[5.4] Welcome to Aging With Purpose and Passion.
[9.2] The podcast designed to inspire your greatness
[12.3] and thrive through life.
[14.1] Get ready to conquer your fears.
[16.7] Here's your host,
[18.2] Psychotherapist, coach, and empowerment expert,
[21.8] Beverly Glaser.
[22.9] What do you do when your business,
[25.1] you built disappears overnight?
[28.7] Welcome to Aging With Purpose and Passion.
[32.4] I'm Beverly Glaser, a re-invention strategist
[35.4] and leadership coach for women over 50
[38.0] to turn a lifetime of wisdom into their most impactful chapter
[42.9] yet.
[43.7] And you can find me on re-inventedpossible.com.
[47.8] F. Foster is an entrepreneur, author,
[52.2] and the owner of Keller Williams, Scotland.
[55.8] After losing her fitness businesses
[58.0] during the global pandemic,
[60.1] Ev pivoted from her own personal crisis
[63.5] to achieving purpose-driven success.
[66.9] She is the author of Change Starts with Choice
[70.3] and a student of intuitive psychology
[73.1] dedicated to helping women regain clarity,
[76.5] collaborating with them to achieve their goals.
[80.0] If you've ever felt that you hit rock bottom,
[83.1] this story will empower you to rise to the top,
[86.8] So keep listening.
[89.3] Hi, Eve.
[90.5] Welcome.
[91.3] Hi, there.
[91.8] Hi.
[93.3] Great to be here.
[94.9] Yeah, it's great to have you.
[97.1] You grew up in Scotland.
[98.8] What was it life back in the day when you grew up?
[104.8] Life was fairly simple, actually.
[108.5] I grew up mom and dad, myself, my younger sister.
[112.8] My grand lived with us.
[114.5] life was revolved around, they're going to the church twice in a Sunday and yeah,
[122.7] kind of mom stayed at home, dad worked in the railway, so fairly simple, comfortable,
[130.7] but you know, happy, happy childhood.
[133.4] Nice, nice. Were you always an entrepreneur? Did you always want to go into business?
[139.7] And it's a great question because nobody in my world was in business because it was that
[146.4] kind of just simple life as I say.
[149.7] But you know, my mom was very good at seeing to me, you know, I don't know why you just
[156.3] don't be normal.
[157.8] I don't know why you don't just, you're not like everybody else and all these kind of
[163.4] things that you know, you think at the time, well, I think I'm quite normal.
[167.7] I was always very competitive, child when it came to sports and I was always very
[175.7] talkative and like connecting with people so I was quite different from my dad was very
[183.4] friendly with people my mom was very introverted so she just could not understand where she got
[189.7] me from and quite often said that you know I don't know where I got you from so I think there was
[195.1] There was always a difference in my mind from a very young age.
[199.1] Yeah.
[200.1] And so you decided to own a business.
[205.3] It was your first business in gym.
[208.5] No, my first business was a financial services company in my 20s.
[215.2] So I had sort of honed my cheats in the corporate world.
[220.2] And then decided at that time I would go out my own.
[223.7] and it was a financial services in life insurance, etc.
[228.3] So I did that in my mid 20s and had that for five years.
[234.2] In fact, I'm a little bit longer.
[235.6] So that was my first business.
[237.2] And then I sold that when I got married
[242.0] and they had my second child.
[245.1] So that was my first kind of venture
[248.6] as in my own business.
[250.4] And then the gyms came when I then had my fourth child
[256.1] and he was good to school,
[258.0] because I stayed at home, I was stay at home at that point,
[262.1] sort of held time with my husband's business
[264.3] and various other things.
[266.0] And I opened up the gyms when my youngest went to school
[269.8] at the age of five, so that was me gone back into employment,
[274.8] but not employment as in my own business, yeah.
[278.3] No, no.
[279.5] And those business thrived, what was that like?
[284.3] So the, the, the gym business was like,
[286.9] was, you know, when you look back at things
[289.0] slightly differently than when you're right
[291.3] in the middle of it, don't you?
[293.0] It was a successful business for the people
[295.6] that were members of the gym.
[297.5] And what I mean by that was it was a ladies-only gym.
[300.2] So we had a real great community.
[302.8] We had prepared classes, we were changing lives.
