When Playing It Safe Holds You Back

Announcer 0:01

Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the podcast for women over 50 and beyond who know much more lies ahead of them. Listen to real stories, hard truths, and life-changing choices that may leave you seeing your own life a little differently. Here's your host, work and life transition coach, Beverly Glazer.

Beverley Glazer 0:27

What if staying safe keeps you away from the life that you really want? Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion. I'm Beverley Glazer, a work and life transition coach and reinvention strategist for women over 50, helping you bridge the gap between the life you've built and where you really want to go next. And you can find me on this podcast at reinventimpossible.com. These conversations share powerful stories from accomplished women who face life's challenges and use their wisdom, resilience, and experience to create meaningful new chapters. We don't sugarcoat our struggles here. We learn from them, we go through them and discover what's possible on the other side. So I want you to meet Alma Derrick Alma is a business builder, a strategic advisor, and the managing partner of Rev. Throughout her remarkable career, Alma has helped launch new ventures, build iconic brands, and guide some of the world's leading organizations through moments of disruption, innovation, and reinvention. But what makes Alma's story so compelling isn't just the company she's worked with like Amazon, Verizon, and Mattel. Her willingness to embrace uncertainty and trust her instincts and repeatedly reinvent herself without a roadmap is exactly what she does. If you've ever found yourself at a crossroads wondering if you should play it safe or take that leap into something new, this conversation is for you. And stay with us until the end. And I'll share key takeaways and simple actions that you could put into practice right now. And while you're listening, if you find yourself thinking that's me too, let's have a conversation about what's next for you. And you'll find that link also in the show

Alma Derricks: How Childhood Shaped Her Confidence

Beverley Glazer 2:32

notes. So welcome, Alma. Thank you so much, Beverley. It's great to be here. Alma, you were brought up with your dad. Yes. He was your primary caregiver. That from the get-go was unusual.

Alma Derricks 2:51

And and I and every day I learn how special it actually was.

Beverley Glazer 2:55

Yes. What was it like for you? Because as a child, it it made you different right away.

Alma Derricks 3:02

Sure. I mean, my dad was an entrepreneur. Um, my dad, I'm sure his friends were a little shocked and amazed when he uh when I came along and he was my caregiver. Um but what he did that was so phenomenal in, you know, when I when I think back, he didn't change his life to accommodate me as much as he just integrated me into his. So I was like uh, you know, a puppy that just sort of followed around. And so I spent my summers working at his office. We would go on road trips visiting the different sites that were part of his business. Um, so I just, you know, I he I tell people, Beverley, it's so funny. I never learned to play um sort of kid board games. I never played Candyland. He taught me to play poker and 20. I learned how to add in some track playing 21 and things like that. He taught me to play chess. So, you know, he just sort of folded me into his world, like tuck me under his arm, and just kept on going. And I think there were so, so many lessons in that that, you know, I'm still unpacking years and years later. But the primary thing is, you know, I didn't get any of the negative coding that a lot of women get about what's possible. Um, whether he was a feminist, you know, in in his head, I don't know. I couldn't say for sure. But he certainly never said to me, you know, you have different outcomes or different possibilities because you're a girl.

Beverley Glazer 4:34

Right.

Alma Derricks 4:34

And so, you know, the the the sort of the the image that we all have, you know, of girls in math class, you know, hiding in the back because they're afraid to answer the question. I was the girl in the front row with my hands up, you know, just and you know, and the teacher was trying to look past me as I sort of like jumped, you know, practically jumped down in my seat like somebody else needs to answer this question. So I never had, you know, I've I've learned so much about it from my friends and women that I've worked with, you know, the women that, you know, my age are still haunted by some of these things and some of this programming and these tapes in their heads. And I was really lucky to not get that at a young age. And so I think that took away something at least that gave me a lot of confidence, um, gave me a lot of willingness to just step out. Um, and I was always just sort of coming from the outside in a lot of ways. I was different in a lot of ways, and I learned to embrace it.

