Genevieve Piturro : Purpose, Passion, and Moxie | Episode 123

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome, everyone, to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, and oh my God,

I can really claim that I am wise enough to want more, because I wanted more

of this woman on the screen with me.

If you are on audio, it's unfortunate that you are missing this beautiful face

in front of me, but you will be able to see her on YouTube and you probably see

her on a stage somewhere soon as well, if you are wise enough to want more.

I interviewed Genevieve for the first time in January of 2023, and the link

to that episode will be included here.

I begged her to come back again and again, because I just felt we had begun

to share such incredible inspiration for purpose, and Passion, and all

the other P's that were important.

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please say

hello to Genevieve Piturro.

Thank you, Isabel.

I remember our conversation.

I'm delighted to be invited back.

It was such a good conversation.

At the time, I gushed about your book.

Look, I'll have it here.

Purpose, Passion, and Pajamas, and how aligned I was with my place in

life, another "P", with your story and your explanation about how we

can, at any age, make a difference.

And to this day, it just sticks with me when I think, there are many

women who are uncomfortable about aging or talking openly, publicly,

Another Pee, about their age.

But because the world knows I will be 70 shortly after we are recording this

episode, I am feeling so empowered by what is possible for women like you,

like me, like our audience, who now are recognizing that there's so much

potential for Making a Difference.

I love to use your idea, your cue to be a voice that moves the

world can be done in so many ways.

It just doesn't have to be this magnificent splash like, the

Gates Foundation or anything else.

Before I continue on my fan bandwagon about you, I want to

know what have you been up to for the last 21 months since we spoke?

Getting past COVID was something we did together.

We did it together.

Yes.

And we slowly, we revised our lives.

I think it's fair to say we all did.

And I started speaking again in person and wrote another

book and I'm writing a third.

It's about what you said, and another P is it wasn't planned that Pajama Program

would impact so many or attract so many.

We helped, we served, and it just grew heart to heart, and it wasn't planned,

and I think that's the basis for my chapter two on sharing how to be a voice

that moves the world because we all can.

I'm grateful for some of the byproducts of the pandemic, another P.

We're on a roll with the alliterations here, but that we all got much

more comfortable with virtual communication and technology like Zoom.

And that was a way for you to then find different platforms for you

to communicate with the world.

Yay for that, and yay for us having some time, maybe because socially we weren't

as active, that we started to think about really, why would our life matter?

At the end of it all, I remember that was one of the things that

really was like a gut punch for me.

Oh, God, here we go.

Pee again.

When in your, you're telling your story, you said to yourself, if this

is the next 30 years of my life,

and then what happened?

Is this enough?

And my answer.

immediately to my shock was no, I just knew.

And if you had asked me probably the day before, I would have

said, yeah, this is good.

The question came at a moment that I can't explain.

And it came, I think, because something in me was ready to hear

the question and to be honest.

And Instantaneously, I knew something was missing.

Just in case there are a few people who are going, what the

heck are you two talking about?

So they should go back and listen to episode 60 of the podcast, which

although now has a different name also it is about your life and the story in

this book, which is a must purchase.

You can see, as I explained then, I've got notes all through the book.

I've used this to inspire journaling.

I have used it to inspire conversations when I invite a group of friends over

to my salons to talk about these things.

So for everyone, please get the book.

It's on Amazon.

I'll put the link in the show notes.

If you, Jen, because it'll be better in your words, just give us a really

brief overview of the story in the book.

Of

course.

I was climbing the corporate ladder in television broadcasting,

because I was a lover of Mary Tyler Moore, the actress, and her Mary

Richards character as a little girl.

And I loved her success and her independence, and I wanted that.

Even though being from an Italian family, I was prepared, being prepared to have

a family of my own and be a mom and, and I love my mom, best mom in the world,

but I wanted that success that Mary had.

And I did that for 12 years in New York City and I loved it.

Or so I thought, until that afternoon alone in my living room, I heard

that question asked from me to me.

And I'm pointing to my heart because it wasn't this question from here

that we hear ourselves, all the time from, but I heard it deeper.

And I know later I realized it was from my heart.

Ask that question.

If this is the next 30 years of your life, is this enough?

