Ep. 81: Prosper as an Entrepreneur by Embracing Your Midlife Moxie (Guest Gail Scott, Midlife Moxie™ Podcast)

My guest is Gail Scott, beauty expert and co-host of the Midlife Moxie™ podcast. She is on a mission to shine a bright light on middle-aged women, to prove that life isn’t over when the wrinkles and grey hair start to appear. In fact, you can reinvent yourself, take all the wisdom that comes with age, and do amazing things.

We discuss ways to live your best life despite your age and prosper in your business. If you’re new to entrepreneurship and wonder, should I do reels? Should I try Clubhouse? Will these things impact my business? My friend, the answer is yes, yes, yes, and Gail is here to explain it all.

SHOW NOTES:
Contact and Follow Gail Scott:  - Instagram
Midlife Moxie™: Website - Podcast
Podcast Episodes Mentioned:
How to Create Online Courses to Increase Profits:  Ep. 77 (Julie Hood, Course Creator HQ)
How to Increase Clients Through Speaking Gigs: Ep. 49 (Caterina Rando, Thriving Women in Business)
Biscuit Heads: Website
Other Mentions: Caterina Rando - Podcasting Business School - PodPals Zoom Party
Instagram Mentions: Cammie’s Happy Place - Lisa Lou Fitness - Christina (co-host of Midlife Moxie)

To view the entire show notes or go here: https://www.getthebalanceright.net/blog/episode81

CONTACT HEATHER:
Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn
Get the Balance Right Coaching: Website
Book a Discovery Call (via Zoom) - Click Here
Heather & Get the Balance Right - Link Tree
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn - Email: heather@GetRadBiz.com
Get Radical With Your Business: Facebook - Website
Book a Discovery Call (via Zoom) - Schedule
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

Transcript

My guest is Gail Scott, beauty expert and co-host of the Midlife Moxie™ podcast. She is on a mission to shine a bright light on middle-aged women, to prove that life isn’t over when the wrinkles and grey hair start to appear. In fact, you can reinvent yourself, take all the wisdom that comes with age, and do amazing things. 

More and more middle-aged women are starting businesses and a great portion of these are women of color. Here’s the thing, mid-life women have years of experience, diverse networks, greater self-confidence, and easier access to capital. 

 According to a 2019 report based on census data, over the past several years, the number of women-owned businesses climbed to nearly 13 million, doubling the rate of US businesses. Many of these women are older and have decided to reinvent themselves rather than retire. 

An article in Forbes last year touted that 50 plus women are the new entrepreneurial superpower.  The article mentions that women over 50 aspire to make a difference, committing to run purpose-driven businesses. Last year, for the first time, Forbes launched a 50 over 50 list, celebrating remarkable women.

To dive into this topic of prospering as an entrepreneur in mid-life I am joined by guest Gail Scott.

Gail is a real go-getter, and you can find her on Instagram reels demonstrating beauty products while being silly. Through her entertaining reels, she has amassed a following. You can also find Gail co-hosting several rooms each week in Clubhouse. If you’re a middle-aged woman feeling a bit past her prime, then turn to Gail for some inspiration.

Today’s show discusses ways to get out there and live your best life despite your age. If you’re new to entrepreneurship and wonder, should I do reels? Should I try Clubhouse? Will these things impact my business? My friend, the answer is yes, yes, yes, and Gail is here to explain it all. She was my inspiration to finally try Instagram Reels.

I met Gail last year online. One minute she wasn’t in my life and then she suddenly kept appearing in my life.

Do you ever think about how specific actions you take in your life that seem so small and insignificant at the time can change the trajectory of your life? I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of chance. Do you remember that Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia? That was such a masterpiece on the concept of chance.

But is chance real?

Or is there something more significant that plays a hand in all this? You could call it God, the law of attraction, or the force. Gail Scott came into my life in a few ways that were unexpected and completely unrelated. It was like the universe was making darn sure that the two of us connected.

I first met Gail doing a presentation about Instagram Reels for an event hosted by Caterina Rando. When Gail presented, it was so impactful I decided to finally try Instagram Reels. Then just a couple of days later, Gail appeared in a Clubhouse room I was in. Then within the same week, she showed up at PodPals (Zoom Party), the bi-monthly meet-up hosted by Adam from Podcasting Business School. 

Coincidence? 

