This week's Just You award goes to Susie Rosenstein. She is a podcaster and coach. She has two podcasts, actually. Women in the middle, loving life after 50. What I love about Susie's presentation is it feels like she's talking to just me. It's like she's having a conversation. And that's because she doesn't say you guys or hey everybody. And there's so many things about Susie's podcast that I love, mostly because I work with women in the middle as well. She calls podcasts party in your purse. I love that term, but most of all, I love her delivery. Her podcast is really great to listen to. When I listen to women in the middle, I always feel like I'm right there in the room with Susie. I never feel like I'm outside looking in like I'm a third wheel. Congratulations, Susie, on the Just You award. We have our uniqueness about us, so we need to celebrate the weirdness. Celebrate the unique part because that is what differentiates you. If you sound like everybody else, well then that's it. You sound like everyone else. If you have been thinking, we're saying, I want to do a podcast. But then immediately you think, I'm not techy. I hate my voice. Who would listen? What would I say? If you are a woman over 40, you have to listen. And with my course, the Podpreneur Blueprint, you can get a podcast up and running within a week if you'd like. If you're not techy, don't worry. I give you options on how to find someone that can help you. We are not islands. We don't do this alone. If not now, win. Because on New Years, when you make that new resolution, this year I'm going to think about this. You could be saying, this year I did, and I have 52 episodes. You can do this. Learn all about podcasting. With the Podpreneur Blueprint System, go to www.coachlory.com and get your flash sale today. Somebody's praying for an answer, and you have it. Will you say yes? Go to www.coachlory.com. That's L-A-U-R-I-E. Have your life, your dreams, been interrupted? Good news. It is possible to reinvent our lives. People are doing it every day, and some are brave enough to share the struggles, disappointments, and challenges. If you are looking for a new beginning, a do-over, or to rediscover your passion, maybe even find a new one, then grab a cup of coffee and let's talk. Interrupted, act 2, reinventing your legacy. With your host, Coach Lori. Coach, author, teacher, Maria Rushton, welcome. Thank you so much, Lori, for having me. I know this isn't your first book, but the title really caught my attention, especially after all we've been through in COVID, is how to get your joy back. Yes, it's Women's Guide to Midlife Career Transformation, and I'm really excited to talk about it, because the first edition came out in 2017, and I have just updated the entire thing, and it has just been republished under the second edition, just in the last two or three weeks. Wonderful. It occurs to me that something brought you to write this book. Tell us about your life now, and then we can transition into how you got to where you are now. Okay, right now, I might be like many of you. I am retired, but never retiring. Doing things now that I really enjoy. I'm also divorced, and many of you might be divorced, too, and I have recently moved this year, lots of changes. I moved to a place that's closer to be near my children, and grandchildren, which I'm very excited about, and I live in a lovely loft apartment on five acres of land out in the country, and I'm enjoying that a lot. I have this little lake nearby where I take walks, and I like nature, love trees, all of that, and so I'm very excited to be out here, and I'm able to design my life the way I want right now, and I'm substitute teaching in my local school district here, and continuing to write and publish books. That is so wonderful, and I love that you work with midlife women, because that's who I work with, too. I'm learning so much when I do these interviews, because what I realize more and more is, because we kind of come from a generation where women are to be seen and not heard, children are to be seen and not heard, it's kind of difficult for some of us to get our voice, and even when we do, we have that kind of haunting thing of be quiet, don't make waves. I love it that you are helping people figure out what they love and how to make it their lifestyle so they can live out the remaining way. - We think 50, and we're gonna live to 100, a friend of mine just went to her friend's 100th birthday. If we live to be 100, we still have half our life left. What is it that made you transition into this? - I'm gonna take you to the Life Interrupted part. Back to around 2010, I have a lot of background in business and education, among other things. In 2010, I'd been working in downtown Seattle for almost seven years in the commercial escrow department for a title insurance company. And when I first went to work for them, I was still raising my children, and I had to commute in, and so I asked them if I could have a half an hour early dismissal so I could get on the train to get home earlier, and they said, "Sure, that's great. "Go ahead, that's fine." There was a change in the company, and the company started going through a merger, and the new people came in and said, "No, you can't have that half an hour anymore. "You need to be here till the end of the day." That's fine for a lot of people because they live nearby or they're closer, but in that time, I had moved further away at the time, and so my train commute was about an hour, and that put me home at quarter to seven every night, and up early the next day, and a lot of people do that, but I was getting exhausted, and on my end, something needed to change, and I thought, "You know, there must be a better way to do this." And so I started thinking about it, what were my strengths, what did I really want? 