The Peering Podcast

Episode 7
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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Peering Podcast. If you wanna see the future, the best way is to peer into it together. I've been looking forward to this one. Heidi Hutchinson is my special guest today, and I'm really excited to have you, Heidi, say hello to our listeners.

[00:00:54] Heidi Hutchison: Well, hello everyone. I'm very excited to be here.

[00:00:58] Mike Richardson: Ah, yes, indeed. Here's why I'm so excited to have Heidi with us, everybody. Number one. She has a background around everything, peer groups and peer forums, and peer advisory boards. This is the peering. This is the peering podcast after all. So we're gonna draw upon that a little bit, uh, which is one of my greatest passions, of course.

Number two, my other greatest passion is, uh, portfolio. Careers and people pivoting in their career journey from corporate careers to portfolio careers. And guess what? Heidi did that recently. Uh, and so we'll be, we'll be, we'll be talking about that. And thirdly, uh, and of course we'll talk about this at length.

Uh, not only did she pivot to a portfolio career, but in many ways, I guess, Heidi, you are now helping women in the latter stages of their careers. Have plenty of career options, maybe portfolio, maybe not. We'll get into all of that. Uh, but I'm really excited to have Heidi here, everybody, and, uh, we're gonna have a, a great conversation, uh, together.

So, uh, let's jump right in. Heidi, how on earth did you and I meet many years ago? How did that happen?

[00:02:15] Heidi Hutchison: Well, speaking of peer advisory groups, Mike, I went back and did the map. We met almost 20 years ago when I was working at Vistage as a VP of marketing strategy, and you were a chair at Vistage and you had come in. To do a consulting project for us after the massive rebranding, uh, from Tech to Vistage, and basically to help us take Vistage to the next level.

So that's where it started. Many, many moons ago.

[00:02:47] Mike Richardson: Yeah. Yeah. Everybody, as you've heard, so I, when I, when I took the leap from the corporate world in the spring of 2002, I ran into Vistage, or back then it was called. Tech, TEC, the executive committee at rebranded to Vistage, as you just heard from Heidi, in the kind of mid two thousands. And I'd never heard of the concept of a peer group, a peer forum, a peer advisory board before I wish I had when I'd been a, uh, a, a, a serial, you know.

CEO of technology companies. And then I ended up running the aerospace division or a British public company. And, uh, lo and behold, I, I start getting involved and I start building peer groups with Vistage. And lo and behold, I meet you in the hallways of the head office of Vistage, which happens to be in the greater San Diego area, which is where I live.

[00:03:38] Heidi Hutchison: as do

[00:03:39] Mike Richardson: And how long were you there? How long were you with Vistage?

[00:03:42] Heidi Hutchison: I was there for about four, four plus years before I actually started my portfolio career. Yeah, but there's one thing I wanna bring up here that Mike, that has stuck with me from that time that we worked together. I know, and these are not war stories. This is a good thing.

[00:04:00] Mike Richardson: Here we go. Hang on. Buckle up. Everybody. Buckle.

[00:04:03] Heidi Hutchison: It's the concept of elegant simplicity. This is something that you spoke of back in the day of how you need to kind of work your way through the muck, through the different experiments, discovery, exploration, all of that to actually get through to the other side into elegant simplicity, which is where your core, truth, purpose, passion lie.

And that actually is a premise that I have used, believe it or not, I've never shared this with you. That actually drives a lot of what the business that I do today in my transitions or helping women through transitions. So I have to give you credit where it is due.

[00:04:44] Mike Richardson: we'll, thank you so much. So we'll come to that in a moment. So let me just touch upon what everybody, everybody, what, uh, Heidi's getting at. Um. How many times do we hear people say, let's just keep it simple, stupid. You know, the KISS principle, keep it simple, stupid. And the number of times I've heard that, you know, in, in my career when we're trying to grapple with complex things.

I'm sure you've come across it. Listeners, perhaps you haven't. Uh, a great quotation, one of my favorites from Oliver Wendell Holmes, and he says this, I wouldn't give a fig for simplicity, this side of complexity, but I would give my life for simplicity on the far side of complexity. So what that invites us to realize is actually there's two kinds of simple, they're stupid, simple.

This side of complexity because we bounce off that complexity and quite possibly somebody raises their hand in the room, or at least inside their head and says, let's keep it simple, stupid. It's like, yeah, you can do that if you want. If you're okay with stupid, simple, be my guest. But we know mostly everybody, we don't have that opportunity.

