queen. So it was an interesting, it was a really interesting, um, uh, kind of a, Um, an impromptu discovery call for each of them to say something about their life, about themselves.

[00:33:56] So it's made us much closer as a group. I call us the show [00:34:00] uppers, those women who show up. And so. I've done three tea parties now, and I have two more scheduled. If anybody listening is local, I have a tea party scheduled on March 14th and March 15th. And they're two to four in the afternoon, and I'm not charging for them right now.

[00:34:20] Eventually I need to, because I provide the tea and make up. Make a bunch of stuff, but right now they're potlucks and anyone can attend that wants to meet some other women and share an afternoon and then we go for a walk in the neighborhood. So they bring comfortable shoes and we walk together and out of my very first tea, I've made four really good friends.

[00:34:41] And we all went, um, we rented an Airbnb and went north together to see the manatees in Crystal River. Oh, wow. We had a great time and that's where I can say we all got together for dinner and had that glass of wine. So it all comes back to how we [00:35:00] get to the glass of wine. So it was after the tea party and yeah.

[00:35:04] On our next event, we all went out to a fabulous fish dinner and we all had a glass of wine and had a toast for our new friendship. But that's what's really cool about this tea party. It is an intimate group. It's in a home. Um, it's a couple hours, so you get to really get to know somebody. And I'm doing a lot of these, you know, meet up, meet and greet kind of groups.

[00:35:27] Um, I do one every Tuesday in the park in Venice. So I'm just, one of the things I realized is that I didn't have a good network of friends here in Venice or here in, I live in Nokomis because I moved here two and a half years ago and I live half a year in California. 

[00:35:47] what's easy is with this we get eight or ten women, you get to know a little bit about them, and you can exponentially build friends. 

[00:35:57] when we do the regular meet and greets, I have a little [00:36:00] page I give them. Where did you come from? Where do you live now? What, what was your field or your work?

[00:36:06] Are you still working? What is, what's your passion? What do you love to do? And how can you share that with other women here at the table? And so everybody answers those questions. And what's interesting is all the, and then I asked them what their superpower is and all the women. Have a hard time saying what their superpower is.

[00:36:24] I believe it. That's a woman thing. But they've all said what it is when they tell me their passion. They just don't realize it. They don't realize it. 

[00:36:33] Anyway, so that's what I'm doing and I'm loving doing it and it's really been fun and in those groups, a bunch of those women are really interested in showing up for my program.

[00:36:45] For my six week, um, you know, dive into to wellness. So it's been a great, been a great, uh, effort to reach out and meet all these people. And women are, you know, women, women over 50 [00:37:00] that are leaving their careers and now they're a lot of their parents are not, well, some of them are still taking care of their parents, but some aren't and their kids are gone.

[00:37:08] And so they're in a whole new. Yeah. It's a different groove. And, and a lot of them have moved, especially in Florida, almost no one is from Florida. Yeah. Yeah. So we've all come from, we've come from somewhere else. And so a lot of us left our besties behind. Yeah. We have to make new ones here in Florida. So that's what I, that's my superpower, is, um, I have two things.

[00:37:35] I'll leave you with my two superpowers. One is connecting, one is connecting other women. Connecting women to, um, to have real transparent relationships that are, that are supportive. So creating a zesty alliance with other women. And the other thing is, um, I've risen out of the ashes to, uh, to have other [00:38:00] adventures, and I like to embolden other women that are going through struggles to know that it's possible, however down they might be.

[00:38:08] My divorce took nine years. Talk about Oh my god. Talk about, uh, an event. And the problem was we sold the property seven times before it finally closed escrow. And we were hung up in getting the property sold before the divorce became final. Oh my goodness. So part of the hang up was this unusual property.

[00:38:31] It was a horse ranch. I rescued horses and had a mentor business. I mentored women and kids with horses. And the property was difficult to sell because it was a, it was a horse property, which banks don't want to loan on. So we sold it seven times. It fell out of escrow seven times, which then drug us on to this long, long divorce.

