Old Chicks Know Sh*t Podcast

You're going to love today's episode. It's a hilarious conversation with 77-year-old Hollywood actress Mariann Aalda who appeared in many popular 1980’s television shows. She shares her journey of realizing that she was being “Aged out" of her 30 year Hollywood career when the phone suddenly stopped ringing. But that didn't stop Mariann. She has since gone on to create, produce and star in several one-woman comedy acts about the experience of aging as a woman in our society. Her mission is all about empowering women to stand in their power no matter what age. 

We chatted about how we have been hypnotized and conditioned by the media and how that has translated into negative self talk about this time of life.

There are so many hilarious one-liners from Mariann in this conversation. Get ready to have a great laugh.

Here is the link to her Ted Talk we mentioned titled "Ageism Is a Bully...Stand Up to It!"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcP4UxY_Q9o&feature=youtu.be

In the 1980s Mariann Aalda was a daytime television pioneer as one of the first - and still few - African-American daytime soap opera heroines, playing the feisty young criminal defence attorney, DiDi Bannister, on ABC’s EDGE OF NIGHT. Today, at 72 — after being “aged out” of Hollywood after a successful 30-year career in television, she’s blazing new trails...prosecuting ageism!

You can find her on Instagram  @mariannaaldathecronecrusader

This episode is focused on all things career and I have a fabulous conversation with Amber Beam who is a Midlife Career Coach.

Amber loves what she does and her energy is infectious! She helps us to open our mind and look at our career and skillsets in a whole different way.

We review the #1 factor for job satisfaction and how it helps make you happier in your career but also in your life as well. Amber provides tips for finding your 'secret sauce' and offers a free resource to help you discover yours. Another valuable piece we discuss is the difference between your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) versus your 'selling sauce'.

Have you ever thought about the 'Opportunity Cost' of staying in the role you are currently in, even though it isn't lighting your fire anymore? Amber gets the wheels turning and helps us shed a light on the vast possibilities available to midlife women.

Amber provides some really useful tips on how to make a change of career without starting over or taking a pay cut. She works with midlife women every day to help them love what they do and get compensated appropriately.

This book was referenced in the podcast: How Women Rise by Sally Haelgesen

Here is the freebie Amber mentioned at the end of the podcast for her 'Complete Roadmap to Advancing Your Career in Good Times and Bad' - amberbeam.com/results

Want to learn more about Amber?

Amber’s mission is to eradicate soul-sucking jobs everywhere! With 15 years in HR as an I-O Psychologist, she’s seen it all! Now she’s throwing back the curtain to reveal what you really need to know to win-over sceptics in HR.

She shatters the “it’s too late” and “I don’t think I have enough experience” myths to show women over 40 how to cash-in on decades of experience and launch a soul-mate career that makes a difference and pays the bills!

Her proven coaching programs and courses have helped tons of talented women score five-figure raises and “Summer Fridays” year-round. Her greatest achievement is hearing clients say, “now I look forward to going to work!”

Her website is: www.amberbeam.com

Connect with her on Facebook @withAmberBeam or on Instagram @withAmberBeam

Today’s podcast is all about how centuries of historical and societal conditioning has impacted how midlife women are perceived in our culture and how we think about ourselves.   I chat with Melanie Klein who is a professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies and a respected thought leader in the areas of self-acceptance, body confidence and empowerment.    We have an amazing conversation about confidence, respect, invisibly and how we find empowerment in this time of life. We also discuss the astonishing statistics about the female image, aging and associated messaging that is so prevalent in our social media culture and how that impacts us through menopause and beyond.   Melanie shares the historical context for why we as women often fear our power and how getting out of our intellect and into the ‘feeling’ helps to us to reclaim it and take full ownership of all that we are and all that we are becoming as we age.   It's a fascinating conversation that sheds so much light on how we got to where we are and how we shift the narratives and perspectives moving forward.    I hope you enjoy this as much I did. Let me know what you thought.    Melanie C. Klein, M.A., is a sought-after empowerment coach and respected thought leader in the areas of authentic empowerment, radical self-acceptance and super-charged confidence. She is also a successful writer, speaker, and Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies. Based on over two decades of professional and personal work, Melanie integrates her backgrounds in mindfulness and embodied wisdom with her academic expertise and advocacy work. In this way, she offers a holistic and unique pathway to personal freedom and prosperity, one that is customized to each individual. melaniecklein.com/       You can find Melanie on Instagram at melmelklein or on her website at www.melaniecklein.com  

Are you a middle-aged woman sandwiched between taking care of your kids and your aging parent(s)? With many of us having kids later in life we find ourselves in what’s known as 'the sandwich generation’. And the demands can feel overwhelming.

