Embracing Reinvention: Inspiring Mother-Daughter Transformations and the Power of Intuition with Ana Tajder

What if you could transform your life and rediscover your true passion?

Join me, your host Wendy, as I chat with the inspiring Ana Tajder, an award-winning international journalist and author who went from a burned-out corporate employee to embracing her love for writing and creating the Thank You Mama podcast.

Together, we'll explore Anna's incredible journey of self-reinvention and celebrate the extraordinary reinvention story of her mother, a celebrated film star who has continually evolved throughout her life.

Tune in to hear:

✅ How Ana had to have a breakdown in order to have a breakthrough and reimagine her life
✅ Why we should trust our intuition to open up new opportunities for growth
✅ How the universe aligned when Ana made the conscious decision to reinvent herself
✅ Why having a supportive network of "guides on the side" is important in our reinvention journey
✅ How Anna's passion for writing led her to create her captivating book, Viennese Sex and the City, and inspire women through storytelling.

And so many other inspiring insights!

As a special Mother's Day treat, we'll also honor the resilience, courage, and inspiration of Anna's mother, whose journey has been full of artistic evolution and self-discovery. From a teenage film star to a graphic designer to a filmmaker in her 60s, her story is sure to motivate you to embrace your own path of reinvention.

So, grab a cup of tea (or glass of wine!), sit back, and join us for an episode that'll leave you feeling inspired and ready to chase what truly makes you happy.

And please don't forget to share this love-filled episode with the amazing women in your life!

Connect with Ana:

Website/podcast: Thank you Mama Podcast
Instagram: @anatajder
Facebook: @Ana Tajder
Twitter @tajder
LinkedIn: @anatajder

Mentioned in this episode:

• Embracing Fear and Reinventing Midlife: 3 Ways Life Lessons Helped Me Overcome Failure

Kick your midlife fears and uncertainty to the curb and start your Reinvention Rebels journey today. Learn about my audio program, Midlife Reinvention From The Inside Out: 8 Essentials to Greenlight Your Life.

Midlife women ready to reinvent themselves start with being curious about what's possible. Download my free audio, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity & Inspire Your Reinvention Rebel Journey to get started today. 

Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome
• 4:09 Reinvention Through Writing
• 18:28 Reinvention and Following Your Passion
• 25:27 Reinvention and Support Systems
• 30:16 Women's Reinvention and Phases
• 43:48 Celebrating Motherhood and Self-Discovery

Transcript

0:00:01 - Ana
But I think you start with what do I not want? And then I think you explore and you just have to follow what makes you happy, and I think it doesn't have to be complicated. When I decided to quit this corporate job and I of course had to figure out how to feed myself, but then, luckily, the moment I said yes to this true me and to this new path, things started opening up. It was mind boggling. 

0:00:30 - Wendy
Welcome to Reinvention Rebels. Stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reimagined life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. Ready for a dose of inspiration? Let's get to it. Hello, amazing Reinvention Rebels. Welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I'm your host, Wendy. I am so happy you're here. 

This is the place to come for inspiration and information about being fearless in midlife, reinventing ourselves in bold and unapologetic ways and deciding that this is our time. I have the pleasure of featuring the most extraordinary women between 50 and 90 who are doing remarkable things in reinventing themselves, and I love sharing their stories. Why? Because we can all see a part of ourselves in others' stories. We can use them to inspire us, to help us see beyond ourselves, to see new possibilities that maybe didn't exist before, and to encourage us to do it scared and do it anyway. So, even if you're thinking, I'm not so sure if I could do that, maybe it's not that, but maybe it's something else. So these stories will help you see new possibilities. 

Reinvention Rebels is a top 2% global rated podcast. I'm so happy to welcome listeners from all around the world, amazing women and men who are getting inspired every day from these stories, and today is no exception. In a minute I'm going to introduce you to my friend, Ana Tajder, who is amazing. I know I say that about but every one of my guests because it's true. And today, being that it's just before Mother's Day, you're getting a 2 for 1 special, because she is going to be sharing about her own really fascinating reinvention journey and how she's welcomed in more ease along her reinvention path And that's manifested in many different ways. But you're also going to hear a fascinating story about her mother. Her mother has reinvented herself in the coolest ways and it is also a fascinating story. So I cannot wait to share that with you in a moment. 

