EP 70: Redefining Age on her terms with Gina Smith

You are listening to episode number 70 with Gina Smith.

If you're someone who wants to make major changes in their life, someone who wants to achieve their goals, or maybe you're someone who knows this is not as good as it gets but you have no idea where to start, on the Reinvent You podcast we explore different types of people, their successes and failures, and how they reinvented themselves to create the life they love. It's our hope that from hearing their stories that you too may have more insight into what it takes to build a life that you envision for yourself. Here to help you do that is performance and life coach Travia Steward.

With more than 30 years in a number of disciplines including human resources, operations, healthcare, sales, and sales leadership, my guest today is currently a sales leader at an internationally leading medical device pharma company. She has worked for Fortune 100 companies like Cardinal Health. She's also been leading teams, developing individuals, and making an impact on business growth throughout her entire career. She's a United States Air Force veteran who holds an MA in Human Relations and Management from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. She's also a certified health and master transformational coach with a passion for helping connect your health and wealth while pursuing your jobs so you can thrive. And as a coach, she loves helping other professional women make the career transition in a safe, measured, and playful manner. She works with them in a way that doesn't compromise the present moment safety for the sake of a better life. With her help, her clients create a better life so that they can thrive personally in the midst of success. Welcome to the podcast. Gina Smith. My peeps, I am excited to get into this conversation with my guest today on the Reinvent You podcast, Gina Smith. And I tell you what, Gina is— can I say badass, Gina? Is that okay?

You say that? Yeah, sometimes, sometimes considered that. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I think you're badass. The reason why I was drawn, and I shared this with you through Messenger, the reason why I was so drawn to you was that You did your first triathlon at the age of 60. Holy smokes. So before we get into that story, if you don't mind sharing who Gina Smith is to my audience so that they kind of have some concept of who is this talking and why we have to listen. So welcome to the Reinvent You podcast, Gina.

Thank you. I am, um, you know, I am quite the reinventionist, and I think I've been reinventing myself. Yeah, all of my life. And I think we all do that, but we We don't look at it that way. Um, I grew up traditional type of family. My parents are from Texas. So I think we have that in common. My parents are actually from Galveston.

Okay.

And still have some family down in the Galveston, Houston area. Grew up in a military family. And like most people, I, I expected to live just the default life. You know, you get, you grow up, you go to college, you get married, you pop out some kids. Um, you go with the job and you stay with it, you know, especially especially people in my age group, you go with the job and you stay with it for your entire life.

Yeah.

Then at some point you retire and they give you a watch and a plaque and some money. Thank you for staying here. Yeah. And you know, there's, there's something about growing up in a military family. My dad was served in the Air Force and we lived on an Air Force base for a good deal of my life. So it's a very structured community. There's a lot of rules. There's a lot of police. It's very safe because the police patrol day and night.

Right.

And you have to conduct yourself and act a certain way because you don't want to get your dad in trouble if you do something, right, that's against the rules. And, um, I've always been though very just a rebel.

Okay.

Not wanting to follow the rules.

Yeah, that's who created them anyway.

Yeah. And then, you know, and then there's been parts of my life where it's like, okay, oh, I get approval and I fit in if I follow the rules. Then I've fallen into that. You know, here's a way I can get approval because I can follow the rules and get approval. But there's always been something inside me that's like against the rules or like, I don't have to do it that way. Do I? Because I can get this by doing something another way. And, um, you know, I followed the traditional pattern. I, it was very important to my parents is, um, Black people who grew up under segregation, they went to the first public high school in Texas. For Black people, very important for them that we get an education. And, you know, I was geared toward getting an education because, you know, the philosophy is get that piece of paper so that you can get a better job, so that you can do better than we did, and then do better if you have children, for the children that you bring into the world. So I went to college, and then I ended up going into the Air Force after college. I served in the Air Force for 5 years, um, again in that kind of like reinventing yourself, um, I went to college for like a stupid degree. I didn't know it at the time. I actually went and I started in business, but I grew up in a really small town next to an Air Force base. So while I had a solid education foundation, it didn't prepare me for a college business curriculum.

Okay.

So there was a degree called general recreation. I've always been really active, huh? Outside. Um, and At the time, there was a philosophy that Americans would have more leisure time than ever in the future, which has proved not to be true. And so this degree was around operating rec centers, cruises, you know, all kinds of— it was, it's probably more substantial than it sounds, you know, facilities where people would be enjoying their lives. Fitness was a part of it, all those things. And I ended up working right after college and I had to do an internship, a year-long internship. And I did that in a therapeutic environment. Really liked that.

Yeah.

But found out that once you get into the whole medical system, physical therapists take precedence and you end up working for them. So it's like, yeah, I'm not liking that too much. I wanted to go back to school and get a master's degree, didn't have any money. And at the time, the Air Force was recruiting a lot of people. And my dad said, why don't you consider the Air Force? And I hadn't ever even thought about that.

Yeah.

But I ended up going through the whole process and getting selected to go to officer's training and went in the Air Force. But what I was looking for, they had this big book of like, what would you like to do? And it's like, one thing I know, I don't want to work in an office. I never wanted to work in an office. I don't want some kind of administrative job, you know, sitting in an office doing stuff. So they're like, well, you know, here's a couple of jobs. There's, you could be a weapons officer. So you work with planes and loading the weapons and stuff. You can be an aircraft maintenance officer. So you're in charge of people that maintain the planes or something else. And I was like, you know, the maintenance officer thing is like, is Is that outside? And it's like, yeah, you'll be outside and you'll be active. And actually, it ended up being a job I loved. I can't believe that at age 22, they put me in charge of like a couple hundred people and a few million dollars worth of airplanes.

Right.

