Rewriting the Narrative of Age with Vision and Vitality
May 27, 2024
Laura Wagenknecht / Carole Hodges
Have you ever considered that your most transformative years might arrive with the wisdom of midlife? Join me for an inspiring conversation with Carole Hodges, who brings her expertise as a transformational coach and author to the table. We explore the richness of midlife, challenging the myth that age limits growth and creativity. Carole enlightens us on the power of a youthful mindset and how tapping into universal intelligence can revitalize both our personal and professional lives. Together, we dissect the critical role of an internal vision for steering business success and delve into the synergy between personal development and achieving professional milestones.
A fire incident became the catalyst for my profound transformation; it's these unexpected life signals that punctuate our discussion in the second part of our exchange. Carole and I ponder the art of staying present, crafting a future vision, and taking daily steps to manifest our deepest intentions. This episode is brimming with insights and stories that celebrate the impact of shared experiences, encouraging listeners to recognize the signs that life presents. Embrace this invitation to expand your horizons with us, and let's ignite a renewed passion and purpose in the mosaic of your life.
A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business. Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Have you ever considered that your most transformative years might arrive with the wisdom of midlife? Join me for an inspiring conversation with Carole Hodges, who brings her expertise as a transformational coach and author to the table. We explore the richness of midlife, challenging the myth that age limits growth and creativity. Carole enlightens us on the power of a youthful mindset and how tapping into universal intelligence can revitalize both our personal and professional lives. Together, we dissect the critical role of an internal vision for steering business success and delve into the synergy between personal development and achieving professional milestones.
A fire incident became the catalyst for my profound transformation; it's these unexpected life signals that punctuate our discussion in the second part of our exchange. Carole and I ponder the art of staying present, crafting a future vision, and taking daily steps to manifest our deepest intentions. This episode is brimming with insights and stories that celebrate the impact of shared experiences, encouraging listeners to recognize the signs that life presents. Embrace this invitation to expand your horizons with us, and let's ignite a renewed passion and purpose in the mosaic of your life.
A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business. Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Laura :
Good morning. I'm your host, laura Wagner-Knecht, ceo of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you're listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. A mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. To reach me, contact bizradious. I have a really special guest for you guys today. I'm so excited.
Laura :
Carol Hodges, you are just going to be in for a treat. So she is the life change navigator and is a transformational coach, trainer and speaker who brings forth her client's inner wisdom, and for over 25 years she has studied and applied the scientific and spiritual principles she shares. She shows audiences how to chart their dreams and achieve a future they love. Carol works with entrepreneurs and business owners in midlife and I, like that, Just got to say this is just fabulous. Carol, just shooting for the midlife. What is midlife, I hate to ask, but okay. She works with those entrepreneurs and business owners in midlife to build their vision, accelerate their results and create rich and fulfilling lives. Carol is a sought-after speaker and coach who has shared the stage with Harv Eker or Eker, I apologize Doria Cordova and Clinton Swain Talk about your heavy hitters. So she is the author of the bestselling book the Menopause Millionaire Keys to Prosperity and Meaning in the Second Half of your Life. Ah well, welcome to the show, carol. This is fantastic.
Carole:
Oh, I am so glad to be here.
Laura :
Yeah, I have to say you know us older folk really like that you focus on us and that you have your pearls of wisdom, if you will, that you can share with the audience.
Carole:
Well, I'll tell you, I began to work with people at Midlife because, well, in my own Midlife, everything fell apart and, yeah, put it back together. But what I realized is that everyone at Midlife, you've got experience. You know, the experience is really what takes you to the next level. However, some of it's not great experience. You've got some wisdom and good things and you've got some garbage that's been thrown into your life as well.
Laura :
Yeah, Are you saying like bad messaging that we've internalized? Is that what you're talking about? Oh gosh, yes.
Carole:
It's the whole idea of what's old these days.
Laura :
Right, right yeah.
Carole:
Okay, I grew up in a generation where you were over the hill when you were 30. Yeah, oh gosh, that's young.
Laura :
Exactly, they're babies, they are.
Carole:
Yeah, so it's age is really an internal thermometer, because you can maintain a young attitude at any age.
Laura :
I like that, and what do you mean by you can have a young attitude. What does that mean? Because you know I'm thinking about something that somebody said to me not too long ago about their body might be their biological age, but their brain is about 20 to 40 years younger.
Carole:
Well, and that can be true, and the body can also respond to good thoughts, and so what's a young attitude? Then look inside and you have a vision of something that has not yet happened that causes you to grow. That means, gee, I'm not there yet. I have to improve, grow, and I love with business owners that that's honestly. What you're often looking for is growth, but what happens depends upon what you have in your own mind as growth.
Laura :
Yeah, yeah. So you're saying, in order to grow a business in some ways, you really need to grow personally, or at least have the mindset for that growth, opportunity for that growth opportunity, yes, the mindset, and I call it a dream.
