Guest: 01 June 2023

Shannon Russell leverages her experience as a former TV Producer and Certified Career Coach to help women prepare and produce their best life. Having pivoted from her own unresolved career to achieve a healthy balance as a professional and a mom, she specializes in helping other professional women do the same. She is the host of the Second Act Success podcast, and creator of companion coaching programs, and online courses. She shares her expertise in connecting clients with opportunities to help them produce a balanced life of abundance.

When Shannon isn’t helping more women produce their best life, you can find her balancing her own life with her husband, two sons, and their dog. She has learned to grow a business that allows her to work from anywhere so she can travel more with her family. She wants to inspire her kids so they know they can do anything and hopes to be an inspiration for all those seeking to achieve a great life that measures up to their own unique dream.

Guest: 18 May 2023

“Women don’t need more products to buy, they want to learn about managing their finances from opening the right kind of accounts to learning how to invest their money.”

Financial Advisor Melinda Satterlee compares connecting with new clients in her business as a “dating period” – you get to know each other, make sure your philosophies and methods are compatible – before you decide to go steady.

Her description of the building blocks – what your needs / wishes are depending on your age, family situation, etc. – is great food for thought.  When you’re young, you can look at saving; as we get older we might need to look more at our spending.

A lot of great information and explanations for listeners of all ages and comfort levels and experience in the financial world.

Melinda is licensed in the U.S. but much of the information is transferable to your country of origin – certainly the emphasis on finding an advisor you’re comfortable with and trust.

Aside:  Do you know what streak running is?

Guest: 11 May 2023

Senior living communities. We need to get past the concept of them being for old people!  Good meals cooked for you, housekeeping done for you, entertainment and social events planned for you… but you come and go as you please… sounds like an ideal lifestyle to me!

Tonia Griffin is a marketer for a senior living complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and in the episode, she explains the difference between “Independent Living” and “Assisted Living” and the perks of the lifestyle.  At Agnes’ invitation, Tonia also sells Baton Rouge – it is an over 2000 mile relocate.  If she doesn’t convince you to relocate you will certainly want to put Baton Rouge on your holiday destination list!!

Guest: 27 April 2023

Tech came easy to Jill McCarthy, aka The Geeky Grandma. Since her first computer arrived she has been learning and creating and teaching, and over the years it has led to the growth of a real community.

She combined her affection for penpal letter writing into e-pals where matched women would email each other.  That grew into a women’s group, retreats, and her community.

Jill’s podcast is The Geeky Grandma with An Encouraging Nudge.  That name has a story behind it and Jill shares it.  She also encourages us to go for our dreams… even if they need to be scaled back a bit at this age.

Jill’s catch-phrase is “The desires of the heart” and she truly is all heart. Meeting with women who are preparing for retirement or are newly retired, she slows the clock to inquire about interests from another time… and help them get to a next place.

Interested in Jill’s retreats?  She has one coming up!

So many nuggets in this episode.

Guest: 20 April 2023

Do you take responsibility for your own happiness?  It is in your hands… and you have to cultivate it.

Life happens to all of us.  If it seems overwhelming, you can still choose how you respond… even if your response is choosing to binge Netflix for a period of time – it’s a conscious choice.

Finding positives is how we start to retrain our neurology.  So in the midst of “the mess”, are you healthy? Do you have a home? Clean water out of the tap?

If you are surrounded by grumps and negative people, find joy elsewhere – YouTube, Meet-ups, other groups, review personal accomplishments.

I seem to throw a lot of negatives at Tamara but her solutions never fail.  Again, life happens and it isn’t always happy, but we accept life and find “an inner state of peace and well-being”.

“Practice” happiness.  Very powerful.

Guest: 06 April 2023

Today’s conversation starts with discussion about the maiden years, the mother years, the crone years.

Paula’s description of her life in the corporate arena might sound exciting but, as she matured, she started to recognize what she calls the “aridity” of her seemingly successful life. 

An interesting discussion of masculine attributes and feminine attributes at a cultural/corporate level.  Also the lack of rites of passage in western culture.  How do we take responsibility for our part in all of it?  How do we revisit rites of passage and make them part of our life, our community again?

You might find Paula’s Rose, Thorn, Banana Peel and Seed ritual useful. How often do you engage in circle discussion, allowing each person to hold space?

Embrace your “crone” years!

Guest: 30 March 2023

Allison O’Shea has over 18 years of direct hands-on experience working with seniors and their families.  This experience has given her the knowledge to be a reputable voice in the confusing and overwhelming world of aging.

In this episode, we discuss the 5 main questions Allison thinks we need to be considering if we are becoming caregivers for an aging loved one… or, if we’re at retirement age, we need to be answering to maintain control of our decisions.

Questions such as:

1. Who is my support system?
2. What is my financial situation?
3. Do I know what options are out there?
4. Am I communicating to my support system?
5. Am I listening to my support system?

Allison’s information is American – some of it may work where you live… at any rate check out local resources and government programs and insurances where you are.

A few tech glitches, please be kind.

Guest: 16 March 2023

Juliana Dever’s enthusiasm for travel is so contagious in this episode.  It’s impossible to disagree with her reasoning on why we should travel.  Whether experiencing something new (or better than?) your status quo; or how novelty unleashes a creativity you’ve never acknowledged before; or finding a person or a thing that startles your sense of what is.  And guess what, Listeners!  In Juliana’s experience, women are the more adventurous of the sexes… and older women at that!!

