Laid Off to Entrepreneur: How Aransas Savas Built The Uplifters| #221

What if a layoff is the nudge you needed to quit corporate, start a business, and design a second-act career you actually love? In this inspiring conversation on episode #221 of the Second Act Success Podcast, Aransas Savas—innovation leader turned coach, community builder, and host of The Uplifters—shares how losing her role at Weight Watchers became the catalyst to redefine success, create flexible income, and prioritize a life that fits.

We dive into career change after layoffs, how to leverage your network, and Aransas’s framework for building “courage capital” so you can take bold, confident action—whether that means launching a business, starting a podcast, creating a community, or pivoting roles. If you’re craving purpose, freedom, and fulfillment, this episode is your roadmap to a second act.

Key Takeaways

• Career Pivot After Layoffs: How Aransas transformed a corporate layoff into a second-act career with more freedom and meaning.
• Courage Capital: A practical framework to build self-belief, take risks, and make bold moves in business and life.
• From Corporate to Creator: Lessons from innovation, research, and service design that translate into entrepreneurship.
• Network Power: Why your network, mentors, and community accelerate a successful career transition.
• Iterate to Clarity: Use rapid prototyping and feedback to validate offers, events, and new business ideas.
• Holistic Success: Rethinking compensation—time freedom, family presence, and well-being vs. a predictable paycheck.

Show Notes:

https://secondactsuccess.co/221

Connect with Aransas Savas:

https://www.aransassavas.com/

https://www.aransassavas.com/podcast

https://www.instagram.com/aransas_savas/

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Second Act Success Career Podcast

Season 1 - Laid Off to Lifted Up: Aransas Savas on Building “The Uplifters” and creating Courage Capital | #221

Episode - #221

Host: Shannon Russell

Guest: Aransas Savas

Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:00] 

Aransas Savas: that money, that predictable income was costing me more than it was giving me, and the time is affording me more really holistically of what I wanted from that predictable income.

Speaker 2: Are you ready to quit your nine to five job and start a business of your own? Well, you're in the right place, my friend. Welcome to the second Act Success podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell, and my mission is to help you produce your best life. This podcast will teach you how to get from where you are now to where you want to be and how to build a business that fits your life and lights you up.

Let's get started.

Shannon Russell: What do you do when suddenly you find yourself laid off and ready to start a second act where you have no idea what is coming next? I am your host, Shannon Russell.

I'm a business coach for women starting [00:01:00] businesses, as well as the author of Start Your Second Act Today on the show, I am joined by Aransas Savas. She found herself in a long career working in innovation and research with Weight Watchers, loving it until all of a sudden she found herself let go.

After that, she had to figure out what to do next.

Well, she went on to create the Uplifters, a podcast and community to help uplift others as they are figuring out a next chapter in their lives.

Shannon Russell: Welcome to the podcast, my friend. I'm so happy to have you here. 

Aransas Savas: Oh my gosh. I'm so happy to hang out with you anytime and now to like create an artifact of our conversation is even more exciting.

'cause then I could just hang out with you all the time if I want to. 

Shannon Russell: I love it. Yes, I know. We, we met and then I guessed on your podcast and we found out that we are living like you moved to my area in New Jersey. It's. So lovely. So we have to get real in-person lunch date on the calendar soon. But [00:02:00] it's so nice to chat with you here

so let's start from the beginning. Tell me where your career began and then we'll go through everything Up until now. 

Aransas Savas: , I'll go way back. , because I think I was always one of those people that was just open to opportunities and felt like if a door opened, it was worth looking behind the door.

And so. From undergrad to grad school, all of my choices were really made based on the invitations of others. I went to the undergrad I went to because they reached out and said, Hey, would you like to go here? And I was like, sure. And then grad school, , was finishing undergrad and I was like, uh, I am definitely not an adult yet and definitely not ready to go like.

Figure out my whole life. And a teacher said, well, there's this audition process where you can audition to go into a grad program. And so I said, okay. I auditioned and [00:03:00] was given this amazing package to go to Ohio University to study acting in this intimate program with 10 other people where, I mean, looking back, I had no idea.

