Welcome: Who Supports the Woman Everyone Turns To?

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, Beverly Glazer.

Beverley Glazer 0:34

Achievement. What if you're just missing a place where you can stop carrying your pressure alone? Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion. I'm Beverley Glazer, a work and life strategist and a transition coach for reinvention for women over 50, helping you turn a lifetime of wisdom into your most meaningful next act. And you can find me and this podcast at reInventimpossible.com. These conversations share powerful stories from women who have overcome challenges, reinvented themselves, and refuse to let age or anything else define what's possible for them. We don't sugarcoat our realities here. We learn from them and we grow through them and discover what's possible on the other side. Today's guest is Hannah Wrixon, entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Kella, an invitation-only community for women leaders, founders, board members, and C-suite executives. After building and selling businesses of her own, Hannah noticed the pattern. The higher women climbed, the less people there were to honestly say what they felt. Behind the success, titles, and accomplishments were women carrying enormous responsibilities, navigating careers, caregiving, family pressures, and major decisions. So Hannah created a space where women can stop performing and realize that they're not as alone as they thought. If you've ever felt the weight of responsibility or struggled with loneliness at the top, this conversation is for you. And stay with us till the end and I'll share takeaways and actions that you can start using for yourself right away. So welcome, Hannah. Thank you, Beverly. Hannah, before we even talk about Kella,

Early Life in Ireland and Finding Her Strength

Beverley Glazer 2:45

tell us what shaped you? What was life like for you growing up as a young girl?

Hannah Wrixon 2:53

So I am Irish. My parents split up when I was very young, and divorce wasn't legal in Ireland at that time. My father left to go to London. Around the same time, we found out that my mother had had another baby before me. I was the eldest of my parents' children. And because of the time in Ireland and the very restrictive community and society at the time, my grandmother had adopted my sister, and we grew up believing she was my aunt, which is not unusual in Ireland at all. So around the same time as my father and mother's marriage broke down, we found out that we had a bonus sister. So it was a very unusual experience. And I suppose it wasn't in a way because it was our experience. So it was very normal for us that this was happening. But I suppose looking back now, it was a lot of change very quickly. It was a lot of societal pressure and people judging our family. And then my mom was a single parent to four girls, and uh and she became the she had always been the main breadwinner, but um that became very, very important at that time.

Beverley Glazer 4:30

And so that probably strengthened you seeing your mom like that.

Hannah Wrixon 4:35

For sure. And also, you know, my mom is a feminist, so we were brought up honestly, we were brought up believing that men were to be pitied and that you know we were women were stronger and that we needed to to step up and and live our truth. So, um, which was really interesting because I now have my two sons, I have a fabulous husband, um, and I, you know, they're they're fantastic human beings. And I think that's the very important thing about Kella is that it is not about putting anyone

Learning Business The Hard Way

Hannah Wrixon 5:10

else down or any gender down to to bring us up. This is about leveling the playing field. Yes. Did you always want to go into business?

Beverley Glazer 5:19

Was that for you?

Hannah Wrixon 5:20

Yes, always. So my father was a publican, um, my grandmother was a hotelier. So we grew up around uh again, my grandmother, my father's mother was an entrepreneur, um, my father was an entrepreneur and then a publican. And so that was always around and it was always encouraged. And I suppose when I was 11, I started my first business and I was making stuffed toys for an entire summer holiday uh vacation, and I didn't sell any of them. So that was maybe my first business lesson to make sure there's a market for your product. Um, but but yes, as I as I progressed through my late teens and early 20s, I found myself being put into management roles very quickly, and I always was looking outside the box about you know how we could improve things, how we could do things better. And then I I qualified in HR in Australia. I lived in Australia for six years, and I came back to Ireland ready to launch my jittering HR career in 2002, only to find out that everyone else in Ireland had trained in HR at that time. So, and before I could do anything, I was a single mom of a four and a half year old, and I had to find some really good childcare before I could, before I could launch any careers. And um what I found was the standard of after school care that we had experienced in Australia didn't exist in Ireland at the time. And I it was put to me quite a few times, well, if you want it, you need to open it. You'll need to do it. So I was 27 when I opened that first childcare after school centre in Ireland. Um, but we became the benchmark for squaw uh for quality school age childcare. And then at 28, 29, I was being invited to, you know, set policy um to write um educational programs in order to get training um in a formalized way for this age group. And it was crazy. We we became the benchmark for quality school age childcare in Ireland. There was busloads of people coming into to see what we were doing, um, and then a lot of other businesses came out of that one.

