SPEAKERS
Elizabeth Ribons, Lara Schmoisman
Lara Schmoisman
This is Coffee Nº 5, I’m your host, Lara Schmoisman. Hello. I had so many stories to tell I have to brain bend myself so much in my life. I always say that not only had to remind myself I also had to even recycle myself and become something else because every bad thing wasn’t enough. I started in radio and then I went to television then I moved from…I think I’ve flirted with everything there my life. But you know what, everything comes back. And now I’m doing my kind of radio again. And so today I want to bring an expert in recycling yourself, which is Elizabeth Ribons. Welcome to Coffee Nº 5.
Elizabeth Ribons
Thank you, Lara. I’m so glad to be here. And I love this topic, as you know,
Lara Schmoisman
yeah, well, we are two big recyclers, I guess.
Elizabeth Ribons
I love that I haven’t ever heard recycle before. But that’s like repurpose. Basically, we’re repurposing ourselves into our life. Right.
Lara Schmoisman
So you’ve seen the knowledge that you had for one thing, and repurpose it for something else, because nothing that you do in life is go to waste
Elizabeth Ribons
And the thing is that a lot of people are afraid to make the change. So those stay with something that is really making them unhappy, their life, their family, everything, they’re unhappy, but they’ll stay with it. Because they’re like, Well, I know what this is. And if I was to pivot and change that, so scary, but I think that if you if you start taking it, look at how you might do that one step at a time and be intentional about it, and what I call it design it so you start really there’s a process to it.
Lara Schmoisman
I love the word intention.
Elizabeth Ribons
Exactly. Be intentional about and how. And so you’ve done that. I mean, you have looked at your life and said to yourself, you’ve had we’ve all had those aha moments were like, Whoa, this is just not working anymore. And Something’s got to give here.
Lara Schmoisman
Oh, yeah, I quit everything. And I was ready to drive an Uber if I had to, because I wasn’t happy. I don’t think it was a middle life crisis. It was a middle life awakening.
Elizabeth Ribons
You’re coming up with some great words today. I love that.
Lara Schmoisman
Yeah, we should write them down.
Elizabeth Ribons
Yes, these are great words. I love this recycling and midlife awakening, really, because I think we’re just doing so much and building building. So are 20 years, we’re really like burning and trying to just build and then 30 we’re earning. And then we get to this place where like, wait a minute, I’ve done all this, but it’s not fitting me anymore. I started in my 20s like this, but I’m in my 30s now what I want now isn’t it’s not equally,
Lara Schmoisman
it’s okay to say it doesn’t work for me anymore, to say I want something else, it doesn’t mean that you need to start from scratch. Because everything that you learn and you did in your life, you learn something is something that like you said, you can repurpose that knowledge into something else. Experience is not something that you should take lightly.
Elizabeth Ribons
No. And and the fact of the matter is, if you get to 35/40, a little above 40, you went to almost half a century, half out, you know, a century and and you know, things, you’ve navigated through a lot of things in life. So if you really know your stuff well, and what you want and what you’ve done, well, then you can start designing really all the options for yourself and start working towards what makes the most sense, because a lot of times someone comes up with one idea, and they’re like, Okay, I’m going to stick with that. But a lot of times it’s it’s more like, Okay, I’m going…the way I do it in the way that NEXT Career & Life is all about is is a strategy of going okay, this is what I’m really good at. This is what I’m wanting it.
Lara Schmoisman
Oh my god, you’re, you’re saying Oh, the right words for me strategy, intention
Elizabeth Ribons
Yeah, is strategy. It’s a strategy. And if you don’t stick with the first, the first idea that you have some people really latch on to that. And they’re just like, I have to make this work. It’s like, Well, wait, let’s look at all your options. Let’s say for instance, I love to knit, which you know, some people love to knit and they think they’re gonna knit and make a lot of money knitting, and it’s like you can’t possibly be yourself make a lot of money just doing that. But perhaps we can look at all of the options and how we can turn that into something. You know,
Lara Schmoisman
that’s something that I even heard lately of people choosing careers, even young people, like they go thinking what they’re going to make more money, and they don’t realize that money is shot as a consequence of you doing something right,
Elizabeth Ribons
or they’re matching, they’re looking at.. if I go do this, I’ll make a lot of money. But I don’t think they’re taking in all of the aspects. That’s why the strategy and the design comes in play where you’re like, at 20 Oh, my gosh, when I was in my 20s I thought I would never have a child or get married. By the end of my 20s I had a child and I had to achieve the goal I wanted in my life, but it wasn’t working for me anymore. So I had to switch it up. And I think for me, looking back at my life and how I’ve been able to continue to switch is really been the key for me to remain relevant and may be engaged and to continue to grow businesses and help other people too, because it’s not about so much the business, it’s about what you’re doing and how it fits into your life. And, and the money comes, if you’re doing something good, and you’re using all your talents and skills, then you are going to do that thing that’s going to make you money. So I think it’s better to start there than to say, I’m going to go do the thing that makes me a lot of money and be miserable, you know,
Lara Schmoisman
I think everything start to first of all, something that something is not working for you anymore, and don’t fall into depression, because I think I see that a lot, too. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing with my life. And I mean, I hit rock bottom. That’s not I mean, you have a lot of skills, even if you’ve been around, you don’t have a lot of skills. So it’s just for you to realize what are your skills, and can you repurpose them into something that makes you happy.