What a bonkers deal it was. But they gave us an assistance ship and paid for our housing and it was a full ride. I mean, it was fantastic, but I was just like, oh, it's a place to be for a few years to figure out who I am. , and then we're finishing grad school and acting by then. I have an undergrad degree in directing, in scenic design.

I've gotten my master's in acting and all my classmates are making the choice. You go left. To LA or you go right to New York. I was like, I'm not LA so okay, New York. That's where my friends are going. Oh, they're moving into this house. Okay. And I just kind of like followed the moment and I ended up in the city and started working as an actor and really did not like the life of an actor.[00:04:00] 

Really did not like. The relationship between actors and the people who are creating opportunities for actors and just wasn't happy and. Another like little door open and somebody said, Hey, you wanna go to Weight Watchers with me? And I was like, yeah, uh, I'll go and lose some weight. And so, , lost some weight.

And I met this woman at one of my weigh-ins and she was like, you should come work here. And I was like, okay. So I started weighing people, it was like a clerk job at the Weight Watchers meetings.

And then a woman came in and said, you should be one of the facilitators. And I was like, okay. And I went to their facilitator training. It's probably more detail than you ever wanted. Uh, I went to their facilitator training and a woman looked at me across the table and I was like. Oh my gosh, she's [00:05:00] not gonna hire me to be a facilitator.

I'm not gonna pass this training. And suddenly I realized I really wanted, and then she called me the next day and I was ready for her to say like, sorry you didn't make the cut. But instead she offered me a full-time job working at Weight Watchers, training all of the leaders. Wow. And I was like, okay.

Unexpected. Unexpected. But it was just another open door. 

Once I entered that corporate machine, there were just so many abundant opportunities that opened up. So I started out in learning and development and then ended up in program innovation and started working with scientists and researchers on developing the food plan.

And then that led me to working in the operations side and working directly with their field teams. then eventually into product, , on the digital side, , leading a service design team, , and really spending the bulk of my career in innovation, [00:06:00] working to create new business lines for the company.

Getting to work with all sorts of amazing folks from Oprah and on. , and it really was an amazing ride of just saying yes over and over and over again to opportunities that I never planned for or expected, but trusting that if other people saw potential in me, it was something worth. Pursuing and then the last few years really like the strategy of the business changed and the side of the business, the very han, uh, side, the in-person business specifically was deprioritized.

Shannon Russell: Mm. 

Aransas Savas: I really began to feel less and less engaged and excited by the work because frankly, there wasn't money flowing into that side of the business. And so we were kind of blocked at every turn as we tried to make impact and innovation. 

got to a point where I felt like [00:07:00] I wasn't being used to my full potential.

, I wasn't learning. I wasn't growing and I started to think about leaving. Mm. And every year I would have this conversation with myself. Am I still happy? Kind of. Am I learning? Maybe, am I growing? Mm. Am I well compensated? Yeah. , Are my needs met socially? Yeah. I mean like, like it was like looking at all these different domains and factors and realizing I was pretty happy and I had no proof that on the outside I would be any happier.

I got support from the organization. I'd been doing a lot of work, , in coaching and, and had spent at that point, almost 15 years working with behavior change scientists and developing, plans and programs that were based in sound science.

And I was really interested in getting my coaching certification. So they sponsored that for me. And every time I was [00:08:00] asked these questions about my future self, I knew all I wanted to do in the world was coach. 

Shannon Russell: Mm. 

Aransas Savas: And that my gift and my highest purpose was in deep listening and seeing the patterns in people's words, thoughts and actions, and helping them see them through both inquiry and experimentation.

So I understood very clearly what I had to offer the world, and I was doing it in my work. And at Weight Watchers. I just wasn't doing it all the time. I didn't feel unleashed. Mm. And so I set a deadline for myself. I would leave my job March 1st without Annette, and I would just go and figure it out.

And I didn't. Do anything on March 1st? Oh, no. [00:09:00] Often happens. It all happens. Luckily, March 3rd I got a call from HR and I was laid off and so I got to leave the nest. And I, I think so often we underestimate the power of a little nudge out of our nest. , I got to leave the nest with a nudge and with a little bit of a safety net.

