Announcer: 0:06

Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the podcast designed to inspire your greatness and thrive through life. Get ready to conquer your fears. Here's your host, psychotherapist, coach, and empowerment expert, Beverley Glazer.

Beverley Glazer: 0:33

What if all the years you spent building someone else's business was only training for the empire you're building for yourself? Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion. I'm Beverley Glazer, a reinvention strategist and empowerment coach, helping successful women over 50 to turn their talents into their most rewarding next staff. And you can find me on reinventimplus.com. Donna Cravata is a seasoned New Yorker. She has spent over 25 years in global law firm before launching her own business in 2006. After four decades of experience and a mid-career health reset, she founded Cravada Media Group for business owners to bridge the gap in their brand story. Donna is the founder of the mastermind reinvisible.org and the creator of the real 50 over 50, a project dedicated to amplifying the voices of women over 50 who are making a profound impact on the world. If you've ever felt invisible or have achieved success but just lost your thought, well, this is a conversation that will reveal how to turn your wisdom into a liberated third act. Welcome, Donna.

Donna Cravotta: 2:01

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here with you, Beverly. You paved the road for the work that I'm doing.

Beverley Glazer: 2:07

It's really true. We're on the same page and the same path, and it's both on the free. So let's start at the very beginning. Because you grew up in Brooklyn. What was Brooklyn like for you as a child back in the day? What was going on as a child?

Donna Cravotta: 2:27

Um, I grew up in Sheepsead Bay, which was kind of like the suburbs of Brooklyn at the time. But um I was one of four children with a single mom, and it was hard. My mom was working and um I lived on a block where it was almost all single moms, like there were 10 buildings with almost all single moms, and we were like the little rascals. We were out there with no supervision, no guidance, nobody watching what we were doing, and we got into a lot of trouble.

Beverley Glazer: 3:03

It sounds like fun.

Donna Cravotta: 3:05

Some of it was fun, some of it was just really hard. And um, I'm the third of four children, but I somehow um was the one that was the responsible one that had to take care of everybody else. So it became my role very early on to like manage a household and a family and pets and siblings and my mom. Like I managed everyone, and I didn't really know that there was any other difference. And um, you know, like I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and there was all kinds of things going on then that like a young, unsupervised girl can get in trouble with. Um, I realized early on that I had to get out of there. I never felt like I belonged, and I just went into the city and I got a job. And um that changed everything because I got out of my bubble and I saw that there's a whole other world out there that I could be part of. And the world outside of my bubble saw things about me that I didn't even know were there because possibilities and dreams were not in my purview, you know. I was the one that was going to do the laundry and cook the food and make sure that my brothers were okay. And um when I went out into the world in a new way, just as myself, um, you know, people were recognizing that I was smart, that I was capable, that I was funny, that I, you know, I was I was an asset to wherever I put myself. And then I started to view myself differently. And I, you know, my whole self-value system changed because I wasn't just the scullery maid anymore. I was, I was a, you know, I was a functioning human being that was out there contributing and it felt really good. And it was really hard to get on that train and go back home every day. And um so one job led to another, led to another, and then I ended up in law firms and I worked in law firms for 25 years. Um, I left home when I was 19 and have been out ever since. But um I I started working second shift word processing in in a law firm. And, you know, again, one job led to another. I always had a way of finding the people that either controlled the money or made the decisions. And, you know, I was there, it was the mid-80s, so everything was changing with technology and computers. And I didn't just learn to use the machines, I learned to fix the machines. So I was a hot commodity, and you know, I was 19 years old, I had no formal education, and they were paying me $70 an hour to work third shift because I knew how to not only do the work, but fix the machines when they broke down, and they always broke down. So, you know, like it was just like my whole trajectory was one thing led to another, led to another, led to another. And, you know, fast forward, I spent 25 years in law firms. And the role that I had when I left in 2006 was a project manager working between finance and marketing. And um, I was really doing organizational design, but I didn't know that that's what I was doing because I kind of grew into that role. Um, but I was going around all over the world, figuring out what worked, what didn't work, and coming up with solutions to fix like systems that were some of those systems were 100 years old. The law firm had been around forever. And um, you know, it was always tied to finance or marketing, but like, you know, once you get out of the New York office into any of the other offices, you're now like you're you're the link to the mothership, right? So what like they don't like the toilet paper comes to me. So I was able to like create all of this change in this law firm. Um, and we took them from a lot of auto um manual systems into automated systems. And um, the last big project I worked on was creating a virtual training environment because they used to send me all over to train people. And now I had a son in 2002. I didn't want to leave them. Um, so you know, I that coincided with their Citrix account. And I was like, well, you could send me to Paris. Here's my $30,000 expense report from last time, or we can use Citrix. It's $200 a month. Let's give it a try. And um, and then I launched their whole virtual training environment and built out the entire system. And and then I left. I started to realize like, this is so hard. The commute is hard. I'm away from my child. Um, they want me to travel. All of the things were adding up, and it just didn't feel like a long time, long, long-term solution any longer. And um I started to realize that I'm doing all of this for this big company, and everything is, you know, an uphill battle because they don't really want to change, and what I'm doing is bringing change. And I started to realize that there must be small businesses that need all of these things I could do. I started to take inventory of all of the things that I learned how to do over the span of 25 years, and it was a hell of a lot.

