Rosie Zilinskas is a multi-talented professional who wears many hats as a podcast host, corporate career strategist, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and corporate trainer. With over three decades of experience in the corporate world, Rosie has a wealth of knowledge and expertise to share with others.
But her journey hasn’t always been easy – she’s fled a dangerous situation and had to start from scratch. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to achieve her ambitious goals. Now, Rosie is on a mission to eradicate the gender gap in the corporate world by empowering women to take control of their career development. She believes that by helping women succeed, we can create a more balanced and empowered society for everyone.
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Table of Contents
GUEST BACKGROUND
Rosie Zilinskas (Za-lens-cus): Rosie is a podcast host, corporate career strategist, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and corporate trainer. With over 30 years of experience as a corporate veteran, Rosie’s mission is to eradicate the gender gap in the corporate world by empowering women in their career development. She believes that to serve women in this way is to serve society as a whole and raise a more empowered next generation.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:30 Introduction
02:10 Money lessons from childhood
05:45 Learning to hustle and be self-sufficient
08:00 Knowing how to utilize limited resources
09:43 Recognizing what holds women back
11:03 Rosie’s ambitious goal
11:58 What actions Rosie is taking to succeed
15:10 Overcoming fear
16:39 Handling insecurities surrounding her ambitious goal
20:24 The specific steps to grow her business
21:50 What Rosie needs to feel more secure
24:30 Rebuilding a disseminated life
29:50 What Rosie’s life looks like now
31:47 Having an Abundance mindset
32:42 Rosie’s advice for other ambitious women
34:50 Access to Free gifts from Rosie
37:43 Where to find Rosie
KEY INSIGHTS FROM ROSIE
Learning the importance of being self-sufficient
Often women are holding themselves back without realizing they are part of the problem
Don’t disqualify yourself from a job or opportunity because you don’t meet every single requirement.
Ask probing questions from leaders to uncover your blindspots and use that information as a tool to move you forward toward your goals.
Stop telling yourself stories that you’re not good enough.
Preparation for a job or your ambitious goal is key
Advertise by speaking up for yourself to let people know what you want or the goal you are trying to achieve.
ROSIE’S ACTION STEPS FOR MONEY SUCCESS
Build up her coaching business
Retire from corporate and become a career coach
Getting her name out there by doing podcasts
Learn from other people
Applying for speaking engagements
Co-authored a book
Being on more podcasts to put herself out there
Using a diversified approach to reach her ambitious goal
DeShena: Welcome to the WWA podcast. I’m your host, DeShena Woodard. And today, I’m speaking with Rosie Zilinskas. What you’ll hear in this episode is that Rosie is a survivor! Rosie shares her triumphant story of how she fled a dangerous situation with her two children and nothing else.
And even after finances were in ruin, Rosie talks about how she uses her strength as a woman and her determination as a mother to rebuild her life and rise to the top of her profession. Rosie is now a podcast host, corporate career strategist, bestselling author, keynote speaker, and corporate trainer. But she’s not stopping there! Listen to the end to hear the challenges Rosie had to overcome. And what steps she is now taking to go after her ambitious goals.
So let’s dive in.
Rosie: Hi, Rosie. Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for having me here. I’m excited to talk about all things money.
DeShena: Yes, yes. Well, thank you for being here. So before we really dive into the ambitious goal that you have and where you are with that, I always think it’s good to know a little bit about where people came from. And since I am a financial freedom coach, I want to help women dream bigger and actually believe that they have the power to make those dreams come true.
That’s why I created this podcast so that they can be inspired by other women like yourself who are actively chasing their dreams. And, of course, we know that money touches nearly every aspect of our lives, and it often affects who we become and the financial decisions we make as adults.
So I always like to start by talking about how we develop our relationship with money which, as you know, typically begins when we’re children. So tell me, Rosie, when you were growing up, what did you learn about? You
Rosie: know, my growing up was, it’s almost like a dichotomy. Obviously. I have parents, well, I had, you know, my mom and my dad, and my mom was a saver.
My dad was a spender, so I saw a lot of conflict growing up when it came to money. I also saw my mom because she was the one that managed the finances. And we would literally have diluted soap, like in the soap bottle, and she would cut napkins in half. And I vividly remember thinking, DeShena, that is never gonna be me.