I had a few months to figure things out with the benefit of a severance package, and so I like had a good cry. Took my kids to get ice cream. Simultaneously felt utterly terrified and exhilarated and full of possibility and potential and optimism and fear. I mean, it was like all of it at once. Yeah. And you know this, I know from your journey so well, and then I started of course calling everyone I know because, , our networks are everything.

Mm-hmm. , and, and I like you. I think I'm one of the people that really just needs other people. [00:10:00] A process and and expand my perspective. So I remember very clearly the first call I made was to my friend Julie, who has just become such a, a dear and. Vital part of my own journey and I said, Julie, like do I have any gifts or talents that can be used anywhere else?

They were used so well here because of my compounded knowledge of this company, this brand, this customer. Does that mean anything in the outside world? And she helped me just start to like walk my way through LinkedIn and start to realize very quickly that if. I wanted a corporate role. There was a whole field available to me, and all of my experience would be useful there.

But then I also realized that's not what I wanted, but it was, it was really an important step in the process to realize that if I did want this, I could go that direction that I wasn't not doing it because I was afraid I couldn't. [00:11:00] Mm. 

And then I stepped back and I said, well. If I could do anything, what would I do?

And I realized that the conversations that brought me the most energy, the most excitement, and had the deepest, most lasting value for me were the conversations that I was spending with inspiring women who helped me believe that change was possible. And I began to feel really selfish. I was the only one getting to hear these conversations with these amazing women, and so really the cornerstone of what has been this next chapter was how do I take this thing that has been so valuable to me, give myself more of it.

Find a way to give it to others at the same time. And so what emerged was the Uplifters, and it is a [00:12:00] podcast, a community, a platform all based for me, in my mission, which is to amplify the good in the world. Because a big part of what I've seen, and I, I asse you have too, is that there's. So many bright lights.

There are so many people who really care about having a positive impact and being of service and bringing others along, and yet we all have these little lights that are kind of shining off into different directions. And all of us with these little lights can feel kind of lonely and unsupported in our light shining.

And so my vision, my belief is that what we need is one another, and that we gain hope. We gain what I call courage capital, which we can talk about if you want. . Through connecting with other stories. [00:13:00] And so I share the stories of these people who are shining bright lights so that they can see one another.

They can receive support and encouragement and new ideas and inspiration from one another other, and so that they can shine their light even brighter. So it's really been the greatest joy of my life, and it's like. I look back now and I'm like, I, I was the only one who could do this the way I do it, now I get to help others look at their lives and say, what has your life prepared you for that?

Only you can do. 

Shannon Russell: It's so beautiful. You're right. It's, it's looking at your past and figuring out what can you do and you only can do, and how can you move forward in that direction. And I just wanna go back to what you said because I, you surprised me when you said you picked up your phone and you called your friend Julie.

I was thinking you were picking up the phone [00:14:00] to try to find that next corporate job. Because I think that's what our first instinct is. And I had that when I, my show was canceled, my television show when I was on maternity leave, and I stopped myself because the first instinct is to pick up the phone and try to get that next gig, that next job before you even know if you want it.

Aransas Savas: Yes. 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. And the fact that you did not do that, you called your friend, you said, can I get it if I want it? Look at my skills. And you took that time to talk to yourself. So many of us don't do that. We're in this cycle, let's get back into it. But to take that moment, that pause and have that conversation with ourselves, I think makes all the difference and again, leads you into that path that you're supposed to be on, not one that you.

Think you should be on. 

Aransas Savas: Yeah. I also think it was really important for me not to close that door for now out of fear that it was gonna hurt me, right? Because frankly, the end of my [00:15:00] experience at Weight Watchers was not my favorite favorite. 

Shannon Russell: Of course, 

Aransas Savas: I didn't wanna close that door because of the one chapter.

as much as it was important for me not to just do what I'd always done, it was important for me not to let a moment define a path for me we all make assptions. 

That what has been is what will be. 

And I really needed to challenge that for myself. And so sort of opening the path and seeing all these things that sounded really interesting and exciting.

And then consciously choosing the door. Closing the door because I knew what I wanted to learn was not how to do that better, but how to do different things better. 

Shannon Russell: And your whole career. Up until then, you were following those open doors and those opportunities that came to you, which is amazing, I think.

