Seasons, The Edit

Eps 1 — Becoming: The Courage to Start Again

• Ivis Mas • Episode 1

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Every season brings lessons in growth, faith, and leadership. In this first episode of Seasons: The Edit, hosts Ivis Mas and Janey Bass share how they rebuilt after major life shifts, from corporate careers and motherhood to entrepreneurship and purpose-led work.

Their stories unfold with honesty and heart, showing what it means to begin again, stay resilient, and lead from within.

If you’re navigating transition, redefining success, or rediscovering your voice, this episode is your reminder that becoming is the real work of leadership.

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Follow Seasons: The Edit on Instagram → @seasonstheedit

Ivis Mas

@ivismas | @curbvest

Learn more → ivismas.com


Janey Bass

@msciampi

Learn More → janeybass.com


ivis:

Every season teaches us something about growth, leadership, and who we're becoming. For us, this podcast is about sharing what that looks like in real life. I'm Evie, a designer, real estate investor, CX coach, mom, and someone who's had to restart even when I'm scared.

janey:

Ah, and I'm Janie real estate agent, designer mother of three and woman of great faith. But I'm also someone that has started over. Many times, and I have a lot of wisdom to share. And I'm gonna be one smart old lady because there's many seasons.

ivis:

And so before we get started with any other seasons, we're gonna talk a little bit about our own and how we met and why we're here. Janie and I met like maybe two years ago. I remember I had just bought my first property. I had recently left New York and knew that I had to start in Florida because this is where I grew up and where I felt more comfortable, to take on this new endeavor. And so as I had just bought my new property, I was in a total mess. My contractor had just bailed. We had just closed on the property. Everything was going south. And so I remember looking up this one listing. Mm-hmm. And, and that's how we met. Yes.

janey:

Under a mango tree.

ivis:

Yeah. Under a mango tree.

janey:

On an empty lot. Actually right

ivis:

in Tel Ray Beach.

janey:

Yeah,

ivis:

in 90 degree weather.

janey:

Yes.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

And I had no idea. And there was a car full of people.

ivis:

Yes.

janey:

And then you jumped out and I fell in love.

ivis:

Aw.

janey:

I really, I recognized your foresight and your courage. And that was and is me. Right. Having the foresight and the courage to do these things. And I felt like I met my match. And yet you were so willing and. I needed a woman that saw and believed in what I saw and believed, and our strengths completely matched. And we compliment each other. And the fact that you started from a Christian Women's group gave me that faith that I knew I could trust you and I being Christian too. I felt like God had put us together.

ivis:

Absolutely. and in hindsight, I didn't know it at the time. Mm-hmm. This has really just been a revelation. I remember I was in a really dark place. I had, gone through a ton of changes. It was in the middle of COVID, in New York. I had just gone through a divorce. Had had a, an amazing apartment. God was really good to me, but my kids were all one by one leaving to college, and I felt like my life was kind of falling apart. You just have this knowing, that this is kind of the direction that I just needed to look into, right? It was like this restlessness where I was like, okay, I gotta look into this real estate thing. And so that's how I got involved with the re program, which I had no idea. Was a faith-based group, and it was women's only. It felt super non-threatening and it was a really low entry point. So for$17 I was able to just start. Understanding what I was going to get into. And the more that I watched their videos, the more that I was totally inspired and motivated, to the point where I signed up for the program. And so that's where I really spent a year of my life while I was still working a nine to five. Taking these lessons, attending their coaching calls and learning all about what it means to be a real estate investor.

janey:

What had been your career?

ivis:

So for the last 20 years, I was a designer and started out doing product design and worked for some of the top companies, nationwide, fortune 500 companies. Really helping them improve their customer experience, by rethinking their products and services to be more customer centric.

janey:

That always in New York?

ivis:

No, I started here in Florida, actually at a OL, back in the day when America Online was a thing. But they were really ahead of their time and so that path took me to New York because that was really the hub where it was. Most creative at the time, and you had the best talent. I learned from some of the best people, amazing mentors. And so that path really took me to learn not just the craft of designing websites and mobile apps, but then later on in that career I moved into doing more strategy and consulting. And that's where it really. Kind of unlocked a whole level of leadership and working with top executives across these Fortune 500 companies and really developing the strategy of how they were gonna improve what companies have with their customers and so that was everything from the initial conversation that a brand has with a customer. When they actually experience the value of their product or their service, and then how you maintain that relationship with that customer. So that they keep coming back.