But I learned so much from that experience and from the people I worked with. And it was what I wanted. It's like every day I'm walking outside, every day I'm doing stuff, I'm interacting with all these people. And those are the kind of things that have always just like lit my fire. And they're still the things that light my fire. And they were the things that lit my fire as a kid, is being active, having friends, being interactive with people, having fun, talking to people. So, you know, I kind of— and at the time, it was very unusual for a woman to do that job. That was one of the very few women. And now I think the military is almost like 50/50 women and men. But at the time, it was very like Maybe 90, 10.

Yeah.

So things have changed a lot. Um, so, you know, I did that for a while. I, um, I really actually never was planning to get married. I never really wanted to get married. Um, I wanted like an eternal boyfriend kind of situation, but because you were being a rebel, I ended up, you know, meeting somebody when I was in the military and deciding to get married. And again, a little bit in that rebel mode, it was like, yeah, I met this guy, I dated him for a while, and I called my family up one day and it's like, I'm getting married, which proved to be not the best move of my life, but you know, to find that out. But, you know, so I did that and I'm the one who just, I get to a point and I decide, and it's like, this path is calling me and it's the path I'm going to take. And, um, sometimes that's, um, bullheaded. Sometimes that's rebellious. Sometimes there's just that inner thing inside me that's calling me. Um, so I, I, ended up leaving the military and living, going with my now ex-husband to live in Europe for 5 years. One of the biggest adventures of my life, experiencing another culture, learning another language, traveling like so much because it was so easy once you were over in that place.

Yeah.

And came back to the United States and entered corporate life and started out in human resources. But I always had these I have a history of having like quirky jobs. Like, this is a new job. We've never done it before. This is something we've never done this way before.

Okay.

You don't exactly meet our qualifications, but we think we want to hire you. And that's, that's kind of been the story of a lot of roles I've had. And, um, I started out in human resources and then did that for maybe 4 years and had worked on a project at one of our facilities where at the time sales managers had offices there. So, you know, I made friends with all these— they were all guys at the time. And one of them was like, we can't find anybody for this job. And I was like, you know what, I'm kind of sick of HR. What's that about? And so he told me what it was about, and I was like, I think I want to apply for that. So he, um, they interviewed me like just to be nice, and I killed it. So yeah, as a result, I've been in sales for almost like 30 years now.

Okay.

Interesting. Just had no idea about the variety that that word means and just have had a fascinating career in healthcare sales. And for a long time I sold to the operating room. Now I'm selling to pharmacy and it's, it's just been a lot of fun, but it's, you know, getting to its expiration date.

Yeah.

Ooh.

Yeah. I get that. So Gina, when you mention like the default life, right? And then you also said that when you felt something calling to you, how were you able to discern, be like, no, no, I got to take this path? I know you're a rebel, but how did you know 100% that this thing is calling to me? I need to be decisive and following that. What came up in you to where you had the certainty to do that?

You know, I'm, I'm a quick decider. Usually.

Yeah.

So that's led me both down good paths and not so good paths. But it's, it's, it's often that just that circumstance, like, like I was telling you about the point at which I entered into a sales career. I had not been planning on that, you know, I kind of saw myself as advancing up the ranks in the HR structure or whatever.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden, this thing was before me, and I saw it and I'm like, oh, I can do that. Yeah, it sounds interesting. And oh, by the way, I know those people make a lot of money, so that helps. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go, go and do this. I think at the time I was 38. Who starts at 38? I don't— I mean, I've never let my age be a barrier to stuff. I mean, who clearly— who cares? And, you know, so I started down that path when I was 38. Yeah. And, you know, there's just been different points in my life, there's just something I feel inside. It's like it's time to make a change.

It's—

I'm being called in this different direction, and I don't know if I can pinpoint it any more than that.

Right.

Music keeps bothering me because I live so in my head, and it just— it keeps bothering me inside, in here.

Yeah.

You know, worrying about it's time to start thinking about this, or it's time to make a change. And right, you know, there's, there's things that I haven't, you know, part of living that default life too is I went to sleep on myself and I went to sleep on my life, particularly, um, because you get into the default life. It's like, this is great. I'm living the default suburban dream, more or less.

Right.

Um, I got a husband. Um, we ended up not having children and, but we also had a very contentious, difficult relationship. Combined with some addiction issues. And, um, but living the default life, it became easy to say, okay, I'm just gonna like, it's okay. I'm gonna ignore that for a while.

Yeah.

I'm gonna let that go by. I'm too tired to even address it. And so you, I found myself, I won't say you, but I found myself for years kind of in a situation that I knew needed to change, but I didn't have— out of fear, didn't have the courage to change it. Out of convenience, didn't have the courage to change it. But again, I reached this point where this inner thing said, you have got to stop not addressing the things in your life that need to change. Part of it was my health. Part of it was that relationship. Part of it was how I was doing work. You know, one of my missions as I launched myself, you know, in the future as a full-time interpreter, part of that is coaching and really working with women who are— I've been in that place where we sacrifice our lives for our jobs because we've bought the American story.

Yeah.

Is the most important thing in my life.

Right.

And they're paying me so much money. So it's worth not sleeping, not eating properly, not getting exercise, not keeping your social relationships because they're paying me because it's work. And for a lot of us, it becomes a place where it's the place of connection. It's the place of praise. I'm always been good at what I do.

Mm-hmm.

And so it's a place of praise. You know, I could have a screaming match with my ex-husband the night before, but go to work tomorrow and make my customers happy. And that's a place of comfort and praise. So, you know, you make— I made these exchanges in my life and it actually took me getting laid off, you know, impacted as they called it. To go, wait a minute, why am I working myself to death? Even for good money, even for great money, right? If you really count the hours, is the money that great? Why am I sacrificing my health? Why am I, to some extent, looking in the mirror, sacrificing the personal relationship I have? Why am I always saying to my friends I can't go tonight. I gotta work. Can't do it.

Right. Yeah.

I am on vacation, hiding in the bathroom on a conference call or on my computer or something because, you know, your family or your spouse or whatever is like, where are you? Oh yeah, I gotta go to the bathroom. I've gotta go back up to the cabin.

You know? Yeah.