Carole:
I call it dream building. Now, often that's a difficult thing to call it, because we dream when we're asleep and yet if we're sleepwalking, that's not a good way to go through life. But in dreams we can suddenly do the things that maybe in your real life you can't do.
Carole:
You use your imagination. And when you use your imagination, I will say one thing I look at is everything that is created is always created twice. When Edison had the envisionment of what could happen with electricity, it started inside with just an idea and then he kept at it until he changed the whole world by all of us powering everything with electricity. So that happens with all business owners too. You envision it inside first, of exactly what it is that you would like, and from there then you create a business plan.
Laura :
But I see what you're saying, yeah, yeah. And then, when you're talking about a business plan, you're talking about adding that vision and the mission and the values that are important to you and the business. Yes, right, right, but it can't happen without that vision. You're absolutely right.
Carole:
No, I call it tapping into universal intelligence UI. We hear all about AI, which is a great tool to expand our business with language, but really, ui, that connection to something beyond us, that's where the ideas and creativity come from. It's the things that surprise you. You're thinking about something and all of a sudden, a brand new idea pops in.
Laura :
Right, and so are you talking about like? Well, so I see this on so many different levels now. So if we're talking about services like coaches, consultants, therapists, that kind of thing, then we're talking about being able to tap into the connectedness with others in some ways. But I also see this other layer of creativity and innovation that you were kind of alluding to with Edison. So what, what? Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Carole:
a bit more on that. Yes, I would say. First of all, most people, myself included, and pretty much every everyone born human, has a way of looking around at our circumstances and Thinking. I'm limited by that, you know. Maybe I was born into a Family where I wasn't supported, or heck, I live in the poorer side of town. Therefore, I can't you tell yourself, I can't achieve something. Hmm, tapping into creativity and universal intelligence is, putting that aside, to say what would I absolutely love and if there were no obstacles, what would I love? And looking at it, obstacles, what would I love? And looking at it not from the typical American way of more, just more, because that doesn't always make one happy, but looking at your health and wealth, looking at your relationships, yes, looking at your vocation and business and what you're doing and your time and money freedom, and what you're doing and your time and money freedom, and taking all of that into account what would I choose if I felt like there were no obstacles?
Laura :
Yeah, that's a toughie, though. I mean can't imagine how many people can't. People often can't imagine no obstacles. Right, there are financial obstacles all the time.
Carole:
Well, there's financial circumstances, is what I would call it. I see we all have a certain amount of money in our bank account. And you can go to the bank. You can look at it online. That's real. However, that's not the end of the story. That's what is today.
Laura :
Okay, so go on, tell me more.
Carole:
So to move forward you have to have the vision that gets you out of bed in the morning and I will admit that I'm the first one to over-plan something to get a business plan. And it's got so many steps and then I figure out and start adding them up and putting the substats in and I'm exhausted. You know I've now got 50 steps and I'm questioning do I really want to do this?
Carole:
It looks like an awful lot of work, yeah, and there's a different way, and that way is to tap into a dream, and I'd like to put it out about three years in the future. Why? Because your subconscious recognizes that, oh my gosh, anything can happen.
Laura :
Pandemic is a good example of that right. Nobody could have imagined that.
Carole:
No one could imagine it and it changed people's lives Honestly. A lot of feeling restricted and yet some people found new ways of doing business. The whole food delivery industry blossomed during the pandemic. So some people looked at the situation and the circumstance and gave up. And other people looked at the circumstance and says what's possible now?
Laura :
Right, right, I like that question. You ask what's possible now. Right, right, I like that question. You ask what's possible now.
Carole:
Yeah, it's an easy way to look at it is what can I do today? If I have a vision, okay, my business in three years will be booming and I will love my clients be booming and I will love my clients and I will have the right team in there to make everything blossom. And today, even though I look at and there's a limit on what I have in my bank account, I can still say what's possible for me to do today from where I'm at and take a step forward. From where I'm at and take a step forward. And have you ever noticed that life goes on, and often with a vision? Sometime in the next week someone pops in. You meet them in the grocery store, you meet them someplace you didn't expect and they're a link toward your vision and you know it because you have that vision. So you begin to see that there's a higher power working with you to create all those coincidences.
Laura :
Well, and you're calling them coincidences, Other people might call it divine intervention, Other people might call it you know unique circumstances. But yeah, I think we often are so focused on the future or the past that we're not in the present to notice.