janey:

Mm-hmm.

ivis:

And so that was really not just looking at the digital part of it, but taking that deeper into an actual experience. And that's where customer experience really became a thing. And how I learned to think about interactions between people and what they feel, and then taking that into physical spaces. Okay. Which was a very natural segue for me into the real estate world.

janey:

Okay. And then what made you decide to change things up

ivis:

so that. A really hard time for me. It wasn't like I wanted to move into real estate. I didn't even know this was a thing. God really just didn't give me any choice. He just closed all my doors, in New York. It's like the grace was lifted and I just felt drawn to pursue this and it was. So scary because I didn't know what I was doing.

janey:

Your second chapter.

ivis:

My second chapter, and I had time on my hands was a mess. Emotionally trying to rebuild that part of it,

janey:

I would've never known, never in a million years when I met you. Would I have known that? I didn't see that in you. I just saw grace and strength. Perseverance. Little did I know

ivis:

this was God really just going through the process of purification. This is what I've learned. That's my takeaway now.

janey:

Yes.

ivis:

Helping me become this new person in him for this new season of my life.

janey:

Well, I think that's a lot of what people feel and they just have the anxiety of. Recognizing it. Embracing it, and understanding it. My background is basically, I had always been in sales from the very beginning. When I first came to Florida, I got a partial scholarship to swim for. Florida State from Connecticut. Did not wanna come here by. No means, and I had an older brother and sister that lived here and my brother, Brian had encouraged us to move down here'cause I had a brother that had passed away, Sean, who my daughter Sean's named after. He wanted us to come down here and kind of start over. So he sent, this is how they did it back then, my swim times to the Florida state coach. Came down here, went to Tallahassee, did not love it. It felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Looking back, I'm like, God, I would've had a ball. So many of my friends now had all gone there like just crazy, but ended up coming down here to Del Rice, so now it's been 30 years.

ivis:

Wow.

janey:

Started working at Bloomingdale's and loved it and started working then at the public relations department there and doing fashion shows and events and my mother-in-law. At the time, um, was my first investor because we had gone to the Philippines and China and when we went to Thailand, we came across a umbrella making center and they had had hand painted canvas umbrellas and they were amazing. I couldn't get over. The, the craftsmanship and the art, and it was so inexpensive. And she said, I'll be your first investor. Aw. So she bought me a container and I think there was about 42 umbrellas in there. We marked it up and I sold them at all of my fashion shows to all the ladies. Sold out of them.

ivis:

But just think about how did you even find

janey:

The umbrella making center?

ivis:

No, and even just like the will, right? To just like who goes to Thailand and comes back with a box of umbrellas and then decides to like, you know, take it to,

janey:

The hustle. The hustle. And yet she believed in me, right? She believed in me. I said I loved it. I said I could sell it. And she believed in me. So she was my very first investor. We got married and my husband at the time and I basically decided we are gonna open a showroom and then import everything. He started bringing in containers'cause he was working for Z Gallery at the time. The reason why I even had the time to go to. Thailand into China was because I had a severance package from Ralph Lauren. I had worked for Ralph Lauren for eight years, jones Apparel Company bought the Women's Line of which I represented. I was a rep for five states and they offered me a job in New York City I had already started dating my husband wanted a family, knew that, and he was not going to New York.

ivis:

Wow.

janey:

So my hon it was always my dream. My mother loved New York

ivis:

City. So you had to make a choice. You picked your family over career.

janey:

And I always knew that I wanted that, but I always love New York City.

ivis:

I think that's one of the biggest challenges for women that also want to discover their purpose in life. And I think for a long time I was very fortunate because I also was. Very ambitious, but I didn't wanna have to make a choice. I, I was so focused and determined, like, why can't I have both? Why do I have to make a choice? Why can't I raise my family, raise my kids? Give them all of me, but at the same time, grow a career and find my purpose and contribute something back in this life. And that's a really hard thing for a woman to do to manage both. Oh, sure. And I think it's was super hard, but I'm grateful because at some point you have to think of yes, your husband or your partner has to come with you, to have that family unit. And I was very fortunate that. He kind of followed me around with every crazy idea.