But I do want to ask you before we get to that did you have a chance to listen to last week's episode? It was part two of my series about failing forward, how failure is an important stepping stone on our road to success. Not always easy. I have failed at many things many times, but it's always taught me really important lessons I needed to learn, and last week was all about three very specific lessons I learned and have applied from my past failures and when I was a voice actor. I wish I'd known that back then. But you know what? It's very interesting how things line up in just the right way. We learn what we need to learn to help us advance along our path, and that's what this episode is all about. You know, i of course, have linked to it in the show notes for easy access, but if you haven't had a chance to listen, i really encourage you to do so. 

Short and sweet, with lots of great ideas that I think you can apply to your life too. So, without further ado, let me introduce my guest, Ana Tajder. Ana Tajder is an award-winning international journalist, author and host of Thank You Mama, in which she interviews women from around the world about the most important lessons they learned from their mothers. After more than a decade working in international marketing and advertising at large corporations, she published two memoirs and well over a hundred essays, articles and interviews in renowned European newspapers, magazines and journals, and she has an amazing re-invention story that she's going to share with us today. Ana Tajder, welcome to the Reinvention Rebels guest chair. 

0:05:08 - Ana
Hi Wendy, i'm so happy to be here, very excited to share my story with you and your listeners. 

0:05:14 - Wendy
I'm excited too, and one of the reasons I'm excited, Ana one. you've got a great story and I have so many questions. I'm going to start asking you in a moment. But I also love that we have this partnership, where you interviewed me on your podcast and now I'm having the chance to do the same thing, and we're both in the business of inspiring women through this idea of story. So I feel like we're very aligned and we've got great synergy. 

0:05:42 - Ana
We are. It's beautiful how different and how similar it is. You know how we inspire women to go inwards and look at, in my case, where they come from and what their roots are. And in your case, what else can I do with? 

0:06:00 - Wendy
myself Exactly. So two different ways to kind of get at the amazing stories that women have and how we both have the opportunity to elevate these stories that I don't think we hear enough of in this world. 

Women's voices, women's stories and how we persevere, how we shine, how we become our best version, which for me, feels like a very big unfolding. It's not like a straight shot to get there right. We're all evolving. No, i think this is going to be really great. So I want to start by talking about this idea that every one of us has a unique story. We have our unique path And in your case, you went from a burned out corporate person and I've been there before, so I understand that But you went from there to an award winning author and journalist, not just like I'm going to start writing, but an award-winning writer and journalist, which for me, feels like quite a Reinvention. How did you know that writing was the path for you to take as you reinvented? 

0:07:07 - Ana
I don't have a simple answer to this. I have a story. My story is quite long and complex. I grew up in what was then Yugoslavia and then became Croatian. There was a war and at 17 I had to escape my home country and with my mother and I moved to Vienna, Austria, And this is where I finished my high school and then decided to do finish my university. My parents are both both artistic. My father is an architect, my mom is an actress, a film actress and also an artist, both extremely successful. They, of course, saw me in creative world, but I and my mom always made fun of me about this. I always said I don't want to be a starving artist like you. 

I decided to study marketing management and then do my MBA And I dreamt of one day becoming the CEO of Disney Studios. I wanted to run Disney Studios. So the first road to there was, you know, getting into corporate, into marketing and corporate life, which I did here in Austria. I worked for a very, very big company telecommunications company, mobile phone, mobile network company when mobile networks just started And it was very exciting. You know it's a. It was a breakthrough technology, life changing things. But after nine years of that, where I often I was the only woman in the room, of course, surrounded by, you know, men in tech, and strange experiences with bosses, which I really hope that after me to movement women in corporate or generally women don't have anymore I really dealt with sexual harassment. I dealt with bullying and weird things I reeled. While I was working there. 

I lived in a very fun apartment building in Vienna, austria, with small apartments, very central, and because these were small apartments, most of people were young and single there And we all became very good friends and had tons of fun. And one Christmas I was home with flu and had nothing clever to doaAnd I thought you know what I'm going to write down this funny things that we experienced in this house. It was like Melrose Place or something And I started writing that And that process of writing them down was so extremely fun for me I couldn't stop. So I thought you know what I'll do little Christmas booklets about stories from our house as Christmas presents for my neighbors, and so I did that and gave this Christmas presents to them and they love them And everybody who read these stories just loved them so much And I loved. 

