Get ready to unlock your next chapter with Leslie Kane, a master of turning courage into clear, strategic action. In this episode, she shares how women over 40 can move from stuck to unstoppable.
Guest: Leslie Kane, Why Not Today
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.kane.79
Host: Dr. Deborah Heiser
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Episode Introduction
If you’ve ever felt stuck or overwhelmed by your goals, this episode is your wake-up call. Courage coach, speaker, and podcast host Leslie Kane joins us to share how one small, intentional action—today—can be the spark for lasting change. From her 30+ years as a top Mary Kay Sales Director to creating the Why Not Today podcast and movement, Leslie brings her powerful blend of systems, mindset, and heart to help women over 40 move from intention to impact.
Leslie breaks down how she helps women create strategic, actionable plans, and the systems she uses to stay organized.
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Strategy after 40 | A Conversation with Leslie Kane | After 40 Podcast with Dr. Deborah Heiser
Welcome back to after 40. I am so excited to have Leslie Kane here today. She's an amazing individual that I met in person and got to know her, and I will tell you that she has tapped into something that I can't tell you how many people I know need this, myself included. She she has like the magic sort of elixir for how to strategize and get through life, and she has a really great after 40 story for all of this. So I can't wait to dig in, and I can't wait to tell people about you. So welcome Leslie. Well, thank you, and thanks for having me on. Excited to be your guest and honor Well, I'm delighted to have you. Let me tell you a little bit about Leslie. She is a courage coach, speaker and host of the Why not today podcast, where she empowers women to take bold steps in business and life. With over 30 years of experience as a top Mary Kay Sales Director, she helps others overcome fear and embrace their purpose with confidence. Now, I love that you have all this experience with Mary Kay sales. You know, a lot of us think that we need to go in and get all of our experience through some kind of, you know, a masters in whatever. But you know, the biggest way to do things is by learning from the ground up. And you are a master at that. So I can't wait. I did the Masters part too, I know. But honestly, my Mary Kay journey taught me so much more, I always say, than the two pieces of paper in my closet. You know why? Because you actually you know how to navigate individuals and human beings and connect with them, and you cannot get that from a book. And I'm not downplaying, you know, getting education. I'm all for it, but there's something magical about connecting with individuals and knowing how to do that in a real way, and you've done that, so I'm excited to hear about your journey. But first start off by telling us you often coach women to take courageous action. How do you help them move from feeling stuck to building a clear, actionable plan for change? Well, the my company name is, why? Not today, and that came out from a podcast that I started with people sharing courageous stories and saying, why not Spain? I really found, like, what you said, magic is action and just doing it. And so when people are stuck, often it's in our head. And so one getting it out of your head and onto paper, brainstorming, brain dumping, get it all out, and then what can you do today? Not next week, not next month. I met with somebody the other day that is working a corporate job, but her dream is to own her own business. And I asked her, I'm like, Have you started an LLC? No, I'm going to talk to my cousin and we're going to figure out she's a financial person. Figured out, like, it is not hard to start an LLC, why don't you do it tonight? And she's, like, gave me all these excuses. And before I went to bed that night, I got a text because I started my LLC. And so it's, I think it's pushing, encouraging, giving people permission to do the thing and not perfect. You know, you just gotta start. And what I found with interviewing so many people in my podcast is where we start and where we finish are completely different, yeah, but you just gotta start. If you, you know, people think about it all day long, and it grows too and scariness, and you just, that's a word, but you know, it's just taking it waiting. What's one little thing you can do today, not next week, not next month, but today. I love that you say that to do it today, because people make lists all the time about the things that they want to accomplish, but they don't have a date set for when they need to get it done by. Or they'll they'll give themselves some permission to push it out. I love that you gave the suggestion do your LLC today. Well, I'm also, I say, I don't call myself a procrastinator, but I am deadline driven, so give me a deadline and it'll get done the day before, more than likely. So, but have that deadline, that significant date is something to move you, but have a deadline, and you know, but what can you do just one little thing today? Maybe it's researching, maybe it's all in one person. It's just one thing. I love that having actionable things that you can do makes all the difference. It takes it from overwhelming to reducing it to doable, right? So what's your personal system for setting goals and staying organized. And I know that