That is never gonna be me with a diluted soap. I hate that, and I grew up thinking that money was scarce and I needed to work really hard to have money because I knew that I didn’t want to be living like that as a grown-up. And I knew there was a very distinct way of being. A saver and a spender.
And when I was a junior in college, I took a psychology class, and they said that when you grow up with no money, very poor. And both my parents grew up very poor. My mom was a cotton picker in Mexico. We’re a hundred percent Mexican. My dad was pretty much left in an orphanage by his parents because they didn’t want anything to do with him.
And so, they both had zero money. So I vividly remember being in class and the psychology professor saying when you grow up with money, you’ll either become a major spender or a major saver. And I’m like, ha, I have both.
DeShena: Wow. That’s an amazing story. I can understand that. So your mom did all that cutting and diluting soap. Was that in an attempt to save money, or was it just her nature to be a saver?
Rosie: So I think it’s always been her nature. So we lived in Mexico City. My dad had his own mechanic shop, and at the time, money was coming in.
My mom, I vividly remember her, and I was like nine years old at the time. She would be the one that would have to go and knock on people’s doors saying, Hey, you owe the shop money. So my dad would tell her, Hey, if you go collect this money, it’s gonna be yours. And then she would take care of, you know, making sure that we had everything we needed.
When we moved from Mexico to the States, we moved to McAllen, Texas, which is right across the Rio Grande Valley. Very depressed area. So we started having major money problems. At the time, my mom didn’t work. I was 16, and I got my first job at Grandy’s Chicken. And I had to pay for everything for my graduation. And anything that I wanted, I had to pay for it.
And it was just one series of things that got worse and worse and worse because there were no jobs. And it was, it was not a fun time. It was not a fun time DeShena.
DeShena: Yeah. My goodness. That sounds like a lot to go through, and having to get a job. At least you were able to get a job. You know, I worked during high school too. You know, just because I wanted my own money. But I mean, it was good that you were able to do that and at least help out to pay for your own things. So that’s a positive. And how do you feel those childhood experiences affected the way you handle money as an adult?
Rosie: Oh, I think they shaped me for sure. Because I knew that kind of like you, okay, I want a class ring, and I have to pay for it. And my mom did help me a little, but my mom helped me as much as I could. My dad, he was always there. He was involved, but he wasn’t as in tune as to what my needs were in high school as my mom was.
And it was. One of those things that I knew was that if I wanted to have a good living for myself, I had to hustle. And I have always been extremely motivated. I’m still extremely motivated, and seeing how my parents were when I was growing up was kind of the catalyst, the fire in me that I am never going to have to dilute soap
DeShena: Right. Absolutely. I’m sure. So what lessons do you think you learned from that?
Rosie: Oh, just being able to, number one, be self-sufficient. I learned that I could take care of myself. I learned that, and this is another thing that my mom taught us.
I have three sisters, and I have a brother. But the one thing that my mom went through a lot of trials and tribulations with my dad with money, and she always told us, you need to. Be able to take care of yourself. So you need to go to school. You need to get a career so that when you are an adult, regardless of what happens in your life, you can take care of yourself.
So my mom was a huge proponent of education. My dad was too, but my mom was for, from a different perspective of — don’t let anybody control you with money.
DeShena: Absolutely. And that sounds like I like to call it the recipe that we learn about how to be successful. You know you gotta go to college, you gotta get an education, you gotta get a good job.
And that’s supposed to be the recipe for success. Right. But that doesn’t always necessarily teach you how to manage money. So did you find yourself getting into any money trouble along the way at any time?
Rosie: You know, I was always really good with my money because I knew that I had limits, right?
And actually, one of my college roommates, when we were both in college, she says, Rosie is the only person that I knew could make $5 last for two weeks. Because I knew that I didn’t have parents that could provide money, you know. It was me with financial aid. Now, my mom did help me by obtaining loans in her name, like the Parents Plus Loan, but I paid them off.