You're working. Why am I even taking a work computer on work? Because someone's convinced me that I'm the only person that could do the job, so I keep working even when I'm on vacation. And I know, I know there's so many women like me just killing themselves. Yeah, they don't think they can take a break. They don't think they can take lunch, you know. Yeah, because there's so much to do. And, um, particularly women in sales— I mean, medical sales is a lucrative career, even with all the changes that have happened in the industry. It's a lucrative career. And I was like a lot of the women I was with, where you become the major wage earner. Yeah, spouse might have a good job, but it still can be very disproportionate. So then you take on some of what women haven't had to worry about historically, but you take on that, wow, a lot is resting on these shoulders.

Right.

Oh, I can't quit my job because we've built a lifestyle based on— yeah, because that's part of the default, right?

Yeah.

I start making more money, so then I get more things, and I get bigger things, and I get expensive things. And then I start to see that, that there's less of a limit because more is coming in. And, um, but starting to feel that pressure of, I can't make a change because this all rests on me. This It's on me because now a lifestyle has been built that's depending on me keeping that train going. Of course, that flow going.

Yeah.

There's a lot of women in that position. They don't want to admit it. People don't want to talk about it. There's certainly some disparity in pay, but there's some careers where, um, I know quite a few of my peers at the time were in the same position I was.

Yeah.

We're going, I'd love to do another job, but I can't leave this. Can't let it go.

Yeah.

And so many people out there think that I can't let this go because this is the best thing. It's the best thing. It was better than what I imagined. It's the best thing I'm doing in the world. And it took a lot of work to realize that that's not true.

Right. What was that moment for you? What was the catalyst? You're like, I'm no longer taking my laptop on vacation.

When did that happen? Really getting downsized, because I'm like, you know what? You've been killing yourself. And someone was, someone was talking to you last week that knew this was going to happen. Oh, you know, when that, when this kind of stuff happens, you can't tell anybody, you can't say a thing about it. And you're sitting across from a person going, they don't know, next week's going to be layoffs or whatever. And, um, I thought, here I am. I, I've missed all my doctor's appointments. I'm not taking care of myself because I'm working so many hours. And, you know, I got into management and I always had these management jobs that, that involved a lot of travel. I'm traveling so much that I'm gone, you know, 50, 60% of the time. So you begin missing parts of your life. You begin missing parts of your connections and it's exhausting to do for, you know, many years in succession. And you don't— I mean, I admire the people who were great, and, you know, I've shifted where I am. But at the time, I didn't have the discipline to really work out all the time, to eat well all the time. That next cocktail looks good when you're exhausted, you know. Yes, it does. So, you know, I, I had not been taking care of my health, um, and I was like, Wow, with the stroke of a pen, you're gone. In all fairness, I had like a year-long severance, so I didn't have to panic, but it just woke me up when you're sacrificing all of this in a world where wherever you are and wherever you are next, with the stroke of a pen, you could be gone, and you need to start living your life instead of ignoring your life. Instead of sacrificing everything for someone else. Yeah, for your job, everything for your customers, everything for everybody else except yourself. I even had a doctor fire me because they're like, you don't come to your appointments and, you know, you need to find another physician.

Oh, okay, because you were too busy working all the time.

I was too busy working. And so that's a phrase of a lot of people. We accept this exhaustion, we accept this work. And so it's pervasive. And I've worked from home since 1995. Um, and when you work at home, it's even more so because, you know what, my computer's always there. I just boot it up. I'm just gonna go look at this one email.

Yeah.

And then I'm there 4 hours later.

Right. Because you don't leave the office. This is your office. Yeah.

You don't, you don't leave. And for a lot of salespeople, you know, company gives you a car, a phone, and a computer. And then somehow that's morphed into now we have, we expect you to respond like all the time. You look at your email last night, like you don't need to get a break to have dinner and maybe like watch TV. Family or something, you know, you didn't look at your email last night, or, you know, people that look up, wake up first thing in the morning, they're panicked because they're like, what came in overnight? Like, you can, yeah, anyway, but, but it's this mindset we've been into and this constant exhaustion that's even more draining in the last year and a half because not only are you trapped at home Like for me, I'm trapped at home. I worked from home, but I got out and called on customers. I went out and traveled with my team and we called on customers. I've been working in an office full-time for almost 2 years now. It's so— for what I was doing, it's really hard. For the people who are out of an office and in their home office, you know, it's learning to manage. How do you manage that constant thing that's now in your home? Mm-hmm. First thing in the morning, that it's easy to pick this up while you're talking to your kids or your spouse or whatever, and just ignore it. You feel that calling and it's, you know, it's very— the people who created all this stuff, and I, I appreciate technology, I love it, but very psychologically tying us to it.

Right.

Um, but it took, it took being laid off to, um, to wake me up to Starting to think about how do you want to live? And maybe I took two steps. I wasn't fully there. I took two steps to saying, okay, you know what, you really need to start taking care of your health.

Yeah.

And not ignoring that. You really need to start figuring out a way you can enjoy life and not work all the time. You need to figure out a way to let this go.

Yeah.

And as a matter of fact, if you drop dead tomorrow, they are going to find somebody to do your work next week.

Yeah, it's true.

Yeah. Somebody said— I was on a call with my mastermind and they said, you will— they will publish your, um, they'll post your job before they publish your obituary.

Oh, and this is so sadly true.

It's so sadly true. So it's like, why do you think you're the only person that can do this? And I mean, I encourage the people that work for me— some of them will and some of them won't— to say, you're on vacation, you need to leave your computer and stuff at home.

Yeah.

And then refer your customers to me. I will help them. If I don't know the answer, we have this big company customer support, all this. We'll figure out how to help them. You're not really the only person that can do it. Some people can't let that go.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, I get that.

Oh my goodness, this is some powerful stuff, Gina. It really is.