you are a systems expert in your business and your podcast work, especially when you're juggling multiple roles like most of us do, yeah. So one is, you know, get system systems in place that make it easy. You know, whether it's your standard operating procedures. You know, getting I've been been using Google Docs a lot more, and I have an idea or something needs to be done, I put the procedure right in there. So then, whether it's a chat prompt or a procedure, it's there. And, you know, you can grab it quickly. If you do something twice, it should be a system, as far as, like, planning and systematizing, and this was lots of years of Mary Kay, and honestly, I just finished it a few minutes ago. Is I have a planning procedure I created, I figure thing, creating systems that work for me helped. So, like planners, I tried every planner under the sun, and I couldn't figure out what I wanted, so I took all all the things I liked, and had my graphic person create one for me. So I have a daily planner sheet that I use, but then at the end of the month, I spend time going through last month, what fell through the cracks, what I need to follow up on, you know, and then projecting, where's my income. Where am I gonna, you know, what do I have to do this month? And it's interesting, I found especially, and I'm still active in Mary Kay that until I plan and have a strategy and put down, like, Who do I think is going to do this and what's going to happen? What are my goals? Really, not much starts. So I did it an hour ago, and orders was probably start coming in, because, you know, you put it down, and the universe just kind of works towards you. I'm sure you've seen that happen. You have an idea, you write it down, and then, oh, wow, it just happened. Yeah. So you have a system, and it's making things easy and accessible. So there's a tracking sheet I use to track everything every month. Well, I use a new one every month, and I print a whole bunch out, so I just grab it and I don't have to, like, find the document, print it. So how can you make things easy, systematized things that are at your hands, that it doesn't have take 10 extra steps to do it? That's so smart. And I think that having it at your hands is so key, because then you're going to have everything on post it notes, otherwise it gets lost, it's disorganized. And I've been there and done that, so I know, yeah, I do want the post it notes. I have them next my bed and I have them in my bathroom, because the ideas come to you and Oh, then I'm smart, oh yeah, I have one next to my bed, I have one in my bathroom, and then in the morning, after I've gotten ready, I take both those post it notes and I put them in my planner and throw them away. But you come up with the ideas getting when your brain stops is when the ideas come the other system that is helped me tremendously recently is using AI, using chat, GPT. This is one of my new favorite tricks that often I'll get up in the morning and do my devotions quiet time, I'll go for a walk, listen to a podcast. And I don't know about you, but my brain starts moving, and I would come home and maybe do a post it note, or I've known to as I'm walking, grab my phone and put a note in, or text myself or email myself, and then they're lost. You know, I'm very visual, so they're gone. And so what I've done a lot is, when I have an idea, I'll come back and I'll open up chat while I'm making my coffee, say, give me a LinkedIn post, or give me a blog post on, you know, whatever subject like. And I still haven't stacked in there. I haven't posted all one but the other day, you know, my dog was, some dogs they like, and some they don't, and with people, you know, the same thing. You know pretty instantly, if you like people or not, yeah. But dogs are like, yes, no, yes, no. People are like, let me but we really get that gut feeling. So, you know, coming back immediately when you have those thoughts. Or before I went to bed last night, I had a whole bunch of ideas and things I need to do. So I just opened chat said, Give me a task list for tomorrow. Of all these things, I'm just bringing them to see. Those are the smart things that now that you've said this, I'm going to be able to incorporate one tiny thing today, which you know what you're talking about, which is to just get somebody to make one step a day to do something I love today, and I think it was atomic habits. Talks about this,
if you do improve yourself 1% every day by the end of the year, it's like 3300 some percentage increase. That's so brilliant. Yeah. Oh, brilliant. And we often think it's got to be the big things. And I've always taught too, you know, washing your face, whether you do it or you don't, you're not going to see a difference tomorrow. Whether you eat a donut today or tomorrow, you're not going to see a difference. But if you eat one every day, you're not going to see a difference in a week. But after a year, if you ate a donut every single day, or you did five sit ups, you're going to see a difference, doesn't seem like it, but it's those little things that add up that's so true. Yeah, absolutely, we can. We can improve our lives one tiny thing at a time. So can you walk us through how you help someone identify and prioritize their next best step when they are overwhelmed or when they're unsure where to start. And I think it goes back to what I said, just grabbing a piece of paper and a pen and make your brain dump, like, get