And we came from Mexico to Texas. When I was a freshman in high school, my parents had no clue about high school and how it worked. And they had even less of a clue how college worked. So I was the first person in my family to go to college. So I had to figure all that out, and I knew that I had limited resources and I needed to have those resources last as long as I needed to to get to that next level.
So I was always really careful with my money because I knew that I could only count on me.
DeShena: So it sounds like a lot of that influence came from your mom with her, stretching the soap and cutting the paper towels in half. You learned how to stretch your money. You learned that resources are limited, and you had to stretch that.
So, that’s probably something valuable that you learned from her, and it helped. Awesome. So now, what drove you to get into your current career? And remind us what that is.
Rosie: Well, okay, so I have two careers right now. One of ’em is I am still working full-time. I work for an insurance company.
That’s one thing. But now, my passion really is helping women in the corporate world advance in their careers. So I’m helping them empower themselves because, a lot of times, women are the ones that are holding themselves back. And they don’t even know that they’re part of the problem, and I’m kinda an example of that.
Yes. Yeah. I’m kinda an example of that because I was working really hard, and I thought, okay, they’re gonna invite me to become a manager. And nobody ever came. It wasn’t until I said something that things started to happen.
DeShena: Yes. You know, that’s another aspect of this podcast is that I feel like a lot of women don’t know what’s holding them back.
Or realize that they’re holding themselves back because we don’t hear all of the stories of when people are going through things. That’s why I wanted to present this in this format. So that if it resonates with somebody, they might not realize — well, you know what, I never said anything at work.
You know, I’m waiting for them to come to me, but, you know, maybe I should be coming to them. So, yeah, that is so true. I really feel like a lot of times we don’t understand or realize that something is holding us back. So what’s your ambitious goal, Rosie?
Rosie: Oh gosh. Well, my ambitious goal is to retire by 60.
Hopefully. I’m 53 years old. My husband is just gonna be turning 60 in January, and we both are very hard workers. We’re both always working, and so it would be nice to be able to enjoy life, travel, and not be tied to a computer all the time.
So that’s, that’s a pretty ambitious goal because I know a lot of people wait to retire till they’re, you know, 65, 67, and I don’t wanna be working for another 13 years.
DeShena: Yes, absolutely. And you said you’re about seven years away from that, so are you on track to make that happen? What actions are you taking to make that happen?
Rosie: Well, so the action that I am taking to make that happen is, with this coaching business that I’m building, I want that to be my retirement income.
So retire from corporate and then move into a, career coach and have that be a little bit more flexible. Not kill myself to have to work 40 hours but still be able to serve women and feel that fulfillment because I feel massively fulfilled when I’m helping women in their careers, and that to me, is my passion.
So it’s almost going to feel like I’m not working because I’m working on my passion goals. Absolutely.
DeShena: So, tell us more about your career coaching and how you help women in that way.
Rosie: Well, I think the primary way is when I start having conversations with women, and you know, this is actually quite simple.
We start kind of peeling back the onion and figuring out what thoughts do they have in their heads that they feel is their story that keeps them from applying for a job. You know, so I work with a woman, her name is Amanda. And what we figured out was that she, in her head, is a rule follower. And when she went to apply for a job, if it had like 20 different requirements, and if she didn’t have three of the requirements, she would disqualify herself.
And she’s like, oh, I don’t qualify, so I’m not going to apply. And that’s such an easy way to discount yourself. So I told Amanda, I said, don’t. Make the decision for yourself. Let someone else make the decision. Apply for the job. And I’m sure you’ve heard this, men apply for jobs having 50% of the skills.
Women wait till they have a hundred percent of the skills, and that’s because we lack self-belief and self-trust. We need to believe in ourselves, and we need to trust that you are gonna be able to gain the knowledge of that job. The big thing is applying for the job. Getting the job, and then you can do some on-the-job training, but we feel that we need to be perfect, and that’s the whole perfectionism, which I know everybody’s talking about, but again, uncovering the thoughts in your head, the story that you have about yourself that keep you small.
DeShena: Yes, yes. I’m guilty. You know, uh, the same thing, you know, it’s like, oh, well darn, I’ve got five outta the six skills. , I’m not gonna qualify. I am so guilty of doing that. So you said, kind of getting out of your own head and just go ahead and applying for the job and let the job tell you whether you’re qualified or not.