Maybe…

 But here’s where it blows my mind. I was in Greenville, SC, for an accounting conference not long after this. After a series of random events, I got breakfast at a place called Biscuit Heads.

I had no idea, but they make biscuits the size of cat heads in the south, thus the name and all the imagery in the restaurant. Due to all the cat stuff, I felt compelled to take a photo of the sign on the table, explaining the cat head reference. You have to understand that I hardly ever take pictures with my phone. But that day, I did. I decided to post it to Instagram, which was even more out of character…

After I posted the sign, I received a DM from Gail. To my shock and surprise, she recognized precisely where I was. Turns out she lived nearby. On my last day in town, she picked me up at my hotel. We spent part of the day together; she bought me lunch, showed me around, introduced me to peach tea, and, being the sweet southern belle that she is, chauffeured me to the airport. It was such a delightful time, and I had the opportunity to really discover what a fabulous lady she is… 

Gail is such a fun spirit, caring, open-minded, down-to-earth, and very smart. Plus, she has the most incredible eyelashes. I have no doubt that Gail and I were destined to meet.

You are in for a treat if you don’t know Gail Scott. Perhaps you, too, are destined to be in her world.

Get out your peach tea and press play, to experience the moxie maven herself, Gail Scott.

The Interview

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Gail Scott, welcome to Get the Balance Right podcast.” 

Gail Scott: “Hi Heather. I'm so glad to be here. I've been looking forward to this.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “You are my favorite southern belle, and I was lucky enough to hang out with you for an afternoon and you introduced me to peach tea.”

Gail Scott: “Oh, peach tea. Today I'm having raspberry, just so you know, that's another option.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And you also introduced me to some interesting Southern cuisine that I still have to veganize. Gail, you are a woman who has got Moxie.” 

Gail Scott: “I try, girl. I try.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Tell us about this podcast that you started recently called Midlife Moxie.”

Gail Scott: “Heather, for a long time I've been a big consumer of podcasts and audiobooks, and I've really liked those formats, suits my personality.

And so from the get-go, my vision was always me talking to people and just talking about topics that I thought were interesting. I love good conversation. So fast forward to spring of last year, spring of 2021, through my other business, I met a gal and we just had an instant connection. You know, sometimes you meet those people kind of like you and I, and you just like, I dig her.

I like her. And we became fast friends and I'm a fast friend kind of girl. But when we kept talking things kept coming up first, we were just bitching about midlife all the time, to be honest, just straight up. I'm so hot. I'm so tired of these periods. Oh my gosh, my children, these teenagers, that kind of thing.

And one day she and I each had this confessional that we had always wanted to host our own podcast. And I told her, I said, well, I have the name already. And I said, ‘Midlife Moxie’ because I'm all about us making this midlife season one of the best seasons of our lives and not just giving in to all these negatives.  We're going to talk about the negatives.

We're going to talk about solutions to the negatives. We're going to acknowledge that these things happen, so other women don't roll in unprepared like we did. And so that's how Midlife Moxie was born.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “That is so cool. And I want to kind of back up because I met you before the podcast actually premiered.

You suddenly appeared in my life in a couple of places. So I’m part of Caterina Rando’s Thriving Women in Business. I'm also friends with Adam from Podcasting Business School, and you showed up in some Zoom rooms for both of those. And I felt like, wow, she's just suddenly in my life. And I totally dug you from the start.”

Gail Scott: “Oh, I love that.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Were you showing up in these rooms because you were kind of thinking about doing a podcast at that point or had you already started the podcast at that point?” 

Gail Scott: “We had not started it yet. We were thinking about it. But even before that, my connection to Caterina came in the space of me working with women.

I've worked with women for a very long time for 27 years in my beauty business, as a consultant for their image for their appearance. But also as a leader, a teacher, a trainer coach, all those things. My connection to Caterina of course, was instant because she's that girl out there teaching training, empowering women.

And so I instantly connected with her through Clubhouse. Clubhouse was kind of the catalyst for a lot of this. And then when we got serious about launching the podcast, it became more than just how we're going to do it. But you know, that kind of talk everybody you're going to do something to, what are the steps we found Adam in a room.

And so they had both been huge supports to me. And I want to give them both shout outs. They are incredible cheerleaders and people that empower others. And how could you not connect to each of them, but it brought me to you too. And so many other wonderful people. Clubhouse is my jam. Not gonna lie.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah, we're going to talk more about Clubhouse.