it all out, and then, like, Okay, what's one thing I can do today that's going to move the needle? Or take all your things that you have to do and put them in categories. Or, you know, what are the deadlines? Like, what is, what's your deadline today, tomorrow? You know, what do you have to do by Friday? And break it down. Like, there's if something's due on Friday, you don't need to work on it if you've got something due on Tuesday. Yeah. You know, smart so, you know, break it down and take that big, scary thing you have to do and break it down and do it first. There's a great book by Brian Tracy called Eat That Frog. I don't know if you've ever read that, but he talks about doing the scary, yucky thing first, instead of waiting all day. And then it just gets bigger and bigger. And really, you know, how many things have we avoided? And you think it's going to take forever, and you're like, Oh, that was easy. You spent more time worrying about it and thinking about it. I did one time makeup for an after grad party, and it was an all night grad party. I had an early morning meeting, and I had, honestly, I was exhausted for two weeks prior to this event because I knew I was going to get maybe a couple hours of sleep. The event came. We had a great time. I got my couple hours of sleep, got up and was going until 11 o'clock that night. I was never tired, but I made myself tired thinking about it. Yeah, yes, that is, I honestly think everyone can relate to that. Yeah. I mean, that's such an easy thing to put off the hard thing until last, and then keep putting it off. And then I can't tell you how many times I've done that, and then I go to do it, and I say, this wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. So kind of like starting an LLC, absolutely. And you're right, you know, I did it, I waited and I finally gave myself a deadline. And, you know, I'm like, Okay, that was super stinking easy. Yes, exactly. But her podcast, you know, it really blow it up because we don't know what we don't know, yeah, and it's that everything is just a series of steps. It's not like one giant leap. So you're right, and break it down, so these days we can find out how to do anything with a YouTube video or, you know, chat, GPT, yes, AI is so helpful to break things down. So yeah, if you said, Hey, I go create an LLC you could put that into an AI and say, platform, whatever one is your choice, and say, Hey, break down into clear steps. How I can create my LLC, and then you're going to get that if you do just one step at a time, until you get it done. So also say, like, going back to the brainstorming, brain dump, making a list. And Brian Tracy, he said that checking things off a list actually releases endorphins. I know it does, and so I've often asked this question is, have you ever Debbie, had something you did that wasn't on your list and then you wrote it on your list so you could check it off? I do that all the time. I do that every day, every day I have to give myself credit for things that I said, Ooh, that didn't make it on there, and I did it. Yes, you know. And how efficient are we before we go on vacation? Like my to do list before I go on vacation is water the plants, take out the trash. It's very specific, and it all gets done. Yes, that's true. Or in that mode, I have a calendar where, even if I have it in my phone, I have an actual one that's in, you know, paper format, and I put that on, I have that on my desk, and that's the one where I have the check off, and then I have to add everything. And I do put those little things, like, if I know, I have to water the plants that goes there. And boy, does that feel good when you check it off, you're right. There are so many endorphins, you know, you're ready to leave and have a great vacation after that, yeah, or just or to feel like you accomplished something in the day. You know, every day we have so many things that we have to do that aren't for us, that these things make it all the difference and feeling good about ourselves. So how has your strategic approach evolved over the years? You know, you started with Mary Kay. How has that has evolved, especially now that you're in the after 40 chapter of life? You know, it's just we pick up lessons all the way along, and so whether it's from mentors are doing it wrong and figuring out, and let's try a different way, kind of like the planner, you know, I had to figure out what worked for me. And, you know, learning more about us. You know, are you a visual learner? I am, and I have to have things in front of me. If I put it away, it's forgotten or accessible. So just learning who you are and asking other people, I think we need to really tap into other people and and pick their brains and share and be willing to share with other people, which everybody really is. And you know, your whole mentorship project talks about everybody's willing to help, yeah, and so just being willing to ask, and, you know, and I think after 40 or you said, hit a certain age, and you realize, you know, we've picked up a lot of lessons and we know what we're doing and being more confident with what we're doing. So obviously, the systems kind of build on each other, and you can apply them to anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. That's, that's good info. And you're right. After 40, it's, it's so much easier, you know, we kind of know who our people are. We know who to ask. We're more comfortable, we're