My keynote is, your unlived life is waiting for you. So, I really want just to have people hear, wow, you know, if she could do it at age 67, you know, maybe I can do it too. And, and it isn't really so much about age, Genell is mm-hmm. Like I'm calling this my third act.
Welcome to RenewHer, a podcast for women over 50 ready to reignite their energy and explore what's next. I'm Genell Lemley, brain fitness coach. Here, you'll hear real stories from women taking on new challenges after 50, along with brain health tips to boost focus, energy, and the mindset to move forward with confidence. Let's dive into today's episode.
Welcome back to the RenewHer podcast, the space where we explore what it means to renew your energy, your confidence, and your possibilities after 50. I'm Genell, your host. Today's conversation feels especially meaningful and honestly a little serendipitous because my guest truly to me, embodies what this podcast is about.
My guest is Cathryn Baker. And Cathryn is a native of Minnesota, I believe, as am I, and she now lives in Texas for Cathryn, correct me, but is it close to 40 years now that you've been in Texas? Yeah, it's 40 years, yes. Okay. And she's actually the sister-in-law of Karen, who is a lifelong friend of mine.
And yet, interestingly, Cathryn and I only connected a few months ago. We met very briefly during a girls' weekend in Austin. Karen had arrived early to spend time with Cathryn, and Cathryn dropped her off at the house where we were staying. So we chatted a few minutes, nothing more, and went on our separate ways, and later connected on LinkedIn.
I followed her posts and quickly knew she needs to be on this podcast. Her perspective, her wisdom, her energy. She is the epitome, I think, of what the RenewHer podcast stands for.
So we spoke before the holidays, and I couldn't wait for this conversation. Cathryn brings such positivity and excitement for life and what's still possible. It's almost like fate brought us together at exactly the right moment.
So, here's a little background about Cathryn before we start the interview. So, over a 37-year career, she founded two recruiting companies from scratch, starting with no experience, and sold them for multi-millions. Is that correct?
Yes. All right. So at 67, instead of slowing down or retiring, she made the bold move to begin again. Launching a coaching business and stepping into an entirely new chapter with purpose and conviction. Cathryn now coaches executives through transitions in career, leadership, and life, bringing the depth of her lived experience into everything she does.
So Cathryn, I'm so grateful you're here, and welcome to the RenewHer podcast. I'm excited to be here, Genell. And when you're telling that story, you're right. We've only known each other. Yeah. I mean, few months really. Right. It seems impossible, but now I'm just, I'm honored to be a guest. I really am.
Thank you. I have so many questions for you, so let's get started. Let's start at the beginning. So you started your first company at 29 from scratch with a partner with no prior experience. I'm curious what gave you the courage at that time to take that leap? There's one thing of, if you wanna say, taking a leap when you're younger and yet another one when you're older. So at that time, did you ever think, you know, I'm too young? Fill me in.
That's such a great question and just a little bit of backstory for that. At the time that I started it, I had a five-year-old and a one-year-old. My husband had passed away a year before, so I was a relatively new widow, and so your question about what did I think I was too anything. Honestly, I'm not sure. I was really thinking. I just did. It sounded like a great opportunity. I did trust my partner. We had been working together for about a year, but I didn't know her. I only know her, knew her for a year. It just felt like the right thing to do and I didn't overthink it for the first time in my life. I did not overthink it and I'm so glad I did not.
That's great. Not that I didn't, mistakes, I made a ton, but yeah, I had zero business background. I had my useful psychology degree from the University of Minnesota. It is useful, but I didn't, I really did not know what I was doing. I've never taken a business class in my life, so.
So you really didn't have, if you wanna say that self-talk? You know that as you get older, maybe you had more self-talk now than you did back then, but did you have any of that then, do you think?
No. I mean, I must have, but that is not what is prevalent in my mind because it was so exciting. Yeah, it was new. It was different. I mean, we started out starting a business from scratch, and this was back in the eighties.