Part of it is just like getting to a point where you can say, I can let that go. I remember one time, um, me and my siblings— so me and I have 4 siblings, 2 brothers and 2 sisters— and so me and my 2 brothers were all in corporate life. One of my sisters is in healthcare, and the other one took some time out from work to, to be a full-time mom. And we had— my parents had this kind of like one of those divider walls, and there were like all of our phones lined up there vying for the plugs. And my mom is like, what is this? What is all this? I thought you were on vacation. And we're like, no, well, you know, we still got to check our phones. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is this mess?

What is this?

Yeah, why are you—

you know, my My dad came upstairs one time and I had my office in a bonus room in this house I lived in. It's like, what are you doing? I got a lot of work to do, Dad. You know, because they came from a life where my dad in the military, you work 7:30 to 4:30 for the most part, unless you have some other kind of, you know, you're a pilot or drive car vehicles or whatever. My mom was a school teacher eventually. And, um, you know, your day is kind of contained.

Yeah.

Um, but this kind of work that the world we work in now has no end unless you decide that it has an end, right?

Set some boundaries.

Unless you decide that it will have no end.

Yeah.

And people will let you work if you, if you can, they'll let you work 24 hours. They'll let you work on your vacation.

Oh yeah. Pat you on your back for doing it. You go. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, people go out of the country, like, I'm going out of the country because I don't know, it probably has something to do with law because our company is partly a pharma company. You can't take the work computer out of the country.

Oh, so go out of country so you can actually have a vacation.

You can get away as opposed to deciding that you're not going to live like that anymore. Right, right.

Wow. So speaking of deciding, right, Because again, Gina is a rebel. OK, when like, I think you came across me because we have like, I think Varian Brandon is how we have crossed paths.

Yeah, there is my coach.

OK, nice. OK, I can see that. I did a MicroMind with Varian. Varian's powerful.

Good night. She is.

She is. And, you know, I just, I love that. You know, it's very inspiring. And so, but what I was so inspired by you is that, my God, talk to us about the moment when you realized your health was more important, these things were more important, and you're like, I'm going to make the decision at the age of 60 to do my first triathlon.

So this was another one of my quick decision moments. At the time, I was training with this guy and, you know, we were just working in the gym. Of course, you're working away and the trainers, you know, But you chit-chatting while you're doing your reps or whatever. And, um, we were 10 years apart. So in 2016, I turned 60, he was going to turn 50. So I was like, hey man, we should do something crazy for our, you know, big birthdays.

Yeah.

So he was like, well, what about a triathlon? And I'd had this triathlon idea brewing for a while. So in 2011, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, where I live right now. And, um, I always wanted to have a bike, get a bicycle, but when I, when I lived in Connecticut before, one, I had no money left after just trying to live there. And two, I really didn't know any cyclists or cycling clubs or anything. And it would just kind of be, it was just sort of like passing idea.

Yeah.

Once I moved here, um, when I came out to just like look at Columbus to see if I'd want to live here, they had all these bikes hanging in the airport. And, um, I was like, okay, if I move here, I'm doing that, whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It ended up being this charity ride I do every year. And, um, there was just a lot of stuff in, like, you know how they send you, like, move to the city kind of brochures and stuff? It was all these people on bicycles and all the stuff about— there's a pretty big system of bike trails that gets you around the city and everything. It's like, yeah, hey, when I get there, I'm getting me a bike.

Get me a bike.

So I am— after kind of getting, getting settled in, I got a bike. And part of what I was propelled by is this charity ride called Pelotonia.

Yeah.

And you— my father died of cancer, my mom's a survivor of cancer, you know, I've got just numerous people in my family and other loved ones and friends who've died or survived or are fighting now. And I thought, I'm gonna ride You know, I'm going to ride for dad. So the guy at the bike shop that got me set up with my first bike got me set up with two local riding groups. He's like, these are people, they're safe. They'll teach you how to ride on the road and everything. Cause I didn't even have any idea. Like, I just thought I would get a bike and ride around the trails.

Yeah. No, you got a road bike.

Before I started riding, I'm like, why are they in the street? You know, I'm like, don't they have a trail there? People roll down their windows and like, there's a trail you can get on. But I didn't, I didn't really know what I didn't know. And I was fortunate because he set me up with one like really high quality club where I learned to ride safely. And then he set me up with a group of women that train together for this charity ride and fundraise together.

Yeah.

So, you know, I started riding and I did my first ride, I did 50 miles. Miles the first year.

That was your first ride?

Yeah, it's, it's not as hard as it sounds.

No, no, I believe it.

That wasn't my first ride.

Oh, okay.

That was your first race?

That was my first, like, event for this Peloton event. Okay.

Okay.

I think my first road ride, what I started doing is I got this bike, and where I lived at the time, the trail started right behind my house. So I just, I would just go out every day and it's like, okay, I'm going out for 15 minutes, how far can I 30 minutes, how far can I go? I was like, okay, I can go a few miles. And then I finally got the courage up to go and ride with this group. And the first night, this lady who was leading this group of beginners was like, we're going 20 miles. And I was like, wait, um, I don't really know if I can go that far. Right.

I know I signed up for this, but I don't know.

20 miles seems really far. And she's like, you can do it. We're not going to be going that fast and everything. And it was fine. And it was actually, first time riding on the road too, so I was a little bit afraid. And it wasn't too many cars in the area, so it was fine. And that was kind of the start of my love affair with the bike and with riding and cycling. And what happens is this stuff just builds. Um, so I started riding, and I probably did this, you know, got really into cycling and doing all of these group rides and fundraisers and, you know, riding farther distances. And, um, One day I was at this fundraising event and I'd seen these women. I didn't really know that. I just kind of knew their names, but didn't know them at the time. And they just done a triathlon. They just done like an Ironman. And I was like, oh, I could never do that. And, um, this one person, this one person that's a friend of mine now, and she's a little bitty fireplug. Um, she's like, you can do anything if you train for it. So that kind of stuck in my head. See, the things get in my head. And that kind of stuck in my head. So by the time I had this conversation with my trainer, I was like, well, we could do a triathlon. And there's a, there's a local, there's a bunch of local races around Columbus and there's this one local race that's pretty popular. And, um, you know, it has a short mini distance and a longer distance and a really long distance. And, um, he's like, yeah, you could do that. And I was like, well, I kind of need to, um, figure out the swim thing, because that is a component. Because, because in the, in the lake that the swim is in, um, you can't touch the bottom. Very deep lake. So it's like, I can swim, but like, um, like, you know, you can touch the bottom in the pool or the beach, right?