Beverley Glazer 5:27

Did you ever try to be one of the girls?

Alma Derricks 5:29

You know, I wasn't not one of the girls. I mean, I had very close girlfriends, you know, my oldest friend I've known since third grade, um, and we're still friends. I have friends from junior high. I I never struggled. Um, it wasn't really about being a tomboy first, really. It but you know, I just I but I wanted to be, I among my friends, if you were to talk to them, I think they would say, I was 40 when I was 12. Exactly. So it manifested that way. It didn't become like male versus female as much as it was. I was kind of an old soul. You know, I grew up going to fundraising dinners, and you know, my dad would have to put me in my little Easter frock to, you know, because I didn't have a cocktail dress and I was too small. You know, so I wanted, I think all the time I spent with adults made me want to fit in. The last thing I wanted to do was have somebody look around and go, who's the kid and why is she here? And I'm sure they did all the time because I was short and I was a child, but I wanted to kind of fit into that space. And so I think it just, well, you know, my friends would just say, you know, I was the one that was grown up, like we were children and you were like the grown-up one. Um yeah, but I but I had tons of really, really close girlfriends um growing up. That really wasn't a hole for me. Uh it was a lot of fun, actually.

From Journalism Dreams To Media Business

Beverley Glazer 6:51

Right. And you went the traditional route, you went to Stanford, you went to Georgetown, you studied now international relations. How did you go from international relations to what you're doing now?

Alma Derricks 7:08

Yeah, well, the my original, original uh career goal was broadcast journalism. So back in the you know, Jurassic days of television, I wanted to be an anchor, you know, a national news anchor. And so when I went to school, my first thought was to major in communications or something related. And I got great guidance from communications professors who said to me, you know, communications is the frame. And it would be great if you just continue to do that. So I worked for the college radio station doing news. Um, we had a tough the the cable head end for my high school was in for the city I was uh was in my high school. So I was doing live TV when I was 13, 14 years old. So I had been getting a lot of and working for the newspaper, editing the newspaper. I was a little journalism major. Um, and so the advice that I got was to basically, you know, keep doing that, keep writing for the paper, keep doing the reporting, keep, you know, doing the work. But if if communications is a frame, the advice was fill the frame with something. What do you want to understand better? What do you want to know? And so, because I wanted to do national world news, I decided to major. International relations was an umbrella for you to create your own major. And so I majored in superpowers. So American-Soviet relations, um, went to Russia twice while I was in college. Um, use that as an opportunity to just get deeper into an issue that I thought would serve me as a journalist later on. So ultimately, that, you know, that led me into my sort of journalism phase. And just before I finished college, um, you know, I just made a kind of pivot and knew that I didn't want to chase on-air journalism anymore. Um, I my first internship was when I was 16 at NBC. And so I got to know a lot of anchors and reporters. And I had heard this, but I didn't really hear it and take it in until it was sort of right there in my face that to really pursue a career in broadcasting, you need to go to every small town you can land a job in, and you move from small town to small town to small town, and then hopefully one day you make it back to a big city. And I just reached a point where I, you know, I'd worked so hard coming out of school, I just didn't want to chase it. I didn't want it that much. But I still still liked media, still wanted to stay in the space. And so I worked a little bit before I went back to B school. Um, when I went back to get my MBA, NBC gave me a fellowship and paid for my MBA. And so the plan was to just continue on on the business side and in the commercial side of media. And so that's what I did. So I didn't really take too much of a pivot away from it, but I just decided it wasn't worth chasing the on-air piece of it. But all that training and all that time really served me, you know, gave me um, you know, a lot of presence and a lot of ability to present, which I do all the time now. So you end up back in the same space doing those same kinds of presentations. Um, but that's where I mostly put that part to work, but stayed on the media side of it. So um went from NBC to HBO. And then, you know, that was the dawn of the internet era, the first wave of the internet. And so, you know, to your point at in your intro, I mean, that was my chance to really jump out into something that was greenfield. And I've found that that has been something that's been a per a propellant for most of my career. Um, it when something is new, there are fewer rules there, there are fewer people competing there. And so, you know, that outsider lens again sort of took me into a space where it's like, well, I kind of know what the ladder looks like here. I know what the roadblocks are, I know what the speed bumps are. This is wide open, and nobody knows what they're doing. And I'm I'm game, let's go. And so, in doing that, I was always one step ahead of, you know, sort of what was happening with new technologies and things like that. And it allowed me to just jump and jump and jump. And so it was really critical and really takes a leap of faith for sure. But, you know, where there are no rules, you know, you can sort of chart your path. And by the time I went from doing Dilbert and Peanuts, you know, it led to being recruited by Paramount to do the same thing for Star Trek simply because Star Trek hadn't been online. I had built businesses already at that point, and there were just very few people who knew how to do that. I was, you know, in a much, much smaller pond because I had veered off into this new space. And so I just really ran with that.