Beverley Glazer 7:32

So yeah, you were a pioneer. Yeah. Just accidentally, you know.

Hannah Wrixon 7:38

I feel like I'm always a pioneer.

Single Motherhood And Building Stability

Beverley Glazer 7:42

Yeah, but you also ended up being, of course, a single mother, you mentioned that, and suffered some very difficult times. What was that about? What were those periods about for you?

Hannah Wrixon 7:56

Yeah, um, you know, like it was extremely tough coming back to Ireland. Um, and uh I was a single mom, very determined single mom, opened business, bought a house, etc. Um, I and again, my mother's words were ringing very clear for me that you know I didn't need anyone else. If I wanted something, I had to go and get it myself. So that was very important

Loss, Depression, and Choosing to Keep Going

Hannah Wrixon 8:22

to me. Um, but unfortunately, um I lost my oldest sister. My my my bonus sister took her own life um when she was 30. Um there had been three years between us. So the year after I came back from Australia, and that obviously had a huge effect on everything. Um, and uh yeah, so so it was it was a very difficult time, and it was uh a case of, you know, do I just keep the head down and keep going, or do I give up, or you know, what what what is what are my options here? And for me, I I chose work. I felt that um it was a really good distraction for me. It was really useful in terms of keeping me busy. Um, and uh that's that was the the choice I made. So um I'm yeah, I'm I'm still happy I made that choice. Right. That must have been really difficult to keep pushing forward. It was, it really was, and we we had been very close, my sister and I, um, and she had lived in Australia as well, so and she was a single mom too. So we were single moms together with our three boys, and uh there was only three years between us, as I mentioned. So when I came back from Australia, from Australia to Ireland, she lost her person. So her support system in me was gone, and that that was catastrophic for her. Um, and I suppose, you know, to try not to carry guilt around that has has been very difficult over the years. But again, I was in a difficult situation with my ex-partner, and I I really felt that I had to get my son out of Australia in order for us to to have a good life together. So I chose him, which was really, really hard and you know uh awful, and I would never have guessed the the consequences or the outcomes. And again, I'm a very strong believer in you know uh that you don't have a hand in these things, you know, that that um uh that a life without hope. And I really feel that my sister suffered from depression, and I do think depression can sometimes be a terminal disease, and I think it should be it should be treated like that.

Beverley Glazer 10:51

Yeah, that's true. And what did those struggles teach you that your success never never could?

Hannah Wrixon 10:59

Get up every morning, put your feet on the ground and start going. You know, I I think that all of us have stories, right? You don't get to this age without having battle scars. Everybody, you know, some might be less traumatic, some might be more traumatic, but we all have them. And I think uh if you were to bow down under the pressure of the story, then you're the you know, where where do you go from there? So I I I chose life, and I chose that she would strengthen me and give me the fire in my belly to maybe get the life that she had never had the chance to have. So I think that's

Why Leadership Gets Lonely

Hannah Wrixon 11:45

that's what it did for me.

Beverley Glazer 11:47

You know when did you realize that women, the women at the top need a community just like everybody else? When did you see that?

Hannah Wrixon 11:57

Yeah, so so again, I've been extremely fortunate in my career that I've built up amazing networks around me. Um, whether that was in Australia, Ireland, etc., I've always been drawn to very strong women and women who have made it in inverted comes. But when I exited my last business, this is the fourth business that I have set up. When I exited my last business, it was acquired by um an indigenous Irish company, um, and it was a good exit. And one of the women who had been in my network, a small network of two that we had, said to me, Right, we need to give back. We need to do something. You're in a great position, I'm in a great position, let's do it. And then I started to think about that and say, right, okay, yeah, right, that's exciting. Um I'm all about giving back. But I am currently a lead uh volunteer for the Going for Growth program, which is a round table of eight entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs over a six-month period. And I'm currently the lead entrepreneur volunteer of Backfoot Business, which is Irish, Ir uh Irish Returning Entrepreneurs, uh, and that's a six-month programme and with uh eight entrepreneurs, and I'm mentor for Enterprise Ireland, and I'm a judge for the National Enterprise of Wars, and it goes on and goes on and goes on. And I was saying, I actually do quite a bit of giving back, as do most women in senior positions. So when we started to think about that, that led us to start looking and researching into well, what who's there for me? Who's there for the women who have made it, who have reached to the top? And we started talking to very established founders, but also very senior executive women. And what we found was even the established founders who had the ability to build really, really good female leadership teams around them were still isolated because they can't tell the next person that there's going to be no wages paid next week, or you know, that there could be this thing coming down the line. They have to shoulder that on their own. And the executives, when we spoke to them, they were telling us, Oh, look, my company is amazing. We do International Women's Day and we bring in speakers, and all of us senior women mentor the women on their on the leadership journey, and we do all that. And when I asked the question, well, okay, that's brilliant, but who mentors you? That was when it got oh right. And we heard things like, Well, I haven't been honest in my role in 20 years because honesty looks like weakness at my level. And then the research showed us that up to 70% of women in senior leadership positions state that they feel lonely and isolated in their roles.