But tell me a little bit more about what can women do to really get out of their heads and get over that fear or that tendency, I guess I would say to automatically disqualify ourselves or feel like we have to check every single box. What can we do?
Rosie: Well, I think that’s what I was saying as far as what story are you telling yourself. If the story is that, you know, the whole, everybody knows this, you’re not good. You have to start asking yourself, well, is it really true that I’m not good enough? Is that really a fact? And when you really start reflecting on those thoughts that you’re having, you start realizing that those thoughts come from your head.
And you don’t necessarily always have to believe the thoughts that are coming through your head. You’re intelligent enough. To know that you are good enough, that you are worthy, and honestly, your worth comes from within. You can say I am a powerful woman, and I deserve the career of my dreams.
That’s what I tell all my clients, and you can make that happen based on your belief that you are that powerful woman. And it’s just switching, reframing that story that goes through your head. And eventually, you start shedding those old thoughts, and you start replacing them with good, powerful, authentic beliefs.
DeShena: So it’s all about the mindset. It’s like our thoughts are, what control our feelings, and then our feelings are what drive our actions. And then our actions are what create our results. So whatever we think affects how we feel about something.
Awesome. Okay, so for your ambitious goal of wanting to retire within the next seven years, do you feel any financial insecurities surrounding it?
Rosie: You know, I do feel insecurities, but not necessarily financial ones. As in, like I can’t make the money. It’s more of where are we going to get the health insurance. That’s gonna cost us a ton of money if both my husband and I retire before we are eligible for Medicare. And I think I don’t know when you’re supposed to be eligible for Medicare.
I think it’s like 63 or something like that. But there’s gonna be a gap of, you know, two or three years for my husband and the same thing for me. So I hear all these people, you know, having to purchase COBRA because one thing or another, and they have to pay like $1,300 or $1,800 a month just for the health insurance.
And that, to me, feels very icky. It feels very insecure and very, um, it’s the fear of the unknown of, like, okay, how’s this really gonna work? And, to be honest with you, I haven’t, you know, sat down and done the research of all of the, you know, things that we need to do. But that’s one of my financial insecurities about that.
And then we have a large home right now we’re trying to downsize. And so my next thing is like, where are we gonna live? Like, what is that gonna look like? And I don’t think, I’m not worried about are we gonna be able to afford it, but I am worried about, for example, the stock market. Everybody says we’re going into a recession right now.
Well, that’s a concern. Like, is it realistic for me to say I’m gonna retire in seven years when I know that there’s a recession coming on? So those are a few of my insecurities, DeShena.
DeShena: Well, they’re very valid. And I believe the Medicare retirement age is 65.
Rosie: Well, that’s even worse.
DeShena: But, yeah, that’s valid. Because COBRA is not cheap at all! But there are other options, I’m sure. But you said you haven’t really dug into those yet, so you would have to actually start to look around and see because these days, especially with so many entrepreneurs popping up, there are more insurance options available than ever before, so definitely would need to dig around for that.
And where to live. You wanna downsize, and a recession coming? So what are your plans? What are you thinking that you can do in relation to that?
Rosie: Well, and I think that’s part of what I’m doing with my, uh, career coaching business is trying to grow my career coaching business.
And, you know, eventually, I will leave, you know, whenever my corporate job and then I will replace my career coaching business with that. And, you know, just try to get my name out there, try to, you know, do some networking. I have a podcast of my own, and you know, I am building the foundation of my business right now. And that is all I’m doing that all for kinda like my second career and, and I can again, comfortably do that in retirement because I love doing that.
DeShena: Well, that’s awesome. And that’s the best part is doing something that you actually love and enjoy. And then turning that into a business. So, what specific steps are you taking to help that grow to build your coaching business?
Rosie: Well, I think one of them is being on podcasts like yours, you know, just to get my name out there and to learn from other people as well.
Another thing that I’m doing is I’m currently actively applying for speaking engagements. I actually am speaking at a keystone nonprofit conference. I have another accounting and Finance Alliance conference. Also, I’m the keynote speaker for that, so I’m doing that. I’m also applying for TEDx events or TEDx talks.