And I do want to kind of put that out there that, you know, when you start a podcast, it can be a lonely road just like entrepreneurship. And it really helps to have this almost like a family around you that can kind of show you the ropes. I did not have that. I kind of just started out on my own. And I so wish that I had known someone like Adam and Caterina at the time to kind of help me along the way.

So I think that that really kind of catapulted your podcast for sure, because you had that support right from the start.” 

Gail Scott: “I think that's a lot of what social media has provided. You know, we get information more quickly and at our fingertips, and also what I've seen since COVID hit, especially amongst women is more collaboration and less competition.

And I think it's even spilling over into the gas space.  When COVID hit and those of us that had various kinds of businesses were impacted. We realized we had to pivot. We had to go in other directions. 

And I think in our desperation, our fear, our need, we have bonded together in different ways in business and personally, and I think that's the change that is good about COVID and the pandemic and all that we've been through. And I hope it's one that continues that even though we've had a lot of separation, I've had a lot of separation with people over the election, over politics, over religion, over COVID. And the thing is I have had wonderful new people come into my life.

So I'm grateful and I'm grateful for these circles. And that information does come quickly and is found in a lot of places.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And you're in the beauty business and you have amazing reels on Instagram. You are actually one of my inspirations to even start dabbling in reels. So when you decided I'm going to do reels, were you doing it to promote your beauty business or what was the catalyst for starting reels.”

Gail Scott: “It was originally promoting my beauty business and getting more involved in social media. And I went into it kicking and screaming. I'll be honest because I had been hanging out on Facebook for a really long time and just barely had any presence on Instagram. And when the pandemic hit and we’re reevaluating, I had to learn new ways to work virtually.

And it became clear that Instagram was a new frontier for my business and women in my age group.  My age group, being a midlife woman, was one of the fastest-growing segments on Instagram at the time. And I actually bit the bullet paid a little bit of money to someone I've trusted, who was an expert on Instagram.

Like she went to school for marketing. She had been in the same business as me. I knew she knew me and knew what I was trying to. When I saw it, I saw it when I saw the potential, I just jumped in and reels became very fun to me. Now, some days, do you want to do them? No. I don't want to get dressed and put on my makeup and get the lighting right.

But when you're doing it and being able to use that creativity to grow your businesses in your brand, that's a big deal. And I will say, Heather, that was one big revelation for me during COVID, was that I am a brand beyond the brand that I represent in cosmetics. I'm a brand beyond, you know, other things I do.

I personally, am a brand and I decided to run with that. And that was kind of revolutionary to me.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah, it's amazing. Your personality comes out in these 30 second or 15 second reels that you produce. And they're funny, they're fun. They're engaging. It's not just like someone dancing around, you have some different humor in there and when you started, okay, so you had this person that you're working with, this marketer where you also looking at what other people were doing and their success in reels and what was being successful, or where you just kind of doing your own thing?

How did you kind of structure it?” 

Gail Scott: “I'm going to say yes to all. I was looking around at other people, but what I was realizing is I didn't feel like there was a me out there. I didn't feel it. There's a woman working in the Midland Space, doing exactly the things I wanted to do. And I've come to learn getting into this space more that there's an audience for everyone.

And that's why I tell women all the time. You don't want to be me. You don't want to be Heather Zeitzwolfe if you don't want to be. And so who are you? And, you know, Instagram and reels was such an amazing platform to show who you really are and have that like know trust factor, be amplified, really connect with potential friends, potential business associates, potential clients and customers in a way that we've never had available to us before.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And for women out there that are midlife that listens to this show, do you have any tips on starting reels? So if they're feeling a little anxious about doing this, do you have some tips on just like how to get started and what are things that they need to know about Instagram, just to get their feet wet?”

Gail Scott: “Some of it's gonna deal with your personality, Heather because some of us are more willing to be transparent and more willing to take a risk. And I'm one of those people I'm willing to look stupid if it gets a laugh or makes me money, those are just facts.

And I'm not quite as protective of my image of some people. Maybe I should be, but hey, if there’s anything 2021 taught us, let's get real. So there's options out there to learn for free. Now, you didn't know this and you're not asking this question because I'm actually having a course coming up.   

Reels One-on-One, like which button to mash.  Because for some women. For me coming in. I did not know. And I think that's where a lot of people at those higher levels start with thinking, you understand even what button to mash. And what I realized is that once I learned to do these, I was walking my friends through it, like, get on Zoom with your phone.