[306.0] we were getting women to get the confidence back.
[309.9] It wasn't just about losing weight.
[311.8] It was about identity, the confidence,
[314.9] everything like that.
[316.1] So it was successful on that level.
[318.7] But during the time when the gym was about three years old,
[324.3] my marriage ended.
[325.7] So the gym, whilst it didn't have to support me financially.
[329.4] When I was married, it sure did.
[332.5] Once I, that managed, indeed, so it went from,
[337.5] you know, being a business that I really joined
[340.7] was passion business to this needs to support myself
[344.7] and the four kids and unfortunately,
[347.6] financially, it just didn't.
[349.7] So I had to walk away from that.
[353.2] I actually passed the gym over to another,
[356.0] a to my manager at the time,
[358.3] and I had to walk away from it and walk away from it
[361.8] in the quite a lot of date because I'd kind of put money into it to keep it going because
[368.4] because it was successful in the same sort of helping, you know.
[372.8] Yeah, yes, you were caught in between. You wanted to continue to run it and yet you couldn't.
[379.0] And then COVID came in and everything stopped.
[384.2] Yeah, COVID COVID was a little bit later.
[386.9] But by that point, I had then started another business.
[391.9] Yeah, I'd gone back into a really state,
[395.9] which was what I'd been in in my early 20s.
[398.9] And so I'd started a business in really state
[402.9] and then COVID came in and that,
[405.9] but I managed to stay through that.
[407.9] We came through that and then obviously,
[409.9] Kayla Williams opportunity came along
[412.9] just as lockdown happened,
[415.9] but we have sustained and we're still here. We're still here six years later.
[420.8] Yeah. And so you decided to buy into Kellogg Williams Scotland.
[427.6] And tell us about that franchise. A real estate, as you know, as I know, as anyone listening knows,
[434.3] it's a difficult business and there's lots of competition. What is different about Kellogg?
[440.2] So, Kailer is the largest brokerage in the world actually.
[446.2] It's very prominent in the US, Canada and now in 66 countries worldwide.
[452.1] So I think the way I explain Kailer, it is the platform, it's the training technology company
[457.7] to help people get into really state.
[460.2] And I had done really state to the point where I thought it'd be quite good to train people
[464.5] to help people run their own businesses.
[466.6] So Kelly was a good fit for me culturally
[469.5] and also what it offered people for opportunities.
[473.6] And you know, Kelly,
[475.4] it's self being a training company,
[477.5] it then felt a good fit for me to then grow further myself
[482.5] while screwing other people.
[484.7] And yeah, it was an opportunity that kind of was presented
[489.1] to me and I decided to take it.
[492.5] And yeah, it's a self employed,
[495.9] state agency you know really state in Scotland and the UK is still relatively new. So I quite like
[502.4] being a innovator or I can have markedly direct quite like kind of doing something that
[509.0] that has maybe not quite been done to a great great level. So that gives me a bit of a buzz
[517.9] She wanted to do that.
[520.7] Yeah.
[521.7] And you're a pioneer then.
[523.7] You're carving new ground.
[525.9] But also you still have four kids to support.
[530.7] And that's a bit of a risk.
[532.7] Did you think of it as a risk?
[534.1] Or it was just a challenge for you and you just failed.
[536.7] I'm going to do this.
[538.5] The challenge, to be honest with you
[540.6] was when when I lost the gems or when I
[543.6] walked away from the gems was actually
[545.9] finding a job that I could do whilst having the four kids because I was on my own and to try
[554.4] so I tried to get back into a state agency at that point but they wanted me in the office that
[559.7] half past eight to half past five you know who was then going to pick up the kids at school who
[564.9] was going to do the football runs and that this run and or just soccer run wherever you want to
[569.9] all these things. So it was almost like it was that opportunity of, okay, I can do really
[576.4] state because I know I can do it. I'm good at it. I, you know, I'd clients that would come
[580.3] back to me, but I can, I have to do it on a self-employed basis because nobody is going
[587.3] to give me the hours that I need, they are the money that I need. And, and, and because,
[593.5] you know, childcare was, was not an option because it's so expensive and the kids were
[598.1] know at that point of an age where they could be left at home. So it was one of those,
[607.3] whilst it was challenging, it was an opportunity to the city's family and also developing a
[616.8] business. Do you think that it's particularly difficult for a woman in Scotland to be an entrepreneur
[626.5] and a business person or is it the same?