'Cause I'm a really creative person, and although I liked my business job, it was pressure cooker, I liked the people, I love people, so that was my favorite part, but you can't be real creative, and you can't sing and dance when you're in a business office, you kind of have to have some sort of sense of decorum, and I was like, "I can't really do that here." So I decided it was time, my kids were raised, I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I kind of decided to kind of do some drawing, this is what I recommend to people to. Sometimes the very joy in life has been sucked right out of you, you don't even know where it went, and you don't know how to get it back. And so what I recommend in my book, and when I talk to people is go back in your life to the first time you really experienced joy, what were you doing? Think back to the earliest memory that you have, and then I have them go by decade, and figure out those points, I call them points of joy, and then usually there's a theme there, and then you kind of line it up with what you're doing now, see what that looks like, and so there's a process. So I kind of did that, and I've always loved books, and writing, I decided I had written some books, that they were in a notebook that I had, and we were coming into a time, 2010 or so, where it was getting easier to publish your own. 2013, I published the first one, I had written it back in the 90s, then we did not have an instant illustration, we had to find an illustrator, and so I found a company with the illustrator that I liked, and I learned a lot, I learned about, they did the black and whites first, then they did the color, I told them kind of what my ideas were for it, we divided the book up into layouts that needed to be. So we worked on that, I'm happy to say that book has been telling for over 10 years, and it has still gets on the best seller list at Amazon. It's called Sammy the Centipede, goes to the chiropractor, and the chiropractors loved it, and then I have a health series at Sammythecentipede.com also on Amazon, but it is for kids, but it is educational, their stories, Sammy's their friend, and tells them about all these different things, going to the dentist, good nutrition, how to get fit, going to the chiropractor, all those things that are important for the next generation, so that was kind of my mission with those books, and it still is, I am still promoting those books. In addition to that, I renewed my teaching credentials, because I do have a degree in education, I'm a teacher, so I renewed those credentials and became a substitute teacher where I lived, then proceeded to kind of make my own hours, and then also, because I was an escrow, I'm very familiar with real estate, so I thought, well, I will get my real estate license, so I got my real estate license also, and I have kept that. Now that I'm retired, I'm just kind of do referrals, but that's another stream of income, I believe and promote that everyone should have multiple streams of income, especially in mid-life, we don't know what our job situation is going to be, we have become our brand, we are the brand, you are your brand. Fortunately, in mid-life, we have lived a long time enough to know a few things, and so there's probably something that you are passionate about that you could share in some way with the world. That became the transition, and then I thought, well, other people are gonna wanna know how to do this, and so I formed a company called the Women's Career Transformation Network, and that is how that book came to be, and then I built the Queen's Journal to kind of go with that, and that is a daily journal to keep you on track, so you don't go off on the list, so many lists we have, we can't get it all done, so it helps you focus, it has 52 quotes in it to help you kind of encourage you, working with those two things together, it helps you stay on track. Also on my website at mariarushing.com, there's a free mini course, you can sign up free, and it helps you get ready to change your career, or evaluate if you even want to. Sometimes, you don't need to actually change, you just kind of need to pivot, and there again, people talk about 80/20, and my 80/20 is 80% of what you do in your work should be in your strength, and 20% should be, either delegated or you know enough to get it done, but it's not the primary focus of your work, because face it, when we go for our evaluations at work, what do they do? They talk to you about, okay, yes, you did this well, but here we have this area over here. Now, you might have been struggling in that area, you may still struggle in that area because it is not your strength, and you can't understand why you just can't get it right, why do they not ever get enough? It's because you're not wired that way. Another part of what I do is we evaluate their personality and their career choices. Look at a career assessment and see really what fits you, how does it fit you, and then we look at it, and how does it fit into your life right now? Because we all are at different stages, nobody is in the same spot. That's another thing that I do, also