I never, ever, thought I would have anything to do with writing before. The only the closest I came to writing was writing my diary, which is which I always did as a child. I discovered that writing was my zen, like writing was the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I continued writing and wrote a 400 page book about not only stories of my neighbors and in our house, but then my stories and my friend's stories And it was a little bit. When it came out they called it Viennese Sex and the City. But the story, the story goes on, because I wrote this and I finished this book and it felt amazing And I thought the book served its purpose. 

You know, i thought this was like I'm shedding my skin and I've had to put this on paper and I just put it in my drawer and left it there and continued with my corporate life which was becoming harder and harder on me, and I noticed signs of burnout which I didn't know back then what it was. You know, 15 years ago nobody knew what burnout was And I thought maybe this technological environment is not doing me good, maybe if I moved to something more creative now that I wrote this book that's in the drawer. That would be helpful. So I moved into an advertising agency, which turned out to be a catastrophe. It turned out that advertising was way less creative than what I was doing at my corporate job in a tech company. 

In the meantime, people were reading this book and being like friends were reading it and being like you have to send this to a publisher. Now I'm telling you my whole Reinvention story. I thought, okay, I'll just give it a try. You know, and bought one of these big handbooks called Writer Handbooks And with all the advice and things you have, you know how to get yourself published. And it was bleak. It's like you know, you'll have to send your manuscript to like hundreds of publishers until somebody finally says yes. So I thought I'll choose the biggest, like I'll go down the list, i'll send it to the biggest publisher first and then I'll go down the list and maybe you know place 99, somebody will say yes And I send the book there. And three days later my phone rang and I picked up the phone not thinking anything And they're like we love this, we want to publish it. 

0:12:15 - Wendy
Wow, wow. So you went big, you went big. You're like I'm going to the top. 

0:12:22 - Ana
Yeah, but I didn't go. I didn't go like consciously big You know I was, i'll start with this big thing and then I'll go down. And so this happened. Yeah, this was, this was crazy. I'll never forget that moment when I received this phone call. So I'm working at this advertising agency and it's still. 

It wasn't good and at one point I burned out. There I I Experienced a very, a real burnout. I woke up once Monday morning, drove to work and I started crying in my car, not really knowing what I'm crying about. I wouldn't stop crying for three days, i think I had a complete like nervous breakdown. The only thing I was able to say was I can't do this anymore. 

So I went on sick leave and it took me. I had to heal. You know, i had, i had heart populations. I had problems. I stopped eating. I lost a lot of weight. I really had a very serious physical and mental Burn down, burnout. I managed, with the help of my mom, to heal myself. Many doctors were telling me and psychiatrists who were saying I'm just depressed, i should take antidepressants. I felt very deep inside of me that I'm not depressed because I'm not a depressive person. I just felt like I'm just so deeply tired and I felt that I'm living a life that's not really mine or true to me. And this is where this, this is why I broke down, and Because I knew the bliss of writing, i knew there is a different way of work. There's work out there. 

0:13:55 - Wendy
It's such a fascinating story to me on so many different levels, but one thing I heard is that you had to have a breakdown to have a break through. That, yes, really was a catalyst for spending. This is not the left I want to lead, but at the same time, i know you also had found something that you loved, and I think exactly that's such. A key to Reinvention is finding something that that lights us up, and the way you talk about writing, the way it brings you Joy. That's, i think, a really important lesson for people to hear is that It's okay to have a breakdown, and I've had many breakdowns and sometimes when I'm crying, i have to do my ugly crying to kind of get to the other side, to even Space, to think about what's next or what might be possible. I love how you leaned into this thing that you love so much as a catalyst for your Reinvention. 