Taking Risks in a Changing Industry

Beverley Glazer 11:41

But you did so many different things in entertainment. And what threw me there, Ama, is Deloitte. Okay. How did you get to work with them?

Alma Derricks 11:52

Sure, sure, sure. So, you know, after the, well, you'll remember this, and a lot of listeners will remember that, you know, after 2000, when the internet boom became a bust, um, there was a moment in time where uh you couldn't put dot-coms or I's or E's or anything in your profile or on your resume. Had to just forget it. Everyone thought it had ended. It was sort of, you know, the whole wave was over. It wasn't, you know, it started to rear its head again in the early 2000s. But um I went back and created Rev. That's when I founded my company that um I still run today. It was meant to be an umbrella for me to do projects. So I was still able and had enough of a career pre-internet to fall back on doing consulting for a lot of networks at the time. And so I was doing that. And then in late, uh, it was 2008, I got a call from Deloitte. Um, and they were looking for directed min partners to come into the technology, media, and telecom practice at TMT. And what they said to me that was very interesting, you know, I ended up consulting to them for a little while, for about six months, and then it was sort of a trial period to see about coming on full-time. And one of the things they said that was really interesting, Beverly, is that they struggled not so much in technology and telecom, but in media and entertainment, finding executives who had had operating experience, because there's always room for that in a big firm like Deloitte. Um, if you have people who've grown up in the firm and never been an operator, there's just so there's just a limit to things that they've seen. And if you've been an actual operator in a business, that can be an advantage. And so there are few of us that always get brought in that way. But the thing that they said that was so interesting is they said, we find it hard to find folks in media who have a gene for client service. It's hard for them to kind of cast themselves where they're advising, where they're, you know, offering support, where they're sort of in the in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. And there's a real gene that comes with that. And they said, because of your time spent with Scient, which was one of the early e-business consulting firms, and even the individual consulting that I'd done, they said, we just know that that's going to be the advantage, it's going to make the difference. We meet people with the knowledge all the time, but the ability to really put yourself in that role, um, you know, that bedside manner that comes with sitting and working with clients, the things that you do with your clients, right? That is a different skill set in addition to the knowledge you have about the industry. So that's what really sold them. And it was something that was really a hallmark of the time that I spent there. So it's a little bit of a departure. I see how you would see that in the long line and go, huh? But you know, I still was doing some of the same things. Um, one of my proudest achievements and one of the most fun projects I did was the first five-year plan for Blue Man Group. Um, and there's probably not anyone else in the firm who had worked with talent like that who really could have pulled it off. And it was a lot of fun to be able to do that. And they got a kick, and Deloitte got a kick out of the fact that they were doing work in that kind of space. But this was consulting directly to the three guys, and you know, these guys who were street performers, who became, you know, international superstars, and you know, they had never done a strategic plan in all that time. And so it took a very special kind of understanding of where they were coming from and ability to guide our team through that. Um, and that was just another one of those places where having that kind of twisted point of view and a little bit of skew and a little bit off to the to the side, it became a real advantage. And so being unique like that in a space like Deloitte had, you know, gave me a chance to do a lot of different things.