janey:

That's amazing. I think it also comes with how you're raised.

ivis:

Yeah,

janey:

My parents were super old school.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

My dad didn't even want me working like old school Italian. He was like, you are gonna be taken care of and that's gonna be your road. But I had worked since I was 14. I've always had this drive. Always. Always. Yeah. And yet. My mom had instilled in me that something gets lost somewhere along the line when it's either your career, it's your husband.

ivis:

Yes.

janey:

Or your family. You can't do it all is how I was raised. With that mentality. It was natural for me, to choose that. Yeah. And yet it. Listen, it's all part, and this is what we're about, like the seasons, right? Yeah. And quite honestly, when I got back from that trip and decided to not go to New York and we had that conversation, we decided to open our own showroom, and so we opened a showroom up in Palm Beach Gardens, which was amazing because it was all brand new construction. People were quality. I mean, just great clients. And we had something that no one else had. It was outdoor design. So cool. We manufactured five lines, bamboo and tann, and it was an amazing showroom and the concept was amazing. And then I got pregnant with Shawnee. Okay. No problem. Do that. Did it with her on my lap, and then no sooner I got pregnant with Dax. So literally they're 12 months apart. Wow. And I said to my ex at the time, like, I can't do this.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

I'm not having someone else raise my children. You've gotta take over. And he's like, I can't do this without you. And I'm like, we've got such an amazing thing going. So basically we closed everything down, sold everything off.

ivis:

Oh wow.

janey:

And unfortunately, my kids were two and three when I got divorced, so I did my interior design. Business for the next, 15 years because I needed to do something on my own. Working for myself so that I could raise the kids,

ivis:

right?

janey:

And so I did that quite honestly, it went from interior design to where I felt like everything I was designing, I was selling because of how I was making it look. So I decided to get my real estate license, got my real estate license. And, um, here we are and I hadn't practiced for the longest time. I just helped friends and family. I had my license, but didn't have the courage to actually work the business. Brian Bowles, to me, the king of Delray Beach Real Estate, really was like one of the original guys here in 30 years that I've been here and friendly with my brother and my family. We had always known him. He hired me.

ivis:

Oh wow.

janey:

I got. Put into that office and I was scared. It was like a boiler room.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

And it just looked like it was intimidating. I don't know how it all ended up happening, but it did. And here we are today,

ivis:

and what did you do to work past that

janey:

fear?

ivis:

Super scary fear.'Cause I faced the same challenge and it was really hard because every bone in your body is telling you,

janey:

Hmm,

ivis:

don't do it. Go back. You don't belong here. What if you fail? You've got all of this stuff in your head. That's coming at you.

janey:

Yeah.

ivis:

So what did you do

janey:

so I felt like I couldn't dare do it full time because I needed. Money coming in, secured money, a paycheck. So I did it part-time at first. In the meantime, it's funny, I had gotten back with my ex-husband and that's where Jeremy comes from. In that time, now I have three, and I only stayed a year. So when he was a year old, I had to start completely over and I figured how am I gonna do this and how am I gonna make money doing it? I had someone very special, a family that I was very close with, give me an opportunity, and they believed in me. And I started working. At a treatment center. In Deerfield and I did all the sales and worked with all the families that came in.

ivis:

Wow.

janey:

And I made the families that were admitting their kids feel comfortable. Because. I just felt connected to them and I gave them the courage to stay in treatment and to do it. After that ended, my ex-husband had a golf business and a golf truck and he stopped doing it. And I took the truck'cause it was COVID. I took the truck. It was about to be COVID and I outfitted it. And the transition from the treatment center to the truck was pretty funny because that treatment center and I, we had a little, we had a breakup, but how God put the opportunity in my life is because my ex-husband's truck was just sitting there and it was a cool truck. It's 20 foot box truck. But I took it, I outfitted it, put racks in it, and made it a clothing mobile boutique.