Or you can see the bottom, and if it's too deep over your head, you can go down and touch it pop back up. Yep.

So, um, I started swimming with this one group for, for my first race. And, um, you know, then I got into this little training group that, you know, we would swim, then, you know, do our bike ride training, and then run— or slog for me because I'm not really a fast runner anymore. And, um, you know, it's kind of like, it was, it was just, it's me, it's the rebel. It's like I'm going to look 60 in the eye. It's not old. So I'm going to stare that down because I'm going to do triathlon to stare that down. And that was my whole thing behind it. It's like, yeah, I'm going to do my first one at 60 because I can, I know I can. And I did. I finished my first race. The police boat was circling around me a little bit on the swim because it was tough, but yeah, I'm like, no, don't, don't, don't, don't. Don't stop me. I'm going to make sure. And once I got that done, you know, the bike and the other part of it wasn't, you know, excuse me, wasn't that hard.

Yeah.

It was just, it propelled me. Like I'm going to defy the idea that 60 is old. And when you get involved in cycling, triathlon, you know, I think they've changed it a little bit now, but you just have to write your age on your calf. And so you're standing in line with all these people and people, well, people in their 70s are doing these races.

Yeah.

And people in their 70s are still cycling. So it's like, thumb in my nose at that idea that 60 is old. Right. I get that. And come join me. And then I got the bug and I did a bunch of races for about 3 years and I haven't done a race since 2019, but, um, uh, I think I'll get back to it in the future when I have more time. It takes a lot of time, even for a short race.

It does.

It's a lot of time of training for all 3 of those things. You're like, I'm just a wheel of like, okay, today I got to swim and bike. And then tomorrow I got to bike and run. And then there's a day I got to do two of them together. It's really very time-consuming, but it's an amazing feeling. And you know what? I'm not fast. I'm not going to be on podium. I don't care. It's like, I need to finish this.

You're a finisher.

I felt so amazing the first time I came under the finish line. Because I'm like, I never in my life even— I don't even know if I knew what a triathlon was 10 years ago because I didn't know people in that world and in that life. And it's one of the few things I wish— wow, I wish I had started this when I was younger. Yeah. Um, but, um, it's just so much fun and it's so much so enlivening and it's so much, you know, the cycling and everything was part of like getting my health back and, and, and things I did post-divorce, because they're all the kind of things that my ex-husband wouldn't have been very happy about me doing or spending the time doing. Um, and it's like, but this is what keeps me going. This is what keeps me alive. It's hard, yeah, but it's what keeps me going. And, um, I hope I can inspire other women. And I know I've inspired a few people I know to like Go ahead and try a race. I mean, there's short races you can do. There's indoor races you can do. There's things you can do, even if you just do it once, you did it.

Absolutely.

Run, you're a triathlete. Yeah. Yeah.

That's incredible, Gina. And the reason why I know it's incredible is because, you know, I grew up as an athlete. I consider myself an athlete now and I cycle as well. And so When you say—

50 doesn't have a cycling frame.

Yeah. But when you say 50 was your first, I'm like, what? My first, I did 25. And see, I have had to figure out how to stop cramping because I like— and I take extra potassium. I do extra salt. I do all the electrolyte stuff. I've just— all this stuff that everybody's like, oh, if you do this, this will work. I'm always on the side of the road, you know? And I'm going, no, don't you scoop me up.

And then I'm like, I got it..

And then the second I crossed the finish line, I can't even bend my legs on my own to get off the bike because I'm cramped up in my hamstrings and my calves and my quads.

So have you had a proper bike fit? I have. Okay.

Yeah.

I don't know what to say to this.

I have. And I was like, something's wrong. And everybody always thinks they have the answer. And I just haven't been able to figure that out. And so I just haven't gone more than 50 miles because I'm like, I am like, holy smokes, I think my legs are going to fall off if I do.

Well, you know your limit.

I do. I do know my limit. So, I enjoy it. Gina, what I love about you is it is so inspiring that you have done these things, that you don't see any limits. It is obvious that these things have transferred, like from your personal life to your professional life, you know, because now you have, you are a Coach, you are a Certified Health and Master Transformation coach, right? And so most people at this age are going, I have 16, 9 days and 22 minutes before I retire, and I'm getting in a Winnebago, and I'm gonna go around the country and just color in all the 50 states on my back tire. But not Gina.

I don't even believe in that concept. One, I just personally just wouldn't want to live that way. Yeah, but And so at 65, 66, I want to start a business.

I love it.

I love it. And I get to do my business very part-time with a full-time job. I mean, I have a very demanding full-time job. I'm a leader. I have a team that works for me. So I can't devote a lot of time to what I'd really like to be doing, which is writing, speaking, and helping people through coaching as a tool.

Right.

And, um, yeah, a lot of people are like, don't you just like want to go? I would die. Just, I love the beach, I love cycling, but just to, you know, maybe for about a month of cycling every day would seem like fun.

Yeah.

And then that, I would be like, okay, what am I going to do now?

Yeah. So are you of the mindset that you'll never retire?

You know, I don't want to use the word never, but I see something like helping people as something that doesn't have an age limit to it.

Hmm.

Because it's, it's listening, it's conversations. It's hopefully in a world of, I don't know, our profession may have been forever changed by this because lots of people are very comfortable with these virtual platforms. Um, you know, it's why is there an age limit on it unless some, at some point it's no longer in my heart to do.