Yeah, that's how you wanna live, being open to opportunities. But at that point, when you were let go, [00:16:00] you didn't have a door opening. You didn't have someone saying, take my hand and come this way. So for the first time, you had to make that decision, you yourself, and that must have been an eye opener. 

Aransas Savas: Oh my gosh.

And I think as a woman especially, we are really taught to follow the open doors. 

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Aransas Savas: I was raised by my grandmother, and I think about the messaging I inherited from, you know, like 1940s era philosophies that. You shouldn't ask someone to be your friend. 

Should wait for them to ask you to be their friend.

You shouldn't show interest in a romantic partner. You should wait for them. Right. And this, and I think that mindset, consciously or unconsciously, permeates into so many of our choices. it, for me, was so empowering. To say, [00:17:00] no, I'm not gonna wait for other people. I'm gonna be the asker, the inviter, the creator.

And so, so much of my own journey has really in this, this chapter, been defined by stepping fully into that. 

Shannon Russell: Mm, 

Aransas Savas: I'm gonna create the solution I want. Instead of taking the one that is offered to me, I'm gonna take the,, the idea or the event or the experience that I would like to have, and I'll invite everyone I've ever met to join me, or I'll invite a tiny little group of folks that I think would love it to join me.

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Aransas Savas: I find for women that I work with, that is one of the hardest and scariest pieces because it means that we put a vision or an idea out there and it sets it up for potential rejection. Yeah. And so when I talk to women about raising courage capital, that's one of the key principles is [00:18:00] the active practice of having an idea and offering an idea.

Shannon Russell: So courage capital is that. It's, it's bringing things into your life that. Build up your courage. Is that right? 

Aransas Savas: Exactly. So at this point, I, I'm a researcher at heart Synthesis is, uh, my brain's natural language. Okay. And so I am constantly looking for patterns. And at this point, I've interviewed over 125 women for the Uplifters podcast talking about very similar themes.

And intentionally asking many of the same questions. Mm-hmm. In order to identify patterns and create a body of research that guides us all to build, as I said, what I call courage capital. So the reason I call it courage capital is because I think we all know that if [00:19:00] we wanna do big, brave things, we have to raise probably some financial capital to do it.

maybe raise some network capital. We have to get right. There are all these resources that we understand that we need in order to do this. But the one I think we most often miss, and I've seen this over and over again in these conversations, is the courage and the self-belief to go do the thing we haven't done or the, which is the most 

Shannon Russell: important?

Aransas Savas: It's the most important. It's the one that. That sits underneath all those others. 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. Yeah. 

Aransas Savas: And so the name Courage Capital, actually evolved from something one of our guests said who said? She said, I listened to this podcast because it helps me be brave. It helps me raise the courage capital. I need to, in her case, write the novel she wanted to write.

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Aransas Savas: And I started to synthesize these principles and I fell neatly into an acronym, uh, that spells out courage. And [00:20:00] so now I'm really focused on socializing these ideas because it's not just like a rare, extraordinary, special type of person. Who can build courage capital, who can do big, brave things.

It's literally every one of us. Yeah. But it is a practice. It is an act of doing, not of just. Thinking about it. Mm-hmm. Or hoping to do it or wishing we had resources that aren't available to us. More money, more network, more time, more ideas. Right? Like we have everything we need. We just need to have the courage to act.

Shannon Russell: Yes, and you follow that. Whether or not you feel like you have all the courage in the world, which you, I'm sure you don't, but you needed to follow your, whatever courage you had inside of you to create uplifters and to say, I'm going to create this podcast, create this [00:21:00] community, , record these stories, write these books, do what I want to do in this next act of my life, and I'm gonna do it with the courage I have now.

And then keep going. Because so often as women, don't you think. Someone says something from the outside and it makes us shrivel up a little bit so that the more courage we have, the stronger we are with our armor to not listen to those outside voices. 

Aransas Savas: We are so susceptible to signals that things are not working.

 the first time somebody says, no, I don't accept your invitation. 

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Aransas Savas: Or the first time. Our income starts to decline. Or the first time somebody says, this isn't for me, or I don't like this part, instead of taking it as data and information for potential opportunities to make our thing even [00:22:00] bigger, even better, even bolder, even more energizing to us, we take it as a signal that we should stop.