less vulnerable, feeling it's a lot easier to do that. And you're like you said, we've learned all these lessons along the way. We already have strategies in place, so we're just adding new ones that help. I met somebody this weekend who's a 20 something young you could just tell her confidence was not there and her energy. Even asked me, What do you think my energy's like, I'm like, pretty like you look like you're tired. But she was trying to pick my brain and things to do and like, and it's just, she's 20 something. She has no experience, you know, she didn't know how to network. She doesn't it's just her ideas. You could tell she was going on from a very low confidence. You know, who she was targeting like, you know, that's not going to take you there, but you know, we all you have to learn it yourself too. That's true. That's very true. So what is one planning habit or mindset shift that made the biggest difference for your success and that you think other women over 40 should adopt? I really think it goes back to the line on today. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just have to start that it's not going to be perfect. And we think, especially, you know, social media, our appearance, you know, we think everything's got to be perfect. Everybody's watching this, and really they're not made paying that much attention. You know, be who you want to be, and don't worry about it being perfect. I think we've kind of totally shifted, and people are more attracted to or they probably always were, but we're talking about more attracted to people that are authentic, they're real. They see you messed up, you know, you get so many more likes from mess, you know, on social media, of not the perfect thing, or, you know, you being real. People want to see us real. And I think, you know, as we evolve and over 40 we, you know, I think that's one of the biggest things, just be who we are, yeah, and just start. Don't be perfect. That's good
advice, because it also feels good to just be who you are, rather than, you know, feeling like, Oh, I better go in and I'm in this crowd at work. I have to behave in this way, or I'm doing this with with this group, you get to just walk in as you everywhere. I love Alice's story. Tell us Alice's story. Oh, Alice, when we I first met her, when I met you at the clarity weekend, she came in. She's got really fun purpley pink hair, and she said she went on a job interview, and they said, We love you. You're perfect everything, but she needs change color of your hair. Guess what? She didn't, she didn't take the job she's now, if she would have been at 20 something, she might have, yeah, absolutely. Like, I'm going to be me. And she said no. And I'm like, Yeah, you, you know, we don't need to change for somebody else. We need to be who we want to be. That's so true. And you know, when you're 40 and older, you often feel like you can do that. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a very hard road when you're in your 20s and you think, I have to make it now, this is I have to go do what I have to do, and fit into a mold to make it. Once we're in our 40s, we're like, I know how I can do it. I know. I remember being first out of college thinking I knew it all, and I remember one of my manager's bosses can end up being a mentor. She was taking, like, a Dale Carnegie class or something. And I'm and the Brad I was, I can't even believe I said it and I remember it, so it must have been pivotal in my life. But I'm like, Oh, I don't need that. I've got it all figured out. I look at that, I'm like, okay, 40 some years later, I do not have it all figured out I'm still learning and asking and picking people's brain and, you know, grabbing as much information from people as we can. You know, it's so you're so right. I hear, I pivot all the time, because I will hear someone say something that I thought I had down pat, and then I realized, you know what, I didn't have the full picture of that. And then I'll pivot so but it doesn't feel bad. It doesn't feel like a failure. It feels like a pivot. You know, at this stage in life, I don't feel like, Oh, my goodness, um, I, you know, that was some damaging thing to my ego or something, right? It's a different feeling. Now, yeah, failures like, pick up the lesson, don't we don't. Yes, exactly. And I think as we get older, I teach this a lot, we go through an emotional cycle. And somebody you heard recently talked about it being your bounce back ocean, or ability and bounce back, we go through the emotional cycle much quicker than when you're younger, because we've got more tools to be able to pick up the lessons to learn. I'm like, that didn't work. Let me try this. Yeah, you're right. So tell us a little bit about why not today. And why did you start it? Okay, so it came from I call my Why not today. Moment, that moment in time you remember exactly where you were, what you're doing, and I was walking around the lake where I live with a friend, and I've been on her podcast. I'm like, I might want to be on podcast or start a podcast, and she's like, You should, but it sounded scary, and it's, I'm not a big tech person, and so I was like, I don't know if I could do that. Well, fast forward a few months, and my dad had passed away, I guess, in 2013 and I even looked into starting a non profit in his name and doing some things. He was very active in the community, and so he have a why not today thing here, but