Embracing Wisdom and Crafting New Scripts in Our Golden Years

In this episode of 'Seasoned Women, Serious Business,' host Isabel Alexander, a seasoned entrepreneur, welcomes women aged 45 to 75 and beyond to explore and celebrate the richness of their lives and businesses. Highlighting the importance of collective wisdom, collaboration, and dismissing outdated paradigms, Isabel and her co-host Jackie Wszalek share unfiltered insights on finding joy, overcoming past obstacles, flipping traditional scripts, and creating meaningful new chapters. They emphasize the freedom to write one's own life script, whether it involves starting a new business, spending time with family, or pursuing personal dreams. The episode, filled with humor and personal reflections, encourages women to embrace their age and life experiences, and to view life’s milestones through a lens of growth and opportunity. Additionally, it introduces a playful segment inspired by the 'Hokey Pokey' song, symbolizing the joy of stepping into greatness.

00:00 Introduction to Seasoned Women, Serious Business

01:26 Meet the Hosts: Isabel and Jackie

02:02 Challenging Age Stereotypes

02:43 Celebrating Milestones and Wisdom

04:23 Unexpected Moments and Laughter

05:29 Sponsor Message: Crossroads Clarity Solution

06:25 Embracing Joy and Overcoming Obstacles

07:13 Reflecting on Life's Journey

10:23 Writing Your Own Script

13:30 Flipping the Script

17:20 Stepping into Greatness

18:57 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Jackie Wszalek is a curious community activist, grandma, wife, yogi and peace seeker.  Seasoned business owners committed to sharing "lessons learned, lessons lived" while advocating for small business success.

About the Host:

 

Isabel Alexander

Your Next Business Strategist and Transformation Catalyst

 Isabel Alexander's journey from modest beginnings to global recognition epitomizes entrepreneurial resilience and innovation. With over five decades of experience spanning diverse industries, she has become a driving force in shaping economic landscapes worldwide. Noteworthy accomplishments include founding a multimillion-dollar global chemical wholesale business and earning accolades such as Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women.

As a mentor and advocate, Isabel empowers women entrepreneurs through initiatives like the Lift As You Climb Movement and podcasts, guiding them from startup to maturity. Serving as Chief Encore Officer of The Encore Catalyst, she dedicates herself to coaching and educating emerging entrepreneurs. Her involvement in organizations like RenegadesReinventing.com and Femme on Fire underscores her commitment to leadership and business development.

Additionally, Isabel's advisory roles with government bodies and trade associations, such as Chair of the Canadian Association of Importers & Exporters, highlight her influence in shaping trade policies and fostering international relations.

Driven by her mantra, "Lift As You Climb," Isabel embodies the ethos of mutual growth and empowerment. With dual citizenship in Canada and the United States, she values her extensive family and embraces global connections through travel and professional engagements. Isabel Alexander's narrative serves as a beacon of inspiration, illustrating how visionary leadership and strategic advising can drive global entrepreneurship and economic independence forward.

Founder:

The Encore Catalyst Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/TheEncoreCatalyst )

and

Chief Encore Officer, The Encore Catalyst (www.theencorecatalyst.com) – an accelerator for feminine wisdom, influence, and impact.

also

Author & Speaker ‘Who Am I Now? – Feminine Wisdom Unmasked Uncensored’ https://whoaminowbook.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelannalexander/

 

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If you have questions about this episode, please send me an email at Hello@TheEncoreCatalyst.com

 

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Crossroads Clarity Solution

Speaker: 00:00:06

Welcome to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, the podcast for entrepreneurs

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aged 45 to 75 and beyond who've changed lives, challenged status

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quo, who are wise enough to want more and gutsy enough to create it.

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Join me, your host, Isabel Alexander, a seasoned business owner, as I

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serve up the Knowledge and best practices for life and business,

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along with unfiltered wisdom from other women entrepreneurs and leaders.