0:14:49 - Ana
But you know it wasn't easy and you send me questions for this interview and I it it was. It was very, very difficult to admit to myself and to my environment that because what I've achieved until then being a refugee from Croatia and being in Austria and creating this amazing career, having an MBA and traveling around the world for business, and you know it was like the whole great salary, you know the whole thing. And at that point, to admit To myself and to everybody around me I've invested so much energy and time and money and everything into this and it's not working for me. I don't think this is me. That was hard, so hard, that was hard. 

And again, i was lucky because I had discovered writing, or I always say writing discovered me, because that just fell into my lap somehow And I knew they really helped me, knowing there's there's some kind of productive bliss out there. You know there's something else out there and that and and I also there was a hidden blessing in the burnout because That that was serious. I thought you know what, if I don't heal, if I go back to this, if I take antidepressants and go back to this job, it's gonna kill me like Yeah, over it. But I knew this that would be the end of me in whatever shape or form. I felt very deep inside that this is a chance to find me. You know the truth. Yeah, it was like a little peek into something, this different dimension, and it was like, oh my god, there's more, there's else, there's a different Anna and there's a different life and there's different work out there. Let me go explore that. 

0:16:36 - Wendy
I love that you gave yourself permission to explore that, because I think sometimes we may have that inkling. I feel like maybe there's something else, but it could feel scary. Or We may feel like we're disappointing people in our lives because we're exactly more into ourselves than perhaps other people. But When we can decide that we are important and that our dreams matter and that there's something more which is what you did You said wait a minute, this is an opening. It's hard, right, it's a hard time And you had to go through a lot to get to the other side. But I always feel like, if we can work through our fears and the part that feels so uncomfortable, there's so much possibility on the other side of that. Me, it feels like that's what you did. You leaned into that. We're willing to take those steps. 

So what advice would you have for women that are listening? They're like you know, and a story is really encouraging and inspiring. I hear that she decided there was something more, but I'm kind of afraid myself. What advice do you have, anna, for someone who maybe has a little bit of inkling but isn't sure where to start and feels a little scared? How might they embark on something new or new discovery? 

0:17:51 - Ana
I think that the most important thing is to listen to your guts. I really think that deep inside of us, but I know how hard it is to hear this voice because we are so busy thinking thoughts and thinking what we should be thinking and listening to everybody else's voices. I think we should work on really trying to get in touch with us and listen to our guts and hear what we don't want and what we want, even if I think even the first answer is what do I not want. I think that's important. The moment. It's like this is not right. It's not right Because I know I spoke to so many. I was exploring this topic of burnout, a lot and Reinvention and change. I know many people tell me yeah, but you were lucky because you had something. I know how lucky I was because I already had writing. I had something new to turn towards. My friends tell me I'm burning out but I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what is something else, i don't know which direction to turn. That's the trick. But I think you start with what do I not want? Then I think you explore and you just have to follow what makes you happy. I think it doesn't have to be complicated. 

When I decided to quit this corporate job and I of course had to figure out how to feed myself. But then, luckily, the moment I said yes to this true me and to this new path, things started opening up. It was mind boggling, it was insane what was happening. The same thing, like the book. I thought, okay, i wrote these little stories that I didn't even know what formed. There weren't even essays, there were some thoughts of mine. I thought, okay, i'll send them to this newspaper and introduce myself and say here's a sample. Maybe we could meet and I could start writing something for you. I send that in very scared and shy, because who am I, this marketing expert from some tech company, to write for this newspaper? Same thing happened. Three hours later, the editor writes back and they're like I want to publish this next issue. And I saw it started writing for them. And then, once the book was out, i told my publisher I want to write for big newspapers. Now I need to pay my bills. Put me in touch with some of the biggest German speaking newspaper. And same thing happened. I got in touch with them. They're like awesome, please start. It was crazy. And here's a cute story. 

My first passion is ballet. When I was little, i started ballet at the age of six, but I had to go through a very difficult spine surgery at 15. So I never. I couldn't pursue professional ballet dancing. But I continued taking ballet as exercise. And then, when I couldn't go to my ballet class, i would exercise at home with New York City Ballet Workout DVDs, which I love I'm still a big fan of those. 