Why Leaders Resist the Change They Want

Beverley Glazer 15:35

Have you ever worked with a company, Alma, that said we want to change, we want innovation, but when you're working with them, you see, yes, you may want it, but maybe they're not going to move. Like what happens there?

Alma Derricks 15:50

Most of the time, I think that's true. Um, my husband has a great way of putting it that companies have the appet, the appetite for change, but they don't have the stomach for sure. And I I quote him all the time because it's um, I I think that is probably the thing I see most. Um, there's no executive that will say, I don't want to change. Right. No one will say, I would say I want to stay stuck in this rut. Um, but what it takes um in places I, you know, I've really got a especially at Deloitte, um, which is fascinating because you can go in and out of so many companies, I got to see this firsthand. And so everything from a company that was based up in uh upstate New York, 40 minutes outside of Buffalo. Um, there was a new CEO who'd gotten his first CEO assignment. He was excited about that. But he said, I really need to change most of the team here. And I'm in upstate, up, up, upstate New York, and I can't recruit. I can't, I, you know, it's almost impossible to get people to even return my call. And he was just in despair because you know, the geography of it so often becomes a determinant for companies that aren't in advantageously located places. You can't spend enough, people won't return your calls. Um, I've been in spaces where you know you've got a dominant company in a company town, um, where I I'd never seen anything like this where literally people punch in at 8.59 and at 5.01, the park looks empty, gone. And trying to do anything new there just smacks of any kind of change just creates risk and fear. There's no reason if I'm just trying to clock in and get my, you know, get my pension one of these days, that I should stick my neck out to try or do anything at all. Um, I remember sitting in companies where at 501 all the lights on the floor would go out. And, you know, I thought at one time I thought this there was a power outage or something. Literally, there was no one else on the build in the building except my team. Um, and so I think it's incredibly, incredibly hard when you tr try to build something new to think that everyone is going to just jump to the new thing. I would, you know, if I were there, I'd be raising my hand and um, you know, I'd be the first one to say, let me try the new thing. It's very, very rare. And I also have a pop theory that, you know, going back to the internet, I think companies lost a lot of adventurous people in that era in the 90s. And I think we're seeing the fallout from it now, because the people who stayed in the 90s and stayed in their companies were fearful of what this new thing was. They were very risk averse, nothing wrong with that, but they just didn't want to jump out on this new thing. All the people that would typically be in the back of the room going, why don't we just and how come we don't? You know, when they saw something new, just like I did, they jumped. And when things crashed in 2000, they weren't welcomed back into those organizations. And so now, if you fast forward 20 years, you know, the people that were managers then or vice presidents or running companies now, they stayed in those spaces, they never took risks, and now collectively the culture has become so risk-averse that it's very difficult to get them to move, it's very difficult to get the people inside to move. They've bedded down in these spaces and they like it the way it is. And so we're going to face the same thing again as AI becomes a disruptor. You know, it's change is something that most people really, really fear. Just like most people really fear speaking in public, like you know, that list that gets published every year of the things that people would rather die than do. Change is one of those things that I think someone like me takes for granted that I leap toward it. Um, even though it's a fit, there's a only a 50-50 chance it's going to work, that's terrifying for a lot of people.

Trusting Your Inner Voice Despite Bias

Beverley Glazer 19:51

Well, change everywhere is terrifying. Absolutely. Because we don't know what we don't know. And for women in particular, and you didn't have that because you were brought up with taking the risk, but standing up and making the change. But a lot of women are very fearful from the get-go. When you see in an awful lot of successful women out there, what is the difference between those that are really successful and those that are very capable?