We've gotta keep working through complexities of increasing breadths and debts and pop out the other side, which is. Elegant simplicity, which embeds complexity, not stupid simplicity, which ignores complexity. So that's the little, the little tutorial there that Heidi, uh, invited me to give, that I wasn't planning to give.

But tell me more then, Heidi. What is in your port, you've gone portfolio, what's in your portfolio today? What are you building? Where are you going? What's your sense of direction that you have?

[00:06:25] Heidi Hutchison: So, and I'm sure we'll get into the story behind it, but where I am today in a portfolio career is I now have four different areas that I focus on in my business and. I play a different role in each and every one of them. First and foremost, I am the founder of Third 30, which is a business that is dedicated to helping professional women in midlife rediscover purpose, redefine success, and activate their next chapter.

The second part is being a speaker or a keynote speaker. That's where I actually touch upon the movement aspect of third 30, 'cause I truly see it as a global movement and I speak to the the truisms of ageism. Sexism and those, uh, ugly truths that surface as a, as part of being a corporate executive or a female corporate executive.

Um, the third part is I am a transition strategist and a coach, so that's another aspect of what I do whereby I bring. Highly accomplished women together that know that there's more ahead of them than behind them and help them define what exactly that chapter may look like for them that is bigger than where they are right now.

And then lastly, I'm also a women's empowerment coach, or a advocate actually, where I literally. As part of my getting to elegant simplicity, realize that my calling, my reason for being at this stage of my life is to help other women transition through and successfully and more elegantly than certainly I did in going from a traditional corporate role into more of a portfolio career.

Through all of that. I actually am also a fractional CMO. So

[00:08:25] Mike Richardson: Nice.

[00:08:25] Heidi Hutchison: a lot of different angles to go there. Um, and there's reasons behind each and every one of them, and they all together pretty much take up my time. I.

[00:08:36] Mike Richardson: Yes, they do. And uh, so now you can see everybody why I was so excited to have Heidi here. And Heidi, all of those things sort of seem to revolve around the, the, the keystone piece of this concept of third 30. So tell us about that. How did you arrive at the idea of third 30?

[00:08:56] Heidi Hutchison: Well, it's an interesting story and one that I love to share. So, um, basically. In a nutshell, I found myself in my fifties after a decades long successful career as a, both an operations and then a marketing executive. Flat out of a job. I was in my last position and the company was going through a reorg and despite very positive performance reviews and all, everything going well, boom, I found out rather bluntly that I was not gonna make the trip.

So to say, in Mar parlance, I got fired. So not for competence or performance, but because of the reorg. So I came out of that and I was actually sitting with a friend of mine, a woman that worked for me having coffee like within the past month. And I was processing all of this because I really hadn't taken the time to think of who do I wanna be at this stage in my life?

And so. We sat down and I said, you know what? I said to Debbie, I said, you know, the first 30 years of your life are really about developing yourself as a person. Who do you, who do you wanna be when you grow up? The second third of your life is really about if you so choose family career, working your way up the ladder, and then you have this third, third.

Hence the name. Where now with longevity being what it is and average age of people born today is 86.4 years. We have these 30 odd years of life where it's a blank slate, but yet society and unfortunately, especially for women, has not caught up. To take advantage of this extended period of time where the vibrancy and the peak potency that we have as executives of all of our wisdom and confidence is basically not taken into consideration any longer.

And that's really where when I have that very personal experience myself. I said, I'm not gonna buy into that. And so I literally started my company third 30 to help myself and other women through this process.

[00:11:13] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. Love that. That's a classic entrepreneur's story, isn't it? Everybody? I experienced a problem to which I couldn't find a solution, so I decided to build the solution myself. I love that. Love that. And, um, it's so, it's so powerful because, uh, earlier this week I was facilitating a virtual. Peer forum of portfolio professionals who are around the world.

This gentleman that we were processing the case for, we were, we were issue processing. The case for was in the uk. Uh, he was a, it was a man in this case, but he was saying exactly what you've just said. He was saying the male equivalent of what you just said. So he was talking about ageism and all of this kind of stuff. and we, we, you know, processed the case with him. And one of the things I said to him was, let's reframe this.

This can be the best phase of your life in your career. This doesn't have to be the epilogue of your life and your career. This can be the crescendo of your life and your career, and let's invent it.

Let's create it. Let's invite it that way. And I think that's what you are kind of saying, right? In particular. Women who've then got this other dimension of challenge, the sexism part of it, um, uh, th third 30 could be the best third of your life. Uh, it doesn't have to be an epilogue third to your life. Is that where you are headed?

