Shimmery, Sparkly, Shiny People: PYL In-Flight: Nov 6, 2023

Welcome Back My Prismatic Passengers:

I love women who are multi-faceted, unable to be easily categorized as being or doing only one thing.

I recently spoke to a friend about a mutual friend who appears to be afraid of retiring because she doesn’t know what else she would do with her time. Her only son has graduated college and is embarking on his own life and, as a result, no longer needs the mothering-attention as he did when he was younger. She is passionate about running which I guess makes her two-dimensional. This is better than most men of previous generations, who tended to die after they retired, for lack of another purpose in life, but only marginally so.

I can’t imagine being that focused on only one thing, whether it’s a job, hobby, or sport. I like variety, the so-called spice of life.

This has been challenging for my career and marketing my various revenue-generating activities.

I recently joined the Innovation Women speaker platform and had to provide a single summary statement. Since I can speak on nearly a dozen different topics, this was challenging. How do you market yourself when you don’t fit into a single category?

When creating my new website and launching Piloting Your Life (the podcast) a few years back, my tipsy co-pilot Jacqueline insisted that for marketing clarity, I should narrow my brand. We went back and forth for days as I resisted being pigeonholed into just one category, despite the marketing ease it promised.

When I launched Piloting Your Life (the book), I had multiple websites, IG accounts, Facebook pages/groups, Pinterest pages, and Twitter accounts for each of my ‘brands’ but it all became too much to manage. I still have two active IG accounts (terrihansonmead and pilotingyourlife) and a few FB pages, I’m active on LinkedIn, have a single YouTube channel and TikTok account, and on Medium, I have a publication (Terri Hanson Mead) that allows me to separate my content between Piloting Your Life, Solutions2Projects (my consulting), angel investing, digital health, womanism (feminism), and champagne musings which is my catch all for everything else I write about.

I wasn’t the only one who was overwhelmed and confused. A few years ago while I was actively angel investing, a former client of mine asked if I was still consulting. I was surprised by this since I’d shared some content and posts on life sciences, system implementations, computer validation, and IT compliance but I guess it wasn’t as voluminous as my posts and content around angel investing and my book, Piloting Your Life.

It’s not uncommon for me to get asked about how I manage all of it and the simple answer is that I don’t think I’m handling it as well as if I was focused on only one thing. I feel like I am in an egg race with myself, on my knees, hands behind my back, pushing a series of eggs forward with my nose, inch by inch, barely making progress on any particular initiative. You know that silly game? I’m not sure it’s the smartest strategy but each time I think about giving up one of my projects, I just can’t. I am more than one project, more than one initiative, more than one activity.

Professionally, right now, I am working on:

• Research: midlife aging, self esteem, body image, and the patriarchy including interviews with midlife women (Women Are Like Fine Wine)
• Research refresh: Piiloting Your Life in preparation for a course I am teaching on navigating life after 40 for women
• Speaking engagements: actively seeking paid speaking engagements around the world
• Consulting: reevaluating and refining my IT compliance and IT strategy consulting services
• Consulting: actively seeking more paid opportunities with ex-US / Silicon Valley bridge organizations in life sciences (like Nordic Innovation House) where I can blend together my investor, compliance, and life sciences expertise for startups outside the US looking at the complex US healthcare market
• Travel journalist: creating travel content (blogs, video, TikTok, IG) as I travel the world

I’ve realized that what I absolutely love to do is learn about something, distill the experience/knowledge into something easily digestible, and share it with others. That is the common theme when I reflect on the work I love to do. And what I am really good at.

Last week during a catch-up call with Bev, my friend and executive coach, she asked if it was time to close the chapter on the work I’ve done for the last 25 years, and I am seriously considering it.

It’s very common for women early in midlife (40–55) to actively seek having greater impact, and desire adding more value in places where we are appreciated. We want to bring together our experience and wisdom to accomplish this, and create a legacy. This is where I’ve been for the last decade and as I mentioned in a recent PYL In-Flight on being in the autumn of our lives , I am laying the groundwork (planting the seeds?) for what’s next, and that may not include IT consulting with biotech and medical device companies.

It’s a scary thing to let go of what’s worked.

It’s scarier to imagine looking back in 10–15 years and regretting doing something that I don’t love when there are other options available to me.

Most women I know are juggling multiple responsibilities and have developed the ability to multi-task. We’ve done it to survive and regardless of whether multi-tasking is no longer in vogue, this survival skill also makes us prismatic, with several interesting sides and angles.

The goal, now that we’ve reached a certain age, is to shine the light (and maybe polish up) the sides we want to embrace, leaving the other sides in the shadows. We won’t lose the experience we’ve gained, nor the knowledge we’ve acquired, but perhaps it’s time to focus on what’s most interesting and important to us and see where that takes us.

May you find peace, acceptance, and love today as you navigate being human.

With much love and gratitude,

Terri

This week’s song: Firework by Katy Perry. Fireworks are like prisms but more explosive, and the words in this bop are inspirational and uplifting. I love a good Katy Perry song.

Journal prompt / reflection: What do I want my legacy to be? Is what I am doing now contributing to that legacy? If I am constrained by my job, caring for others, etc., are there any small things I can do now to get me closer to what I want?

What I Just Read: I read a few books recently as part of my Piloting Your Life (the book) research refresh and summarized the top 10 takeaways in some blog posts.

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (there are no directions to folding in this post)
• The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
• What Do You Want Out of Life by Valerie Tiberius
• The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson

terrihansonmead.com
Piloting Your Life (the book)
Terri Mead YouTube Channel

Instagram: terrihansonmead