And when I answered, no, I just knew there was something that I had ignored in

the family scenario that my parents had.

Dreams for me to embrace.

So I remembered a story on the news about police and social workers taking

children out of a very bad, hurtful situation, and I called to see if I

could read to these children at night.

I thought maybe if I brought children some love.

I broke them into my life, I could fill that hole that must

be there from that question.

And I started to do that.

And I never felt more grounded sitting in my business suit on the

floor of emergency shelters, reading bedtime stories to children who were

afraid and traumatized and alone.

And one night I saw them sleeping in the same clothes they'd been

wearing for, I don't know how long.

Didn't fit, weren't clean.

And I brought pajamas and I just thought nothing of it except.

This would be, a little gift I can leave for them after reading to them.

And one little girl was so afraid of me and any taking anything from me that she

just quietly asked me, what are pajamas?

She didn't know what they were.

She didn't feel she could take anything from me.

She was just so afraid.

And when she asked me that question, my whole world stopped.

And.

I kept myself calm and I answered the question and I just realized I

had no clue what was going on in this little girl and how many other tens

of thousands of children's hearts and minds to feel so lonely and afraid

that maybe my pajamas could wrap themselves around them like a hug.

And that's what happened with her.

She loved them and she showed me that she did put them on and she

had a little smile on her face and that stark difference from.

The first part of the hour where she was so afraid of me and

wouldn't let me, look at her to that part where she felt something.

And I like to think it was a little love from a stranger that gave

her some peace and some comfort.

If it isn't obvious to everybody right away, I recommend that you have

a box of tissues handy when you listen or watch Jennifer Genevieve's interview

with me and you read her book because it really does Reach inside and squeeze

your heart to think that there are so many children in the world that

are living under these conditions.

And because of that experience that you had, how you didn't just

pat her on the head and walk away, you did something about it.

And that's why we're here today, because by your example you're leading

and showing us all that we can make a difference, even if it starts from a

very small, with one person, but that if you continue to move forward, and you

and I share An affinity to the law of attraction and the belief of, thinking

about what you want to accomplish and drawing the right people to us.

And also that would include Oprah, who was so moved by what you had

started with the pajama program that she became a champion for you as well,

right?

She did.

It was an incredible experience.

The whole 20 some years has been just attracting like minded people with the

heart for that little girl's feelings and loneliness that it couldn't be stopped.

It just was like a runaway train and I'm grateful every day for so many people.

So that.

led you to impact millions of children's lives or millions of

pajamas, at least, and it's continuing on, but, and I hope it always does.

Let me just say that because sadly, I don't think the need

is ever going to go away.

I wish that society was different.

Maybe we'll get there if more of us are open like this.

But from there, then, people were reaching out to you to say, how did you do that?

Could you now take us on that part of the journey?

I often wonder, people, I think, including me, are afraid to make

a change in our lives once we are stable and secure and are known for one thing.

And then, we're in a job or we have crafted a life and then the

idea of drastically changing it for some emotional moment is scary.

And, seems very strange.

But I think because people were inspired about making a change and they felt

something in them, I think that those are the people who really resonate with

my story and my decisions, because I think so many of us, Want to make a

change and know in our deepest heart that there's something we're meant

to do and that we're not doing it.

And sometimes we know what that is and we're afraid 'cause we've come too far on

the path we've been on to make a change.

I think that my story and by speaking and writing touches them and gives them

a little bit more courage to reach out.

and to explore finding their true purpose, discovering what

they're meant to do and be here.

Yeah, you and I talked about before we all, I think, most

of us have good hearts and good intentions, but there is, as you

said, there's that fear of stepping out of the known into the unknown.

We've imposter syndrome Who are you to think you can do this, Missy, right?

And maybe there's also this paradigm that we have that says you have to

be hugely wealthy and have a lot of resources, a structure, a board of

directors, a foundation with millions in the bank to make a difference.

But that's not true,

right?

I had nothing.

I went into debt, had credit card people coming after me.

And I had a mortgage that almost, got me into ruin.

No, you don't have to have everything in place.

I had nothing in place.

Probably not the best way to start, but you can't start.

You can figure it out along the way.

It might be more painful.

It might cause other people a little grief, of course there

are better ways to do it.