Beverley Glazer 14:56

Yes.

Hannah Wrixon 14:57

So when we thought about all of that and the fact that women spend half the time at C-suite level than men do, and companies with 30% plus women on their senior leadership teams are up to 40% more profitable, and that's a global stat. Okay, this isn't an equality issue anymore, this is a business issue. So, what can we do to keep those women in those positions for longer, which will then result in more profitable, more productive companies across the board? And the way we could do that was to connect them to other women at their level, across role, across industry, so that they could actually air their challenges in real time and get real support in a non-judgmental environment. And for us, that that would be great. And that's what we're

KELLA and Trusted Support for Women Leaders

Hannah Wrixon 15:55

that's what we're doing.

Beverley Glazer 15:56

So let's talk about Kela. Um, tell us all about that.

Hannah Wrixon 16:03

So Kella was uh started because we really wanted to connect these senior women. I have to stop saying that, not senior women, women and senior leadership to each other across industry and across role, because we knew that if we could connect them across those areas, that we would be able to support them to stay in their roles for longer, and by staying in their roles for longer, create a more profitable and productive environment for the company. So that was why we started it, because we really need those women to stay in positions so that they're visible, so other women can see them, and then they become role models and something towards uh for women to work towards. So the way we do it is it's three virtual meetings per month. Uh, it is a masterclass, and that masterclass could be anything from psychological safety to psychology of senior leadership to even photographs, because what we find is our members have their photographs taken all of the time, but really struggle with oh, well, I was fine when I left the house, and now, oh my gosh, what happened? So, even very practical um workshops like that, we do. Um, we do challenge clinics where the women can bring active challenges to very small peer groups, and that's very special about Kella. We create very small peer groups so that there's high trust environments, and the trust is built very, very quickly. Um the woman arrives with her challenge, she pitches it, and the other women say what they might do with her situation, not what she should do, she's not broken. Then we have ask labs where women are invited to bring an ask to a virtual meeting, but they can't answer, they can't help someone else unless they ask for themselves, which is difficult, but it's a muscle that needs to be practiced. Then we have our introductions concierge, we have in-person meetings, so we have our leadership dinners, which is only uh 12 women coming together every couple of months. We do one with different women, it's very curated around a topic. Um, and uh they're very they're very well received. Um, we also have socials, so we had we just had a summer social last week sponsored by Nude Wine Company. So, what could be better? Really interesting conversation and beautiful wine, you know, it was fantastic. Um, and we did have non-alcoholic alternatives and we had great cheese, so it was a great night all around. Um, and then we have our executive education pieces, we have the Catalyst program, which is a six-month leadership program, but working on your global communication strategy and your voice in it. And then we have the board readiness studio, which a lot of our members are actually board members already, almost by accident. They have become board members because of their roles more than anything. So this is taking them back a step and saying, okay, what kind of boards are you interested in speaking on or observing on? Why, why, what does that look like for you, and what kind of narrative and bio do you need to have in order to support those boards being attracted to you? And then we have a summit once a year. So we have our summit coming up in October in the West of Ireland this year, um, with amazing speakers coming from all over the world, masterclasses, but then also we're climbing a mountain the following day. So we believe that relationships are forged in the fire. And if you do something like this with another woman, that's it. You know, you have them forever. Um, we run beautiful retreats. So our next retreat is on in the Algarve in Portugal on the 7th to the 10th of March, um, where we bring again small groups of women. There'll be 30 uh women with us on that on that event. And it is a mixture of uh executive education, wellness, uh, and you know, there's hikes, there's pottery, there's yoga, and executive education. So they're phenomenal. So we try to look after the whole person. We've got a platform that, you know, you can get your resources, your articles, your masterclass recordings, but you can also get recommendations for while you're in Paris, which I was this morning. Um, you you know of restaurants and things to do in Paris. Um, there's fitness there. So so it's trying to create an environment where women feel safe to speak and to their peers. I had a woman contact me yesterday saying she had a huge interview for a huge job in a huge company. And I said, Okay, you need to speak to this lady. And that lady coached her last night, coached her this morning, and she said, I've never asked for help from a woman before because I thought it would look I'd look weak. Um, and she said it it was phenomenal, and that's the Kella effect. So we we also really, really, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but it's return on time invested. So everything we do, we have a dashboard that shows the women their return on their time invested. Because as women, we get dragged into caring responsibilities for our parents, dogs, children. We are asked to mentor, we're asked to speak, we're asked to appear on panels. But you know, where's the return on time for you? You're the most time poor person. So we want you to pick up Keller when you need it and put it down when you don't, but to see the impact of it when you do. So we've created a dashboard that allows our women to see that. That sounds wonderful.