Alma Derricks 20:22

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I think part of it comes from the outside. I think, you know, most people do not get the kind of mentorship and and sort of training and guidance that they need from a leader. We don't have enough leaders to fill all the corner offices we have. And so I think it's unfortunate that a lot of people will go through their career and never have a boss that they can say was really in their corner, really there to help develop them. You know, I come from a different place. Um, Deloitte in particular was very much about apprenticeship and growth. So I think part of it is the environment that you're in. Um, and given that, I think you can get a lot of bad advice in those spaces. Um, you can get a lot of pushback, you can get a lot of, you know, the isms will come out to get you. And so I think then what becomes necessary is that you've got to hold your vision of yourself inside a little bit more. You can't base everything that you think about your own capability, your own potential. You can't hand it to someone else, especially in a world where there's so many biases. You know, whether it's because you're of color, whether it's because you're a woman. You know, I found early on that a lot of those isms were so stupid that I just couldn't internalize them. You know, it's like you're a girl, so you can't do fill in the blow. Like it just never made any sense to me. It just didn't, I I knew better. You know, well, girls aren't good at math. Well, I was, I was great at math. So, I mean, I had evidence for things that were being thrown at me that were biases that I was just able to kind of bat away. And so I think it really does take, and it's and it's It's the the the risk of it is you have to not really pay attention to so many signals outside of you and find places and people where you can get real advice and real feedback, and you have to be very careful who you let in. But I do think that you that for a woman, you have to hold it very, very close and not wear it on your sleeve and not let's because someone else will define it for you. And if you let them kind of seep into the cracks, I think you'll get a lot of bad, bad signals from the world. So you end up having to define it for yourself. And maybe sometimes that's a little insular, but I'll take that before I let the world whips on me and tell you what I can do and what I can't. So I think that very strong sense of self is what makes you confident. I think also it's important to have something you really know that you know how to do. Um, real to really give yourself two legs to stand on about your competencies, really understanding that. That helps give you confidence so that when you bump up against something you've never seen before, you can say without feeling diminished, wait a minute, I have a question, I don't know what that is. You know, I think very smart, confident people are willing to say, I don't know, willing to say I don't understand. And I think when, again, you're playing this game and you're posturing and I have to be right at all times and I have to know everything at all times. I think if you can let that go and really start to understand what it is that your A game is and really lean into that, everything else becomes something that I'm it's there to learn.

Beverley Glazer 23:34

100%. As I'm listening to you, Ama, I keep on thinking right back to what I tell my clients, which is know what you stand for. What are your values? And then nobody could shake you. And that's in the boardroom, that's in the world, that's anywhere you are. If you are true to who you are, you become unshakable, but you have to know that. It's like, who are you? So looking back recognize that you're not for everyone, right?

Alma Derricks 24:04

Uh you know, right? Like even if you held static all the bias, right? Yeah. So let's say that wasn't an issue. We could wave a wand and there were no isms, you're still not going to be for everyone. You know, it's you were you were so kind to to with your introduction as you described some of the things that I've done. There are people that look at my background and think I'm a kook. You know, they think all the places and jumps, and you know, you looked at Deloitte out of curiosity. Other people go, what was that? That's just insane that you jumped from here to Deloitte to Circle. Like what that doesn't make any sense. So you're not going to be everybody's cup of tea to begin with. And then you then you've got the realities of some of the unearned things that come at you as speed bumps. And I think if you can just make peace with that, you know, it's a it's a good start to start to figure out where it is you come from and decide here are the two legs I'm going to stand on. But I think you're right.

Cirque Du Soleil And Defending The Brand

Beverley Glazer 25:00

So looking back, what would you say is the riskiest thing you have done that gave you courage? You know, you said, hmm, I really need courage for this. This is a little scary.