Yeah, I get that. You know, I watched my mom retire. I think she retired somewhere around '66, '67, and then, you know, she quit using her brain. Like, you know, she was an insurance agent. She wasn't counting money anymore. She wasn't rattling off this stuff. And I just watched her capacity, her intellectual capacity decline so rapidly. And I looked at that and said, I don't want that. I want you. Yeah. And I mean, we just came off of a vacation, like we did 2 vacations within a month. And yeah, it's fun. Like you said, I like the beach too. I like to cycle, but it's kind of like I was excited. And now that I'm full-time coaching, I was excited. I'm excited for Monday and I'm like, this is cool. I'm relaxed at the beach, but how can I help the next person on my coaching call on Tuesday?

Yeah. And also I get a chance to create business that, that, uh, you know, to quote Beringen, I do it how I want to do it with who I want to do it the way I want to do it. So I can choose, so I can still have all of that in my life. Yeah. But I can, because I can choose how much of it I want to work in this way.

Absolutely.

And then how much of it I want to, to have my life, have time for— okay, I don't have to worry about what time I get home from the pool or whatever because I've got my schedule set so that, that I've got some ease there.

There we go.

I like that. My mom needs me. My mom's still alive and she's in, she's in Phoenix. And, you know, if she needs me for something, you know, she's 80, going to be 84 this year, then I have the ease to go and help if I need to do that. You know, if I want to decide that I'm not going to work for 3 weeks, I understand, you know, as an interpreter, you're not earning while you're not working, but maybe you're earning in a way that it's not all about working all the time. I can decide that I want 3 weeks off or that I want 2 weeks off. I can decide how much of my time I'm going to spend to studying, reading, and just Today, I don't have the, the space for creativity that I want.

Yeah.

I can't jam that into an already full schedule. I get that. How much time do I have for that creativity and just connecting with other people that stimulate that creativity and that form that community? So yeah, I just, I can't even imagine a life where I didn't do anything. And I talk to people and they go, well, I'm busy because, you know, got doctor's appointment. I don't want that to be my life. Yeah. I, you know, I still want to be active. I might be at the back of the, you know, the sweep might be hitting me on a bike ride. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But that's all right. He hadn't swept you up yet. As long as you're still in front of him.

You know what the great thing is? It was kind of funny when I first started doing triathlon, I think I podiumed at one because I was the only woman over 60, but you know, someone was Like, well, you might podium because, you know, in your age group, but you know what? There's a ton of women in their 60s and 70s riding, racing, working out, doing all this stuff.

Absolutely. Yeah.

No. And they're good because they've been doing it for a long time. So there's, there's no, you know, age comes in and whatever and slows you down, but I just don't see, I don't see taking that choice that I'm just not going to do anything.

Yeah, love that.

So creating a lifestyle that allows me to do— have that. Yeah, I talked about, right?

Because your health, you know, and one thing I love about you is that, you know, when I follow you and I look at your post, you're talking about this veggie dish or this, this nutritious dish, you know, and something that I know is prevalent in, you know, in our community, in the Black community, is, you know, Growing up, we wanted to eat everything fried, and it all tastes so good. And then I remember my mom was a diabetic. And before she died, I would call her on the phone, and she would be like— and I'd be like, what are you eating? She was like, a pecan pie. And I was like, what? A pecan pie? And I was like, girl, what's your sugar? And she'll be like, well, it was high today. I'm going to take a third shot.

And Travia— People live like that. People go, I'm going to eat what I want and then I'll just take another shot.

Take another shot.

Do you understand your body? Do you understand what you're doing to your body to live like that? You're from Texas too, right?

I'm from Louisiana, but I lived in Texas.

Okay.

Listen, same thing. Yeah. Anything can be fried and have hot sauce.

That's true.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, you know, like, I, I don't eat that way at all anymore, you know, that way that cooking was done when I grew up.

Yeah.

The only defense I can make of it is a lot of it was local and just right there from the garden. And, you know, my grandfather was a fisherman from the Gulf of Mexico, you know.

Yeah.

I, you know, all these things. Actually, I have a, a talk and a seminar called called Your Health is Your Wealth. And I wrote it for these— I created this acronym of the word wealth and, and trying to help people see, you know, in this country I think we're very focused on health meaning you're skinny, right? But health is all of the— it's this circle of things. So it's your mind, it's taking time to look at your life and to actually study your life and to think about what do you want out of life, because most people are giving no thought to that. Yeah, they're just going along. The next thing happens and the next thing happens. Um, it's about, it's about what you eat, and what you eat is one of the most important decisions you make, and what you eat will reflect in your body and in your health. Yeah, whether now or later, it will, it will reflect. It's true.

Yeah.

It's about activity. You know, we have a crisis of inactivity starting with children because now we're afraid to let them outside. Um, you know, schools have cut recess and, you know, all kinds of different things and, and just being free to play, not organized semi-professional athletics, but just like running around your neighborhood with a stick. Something.

And just come in before the streetlights come on.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Um, you know, people having loving connections, it's part of your health. So we are so lonely today, so isolated. We are— I can create a world in my condo with me and my TV or me and my devices that include no other people because I think I'm connected to people because I see them on Facebook or Instagram or I don't, I'm not, I haven't reached TikTok yet, but yeah, any kind of media, media, it lets me think I'm connected to people.

Okay.

And I don't see really real people. I don't invite real people into my home. I don't have real people connections. And that's like hugely important to me is to have real people I can hug, real people I can go to dinner with, real people I can go to some event, real people I can ride with, you know, it's real are like super important to me. You know, managing your time. People tell me, I don't have time to exercise. I don't have time to eat. I don't have time to eat. Okay. I don't eat breakfast or dinner or whatever, because I don't have time. I don't, I don't, I don't sleep, you know, so part of the foundation is you're not managing your time. To give yourself space to do the things you want. You were responding to the demands, the noise, right? The urgent, not the important.