Okay. Click this button, mash that button. Let's do this. You know, I'm doing this for free and, my time is valuable. I need to just put it out there at very inexpensive rate. Teach a bunch of my friends all at once. And so I've got some things coming up on that it's going to be Reels One-on-One and then I've got a class coming up on getting a good biopic, because as we move into these spaces for Instagram and Clubhouse and we're representing ourselves in these different ways. 

We have to have a mind shift about our image and if you've been working face-to-face you knew what you look like face-to-face, but getting the right picture for these tiny little avatars is a whole different ball game and it's part of the game.

And it, it really hurts me. When I see women, I click on their picture and the picture does not say anything about who they are. And when I go over to their Instagram there, there's a vibrant, wonderful, amazing woman. And their picture of her on Clubhouse was just dead. That breaks my heart because I know what they're missing out on.

So what I've tried to do is my advice for other women as times change, is, you know, that you can teach someone else and that's become part of my brand and part of my business. And it was new to me. I think we all think, what do we know? What do we have to share? But even women who have been stay-at-home moms, you might be a fantastic cook.

Maybe you need to start a YouTube channel about cooking or like Heather, you know, the vegan secrets and whatever, you know, there's somebody behind you who doesn't know that. And there are all different levels. So I think one of the beauties again of the pandemic is seeing people find new ways to be influential and to earn income for their families and new ways to represent themselves.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah I love that and we had Julie Hood on the show and she talked about building courses. So if people haven't heard that one go back and listen to that one, that's a really good one, which she talks about looking for the things that you know, that you're ahead of other people and utilizing that to build a quarter.

I am so excited to see your course, Gail, this is really exciting. So when that comes out, we'll have a link in the show notes to that, for sure. What are some reels that you have seen that have really had a lot of likes or shares or whatever it is? More engagement, I guess you'd call it for, is it ones that are the funny ones?

Is, does it have music or do you see a trend? Tell us, Gail.”

Gail Scott: “The music it has to be there. The music is one of the things that the algorithm will feed off of. But I want to say this. It's not all about likes.  That's a big part in that algorithm play in that game is a big part. But the biggest part is that you're connecting with the people who are your target client, the target, um, person you want to influence whatever you're doing, even if you're not in a business space.

And so my clients, when I know that they like, they like comedy, they like education. They like fun. They like me being very real. And then there's another type of content that I like called carousels. And those are different than reels in that they're a little more static, but you scroll through the different graphics, for those who don't know.

And it's a great way to put out content in a format that people can just chew it up really quickly. Boom, boom, boom, boom, four quick points, five ways, six ideas, things like that. And I've noticed my clients like both of those things. They like the voiceovers a lot on reels and taking those and make them apply to something I do.

They also like when I'm transparent, they like, when I'm honest, they like when I'm raw and real. So those are the things I've noticed. And I encourage any woman, you know, look at who your audience is. And speak to them. Everything you put out, everything you do should be as if you're looking into their eyes and talking to them.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “You really are a marketing genius.

Another way that you've been marketing yourself is through Clubhouse. And that's how I met Adam was through Clubhouse. It's been, like you mentioned, it's been such a godsend during COVID to like, actually get to communicate with people. It's not just sending someone a DM, you never hear their voice. They keep changing it too, which is pretty cool.

They keep adding on more things to Clubhouse. And now if you have an Android, you can also join Clubhouse. And I just heard that they're going to be rolling out a website version of it so you can listen to it on your laptop or whatever, rather than on your phone or your iPad. What made you get started where you first like a listener on Clubhouse, or did you just start talking off the bat?

How did you get yourself into Clubhouse?” 

Gail Scott: “Back when I hired a little help on Instagram, that person just mentioned it to me, kind of in passing, she said, have you heard about this new social media platform? Absolutely not. I've got more than I can handle. No, I don't need another social. I totally was being a brat because when I looked into it, it was exactly what she said.

It was a perfect format for me. I do like to talk and I love interesting people and I love new friends. So it was, you know, a perfect storm for me, but here's what I have found, Heather, that has been amazing. In my business, before I, depending on a little more of an organic model to meet new people, new potential clients.

There were some intentional or organicness to that. If you know what I mean, you know, I would do certain events. I would be in certain places and invest in certain things to grow. But here's what I found.  People talk about how on social media, you don't make real friends and it's all fake. That's just a lie from the pit of hell.