Alma Derricks 25:13

Oh goodness. I think all of them in some ways, you know, are a little scary. Um, you always know that you're jumping off into an abyss a bit when you take on one of these things. Um, I would say the most different thing, although I, you know, I didn't have hesitation. I was still running toward it, but it was the biggest eye-opener was Circus Olay. Um for, you know, the running away and joining the circus thing is is everything you might think. It's a little bit great, it's a little bit scary. But the most important thing I learned was um, you know, after years of being in entertainment, I was so used to at a you know dinner or cocktail party, when you introduced yourself and say that you'd worked with Star Trek and things like that, you know, I was used to that being interesting in a conversation, right? Um, I met people at CERP who at the same time I was in college, they were in clown school in Berlin, or they were fifth-generation contortionists from Mongolia, or seventh generation trapeze artists from Mexico. And you, I think the biggest takeaway was what just when I thought my field of vision was pretty broad. You know, I could say, well, you know, I know poets and I know engineers. I realized my world was a little tiny fraction of a sliver relative to this entire world of people, literally a planet full of people who had, I mean, just remarkably different experiences at the same time that I was in college reading a book, writing papers, right? And I learned, you know, name, rank, and serial number. If I was introducing myself in a group at Circ, I would just stand up, say my name, and sit down. Like I couldn't compete with any of the Mongolian contortionists or anything. Um, so it was a real it was humbling in a way, but but exciting. You know, at some point you'd sort of feel how tiny your world is. And I'm like, but this is great. I I really love inhabiting the space. And I love you know all the talents that we're bringing together in this space. Um, the challenge was when I joined Circ, they were being purchased by a private equity firm. And so it sounds like the setup to a joke, you know, that a P firm, you know, walks into a bar and buys a fancy Montreal circus. Um the clash was immediate. And as someone who was running, I was responsible for sales, marketing, um, ticketing, everything that really wasn't on stage, all the commercial pieces. And I was the one in the crosshairs of the PE leaders. They, you know, they were riding me like a horse and uh, you know, trying to figure out how to reboot Cirque du Soleil, to reboot the interest in it after 35 years. It was 35 years old at that point, so it wasn't the new, new thing. And the clashes we had about the vision for the company were just unbelievable. So I think as a as a risk goes, you know, I in that environment just stuck to my guns. I didn't, I never really backed off and and said, you know, any of the some of the bad ideas that I was hearing or some of the naive ideas I was hearing about what we need to do with the brand. Um, I stuck to my guns on what I thought was right for the brand, for the company, for my team, a lot of people that I was responsible for. Um, and so I think the riskiest thing was just um, you know, deciding I wasn't going to play along when I didn't think it made any sense. And I took the tack that you're paying me money to to benefit from my experience. And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you the truth. If I didn't tell you I thought this was going to go left when it should go right. Um, and sometimes that works, you know, sometimes I would win. In the end, it was very difficult. And I think the the P overlords and some of the leadership got tired of the smouthy American, you know, always like pushing back on things. But it was always in service to the brand, and I would do it again. I've thought about it quite a bit, but I think that I would always still defend the honor of the thing that I'm working on. I have you know, I get deeply attached and deeply loyal to defending the honor of the brands that I work with. That's that's what happens with legacy brands like peanuts. I mean, Charles Schultz thought the peanuts characters were his children. So anything you were trying to do with them, you were literally like talking about doing something with his kids. And so there's something primal in me about really being defensive of that. And I think they were being shallow about certain things, and I was sort of defending the faith. And um, that cost you sometimes.

Building A Personal Board Of Directors

Beverley Glazer 30:05

Yeah, it's hard to let go. What's one last word of advice on trusting your instincts that you'd just like to leave with all of us?