Beverley Glazer: 8:05

For sure. I mean, you were an integral part of this company. I mean, they could not do anything without you with caldonna for this, called on for that. Yeah. But let me also tell you that I mean, your strength is incredible because I know during this whole period there was a child that came into your life. There was also a man that you threw out after this child, and you decided to establish your own company at a time where someone would hold on to that paycheck for dear life. How did you do? Yeah.

Donna Cravotta: 8:38

You know, I would stand on the train station to go to work in the morning, um, knowing that I had to leave my. I didn't know I we I moved to Westchester. I bought a house. That was a disaster. I, you know, I moved in with the man who got me pregnant. And thankfully I never married him because I I only knew him for four months when I got pregnant. I didn't know what I was dealing with. He was he was mentally ill and I didn't know. And um, I moved I sold the house quickly and moved into a condo because I realized I needed like maintenance-free living. And um I was terrified to get on that train and go into Manhattan and leave my son alone with his father. And I would stand on the train station and I would cry. And I like I could not lift my leg up to put it on the train. And um, then I was like, okay, well, the HR director lives in the same town and takes the same train. This is not gonna work. But I found somebody who had a virtual assistance business, and this was in like 2005 when nobody had virtual businesses. And I just put her picture up in my cubicle at work and by my desk at home. And I kept saying, if she could do it, I could do it. I didn't even know what a virtual assistant was, but I was like, I, you know, I can do this. And it was really hard because I was fully financially responsible for all of us. And um, and the the experience that I had was not really transferable because it was very tied to the company that I worked in. So it wasn't going to transfer well on paper. I was not gonna get a job like that closer to home. And even if I did, I still wasn't gonna be home. You know, I'd be closer, but I'd still not be home. And um, it was really a dilemma. And I just said, you know what, I've got some money in the bank and I'm gonna take a chance on me. And I was 42 years old at the time, and I was going to do both things. I was gonna keep the job and start a business and for a year and see how it went before I quit the job. That lasted two weeks, and I was at Carbell having ice cream for dinner at nine o'clock at night, and I realized the job will never, the well, the job will never let me have the business. So I went and I said to the guy behind the counter, I'm gonna quit my job tomorrow. And he said, I don't care. I was like, okay, great. And and I did, I quit my job the next day, and they never replaced me. I stayed on as a consultant for about six months and they paid me a ridiculous amount of money, hoping I would stay. Um, but I couldn't because once I made that decision, even though it was not well thought out or formulated or anything, um I couldn't go back to what I was doing. So I was like taking my calls from the car with my laptop in the car, and it was the middle of winter. Um, but I didn't want it happening in my house. Like this is where the new stuff was gonna happen. So once I started my business and I didn't know what I was doing. I had 72 things I could do on my website, and nobody understood what I did. I would go to BNI meetings, and there were like plumbers and real estate agents and insurance brokers, and they were like, You do what? Can you clean out my wife's closet? Sure. Will you pay me to do that? I'll do that. Will you organize my daughter's Chinese-themed bot mitzvah? Sure. And then I ended up running. There was um actually one of the associates that had worked with years before lived the next town over, and she had a women's group called Second Shift. And I ran her women's group with 600 women in it for about three years. And I ended up getting a lot of clients through that. And little by little my business grew. Um, but where it really turned around was about three years in, I had gotten a client who was a hand model, and she had a line of anti-aging hand care products. She'd been paying a PR firm $5,000 a month to get her into all of the top magazines and um beauty awards and all of these things. And they did. They did an amazing job on her PR. They didn't know how to use social media. So they were trying to get me to teach them how to use social media. And I started to think like she's paying them $5,000 a month. She's not paying me $5,000 a month. So I said, listen, they got you into all the media that they can get you into. They've done what they could do. Why don't you fire the PR firm? Pay me more money. We'll take everything the PR firm did and we'll turn it into lookbooks that we can share all over on social. And then I started, I had a um very early Hootsuite account.