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Whether you're looking to reignite your passion for your business,

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unlock new ones that build your legacy or simply shake your head at the

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folly of underestimating ourselves.

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You are in the right place.

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We're serious about business.

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And we're serious about loving the life that we've worked hard to create.

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Stay tuned and be part of a community built on collaboration and collective

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wisdom that dismisses old paradigms and celebrates vibrant women just like you

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and our limitless potential at every age.

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//web.descript.com/b961cf36-43d2-426c-b4dd-28f0d479279f

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: You can call us the Bright Sisters

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here with this lighting here.

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We don't, we still haven't solved that, but whatever.

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If you have not already watched the inaugural Sofa Series episode, make

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sure you go back one and Jackie Wazolik and Isabel Alexander, two DOBs, we'll

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explain what the hell we're doing here.

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And why we feel so passionate about spending this time with you.

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Because

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we had an idea that maybe we were on to something.

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Yeah.

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That old age, has been misrepresented possibly, misconstrued, and that we

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would like to share our perspective on I guess we could say we're not

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getting older, we're getting better.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: And really sincerely mean that.

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It's not a platitude.

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It's not on my t shirts.

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Especially right now, because just a few days from when this is

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being recorded, I will celebrate, and celebrate, my 70th birthday.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: which is the

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: best, right?

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What does it feel like to be 70?

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I'm just gobsmacked.

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I'll be honest with you.

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This is Not what the young girl in me, who still, she's still screaming

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and kicking to get out, I gotta tell you, but this is not what she thought.

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I had this idea in my mind, based on the role models that I had in

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my life of my grandmother and my aunts that I would be Quieter.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: That's never going to happen, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, and I think I thought I'd be done

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done doing anything significant.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Oh, hell.

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We've only just begun, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Now we have the time, the space, and the wisdom

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to do some pretty important things.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, and wisdom is a two pronged thing.

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There's the wisdom to do things, and there's the wisdom to go, oh, fuck it,

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I can't ever do that again, yeah, right?

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Oh my god.

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I know, that was the second

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: time again,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Isabel.

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I'm just, yeah, it's the craziest.

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Maybe it's the punctuation in my life.

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Yeah, it's setting the remote on fire.

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This is happening, guys, but if you are watching this on YouTube,

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you will know why we are bursting spontaneously into giggles.

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Because the lighting is going off and on and we are not touching anything.

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And if you are listening to this on audio, because of course,

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we are in all the best places.

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You, oh my God, there you go.

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Wow.

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Swear to God.

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This is too funny.

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Okay.

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So why would we want to be serious, right?

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We are not retiring wallflowers.

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Obviously.

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And some might say that we are pretty admirable role models and trailblazers.

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This is too strange what's going on with Zoom here as we're recording this.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: You have light coming out of your mouth.

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I have it shining from my headlight.

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Oh,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: good lord.

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We will be right back after a brief message from our sponsors.

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This episode of Seasoned Women, Serious Business is brought to you

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by Crossroads Clarity Solution.

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As promised, we are back with this episode, because you

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are wise enough to want more.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I hope that we can keep this sense of childish joy forever,

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because he would want the alternative.

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Oh,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: absolutely.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I know you have had some rough obstacles in your life.

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I certainly have too.

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We've had enough serious moments.

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We've had enough tears and fears.

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Oh, all

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: of

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: the above.

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If you haven't, we've lived.

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Thank you.

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Thank you for that.

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That's right, because if none of that happened, we'd just be plastic people.

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Yeah, it wouldn't be fun.

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Yeah, and it's because that we know that you can get through those things, and that

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you can choose how to look back over your shoulder and take the perspective, the

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wisdom of those things that, We're pretty glad to be able to share that with other

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people, particularly with other women.

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: and especially as we reach this time of life where we

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do have some time to reflect, right?

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We have some time to think about, huh, how did that ever happen?

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And every once in a while, I still wake up in the middle of

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the night with one of those things that I thought I was over, right?