You’ll appreciate the insight that travel is about connecting with the place or the people… not necessarily being an adrenalin junkie.

As you listen, you’ll realize Juliana tours you to places you’d never find by yourself.  And the women on those tours are women this host wants to travel with!!  That said, she also has great suggestions about traveling safely and comfortably, even alone.

You’ll learn.  And you’ll laugh!!! As well as a travel pro, Juliana is a delightful story-teller!

Guest: 09 March 2023

Hilary Truong is a therapist who specializes in the Mother–Daughter Relationship.  You may not want to hear all of what she says but perhaps that’s a control issue (my words, not hers) – no one ever suggested parenting was easy and there is no “one-size-fits-all” method for the generations to figure it out.

At any age, we need to remember that the mother is the mother and her daughter is the daughter and not allow those lines to blur.  If you’re an older woman trying to heal a lifetime with a mother who wasn’t perhaps who you wanted or needed her to be, it is, as in so many relationships, about the story… often a story that goes back generations.

Hilary also has insights into the over-protective (overbearing?) father.

Mothers, did you know listening is a huge part of the equation?

Guest:  23 February 2023

Last week I spoke with Terri Yuzon, CEO and founder of Hemplily.  Hemplily provides natural, cannabis-based alternatives for many issues that women experience: hot flashes, night sweats, stress, sleep… to name a few.

Last year I spoke with an herb and cannabis farmer from Ontario and he was SO knowledgeable about the bio-chemistry of cannabis and the endo-cannabinoid system within our bodies, that I decided to pull excerpts from my conversation with Alexis and follow last week’s conversation with his information.

Alexis and I spoke for two hours and I have edited that down to 30 minutes of information… I wanted only to give you the basic science behind cannabis.  I DO encourage you to listen to both episodes of my conversation with Alexis last year to hear the full context of our conversation – cannabis, growing cannabis, different cultivars…and also to learn more about other herbs and natural remedies.

Guest: 16 February 2023

When she was much younger Terri Yuzon was given a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.  Determined not to be on meds for the rest of her life, she started researching a healthier lifestyle.  Part of that search led her to cannabis but cannabis in those days was a more drug-associated product.  Finally she was able to create a hemp-product that didn’t have the “drug” effects of marijuana.  Hemplily was officially launched.

Cannabinoid receptors are part of the human brain which helps to explain why cannabis assists with so many issues of the body.  Terri’s products are designed for women “from menstruation to menopause”.

From gummies to tinctures to topicals, Terri talks about the differences and the many products available for women – and some that are great for men too. 

And then there are mushrooms…

Guest: 02 February 2023

A slightly different format today as Sherrilynne describes her international career… and how it developed as the internet became a “thing”.

Agnes and Sherrilynne connected because of their podcaster lives.  Sherrilynne’s podcast is a passion project… so interesting as she interviews 50 women over 50.  Some of her interviews are impactful… you may be adding her podcast to your playlist.  Between these two podcasters there is a lot of positive future forecasting.

After drawing Sherrilynne out, Agnes throws her a curve ball by asking her some of the questions she asks her guests.  Agnes knows what those questions are as she has been interviewed by Sherrilynne!

Don’t think this synopsis analyses the podcast, there are lots of side tracks!!

And you know that question Agnes always ask guests… what haven’t we talked about that you want listeners to think about… SO worth the listen!

Guest: 26 January 2023

Carine is a practitioner of eastern medicine and explains acupuncture and has interesting ideas on the use of nature and its healing abilities.

Interestingly, she pulls in politics and it all makes sense. Are we more global than we ever thought?

Carine talks about accepting and loving her aging – she did dread it when she was younger but shares how she grew into it.

Interested in learning about rejuvenation acupuncture?

How about styles for older women?

Carina is like one-stop shopping for us mid-age women!!

Guest: 12 January 2023

We are aware of DNA as it pertains to our physical traits, but how about emotional DNA?

The physical may be inarguable, but what if you challenged your emotional place in the world and decided to change it?

Food.  Money.  Relationships. Huge triggers of negative emotions or experiences.  Judy explains that Genealogy 1.0 is “Here’s where you belong” and Genealogy 2.0 is  “Here’s what happened, and how it matters to where you belong”.  Most of your “inflated” feelings are results of your emotional dna.

Judy also shares an interesting exercise she does with clients… you might want to try it yourself.

If you’re a newcomer to emotional DNA, Judy has written a book that explains and assists you!

 Guest: 05 January 2023

The podcast starts its fourth season with the father of a struggling teenage daughter.  If you’ve been a parent to a teenager – or maybe you now have teenage grandchildren – the issues might resonate.  Peter did realize that he couldn’t “fix” his daughter’s problems, and he is quite candid that this story is as much about his growth as Belle’s.  He learned to be a listener and a support as Belle worked to find her path.

Peter and Belle’s story may not be unique, it is definitely heartfelt.  Spoiler alert: they find many positives as time goes on.

This episode might be a little unusual as Peter requests and is truly open to suggestions and assistance as Belle (and her silent partner, Peter) develop the endeavour that has grown out of their mutual growth.

The story of a special father and a very remarkable young woman.