In today's episode, I speak with Karen Faith Gordon, a gerontologist and elder care advocate about how to navigate the demands of this time of life.

We discuss how the older generation is really struggling during the current pandemic and how to help them manage their fear. Karen provides some great tips on how to provide support during this time

She shares how it is important to recapture the relationship of being a daughter, while still being the caregiver, and explains how to process the feelings of guilt, overwhelm and even grief that arises to create an open and honest dialogue. This can feel especially challenging when many of our parents come from a generation of suppressing emotions. 

As a  yoga teacher, Karen talks about the benefits that yoga brings to her elderly clients and how it can support them in the aging process. 

If you find yourself as part of the sandwich generation then this is one episode you won’t want to miss.

Karen Faith Gordon helps individuals and families address issues of aging through mental health/grief counselling, patient advocacy, care coordination, real estate and placement guidance to address short and long term care needs, and adaptive yoga for optimal well being. To learn more about Karen visit her website at https://karenfaith.llc/

How do you talk to yourself about the way your body is aging?

In today's episode, I have a beautiful conversation with Lorraine Ladish about body image at middle age and beyond.

Lorraine shares her personal story about struggling with eating disorders and body image at a young age and how she overcame it in midlife. She now has a strong relationship and love for her body and provides tips on how you can too. We talk about a recent blog post  where she shares photos from an 'honest' photo shoot and how one of the 'real' photos went viral. Here is a link to the blog post we referred to: https://www.vivafifty.com/over-50-birthday-photoshoot-lorraine-ladish-13313/ We talk about how an aging body is perceived in the media and how the perception is a 'learned behaviour' and that we 'allow' ourselves to 'believe' certain things that work against us. Lorraine shares some practical optimism about this that you are going to want to hear.  Lorraine has fully claimed her power at midlife and is a true inspiration. We also talk about the fear of aging in our culture and how we all have a responsibility to provide positive education and inspiration to younger women about aging. 

Lorraine is a 21st. Century Communicator, helping empower women and others to achieve their goals. She is the founder and CEO of Viva Fifty! a bilingual community that celebrates being 50+. She's worked as an editor and social media coordinator for a number of online publications. She is a content creator and regular contributor to NBCNews, Huffpost, AARP, Babycenter and Mom.me. Lorraine has contributed to People en Español, La Palma of The Palm Beach Post,  Purple Clover, Latina magazine and Redbook . Her latest book on embracing age was published by HarperCollins in 2017.    But most of all Lorraine is a woman, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a writer, an entrepreneur, a yogini.

Have you ever dreamed about starting your own business, but you tell yourself you’re too old, it's too late or you don’t have what it takes. Sound familiar? 

  In this episode, I chat with Colleen Kochannek who is the creator of the Scrappy Frontier, a community built specifically to support women over 50 who are starting businesses. We talk about how to overcome the limiting beliefs, Self-trust and why we are afraid to dream big.  Colleen also shares the #1 reason that holds midlife women back from starting their businesses along with '3 old school skills’ that give women over 50 a massive advantage in business (click here for the link to the blog post we referred to).   This is a fun conversation that will give you a whole new appreciation of the power of women over 50 to start and run successful businesses.   Colleen Kochannek started her first online business after getting laid off from a near 3-decade long corporate career when she was almost 50.   The experience of having her own business was more incredible than she could have imagined, changing her life forever.   After ‘figuring out’ the online entrepreneurship game Colleen launched her second business - The Scrappy Frontier -  where she mentors other women from the typewriter generation to become successful first-time laptop entrepreneurs.   Colleen states, "I believe every woman over 50 should have the opportunity to start her own online business so that she can write an amazing future for the next half of her life.”   Her website is www.scrappyfrontier.com

Are you letting your soul take the lead?  Or are you stuck in the pattern of allowing your mind to take control and not living the life you desire?