It was still hard. Okay. We're open, where's the customers? And yeah. You really didn't have you wanna say the technology or the computers? No. That was just kind of starting a little bit back then. Absolutely was. I got, we didn't have a computer that first year, so I did all of our W-2s. When you're a staffing company, you have to, you, you have a lot of employees.
Yeah. I can't remember how it was probably several hundred and I did W-2s on a typewriter, if you can believe that. It was, you know, three part form. It was ridiculous. And then. Yes, exactly. It was, it was incredible. I can't believe we did it.
And we didn't even have a cell phone of course, until it was probably a year or two later, and that cell phone was as big as a brick and about as heavy. I think it was a Motorola, you know, you're like this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But I remember. So, it was a different time. The servers were in separate rooms once we did get computers and, you know. Yeah. It was a, a different time. But, you know, luckily, like I said, I didn't, yes, I, I had some self-talk, but not a lot 'cause first of all, I was, I had two little kids.
Yeah. And, and then starting a business and making all the mistakes that you make, and, and celebrating, you know, the little wins. So I don't think I had time and that was a good thing.
So moving on, then after selling, so you started another company and then after some time you sold that company, right? Your second company. And from what I understand is that you stayed on contractually for a few years after the sale. And then, if you wanna say, you noticed that boredom, if you will, crept in. Yeah. And unexpectedly so did a loss of confidence. So what was that, if you wanna say, season like for you, and did you notice it immediately or did it slowly creep up on you that that was going on?
Oh, that's a great question, Genell, because I think it's pertinent to a lot of women because, no, I didn't notice it right away. I did notice the boredom pretty darn quick. Because, I mean, the people that I sold the company to, they're my friends are still my friends today and, and I stayed on and I opened another office for them.
There was a lot going on and they gave me complete autonomy and respect. So there was none of that, but it was doing the same thing I'd done for, at that time, it had already been over 30 years and. I think that I didn't realize, but inside I was like, I'm done. But you don't notice it right away. And the thing that really crept up on me was the lack of confidence. Okay.
Because I had owned a company for 37 years. Pretty much my entire professional career. So I think I took a hit on that a little bit more than I thought. Like my worth was tied up in that, even though I was still making good money and I was bringing value, and by all intents and purposes I was successful, but I guess it didn't feel like that.
So, it was sneaky and it took its toll in more ways than I even know. And I, I know I wrote a post about this once, but it, I was to the point where like driving in a new city, which I used to do all the time. We had offices in Dallas and Fort Worth. I would go there, I'd go wherever, and that was really before GPS and I would just rent a car and do whatever.
And I became more, I was. Kind of afraid, I don't know if that's even the right word, but I had a lack of confidence that I could navigate or be on my own, all this stuff that is really not me. I mean, that's quite a shift, really. Yeah. When you think about it, because it, like you've said, you've traveled a lot for your work and then all of a sudden what's going on?
It wasn't, and then the boredom, you know, when I realized it was really bad, as I started feeling like, you know, you read the Sunday Scaries, you know, like you're dreading Monday, you know, I was living for the weekends. I'm like, what? What the, I mean, I, what's this song? You know, I'm in my, what's that about living for the weekends, you know, like a teenager or like a 20-year-old. It just, everything felt off.
So, when that felt off right after that, well, not right after that, but soon, maybe thereafter. Sounds like there was this moment a text you received from a friend that said "Your unlived life is waiting for you." Those are, I guess you could say powerful words. And I'd love for you to tell us a story around that. And in that story, I'd love if you would include or share how that message made you feel when you received it. What did it mean to you? And how did this all ultimately start a whole new chapter for you?
I'd love to tell it because I hope if one person listens to it and gets some inspiration from it, that would make me so happy because first of all, I've never been a person, like my house isn't filled with signs that tell you motivational things, I liked reading it.
That was just never my shtick. But my friend, who sent me this, she and her husband had bought a ranch. This was two years ago. And they bought a ranch and said, and it's here in the hill country. That's where I am now. We were in El Paso and they're friends for 30 years, and they said, well, come on. Come and stay with us.
