“[I was at] my gynecologist’s office,” says Kristin van Ogtrop, author (“Did I say that out loud? Midlife Indignities and How to Survive Them” (https://amzn.to/3effm1a), literary agent, and former Editor-in-Chief of Real Simple magazine. “My enthusiasm for daily life had diminished. I was having an annual exam and I said,’ I’m depressed or going through perimenopause or need a new job’. She said, ‘Maybe all three.’” Up until that point, van Ogtrop had been a high-flying editor in the magazine publishing world who had worked her way through some of the toniest jobs in the industry--beginning at Premiere, then to Vogue, Travel & Leisure, and then to running Real Simple for 13 years. “The reason I loved [Real Simple] was because it was the first time I’d worked for a magazine where I was the reader,” she says. “The demos were basically me: busy working mother[s]...who had great full lives and needed ways to run [them] smoother.” Since Van Ogtrop grew up with a mother who was a home economics major, she knew how to make a casserole and hem a skirt--valuable skills she imparted to her harried readers. What was not so fun: when Real Simple got caught up in corporate spin-offs and industry-driven down-sizings. “Time Inc. was a public company [and there] was great pressure,” Van Ogtrop says. “[‘For] creative people [like me] in the company…[it] felt like every day you died a little inside.” After she left, Van Ogtrop became a business Goldilocks, trying on various new careers, but struggling to find her path. “One benefit of reinventing in middle age,” she says, “is not to be embarrassed to be the dumbest person in the room. I know I’ve accomplished something...in my last life and in my mid-fifties I don’t care if I look like an idiot.” Tune in to see where she ended up and how she did it.
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#86: Deborah Jackson (In this new world, where are the opportunities?)
#85: Barbara Paldus (Reinventing from science to beauty)
#84: Joan Lunden (How to pivot into your next life)
#83: Dana Rubin (Turning intellectual curiosity and research into $$)
#82: Suzanne Frank (3 simple steps to reinventing your health)
#81: Chip Conley (Reinvent yourself by mak[ing] age your ally)
#80: Indrani Goradia (Interrupting your family’s cycle of violence)
#79: Sonsoles Gonzalez (Jumping into the research gap her bosses ignored)
#78: Reinventing the Sister Act (Julie and Royce Pinkwater)
#77: How to start your dream reinvention for $20K or less (Amanda McIntosh)
#76: How to relaunch your career after a break (Mika and Ginny Brzezinski)
#75: Ditch your 50-line To Do List for a 5-line Priority List (Tonya Dalton)
#74: Reinventing how marketers view you (Vaughan Emsley)
#73: Reinventing by moving to a new city (Lesley Jane Seymour)
#72: Have a growth mindset about everything (Jill Gwaltney)
#71: The benefits (and challenges) of persistence (Candy Gold)
#70: 3 things you may be accidentally doing to sabotage your job search (Dr. Nayla Bahri)
#69: How to function in the Zone of Genius (Genecia Alluora)
#68: Reinventing your body by finding new f*cks to give (Oonagh Duncan)
#67: Squeezed out? Fight Back. Here’s How. (Vera Gibbons)
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