ivis:

Wow.

janey:

And we had so much fun. Oh my God. I'd go to women's houses. They'd invite 10, 12 of their girlfriends. I'd serve wine and Prosecco. I'd curate the buy as to whose house I was going to because I knew their girlfriends. I knew their style, and it was a lot of fun. And I had a woman track me down, like literally waving me off the road, pulled over. She made me an offer, I couldn't refuse. She gave me two checks. I was like, are these checks really gonna go through? And both went through and I was like, wow. Her goal was to take it to the Hamptons and then COVID came. So it never really went past that. I don't even know what she ended up doing with it. After that, I was going through COVID. I was actually okay because I knew I opposite. Yeah. We were feeling like total opposite things during COVID. I was with my kids. And I knew I was gonna be okay. Then Bill from Acasa Construction hired me to be his project manager because he was having. A plethora of renovations. People were going crazy. Oh yeah. And he needed help. And so we saw each other. I said, absolutely. You know, it's my background. And I started helping him. And then my real estate was also like, you know, booming. People were calling and needing places. And then I had the courage to know I was gonna be okay because I had a little nest egg. People were needing and wanting me. I had the knowledge of the market. I knew what I could sell them, and it just kind of started from there.

ivis:

I think what stood out to me most about your story is that time in the treatment center.

janey:

Huh?

ivis:

I went through a similar experience where you could give back and help others. Mm. And that is how you healed.

janey:

Mm.

ivis:

Got strong enough

janey:

mm-hmm.

ivis:

To be able to do everything that came after and where you are today.

janey:

Yeah, well they're a beautiful couple. It's the Florida House and Sharif and his wife Rachel, like our kids had gone to school together and they gave me an opportunity. I was a mother and I was starting completely over. I did design for him in one of the other treatment rooms there, and during my interior design. Career. I was doing treatment centers and I had offered, he needed it and I was overhearing some of the groups while I was working and I said, I wanna work here. And a couple of my girlfriend, well one in particular is in recovery and has done amazing. And she encouraged me. She said, Jane, I could totally see you doing this. And he believed in me, but he said, I need you to start from the very bottom. I'm not just gonna hire you. I need you to be a tech first. So here I'd go. In my little blue polo shirt my terrible shorts and my sneakers every day for a year. I was paying the babysitter as much as I was making, and I did it for a year straight for him to believe in me that I could do it.

ivis:

Wow.

janey:

And then the next two years I was there, total three years, it was amazing. It got me on my feet and that's a good, perspective, but it's true.

ivis:

I also feel like once you finally start putting in the work, and you start going where God is leading you and opening doors for you, it's also on you to put in that work and that work ethic and contribute your part, and that's the beauty of the partnership. Between God and us, right? Mm-hmm.

janey:

And you.

ivis:

And me.

janey:

Yeah. We are so willing to do the work.

ivis:

Yes.

janey:

The faith is there. The work ethic is there.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

The talent is there.

ivis:

A hundred percent. And I think we also face similar challenges in this industry.

janey:

Sure. Yeah.

ivis:

And so this is our season.

janey:

Yes.

ivis:

One of becoming of growth, of purpose.

janey:

Mm-hmm.

ivis:

And if you have your own version of that right now, you're not alone. We've gone through it

janey:

and always reforming, reshaping, and moving forward with strength, silent strength sometimes, because as you just shared that story with me, I had no idea you were going through that at the time, and you probably didn't know what I was going through either.

ivis:

Funny.

janey:

Mm-hmm.

ivis:

Life is funny. You just never know what people are going through. Empathy, right?

janey:

Yes.

ivis:

Empathy.

janey:

Yes. And I think you only have that empathy if you yourself have gone through things.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

cause you recognize it in other people.

ivis:

Yeah.

janey:

And that's what creates like depth of friendships I feel in real bonds.

ivis:

I love it. So each week we're gonna explore a new site of growth of leadership.

janey:

Mm-hmm.

ivis:

Entrepreneurship and all the stories, that shape us.

janey:

Sure. Love it. Here we are.

ivis:

Welcome to seasons.

janey:

Talk to you guys soon.