in the book. We might be on that retirement spectrum, but we might also be trying to get back in to the workforce in midlife or even retirement. And I have over 100 resources in this book. One of them is about when you are looking for work and you want to work at home, you're retired or York. You have family situation. Flexjobs.com is a great place to go 'cause those jobs are vetted. A lot of things you find online, you don't know who these people are, and I would never give my money to people who I have not checked out. You can go online and you can Google opportunities that you find before you invest your money and find someone who's done it or you have a good recommendation before you invest. But definitely do, find out where your strengths and weaknesses are if you need help, get help. Everybody is not proficient in all things. And sometimes it's better to know ourselves enough to know that we don't want to do the technical stuff. You can get a virtual assistant for very little money and they will whip you up a website that would take you hours and hours and you're like, "Oh, this is great!" Because that's not something you even want to be in your real house. You have to kind of know yourself. This process helps you. - It seems like when I talk with women who are entering chapter two, chapter three, whatever, some people say chapter four, it seems like they have a lot of fears about technology, about the different things. And also what you said, there's so much information that how do we choose what we want? So I love it that you have resources. As a woman that has gone through that, I think there are a lot of fears. So what kind of things do you do to help women get over those fears and realize the power of what they've already lived through and the experience and that they do have a lot to offer? - We are very goal-oriented people sometimes. And so we have goals and we have lists. When we accomplish something, our tendency is to say, "Oh, great, check it off the list, I got that done." That's really great. Now I'm gonna move on to the next thing. But we don't celebrate those things that we do. Some of us are doing amazing things. Most everybody has done something that's really pretty remarkable, but they just move on and they don't celebrate it. So I say celebrate it and get it in your head that you look what you did. That encourages confidence. One of the things I do with my Queen's Journal, at the end of the day, there's a place that says, "Today I accomplished this." And so it has you write what you accomplished. When you go back at the end of the day or the end of the week, you can say, "Oh, look at that, I did get that done this week." 'Cause sometimes we get to the end of the week and go, "Well, what did I do this week?" And this helps you do it. And then in the beginning, I would have you take some time and just write down all the things through your life. It's amazing if you take some time and write down all the things that you have done, your strengths and the people who you have nurtured and cared for and watched them grow and the areas where you're strong and you write that down in accomplishments, you have got a huge body of work that you have done by the time you are in midlife. I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done. There are things that you have done. And there are some things that you have done that no one has done and they didn't do them the way that you did it. Even if they did, they didn't do it the way you did. That fosters an appreciation for yourself and builds confidence because we are not born with that. We are not excited about getting up in front of people. Most people hate that. But if you do that, then it does build confidence in you. And even just talk to your friends, like if you're lacking a little, go to your friends, say what is it that you see in me because you're with me all the time? What kind of qualities are you seeing? They'll tell you if they haven't already, they will tell you. And that also builds confidence. Reading works that people have done. And if you have an area that you want to do, go find somebody who has done it already 'cause chances are they have and watch them. If they have a mentor program, if they have a book, I have read many books, many books, and I keep reading. I love learning, but many books will tell you the processes that these people use, and also they will inspire you. Because you think, well, if they did it, well, then what reason would it be that I could not? Or what is it that I'm missing? What is the little bit that I am missing to get it where I need it to be? Often I hear people say, oh, I listened to this podcast or this YouTube, or I read this book, and I could have done that if it's a client, I say, but you didn't because so often we don't do it because we don't think we're good enough or we think too many people are already doing it, and I love what you said about nobody's done it like you. And there's a lot of power in connecting with other women, and it sounds like that's what you did with your network. Yes, I think it's important for women, especially to have a network, to have your own personal network. There's different layers of that. One of the things that I do, it's just called, who do you know? Have one page, and you think about all the people you know, your friends, all the associations, your church, all the places that you touch. You touch way more people than you realize. If you write those down, you can see