Beverley Glazer: 13:19

Me too.

Donna Cravotta: 13:21

And I started tracking the hashtag dry hands in three time zones at 11 o'clock at night. And by doing that and getting her in really small beauty blogs, this was before podcasts or anything. We ended up selling $100,000 worth of hand cream in eight months with no budget. And she ended up being on HSN 12 times. She was sold out twice, and then she was eventually acquired, and they um created an entire line of um skincare products for her. Um, but I got her over that hump to be able, you know, because she was she she and like mortgaged her house to create this line of of hand cream. And um, but I got her over that hump. And then I started to see this happen with other clients. Like another client got in the New York Times, and he was the executive chef for the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution show. And so I was just saying, like seeing this pattern happening, and I was like, Well, I guess I'm not a virtual assistant.

Beverley Glazer: 14:25

Don't think so.

Donna Cravotta: 14:26

So I had the four four people wanted me to create websites for them at $5,000 a piece. I hate creating websites. I said, No, I'm changing my business because this is not what I'm doing. I I I was going to an event the next week. I said, I'm gonna spend this week saying no to those clients, redesigning my website, and go into this event with an entirely refreshed business. And I said no to $20,000 for those websites, and I made $20,000 at that event with my new business.

Beverley Glazer: 15:01

There you go. There you go. So you took that with let's talk about women over. Um why do you think that traditional list of women over 50, 50 over 50, that orbs with, you know, why do you think it fails most women over 50?

Donna Cravotta: 15:24

Uh several reasons. One is if you're a small business owner or a founder, the criteria for applying to be on that list is you have to have a business with a minimum of $10 million in revenues. That clears out almost everyone. Yes.

Beverley Glazer: 15:45

Okay. But you came up with your own list.

Donna Cravotta: 15:48

I did. Yeah, talk about that. Because that that Forbes list pissed me off. Because uh, as I was learning about what it was and how it operated, um I started to think about all of the women that I know who are over 50 and they're doing amazing work and not enough people know about them. And a lot of them are struggling and because they they don't have the visibility that can help them grow their businesses properly. And um, they're often like sold a bag of goods by people that really can't help them because they're selling something they don't need. And uh, but they're very good salespeople. And I just started to make a list. So I took me 15 minutes to make a list of 50 women that I knew who were in that category. And then I started to do keyword research, and the keyword research showed um for women over 50 that you know the leading keywords are about hair and makeup and aging, and you know, your body is falling apart and you've got nothing left to say, and why don't you just sit down and shut up? And um, and then I went to GoDaddy, and the real 50 over 50 was available for a dollar. So I swung back to my ladies on my list, and I said, if I just started to do interviews, would you want to be interviewed? And I had 40 interviews booked in two weeks, and that was almost three years ago. So I've done 138 interviews, 18 panels, and we're booked into April. We're since the beginning, we've been booked out four or five months in advance.

Beverley Glazer: 17:24

That's correct. So out of the many, many women that you interviewed, what do you say is that inner strength? Younger women do not.

Donna Cravotta: 17:38

Resilience. They've been through it. And and they, you know, they weren't knocked down by it. Even if they were, it was temporary and it became fuel for what came next. And the other thing that I see recurring throughout the stories is it's not about reinvention, like as they get into the stage of life like past 50, because they're not changing who they are. They're they're deepening into who they are, and they're remembering all of these parts of themselves that they put aside for some reason, forgot about, or didn't think were relevant. And what like to watch that happen from the other side of the screen, and because I see it in my work too. Um, it's it's first of all, it's an honor to be able to see somebody go through that metamorphosis at this stage of life. And it you can almost see like those gremlins of imposter syndrome fall away because they're stepping into their own value. Because, you know, the world is telling them, you know, you if you want to be relevant, you have to burn it all down and start over again. So they're sitting there thinking, what I did for the last 40 years didn't matter. Like, what was the point of any of this? You know, and what they're doing is thinking about the hardships and the hard times and the struggles. They're not thinking about all of the things that they've done that was successful or an accomplishment or helped somebody or helped them. Um, they're just thinking of the negatives. And when they start to view it from a different perspective, when they view it from this percep perspective of, of course I could do that because I already have, it changes them fundamentally at their core. And I don't like it's it's the most miraculous thing to see.