Shannon Russell: Yeah. and men might not do that. It might just be innate in us because we are the people pleasers. We are running the family, we're running the household, watching the kids, putting everyone else in front of us, and we need to start lifting ourselves up and focusing on ourselves so that we can be that better person to everyone around us.

Aransas Savas: Mm-hmm. That's exactly right. We tell ourselves that it's selfish. 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. 

Aransas Savas: it's honestly the most selfless thing we can do. And you can if like interview my children and my husband, if you want proof of that, and I bet we could interview your children and your husband if you wanted more proof of that because they see in us how much better we are when we are happier and fulfilled and well cared for.

Shannon Russell: Oh, a 

Aransas Savas: thousand percent. 

Shannon Russell: A thousand percent. You're right. [00:23:00] But what was the journey like for you? You took your kids for ice cream, you have this idea you're gonna build this community and this new world for yourself. But as I often when I talk about my story, it's not just, and then I did this and everything was great.

So talk to me for listeners who have an idea, how did you bring this, everything you've created to the forefront and just have that courage and confidence to build it? 

Aransas Savas: Yeah. I mean, I'm still building it. And it's still, it's still the same process though. Mm-hmm. , I interviewed a woman this week who started a company called Big Ba Belly Breathing.

She has a very similar approach to innovation as I do, uh, and it's interestingly the same approach I use to innovation working at Weight Watchers and that I use in my consulting when I work with other big companies from Best Buy and Disney on, on down. And it is [00:24:00] an essence to take an insight or an idea to create a rapid prototype.

To get feedback and to iterate and iterate and iterate. Mm-hmm. And iterate. There are some things that I created in month three, two of this journey that I'm still using. But the vast majority are long gone. They have morphed and and evolved so much that they would be unrecognizable. 

What has stayed the same?

, is probably a really good lesson and one I haven't thought about in this way before. But the things that have stayed the same all have to do around my personal identity, , which. You know, I felt like it was a really important place for me to begin with sort of brand identity [00:25:00] for the message and the mission, , because I knew I'd be living with it.

this concept of lifting and rising, , has stayed very true throughout all of this. , because I knew that if you ask a thousand people what. They thought of me, they would say she's encouraging, she's uplifting. Right. Good. Yeah. , and I had that data from my career. So I knew that was probably a pretty true place to begin.

I. I knew it was aligned with my values, , how I, uh, was impactful. And so that sort of essence, of this story has stayed true, but how it's executed, who it helps, has just gotten increasingly clearer every step of the way. , , started convening groups of women to talk about. Sort [00:26:00] of second half of life and how to find purpose and fulfillment across generations. And so I really have always loved this idea of multi-generational conversations. , and it's something still very much embedded in my work, though, less of a focus. so the places I found the most engagement are Substack and my podcast. And of course, IRL Thinking about how the podcast and substack and a little bit of social, , bring people together in real life, which then creates these really meaningful, interconnected webs of people.

, and so that, that's really been the journey. Just iterate, learn, synthesize, try again. 

 I think that's so great 'cause you are reaching people where they are.

Shannon Russell: Some people listen to podcasts, some people read, some people are only scrolling [00:27:00] on social. You also have done live events as well where you're really. Creating that, will there be more live events in the future? 

Aransas Savas: Yes, absolutely. I, I love them. They are my heart. They fuel me.

Yeah. , and I'll be really honest, the thing I love about them is creating them. 

I love. Imagining them. I love thinking about how we can use them to bring the most value to the participants. I love designing the experience. I love picking out my outfit for the experience. I love thinking about the plates we're going to eat off, the food we're going to eat.

Mm-hmm. Like I love. Yeah, the experience design, it's what I do. Yeah. I love even some of the outreach. 

Shannon Russell: Mm. 

Aransas Savas: But I've also found that sending out a thousand one-on-one invitations to find the hundred people who want to [00:28:00] attend just feels taxing. Mm. 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. 

Aransas Savas: And so. I, over the last couple of months I've really been thinking about because, and, and I think maybe this is a big lesson for anybody launching anything who might not be thinking about this.

So much of what this journey has taught me is to look for friction and address it head on. if getting a thousand people to every event, or a hundred people, or capacity at every event took zero energy. I would do an event every day. doesn't, it takes a lot of investment and a lot of reward comes from it.

