Sofa Series: More Passion, More Purpose

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

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

along with unfiltered wisdom from other women entrepreneurs and leaders.

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

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

folly of underestimating ourselves.

You are in the right place.

We're serious about business.

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

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

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

and our limitless potential at every age.

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

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Are we ready to take off?

Ready to take off.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Look it, for those that are watching this right

now on YouTube, there is this beam of light radiating through our heads.

We have no idea where it's coming from.

We've been moving the furniture.

We've been doing everything we can here.

So we're just going to go with it.

Just know that we are Brilliant.

In every way, shape, and form.

Totally legends in our own minds.

Getting better every year.

All right, everyone, welcome to the very, very first of what we

hope will be a continuing series.

We're going to call it the Sofa Series because that's what we're doing.

We're sitting here on the sofa.

As we do every once in a while and solve all the problems of the world.

Absolutely.

There's something about being on the sofa.

Having my ass grounded on this couch.

Welcome to Seasoned Women, Serious Business, Wise Enough to Want More.

And my very special partner here, Jackie Wazalick, who has been the

wind beneath my wings for a long time.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: And every once in a while we switch.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: We have a lot of names for each other.

Some of those we will not share with you right now.

Look, there's something going on with the lighting.

I don't know.

It's so crazy.

Why are we here today?

It's because I'm on the cusp of 70.

By the time you watch this, I will be.

Jackie's just slightly ahead of the curve of me.

And we recognize through conversation between us and with other friends

that there is a lot of being in isolation and feeling like we

don't have it all figured out.

fund,

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

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

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

are wise enough to want more.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: true story.

Everything changes, every sort of the decades bring us into a

new awareness of what's going on.

And we knew who we were raising kids.

We knew who we were running businesses.

We knew who we were volunteering, sitting on boards, whatever we did.

But there comes a time when some of those things no longer light our fire.

Sometimes those things no longer serve us in the way they served us in the past.

And so our friends tended I speak for myself.

My friends tended to be those that I met up with every

month at association meetings.

My friends tended to be my, some of my customers because it was just good doing

business with people I liked, right?

Retirement, a long Awaited retirement actually brought me into a space of,

ah, all this time to explore now.

And so I'm having fun exploring, but I would love to find something that just lit

my soul up and got me up in the morning and make my life a legacy life, right?

So that people are, and I say this sort of oddly, but I hope people

are going to miss me when I'm gone.

Thank God she's off this planet.

I do want to make a contribution to the world.

Continue to do that.

Because I think the impact we have on the world is really the most important

thing we can do while we're alive,

Isabel Alexander, DOB: you touched on a whole lot of important themes

for me because retirement, what the hell does that mean anymore?

Knowing who we are now, because it sure as hell is a surprise to most of us.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah, there's all kinds of things

that show up that Wow, who knew?

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Not welcome things and some other

delightful bonus surprises, right?

Because to your point, Jackie, when and so Just to explain for those who

don't know her, Jackie has just recently sold her business, and that's how she

and I reconnected talking about what it's like to be in that period of not

having every moment of your day and every It's a very down to earth thought

driven by the activities that your business demands of you, or that you

have actually created for yourself.

And you mentioned friendships and relationships, because that's the other

thing, that if you are a seasoned woman, and when you sell your business or you

start to prepare for that, oh my god!

Our relationships, our community, is so

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: interwoven

Isabel Alexander, DOB: into who we hang out with and who we show

up for and who we don't show up for, is another factor which is.

Absolutely.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: There's also those who are like, huh, I tolerated

that for quite a while, right?

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Why?

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah.

Therefore, shouldn't come as a big surprise to us that, holy fuck,

there's a lot to figure out now, right?

And I don't know if generally more people are smarter that

they anticipated all of this.

But I sure as hell didn't.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: I was still living in the la fantasy land

of life of leisure, sleeping in.

going to the spa, hanging out for lunch with friends, catching up on all

those things I said I was going to do.

All of that takes about five minutes.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

And then you find this little chunk of time that's not dictated by

what showed up on your phone today,

Isabel Alexander, DOB: right?

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: And even how that just, it's not bad.

We're not saying don't do this.