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But obviously not.

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And so it's, where did that come from and how do I get rid of this and resolve it?

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I'm so glad you said that because I thought it was just me.

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Oh gosh, no.

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That's crazy.

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I think I'm sailing through and doing okay and then middle of the night

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wake up with a thought or I don't know if it's a dream or if it's energy

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that's still stuck in here somewhere.

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Who knows, but.

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Wow,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: that's so interesting to know that because

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I honestly I thought what is wrong with you Isabel, why are you, did

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you even think about that again?

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: why would that matter anymore?

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And some of them are old, yeah, old wounds, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Absolutely, old wounds, old

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moments of oh shit, yeah, right?

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And old, even old Loaf.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Those moments of experience.

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So this is all so good to be able to talk openly and share Yeah, I know.

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I just saw it again too, like what the hell?

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I think there is other energy present with us that wants to share too, right?

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Maybe we're getting some high fives or something, I don't know.

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Okay Jackie.

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What did you have thoughts about what it would be like to be in your seventies?

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: I didn't accept that.

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I had just, I thought I would be retired and a business sold and all

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kinds of things, and I hit the 70 mark going, I should be retired by now.

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I should be, I . All the shoulds started popping up and for me that was

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probably the biggest, obstacle, you might call it, that just said, I had

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to get over the fact that, so what?

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It's just another year.

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I've come this far.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Did you take that was a failure?

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That you pretty

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: much, that it was almost a my goodness, by now

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this should have happened, right?

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And I think I lived with that.

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in my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, right?

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But those decade marks to not view it as a failure, took a little bit of, oh my

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god, the old habits are coming back again.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I'm thinking right now that, yeah, we had these

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sort of paradigms set up for ourselves based on the societal script.

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That we were raised with.

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And so it was like, you had to check off.

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Check off the box.

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Those milestones.

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What I think is happening here is that, wait a second, that script,

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throw that out, get rid of that.

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Yeah, we, because it's not a failure, it's just, it's an entirely new script.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: It's just a different script.

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And I say, you have plan A, plan B, I felt at that moment in time.

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I was on Plan Z and running out of alphabet,

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: maybe.

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There are other alphabets, right?

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: So I don't know if you've had that experience

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as you come upon this year or if you're at such a place that you're

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very comfortable with what's 70.

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And, I've lost, a lot of friends in the last few years.

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The last few years have been a season of loss, right?

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And so how do you stay resilient, bright, still good with

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all of that happening also?

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And so my yoga practice has been my greatest grounding in you stand balanced,

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you stand whatever those waves are.

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that come crashing at you, you stand in your greatness, right?

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I hope you experience that as you turn this big old milestone.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I I think, I never seem to be the right age.

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Throughout my entire life according to the check boxes.

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Yeah, because I was a very young teen mom.

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I was working and running people's businesses where the people were 30

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years older than me that I was managing.

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I just did I was always, out of conformity, not intentionally

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thinking that was to defiance, it was life circumstances.

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But when you were talking, it also came to me that, okay, we're saying to everybody

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it's a new day, it's a new script.

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But even more important, I think, Jackie, is that Everybody writes their own script.

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Yeah,

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: absolutely.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, so if you want to retire and you have a

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whatever your desire is for that's, we're not saying that's not right.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: No, you can work till you're 90 or 100.

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If you're loving what you're doing and it feeds your soul, go for it, man.

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And I didn't even Think about that until we just started talking about it.

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But I think at that age, it became a point of, whew, I'm done.

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I've done this for a long time and I'm ready.

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So yes, it's flipping the script always, right?

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And that's maybe what we're here for.

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How do we flip that script?

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I like it.

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I like that a lot

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: because

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: the light

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: switches are flipping.

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So let's flip the script.

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Let too flip the script.

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Yeah.

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What?

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Let's do that and we'd like you to help.

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Yeah, let's toss it up.