Elizabeth Ribons
So let me just kind of tell you a little bit, my whole life has been about being and I think women especially we work more like this sort of fluid change, you know, we’ve got family, we’ve got all these different things. And we figure that out. I didn’t do the corporate world, I really worked for myself, I did work for other people for a while. But I think owning your own business is it’s it’s a risk, but at the same time, you know, you can grow it and scale it as much or as little as you want. And, you know, work that in. And for me changes like my whole my whole jam, that’s change and uncertainty throughout my life. And then I built a career on change, I help people to create change in their lives, or in their worlds, or however from one idea all the way to the end with strategy. So for me, it’s like, I’m able to now take this and get and get people to see that they can in fact, design and create the life they want. Back when I achieved that thing that I wanted so much. And I had that big company and I had a little baby, I wasn’t going to be good at both. And I had to decide how I was going to handle that. And I decided to raise my daughter, but I still opened a different business, I just pivoted, I just like you, okay, I’m going to take everything I know and I’m going to recycle it, I’m going to re invent myself in this way. So I can be here, I can be here for this. And I can still do something and stay relevant, right? I don’t want to not be working.
Lara Schmoisman
The other day, I was having an interview with someone from the legal set up a business aspect. And he was explaining that set up a business, someone who’s an entrepreneur is really an assessor of risk. A risk assessors, you’re always assessing how much risk in what you’re doing against the revenue. Or if you hire yourself. Or if you have to put money for equipments or work or for a store and office, you’re always assessing and making decision. And you have to be ready for that as an entrepreneur. And how do you think that you got so ready to move from one place to another?
Elizabeth Ribons
Like I said, well as a child and growing up, you know, I didn’t have the perfect stable home, I had a single mom who worked very, very hard. And so I was always entrepreneurial, very young, coming up with little businesses, I would create something and someone would want it. Next thing I know I was selling a bunch of them. So this was my life. This is how it was always and so I just sort of worked that in I always knew even when I went to school and I worked for companies, I always knew I’m going to work for myself. And I liked that because then I could like I said have the flexibility to show up where I wanted to and then make as much money or as little money as I wanted that was really important to me, the risk for me was being stuck. See, for me, it was more of a risk to be somewhere and be stuck and just not ever have a choice to create and design the life that I wanted. So me it’s all about I work to live, I don’t live to work. So I learned that early on when I worked in movies and television and everyone thought that was a cool thing to be able to I was doing all the costuming I wasn’t the designer of course I was really low on the totem pole. There’s a lot of work and it was good pay. And I was lucky to have that job early on in life. But you know, the thing is, is that I was always working
Lara Schmoisman
I know you don’t have in life that was the same thing happened to me. I was doing red carpets and after red carpet, editing, and it’s a lot of work. And I mean it didn’t work well with motherhood. And this is something I long time ago I think we talked about this. There’s a TED talk that talks about being a scraper and that why you should hire scrapers, why… someone could learn from here and there who scraped knowledge and whatever they go that maybe they didn’t have the education and and I told you the story that I wasn’t hire in many places because either I didn’t have the formal American education. They say we’d really like you. We believe that you can have the job but you don’t have this education or you don’t have the career. But I knew I had the skills. And so being here and there, I mean, mostly in this industry that I work, it taught me a lot. So I want to tell people out there to don’t feel ashamed to have to recycle yourself because life takes you places
Elizabeth Ribons
and to recycle, repurpose, reinvent yourself, we have to because we’re living longer lives, and like I said, what you want it 20 isn’t going to be what you want it 40 isn’t. And so we got to get really good at figuring out the scraping to figure out how to how to continue to reinvent and say, okay, so I need to be around more for my kids right now, or mom and dad need me. But I still have this thing that I like to do. So I’m going to take it digital, or I’m gonna do this thing over here, I’m going to, so it’s really being in that that group and that mindset, so that you can be really fluid. And that’s my whole thing is like, really be fluid, stay fluid. Don’t think that this one idea that you started out with is the one you got to stick with, you know, people think, well, I went to school for blah, blah, blah, and they think they got to stick with it. They hate it. And it’s like, Well, okay, you went to school Good for you. And you probably got knowledge in life too. So you can start kind of designing that.