And in the process of doing that, I actually co-wrote a book. It’s called Engaging Speakers, voices of Truth, engaging Speakers, and I have a chapter in that with, you know, a bunch of my co-author friends. So I’m trying to diversify a little bit in the things that I touch and that I’m working on.
So I think I’m doing. A lot for my business, and again, I’m always working, but I love doing this stuff. Like, I don’t mind working, you know, evenings and weekends all the time, because it’s my passion.
DeShena: Exactly. You know, I resigned from my job in 2021. You leave your corporate job to go pursue entrepreneurship, and then it’s like you go from working five days to seven.
So yes, I totally understand that. So what do you think you would need to feel more secure about your situation?
Rosie: You know, I feel secure right now, but I will tell you one other thing that I didn’t mention earlier. Another one of my insecurities is I’m remarried. My first marriage did not go well.
I actually had to leave in the middle of the day because I didn’t feel safe. And I had a horrible four-year divorce, which by the way, I didn’t tell you this, but it financially disseminated me. I was 37 at the time when I left in the middle of the day, and. because I left, I had no furniture.
I left with my two little kids. They were three and five, and they’re part of the motivation of why I knew that I had to work really hard and continue to advance because I knew now I had, you know, these two little kids with very little financial support. I ended up moving in with my mom and dad, and so to answer the question. My now husband, we’ve been married for six years.
We’re happily married, but I almost feel like I have PTSD from my first marriage where we co-mingled our finances, and now what my husband and I do, we both put in, you know, a certain amount of money into an account and then he has his money, and I have my money. And to me, that makes me feel better makes me feel secure.
Another insecurity is second marriages have a very dismal success, you know. So as much as we are doing well, you know, you can’t count. Like, what if something happens to him? And we are taking steps to figure that out. But, You know, there’s always that thing in the back of my head, it’s like, oh my gosh, what if I get divorced again?
And, there is no evidence, no evidence that there’s anything, um, ever gonna happen like that. It’s like that little thought in the back of my head. It’s like, well, you already, you know, you went through it once, and you could go through it again. So I know that’s a terrible insecurity.
DeShena: Well, no, not really.
I mean, it’s very valid. I mean, of course, I understand you said you have a little PTSD. That sounds like a very serious situation you were in. And happy for you that you made it through that and got out safely. So congratulations on that. But in case there is anyone out there that is worried or in a bad situation and worried about that?
You said it decimated you financially. What did you do? How did you get over that?
Rosie: Well, I, I think with, luckily for me, I have a huge support system. Both my parents welcomed me with open arms, so my two children and I moved in with them into this little ranch house, and I knew that I had to hustle.
And so during the three and a half years that my divorce was going on, and it’s just such a terrible situation. Because you go to court, you file petitions, and nothing happens. The lawyer charges you, and it just, you know, again, dragged down for four years. After the four years were done, I kinda said to myself, okay, I can either, you know, be the victim, like the domestic violence abuse victim that you were told you were.
Or you can make the best of it and try to start working really hard and rebuild your life. And that’s exactly what I started to do. I started to rebuild my life financially, spiritually, and emotionally. I mean, I was a mess! And I picked myself up, and I started every day I would look at my money because that’s the only thing that I could control.
And I started saving for a house. I always drove used vehicles and small vehicles, like a little Ford focus, because that’s what I could afford. I ended up renting a house. I didn’t even have like beds for my kids, so I had to, you know, just like asking people if they had any, you know, old furniture and stuff like that.
And little by little, I started to acquire a little bit of furniture. And then, finally, I was able to purchase a home for my kids. And I, but it was, it was a struggle because I now had a foreclosure on my record. My credit was not great, and I had to wait three full years from the time that I divorced to even think of applying for a mortgage because that foreclosure followed me for quite a while.
DeShena: Yeah. Oh, my goodness, that was a lot, but it seems like, thankfully, you had a good support system. It seems like you really put in the effort. You didn’t give up. You didn’t quit. You didn’t fold. And you didn’t fall down and stay down. You got up, and you just kept moving forward.