In this episode, I talk to Soul Alignment Coach, Lisa Berkovitz about how to let your inner knowing lead the way to your purpose. Lisa share’s her story of how she went from a successful career in corporate to becoming a soul-aligned leadership coach for business owners and executives where she teaches them how to lead from their inner knowing to step into the heart of their purpose and create their true Life's Work at the highest level.

We talk about discovering your soul's truth, quieting the mind, navigating fear, surrendering and learning to trust when your soul is in the driver's seat.  This is such a great conversation to listen to if you’re hearing the nudges but having trouble trusting or if you’re feeling stuck about to go next in your life or find your purpose. 

You can learn more about Lisa’s work on her website at http://lisaberkovitz.com/

Do you ever say nasty things to yourself? Things that you would never ever dream of saying someone else?  That’s  your Inner mean girl talking. And she can be a real b*tch sometimes. If you’ve ever seen the movie Mean Girls you know exactly how destructive she can be.

 

In this episode I talk all about the inner mean girl with master coach and author  of “Reform Your Inner Mean Girl’, Amy Ahlers. We chat about  why we do this to ourselves and also about the 13 inner mean girl archetypes. Some of them are quite sneaky. You may not even see how they are holding you back.  Through her work as CEO of Wake Up Call coaching, Amy ’s mission to stop women from self-bullying and being so darn hard on themselves so they can step fully into their lives  as the leaders they are. 

 

Check the link in my bio for the Inner Mean Girl Archetype Quiz to find out which one a ruling your life. 

 

Amy Ahlers is a master women’s leadership and life coach, keynote speaker, and the bestselling author of Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves and Reform Your Inner Mean Girl. Amy is on a mission to STOP women from self-bullying and being so darn hard on themselves so they can make their greatest possible contribution. 

 

She’s the host of the celebrated Amy Ahlers Show podcast, she has been a featured keynote speaker on stages at places like  Google and Oracle and has appeared on countless TV and radio shows. Amy wholeheartedly believes it’s time for women to claim their seat at the leadership table.

 

Take the Inner Mean Girl Archetype Quiz  at www.freeinnermeangirlquiz.com

On today’s podcast we’re talking about having the courage to face your truth, especially at midlife. Often, our fear and old programming holds us back from living the life of our dreams. Midlife is an excellent time to awaken to your own unique personal truth. In this episode, Helen Xenidis talks about coasting through life until a pivotal moment in 2009 which changed her life and started the next part of her journey. She explains how she began to open up to herself and that at age 44 she was reborn and stopped being a product of what others wanted her to be. Helen has some amazing wisdom that you are going to want to hear for yourself. You’ll walk away with several quotes that you are going to want to write down and post on your wall so you don’t forget them. “Let’s embrace who we are and shift our energy into who we’re becoming.” “Midlife is only a crisis if you miss the awakening”. You’ll stay in crisis mode until you’re ready for the awakening. Helen is a woman on a mission to empower women to owning their own life and dreams. Helen has a successful career as an insurance broker. Her goal is to always create the best individual “safety net” that enables her clients to live their lives and dreams without worry and uncertainty. Today, in addition to her corporate life, Helen is excited about being a model of possibility for women entering midlife and menopause. Follow her on Instagram @helenxenidis Here is a link to her video on Speaker Slam that was mentioned in the podcas https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=211792523589650

On today’s podcast we’re talking about money.  People either love it or hate it but the one thing we all agree on is that it’s a necessary tool for life. 

What often comes up, and holds people back from making big  midlife shifts is fear of not having enough money, so in this episode  I talk with Agnes Kowalski,  a brilliant money mindset coach all about how our money mindset determines our thoughts, feelings and belief systems around our  finances. We talk about money as energy and dig into how things like grief, codependency and subconscious programming  impact our money story. 

Aggie shares how true alignment with ourselves is key to achieving the confidence and financial success we desire. Such an amazing  conversation!! I walked away with quite a few great insights and aha’s from this conversation.  I hope you do too.

 

Agnes Kowalski is a money mindset coach with 15+ years of experience studying patterns and alignment in people, originally as a therapist. She has  studied thousands of behavioural patterns to develop a unique method to Money Mindset Coaching.  Agnes has coached entrepreneurs, real estate agents, healers, artists, actors and many other service providers to break through income ceilings and create a new money reality for themselves.

https://agneskowalski.com/