So I don't wanna shortchange this,

But I also recognize the friction of it, that it's getting in the way of me doing more of what I really love.

And so one way to do that, of course, is to Hire a marketing agency. , and [00:29:00] that's a possibility, but I am still, I still really love that one-on-one connection. , and while I do think it's important to build an audience for what you wanna offer and get out there in growth mode and connect with a lot of folks and, you know, run the occasional social ad and.

Do the things one needs to do in order to find the people who are looking for, the support that you're offering. I also think that more and more of us going back to this idea of multiple points of life, more and more of us don't wanna do it alone. 

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. True. We 

Aransas Savas: wanna collaborate, we wanna co-create.

Mm-hmm. We want partnership.

And so more and more I'm reaching out to people that I really believe in their work. 

Shannon Russell: Mm-hmm. 

Aransas Savas: And really admire their work [00:30:00] and saying. You are connected with this amazing community. I'm connected with this amazing community. I want them to know you, and I wanna see if what we are doing can be of support to them.

And so let's make something together. 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. 

Aransas Savas: And so my, my new sort of emerging strategy is to create lots more events in collaboration. Uplifters live, next year we'll probably be in collaboration with the nonprofit that I sit on the board of A two six NYC, which, , champions, , writing skills for students of .

All economic access and need sets. , but my next retreat, I hope to partner with someone else who is in a similar space or community to create something really beautiful. 'cause I'm a really good at creating retreats and I know how to do it and I have a lot of confidence there. , but I [00:31:00] also don't wanna be on my own right to find the people who need to be there.

Shannon Russell: You're building something so beautiful, something so perfect for you and your personality and your skillset and your talents for this chapter of your life, for this act, and it's so nice to see.

, I'd love to ask you some advice for people who are thinking about starting over and right now with the way the economy is and the workforce and the amount of layoffs that we're hearing about. There's a lot of people who are where you were a few years ago, getting that layoff. Finding out that they only have, you know, so many, so many months of severance.

, they have to figure out what to do next. So what would your advice be for someone who is thinking about a second act and starting over and taking their experience and skills with them to create something new? 

Aransas Savas: I'm trying to challenge myself as I answer it to give answers that, that don't just reinforce what we already know, which is to slow down and take a [00:32:00] breath as we talked about. And ask yourself what you really want. And more than that to ask yourself what you don't already know and might want to learn.

So most of the time we feel stuck because we have stopped learning. So really starting with that learner brain, and it doesn't even have to be irrelevant to anything. It doesn't have to feel like important or like it's advancing your skillset or optimizing you for the market, right? I. I really believe just learning and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations is the most valuable thing we can do.

So, you know, if you're the kind of person who hates being IRL with other people and are so comfortable on Zoom, go hang out with some people. IRL. something that challenges you. [00:33:00] 

Shannon Russell: Right? 

Aransas Savas: So that's where I would begin is like instead of outcome oriented, really focusing on.

Taking that moment for yourself to reinvest in yourself. And I think one of the easiest and most accessible ways we can do that, and it's a resource that is available for basically for free, and it's so well vetted and tested, is the artist's way you can journal yourself into a bunker's level of self-awareness and understanding for like.

10 95 or something on Amazon. , it's so simple and so straightforward and, , I think I, I've watched it be so powerful for so many people, and of course, podcast are free. Listen to podcasts like this one or the uplifters and get like, hear different perspectives because most of the time.

Especially when I'm working with [00:34:00] career pivots, I find that they're walking in to the next journey with a fairly narrow reference point. 

Shannon Russell: Hmm. 

Aransas Savas: They're like, well, Jane from my company left and went over to this adjacent company that was slightly non-compete and she, and so we go down that path and. What we need to do, I think, is consciously remove some of the stress from our minds and expand our perspective.

And so that's where I think story becomes so powerful. When I binge on the stories of different ways people do this, I start to take. Little nuggets from each one. And I like to have just like a note in my phone where I capture those as sort of like a mood board or a word cloud for myself. Mm-hmm. And so if every time I hear someone on second act success or on [00:35:00] the uplifters say, coaching, I jot that down, or freedom.