Beverley Glazer: 19:36

How can you tell a woman where they can find their own?

Donna Cravotta: 19:43

Look at what you already have. Look at what you already have. Look at what you've already accomplished. Um even look at the things that you perceive as a failure. Because if you look at that from a different lens, you're going to see that what came out of that failure. Was something that moved you forward in some way. Like you had to go through that to get to the other side and then start to piece them together. Like, how does one lead to another, lead to another, lead to another?

Beverley Glazer: 20:15

Yeah. But do you think they can monetize that?

Donna Cravotta: 20:18

Absolutely. Absolutely. I know. This is exactly what I help people do. I used to call it a content audit until I took myself through it. And now I call it tried and new, where you take, you go through this process of everything you've already created. And this could be us on Zoom just going through your Google Drive, you know, what stays, what goes, what could be upcycled or recycled, what could be sold and given away. And it becomes the foundation, this vehicle almost of where you're going next. And you're starting with this solid foundation of the best of what you've already accomplished. Letting go of the things you no longer need. So you're unencumbered. And letting go of all of those versions of imposter syndrome that are really, you know, just that voice in your head that's telling you, you know, you failed in some way.

Beverley Glazer: 21:20

Interesting. What would you tell a woman who feels it's too late, even if they're listening right now?

Donna Cravotta: 21:26

I would tell them the story of a woman I met who was 91 years old. And for her 91st birthday, she went to Iceland alone. And then she started learning Italian just in case she goes to Italy again. She wants to be ready.

Beverley Glazer: 21:41

I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Donna. Donna Cravata spent over 25 years in global law firms before launching her own business in 2006. After four decades of experience, she founded Cravotta Media Group to help business owners bridge the gaps in their brand stories. She is the founder of the mastermind Bevisible.club and the creator of the real 50 over 50, which is a project dedicated to amplifying the voices of women over 50 who are making a profound impact in the world. Here are a few takeaways from this episode. Technology is only a tour. Don't let it be a barrier. Success after 50 is about freedom and impact, not only your bank account, and your past with paid internship. You have the tools for your next act. If you've been relating to this episode, here are a few things that you can do for yourself right now. First of all, kill that tech fear. Take 20 minutes a day on YouTube to relieve that tech anxiety. Ask yourself how you can challenge all you how all your challenges are giving you permission to simplify your life. That's exactly what Donna has been saying. And write three things that you can do without effort. This is the foundation of your new business. For similar episodes on career change for older women, check out episodes 142 to 152 of Aging with Purpose and Passion. And if you love podcasts for older women, Older Women and Friends by award-winning host Jane Leder and guests. Take a deep dive into the joys and challenges of being an older woman.o That's Janeleder.net. And so Donna, where can people find you?

Donna Cravotta: 23:51

Cravotta Media Group.com. Everything is there.

Beverley Glazer: 23:55

Marvelous. That link is in the show notes, and it's also going to be on my site too. That's reInventimpossible.com. And so, my friends, what's next for you? Are you tired of spinning your wheels at three in the morning? Well, just get stuck to Unstoppable Roadmap and receive my weekly insights delivered into your inbox every single weekend. That's a free resource, and that's going to be in the show notes too. So you can connect with me, Beverley Glazer, on all social media platforms and in my positive group of women on Facebook. That's WomenOver50 Rock. And thank you for listening. Have you enjoyed this conversation? Please subscribe and help us spread the word by dropping a review, sending it to a friend. And remember, you only have one life, so live it with purpose and passion.

Announcer: 24:54

Thank you for joining us. You can connect with Bev on her website, reinventimpossible.com. And while you're there, join our newsletter. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Until next time, keep aging with purpose and passion. And celebrate life.