While cruising the Mediterranean, I heard a young girl from Wales belt out the song, “The Story of My Life.” That young girl, stumbled on the verse at times, but when it came to the chorus, she owned it!
I sat back and thought about my story. How is it that today, I am part of a broadcasting network? How is it that I have a radio show; episodes that instruct, inspire boomer women reinventing themselves & meet a million downloads monthly?
When you are born in 1953, weighing in at 4 lbs., 2 months early your beginning is a rocky one. I had to repeat a grade, learning challenges, thus my sister Thomasine and I were in first grade together.
Grade school whipped my confidence, but I made it to junior high school, met the violin and finally cherished something that I was good at! As I learned how to play and read music the essence of competition grew in me. I practiced ferociously, stayed in first, second or third chair and my dad bought me a violin.
I took an honors English class in high school and up walks Mr. Henry David Thoreau. Once again, I felt matched to something that made me feel smart and accomplished. I wrote some articles for the high school newspaper and Henry David stood at the chalkboard with me when imposter syndrome came a knocking.
I went to the Junior College for two years, and I majored in growing an Afro, getting my first real boyfriend, and smoking pot but I graduated with an A.A. I worked for the city shortly, had my daughter, reality sunk in being sole breadwinner and I reinvented to be a person who worked in a factory for seven years with that “good job.”
While vacationing in California, a friend of mine, told me that a major corporation was hiring. I applied, interviewed and got the job! California became home.
So, I took an entry level courier job (“good job”) and it was a real challenge, but God was at the chalk board with me! I moved to dispatch, looked at management in a serious way but declined and worked in the fast pace world of dispatch for 26 years.
My job had survived economic downturns, policy changes but something happened to me and the company did not define harassment the way I defined it. Exhausted I cried on the way to work every day & was tired of looking over my shoulder fearing that “he” may come into the office. I got sick in body& mind – I literally quit. A year after I left the job, I retired.
But you know what? During all of that, I remembered my strong background in broadcasting, programming, music, and interviewing guests. Broadcasting had been my hobby for years and I revisited an old business plan of mine. This called for hiring a coach because this reinvented woman wanted to build a solid show,
something that would eventually generate revenue. Her Business Her Voice Her Conversation launched in January 2018. In one year, I went from a game show hopper to international show host, author & speaker.
That’s the story of my life, in a nutshell. It’s one of boldness and surviving. I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am to be an interviewer, a speaker, an entrepreneur. One thing for certain is that Her Business, Her Voice, Her Conversation and I will stand at the chalkboard with you when you are ready to reinvent yourself.
I’m Margo Lovett, and ’till next time, bye bye.