Getting Help Without Feeling Weak

Beverley Glazer 21:45

One last word. What would you tell women listening that just identify with everything you're saying?

Hannah Wrixon 21:53

I would say that you know, this has been happening informally for years. Women are really. Good at seeking out other women and saying, okay, this is what's going on. However, we all know that our friends will listen to us for about two minutes and go, how is work good? Great, moving on. Let's talk about something else that we can all relate to. Our work friends, can we be honest in the workplace? Maybe not. Is there another person at a similar level in another business that you can speak to? Probably. But this is formalizing it. This is putting structure around it. This is checking that you're okay, that they're okay, and it's also building your network. And it's giving you the toolkit that when the hard stuff happens, which it does, right? That you have that support system to lean into. So you can say, I'm gonna put a pin in that and I'm gonna make a call, or I'm gonna type into the platform and say, girls, I've got a problem and I need some help here. And because we're global, it doesn't matter what the time what the time difference is, someone will be there for you. So that is what we want to create. We want to create. And that is what Kella is for women in senior leadership. It is when you push the door, there is a whole lot of people who just get it. You don't need the preamble, you don't need to explain because they've all been there. Thank you.

Beverley Glazer 23:47

Thank you, Hannah. Hannah Rickson is the founder and CEO of Kella, a private invitation-only network for women in Cedar leadership, C-suite executives, founders, and board members. The Kella community is a trusted space where leaders can think out loud, test decisions, and move forward with confidence. Hannah Wrixson started Kella in Ireland and is now expanding to the UK and Canada. And Hannah has built and sold businesses, and she knows what it's like to carry responsibility on her own. Her role today is simple. She connects the right women at the right moment and creates the right conditions for honest conversations among their peers.

Leadership Takeaways for Women Over 50

Beverley Glazer 24:38

Here are a few takeaways from this episode. Success doesn't protect you from feeling alone. The higher you climb, the less people there are to really talk to. And asking for support is not a weakness, it's wisdom. If you've been identifying with this episode, here are a few things to do for yourself right now. Take inventory of your inner circle and ask yourself if these people really understand you. Ask, who can you talk to without performing, explaining, or filtering yourself? And if no one comes to mind, it may be time to find your people. For similar episodes on Aging with Purpose and Passion, check out When Success No Longer Fits. That's episode number 181 and Success, Burnout, and What Really Matters, episode 184 on Aging with Purpose and Passion. And if you like podcasts for older women, women over 70 is a powerful force. Their compelling stories shatter the myth that we become irrelevant as we age, and that's womenover70.com.

Resources and Where to Find Hannah Wrixon

Beverley Glazer 25:55

And so, Hannah, where can people find you? Please share your links.

Hannah Wrixon 26:00

Sure. It is www.kellaleadership.com. So it is as simple as that, and at Keller Leadership across all socials. Perfect.

Beverley Glazer 26:11

And those links are on the show notes and they're also on my site too. And that's reinventimpossible.com. And so my friends, what's next for you? If you've outgrown the life you've built and want a private space to think through what's next, let's have a conversation. You can find me at reinventimpossible.com and please add us to your playlist, share this with a friend, and remember, you only have one life, so live it with purpose and passion.

Announcer 26:52

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.