Yeah. And that's a little bit of some of that self-leadership you talk about, right? Yeah.

That, that's taking up your time. So then you don't have time left to do the things you say are important in your life. So you have to decide, um, You know, it's— so today's a Friday. I usually swim 2 days a week, and it happens early because I swim with a coached group. It's in the water at 5:45, and I get up at 4:30. I get up at 4:30, 4 days a week, but I get up at 4:30 so I can work out because I know my own nature. I know my schedule. I'm drained at the end of my workday because it's so much people involvement.

Yeah.

And, and in the Zoom life. So I know I'm not likely to work out in the afternoon. The one thing I'm— the one thing I might do after, after work is walk, but I'm not— I don't want to ride a bike after work. I'm definitely not swimming after work. So I have to choose, and I might have to choose every time the alarm clock rings. I'm going to get— and then I have a friend that we do these virtual bike rides at 5:30. So I have to choose that I'm going to give up.

Yeah, it's a choice.

And it's, it's, it's not— it's every day, but it's, it's choice. It's in my schedule. It's, it's my time. Um, and so, you know, it's everything. You want to have healthy food, you could spend some time doing meal prep on a Sunday, but you have to choose, right? You're going to do that instead of something else.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

That's what you want. Then how do you make that choice? Um, I worked with a client last year, brilliant woman, you know, the kind of woman I want to work with, high achieving career woman, but was just— her job was killing her. And she was— when we started working together, she was like, I think I'm gonna have to leave my job because I just can't take this anymore. Okay, how are you living? And she was eating every meal at her desk. She was working like 16 hours a day.

Right.

And we started working with that and getting underneath that. And, and part of it was helping her understand, do you understand that you deserve to have time to yourself, to have a meal? Yeah. Away from your desk.

Yeah. Yeah. That's huge.

Not eating at your desk and working. You deserve to go to your company and say, there's a limit on how much I can work, and this time is no longer open to me. You actually have control over your calendar. You can block out some time. Absolutely. Um, and it— she fought me every week. She'd be like, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, so did you put it in your calendar? You know, I'm like a calendar drone, and my workouts are in my calendar.

My—

yeah, everything. My dates with my friends are in my calendar. I need to manage my time, right? So it isn't— you know, sometimes I do stuff instinctively, but usually I'm in— I, I have some plans. And then people that don't have plans get frustrated with me because they're like, oh, you're always in your calendar. But Because I need to manage my time.

Right. And that works for you.

And that works for me. Yeah. Yeah. And it works for a lot of people if you'll do that, because then you create time by managing that time.

Right, right. And so it's kind of like the, you know, when the new year hits, most people are like, I'm just going to start a program, blah, blah, blah. But one thing I've gotten in the habit of doing is scheduling my free time in January. When are we taking trips? Are we going to take a trip in June this year? July? Are we going to take a small one October break?. So doing that so that my life, you know, and in creating our own life on our terms, Gina, in control.

Yeah, exactly. You know, I'm in the, you know, employer vacation prison now.

Oh, true.

I'm gonna free myself from that. Yeah, it's, it's, it's even a ridiculous concept in 2021. Yeah, I know. That's how they manage people and that's how they manage money. And I get that, but, you know, I'm going to have a world where I can say, okay, here's, here's my year. When I do transition out of corporate life, I need to take 2 to 3 months off. Yeah, to do nothing.

To do nothing, or do whatever you want to do. It's not like Gina's gonna sit there with a remote in her hand, right?

I might sleep for a month.

Okay, okay, okay, but it's whatever you want.

But, but, but I realize when that time comes, I need a break so that I can disconnect from what has been my identity for a good part of my life.

Mm.

Yeah.

I was talking to a friend and we're the same age who's like, I've been working for 50 years. And I'm like, what are you talking about? But it's like, well, if you consider the fact that, you know, some of us in our age group started like legit jobs when we were 16 and we've been working Since. Every since, yeah, 50 years has gone by.

Yeah, so that's a long time.

And unlike anybody, my identity is very tied to what I've been doing for work.

Yeah.

And whatever that identity holds, whatever those words hold. So I realize I need time to just let go of that identity. I get that. And yeah, to move to the space of the, the next who I'm going to be.

Love that.

Yeah. Just, um, trying to help people, um, who do you want to be? And I think Rich has had a lot of influence in me in looking at that question as opposed to what do you do? Who do you want to be? Who do you want to be in this world?

Yeah. Now, is that a question you're tackling in your— what is it, a challenge, or is it a program that that's coming up, the woman in the mirror from August.

Woman in the mirror. So that's part of that question.

Okay.

You know, part of like a reflection of what I've been talking about for my years of living a default life. You know, I looked at that woman in the mirror and I'm like, mm, I don't wanna really make eye contact with you.

Oh God, that's so powerful. Yeah.

If I do, then I'm gonna see the truth in my eyes and I'm gonna see the things I'm not addressing. Yeah. The things I'm not taking care of, the things I'm not owning. Yeah. The things I'm not doing.

Um, yeah.

I'm gonna see all that and I don't wanna see it. So what I'm gonna do is just like go sideways instead of looking you in the eye. You know, it's like talking to somebody who won't look you in the eye. And I realize it's like various, yeah. When you get to big cultures, it's various cultural differences about that. Mm-hmm. But There are those people who are talking to you and they're not looking you in the eye. They're looking everywhere else except everywhere else.

Yeah.

And so then, you know, part of my journey has been to encounter the woman in the mirror and look at what's good and what's bad. It's just kind of like even looking at things like divorce, the tendency, you know, when it first happens go, yeah, that person was bad, and here's all the bad things about that person, and that's why, of course, right?

But wait, because we don't take responsibility.

Then you look in the mirror and go, okay, now sister, uh, what's your accountability in this? Yeah, in this result here, it wasn't just all the other person. And that, I think, it's in any human interaction. Yeah, never always just the other person or the other circumstance or your boss or your job or whatever. What role did you play?