Like you, we met. And then we met in real person and the connection was real. Like in real person, you were just like, you were on social. And so I came in about March. I instantly saw that I could build an audience here I could have a voice here and I could be on the front end and be more of an early adopter to this platform.

Also knew that I could push out content and that I could talk about different, you know, I had years of teachings and trainings and content that I could pull out, you know, at a minute's notice, but here's what was magical to me, Heather. I realized that proportionately the number of sharp, intentional, inspiring, amazing credible women that I was meeting through Clubhouse was proportionately higher than the number of people I would meet in my real life, especially with COVID going on, I mean, it sped that process up greatly. 

And it was a real key to me, not just losing my mind during COVID, connecting with these women, like yourself, being inspired, being motivated, knowing that you guys were out there too.

And we're walking through all this together. It would have taken me years to meet women of this caliber in my real organic life, just out on the streets in little small towns South Carolina, that I was able to meet through these incredible platforms and form real relationships. That's the thing I become tight with these women.

We talk personally now that just through business. So it's been a boost to my personal life, my friendship circles, as well as my business.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “When you first started with Clubhouse, I think this is really fascinating because you have this podcast, but you were doing things before the podcast, almost like to kind of ramp up and launch this podcast.

So when you were on Clubhouse, were you talking about beauty or planting the seed for a Midlife Moxie, or did you open rooms?”

Gail Scott: “Can I say yes again to all of it? We very quickly saw that this could be a proof of concept for what we were trying to do. We could see if women were interested in these topics, we could also grow.

We're both in the beauty business, grow that part of our business, grow ourselves as brands and people could also see our personality and decide if I liked us or not, and wanting to be part of the things we were doing, because you know how women are when we find somebody we really like, and we really dig with we kind of jump on the train, wherever it's going.

And so Clubhouse, we just tested a lot of things. We built some community, we built other podcast friends. Like you said, that is that core of support. We got helpful information. So sometimes on Clubhouse, we were giving and sometimes we were getting, and that's part of the beauty of Clubhouse. You can get fed and you can be the one who's serving the meal.

So you said, you know, did I speak that I opened rooms? Yes. I listened a lot at first. I decided I wanted my own club midlife moxie. So I could gather up the people that wanted to hear us and that I could do the rooms that I wanted to do. And if you're in someone else's club, that's not always the way it happens, it's their club, but I knew we could do what we wanted to do.

So we worked really hard to build numbers there and build a community there. And then from that, we had a place. We actually did a podcast launch party on Clubhouse the day we launched. And that was really fun because people came in and celebrated with us people that a few months ago, we didn't even know. So it was a very special and very sweet thing that we did not see coming out of Clubhouse.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Wow. That is so great. That's such a great idea for people to do so you build this fan base already before you launch the podcast, and then they kind of see that whole journey of you launching this podcast and they're along for the ride. So for people that are out there, these midlife women who are starting businesses, they're thinking, okay, I'll try reels because Gail has made it easy for us to do.

Now we're thinking about Clubhouse. You mentioned going into other people's rooms and speaking, I mean, until you have an audience, is that kind of the way that you think that you can build an audience and would you recommend looking for topics that are similar to what you want to talk about? Like how do you get this audience on Clubhouse?”

Gail Scott: “Absolutely. You're going to start with creating the subject matter that you're interested in, and that's part of your profile on Clubhouse. And then you're going to go into rooms. And when you're in rooms and you find people that you're interested in following, you're going to give them a follow. But if you scroll down on their profile, you're going to be able to see if they own any clubs.

And the other clubs I participate in. So you can find other clubs that way. And then once you get to that club, say, you're following I'm following Heather Zeitzwolfe and she has this club and I love her club. Well, let me also open that club and see who else is in that club. 

Are there any co-owners are there other people that are speakers in that club because that kind of zigzag, lead you to the people that you're going to most likely have a connection with, or have shared interests with. Then you go find what clubs they're interested in. And that little pattern led us to a lot of people we wanted to follow. Then we found places where we could get on the stage. I'm a big fan of being a listener and being a supporter.

And I'm a big fan of, you've got to pay your dues. And I have paid my dues on Clubhouse. I've sat in rooms that were boring me to tears. I've sat in rooms where I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to talk at all or get anything. You’ll always learn something, but you know, it wasn't going to grow my business that day.