And they lived in a town about an hour away from here. And, but stop by the, we bought this ranch. And so, okay. So we did, and when we walked in, when my husband and I walked in, it was empty and the house had been empty for several years. Okay. But it spoke to me. I don't know if this has ever happened to you with a place like some people, you get on the water, and or you go in the forest and it just, this is what the house did and looking out at, we have fantastic view of the hill country, these big windows and vaulted ceilings.
It's not a fancy house, but I mean, it's a nice house, but it just talked to me and I felt like I needed to be here. This has happened to me before, but this is the first time in my entire life that I've ever acted on it. So it's happened to me before with a place like Santa Fe, New Mexico, like, oh, it's so magical. I gotta live here. And, I didn't. But of course I visited a lot. But this was different.
So after that visit, I think we planned another time. We did just like a month later. Be. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then my friend sent me that text, your unlived life is waiting for you. And I'm like, what does that mean, to myself? You know? Right, right. My unlived life, how could I even do this? I am 67 years old. My husband is nine years older than me. I wrote it down. I wrote it on a. I have it on my desk right now. I had a block of wood that one of my staff members gave me, like, we love you, or something like that. And I didn't have the heart to not put it out, but on the back of it, where I looked at it every day, multiple times a day, is that saying Your unlived life is waiting for you.
So when you receive that from her. Did you ask her? Well, what do you mean by that? Or did you just let it sit? I did not. Okay. I told her, I can't remember. I told her, I'm sure I have it in the text, like, oh my God, or something. But of course she knows this now. So I had that on my desk. Then we went again.
There were like, I think two more trips and it was the third time coming back. It's a six and a half hour drive for Ray and I. It was. And we were coming back and we had all stayed here. So we put air mattresses and the Charlie put a coffee pot and there was a refrigerator and a microwave. And we stayed to see what's it like.
And oh my God, on the way home, I looked at Ray and I said, I don't wanna leave. And he said, me either. And we spent six and a half hours figuring out how we could move here.
There was a little important piece of it, so why we were here talking, they had said, we don't know if we wanna sell it. We don't want the house. They didn't like it. They have built another place. It's a big ranch. It's 1,131 acres. And they said, and I said, well, don't, don't sell it. I don't think we can afford it, but don't sell it without talking to us. And they said, oh, don't worry about that.
And so were you thinking of this at the time as a second home or your permanent home? A second home. A second home. Okay. Which lasted not long. I am not cut out for two houses. I did not like it. All I could think about was here, and fixing it up and what could we do? I was thinking about the air, the ranch walking on. I was thinking about everything. And so that was really the second time we came that they said, Hey, we wanna sell the house.
It was the third time that we said we can't leave. So yes, we thought, okay, second home. But as we were driving, we're like, no, we want to live here. And that's when we started planning and we had, I had an easy job that paid me well. Ray works for NASA, but he works remotely and now he's part-time so he could go anywhere and we had a paid-for house, the kids are gone. It was at a time when a lot of people my age and certainly Ray's age are thinking about, let's just retire and do our own thing. But that never crossed my mind. It's like, I really hasn't, I'm not, I'm not just saying that. It's like there's, I wasn't even thinking about retiring. I was thinking about what can I do next?
Mm-hmm. And Sue is the one, you should be a coach. You should use all your experience and your education, your life experience, business experience. That sounds great. I didn't even know what a coach was, but I found out and I started that path to talk to anybody who would talk to me, which we put our house on the market. I'm talking to people who were coaches. What's it like? I enrolled in a really great certification program that took a year. Half of that I did on the trips back and forth between here and El Paso. We just made it happen and so really from May, we made that decision in May of 2023 and by November we were here permanently.
It's such major life changes that went along with that, which not to diminish, this is very rural. Hope you come out sometime. You're invited anytime to help. Oh, thank you. Thanks. Have a girl's weekend out here. Alright. It is very rural and I, that was never on my radar, you know?
I mean, the town is this big. We don't even have a grocery store. There's not a stoplight. There's a flashing light at one of the intersections. And of course there's like four places you can take your deer to get them processed and a few churches. So never on my radar, and I've never worked from home. I've always worked within my own company with a team, a lot of people around me. So there was all of that.