that. And I think it's good to have collaboration between people who do the same thing. Because again, we have our uniqueness about us, so we need to celebrate the weirdness. Celebrate the unique part, because that is what differentiates you. If you sound like everybody else, well then that's it. You sound like everyone else, but usually if there's someone that you know of that has a certain way to do things, you recognize them. You say their name, and they go, oh, you're the one that does that. Or she does, she works with people that do this, because that is their strength. You want to actually narrow your focus rather than widen it. Because if you narrow your focus that your people know who you're talking to, because you're talking to them. A lot of things I say apply to many people, but I focus on women, midlife women, because I feel like I really relate to them, and I have a gift of encouragement. What I do is I come alongside people. I do not have all the answers, and nobody does, but I will encourage you in ways to make you understand that you can do it, and maybe you just need to move a little bit one way or another, and you haven't thought about that. But let's look at the possibilities. Or sometimes you might get somebody who's just like, I cannot go to work another day, I cannot do it. You want to say to them, okay, well, let's unpack it a little bit. What is really going on? Well, I would never encourage anyone to just quit. So here's the thing, let's reframe. While you're doing this job, people are paying you to figure out what it is that you really want to do without the pressure. Maybe you don't have money for a startup right now, but you're exploring what it is that you want to do exactly. You can explore avenues to find that funding. There are places to find that funding, and you can evaluate where you are and where you want to go, all while being supported from the income at your job right now. Also, I would encourage you to do the best job you possibly can at that job, because you might need that recommendation from your boss one day, or it might come in handy, or they might refer you to someone and your colleagues at work and all the people there, they say, oh, well, she went off to do such and so, you should go talk to her. Always do things in an orderly fashion, do them well, so that you can just always move forward the way that you want to. I know that helped me a lot. When you do that reframe, it takes a pressure off, because you realize that you are not here for the rest of your working life. You are here just now to do the things that you need to do. - When I first became a coach, it was back in '99, so people thought it was a woo-woo and weird. People would say, oh, so you're just gonna help people leave their job and go live their fantasy. And I said, yeah, no, we're gonna make a plan and we're gonna discover what we love and we're gonna move into that area and we're gonna discover that there are ways to do it, because often when we don't have joy and we're mundane, in the grind of everything, we can't be creative about, I love what you said, there are ways to find the money, the support, the schooling. This saying is so basic, where there's a will, there's a way, but I was a single mom and when my kids wanted to play sports, I found a scholarship. Often when we're in that place of feeling discouraged and I'm gonna be here forever, it's hard to realize that there are resources and things available and it is taking the first step, then the next, then the next, you don't just put your job and go, I'm gonna be a movie star. - No, and with me, my approach is kind of holistic with a person and my first question to you would be, how are you? And I really wanna know, that's the first question because that plays a big deal in what you wanna do and how you proceed and like you were saying, if your joy and creativity is not there, then you're not gonna make the best decisions. My purpose at first is to find out how you are, reconnect you with your joy if you need that and let's look at that and get your joy pumped up there to where you can let those creative juices flow and then let's go from there because now you're in a state of where you're looking for opportunity and you're open to opportunity and you're like, oh, okay, well, what about this? Well, maybe it doesn't work quite like that but we could take something from over here and put it in and maybe you don't have that much time but maybe you can find a time in your schedule. So we are looking at your schedule, we're looking at your life, like who are the people that you are serving but then how is your home? Home is huge in trying to run a business or trying to figure out what you wanna do. You know, are your kids still home? Are they gone? Is your husband retired, not retired? How much time do you have and how do you want to spend your days and your life? How do you want to do it? You have to, a lot of people if you ask people what they want, they don't know what they want. It takes really some time and some journaling. I'm a big believer in journaling and it takes some of that. And also, I'm inspired by my dad for part of that journal that I made because he said to me, "Just take a little time each day "to think back on what you've accomplished." I do have that line in the bottom of the page of each one of those pages. It says, "Today, I accomplished this "because it really kind of anchors you. "It anchors your confidence because you can see that "and