Meet Sharleen Greer
I am learning to tip my toes into turning 60. I live on a beautiful coastline in New Zealand. I am married with four gorgeous daughters and what is important to me is being a wonderful role model for my girls and other young women.
I want them to embrace their middle years passionately with, purpose, pleasure, and play.
We all have previous chapters in our stories – Tell me about your working life/business experiences before now? |
|
| I fell into nursing because I wanted to leave school and I was only allowed if I could find a worthwhile job.
Navigating being a nurse at 17 taught me that I was not aligned with an illness model. Since then everything I have done revolves around a wellness model. At 19 I spent two years traveling alone through Sth East Asia and India and I learned about alternative health. I returned to NZ and trained as a Naturopath, counselor, childbirth educator, and Life Coach. This was over a thirty-year period. Some pivotal times throughout these thirty years include marriage, mothering, Midlife, and learning to manage a business. Turning forty was when I experienced my first midlife crisis – I now have a lot more empowering words for the crisis of course. My niche for the last six years has been mentoring midlife women taking them from midlife crisis to midlife courage. At 60 I have finally arrived within myself and within Midlife Courage. |
|
Assuming you are now in “Your Next Chapter”, what led you here? Tell me about your purpose, your why, the difference you want to make, who you are called to serve? |
|
| I tend to step into a next chapter every decade. I am nearly 61 and this new chapter has taken time to arrive.
My WHY has always been about helping – like many women I was born a carer and a sharer. Because my middle years have been so BIG I now want to guide women to navigate their middle years. I feel I am in the mature phase of midlife and I want to hold hands with those coming behind me to perhaps have a gentler path than I did without taking their own journey away from them. This includes allowing women to step into how they want to feel and building a life with these feelings. What also needs to be hugely weaved into this journey is self-love – one of the most courageous acts we will ever do as women. Self-love is what my sixties is teaching me on a whole new level. |
|
What did you find most challenging about getting started/moving in a new direction? |
|
| Learning how to be visible and how to be heard. Women who are wellness advocates often haven’t a clue about setting up their own business.
I am a visionary so I thought setting up Midlife Courage would be a walk in the park. Instead, it has been like climbing My Everest! It is only now at 60 do I feel like I have planted my feet firmly on the peak. This is professionally and personally. It still feels scary however exciting is the biggest emotional. |
|
What have you found most fulfilling? |
|
| I get such a buzz when I believe I have positively impacted a women’s life. I also get a buzz when I give a massive high five to myself for another step closer to my true authentic self.
My journey reflects the women I attract into my life and I am now attracting women with motivation, courage, and $$$$. |
|
Have you experienced self-doubt? What causes it to flare and how do you work through it when it hits? |
|
| This question made me giggle because the answer is a big YES. I can honestly say that I have built some new neural pathways and Ms Doris Dump tends to put her hand up when I am stepping fully into courage.
I see her and I even listen to her and then I let her know how she needs to behave why I take on my next step into courage. I feel like we are now friends rather than enemies and let’s face it, friendships always take time and honesty. |
|
How do you feel you have grown since you started? |
|
| I look at my early middle years like a tight rosebud that is ready to flower. The full flower has taken a lot of perseverance and patience and hair pulling, peeling away the layers until the rose is finally in full bloom. I step into enchantment when I see the color, the smell, the velvety texture, and the pure beauty. | |
What has been most effective for you when it comes to sharing your message and attracting clients? |
|
| My own personal growth. My growth mirrors my business. As I have learned to have a voice and to be visible then my message, my branding, and my clients reflect this. Practically having a community of like-minded people in my life has been a game-changer.
I have invested a lot of time, energy, and money into my growth and business, and learning to believe that I am worth every dollar I invest and the charge has been another game-changer. |
|
Have you developed any particular habits/strategies that facilitate getting things done in your business? |
|
| I am a creative soul so learning to have consistent action has been a huge challenge and every day I keep dancing with this. Having a daily structure helps, learning to have consistent action in a creative way that is my way and not everyone else’s way has helped.
Having mentors that are action takers has also been a huge help. |
|
Why do you feel women in the 40’s and beyond make fabulous entrepreneurs? |
|
| We have had forty years of wisdom and we are in the phase of wanting to give more of ourselves. At forty we begin the phase and this happens at different times throughout these middle years – however, we become more intuitive or perhaps we start trusting our intuition.
We also are ready to let go of many of the outer roles we have learned to take on in the first half of our life. We are now ready for more and we hear the inner promptings around what does this look and feel like. Then how can we bring this new ??? Into our life. We are unfinished women with so much to give however this giving is in a very new way which starts with giving to ourselves. |
|
What would you say to other women who are standing on the edge of their own Next Chapter, not sure if they can take the leap? |
|
| Someone once asked me this question and I said “I might fall” and they said, “what say you fly.” This was a massive reframe for me and midlife women are ready to fly.
This is a flight that will be unique and authentic to you and it can be taken in small wing flaps or massive wingspans. It can take you to many heights and there will be some downtime however you have all the skills you need to stop you crashing. You have this! |
|
What’s next for you? Share your vision! |
|
| I have started something new, it sounds simple – a new closed Facebook page called Midlife Conversations. However, it feels like a culmination of all the work I have done over my midlife, professionally and personally – It is the first part of a new staircase that I am creating that stems from my own belief around what I deserve.
One part step is writing a book that has been bubbling away for a very long time. Another step is offering midlife adventures to Bali. My first group of women was heading away in May. Sadly this is on hold however the intention is still alive. Lots of new exciting steps that are unfolding.
|
|
| When I’m facing a something new and challenging I… | |
| Step into my courage by knowing I have a very full tool belt that will serve me well. | |
|
I know my greatest strengths are… |
|
| My caring and sharing nature. I am a wisdom gatherer who spreads many seeds on others. | |
|
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is… |
|
| Stick to my knitting – or in my case crocheting. You have everything you need and know within so get out of your own way and do this. | |
|
One of my favourite books is… |
|
| A Year by The Sea by Joan Anderson. | |
|
My favourite Podcast is… |
|
| Your Next Chapter. | |
|
My favourite business tool or resource is… |
|
| Mentors – Angela Raspass, Brene Brown, Liz Gilbert, Joan Anderson… so many. | |
|
My favourite quote is… |
|
| You spend the first half of your life denying your feelings and then the second half healing from these feelings so you can become who you are always meant to be. Brene Brown | |
|
Not many people know that I… |
|
| Belong to a group called the Thrill Seekers and we are Yarn Bombers. |
You can connect with Sharleen here.