Rosie: So that is very empowering. And I will tell you that knowing that I managed my money well even through high school, through college, but you know, even before I got divorced, that helped me to stay focused on my goals. And by the way, I worked Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. So that was huge for me because I literally started by putting a thousand dollars in my emergency fund and then paying off bills like crazy because I had acquired a lot of credit card debt with the divorce and the kids.
I mean, we left with nothing, so I had to buy a bunch of stuff for them. And yeah, so I started working the baby steps, and that’s one of the saving graces that I had in my life that I found Dave Ramsey, and I started working the baby steps, and I was very successful in managing my money.
And then, once the divorce was all done, that’s when I. Thought to myself, okay, I need to focus on my career. I went from an average top performer in one year, and that’s when I was like, okay, what’s nothing’s happening? And I went, and I talked to one of the managers, and I said, listen, I’m interested in a management position.
And he said to me, oh really? He’s like, you never said anything. I’m like, oh my gosh, why didn’t I say something before? And that’s what got me into my management position. And then again, I was able to put my kids in Catholic school. I started campaigning for myself. I started advocating for myself and talking to people.
Any leader that I could talk to, I would get one little nugget of information on how they did their career. I was trying to uncover my blind spots. What can I do better? What do you like about my work? When I was asking those probing questions, they would give me candid feedback for me.
And I would use that as a tool. And in 2017, I landed a position as a vice president because I did six months of preparation for this position. So like I said, I’m always very motivated, and I’m a go-getter. So preparation for a job is key. And that’s why I know that I can help so many women in their careers because I did all those things, and I was successful.
DeShena: Yes. Oh, my goodness. That was amazing. I mean, you literally had nothing. And look, you got to the top of leadership, so that is absolutely amazing.
So, something you said that I wanted to ask you about. So now tell people, what do your finances look like now after all of this?
Rosie: Well, we’re, we’re very secure in the fact that we don’t have any debt.
We, my husband and I, both work very hard in our lives to not have any debt, and we’re very fortunate, but we have been working a lot for a very long time, which is why we now are, you know, thinking of like, oh my gosh, it’s, it’s time to start thinking about slowing down. It’s time to start thinking about retirement.
And the thing is, just because we have. Money, or we, I should say, just because I can go buy whatever I want. For example, I don’t, I don’t go buy whatever I want. I have parents that are 83 and 84. My husband has, has parents that are in their upper seventies. So we have responsibilities still. I have a son who’s 24 and a daughter who’s 21, and still helping them kinda, you know, pushing them out of the coop a little bit.
And so, Yes, we have money, but it’s not like we can go blow it and do whatever we want because we have responsibilities and we have family that we need to take care of and things like that. So it’s, and neither of us are like, oh, we have money now. We can blow money. That’s not how our mindset is at all.
We’re still very careful with what we spend. We’re still very careful with how we manage our money, and I think that’s key because that’s gonna help us in our retirement.
DeShena: Absolutely. Sounds like you’re prioritizing and being very intentional. Yes. Two key factors to doing well with money, so that is awesome.
Okay, so your ambitious goal — you’re going to retire. You’re planning to, hopefully, grow your coaching business. How big are you trying to grow it? Seven figures? Multi-seven figures?
Rosie: Oh gosh. You know, I think I would be happy with six, no. Seven figures. Yeah, seven figures for sure. And yeah, I don’t wanna even put any limitations because I have more of an abundance mindset.
I always know. Money is gonna work out no matter what. I know that I put good vibes out into the universe. I do everything that I’m supposed to do, and things always work out for me. So, even though I lost everything when I was 40 and I had to start from scratch, you know, I still did. Well.
DeShena: Absolutely.
That abundance mindset, you just can’t say enough about it. I mean, because I keep hearing people say, well, it raises your energy level. And I really believe that because when you have that mindset, like you said, that money is going to work out, it makes you take actions like the things that you did versus, you know, wallowing or just sitting in the negative.
It’s like you’ve got skills, you’ve got talent. I know that it’s going to work out, and you do the things that make that happen. So. Awesome.
So now, what advice do you have for corporate women who are out there and they’re holding themselves back?