We're saying, Just be prepared, be open, and have grace for yourself when

suddenly you feel like you have fallen down the rabbit hole and Alice isn't

even there to give you directions.

And it's what the hell?

Who am I?

And what am I going to do with myself?

And

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: how long can I have lunch, right?

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Ladies do lunch.

Only a very boring people.

Yeah,

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: It, there really does need to be something that just

fires us up and something that really

contributes, right?

Isabel Alexander, DOB: That brings us to the other point you

brought up, and that is legacy.

Yeah.

Now, maybe, is the time where, instead of just being driven every day by other

people's agendas and the chaos that we've created for ourselves, is that moment to

pause and go, why will my life matter?

Yeah.

What have I been doing on this planet for the last 60 plus years that anybody

will care at all about afterwards?

Hopefully there are enough people that we have been, we have loved

and created a relationship with that will miss us a little and

say something maybe nice about us.

But really in the end, once that's done and they all go

back to their own lives, what.

What are you leaving here?

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: And, Isabel and I attended an event on Friday

that was really quite inspirational.

And I see women younger than us doing some great things and making

an impact on their community.

And I think that's lovely.

And I also know that we have so much to give back, yet we've given it so much

over our lives, that there's also that, I don't even know if it's a fear, or a,

maybe it's time to just relax and we are enough, we are, we've got enough And what

can I share but also without again losing ourselves in that busyness and in that

whole scope of why am I doing this sitting down at the end of the day instead of I'm

doing this because I just love doing it.

Oh

Isabel Alexander, DOB: my gosh, Jackie, when you said that my heart took a little

bit of a flip flop because I wondered is that part of the difficulty in this

transition is if we stop being busy and visible and giving of ourselves,

do we become invisible?

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

And is that less of us?

I don't, I don't know, figuring out these really deep questions

of what does this look like?

And

Isabel Alexander, DOB: I go back to my concern is that there are millions

of us just in this one little patch of the planet, millions of us in our 60s,

70s, and beyond that are in this role.

I think we're in isolation most of the time.

These aren't conversations that I've had the opportunity to have often

enough, and that's really why I started the podcast, was to be able

to talk to women of a certain age.

Oh, what a horrible expression that is.

But seasoned women, because as business owners, we've got like

appetite for life.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: That's all I could say.

That's a beautiful way to express it.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: I am hungry

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: To learn and to be part of and to,

Isabel Alexander, DOB: yeah,

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: experience more.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Yeah, so how do we still satisfy that appetite of

curiosity, and having some influence and impact and feeling like we

matter, we're relevant, without having to go sacrificing, again, health.

personal time, growth, reflection.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: And the ability to have fun and find

humor and find joy again, right?

That take ourselves really seriously and have.

And so when I find that little bit of joy and that spark of humor and

sitting down with people who can laugh about the same things, right?

Because that's another piece of it.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: For instance, memory.

brain fog, forgetting why you walked into a room.

Why have we allowed ourselves to be convinced that's something to be ashamed

of and cover up or ridicule ourselves?

Oh my god, my brain is so full, like I'm still cramming

all this new stuff in there.

Give me a break.

Every once in a while I have to wait for the CD to come around again.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: I was laughing when I had some conversations with

some other women, and some older than me, and, it's more like playing a

game of charades sometimes, right?

Remember when, do you know who that is?

Yes, I remember who she was.

What was her name?

And so we go back and forth and it isn't, I think, a matter of, As Isabel and I,

one of my 80 year old friends one day at lunch, couldn't remember a name of a

woman, and the other woman said to her, who was a dear friend of hers you D.

O.

B.?

And she said, What do you mean?

You demented old bitch?

Can we laugh at those moments instead of feeling Oh, shit, we're

going down the rabbit hole, man.

I don't even want to be in public.

We don't need to be ashamed of those moments.

We need to embrace those moments and know that we have good friends

that gotta have our backs, right?

And we can laugh about it with.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Let's be honest, is there ever a time in your life

that you feel that you could remember every single thing in the instant, the

nanosecond, or the name of the person that you met once at a networking event?

Why are we putting more emphasis on it now?

And truly, I do believe that there is a, justification in that.

Look how much our generation has learned and experienced, and that we're cramming

it in there, cramming it in there.

And so I feel like I never forget anything.