And then my mom at one point we were talking about you know, now I'm don't have a job, i'm a freelancer. How do I pay my bills? And mom is like look, you're doing all this ballet. Why wouldn't you start teaching this New York City Ballet Workout? I'm like mom, what are you talking about? So I went on the website and they're like yeah, we are offering an instructor certification program. So I send them an application and I said in there. I'm like listen, i have to tell you, i have a rod in my spine, like I have problems with my body. But they're like awesome, come in. So I flew to New York to get certified, still learn, and get certified with New York City Ballet. Things just started opening up, and this is when I met my husband. I flew to New York, you know, to get certified, to start teaching ballet, to turn yet another dream true. And then I met my husband. 

0:21:34 - Wendy
Hey, rebels, I hope you are enjoying this interview with Anna as much as I am. She has so many amazing insights and I love her Reinvention story. And because you love Reinvention stories and I love Reinvention stories, i want to tell you about a parallel podcast with another amazing female indie podcaster. Her name is Jennifer Arthurton and she has an amazing podcast called Old Chicks No Shit, i mean, just the title alone is pretty cool. She is on a mission to celebrate, illuminate and elevate midlife women. So much similar to what I'm doing, but you know what? We can't ever have too many of these stories. 

Now, Jennifer, she reinvented herself in midlife. She has her own remarkable midlife story And I love the fact that she is sharing the stories of so many other amazing women to inspire us and get us into action and remind us that anything is possible. She showcases how truly powerful women are at this time of life And, as you know that, midlife it's not the beginning of the end. It's simply the beginning of a cool new chapter where we step into our truth, we own our power and, as I like to say, we share our gifts with the world. But you can imagine there's some cool stuff here. Each week, Jennifer shares a really interesting story or insights, and also lessons from real women who are defying cultural stereotypes Yes, please. And perceptions of what midlife should be Yes, please. Again, i love it. 

And here's just a couple of examples There's Deirdre, who began rock climbing at 66, and submitted North America's highest peak in record time. And Melissa, who left a successful corporate career to chase her passion and become an award-winning documentary filmmaker in her 60s. And Genevieve, who followed a soul nudge I like that term And left a 25-year TV producer career in her 50s to found a charity that now serves over one million children. I hope you will give this podcast a listen. You can tune in and subscribe to Old Chicks Know Sh*t on your favorite podcast platform. What you said about saying yes, about when you lean into something, when you follow that thing that lights you up, because you first said tune into the things that you don't like and do some exploring, like, what are the things you definitely? 

wouldn't want to do right And then explore and be open to possibilities. When you are going in that direction, things often start to unfold. I found that too, that once I am clear about my intention or what I want which sometimes is the part is the problem trying to get there. But once you get clarity about that and you're open to it, things can unfold in the way you're talking about that, when we reinvent ourselves, because it's like anything in life, we can make it really difficult. 

I'm really good at making things difficult. I've spent a lot of time on that. Aren't we all Right, making things like why is this so hard? I can't right. But that's one path. But then there's this other path that you went down, which I think is such an important part of Reinvention and this journey that we're all on, wherever we are in that evolution, but that it can unfold with more ease than we often believe is possible. And that when we do trust our gut, like you said. You said, figure out what you don't want to do, do some exploring and trust your gut as some key things that when we trust our gut that this is that we're moving in the right direction, when we put it out there in the universe in whatever way we do that that things conspire in our favor. 

0:25:27 - Ana
Things just start opening up The universe. I always say, when I decided for myself, the universe rolled out a red carpet seriously for me. I mean it was crazy. It was really, really crazy. 

But another thing that I want to mention that I think is very important I had my mom's support. My mom was always such an amazing support. My dad, on the other side, was the opposite. He's like, oh, but you invested so much time and you have this amazing career and this amazing job And you know how are you going to pay your bills. He was the opposite of my mom. 

But I think it's very important to have a team of people, friends, a tribe that you can talk to And that you can really say look, my life isn't working for me right now the way it is. I want to change. I have no idea what direction to go to. You will be surprised, like my mom told me. She's like why don't you teach ballet? You've been doing this. I don't know at that stage 15 years, 20 years it would never occur to me to do that, never. So it's fantastic to talk to people and share and ask, ask for advice, be like you know I need a new me. What do you, do You have an idea who I am and who I could be, and where I should start exploring? 