I was supporting other people. And in doing that, you'll find people that will do the same for you. And you build that, ‘like know trust’ factor in that connection. And people start to follow you and they start following you in different rooms and different clubs, but also aligning yourself with some other groups of women and maybe doing a room in their club with this group and a room in this club with that group will expose you to more people and start to build your audience.

We're seeing some shifts in Clubhouse and the question becomes, do you really need your own club? Maybe not. You may not. You may want to just be a part of, one of the other really large clubs. Like I'm part of, Hey Girl You Can. So we actually host a lot of rooms in there because they have almost 40,000 members.

Almost all women. So if she is willing, which she is, to allow me to host rooms in there, then why would I not use that amazing platform? That's a place that we hang out and spend a lot of time. Also Second Act Sisters. We have a lot of our Midlife friends over there and they welcome us to come over there and do chats and rooms.

So you really become collaborative and supportive. Also a way that we grew was inviting other people to do rooms in our club. And then when they come into your club, their audience sees your club and finds out about you. And you repay that by going and co-marketing with them when asked. So that there's a lot of collaboration, Heather.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “You've been doing this in a very targeted manner, besides paying your dues, when you get into Clubhouse, you can go down a rabbit hole of hours and hours and it ends up not even being productive. It seems like you really need to have a strategy around what you're doing on Clubhouse. And you seem like you have one.

So can you break down what it is that you are looking for and what the goals are that you're trying to achieve from that? So it's not just oh, I want to get followers. That's good. And all, but what is your strategy entail? Exactly.” 

Gail Scott: “I wanted not only followers, but I wanted the right followers. You're also looking to bring people out of Clubhouse, Clubhouse is a starting point.

And you want them to come over to your other social media platforms like Instagram. So your really strong bio in there. And I'm just going to say, Clubhouse gives you the opportunity to create a bio pretty much unlike any other platform that I've been on.  It's very generous in how much space you have and the way that you can promote yourself in there.

You can put other links in there that aren't live, that people can of course cut and paste. But I'm looking for interesting people on topics that midlife women care about or other topics that I care about. Now, these rabbit holes. The best way to get out of those is take them out of your feed. 

And if you see certain ones popping up, you can tell the algorithm.  I don't want to say this type of room anymore. Also figure out who you follow that is getting making that appear in your feed because occasionally you'll find that there's one person you follow that is in a lot of craziness. And if you unfollow them the craziness tends to quieten down.

So I also adjusted my subjects in my profile and got a lot more curated with that. And I turned that all curating your hallway, curating your feed, and that does take some work, but you will find out too really quickly, who players are in the game that are willing to support you as you support them. And the ones who don't want to play that way usually get eliminated from my feed. And I look for women that I can add to their platform and they can add to mine.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “When you open up a room and have a stage, there's that fear of, oh God, is anybody going to show up before you even launch a room with topic, you really need to have some prep work involved.  As far as promoting in advance or coming up with a great title.

What are some things you can do to make sure that people are going to show up? And it's not just your friends that you're begging to show up to your clubhouse room.” 

Gail Scott: “Well, I'm just going to tell you this. Sometimes it's a crapshoot now, especially if you're in a smaller club and our club has. Almost 900 members in our club and we can still do a room and no one show up.

Cause that's small beans in the world of Clubhouse. When you're in, Hey Girl, You Can with almost 40,000 members, you can almost always get somebody to pop in, but the question is, can you pop in and keep them because people room hop very frequently on Clubhouse. So you've got not only get them to click on your room, you've got to have such content that when they click in there and they hear what's going on, they want to stay.

They do not want to leave. So there's a couple of things. One it's trial and error, as much as it is preparation, because you can prepare a fantastic room, but it may just be that, that day in time wasn't good. It may be that someone else had a super big room going on that attracted a lot of people. There is a ton of variables and you have to be willing to say, I'm going to plan this and I'm going to try to do it.

I don't recommend you put a ton of time into planning content. You need to go with content that is easy for you to just pull off the cuff. It's germane to what you do. You know it like the back of your hand so that you don't have that disappointment. If you get in there and you need to just close it, you close it and you don't feel like you waste the time.

Now there's some things to consider.  How you name your room matters.  Using little emoticons in the title matter almost you have to take almost an SEO type approach because there is a search feature that is relatively one of the newer functions. It's only been out a few months called universal search and people are going to search for topics.