the logo, why not say is an eye patch on handlebar mustache, which was my dad's look. He'd lost his vision on one eye, and when he graduated high school, and he had a handlebar mustache. So this man posted on social media, posts site that I don't ever even go on. And he said he had some surgery done, and he had to wear an eye patch. He said, Every morning he woke up and thought, oh, this friend had pain. My dad. And he talked about all the things he did, and he said we both said, Why not today? And although I don't remember specifically saying those words, he was always a figure out kind of guy, like there was nothing that we couldn't figure out. And so he said that again, I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, the day it was, and I told my friend that, and she's like, well, that's the name of your podcast and today. And so I didn't start it immediately, as I said, I am deadline driven. So I started on March 5, 2022 which happened to be my dad's birthday and the day he passed away, I recorded it. And I recorded, like, three o'clock Friday afternoon and posted the first episode on Saturday. So, you know, and I'm sure it's not perfect. My sister even said one time she's like, he's gotten a lot better like, and ironically, you know, the first episode is the most watched or listened to, because people often go the beginning, so yeah, but that's the story where that came from. And then I was one of my keys to success, consistency, and I did an episode every other week. I didn't even have a microphone for a year and a half, and then I started doing every week. And then I'm like, I was talking to somebody, a coach, a mentor. He kept saying, you started LLC. And again, I thought it was this big, scary thing. So I finally had a deadline and did it, and then it's kind of evolved from there, and I'm still trying to figure out. So I had a wine activity moment, like, we are missing community and connection. So I started a luncheon a year and a half ago, and I jump, I think of an idea, like, I woke up the middle of night, took notes on my post it notes, and within 24 hours, I had it in place. So yeah, I don't wait, and that can be good and bad. And then I'm like, figure watching women in business that a lot of solopreneurs are out there, and what I found in starting this new business is I didn't know what I didn't know, because Mary Kay did it for us, yeah, and so, like a website, we pushed the button, paid, I think, $30 and it was done. And so I've had to learn a lot, and I'm watching other women in business saying doing the same thing. I actually had somebody I met with one day who had started a franchise, and in tears, she told me, I never knew how lonely this would be, owning your own business. Oh, wow. So I'm really trying to help support women in business, to build that community, the tracking, the accountability. So I started out women taking action inner circle, kind of a group coaching, but really it's not coaching. It's coming beside people and supporting them to take the actions and to get the things done and help each other. We're not in this by yourself. That's brilliant, and you're right. It is lonely. Any entrepreneur will say that you know you are and it's you're by your side too, and it feels good to have somebody that you can just bounce things off or just get it out and say, here's here's what I had happening and what's going on, just to get some feedback from people. So brilliant idea. One of the women that is that signed up for it. She's had several businesses and several fail, and she said, Probably they failed because her ego got in the way. She didn't want to ask for help. Oh, you know, death is so easy to let that darn ego get in the way. Nobody smokes that all. And so I pivoted, instead of just courage, and we had, you are actually going to be in my next episode. We record episode. You're gonna be my next guest. But, you know, I asked people like, what do you wish you would have known before you started? And what do you decide you didn't know? And let's talk about the messy middle, because it's not a straight line. From starting an LLC to making a million dollars. I'll everybody right, but it talks about the sales and the bad things. And it also looks easy from the outside, yeah. You know, on the inside, there's all the tiny little things today, and if they want to join at one of your circles, how can they reach you? Well, my website is why not today? Movement.com and unfortunately, I've not gotten a chance yet. It's on my to do list to put the inner circle. I just kicked it off, or I'm just kicking off. So it's not on my website yet, but you can contact me. I am very active on Facebook, and I have, it's just Leslie Kane, I pop up pretty quickly. But also I have a group called women taking action community, and that's where I share content. And you know, you can contact me and get support. So, you know, finding me, Leslie at why not say movement.com or it's on my website? Too
great. And I'll be sharing those in the show notes. So if you're listening, you can check it out and find it in the show notes. But Leslie, this has been a pleasure to have you on today.
I'm inspired by how you take what some people might see as the mundane or the nitty gritty, and you make that the shining object that gets something done every day. So thank you for doing what you
do. Oh, and thank you for having me as Your GUEST. You
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