Super powers is not only for comic books. We all have our own personal power that we can use to make a change. In the 2nd episode of A Glimpse Inside’s Reinvention After 40 series, you’re invited to listen in on a reinvention coaching session. Host Wendy Perrotti is working with Liz, who is learning to thrive again after a tragic accident and unrelated illness turned her life completely inside out. You’ll hear how hope and inspiration have returned, what she’s working on and get new tools that will help both Liz and you move from stuck to happy.
Welcome to A Glimpse Inside. I’m Wendy Perrotti and I’m excited to be here with you on the SuperPower Up! Network. This show is about affirming for people that there is more to life and it is possible for every single one of us to be inspired, successful, joyous, and free.
Today, we’ll be talking about reigniting personal power. It’s episode two of our four part series on reinvention after 40. Each of our four episode series explores its topic through no-holds-barred conversations, real life coaching, and in depth interviews.
On episode one of this series, Jennifer Degenhardt and I had a candid conversation about her amazing reinvention after being derailed by an unanticipated career change. If you missed it, go back and check it out. Jen is really funny.
She is, I don’t know if you’ve met her, Liz. My guest today is here for a reinvention after 40 coaching session and she has generously agreed to let you listen in.
Welcome, Liz. How are you feeling about being here today?
Oh, I’m good. I’m a little nervous, but I’m sitting outside in my happy place. I’m really excited about it actually. Thanks for inviting me.
I’m glad you’re excited about it. For those of you, if you hear any sounds in the background, Liz is actually outside. She’s working in a bee garden, which is kind of cool. There’s no need to be nervous about this, Liz. This is 100% your time. You are completely at choice about where we take this. That being said, I do have a couple of rules for us to follow and I’m going to ask those of you listening in to follow these rules as well. Number one, this is purely a judgment-free zone. Right, wrong, good, and bad do not exist here. In order for you to access your true compass, you need to feel free to explore everything and anything that the mind presents. Agreed?
Sounds good.
All right. Number two, remain open. For any of us to lean into truly new territory, we need to proceed with a beginner’s mind. Everything you think you know, even about what you want, needs to get stashed away. Don’t worry, it’ll still be there if you need it later on. And finally I’m going to ask that you play all in. All of the things that we work on together, while they may not be easy, will be inherently simple. That said, without your full attention and intention, they can never move from concept or even from action into reality. Cool?
Sounds right.
All right, Liz, let’s go. Before we dig into what you really want to work on today, would you be willing to share a little bit of your backstory with our listeners so they can have some context?
Sure. I’m a widow raising two teenagers, and I had a job as a contractor, government contractor, working in a science center back about two years ago and a series of things happened in one year. This was seven years after my husband had died. I was making my way as a widow, working, a single mom, and a number of things happened in a period of a year that were a little overwhelming. The first thing was that my brother died. My brother, who I was really close to, died on the day that I started this job. This dream job working as basically the assistant to the director of this USGS science lab, which was such a great job, but immediately I had to defer for two weeks so I could deal with that death.
It was my second brother that I had lost to alcohol after my husband died, and then six months later, I got a call that my mom was dying. I went out to Seattle to be with her, when she died on the day that Trump was elected, or nominated. No, was sworn in. On the day that he was sworn in, in January of 2017, which started my year of just really big struggles. I was glad that I was with my mom when she died and I got to be with her and hold her hand. And then the year began and six months later, I had a hysterectomy scheduled. The week before the hysterectomy, I was in a head on collision with a woman who ran a red light, so I had this accident. I walked away from it. The car that I was driving was a car that I had bought when I had sold my business. It was one of the last remnants of this previous life that I had before my kids were born, and that car was totaled.
I got out and laugh because I was completely fine, although I saw my life flash before my eyes. Having already lost my husband to a car accident, this was a really traumatic event for me, but I didn’t really even realize it until later. I basically hitched a ride to work with the cop and everything and went on my merry way. A week later, I had the hysterectomy to cure this ongoing issue that I had with fibroids. A week after the surgery, I was in the hospital for a debilitating pain in my chest, which we attributed initially to the car accident, until three days later, I had a call from OB doctor, and she said basically that I had cancer and not fibroids, and that she wanted me to go see an oncologist and have an MRI done, which I had done. And I thought, “Oh, I’m better, I’m fine.” Like with a car accident, where I just was like, “I’m good,” but it’s not.
And then I went to the oncologist and she said, “Oh, I’m sure you know by now there’s this lump between your heart and your lungs, and we need to send you to a thoracic surgeon. It might be part of the rare cancer that you have. There’s only like seven people that have had that cancer.” So there’s not really good protocol for anyway. So then, I had the cancer, that was a week after the surgery, which was six months after the car accident. Long story short, while I had the surgery, I was supposed to be doing work at home for my job so that I could keep my job after the transition to the new administration, and because I then had all these other things happening, I wasn’t able to do the work at home so I lost my job. So that’s pretty much, you know, that year in a nutshell.
I realized from being inside that the government is not set up to save the environment.
Basically, the next two years I spent processing. Well, first of all, getting help from the cancer, and getting better from the cancer, but not getting strong afterwards really, because a lot of it was just processing these things that I just listed to you that happened in 2017. It was just a lot. And when I found you, when I found Wendy, I was in the process of trying to stand back up after all of this stuff that happened and realizing that it was okay to take some time off to process it, but I really wanted to put the things that I had learned from being inside the government and seeing how it works and seeing where the shortcomings are in the ecosystems budgeting for USGS and Department of Interior, fixing the glitches that I see in the private sector because the government is not. I realized from being inside that the government is not set up to save the environment.
So I started a nonprofit in 2018, the fall of 2018, and I don’t even remember when I found Wendy, but when I saw one of my family members had, I saw that she had begun selling her photography and seeing just transformations in her personal life and in her business life, and I thought, “I want that. Who was it that she thanked?” So I looked up Wendy, and that’s how I got started with the coaching. I want to say that it really transformed me almost immediately from a place of, how do I put these pieces together now that I’ve seen what they are to making progress on a daily and weekly basis. I hope I didn’t go over my time for my story.
No, this is all your time, Liz. This is all your time.
It’s a long story. So here I am. Now I have this business, but I’m also volunteering and that’s why I’m at the bee lab right now.
Okay. I totally want to thank you for sharing that story. That’s one huge nutshell, Liz, and it’s really brave of you to come on and share it. I’m certain that in its sharing, others are going to find comfort and inspiration. I know I do, and I think that’s a good place for us to take our little break. So for those of you out here, we’re going to take a really quick break. We’ve been talking with Liz about her courageous work to rebuild her life. When we come back, I’m going to really dig into some coaching with her, and as always, I’ll be giving you some tips and tools that you can start using today. Stay with us. We’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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