Lara Schmoisman
And also something really important that you mature through that.
Elizabeth Ribons
You do. And there’s so much value in what you learn, like you said, it’s scraping, you go to school, and you learn, which is great, and you mature through that. But you also learn in life. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, I know a lot of entrepreneurs are more than the scrapers, because they are just picking stuff up as they’re learning because they know that they’ll probably use that in a business of their own at some at some point. So it’s important.
Lara Schmoisman
I want to mention something that is really important for an entrepreneur because people think that they will do this.
Elizabeth Ribons
No
Lara Schmoisman
And things happen.
Elizabeth Ribons
Yeah.
Lara Schmoisman
And when intrapreneur is not only about yourself is about having a team, if you ask me, what’s the most important part for me is having an amazing team that supports me. And so it’s part about choosing your team. And it’s about perseverance, and patience, things don’t happen from one day to another. And I think when we are having that maturity or that experience, the frustration comes faster.
Elizabeth Ribons
Yes. And I also think that when people are young, they want to go hit the mark like I did, I was 29 I thought, Okay, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna have this, and I’m gonna have this business and I got the thing that I wanted, my business was doing well, but I didn’t factor in the family and all that my personal life. And that’s when it was like a light went on in my head. Because starting businesses, you can start if you work hard enough, you know, and you got the right idea. It’s gonna work. But the thing is, is like, you have to factor in those other things. And I’ve never done that. And the thing is, is that you have to work in the trenches, you have to play the long game. There’s no overnight success. That is baloney. There’s no overnight success. There’s just hard work, hard work and consistency. That’s important, hard work.
Lara Schmoisman
That’s what I want to say hard work. Because I see a lot of entrepreneurs, they have a great idea. And then it happened to me, that’s a marketing agency. They believe that because we do marketing, we can do magic. And it doesn’t happen that way. I mean, we do marketing, yeah, it connect with sales, with us, connects with PR with a lot of that show. But we don’t do sales, it’s a different department, you have to have a plan for sales too.
Elizabeth Ribons
And that’s all like part of the wheel, I think it’s really important to start really small, you know why there’s so many reasons, start small, maybe you’ve got to work while you’re building your business that you want to build, and test. That’s the whole you have to test things out. You have to prototype it, you have to say, Okay, I’ve got this idea. And I like this, this type of widget, and I want to sell it. And so maybe you test it out first you see what it’s like to work in that industry, maybe you see what it’s like to be your own boss, you’ve never done that you take your time and test things out. Maybe you don’t like it, maybe you need to work where you know, you, you you acquisitions where you get a business, that’s a really tiny business, that’s already all the things are running in place. And you’re like, Okay, I can take over that. But some things are, you know, you know what, exactly, it’s like grass roots, you have to build it yourself and take the time, because when something small and there’s an adjustment that needs to be made, or there’s something that isn’t going right, it can it’s not such a big block, you can just make that adjustment you can make you know, or maybe like you’re saying your team, someone in the team isn’t working well. If it’s small, then you can make those adjustments. And then you know, in the future, what to do next. So it’s really important to continue to sort of build that foundation. And you got to just think it’s going to take some time and it’s not going to be an overnight success. Because if it was you would not be prepared for those adjustments, and then they would be seen as failures and then who’s going to believe in whatever product you’re trying to sell anyway.
Lara Schmoisman
And also, if you’re not a failure, if you’re a success, you’re going to find yourself that you’re going to have to do strategize and create new logistics. Because as you grow, what do you have it as a work anymore. And even the people that you’re working with sometimes cannot work the in the transition or how things change, or that cannot accommodate to the growth because each person is different.
Elizabeth Ribons
Exactly. And I think I think it’s really important to also keep our networks and those people that are doing what we’re doing. Maybe they’re not working for us. But they’re, they’re running businesses or mentors, people that can go look, stand back and go, you’re doing great. But why do you have this going on over here? That seems like it’s expensive, or maybe it’s a lot of energy you’re spending because time is money as far as I’m concerned. And if you’re spending time on something that isn’t earning you, you know, money dollars, what have you, then, you know, it’s always good to have sort of these mentors and people that can help you coaches that are really help.