[630.5] I think it's difficult. I think there's a lot of difficulty with it. I think we have
[637.5] a kind of culture in Scotland where you know a lot of people work for councils, a lot of people
[643.8] are employed. There's very, very small percentage UK in the remains Scotland who are actually entrepreneurs
[650.9] and business people. I obviously, my circle of people is a lot of business people and entrepreneurs
[656.4] but that the kind of mindset and mentality is,
[659.7] you know, you leave school, you get a job and that's you.
[662.3] You know, you just work.
[664.3] So again, same as my mother saying,
[667.5] you know, you're different, you know,
[668.8] what makes you think you can do that?
[671.6] You know, well, why who says I can't?
[674.0] You know, and who says we shouldn't?
[676.3] So I don't think it's even so much just for women.
[678.9] I think there's a lot less entrepreneurs
[682.3] in the mail, as I decide of Scotland,
[686.3] but certainly much less.
[688.3] That's changing however.
[689.9] I do think that that's beginning to change.
[692.5] I think the, I think COVID actually has made it possible
[696.2] for people to work from home
[698.0] so that they've got businesses that they can do from home.
[701.2] You know, they're online businesses,
[702.6] AI businesses, social media businesses.
[705.5] So there's a lot more, you know, businesses coming out
[708.2] and that these kind of sectors that women
[710.7] are getting a part of and doing, you know,
[713.6] doing very well and being successful.
[716.1] But I do, there's definitely a,
[718.9] we don't celebrate success very well in this country.
[722.4] If somebody's successful would tend to go,
[725.0] well, you know, she's wise,
[726.9] why who does she think she is?
[728.3] And you know, she needs kind of,
[730.7] let's just not card out in a little bit.
[732.4] You know, we're not very good at that.
[735.3] And we're, yeah, it's something that I would love to change
[739.3] and spending time in the States.
[741.1] I see that, you know, with Kella Williams
[743.3] and I'm, you know, I go across the, I'm going across the next week actually, really looking forward to it.
[748.3] There seems to be a different mindset, you know, with this celebrate people success and talk about money.
[755.3] We don't talk about money. We are, we're, you know, we are kind of like, oh, who else a dirty subject?
[761.3] We don't talk about that. We don't talk about success. And that's a shame because there are people that, you know, should be celebrated.
[769.3] And particularly in real estate where it is, it can be dog,
[774.3] the dog and what happens also is you're now a team.
[780.3] And you're helping people to help themselves as well.
[784.3] And you're doing that through a book.
[786.3] Tell us about that book, change starts with choice.
[790.3] So I think people had, people that knew me,
[793.3] you know, had, had sort of said,
[795.3] okay, if you should write a book,
[797.3] you know that kind of throw away because I would tell them a story of something that I'd been
[801.5] through or a challenge and I would use a lot of these challenges to illustrate to people
[809.0] look you know you think that this is it you know and this is going to last forever and you have
[814.7] no choice and you know this is awful and yes it might be right now but you can get out of this
[820.1] this and here's why I did or so I kept telling me things so people oh my goodness I didn't know
[825.3] about you and so someday it's said to me, you know, do the book, you know, just just because
[832.7] you can help people because when people think that they have no choice or that, you know,
[838.3] that a mom, they have kids or the two-olds or other two-young or they've no experience or all these
[844.5] things that we use as excuses, um, show them that you can do it. So the book came out of really
[852.5] my desire to show people I am no extraordinary. I'm no super women. I just made choices when I had to
[862.6] make choices and choices when I had challenges. So when it follows the life of a butterfly, it
[870.1] follows the life of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. And I think as women,
[875.9] particularly, we can go through that transformation quite often in our lives. But sometimes we have
[882.3] have that chrysalis round us, we have to deconstruct and that's okay and then we can
[888.3] emerge you know stronger and fly, that's that's kind of so that's my message with the book is
[896.5] really everything in life is a choice. We can't control it, we can't control what happens,
[904.8] but we can control what we do in a given situation and how we react.
[909.6] And it must have been a struggle.
[913.0] Here you were alone.
[914.0] You had the kids.