you can always go back and look at it." Say, "Okay, look at all that. "In the space of three months, "in the space of a week or a month, "look at what I have accomplished." And also, it will guide you on the next thing that you probably need to be doing. Once you have a direction, then choose joy, but take action. We have to take action. And if you move forward and you don't feel that that is the step that you should have taken, you will know, and then you will correct and you will go. But it will open the doors and the opportunities just taking action. One interaction that you have can multiply exponentially in ways that you don't even realize. You can meet someone at a conference and you hit it off and they know someone, they know someone, and pretty soon they're like, "I should introduce you to so-and-so "because they are really, you know, in your area, "they are the best. "Let's give them a call." Or, "I will introduce you to so-and-so." And that's kind of how it works. It's synergistic. I like that word synergy, because you can be in a group of even two or three people and you start bouncing ideas off each other and pretty soon you've come up with these amazing ideas. You've never even thought of, "They haven't heard of them either," because they've added their part and you've added yours. It just becomes a synergistic thing. And that is what happens with masterminds, people mastermind and they pay a lot of money to go to masterminds and they go, "What do they do there? "Why do they pay so much money to go there?" Well, because you've got some people there who have done a lot, have accomplished a lot. And so when they put everything together and they bounce the ideas and they come up with bigger ideas and ways to do things. So I think it really is important to network with people. - Yeah, and I'm always recommending higher a coach, higher a coach because like you said in your journal, what did I accomplish today as women so often, we just, we get it done and we move on. And it's getting that somebody's else's eyes on us and I remember when I had gone to counseling and my counselor was telling me these amazing things about myself and I lived on an island. So I would get on the car to go back to the island and the whole ferry weight I'd be thinking, why would she lie to me? She's not lying to me, this must be true. And that's what gave me the courage and the energy to begin doing the things that I have done because somebody else saw something in me and then that spurred me to connect with other women. And I remember when I wanted to do a radio coaching show, it was before podcasting or any of that. I have a friend who's a coach and I told her and I go, but I don't want to tell anyone because I don't want someone to go and do it. And what she said to me has stuck with me my whole life. She said, there is room. Tell people, there is room. Yes, people may steal your idea, but more than likely they may know something or know someone or add to it. And so I love the things that you're saying, Maria. And I hope that someone who's been on the fence, they've lost their joy, they're not happy with their job and they've know they've got a lot of years left. We'll say, I want to work with her. If so, how do they work with you? Go to MariaRushing.com. There are several ways. I do private coaching. I will also, if there is enough interest, I will do a small group. I have a Facebook group for professional and entrepreneurial women. You can go in there and share what you're doing. You can, even on Wednesdays, you can actually post your offers and services in there on Wednesdays to get the word out about what you're doing and it's an encouraging place. I would invite you to come there too. And where do we get your three books? You can also, again, go to MariaRushing.com, find the second edition of How To Get Your Joy Back. It's also on Amazon. These are also on Amazon, The Queen's Journal. There's a mini course there. You can just put your name in and it will take you to a place to sign up and you can take that mini course. It helps you kind of find ways to relax in this crazy world. It will help you measure your money so you know exactly how much money you have and help you figure out how much money you want. Those things are really important when you're looking at changing or pivoting a career or adding another income stream on the side. You can have just a conversation with me. - That's wonderful. I love those free consults. Maria, you have given us such amazing wisdom. I have loved chatting with you. What is it you really want us to know? - You can design work that you love that fits your strengths and talents. Please play more. Whatever it is that you love to do, go do it. I dance in my house. I love to dance. Makes me happy. Whatever makes you happy, do more of it. You can do it by yourself. You can do it with a family or your friends or play as also good for creativity and just going out and doing things. If you're stuck in your business or your life in your work, if you're stuck, just get away from it. Go do something completely different. Go do something fun and you'll be amazed at how quickly maybe some of those creative ideas come to you. - Thank you so much and welcome. If you love this podcast, here's a big ask. Will you share with your friends and family? Subscribe, give us a review and a five-star rating so that others looking to reinvent their lives will be able to get the help they're looking for. Thank you in advance.