Or creativity or community or or, or I start to create a bit of a record for myself of what I've actually am attracted to and not just what I have seen modeled by my community. 

that sort of opening of the lens is I think what gets us out of our ruts. 

then it's experimentation.

You get to learn through doing. You aren't expected to do this right? And in fact, if what you're doing feels right the first time, you're probably not growing.

because you're just doing what you've already done [00:36:00] and relearning what you've already learned. And so actually the goal is to put yourself in positions where you feel uncomfortable, where you're making mistakes, a k, a learning, and allowing yourself to expand in this next chapter, because I don't think any of us are gonna be happy if chapter two looks exactly like chapter one.

Shannon Russell: you're right. And there's that whole learning too of what you don't wanna do. Yeah. You can be learning and say, oh, this feels great. Let's pursue it and see. But you can also learn about what you don't wanna take from your first act into your second.

It's learning that you can change, you can pivot, you can grow and lean into that. Yes, and that's exactly what you did. Exactly what you did and continue to do. And how great do you feel now, or I should say, how different do you feel now compared to when you were working in corporate? 

Aransas Savas: In a word, I feel free.

Yeah, [00:37:00] yeah. I don't feel boxed in. Yeah. , feel uncontained and sometimes that's scary, right? Like, but it, it frankly.

I don't get the same paycheck every month like I once did. 

Shannon Russell: No, 

Aransas Savas: and there have been times where I'm making less than I did, and there are times when I've been making more than I did, and so I've had to step back and look at even those metrics more holistically and say. Oh, okay. So I'm not getting an annual merit increase in terms of actual dollars.

Shannon Russell: Right. 

Aransas Savas: That's not predictable. What I am getting though, is this incredible bonus every year in terms of snack time with my daughters every afternoon, being able to really be present for their high school years. , In a way I wasn't for their elementary and middle school [00:38:00] years, well, sort of more middle school than I wanted to because of the pandemic.

, and I'm getting. To really spend more time with my hands in the dirt and taking good care of my body and taking care of my mind and my creative spirit in ways I couldn't afford with what I was being paid in my corporate job. 

It's right. So it's like, what is money? 

Shannon Russell: Yeah. 

Aransas Savas: My, that money, that predictable income was costing me more than it was giving me, and the time is affording me more really holistically of what I wanted from that predictable income. 

Shannon Russell: you've got the chills. Yeah. Trippy, right? Yes. And it's a perfect way to explain it.

Again, to bring it back. It's not selfish. It's, it's leaning into what is needed at this juncture of your life, [00:39:00] my life of this next chapter and saying, this is what I want it to be for this one life that we're given. And to know that at the end of the day, we're not gonna have regrets because we had this.

Corporate career and experience, and now we have this entrepreneurship creator, artist kind of world. , it's, it just makes you a more fuller, , person and example to the children too. I think that that's what is important for both of us to be that example to our kids, especially to say you don't have to choose one path and stay on it forever, and that's just really not what the workforce looks like anymore.

Choose something and then choose something else and then do them both or yeah. You know, change when you're 45 and do something different. It just, it's an adventure. 

Aransas Savas: It is. And an exciting one. Yeah. Yeah. 

Shannon Russell: Oh, well, we could just talk all day. I thank you so much for being here. Thank you 

Aransas Savas: so much. 

Shannon Russell: Thank you for sharing your story.

And I just know so many of my listeners are going to wanna connect with [00:40:00] you and get into your world. So what are all the ways that they can find you? 

Aransas Savas: So you can find all the things at aransassavas.com and. The uplifters podcast.com is my substack, where I share these incredible stories of these inspiring women every week, along with journaling prompts and thought starters and opinion pieces about how we create second and third and fourth acts, but also how we lift ourselves and care for ourselves while caring for everyone else.

Shannon Russell: Mm. I love it. I'm gonna link to everything in the show notes and Aransas, thank you for being here and for sharing your light and your story. It's inspiring to me and inspiring to so many others. So thank you so much. 

Aransas Savas: Thank you. And let's go make an experience sometime. I think that'd be fun. 

Shannon Russell: Yes. Let's do it.

Speaker: Thank you for joining us. I hope you found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on [00:41:00] your path to second act, success. To view show notes from this episode, visit second act success.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell. And this is second act success.