Rosie: I would say the very first advice is to try to figure out how you may be stopping yourself from advancing your career. Whether it’s, again, that applying for jobs is the biggest thing that I can say. If you are interested in a job, apply for it anyway, even if you don’t have all the skills.
The second thing. Actually, make it a point to talk to the different leaders and managers in your organization and say, Hey, listen, I’m interested in moving up the corporate ladder. Can you have a conversation with me and give me feedback because you’re gonna try to start uncovering your blind spots. And then, each person will give you an action item that you can now take as a tool and start developing it on your own.
And the biggest thing is to talk to your manager. Your manager knows your work the best. Now, once you’ve done all those things, you kind of know what you wanna do. Advertise. That’s one of the things that I say advertise to people, that you want to move into a management position, that you want to maybe move into a project manager or, you know, whatever the situation is.
Because, like me, if you don’t say something, then people don’t know, and people can advocate for you. So even if you. In the meeting, you know, Mr. You know, Smith or Mrs. Smith can advocate for you and say, Hey, you know what? I know Rosie has aspirations to move up the corporate ladder. She would be really good at XYZ.
So you need to have those advocates that will talk for you in those important meetings when managers are speaking about staffing, modeling, and things like that. So those are just a few things that women can do right now.
DeShena: Very, very important. Great advice. Okay, so now I heard you had some free gifts for us.
So tell us about those.
Rosie: Yes, so, my website it’s called No Woman Left behind.com, and my podcast, by the way, is the same name, no Woman Left Behind. But I do have a few things, so I have a corporate kickstart quiz. You can kind of figure out where you are in your career. You can take a corporate kickstart course, which is about 45 minutes, and I do talk about some of these things that we’ve been talking about, but you know, that’s a free course.
And then the last thing is if someone wants to have a conversation with me, they can have a 30-minute consultation. No obligation to purchase anything. It’s just me talking to people, asking them, you know, trying to help them figure out where to go in their career. So those are some free gifts that anybody can sign up just by going to my website.
DeShena: Awesome, awesome. And I’ll also link that into the show notes as well. Now, before we wrap, I just wanted to, just revisit your ambitious goal one more time. So in seven years, you want to try to retire, and you’re trying to grow your coaching business, and you said you’re being on more podcasts, and you’re putting yourself out there. What other steps or what other things are you doing to help you get to that?
Rosie: I would say the other big thing that I’m gonna be doing is applying for speaking engagements. Because as a speaker, you can get paid to speak, and that’s going to be another avenue. And I think I’ve been talking to one of my coaches and we kind of settled on me.
Focusing on one thing because right now, I’m kind of, you know, shiny object syndrome. It’s like there’s just so much to do as an entrepreneur and by, you know, taking my own advice and focusing on one thing. Kind of like what I did with my budget, where I was like so focused. Let’s just focus on applying for speaking engagements, and that will start bringing a little bit of income in, and eventually, it’s gonna be a lot of income.
So I think the speaking engagements are gonna be the one avenue that I’m going to use to supplement my income, for me to be able to retire.
DeShena: Perfect, perfect. And you’ve, you’re already taking those steps, you’re already applying, you said, correct? Yes, yes. Awesome. And how’s it going?
Rosie: So, Well, so far, I think I have three or four speaking engagements this fall, and one of ’em is paid. The other ones are not paid just yet. But they will be.
DeShena: That’s right! So, you’re doing those for nonprofits, the ones that are not paid?
Rosie: Yes.
DeShena: Okay. Awesome. Well, it sounds like you’re on your way. Please, keep us updated on your progress. I would love to hear how things are going, and maybe we’ll do a follow-up in the future, but tell me now, where can people find you?
Rosie: So, the easiest place for them to go to is my website. It’s no woman left behind.com. They can contact me, and all my information is right on.
DeShena: Well, that is so awesome, Rosie! Thank you so much for sharing your story and taking the time to inspire so many other ambitious women out there. To help them believe that they can face tragedies, they can face struggles, and they can come back from that, and they can still excel and succeed and move forward.
So congratulations, and thank you for sharing.
Rosie: Well, thank you, DeShena, for having me. I appreciate it. This was fun.