[915.0] You had to survive.
[916.8] You had to find a way.
[918.9] And what I'm hearing also of is that's a choice too.
[924.0] I'm going to pick myself up and I'm going to make it work.
[928.7] And a lot of women become extremely defeated.
[932.2] I can never and you go back into that cycle of negative thinking and what am I going
[937.8] to do and become a victim. And it's a choice not to be a victim. And when you find a way without
[947.4] that victim mentality, you will find a way out. There will be a door. There will be somebody helping
[953.8] you or some idea that you're going to get. So what I'm seeing is you always had that.
[960.0] And now you're a mentor.
[963.0] Yeah, I think the kind of, you know, I think if you've come out of a relationship, for example,
[970.0] that has been, you know, deemed, you know, it's a failure.
[973.0] We talk about field managers, okay? That's a very broad term.
[977.0] But, you know, you then have perhaps have a belief that you are a failure.
[983.0] No, you're not.
[984.0] You're just a failed managed, or you know, something about that relationship field.
[988.0] relationship field, you are not a failure. But if you, and then if other people are telling
[993.5] you, oh, you know, that's a shame, you manage field, you're a failure, but you know,
[998.5] you're, you're getting that belief in your head. And then that becomes your story. That
[1003.3] becomes what you're actually telling yourself. And I, I, I, I, I see, and a lot of
[1010.4] women do that, whether it's a, you know, a relationship breakdown, or, you know, a loss
[1016.7] of a job or anything like that. We might have not succeeded in everything we've done, but we are
[1024.4] not failure. Not everything works, not everything is a success in that sense. So, you know, I think
[1032.8] becoming a victim and I think being a victim, yeah, you do have a choice, but that's where I think
[1042.3] that the whole kind of chrysalis thing comes in for me. Because sometimes we do have to just take
[1048.7] that time to protect ourselves. We have to just really kind of deconstruct and whether that's
[1055.6] learning things or whether it's just taking time to rediscover who we are, what our identity is,
[1062.7] and then emerge as a different person. But the fit fundamentally the same, but in a different way.
[1069.7] So I do believe that, you know, I do believe everything that we do, we do have a choice of some sort that we can make.
[1080.7] Yeah.
[1081.7] Yes.
[1082.7] So what do you think is the number one mistake that women have when they're in business?
[1091.4] I think that the put a lot of pressure on themselves,
[1098.4] because if you've got a successful business,
[1101.3] you also want to be a successful wife,
[1103.3] a successful mother, a successful individual.
[1106.7] You want to be, you know, bake the best cakes
[1110.1] for the coffee morning that, you know,
[1112.2] your daughter is told you about the night before.
[1115.3] We put a lot of pressure on ourselves.
[1119.1] When actually sometimes we've just got to go,
[1121.6] do you know what?
[1122.5] I actually can't do that for that time.
[1124.9] I, you know,
[1126.4] and the mistake fundamentally is we don't take enough time
[1130.0] for ourselves to give ourselves that little bit
[1133.3] and just go,
[1134.2] do you know what,
[1135.0] what do I need right now?
[1136.9] And I was liking it to,
[1139.7] we go, we go, we go, we're juggling,
[1141.7] we're, we're doing this,
[1144.4] we're doing that and perfection doesn't exist.
[1148.9] you can have that and outwardly people,
[1154.1] you compare yourself to people and you think,
[1156.1] how do they do it?
[1157.7] How do they do it?
[1159.5] And underneath there's a lot of swans out there
[1163.9] who are very graceful, but underneath the surface,
[1166.8] they are paddling like Billio.
[1171.1] So I think also having this work-life balance
[1176.3] that doesn't exist.
[1178.9] to balance that's okay. Sometimes you have to, you know, I can remember sitting my children down
[1185.1] and saying, look, I'm really going to be focusing on the business right now and the job and
[1190.5] need to start this and getting their support because I knew that I was going to be working
[1196.7] long hours and I needed to get that business off the ground and you know, they understand,
[1202.7] And thankfully they've grown up round the dads of businessmen.
[1208.6] I was a business, I am a businesswoman.
[1211.8] So they understand that that can happen.
[1214.6] But I think the fundamental mistake women make, particularly business women, is just put
[1220.2] too much pressure on themselves.
