Each month, I gather up the best conversations with women over 40 doing remarkable things, the ideas fueling our courage, and what I can’t get enough of right now.
Hey, Uplifters!
Last year at our Uplifters retreat, we carried on our annual tradition of creating vision boards. We spend the weeks leading up to the retreat distilling our ideas for the future and what we’ve learned from the prior year to ensure the things we put on our boards focus, energize, and stretch us.
I had three focus areas on my vision board.
✨Health: reimagine my self-care habits to match my midlife body, and release the things that worked for my 20- and 30-year-old self to make space for what works now.
✨Family: celebrate 20 years of marriage with Andy, support Sav through the college transition, help Derby get settled into new routines.
✨Work: book and give a TED talk, write a book I’m really proud of.
Looking back at that board now, nine months later, is honestly a little bonkers. One girlie is in college. The other was cast in her school play this week. Andy and I have a trip planned in October to celebrate the anniversary. I’m feeling stronger than I have in years and am participating in the first-ever Super Age Games in November. I finished writing my book last week, and I feel really proud of it because it’s good (that’s fun to say) and because I know it’s a book only I could have written, with the roots of my foremothers’ stories, my research, my community, my gifts, and my experiences. I’m giving a TED talk on October 7 about how midlife is a time for genius because it’s when many of us stop the BS stuff we were conditioned to do and start doing the things only we can do (you know, like writing this book!).
Someone asked me yesterday if vision boards actually work. Here’s my honest answer. The board itself doesn’t do anything. It’s paper and glue. The magic is in spending the time to get really clear on what you actually want, clear enough that it excites you enough to go after it with focus and vigor. The board is just an anchor. It’s there to remind you not to get distracted by the interference of shiny objects, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s there to remind you how energized you felt when you were brave enough to say what you really wanted.
If you want to do that work for yourself, we have 4 spots left for this year’s retreat. More info HERE.
September on the Podcast: New Beginnings
Maybe you’re deep in the back-to-school, clean slate, who am I becoming mode, even if nobody in your house is actually going back to school.
September’s episodes are all about new beginnings. We kicked things off talking about ending the last thing well, because that’s the first step to starting the next thing.
Lift & Be Lifted Recap
One of my favorite parts of this community is watching what happens when a room full of midlife women introduce themselves and ask for what they need. Here’s who showed up last month’s Lift & Be Lifted, and how you can support them.
Nia Bonson runs Mavenhood Society, a media platform and community for midlife childfree and childless women and their empty-nester sisters. Through their digital magazine, weekly newsletter, and Substack, they cover money, career, relationships, health, style, and culture, all from a midlife point of view. I am honored that Nia has invited me to be a facilitator for their first live event in NYC event on September 24.
Melanie Cohen is a clutter coach, physical, digital, mental, emotional, all of it, and hosts the podcast Lighten Up: The Art of Living Clutter-Free. She runs a 3-month group experience, 30-day challenges with daily prompts, and monthly live declutter sessions. If you know a woman who feels overwhelmed, but might not use the word “clutter” to describe it, send her to Melanie. thoughtfullycoaching.com
Jess Kaplan is an actor, writer, and host of Nopes and Dreams, a podcast about rejection and normalizing failure in creative fields. She just started her book proposal and is craving accountability for her writing practice, plus help getting the podcast out into the world on social. She’s based in Miami. nopesanddreamspodcast.com
Tracy Siri needs art submissions for the Art Enclosure Contest she built for a local animal sanctuary. Kids draw the art, winners go up on the animal enclosures, votes are $1 donations. Zero cost to submit. Get your kids, nieces, nephews, and art-teacher friends involved. https://alpine-acres-enclosure-art-contest
Adena Artale is an actor, writer, and IT sales rep in the middle of a big transition. Her sister’s cancer diagnosis cracked something open in her, and she’s been pouring herself into a book about what she wants for her children’s future. She needs external motivation and community to keep going when the pull between corporate life and creative life gets heavy. imdb.com
Karey Edwards spent 25 years as an operations executive and is now a stained glass artist. She’s developed stained glass privacy panels that slide into a metal channel on window frames, requiring no permanent install, making them swappable by season. She also designs the full hospitality wrapper around events, communications, visuals, flowers, music, gifts, everything that makes guests feel like they matter. Looking for connections to community organizers, workshop hosts, corporate offsite planners, architects, and interior designers. She’s also looking to connect with anyone who has worked with a specialty package designer they recommend as she creates custom packaging to ship her work. kareyedwards.com/
Tara Thurber runs Defined Talent, fractional HR and leadership development for small businesses, and is also a life and professional coach. This year has been brutal for her. Her ask was simple: positive energy. definedtalent.com, tarathurber.com
Nina Saporta is a web developer relaunching as Wild Bloom Websites, which went live the day she introduced herself to us. She’s a single mom of three trying to make a decade of web work into something sustainable. She needs clients, referrals, and advice. wildbloomwebsites.com
Gabriella Caracappa just graduated with a film and television degree, with a background in photography, video, audio, social, and Canva. She’s looking for freelance work, project based or ongoing, in the New York and New Jersey area or remote, though she’s open to moving. If you need help with your podcast presence, Instagram content, or video editing, she’s your person. linkedin.com
And an urgent one. Gita Vallenki, the founder of Neeshi, had her listings pulled from Amazon last month over a filing issue from one of her labs. She has spent years building this brand, and losing 80% of her subscriptions could mean the end of it. If you’re a subscriber, please resubscribe directly at neeshi.com. If you have creative ideas for navigating the Amazon issue, reach out to Gita at hello@shopneeshi.com.
Want in on conversations like these? Become a paid subscriber and you’re in for monthly Lift & Be Lifted calls, weekly Co-Working Cocoons, and our group chat, where a lot of this connecting happens in between the big moments.
Around the Community
For the first time in 70 years the best women baseball players in the world are competing on a professional stage. The WPBL named Alli Schroder captain of the Boston team! Alli is a professional baseball player and a Canadian wildfire firefighter in the off-season. I write about her in the book and interviewed her back in episode 86.
I also spent an afternoon at Trudyfest, honoring Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, who trained in the waters of my small town before her historic 1926 swim, beating the men’s world record by nearly two hours in the process. I met Trudy’s niece, along with HannaH Hubert Executive Director of the Trudy Ederle Foundation, and a remarkable midlife woman who swam the Channel herself on the anniversary of Trudy’s original swim. We’ve started working on an audio documentary to tell her story on The Uplifters. Stay tuned.
For anyone looking to pitch a script or series, Lynn Harris, a new Uplifter in our crew, has a few seats left in her Build & Pitch Any Idea course, taught by Ryan Cunningham, an Emmy and Peabody award winning producer whose credits include Broad City and Inside Amy Schumer, and basically every other show I’ve ever loved. Here’s my affiliate link if you’re interested.
Save the date: 826NYC’s Trivia Night for Cheaters is back on Tuesday, November 3 at 7pm at Brooklyn Brewery’s Barrel Room. Co-hosted by comedians Josh Gondelman and Alison Leiby, this is Brooklyn’s greatest game of chicanery, and all proceeds support the 3,500+ young authors who come through 826NYC each year. Reply to this email if you’re interested in joining our team! More info at 826nyc.org.