They're going to search for people, they can search for rooms and they can search for clubs. So you want to make sure you have key words in your title that are going to attract. If someone is looking for a room or a club. That's on the subject matter you're looking for. 

So you can't just have a title that sounds cute if it's not going to help you in any kind of search capabilities. So the game has changed quite a bit. Now there's some other little things we do. Like sometimes when you come into a room, you'll hear silence because people are pinging in their friends. Who wants to hear silence? So I try to be ready from the go.

Either I'm talking about what we're going to be doing while I'm pinging, or I have music and music, lets them know this room's here, this rooms popping, we're getting it going. You also have to learn to tell people what you want. So one way you grow is you tell people in your rooms to follow you. You tell them how to follow you because some people are new.

Click on my name, click here, click this button, click always also join our club.  You have to really tell people what to do, and then last but not least Clubhouse added the feature of links, you can put in a link to like my podcast. You can put a link to a website while you're talking they can be visiting your podcast page or your website. So Clubhouse is helping us, but it's kind of an ongoing game to play, to be honest. And I do like games, Heather.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Well, Instagram is also the same. They keep changing things as well. The people that have tried Clubhouse in the past and thought, oh, this seems like a waste of time.

Try it again. They are changing things. All right. I could talk all day with you, gals. You are an amazing woman. I just absolutely adore you. And you are an inspiration for women who are in their midlife that may be thinking like, oh, my life is over. But so many women out there, this could be the beginning.

Maybe they're divorced, or they lost their job, or maybe they're not ready to retire and they want to keep working. What are some things that you would recommend to these ladies that are thinking like, what do I do next? And I want some Moxie.” 

Gail Scott: “Oh gosh. Next is so great. I love that you used that word next because here's where we’re at.

Women have never had the opportunities we have today with the opportunities for full-time careers, with opportunities for part-time. We have split time, we have side gigs, side hustles, entrepreneurial deals. There's never been so many ways for us to make money that's legal, moral, and ethically, right? So here's what I want women to understand.

And this is where we get into my Midlife Moxie space. It doesn't matter what you've been doing up to. You may have made a decision about your career when you were 20 years old and you had to make that selection in college, which track you're going down. And a lot of people make those decisions when their brain is not even fully developed.

And now that you're a little more mature and the kids are probably grown and you probably have a little more financial stability. This is a season where a lot of women make a shift and the options are endless. Heather, you can take a small portion of what you've learned over the years in a career or as a homemaker or as a mom and turn that into a business.

You can host a podcast, you can write a book. You know, book publishing is easier than ever. You can start writing a blog, you can create courses, you can host events and workshops. The possibilities are endless and you are not tied to what you have done or been, or the labels you've carried for the last 20 years.

You know, the big pivotal moment for me, Heather, I think when I was turning 50, I'm 55. Now the big five, five, I like to say, is that no matter how good you are at math, I think we can all agree that most of us would just like to live to a hundred, that that's kind of a pie in the sky, but fifties, half.

Either way we slice it for 50, we've probably lived half of our lives. And I had to ask myself. What have I accomplished? What do I still want to accomplish? And I had to stop using the term one day, one day. I want to do a podcast one day. I'd like to be this, you know, on the podcast. I want to tell you about two quick stories ‘cause I think they're really inspiring.

We talked to one lady who became an accidental model in midlife. Whoa. She did not want to be on Instagram. She decided she would get on there so she could share pictures with her friends. And she asked her daughter to set up 10 friends around her and she did, but someone invited her to a style challenge and she just started posting cute outfits and hashtagging it.

And her audience grew a little bit and she was contacted by a modeling agency who said, we want to work with. She told us, she said, I thought it was a scam. She said, I told them, oh, thank you. How sweet? But I'm 48 years old. I don't think I'm who you're looking for. And they're like, no, you're exactly who we're looking for.

And now she has massive followers. She gets tons of free clothes. They put her through a modeling course. She gets paid modeling gigs. Very nicely paid modeling gigs. And now she pretty much has even stopped a lot of the modeling gigs because she makes so much posting on Instagram for these different clothing vendors.

And it all came by accident. She was a stay-at-home mom of like four kids not looking for anything. Another friend was in the health and wellness space and she had always liked to dance when COVID hit and she had been teaching her live courses, she had to pivot. So we started posting some of her shovel and dance routines online.