But like I told you, I did not overthink it. That could have stopped me and it would stop a lot of people. That was a block that I knew was there and it, it could have stopped me. And I'm so glad it didn't.
So this time you really, if you wanna say, leaned into your intuition that yes, this is something that I am meant to do. I mean, in your gut, you're like, yes, this is it.
Yes. Leaning into your intuition. That's a really good point. And a lot of times women don't do that. Mm-hmm. And. I was, I felt guilt because why wasn't I happy making good money and having a paid-for home and just living the life? Why didn't that, and maybe happy's not the right word, why didn't I feel fulfilled? But I felt guilty 'cause lots of people would give their right arm for that. Yeah.
But my gut was screaming at me. I don't wanna say I pushed the, the fears under the rug and they came out like, I remember our first night. I stayed here the first night that we lived here permanently, and it's very quiet except for the bugs. And even in November there's crickets, and I mean, there's those noises, but you don't have any street noise. You don't have a neighbor's dog barking. You don't have any of that. And I remember a little bit of freaking out like, oh geez, what did I do? That, I did stuff back down because it's like, yeah, well, too late now, you know?
Would you say that you feel more aligned or did you feel out of alignment and now you feel more aligned?
Yeah, that's exactly right. I did feel out of alignment and I didn't know why. I was doing what I'd done for 37 years. Why was I out of alignment and why did I even have the right to think that way?
And remember I had zero confidence, not zero, but yeah, and it had diminished. Diminished. So I find it amazing too that you made the decision to leave your job and your friend said, oh, you'd be a great coach, and you like latched onto that if you will. Sounds like right away. Is that something that you knew resonated with you or why coaching?
Yes, it did. Yes, because, no, I had my psychology degree and I used to want think, I wanted to be a psychologist, not a research psychologist, but one that really helps people. And I went into a helping field staffing. I found people jobs every day, but I always felt like my role, people came to me my whole life.
Even as a kid, people would tell me that big secrets are things that they, why are you even telling me this? And I don't, I still really don't know why. I think I have a trustworthy looking face or something, but, and, and I know how to listen. And now I really honed my listening skills. But, so the coaching part was like, yeah, I, I didn't even know that's what I wanted to do, but I wanna use everything for 37 years that I've been building and hope I can help somebody else through the stuff I've been through and beyond. And are you finding that to be the case? I am. Fabulous. I am. I, I want to do more. I've expanded it to, and maybe I told you a little bit about that, but speaking, so I want to, I've done workshops, but I haven't done a keynote speech yet, and my keynote is, your unlived life is waiting for you.
So, I really want just to have people here. Wow. If she could do it at age 67, maybe I can do it too. And, and it isn't really so much about age. Genell is. Mm-hmm. Like I'm calling this my third act, but I know people in their forties that they've already been successful. Maybe they've even sold a company or two. That's not so uncommon now. And then they're like, well, now what? It is their third act too. And, but they don't know what to do. Or they feel guilty, they feel golden handcuffs maybe tied because, well, I have a good job.
I mean, I took a financial hit giving up my job. I'm still not making the money that I did. But we were luckily prepared for that. Right. And luckily I have my husband not, not everybody has all those choices, but they always have a choice. So that's what in this new venture this year, I'm really concentrating on that. I'm gonna get a speaking gig or speaking gigs and tell the story. I am confident you will find that.
As you well know now, starting your own business as you are and have can be very scary. To be transparent for those who are thinking about it. It's not to say, oh, it's easy. Just go ahead and start your own company. Right? It doesn't, there's a lot. There's definitely a lot of work. That goes behind it, but in the end it's so worth it. But I have two questions. When things felt uncertain or hard for you in that process, what kept you from walking away and was it worth it?
Are you talking about my coaching business? And let's pivot, let's, let's focus on the coaching business right now, since that's something that you've done recently and. Right. You're more like a solopreneur. Yes, yes, yes. Going from a, running a, a bigger company with staff and all to being a solopreneur. Oh gosh.
