Today on Feminine Roadmap, Gina talks with two dynamic retired lawyers, Erica Baird and Karen Wagner, who have stuck their flag in the sand with their declaration, “We’re NOT done yet!” Erica and Karen spent years as modern career women, leading teams, defending clients and being at the top of their game. Once they retired, they not only felt a sense of loss but they found that the world seemed to move on and forget about them. This difficult transition led them to sit down together on a park bench and make a decision that they were NOT done, that they still had so much to offer, and they would find a new purpose in their new season of life.

This critical park bench conversation became Lustre.net , a blog that redefines retirement for modern career women by confronting outdated concepts, defying stereotypes and raising their collective voices to ensure that retirement for all of us is shaped by women for women. Erica and Karen both share how they navigated that transition as a team to carry out this vision which required learning a whole new set of skills.

They want listeners to know that they can have confidence knowing that when you do retire (or if you are already retired) you will achieve what you set out to accomplish because you know how to work, you know how to learn, and you know how to put things together. Your lifetime of experience has equipped you for success in this new journey, the possibilities truly are endless. Grab a cuppa something wonderful, a good friend and join us for this empowering, paradigm shifting conversation! http://www.feminineroadmap.com/episode194/

SHOW NOTES:

5:32 The beginnings of Lustre.net

“To say to ourselves: we shouldn’t be walking around with our shoulders bent and embarrassed about who we are now and talking only about our past. We should be talking about: we are confident, we are the women we’ve always been, and we have decades ahead of us to do more things. We have a whole third of our life to live and we should live it!”

14:20 The process of starting something completely new

22:12 Pivoting from what was to what does purpose look like now

“The way we stay with the program is to figure out a purpose and I certainly began to realize that because we were in this first wave of women, we were having to fight several battles… Our mission is to say, ‘We are here, we are a force to be reckoned with and you’re going to have to reckon with us.’ “

30:12 The benefits of integrating experienced older women with younger women- mentorship

40:37 Change is a choice- What is it you really want?

“But you should have the confidence knowing that when you will achieve the result at some point because you know how to work, you know how to learn, and you know how to put things together.”

51:56 Karen’s key takeaways for those who are retiring

53:02 Erica’s best advice for retiring career women

RESOURCES:

Lustre.net

IG: Lustre.life

Music by bensound