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What could it be Like, what if you just said, oh, I got nothing in here to follow.

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I'm gonna write my own script.

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What would you choose?

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And whether that is that you want to devote all your time to your

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grandchildren and ensuring that they know you and that's your legacy, high five.

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Because we both love our grandchildren.

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If you want to go track the Himalayas or the Himalayas, whichever way it's

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said, as a recent guest on the podcast has done, that's your thing too.

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If you want to start a brand new business, which there are so many of us in our 70s

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and 80s doing so And I have a whole theory on why that makes a lot of sense, but

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we'll talk about that in another episode.

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Whatever it is that you want to do, get married, have an affair, cut your

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hair, dye your hair, it is totally open.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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And I think this is the season to do that.

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We can lose our self consciousness.

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We can give ourselves grace.

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We can understand that we've got this.

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huge ball of stuff that we can flip into a script that works for us.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: I'm pretty excited about this.

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I like it.

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Just thinking back, if you took every single moment, experience, learning,

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skill, strength, oh, fuck, that hurt.

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Yeah.

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And you go, all right, let's just lay those all out end to end.

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What do they.

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What do they mean?

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What's the story?

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What's the character that's developed?

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What's the role I want to play next?

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And you don't, you're never ever starting from scratch.

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Because you're starting from experience.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah, how beautiful is that, right?

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: That's nice.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

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Okay.

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Because our lighting is getting even sillier.

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We leave it upon you that and really encourage you.

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Reach out and share your thoughts with us.

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And, hey, propose some more topics for us to discuss because if you haven't gathered

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yet, you're pretty transparent people.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: And we think it's a mission.

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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And we enjoy each other's company so much because we're able to talk about

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things that maybe we don't always share.

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And yeah.

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It's just nice to be this age and I welcome you into the 70s.

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Get our disco ball.

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I've

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: been playing on YouTube music, 60s and 70s music and

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dancing here and thinking, oh my gosh, truth is, I didn't always feel this great.

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I just had a hip replacement a couple months ago, and before that, I felt

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like I was a pretty crotchety old lady, and wasn't as much fun as I knew.

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And pain will do that to you, right?

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Pain will do it.

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So it's

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: getting out of pain, finding those joyous moments,

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and finding a sense of humor.

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This week I was at a a day of celebration, and I was asked to speak

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about stepping into our greatness.

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And so what I shared with the audience, and I'll share it with

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you really quick, because when we quiet down and listen to the

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whispers of our heart, And the echoes of our soul.

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We know what we want.

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We know what we need to make us feel good, right?

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And we also know from really young age, we learned a lot.

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One of the things we learned was Stepping into greatness takes putting your left

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foot in, putting your left foot out, putting your left foot in, shake it all

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about, and the real joy of that is, the last line of that is, put your whole

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self in, put your whole self out, put your whole self in, you shake it all

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about, you do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around, because folks,

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That's what it's really all about.

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Oh

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: my god!

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That is the perfect!

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Let's learn ourself

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Jackie Wszalek, DOB: about today and figure out what that script is

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for the next decade of our lives.

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I'm dying to get up and dance.

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Isabel Alexander, DOB: All right, you just hokey pokey yourself around and

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come on back and join us because I have a feeling this is going to be contagious.

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Bye.

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Bye.

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Thank you for spending your time with us today on Seasoned Women, Serious Business.

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We really value you and are thrilled to be part of your journey.

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If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to the channel and then share it

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with other women who would receive value.

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transcribed format on all major platforms.

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Now, if you'd like to share your wisdom or become a co host or a

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show sponsor, please reach out to me at hello at theencorecatalyst.

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com or visit our website, seasonedwomenseriousbusiness.

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com.

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Also, I'd appreciate it if you submit questions and suggestions for future

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topics and guest experts to interview.

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Let's lift as we climb, magnify our impact, and create more

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for ourselves and others.

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Until next time, keep thriving, keep vibing, and keep living your legacy.