0:26:45 - Wendy
I think that makes you very important. Yeah, it really is important, and I also think that we're so close to our own lives that we don't have perspective. So your mom, she can see that Exactly Right, and why you couldn't? She's like wait a minute, you take it for granted. 

0:26:59 - Ana
Yeah, you take certain things for granted, yeah, exactly, exactly. 

0:27:03 - Wendy
And it also speaks to what I talk to a lot on the podcast, which is this idea of a Reinvention Dream Team. It's a tribe. It's exactly what you're talking about. It's those people who are your biggest supporters, like your mom, people who want to see you shine, succeed, are cheering you on what the best for you. And we're not talking about anybody, because we all also have naysayers in our life. We're going to be the practical people. Well, are you sure, anna? It's OK, yeah, right. 

0:27:31 - Ana
Indeed, Does that really make sense? You have to learn to compartmentalize and be like I'm not listening to these people. But also another thing was interesting for me People talk to people who live the life you'd like to live. Yes, Talk to people who surround yourself, get in touch, talk to people. And it took me so long to learn that we need to ask questions and there to reach out and be like look, I'd like this and that I don't know how to get there. 

0:28:01 - Wendy
Do you have any idea There to get inspired by others and get others advice and help and know how Makes a big difference, and I believe that that willingness to ask can lead to so many different things as you're talking about, because you never know who might know what or have ideas. 

0:28:22 - Ana
And. 

0:28:22 - Wendy
I also think that sometimes, if we have that feeling like you look at other people and you're feeling jealous or envious I wish I had that in my life, whether it's love or career or friendships or whatever And you don't have it right now I've learned that, instead of feeling so envious about it, those are the people, to your point, you want to talk to. Well, how did you do that? Tell me, how did you do that? Because I want to do my own version of that. Yeah, i need some help getting started. 

So, instead of feeling like you can never have those things, it's about just finding the right people to ask and going, And it's a journey of uncovering, really of unfolding of this self-discovery, which takes time. It's not like we always can figure it out right away. So I love that point that you just made. That's really great. I know, in addition to the amazing Reinventions that you've had in your own life, how you've transformed from this corporate job you didn't like, and literally the physical manifestation of your unhappiness and stress, to this joyful life. Doing something you love is so powerful. But, anna, i know that you also have a mother with you, a powerful re-invention story, and I want you to share that as well, for added inspiration for all of us. Extra inspiration, right Like this is an order you have. 

I'm like he's already so inspiring, But I'd love to hear that story about your mom and how her re-invention unfolded. 

0:29:51 - Ana
My mom was really an amazing woman. She was accidentally discovered at the age of 17 and cast for a movie And that opened her career as a film star. And I say star, not an actress, because she already, with her second movie she won, started winning awards the biggest awards back then in Yugoslavia. So she was celebrated for her talent. But she was a gorgeous woman. She was very beautiful and sexy and young, so her face was on all the covers of fashion magazines and newspapers. She was really, she was a star And parallel to that, she decided that she wants to study at the Academy of Arts. 

So this, you know, she did her first movie at 17 and 18. She had to choose, you know, a university, if she's going to go to university or not. So she's like I'm totally, i'm making movies and I'm going to go to the Academy of Arts, which she graduated from immediately, had her first solo exhibition in Zagreb back then, which was again very, very well reviewed, and she started having two parallel careers. It was amazing She had two parallel careers. She was pushing her art and her movies for quite a while, but then she got married and had me and a husband who maybe had issues with having such a successful woman. So strangely, she decided when I was little that I must have been. I think I was wrong because she still acted, and I acted in some movies with her up to my age of seven. 

So she was 34 when she decided to quit, quit movies and get a job. So so she reinvented herself as a great graphic designer for a school magazine. There was one central magazine for like school children back then in Croatia and she did graphic design for them. So, weirdly, this movie star now went to job, work, to job every day. You know, i did this office job for quite a while, for like nine years or so, and then, when she decided to divorce my dad, she also decided to quit this job at the same time, which now, looking back, I'm like oh wow, how do you decide to get divorced You have a small child, you know, to become a sole caretaker of a child I was nine when they got divorced and then just quit your job and be like I'll figure it out somehow. 