But if your heart's in the right place, you've got a really great, a great shot.

And if you find your Moxie, I found my Moxie even better.

I want you to talk about your Moxie, Bob.

First, I also want to say thank you by sharing your story candidly about

Not the right the best ways maybe to approach things that you have

very generously shared with people.

Better ways to do this.

And we're, we may be all glamorous and feminine, but we are also

pragmatic that we want sustainability of these things as well.

So tell me about Moxie because this is new to me and I know that you have,

since we met published another book called Purpose, Passion, and Moxie,

How to Lead the Way, Leave a Legacy.

And it's a workbook to help you start a nonprofit from scratch to success.

Powerful.

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

are wise enough to want more.

I teach and speak to all businesses, non profit, profitable, if

you can make a million dollars doing what you're meant to do, more power to you.

I think that's great.

But a lot of people, because Pajama Program is non profit and I started

it not knowing anything, I was in the business world, I was always asked

and still am, about starting a non profit and I do mentor a lot of people.

So I wrote this workbook to help, but I think Moxie's a word I learned, my

mom said it a few times growing up, and it's not a word that, other people

would use, and I didn't know that there was a drink until I married my husband,

who's from Massachusetts, and we went to the store one day up there, and there

was this moxie, and I said, oh, look at this, and it's, if you look it up,

it's just persistence, you're having an edge, and going for it, and not giving

up, and Maybe it's not the norm, but you take a chance because you want to get

something done and you have that grit.

And that's, that fit perfectly how I felt many times through pajama program

and still doing the speaking and the book and everything now, because 20

years of being executive director, I passed the baton to do this.

So this was again, starting over for me to make my living.

Inspiring people and showing them what change looks like and, allowing them

to see through the success to what's really, what's really there deep.

And I think that we need to reach down and to grab and just embrace that moxie,

that grit, that we just want this and we just can do it and we just tell ourselves.

I've got what it takes.

I'm going to muster every piece of power I can to get this done.

And to me, that's Moxie.

I love it.

I

didn't ever think about really how to define Moxie.

And, generationally I guess you and I have both heard it but wow, that's so cool.

And what a, when you were describing it, I was picturing getting out

of bed in the morning and putting on your moxie suit, it's like that

outer aura about us that, hell no, we are not giving up on this, right?

I love it.

Did you choose, are you working exclusively with corporations and

foundations or do you work on a personal level with individuals?

Yes, all.

I coach individuals I consult with companies and I speak to groups that are

associations and businesses and yeah, all, all about being a voice that moves

the world, starting with your own voice.

And for leaders, It's a voice that will lead you to change and to

impact people and leave a legacy of service and being true to yourself.

I'm all about living our legacy as opposed to leaving a tidy

sum in a bank account after you die.

I think that's just so unfortunate if that's what people think a legacy is.

I believe, like you, that if we choose to live our legacy while

we're here, we get to experience it.

We get to influence it and we have the opportunity to increase

the impact right then and there.

And so I, giving people a structure like you have with your coaching and

your programs and the workbook now, yay.

Just knowing where to start, right?

That's the key.

People we scare ourselves into, being paralyzed because it's overwhelming.

It's, I'm so happy to see young people embracing their purpose and not taking

any job and to ask questions about what do you do to make my life better?

What can you offer that I will feel good about being part of?

And I think that's really important.

That wasn't the case when I was looking for a job or considering a career.

But I think it's great that we're talking about it out loud, that we're

talking about following our heart, that, it's about love, and I say that about

leadership, it's about love, loving who you work with, loving what you do,

and loving your leadership, and for the leader, it's loving the people that you're

serving, in addition to the people you're working with, because That's a leader.

Going, having the integrity to go outside of what's good for you and to really

make a difference for other people.

That's what breeds success.

It's, people don't realize that because it's invisible.

You can't count how many dollars come in because you've helped people.

You can just see how many dollars you've collected, period.

In time, in, if you match the hearts to it,

You see what difference you're making.

You see the changes.

And it's more fulfilling than, like you said, having that money in the bank.

I'm so happy that we're having this conversation because

my audience primarily, as you can guess from the new show name,

seasoned women, serious business.

wise enough to want more.