And that's an excellent question, too. You are right. It's not easy, and I will say it's not for everyone. And I see a lot of stuff now, especially on LinkedIn, encouraging people quit that corporate craziness and start your own company. That's the right thing for some people. But you really do have to have guts because there are times that you do wanna say, forget it. What stops me from doing that? Is that, I'll give an example. Somebody told me about relationships, husbands, that everybody at some point, or most people in long-term marriages, you think, I don't wanna do that. I'm out of here. That's it. He left the toothpaste uncapped one too many times or whatever.
But we all go through ups and downs and I remember, I think I read this, that, okay, visualize, visualize leaving and divvying up the, your furniture and telling the kids or what, whatever it is. I could never get that far, not even close with my relationship with Ray. And I do the same thing with the business.
Okay. I say, Ugh, this is, this is not it. I, I need to make more money, or I can't take one more no. Or I'm sick of, do I have to learn everything by making mistakes? Couldn't one thing just come easy? The answer is no but. Then it would be boring, right? It's never boring. This is true. So I visualize telling Ray, that's a, I'm shutting the company down.
I visualize telling my friend here on the ranch. I visualize telling my family. I visualize, well, what would I do next? I can't visualize it. I can't. So I hang in there. That's what works for me. But not everybody is made the same way. And there's no right or wrong. The whole world can't be an entrepreneur. We need people to hold the fort down too. We do. And so I'm not saying one is better for the other. I am saying for me, it's better. And many times I've said I like owning a bigger company better than my own. It was much easier, even though the problems were different.
So yeah, I feel like anybody who is really looking at that path, talk to anybody who will listen, talk to anybody about it. Call me, go get on LinkedIn and get pearls of wisdom from all these people. And that is what I did. And I really did learn a lot and feel like, I feel like I have people, I can tell I have a coach. Coaches have coaches. Yeah. Yeah. So, if there's any a time, I'm feeling it's so important, feeling like, yikes.
I, I don't feel like I'm drowning ever. I feel I beat myself up. That's my, that's my big thing is the imposter syndrome and all of that. So, it's been very helpful to have a coach.
What do you find are the benefits of having a coach as you are starting something new like this in your new venture? What value do you feel they provide?
Well, you have another excellent question. If you have the right coach, the benefit, the best benefit is you get to talk through things that you don't even know what you're thinking. A good coach will ask those questions, so you might say, well, I'm thinking about starting a dog walking service. And then you start talking about it and the coach might ask, why is this important to you? How do you visualize it in three years, whatever, and all of a sudden you're talking and you realize, I don't wanna start a dog walking business. I wanna be a chef. I don't know, I'm just making stuff up.
But, but that's what I wish I had had a coach from the very beginning. I didn't get a coach until the following year. And I've had a coach ever since 'cause when, when you're in coaching school, of course you have peer coaches and then I've continued a couple of those relationships. We reciprocal coach. You don't really know what it's like to have somebody talk to you for an hour and really listen and ask good questions. That is so powerful and worth every penny.
And sometimes from past experience, some of those questions that they keep asking can get frustrating, at least for me. 'cause you're like, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hmm. Let me think about that. It just, it forces you, I think, too, to think in ways you might not otherwise have thought. Do you agree with that?
Absolutely. And frustrated? Yes. And that's a good, sometimes you even get pissed off because a good coach, and especially if I have, which mostly I do, people in business, they're not paying me to tell them what they wanna hear. And true coaching doesn't tell people anything. You just ask questions and listen.
But oftentimes in a business relationship, I, I'm kind of between, I say, okay, consultant hat. Are you open to insights? And then, or I'll ask a really hard question and one guy told me, I don't like you very much right now. And he laughed because I asked him a hard question. Yeah. I'm just doing my job.
But, but yeah, it is frustrating and a lot of 'em, that's why also one coaching session doesn't, it's better than no coaching sessions, but like I don't do anything under eight sessions. Okay. 'cause there's the person you're coaching goes away and they gotta think. You have work to do and ponder, and that's, so, if you were in that situation with a coach, they were a good coach if they got you frustrated, or if they keep asking you the same thing and then what? Well, I don't know.