Alma Derricks 30:15

You know, I think, you know, as we talked about, like you know, as you pull that center back inside and you pull that identity back inside. I think it's really important to have people around you who can help you see some of your superpowers. I think it's almost impossible for any of us to see them clearly. But, you know, now at this stage in my career, it's interesting. I still work in brands and I still do the things that I do, but I've also over the past year been doing a lot of mentoring and um, you know, even developed a masterclass with a colleague where we're helping people navigate, becoming new directors, new vice presidents. And I'm finding that for um people in that squeeze, you know, they're about 40 years old, they're mid-career, they're desperate for great advice. They don't necessarily have a leader in front of them, on top of them that can give them that advice. And so I had to be open to friends saying to me, um, some of whom you know became clients, you know, others who've just watched me kind of going down this path. They said to me, you know, you've really found a calling with this. And I've never had anyone describe the work that I do as a calling, as much as it's an it's, you know, it's a it's an expertise. But the call, I had to be really open and think about the fact that there's really something profound about um sort of taking this time to provide that wisdom, provide that point of view to people who are really desperate to get that feedback in a company. Um, that's not something I really saw for myself. I didn't see myself as kind of a professional mentor or coach or something like that. It wasn't just never occurred to me. But it when I look back at something that that made me a great manager, maybe a good team lead at Deloitte, there's something in it and very maternal about it that I think I really gravitate toward. And so I think to find that thing, sometimes it's something that you just seem to do all over and over again. And sometimes you need a friend or a coach or someone to help you from the outside, see that in a way that you sort of take for granted. So I think really finding that that um I've heard the notion of a board of directors, a personal board of directors, summoning those people in your life that you trust and that you know well to help you see that. You know, buy them a pizza and say, hey, you know, can we just talk about me? Put me in the center circle. And I think that's very hard for people to be the center of attention. But I think, you know, we need sometimes someone else to help us with that, with those mirrors. Yeah. I think you know, seek that out when you can, seek that feedback out, and you'll start to make sense of the things that are just your natural a-game things. They're they're they're pretty obvious, but sometimes we take them for granted.

Key Takeaways: Making Your Next Move

Beverley Glazer 33:04

They're not obvious to ourselves. That's the thing. Somebody else has to point it out. And then you say, oh yes, that is me, you know? And uh thank you so much for that. Thanks, Alma. Ama Derek is a business builder, a strategic advisor, a speaker, a managing partner of Rev. For over 30 years, she helped global organizations navigate moments of disruption and launched new ventures in media, entertainment, technology, and consumer products. AMA has helped build iconic brands and guide some of the world's leading organizations through moments of disruption, innovation, and change. Here's some takeaways from this episode. Start leveraging what makes you unique and stop trying to fit in. Start trusting yourself and stop seeking approval from others. And growth requires courage. If you feel it, do it. That's what makes the change. And if you've been identifying with this episode, here's some things you could do for yourself right now. Don't ask, how do I fix this? Ask what opportunity do I see in this? Lean into what might make you that unique person that really can build on her strength and take one small step in the direction that you know is right for you. For a similar episode on making change, check out episode 187 on Aging with Purpose and Passion. And if you like podcasts for older women, Beyond Retirement helps you clarify what matters, reconnect with purpose, and build a retirement that's meaningful, intentional, and truly your own. That's beyondretirement.ca. And so, Alma, where can people find you? Please share your links.

Alma Derricks 35:00

Sure. Um, online, just www.rev.la is the easiest place to start. And I'm also the only Alma Derricks on LinkedIn.

Beverley Glazer 35:11

Perfect. And that link is in the show notes and it's also on my site too. That's reInventimpossible.com. And so, my friends, what's next for you? If you're wondering what's possible for yourself too, let's map that out together. You'll find that link in the show notes and on reinventimpossible.com. And if this conversation spoke to you, please add us to your playlist, share it with a friend who may need it right now. And remember, you only have one life, so live it with purpose and passion.

Announcer 35:50

You've been listening to Aging with Purpose and Passion with Beverly Glazer. For more conversations and to explore Beverly's work, visit reInvent impossible. com. This story ends here. Yours may just be beginning.