Carole:
Yes, can I give you an example from my life? Yeah, please, yeah. In October of this last year, october 3rd to be exact, was sitting there watching the Voice on television and all of a sudden had this smell that like something electrical was going wrong. So jumped up because that's not a comfortable thing to watch television. So we ran around looking in the kitchen, looking in my office, couldn't find anything. And then suddenly I saw something coming from a storeroom in the back. We had a fire. It was out in the workshop. We found it right away when it was just under the counter, but before the firemen got there, flames bigger than the back of the roof. Oh my goodness, oh wow. But before the firemen got there, flames bigger than the back of the roof. Oh my goodness, oh wow. And basically that evening all the possessions that we gathered together and inheritances and all sorts of things either went up in flame or, what I didn't realize, with fire.
Carole:
They drowned, because they come in and spray water all over everything the front of my house looked fine, but when I walked in, the ceiling was sitting on the furniture.
Laura :
Oh, my goodness.
Carole:
Now, that was a huge interruption in my life, but I will tell you, even at the time I felt like there was something bigger going on and in retrospect I felt like spirit stepped in and said stop what you're doing right now, which we needed to do because we needed to recreate our life. But as a result of that, I have gone much deeper into and switching around a little bit of the coaching that I've been doing to recognize this new universal intelligence as part of our day-to-day life. And like miracles happen. We were figuring out where we were going to live and all of a sudden I get a text from someone that I've known for years, but not well, offering us a place to live in Carlsbad.
Laura :
Oh, wow.
Carole:
So we've had a room here and a chance to really say, to reframe ourselves, if you will, and say what are we doing that works, what doesn't, and what's the difference we want to make. And this is where coming past midlife also helps, because I believe everybody's here for a purpose. Midlife also helps because I believe everybody's here for a purpose. And sometime after midlife is usually when you figure it out. I mean, I envy those there are. Sometimes I see, people who are in their teens and they know what they want to do.
Laura :
But yes, I envy those people.
Carole:
That was not me, no, you like the idea of exploration over time. Then huh, yeah, yeah, nice, heck. I mean, laura, you look at it and look at the experience we've had up to a later point in life and they're things you chose, but they make you uniquely, you.
Laura :
Yes, yeah, so true, so true. The decisions that we make earlier in life and they, you know they compound over time, right. They have impacts that cause you to go left versus right in any given scenario, right. And then the compilation of all those decisions that you make lean you in one direction, maybe, or cause you to actually buck against the direction you were headed. You know, it's really fascinating.
Carole:
You point out something very important there, which I believe is key for everyone, which is to notice what you're noticing. When you make a decision, or you're with certain people, or notice, do I feel more alive.
Carole:
Or am I suddenly wishing I could be someplace else? Right, right, because this is giving you valuable information. You're the one who will interpret that information, but we are little receiving ends for feelings, for thoughts and for inspiration. They all can come into our experience. By noticing what you're noticing, you have more access in your choices because, ultimately, you want to be expansive. So notice, am I feeling expansive, or am I feeling like I'd go, you know, crawl under the blanket and pull it over my head?
Laura :
Yeah, or even overwhelmed by the expansiveness right, because it might be too much that can be as well. Yeah, yeah, very, very interesting. Yeah, yeah, very, very interesting. You know, I'm curious about one thing what is you know? What is something that you have found key in working with the clients that you've worked with? If there's one thing you could say, this did, doing this X exercise or something helped people move from point A to point B what would that be for you?
Carole:
The first thing. I'm actually going to repeat some of what I've said, but by noticing what you're noticing. Noticing what you're noticing. If you're in any area where you're not feeling joyous and expansive, notice that. So notice what you're noticing and that will give you some of the clues to create your vision of life. And, as I say, look at it about three years out. You had no obstacles. What would that be? And get in a relaxed, positive state of mind to do that. But this is the thing that will, by creating that and moving toward it, that is what will get you out of bed and get you excited in the morning.
Carole:
Yeah, and then, then, finally, as you've got that clear, make a decision that you're gonna go toward it and take an action from where you are with what you have. Take an action toward it each day, that's wonderful, Wow.
Laura :
well, if people wanted to get in touch with you and in particular, I'm curious more I'd love to learn more about your book, the Menopause Millionaire. I love the title, but I am kind of curious how can they contact you if they want to reach out to you and find out more about you?
Carole:
The best way is well, one of two ways Go to carolhodgescom, and my first name has an E on it.
Laura :
C-A-R-O-L-E. Yes.
Carole:
H-O-D-G-E-S all together Mm-hmm, and that will then give you some links there to even meet in person strategy session. But that's the best way to get a hold of me.
Laura :
Perfect, wow, this has really been powerful. I really appreciate everything that you're sharing and I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your schedule to, you know, sit with us and have a conversation. It's been fantastic.
Carole:
Oh well, I love being with you. Great questions, and let's expand the world together.
Laura :
Yeah, I love it. Love it Well. Thanks again, carol. It's been great to have you and I want to thank the audience for listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. You can get this episode again and other great episodes and content by listening to, or I mean by going to bizradious and click on shows, and I want to thank you again and have a great rest of your day.