When you started your coaching business, like you said at 67, there might be people out there who think, oh, well she started two businesses before. This is easy for her to step into this and to start a new business again on her own. So, she has been successful, so this'll be a piece of cake for her. When you started, did you feel that way? I mean, did you have inner voices that questioned you or were you if wanna say, yes, I got this. There's, I had no questions.
Oh, no. I had all those inner voices. We call 'em gremlins. I had all that and yeah, people have said, well, you, you started two companies. This is so different. In a way, I may have been better without any of that experience. So I had the confidence in stuff like setting up a company, but that stuff's easy. That's not the hard stuff.
The hard stuff, at least for me in this solopreneur, is promoting myself. And saying, I'm experienced. I'm worth the money. I can help you. I know I can if we're the right fit. That was hard for me, so I would not let like anybody, if they're looking at me saying, well, she did it, but I would say she did it in spite of her anxiety and imposter syndrome and self-doubts and lack of self-confidence, and I did it anyway. And stop concentrating on my age.
I mean that going into LinkedIn and then doing videos. Whew. I, that was so hard. But I didn't start with videos. And then a couple of mentors I had, they talked me into it and the first ones were just dreadful. I did like 10 takes and then they were still horrible. And now, now I do usually just one take. And I mean, I use, I do use a teleprompter for some of this stuff, but some I don't, and I don't know. Now I'm just like, well, this is me and now I'm 69 and I'm not trying to hide that like I am who I am.
I just wanna also point out that your account, your posts are fabulous. So anybody listening, you should make sure you link in and connect with Cathryn, 'cause they are, I mean they're very, if you wanna say introspective, they're personal, they're authentic, they're all of that. So I just encourage everybody to connect. Thank you so much. I did not start like that. There's so much. Anybody thinking about going into LinkedIn, just follow. I read everybody's post that I admired, so hopefully somebody reads mine and say, okay, well I wanna be authentic like her. But I read people's posts and I read the advice, free advice that the gurus give all the time. I printed it out.
Like, I think you asked me when we were talking like, how do you think of things to talk about and you're doing an awesome job. I loved the, your New Year's Eve. Oh, that was awesome. But I, I said, just use your life, you know? And that's what one of the gurus, Holly Joiner, she just said, she looks at her phone, looks at the pictures she took, or looks at her calendar and then remembers, oh. I talked to so and so and they said something interesting and then there's your post. So now I don't have any trouble, but I did. It was hard. And I've been, now it's almost two years. Yes, it takes a while.
How would I ask this? Let's see. Shifting from working in a company where you had staff, people all around, all of that, a lot of interaction, and now you are working outta your house. Not only are you working outta your house. Working like with nobody in sight of where you're working. Thats true. You step outside and you probably can't see any houses or whatever. No, I can't. So how have you adjusted to that and how do you find connection? Like I know for me is that 'cause I too work outta the house, but at least I have, I can see houses next to me. I have neighbors. Yeah. But I find that having made some connections on LinkedIn, for example, and having calls with people like that and joining various different type of maybe mastermind or groups has helped me. What have you done and how has that helped you get through it?
All the things you said? For sure. I try to have a connection call at least once a day. Now I'm getting to where Fridays I block off without any meetings or calls and then I can work. And joining the masterminds of this very smart, I joined the International Coaching Federation and their San Antonio chapter, it's an hour and a half away, San Antonio, but I joined that immediately. They asked me to be on the board, but that's been a blessing. Because it, so I have a community there and they're all coaches.
One thing I would say, and maybe you do this too Genell, but it was new to me, you know, working on my own is I am routine is very important to me. I get up at five or five 30 and I always start doing, uh, wordle, or I do a few and have coffee, I do to get my brain going. It makes me feel I have a little win, you know?
And then I am usually on my desk by seven or seven 30 doing LinkedIn. I spend half an hour to an hour connecting. If I post Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. So I'm answering that. I do that and that routine has helped me a lot. I throw exercise in there. I walk at least an hour a day on the ranch. And so it depends on the weather and all that. But in the summer I have to go really early 'cause it's so hot.
