Late Bloomer Living Podcast

EP 23: Nayla Bahri - 90,000 Hours

Nayla Bahri, my guest this week, said something that I can’t get out of my head… She said, “Most adults will spend 90,000 hours of their lives working which is more time than we’re going to spend doing anything else… How do we make it worth it?”.  Nayla is a leadership development expert who specializes in looking at how people experience work.  This week we are talking about resilience in the face of career challenges.  This conversation is timely as many people are having to dig deep in this crazy year we call 2020.

EP 22: Anthony Reed - Pushing the Limits

At the age of 50, Anthony Reed co-founded the National Black Marathoners’ Association with his friend, Charlotte Simmons.  Fifteen years later, they have grown from 2 people to about 16,000 members!  He’s also one of about sixty people in the world, who completed the marathon “hat trick.”  having finished over 100 marathons, completing a marathon on all seven continents, including Antarctica.   (Fewer than 225 people in the world have done that and he’s the first black person in the world to accomplish that feat.)   The last part of that hat trick includes finishing marathons in all 50 states.  He is now 65 years old, and still running.  He has published five books.  His sixth and latest book is From the Road Race to the Rat Race: Essays from a Black Executive Marathoner.  In this episode, we talk about the mindset required to bust through personal limits and what drives him to excel.

EP 21: Shulamit Ber Levtov - One Day at a Time

Shulamit Ber Levtov started her Masters in Counseling and Spirituality as a mature student with a goal to finish before she turned 50.  She wasn’t sure how she would find the time or money, but step by step she accomplished her goal.  A few years later she founded a holistic clinic in a small rural town which is now thriving.  Today, she works as a mindset consultant helping womxn stay sane as they ride the emotional rollercoaster of running a business.   When I first met her she told me “All my life I had wondered what I was here for but it only became clear in my 50s.”

EP 20: Linda Ruel Flynn - A Legacy of Joy

Linda Ruel Flynn was taking care of her sick mom and was tasked with keeping her mom’s flower pressing gift business up and running when her mother was too sick to do the work.  In the end, her mom passed away leaving Linda with the decision about what to do with her mom’s business.  You see her mom had always wanted her to take over the business, but that’s not what Linda wanted… until she did it at the age of 50.  She ended up doing things quite differently than her mother would have, finding true joy and love of the process. 

EP 19: Jon Stewart - It’s Now or Never

Jon Stewart of JStu Music retired early from a career in Information Security to pursue a lifelong dream to be a songwriter and now he’s released 5 albums since 2017. In this episode, we talk about how he positioned himself to meet other songwriters during the Covid shutdown and how he tapped into all the project management skills he has acquired in his career working in the IT Industry.  It just goes to show that when we make a shift in midlife and jump into something new, we bring with us a lifetime of experience that we can apply to our new adventures.

EP 18: Emily Clement - Life By Design

Under the full moon in March of 2017, Despite the strong advice of a few friends, Emily Clement decided to burn a lifetime of her journals in a backyard fire.  The book burning created an amazing chain reaction. Helping her to purge the toxic thoughts, beliefs and stories that didn’t serve her.  She then took massive action.  She quit drinking alcohol, adopted a puppy, took an intense business course, rebranded her business, let go of one-sided friendships, took herself to Cancun, and spoke at her first TEDx event.

EP 17: Doug Motel - Playing the Game

Doug Motel is an award-winning playwright & actor, author, coach, artist and a popular international speaker on the subject of storytelling for business. He’s kind of the quintessential “renaissance man”... Last year, he was leading a workshop in Hawaii and had a personal revelation… He'd spent the year exploring all his passions and going wherever his creativity took him.  During that workshop, he realized he needed to “pick a lane” as he puts it. That inspired him to launch a new business, at the age of 58, capitalizing on all of the marketing expertise he’s garnered over the years and making his tools and tactics available to help new businesses tell their story.

EP 16: Kevin Lane - From Idea to Reality

Kevin Lane turned his passion for sand castles into a toy that builds not only sandcastles but family memories... and he did it in his late forties.  He's the Inventor and Founder of Create a Castle which just won the coveted “Toy of the Year” award.  But, he didn't do it alone.  His wife, Laurie, stepped up to help make it all happen by taking on operations for their web design business, Code Hounds.  Both of them had to step into being a beginner in order to keep an older business running to pay the bills while they built a new business.  Who says you can't be an "overnight success" in midlife?

EP 15: Kimberly Minor - Trust your Gut

Are you one of those people who makes it look easy to do “all the things” when inside you’re really struggling? That was Kimberly Minor, my guest this week.  For most of her adult life she found herself in the role of that person people look to to get through a crisis, both in her business and private life…. At some personal cost.

EP 14: Joe O’Callaghan - I Too Can Stretch And Let Myself Be Open

This week I’m talking to a dear friend, Joe O’Callaghan.  Joe has worked for 20 plus years in the Stamford, CT Public Schools where he is currently the Dept. Chair for Social Work with a specialty in trauma and grief counseling.  Today we are talking about his own journey inward… and starting to write poetry as part of his contemplative practice.