So many are at that stage in their life and in their business where

it isn't just about building the revenue or the number of locations.

There's, we're now at that stage of feeling validated ourselves for our

purpose and the impact that we can have.

And.

And I think so many of, in my personal sphere and in my coaching

with clients as well, are also at that stage of what's next?

What now, right?

We did what we had to do, raising the business, raising families, raising

ourselves into CEO ness, but there's this other part that's this large part

of us that needs fulfillment as well.

Yes, I think the older we get, which is a good thing.

Yes.

We realize.

how we feel inside about our decisions and where we are right

now, this moment in our life.

So much I share it.

Like I'm so excited about my 70th birthday coming up because I have realized, Oh

my God, this is one of the most freeing times of my life because I am so aware now

of what I don't want anymore in my life.

What I will not tolerate anymore.

And what's that's done is just open up this capacity for me to

want more of the things that I haven't made room for in the past.

So that's great.

However, I'm not giving up my shoes and neither are you.

If if you don't know Jen's amazing shoe collection yet.

You should go on her Instagram account.

It's at Genevieve Peturo on Instagram, correct?

Oh my God.

I love it because if that's not lifting as you climb, I don't know what is.

So great.

And I just, I had a hip replacement a couple of months

ago and I'm just thinking, woo, I can wear some heels again.

This is awesome.

That's great.

Cool.

All right.

Any I, you also have a TED talk or

I had one and I have a couple of, I can't say

yet, but you'll see them soon.

I did one during COVID, which I, you do your first TED talk and you're

so excited and then COVID hits and they put it on hold indefinitely.

And then.

COVID didn't go away as quickly as we had hoped and they came back, Ted,

and said, okay, everybody do them because we can't just keep you on

hold, but you have to do them, safely.

Yep.

So it's a very different experience, but I'm proud of it.

And it's up, it's on my website and it's out there if you look.

So now I have, I'll have a chance to do one live.

So I'm excited.

That's still on my epic list.

So I admire you for having done that.

Okay.

So what I love to do is, first of all, I'm going to ask you

for something rather serious.

Oh, wait a second.

There's one more thing I wanted to say.

You mentioned when we were in the green room about book clubs.

Tell me about how that works in the context of your work.

I'm happy to be there when the group finishes reading the book.

So most of the time, there's a book club that chooses the book and they'll

choose my book and they'll reach out to me and say, we would love to have

you come on virtually or in person and just answer some questions and talk to

us about the book, if you're willing.

And of course I love that.

So I do a lot of book clubs.

Yeah.

People can find me on any of my social channels or on my website if they have

a book club and they're interested.

That's really awesome.

And all of them, why not do this in community?

Go through these concepts and work.

So I love that.

Okay.

So be a voice that moves the world.

Now I'd like to ask you two things.

One is my fun thing about share something with us.

We might not be able to find out find about you on Google.

Okay.

You talked about my shoes already.

Yep.

But I can't find them.

I swim most mornings, I do laps for 45 minutes or more, thus the curly hair.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Usually, I will blow dry it when I'm on stage, but I like to be

a little freer after I've had my swimming and just let it be me.

So it's my beachy, swimmy hair.

So Yeah, it clears my head and as with so many people, water,

brings these ideas forth.

And for me I'm swimming and I'm listening to my music and ideas pop

and I wish I had a pen and paper in the pool, but it's my grounding exercise.

I love that.

And that's also very inspirational that you have a dedicated me time.

Which is really good for your mental health and your physical health.

So that's fantastic.

And your creativity, apparently.

Okay.

To close the show, I'd love if you would share a pearl of wisdom with our audience.

I would say something that I learned along the way

that I do teach that It's not the power of one that changes things.

It's the power of one another that moves mountains and moves people.

I I'm speechless because that is very powerful and it's true.

I don't like doing things on my own.

It's very, it's like a one handed clap, right?

but in the power of collaboration.

Fabulous.

I heard you say that you're working on another book.

Can I ask you to come back with me when that book's ready for release

and we can tell the world about it?

Of course, I'd love

it.

Yes, Isabel, yes.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you so very much.

I really appreciate what you are doing.

Thank you for this invitation.

It's great to be with you again, and we'll do it a third time.

Bye, Isabel.

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

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