But it's that routine that I have to have. Something. If I'm just left on my own, la la, la then it doesn't work. I'm trying to get better at time blocking, like, I really want to write all my posts for the next week on Friday. Please let me do that. But, uh, I, I'm still not. I work through that same thing with time blocking. I have tried many different variations. I've gotten a little better, but it is a process to get through and to say, okay, I'm gonna focus on this right now, and if something else comes up, I generally would have a tendency to pivot and go, oh, squirrel. But I'm now getting much better of trying to devote like a day or whatever for writing, like you said or something.
Right?
Because it's once you get in that mindset, just from a brain perspective. Everything, it just flows more easily or 'cause you're not disrupted.
Yeah, true. And that's true with the creativity part.
So if I say I'm gonna write three posts and then my Sunday post is always something on the ranch, it's a video. And usually my Friday post is a video too. So, but you're right, if you're in that creative mode, you just keep going. But then there's the squirrel, like maybe you need to throw in a load of laundry? this is all very new to me 'cause I always worked in an office. Plus I wanna stand up and move around a little bit so, but it is, it's hard, but you, you can't emphasize enough what you said about the connections on LinkedIn and various groups. Mm-hmm. That's so important. And like, I love, now we're talking, we're messaging or I comment on your and stuff and I feel connected.
Right.
Even though I'm not with you, but I still feel the connection.
Yeah, I agree. So now I have a question that I plan to ask every guest on this podcast. Who has made a life pivot or is making a life pivot? How did you have to reinvent yourself to become the person you are today?
I think, and I've been asked that question before, and I don't think I reinvented so much as maybe rejuvenated parts of me that were always there, but they got stuffed in for various reasons. You're raising a family, starting the businesses, whatever, and then you get in that business routine. And so I think rejuvenate is more apt description about, so what I became now. So for example, the confidence that I didn't know I had lost until all of a sudden I did. And then that's back and even more because now I'm 69 years old and so I don't care as much as when I was 30, that guy over there didn't like my post or that that woman over there doesn't wanna be my friend or what? That stuff doesn't matter so much anymore. So that's what I mean about, it's like you could take those parts of you that you had and or even when you were a kid 'cause kids, they're not afraid of anything except the, the monsters under the bed or whatever. But I mean, they'll go, they'll try anything, you know, here, get on this scooter, and they just do, they go for it. Well, it kind of feels like that now. That's fun. Like video, I don't know how to do. Yeah. Or look at you. You're doing a podcast, but, well, so somebody says, oh, you ought to try, you know, Veed, it's an editing software. Okay. You know, I tried the free version and I bought it and look at me, i'm editing videos. You know, I mean, was it, was it pretty in the beginning? No, I was so slow and I, you should have heard my cursing, but at least I did it.
You know so, that's what I mean. I mean there, there, there's stuff in you that you probably haven't discovered yet that's gonna come back out and you're gonna be amazed. I look forward to that now. I love that word rejuvenated. I think that's great.
And I think this is my final question, but we'll see where this goes, but for the woman listening who feels, if you wanna say a pull towards something new, but maybe is questioning, am I brave enough? And she's maybe hearing that inner critic talking to her, what do you want her to know? What advice would you give her?
I'm gonna give her the advice that my keynote speech is about. Three things. The first one is to recognize opportunity, which means you have to open not just your eyes and your ears, but really your heart and your mind, because opportunities come a lot. This opportunity came to us. If I hadn't been open to it or Ray hadn't, then we wouldn't be here today. So recognize the opportunity.
Then the second part is recognize what's holding you back. And so that takes, you can use a coach, you can use a friend, you use yourself and say, what is, why am I afraid of this? What's holding me back? And really examine that and assess risks. I mean, I feel that's important. Some people are just gonna go for it, but we, we assess the risks. What's the worst that could happen? No, nobody's gonna die. Okay, then I'm gonna do it because that's our, like, if we hurt anybody then, then I'm not gonna do it. But nobody was gonna get hurt, so.