[00:38:49] So that's something I'm really good at helping women realize out of the ashes of their breakup, they can, uh, they can thrive. So those are my two things, connecting women [00:39:00] and really emboldening women to rise from whatever Adversity they're in, whatever is brought them into a less than position, a place where they're not feeling zesty, a place where they're not feeling like they've, they, they're on their best game or they're living their best life.

[00:39:20] Wonderful. It's fun. I love doing it because it's fulfilling and it's, you know, it's. It's my gift is to connect other women and then, um, through that connection, the connection itself is part of the growing out of whatever it is that's dragging you down. It's just having a strong Transparent, loving sisterhood that you get to really know and care for each other.

[00:39:50] Like the woman with the problem with the epileptic daughter. She's one of my tea party sisters. I haven't known her very long. But she called me when she had that big thing because she moved here [00:40:00] from Georgia. And her besties are up. up there in Georgia. So she was here with a daughter that had a really bad epileptic incident and she reached out to me, a new friend from the Tea Party.

[00:40:12] So it's come full circle to where we're not just strangers on Facebook, to where we're not just a, you know, a Facebook friend, but real friend. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's an epiphany for a lot of these women, because, you know, we do, sometimes we go to these events, Facebook events, or Sassy Sister events, and we just go and we leave, and we didn't really build a connection that's going to stay with them.

[00:40:42] And I try to make my events more meaningful for people. So when they leave, they have somebody that they think they can get back to, or they can do something with, or they can, Hey, I like to paddle, or hey, I like to, I like to play tennis, or hey, I like to do this, or, we've [00:41:00] been to botanical gardens all over with each other, and that's been really fun.

[00:41:03] Yeah. So, I'm um, I'm the matchmaker. I'm matching sisters, not in a romantic way, but in a friendship, Galentine's, Galentine's. Yeah. So that's my, that's my passion is creating more sisters that really support each other and, um, help each other rise out of the mud. Should we find ourselves in a mud puddle?

[00:41:32] Nice. Yeah. So for, thank you for your time and, um, letting me share some of, some of what I do and who I am. 

[00:41:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Thank you, Sharon. This is all good stuff. Uh, anytime that women support each other, when we come together, we can change the world and I feel like we're really good at it. So when we lead, we really can make a positive change for others.

[00:41:57] Sharon North Pohl: And that's my mission too. [00:42:00] The Dalai Lama said the Western woman will change the world. Yeah. Really? I hadn't heard that. I believe it. It's a very famous quote. Because Western women have the resources to do it. Yeah. Right now, Western women in the U. S., U. S. women, are the wealthiest they've ever been. Um, a lot of parents have died.

[00:42:23] A lot of women have, in this last, you know, 20 years, had good income, you know, more than 20 years ago, where women weren't making much, but there's been good income levels. There's been good investment levels. They, a lot of them have inherited money from their families, and a lot of them, and a lot of the one with the massive wealth have got it from a divorce.

[00:42:45] Or the death of their partner, like the Apple inheritance and Jeff Bezos divorce and, and now the, you know, Elon Musk split up. So those women are powerful and, and [00:43:00] then on down the line, in dollar way, but all of those women that have heard money from their family or had. Um, careers where they were able to invest and, and have some what of a nest egg, a woman that can support philanthropy.

[00:43:20] Yeah. So we're in a better place today than ever, and I think the world needs it today more than ever. There's a lot of division, and so I am about coming together, and women, I think, are the ones that are going to help us come back together, and not. Totally agree. Not split us apart politically and ideologically and all the split ups that that we've faced these last few years.

[00:43:44] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, I'm not sure who said it. It might have been Mother Teresa even that said to make change. You need change. Right? Right. So here we are, you're going to change. 

[00:43:57] Sharon North Pohl: And we're now [00:44:00] making, um, making inroads to the next event and you're doing a great job and putting this out there and you're connecting to, you're connecting other women.

[00:44:09] So that's, that's great for your podcast. 

[00:44:11] Thank you so much. And I hope the rest of your day is wonderful and all is well with your friend and her daughter.

[00:44:17] And thank you very much. Let's go make some some zesty and fabulous change. Thank you, Penny. Great getting to know you a little bit and spending some time with you. You too, Sharon. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[00:44:30] Bye. [00:45:00]