Yeah.

Or what role did you fail to play? What did you fail to— how did you fail to step up to the plate?

Yeah.

And so, you know, that stuff is hard when you start looking at it going, yeah, you need to look at your part in the life you live, the life you've lived, and the life you're creating. What is—

what is—

so what is that woman in the mirror Um, and who does she want to be in the future?

I love that.

How do you want to walk in the world?

Yeah.

And it doesn't— it's not even about like your job. It's the person you want to be.

Yeah.

Who do you want to be?

I love that. It's almost like a mic drop, Gina. So people listening right now, how can they get their hands— and so this is, uh, your episode will drop September 2nd, which will be 3 days later. And so how can— will they still be able to get in on this, this challenge?

Possibly. And it's not a challenge, it's going to be a 4-week group experience.

Got it. Okay, okay.

I did a challenge called Reset.

That was a reset. Reset.

Okay, this is called Reflect Woman in the Mirror. Um, the best way to find me is on Facebook. Gina Smith. Um, there's a lot of Gina Smiths. I'll have to send you my link.

Yeah, there are a lot of Gina Smiths. I mean, we're Facebook friends, and so I have your information. So Facebook is Gina.Smith.963.

You got it. Yeah, that's, that's the best place to find me because at one point I set up a business page. I don't really use it that much. Yeah, I found managing two pages was just ridiculous. Ridiculous. And Facebook just persecutes you on the business page, try to get you to spend more money on ads and stuff. Um, and just, just move to my personal page where, you know, it's a lifestyle. Here's my lifestyle. Here is who I am. Yeah, yeah. Who I am as a total person, not just like a coachy, speechy thing, but, you know, here's the total person. Some of that is from the, you know, coaching piece of it. But here's who I am. So that's the best place to find me. Same thing with the website. I have a website, but you know, you've probably been down this road. You start a website and it's just, it's not what you want. And it's not hard to keep it up to date. It is, it's sitting there and it's just a place right now. But really, Facebook's the best place to find me.

Yeah, perfect. Okay, well, Gina, it has been a pleasure having this conversation with you. And I hope that Well, you know, we stay in each other's worlds here.

Yes.

Okay. Yeah. Yes. And we have so much in common. My goodness.

You know, a lot of people in common.

Absolutely. And one thing that I love about you is that you've never settled for the status quo. And I want to have more people like that in my world because God knows we have enough people who settle.

Right. And I, and I want people to know, You can reinvent. I mean, you're— that's your, your thing. You can reinvent, but it's work.

It is.

And it takes a lot of courage, which I didn't always have. And you stumble.

Yeah.

And sometimes things don't turn out the way you thought they would, or they don't turn out as well as you thought they would. But if you don't ever have the courage to take that first step, it just doesn't happen. So you can do it. But I think for a lot of people, it's finding the courage to say, I really want to decide to become that next person, to become that person I want to be, to live that life. I really, I, I live that life in my head and I never even talk about it.

Wow. This is perfect. Gina, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Thank you for inviting me. This has been delightful and I'm, I'm having a great time on my first podcast experience. And I think you hit it out of the park. Thank you.

Absolutely. And you know what? And I did— I read in one of your posts, like, you are priming yourself because I know you want to be on stages, you want to be a speaker. Boom, this was your first stage. If you haven't been on stage yet—

I have been on stage, but okay, trying to be on stages while I'm working, it's really hard. It's hard, it's hard during the daytime, or you have to travel to, or whatever.

So yeah, but you're right there, you got it.

That's part of my dream. Yeah. Be on stages and, um, you know, to, to be able to talk to people and just have them hear what's possible in life.

You do that so naturally.

I love that. That's another thing we have in common.

So you and I both will be on stages together.

Yes.

How about that? How about that?

Learning. And I'm learning more about like collaborating with people.

Yes.

To help other people to grow.

Absolutely. And not coming from a selfish mindset, but there's room for everybody.

There's room for everybody. And, you know, people will try to scare you, and it's like, there's room for everybody. I know the people that are looking for me are looking for me. Absolutely. They're looking for you or looking for you.

Looking for me.

Yeah. And that's okay because millions of people need help, right?

You know what? And this will be the— this will be the absolute mind drop. And see, this is how much Varian Brand— I did, I did, uh, Abigail Olajuwon Kaya's right before your— before this one. So I've had Varian people.

Yeah.

And I remember Varian saying— this is how I was first introduced to Varian, through Rich, been through an intensive. And Varian said, there are people already, like before I was born, there were already people destined to work with me.

And I was like, oh, thank you for that, Varian. I had no idea.

But Varian dropped stuff like that and like, you know, You know, like, okay. I, oh, I, I, okay.

And that's all you can say. It's, it's like, it's already there. And, you know, so the human experience of it is, you know, especially when you're starting, doesn't seem like it, you know, it's like, well, nobody signed up or only two, it's only one person signed up.

Right.

And I think the part and the thing I've learned is just to keep walking forward. Because sometimes people are sitting and waiting. Sometimes people aren't ready. And sometimes people you're talking to today aren't your people. And learning to just go, that's all, all of that's okay.

Yeah.

I'm just going to keep going because I believe there are people assigned to me, like Varian said. If I don't bring my voice into the world, the people that are assigned to me won't hear it, right? They might get given to somebody else because I'm not doing my assignment.

That's right.

Never get help because I don't speak up.

I love this, Gina. Gina, thank you again. This has been so insightful.

Thank you.

Absolutely. And you keep inspiring us. Keep walking down that path because people are watching. People are paying attention because I know I am.

Thank you so much. This was so much fun and I can't wait till September 2nd.

If you like what you're hearing, and perhaps you're interested in having a complimentary conversation with me, click the link at the bottom of the show notes. Thank you so much for listening. If you even want to know more about what I'm up to, head over to traviesteward.com. And if you like seeing the videos of the podcast, every episode is on my YouTube channel. Take care, guys. Nice.