And then the third is the hardest part. And that's take action. You have to just do it. And that only you or the woman asking this question can pull that out after you saw an opportunity that you didn't even know was there, and then you thought about, okay, what's holding me back? Oh, I think I'm not smart enough. Really, well, let me do a little research on this. It's like LinkedIn. I didn't think I was good enough to put posts on LinkedIn. Then I started reading a lot of posts. I could do that, right? I mean, I no diss on any, everybody writes their own way, but. How hard is that? And so what if I write a bad post? And, and I did. I did write bad posts.
So it's those three things and you can get help along every step of the way. And accountability is always a good thing. One thing I did is I told anybody who would listen, I told the whole world, we're moving to the ranch and I'm gonna sell the house. I told everybody, 'cause once you start talking about it, you're like, well, I guess I better do it. Yep. That happened to me. And a couple things too, is as soon as I told somebody else, I'm like. Now I'm committed. I have to do this. 'cause the cat's outta the bag. Yeah. Like telling somebody, well, I'm gonna lose weight.
You know? Really? You told me that last year and well, how'd that work out? You know, no, this time I'm really gonna do it. You know? So you, you have that accountability. Yeah. And it's okay. There's no shame in that. You know, I, I think everybody needs a, a little push, a little encouragement. Oh, for sure. We do.
And there's no shame in that. So also I used you know, every resource that I could, like, again, anybody who would listen, and my friend Sue here on the ranch, she hooked me up, said, you should talk to this person. She's a coach. Okay.
Yeah. I think it's so important when you're starting out with something new or just anytime really that to ask for help. There's nothing wrong about asking for help because I think many people who have become successful didn't get there on their own. They got there with the help and support of others.
It did. I think it's a good point you make that there's, there's no shame in asking for help, but a lot of times we don't want to, and depends on where you came from and what working world you came from. But if you worked with a lot of men, for example, asking for help, a woman asking for help makes you look weak. I mean, I was, I had my own companies, but I was with a larger group and a couple of the guys told me many times that I was too nice. My leadership style was too nice. So, you know what? I don't agree with that today and I didn't agree with it then.
So people will tell you all sorts of stuff, but yeah, use, use every resource that you have, anybody that, that you think can help you. And I offer that. I love talking to people about they're thinking, about doing something and if they get one tip from me, awesome.
Well, this conversation I know has been for me is such a powerful reminder that reinvention does not have an expiration date, and you are proof of that and that confidence as you have done, can be rebuilt really at any stage when you're willing to listen to, when we, I should say, are willing to listen to ourselves. And ask for and seek out help and support, actually, just like we were talking about.
But before we wrap up, what is the best way for listeners to connect with you and learn more about your work?
Best way would be LinkedIn and if my name is spelled, I don't know if you're gonna put some subtitles. So just look me up on LinkedIn and then send a DM if you want. I mean, I have an email too, and you know, I'd be happy to share that too, but that's such an easy way to find me and then DM me and say, could we set up a call? Whatever, whatever they need. If they want coaching, of course I'm happy to do that too. But there's lots of ways. But LinkedIn is the fastest.
So I'll be, just so everyone knows, I'll be sure to include Cathryn's website, maybe a LinkedIn profile. If you want email, I can put that in there too, so that you have a way to connect with her. And to everyone listening, if you are ready to stop wondering what's next and start living, I encourage you to reach out to Cathryn.
This conversation is your reminder that it's not too late, you're not behind, and your unlived life might be waiting for you. So thank you so much, Cathryn, for sharing your inspiring story and thanks to everyone for listening to the RenewHer podcast. Thanks,Genell.. Thank you. And until next time, keep choosing curiosity, courage, and the next right step forward.
Thanks so much everyone, and again, thanks Cathryn. I loved our conversation.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of RenewHer. If today's conversation sparks something in you, don't let it fade. Take even a small step toward what's next. If you've found value in what you heard, please subscribe, leave a review or share this podcast with a woman who's ready to take her next bold step. Together we're building a community of strong, resilient women navigating what's next with courage and purpose. Until next time, stay energized and keep embracing what's possible.