0:32:34 - Wendy
I love that spirit, though I love that like no name, like okay, but this is it, it's going to work out. 

0:32:38 - Ana
It's going to work out. So she started doing clay jewelry. She started making her jewelry, she created her jewelry line. She did this beautiful clay jewelry. And then she did graphic design for other things. She did some industrial design for like an oil factory and stuff like this, and she went back to work in movies, but very like just tiny little roles. She also started doing other work in movies. She did set design at one point. So she was just continuously doing something new and something else. But then the war broke out and that all had to go on a big break. 

She paid her bills by making serialized paintings for hotels, for instance, hotel chains and things unglamorous things like that. And then when she was around 50-something, she asked for a video camera as a Christmas present And she started taking videos of like our life and her life and a lot of videos of her in different reflections in mirrors and windows and reflections. And then for like 10 years almost, and we were all like, what is she doing? I think she even didn't know what she was doing. And then in her early 60s she took a course in video editing and decided she's ready to make her own first movie and become a movie maker And she made this beautiful art film in which she mixed scenes from her movies when she was young with these scenes that she's been filming for the last 10 years of her aging and her in her everyday you know non-glamorous life, and made this beautiful portrait of a woman, or generally women and aging and how society likes to see women and portray women versus how women are, and this with this movie. I think she was 62-65 when it came out. 

That was a huge success. She started going back to movie festivals. She used to with her movie career. She would go to the Cannes Film Festival in New York and around the world And now she was invited to film festivals again, but as a filmmaker, not as an actress, which makes a big difference. You know she was an auteur now And she won awards with this. The Museum of Contemporary Art of Zagreb bought it for the permanent collection. It's in the permanent collection of the museum right now And it catapulted her back into the limelight, but in a different position, where she was the creator now. You know it was amazing And watching her move her interviews is very beautiful. This last interview she gave in her late sixties and I know this for a fact. She would say she was shining brilliantly. She's like I've never been happier And she never. She really was. She was never happier than in her sixties, after this big Reinvention of herself. 

0:35:48 - Wendy
It's amazing what is possible when we are open, when we say yes, when we feel like everything doesn't have to be done in a particular way, and experiment Yes. 

0:36:02 - Ana
I mean, that's such a testament. No, because she didn't know she was experimenting. She's like I'm going to start making these videos of myself. 

0:36:08 - Wendy
She was just like, let me see what I can do with this Experimenting you know, i love that she was so open to that and she tried all these different things, and because when we experiment it doesn't mean it's always going to work out, but there's also information we gain from the experiments. 

Even if it's a quote, unquote failure, it's still pointing us in a certain direction Like I'm doing a whole series now about how our failures lead to our greatest successes That if we can lean into the lessons and the perspective we can gain from things that didn't go the way we wanted them to, we can use that information as we reinvent ourselves, as we work toward our goals. And you know, I'm just such a testament to like I'm just going to get out there, I'm going to do what brings me joy, I'll try it, I'll do it, yeah, yeah. And I can see the parallel between your mom's story and how open she is and you like the lessons you have gained from watching your mother and seeing her unfold and flourish, and how you've applied some of those same things to your own life. 

0:37:09 - Ana
Those are powerful lessons to learn from Powerful lessons, very powerful lessons, and one of the most important things she kept telling me and I think it's important for your listeners is that women, she always told me, women's lives come in phases. She said this makes us different from a man. We women really have like very distinct phases in their lives. She was trying to make give me more patience, because I always wanted everything, everything and everything right now. And she would say, anna, it doesn't work that way, it doesn't have to work that way. You can have a career, you can then have a family life, you can then reinvent yourself and do something completely different. She always kept telling me women's lives come in phases and you have to. It will help you if you recognize this and acknowledge this and go step by step. It's all out there waiting for you, just step by step, interesting. 

0:38:03 - Wendy
That's so powerful and I see that in you. Yeah, very helpful, and I see that in you just talking about how you've reinvented yourself and how things have unfolded and the possibilities that you've been able to lean into. It's really pretty extraordinary. 