[1223.9] And we're just that, we're due, they take that pressure.
[1228.0] Where do you let that go?
[1230.2] Where do you take, where's your safe space? Where do you have that before you actually?
[1238.7] Do you remember the old fashioned pressure cookers? I can remember my mum having one and
[1243.2] you could hear it whistling and you know I was like that thing's going to blow.
[1247.8] That's so easy. I think how we are as women.
[1251.8] And, you know, it's a difficult, difficult, and then it's difficult to get yourself out of that,
[1261.8] because, you know, and that's, I guess that's where, you know, the mid-transitioning to the
[1268.2] kind of intuitive psychology coaching. I see that so much with women, and I, you know what, I become
[1276.1] a safe space for them, you know, to take that kind of, you know, to what the feeling inside and
[1284.6] really bring it out and again it's a phase in my life that I'm glad that I can be there to be
[1291.7] that safe space. Yes, you could be that mentor. Yes, what's the most important part of your journey
[1298.9] that you want the listeners to know? Because it's been challenging and you've come up and
[1303.5] you've surfaced on top of your game and real estate with Keller to in Scotland. So what is the most
[1310.2] important message you want to leave if? To make sure that when you again, a lot of mindset,
[1319.9] you know, and to look at when people say, well, what's the worst that can happen?
[1327.5] Change that language to what's the best that can happen. And if you're energy can focus so
[1334.2] much a negativity, your energy can focus a lot and pose a
[1337.7] negativity. So look at what you've got to gain, not what
[1340.8] you've got to lose. And that's kind of that's the way I look
[1344.6] at it. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect.
[1347.1] Ev Foster is an entrepreneur, an author, and owner of
[1351.8] Keller Williams Scotland. After losing her fitness
[1355.7] business during the pandemic, Ev pivoted from her
[1359.9] personal crisis to purpose-driven success.
[1364.8] She is the author of Change Starts with Choice and a student of intuitive psychology dedicated
[1371.5] to helping women regain clarity and collaborating with them to reach their goals.
[1377.4] Here are a few takeaways from this episode.
[1379.8] A crisis is a door.
[1382.4] Use as an invitation to go in a new direction.
[1386.7] negative thoughts with intentional ones and make small daily changes. Change is
[1392.6] slow and it takes time. If you've been relating to this story, here are some
[1397.8] things to do right now. Find something that lights you up and do it daily.
[1402.8] Align yourself with your purpose today. Don't go back into your past. And if you
[1409.2] need it, ask for help. There are experts out there that will help you. For
[1415.8] similar episodes on rebuilding your life from scratch, check out episodes 160 and 165
[1422.9] of aging with purpose and passion. And if you're over 50 and love to travel, the ageless
[1428.4] traveler is your number one resource for lifelong travel.
[1434.1] Discover exciting places luxury travel for less grandparenting and solo travel and culture
[1440.1] and culinary experiences and meet people who make your travel easy. That's the agelesstraveler.com.
[1448.6] And so, Eve, where can people find you? Please share your links so they can find you on the web.
[1455.4] So I have a website which is just www.changestartswithchoice and on socials but that website
[1464.6] will take you to pretty much all my links. I have a school community as well, but yeah, so I'm pretty
[1472.3] easy to find. Terrific. And those links are also going to be in the show notes and they're on my
[1481.0] site too. That's reinventandpossible.com. And so my friends, what's next for you? Are you tired of
[1488.5] spinning your wheels at three in the morning? Get the stuck to unstoppable roadmap and receive
[1493.8] my free weekly insights in your inbox every weekend and that resource is also in the show notes.
[1501.7] I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions so please connect with me Beverly Glaser
[1506.7] on all social media platforms and in my positive group of women on Facebook that's
[1511.8] women over 50 rock and thank you for listening. Have you enjoyed this conversation? Please subscribe
[1519.2] and help us spread the word by dropping a review and sending it off to a friend.
[1524.5] And remember, you only have one life, so live it with purpose and passion.
[1530.0] Thank you for joining us.
[1531.8] You can connect with Bev on her website, re-inventinposable.com.
[1537.3] And while you're there, join our newsletter, subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
[1542.7] Until next time, keep aging with purpose and passion.
[1547.0] celebrate life.