Late Bloomer Living Podcast

EP 37: Mariann Aalda - Ageing Shamelessly

In the 1980’s, Mariann Aalda was a television trailblazer as one of the first African-American daytime soap opera heroines.  She played criminal attorney, DiDi Bannister, on ABC’s EDGE OF NIGHT along with many other television appearances on shows like Designing Women.  When Mariann turned 50 her thriving career came to a halt… as it tends to go for older women in Hollywood.  But, She didn’t just roll over and give up… She found a new path. Today, she’s blazing new trails...prosecuting ageism with her solo show, her TEDx Talk, and as an official AARP Age Disruptor.  She is 72 years old and is nowhere near slowing down.  Her courage and drive is totally inspiring to me.  I hope you will  walk away from today’s show feeling a little bit of borrowed courage for your next chapter just like I did after talking to her.

EP 36: Barbara Bradley Hagerty - Life Reimagined

At the age of 53, Barbara Bradley Hagerty was experiencing chronic vocal cord pain along with losing her voice.  It was hindering her work as an on-air reporter at NPR.  Other life experiences also had her thinking she might be headed for a midlife crisis.  As any good reporter would do, she decided to follow the story and spent the next couple of years examining that stage of life called “midlife” and how we might thrive.  Hundreds of interviews with brain scientists, researchers and psychologists came together in a book titled Life Reimagined where she also examined her own midlife journey. What she found is that we’ve bought into a myth that midlife brings with it the inevitable midlife crisis. Instead, she found that midlife can be a time to “refocus our energies, and transform the ways we think about the world and ourselves.”

EP 35: Mike Adsit - Man on a Mission

Mike Adsit was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 52 which was just the beginning of a renaissance for him because it led him to examine his unhealthy lifestyle.  During his recovery from chemotherapy in 2001 he found inspiration watching Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor, win the Tour de France and decided that he would try bicycling to get in shape.  That decision led him to competing in the Senior Olympics, eventually finding new love, a new career and a new life mission.

EP 34: Paula Stone Williams - Living Authentically

Paula Stone Williams is an internationally known speaker on gender equity, LGBTQ advocacy, and religious tolerance.  She is also a Pastor and Pastoral Counselor in Boulder County, Colorado.  As a transgender woman, Paula brings a unique perspective to her work on gender equity.  We talk about what transitioning in midlife was like for her and the trials she faced on her journey to become her authentic self.  I think there’s something in her story that we can all learn from… that we are all called to become more true to ourselves as we age, and that, yes, it takes courage to leave behind what’s comfortable, but oh so worthwhile to take that journey.

EP 33: Nicole and Sandra and the Messy Middle Road Trip

This week’s guests are Nicole Markel and Sandra Costello of the Messy Middle Roadtrip Podcast.  Nicole Markel is an entrepreneur in the wellness field on a mission to share her personal journey while battling an autoimmune condition and empowering others to live a healthier lifestyle.  Sandra Costello is an entrepreneur, photographer and coach who believes in brave moments and helping her clients find new ways to appreciate who they are, exactly as they are.  Their podcast was born out of the desire to reach a community of badass, like-minded women over the age of 40 navigating all the ups and downs of midlife because midlife is kind of like an epic road trip.

EP 32: Charlotte Japp - Bridging the Gap

This week's guest is Charlotte Japp, the founder of CIRKEL, a company that connects older and younger professionals for mutual personal and professional growth.  After graduating from Georgetown University, Charlotte started her career in creative marketing and saw the consequences of age segregation in the workplace. Older and younger professionals needed to connect and learn from each other, but had no way to meet.  Charlotte’s response was to create a platform called CIRKEL to make networking across generations seamless, inspiring, and impactful.  We talk about what inspired her and what she’s learning on her journey.

EP 31: Doris Fullgrabe - Do What Brings You Joy

Doris Fullgrabe of Your Love Profiles is a relationship coach who previously worked in leadership development and had a business preparing expatriate couples for their international assignments.  In her 40s, a move to New York for her husband’s job left her on shaky ground, so she took some time off to reevaluate her business and her purpose and ended up launching a new business doing something completely different… years later she’s come back to coaching with a focus on couples and has a new business.

EP 30: Goodbye 2020 - Taking Stock and Moving Forward

The year 2020 is coming to a close.  It may not be pretty, but we made it!  That being said... Just because we're turning the page on our calendar doesn’t mean the challenges of this year are over, right?  So, how do we move forward when so much is uncertain?  Let’s talk about taking stock of the past year and planning for what’s next.

EP 29: Laura McClellan - How to Take Imperfect Action

My guest this week is Laura McClellan, the host of The Productive Woman Podcast.  She’s also a lawyer, a writer, a productivity enthusiast, and a tech geek.  We talk about how she finally committed to pursuing her lifetime dream of writing a novel and what it was like for her to start a podcast.  Married for more than 40 years to her high school sweetheart, with whom she's raised five amazing kids, she's passionate about encouraging women in their individual journeys as people, wives, mothers, citizens.

EP 28: Jen Riday: Ditching Overwhelm

This week’s guest is Jen Riday, the host of the Vibrant Happy Women podcast.  Jen is a mom of 6 children with a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies.  We talk about her journey from overwhelmed and frazzled wife and mom to life coach and podcaster.  In 2010 she had a traumatic miscarriage, which was her wake-up call.  From there, she took a deep dive into learning how to take care of herself and find what made her happy.  Now, she’s helping other burned out, overwhelmed moms get off the hamster wheel and find balance so they can love their lives again.