0:38:20 - Ana
It helped me to decide, when my son was born, to just take a break and just be like you know what. Because my mom was so busy working when I was born, I she put me into a nursery when I was one year old and it was, you know, And I wanted something different from my son and her telling me this really gave me the permission to say you know what? I have a little baby now. I want to spend the first two years of his life with him And then he can go back, like he can go into a nursery or kindergarten, whatever it's called, And then I can go back to work and start a new phase. 

0:38:57 - Wendy
Makes so much sense. I love that You learned that lesson from her and you're like I could do something different and there are other possibilities, and you'll spend that quality time with him. Anna, as we're beginning to wrap up, i do want to ask you as you think about this beautiful Reinvention journey you've been on, all the things you've leaned into giving yourself permission for and then being able to really create something amazing. if you had to give your Reinvention journey a theme, what would that be? 

0:39:28 - Ana
I think I have two themes. I think my first theme would be trust your guts. I don't know if that maybe that's a motto. It's like just trust your guts, you know, listen to yourself, you know best. But the second one is definitely once you say yes to yourself, i really think the universe will start saying yes to you as well. You know, i think this is that that would be my theme. 

0:39:51 - Wendy
It's a powerful theme. It's a powerful theme And I think it's such an important one for us to lean into and explore as women, because I feel like we put so many constraints on ourselves, often trying to shape ourselves into what other people want us to be whether it's our family or boss society you name it And so that exploration that you're talking about and leaning into, the yes is really powerful. I know people listening to our conversation are thinking she is so inspiring. Anna has a story, and then her mom has a story too. Like then, you also share this extraordinary story about your mom and her Reinvention journey. 

0:40:34 - Ana
You see, with a mom like this, there's no surprise that I had to start working with moms and daughters on the topic of mom, and this is where my podcast was born, because when I lost her, I had this panic attack that I was going to forget what she taught me, and I started writing it down. And that gave me the inspiration and the idea to start the podcast in which I interview women about the most important things they learned from their mothers, and this was yet another Reinvention point. I remember me being like, oh my God, how am I? And this is where my husband helped. He's like this is such an amazing idea. Do not give up, just go jump in and swim, do this. And that turned into this amazing, beautiful journey. Now, in the meantime, i have like 120 interviews with women from 60 countries Wow Yeah, and it's going to become a very beautiful book of lessons from mothers all over the world One day. I'm very excited about it, but thanks to my mama, All things to your right. 

0:41:37 - Wendy
She planted so many seeds that have blossomed in such beautiful ways, that are being of service to so many people. It's not even just about you, right. It's about this joy and inspiration that you're spreading into the world to help other people and their stories. Where can people find you? Tell us where we can find your podcast. Where can we find you on social media? How? 

0:41:59 - Ana
can we do that? The podcast is called Thank You, mama And it can be found everywhere. Wherever you listen to your podcast And, since recently, on YouTube as well. I am on all social media under TIDER T-A-J-D-E-R. That's we shortly spoke before we started recording. There's only one TIDER, anna TIDER. I can be found there And if one Googles Thank You Mama, podcast, wonderful, I'm there. 

0:42:25 - Wendy
Wonderful All of that in the show notes for easy access to both your socials and your podcast. Anna, i cannot thank you enough for gracing me with your beautiful presence, your stories, your reinvention journey and that of your moms. It was such a joy to speak with you. Thank you for having me. I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as I did. I had a ball interviewing Anna. I love her insights, i love her story. I love her mother's story, how I propose for Mother's Day. 

So if you are a mom, or you have a mom, or you are a mom to your kiddies or doggies or in some way you have that nurturing role as an auntie like me, it's time to celebrate all of us and the many contributions that we make. I'll also mention that if today's episode sparked something in you, you're thinking hmm, i want to figure out what I might do as I reinvent myself. I must encourage you to download five questions to spark your curiosity and ignite your read and venture travel journey. You got to start somewhere. Getting curious and leaning into self-discovery is a great way to do it, and I've got some really simple questions to get you thinking about what might be possible. You can find a link to that in the show notes, and I cannot wait to see you back here next week for another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. 

Thank you so much for listening. If this episode inspired you, please do me a favor and share it. Share it with the women in your life that are looking for inspiration, motivation, positivity, new possibilities, anyone for whom you think this would resonate. And, finally, keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer. 

Transcribed by https://podium.page