And I'm going to give you these Instagram accounts because I want you to follow these ladies. Somehow she grew her audience from 10,000 to a hundred thousand in a year, right. And now Instagram pays her to post to reels of her doing dancing and shuffling for exercise. Again, she didn't see it coming.

Nobody even knew that who knew these things even happened. So Heather, I want women to open their eyes to the possibilities. You never know what's out there. Be fearless, be brave, take a risk. I mean, when you're in your forties and fifties, what do you got to lose? Who gives a rat's but what everybody else thinks, that's the beauty of midlife and just go for it.

So I want you to go look up Cammie’s Happy Place and Lisa Lou Fitness on Instagram. Those are two, Lisa's already been on the podcast. Her story is so funny. Cammie’s coming in about two weeks, I think, because we're going to be doing our own style challenge with Midlife Moxie, but we love sharing these stories of women who've made pivots who have discovered new things. It's just been incredible to get to share their stories with everyone else and be part of inspiring and changing what things look like for midlife women.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh, that is so fabulous. I love that. And it goes to show that you don't have to be a millennial or Gen Z to be an influencer either.

You could go out there and do your reels, get on Clubhouse, do all the things you never know what's going to happen.” 

Gail Scott: “There's an audience for everyone is that you can quote Gail Scott on that.”  

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I would love your thoughts on niching because you have such a great niche. You could be talking to any women. You could be a women's chat show, but you picked midlife, obviously, you're in your midlife. Was that sort of, part of it? Did you want to highlight them?” 

Gail Scott: “Anyone who's in these kinds of spaces will tell you about niching down and knowing who your target client is. I've been in sales for a very long time and niching down sounds scary ‘cause you want to sell to all the people.

But wow. The power you have is multiplied when it's going to the right audience. You can quote that one too. You'll have less frustration and spend less time when you're in the right room when you're in the right zone when you're with the right people. But. It was a scary process for me because I wanted it to be everything to everybody.

But when we niched down and we found our audience and you talk to that audience, that's when the magic happens. And so this is critically important because it then drives everything you're putting out there, all the content you're putting out there is going to be directed to that group. And so it's going to hit, it's going to land, it's going to connect and you're not going to feel like you're all hit and miss all the time.

So that was a very important part, but not one that I embraced easily. It was very difficult for me, but I'm so glad I did. And while we picked midlife, I was there and every day I felt like I had so much to say so much to ask so much to talk about. And I felt like I had rolled into midlife, quite unprepared.

I mean, I'll just be honest. I did not know that blood was going to run down my leg. I did not know that I was going to have an internal furnace cranked on high 90% of the time. I did not know things were going to happen. My mom didn't talk to me about that. Part of our platform was that other women not roll into this unprepared that we talk about what is normal.

We talk about what is not normative. Like we've had the vagina coach on, and she's told us that while a lot of people do pee themselves, that you don't have to just live with that. It's not necessarily something to just accept. So finding out things like that is life-changing for us, but the conversations have not historically been held on these topics.

And so we're doing it. We're going all the way in and not holding anything back. And we think it's going to change lives.  And change lives not only for people who are in midlife now but the next generations and how they come into and approach midlife.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I love it. It's such a fun show, to listen to both of you chat with the guest and you get into some really juicy nuggets too, and you dig out the dirt, but it's all very much supportive and open and there's nothing ugly or mean about it.

Well, Gail, tell us again, how can people find you? How can they work with you? All the things, where are you at? We'll have links in the show notes, but just kind of just tell us a little bit.” 

Gail Scott: “Well first, come on over to Instagram and give me a follow out. Appreciate it. It's @gailsscott with two S’s.

And we have our website now for the podcast. And the great thing about that is you can listen to the shows there, but also you can go to the blog. It's midlifemoxie.net, and the women who are coming on and are also writing content for us to go on the blog, Christina and I write as well. That's my partner and she is at One Sassy Massey over on Instagram.

She's a lot of fun and. They can come there and be part of that community, sign up for the newsletter.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “How do you spell Moxie? Cause there's two spellings of it. How are you spelling it? M O X I E. Gail. Thank you so much for being on the show today. This has been such a delight and I love talking to you and seeing you, and it's always so, so much fun hanging out with you.”

Gail Scott: “Well, thank you for having me there. I adore you and until I see you again, get your moxie on.”