It just takes a while to find it.

Yeah.

But why should we feel less than for that?

The lights are just playing tricks again.

I don't know.

It's pretty cool.

I think that this is a sign, okay?

Everybody who's watching This you're witnessing some

celestial aura that's going on.

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah,

Isabel Alexander, DOB: That's because we are DOB and it doesn't have

anything to do with light bulbs.

And I love that expression.

I'm so happy you shared that because that was yours to share.

Originally, I thought DOB stood for date of birth, but I am having way much

more fun with this version of DOB, and I am now, tempted to sign my credit card

statements and everything else with that, because why not have fun, and that's

That is the pact between Jackie and I.

If it's not fun, we're not fucking doing it.

That's

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: just doesn't make sense anymore, right?

I love this.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: And we are still, we are women.

We are mothers, wives, grandchildren, grandmothers, friends, business owners,

multiple business owners, careers, and

Being involved and giving a hand up.

That's another thing that j Jackie and I share the philosophy of lifting

as you climb, becoming the best version of yourself in the moment.

It is not work that is ever done

. Jackie Wszalek, DOB: And good.

It's really good.

Yeah.

And I think one of the other things that I really love

about my life is I have people.

in my sphere that are different ages, different races, different points of view,

and they can be male also, honestly, I have no problems with Whoever shows up is

welcome and let them share in this whole experience of being on the planet, right?

But it's so much more fun.

To me, that is

Isabel Alexander, DOB: the ultimate in diversity and inclusion.

The more diverse, the richer the circle around you.

And, by the way, That doesn't happen accidentally.

It has to be done purposefully.

It's up to you to reach out and expand.

I love that I can learn from people that are three generations younger than me and

I can teach them a few things too, right?

And together, it's Oh, wow.

I didn't see it that way.

That's pretty cool to see it differently, right?

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Yeah.

I'm grateful.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Grateful, absolutely.

That's why travel.

for me is so important because I'm continuing to see the world through

different eyes, different cultures, different flavors, different

colors, and it just, that's all part of that continuing life, right?

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: Absolutely.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: So because we're sitting here doing all this

talking, I'd really like to give you the opportunity Let us know,

for you, was it like a slam dunk?

You knew exactly who you were when you turned 60 or 65 or 70 or 75 or 105?

Because if you knew who you were going to be then, did you feel like

it was all that you wanted it to be?

Oh my god, this lighting is crazy!

It is absolutely insane!

And there were swear, swear, no alcohol yet.

Yeah.

So that's the conversation we'd love to welcome you here into the living

room with us and comment so that we may have some more conversations around

the topics that you care about and the questions that you have, or the

stories that you can share with us.

That'd be awesome.

That would be awesome, right Isabel?

We're going to create a tapestry with you, and I believe that's what we're supposed

to be doing now, at this age as seasoned women is that we've got a whole lot of

threads in our lives that we can bring together and we can crochet whatever not

to get you know too cute about it all but it's true it's by not being alone in our

own perspective or self doubt or worry and maybe you got the coolest idea to be

able to lift others as you are climbing.

'cause I, that's the other part of what we talk about is that staying young at heart.

Through laughter, through play, through curiosity, through meeting new people

and new perspectives, trying new things.

Oh my God, look at us sitting here on the couch.

We couldn't get the mics, the lavaliers, we didn't work.

So hopefully the sound quality is good enough for you.

We are not in a professional studio.

There are some professionals who would like to put us someplace,

but we're not going

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: anywhere.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: No, we are we're just going and growing,

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: yes, please share.

Yeah, that would

Isabel Alexander, DOB: be

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: really wonderful.

Isabel Alexander, DOB: Please share.

Invite your friends.

Yeah.

And if that is your colleague, your neighbor, your mother, your grandmother.

your daughter your son.

This is for everybody.

It's not just for us.

I guess if we're the old broads, then what are the guys?

I don't know, but

Jackie Wszalek, DOB: we know what

Isabel Alexander, DOB: they are.

We know what they are, whatever we tell them.

Yes.

Okay, so we're going to wrap this as the first.

episode of the SOFA series and I really hope that you

enjoyed it as much as we have.

Absolutely.

Yay!

Bye for now.

See ya.

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

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

for ourselves and others.

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