Lara Schmoisman
That’s a nice thing. But also, you need to be very careful, because everyone wants to give advice. And so it’s like having a kid everywhere. I never had so much unsolicited advice and when I had the baby, or what or when you’re pregnant, the same happens when you have your baby business, everyone wants to give you advice. So the best advice that I can give you the same advice that I will give a mother find someone that you trust that you believe in what they believe that you align, and just find those reliable people, but don’t listen to everyone because you’re gonna go crazy. And you’re not going to be able to keep up that strategy. And many times business don’t work because A: they are hoping someone else strategy. Or B: everyone is whispering in their ear. So they’re changing strategies all the time, and they have not given them the time to work. And I’m not talking about social media,
Elizabeth Ribons
it’s like they’re going for things that are shiny, they keep going for the shiny things like someone saying, Oh, you shouldn’t be doing this, you should take this next course and marketing, you should take this course. And it’s like Who has time for all the courses. Stay focused on what you need to get done that day, I agree with you, you need to build out a really good team and and just slowly, you know, consistently build that and don’t go nuts, trying to buy all the bells and whistles and run after everything and try to do it all it’s you’re not going to be you won’t be just like when I had the daughter in the in the company, like I couldn’t be good at both, like I needed to sort of, I had to change up what I was doing in my career so that I could be really good at being a mom. So you know, that was really for me, the crux of it.
Lara Schmoisman
And you know what, being a mother teach you a lot about being a leader. So everything you do in life, there are some things that it’s not gonna be valuable, because at some point, I can assure you, it will be,
Elizabeth Ribons
it definitely will be. And the thing is, is that, you know, I was having a conversation about women that are past 40/45, should they start a business and I say, absolutely, because when you’re 45, you’ve built up a pretty great network, you can leverage that network, you can leverage your experience, you can recycle everything you’ve done, and you can get out there and really, in a smart way, you’re not so worried about what everyone thinks about you, you can just quietly work in the corner and build something pretty fantastic. And another thing too, is you don’t need to go telling everyone what you’re doing because everyone’s gonna be like, maybe you shouldn’t do that. You know what I mean? Just keep it quiet. Do your work, keep your head down and, and leverage those connections and leverage your knowledge. And then begin to structured start trying out things. I call it try on shoes, try out all the different shoes, see which one fits and then go ahead and get going on something that makes sense. Small, don’t don’t go spend a bunch of bunch of money and go Oh, wait, this isn’t working.
Lara Schmoisman
Okay, Elizabeth, before I let you go. I want to ask you two things. First, I gonna ask you three tips that you can give to someone who wants to start the business besides contracting NEXT Career. And second, I want to tell people how they can find you.
Elizabeth Ribons
Well, you can find me at the at NEXT Career & LIfe. If you just Google that you’ll find everything on my socials, my website, everything and there’s some great gifts and little tools that ask the right questions for you to start figuring out you’re next and for me the tips are you need to ask yourself the right questions. So that’s a free 10 question quiz. You need to ask yourself the right questions. Well, what is it that I do? Well, what is that gives me joy? What is it that I need? Like financially? And what is it that I want for my life going five years in. You have to ask yourself those questions and really know, and a lot of times women lose their their connection to themselves. So they got to work on that. And then they can sit down and answer those questions to start out the next thing. The idea like I always wanted to bake cookies. Well, does that make sense for your life? You have to think be intentional and strategize what makes sense for your life so that you can enjoy your life and your career as well. So that’s one thing that I think you need to strategize and ask yourself those questions. You need to really free write, come up with all the ideas don’t just come up with and come up with all the ideas and give yourself some time to try it out. Try on those shoes. See if you can, some way find a way to be part of something volunteer intern. Just see what else someone’s doing. If you really want that kind of career for yourself, because it sounds cool. But then like you and I, we worked in movies and TV, we’re like, it’s not cool. So that kind of thing is like,
Lara Schmoisman
It is very cool, but there’s a time for it.
Elizabeth Ribons
It’s like, Oh my god, it’s cool if you don’t wanta life, that’s fine, you know what I’m saying. So that’s what I’m saying is really step into those shoes, see if they’re a fit for you. And then the next thing is to start making a plan how you’re going to transition and it’s not an overnight thing, create that plan, and then start working towards it. So those are three things and I definitely recommend go to NEXT Career www next career life backslash link, and I have all these great opportunities for you to get something free, that’s gonna start asking you or inspiring you about what you might want to do next. And it doesn’t mean you got to do a career. It could be painting, it could be a purpose. I have women on my podcast that have gone and started these amazing public, you know, charity type things that are just amazing. So whatever your next is, there’s a way to do it.
Lara Schmoisman
Thank you so much for being on Coffee Nº 5.
Elizabeth Ribons
Oh, thank you. Thank you. I enjoy you, Lara. And I’ll see you again, I’m sure.
Lara Schmoisman
Thank you for joining us. If you like the show, remember to leave a review. I will really appreciate it. If you want to know more about marketing and and myself, follow me on Instagram. My handle is Lara Schmoisman. Was so good to have you here today. See you next time. catch you on the flip side. Ciao ciao.
