#130 When Getting Laid Off is the Biggest Shock of Your Life (Linda Fears)

Linda Fears had been the Editor-in-Chief of Family Circle magazine for 12 years when four years ago, she was suddenly laid off. “It was the biggest shock of my life,” she says. “Was I stupid? Naive?…I felt sorry for myself for a few months and was really depressed.” But Fears, who was only in her early 50s, wanted to keep working. “It was clear the magazine industry was on a deep downward slide,” she says. “Of all the magazines I worked at only one is still in existence.” Fears took her interest in health and food (she loved cooking since a child), grabbed a nutrition certification at her alma mater Cornell, and started coaching friends, then clients on how to eat better and lose weight. Later, she began the blog GoodFoodRx.net, a weekly themed newsletter that dissects a nutritional issue and offers a corresponding recipe.   Covid forced her coaching online but Fears now has clients from different states. “The silver lining for me in the pandemic is that people are eating poorly and not moving or exercising,” she says.  “I thought I’d really miss my old life. But I’m really happy to be in charge of my own hours and not clock in."