[00:12:47] Heidi Hutchison: That you nailed it right on the head, Mike, is that one of the things, and this is the, the phrase that I use with my clients and when I'm speaking, is midlife are your power years. They are the years where actually it's not a decline, it's an expansion of choices. Because when you make that mental shift of understanding everything that you just shared here about recognizing that this is not about the age old narrative of these are, you know, your best years are behind you or that you know you're washed up or whatever ridiculous things that people say or internalize, but in fact.

It's your opportunity to step into your own agency to understand that all of that expertise, experience, and skills that you have gained over literally decades is now available for you to claim, craft and define so that you can create your next chapter on your terms. And as I put it with purpose, passion, and profit.

[00:13:53] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. And so tell us a little bit more then, you gave us kind of the, the last phase before you took this pivot, but let's go back a little bit further. Uh, how did, what was your career path, Heidi, and how did you, just tell us a bit more, how have you arrived here at where you are today?

[00:14:14] Heidi Hutchison: Well, it's interesting and I won't go. I'll take one story from back in the day, but I won't, I won't take too long, but I wanted. So when I was thinking about this is. Business has been in my DNAI. My father was a CEO of a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. All of those things were instilled in me from birth.

So I was very business oriented and literally my first job I wanted was to be CEO of the world. So that is kind of the mentality that that I grew up with. Now going through my career. I also realized that. Through my father's example is that getting into business leadership and owning your company, because he was an entrepreneur himself, it is not about being above your company, it's about being in your company and truly understanding the business.

And I think, um, we use the term Vistage. We were called, you know, to work on your business, not in your business. So what I learned from that is you gotta get in and you gotta get your hands dirty. And so what I did when I came out of grad school, 'cause I had A-A-J-D-M-B-A from Emory after I graduated from Smith and I went through the PepsiCo management training program and then started literally, uh, as a.

Learn. Well, okay, now I, now I'm really gonna share this story with you. So I went through the management training program, which is essentially learning every aspect of running a pizza hut, whether it be delivery, waiting tables, filling out the salad bar, you name it.

One of my crescendo moments of that part of my career, um, is when I was coming home after a late shift.

Literally drenched in sauce with my Chevron tie and my little nam name tag on my polyester shirt, and realizing that understanding business at that level is imperative to be able to lead because you cannot lead people because you feel where they've been, how they work, and what their lives are, not just what they do for you.

So that was a big leadership lesson for me. I translated that then into a

[00:16:30] Mike Richardson: Experience is no doubt that you look, look back on now as being so informative of your core values and your leadership principles and who you are and how you show up.

[00:16:42] Heidi Hutchison: a hundred percent informative and formative because it is exactly those lessons and that humbling, but imperative knowledge and wisdom that comes from. That type of experience that really did form the rest of my career. So when I shifted from operations into marketing, I took all of that business, all of that human knowledge, all of that understanding of human nature into marketing strategy.

So then quick run through, I spent the next 20 years as a a marketing executive. Um, abroad, in both abroad and here. So I was in the UK with another restaurant group, um, Nandos, which any of you out there that, uh, are either in the UK or in many other countries in the world, you will have my share, my love of Nandos.

Um, and then I came back here to do the same thing, which is where I met you, uh, and spent the majority of the rest of my career as a marketing executive, CMO, head of Marketing, you name it. Uh, driving marketing strategy while building a business.

[00:17:43] Mike Richardson: Yeah. So, so now let's sort of double click on this whole concept that I love of third 30 and, and from your own experiences of going through that yourself. And now working with other women going through that in the trenches as it were. What, what are you noticing are the biggest challenges that women are experiencing as they approach this kind of third 30 in their life and their career?

[00:18:16] Heidi Hutchison: So I break it out into two different areas. What are the external factors that are facing women in their fifties, and what are the internal factors that are facing them externally? We've already spoken of ageism and sexism mean. I don't think that's a shocker to anybody. Those are definitely something that.

Happen. And it's also, as you get more experienced and have more kudos behind you so to speak, it becomes a bit more subtle. So when I was in my transition period and I spoke to, as part of my grounding in third 30, so many different women that were in this pivotal period or in this transition, or frankly just considering a transition.

They were not only facing the external factors that we just discussed, but facing a lot of internal factors, and I would name them three ways. They are psychological, emotional, and financial psychologically, and again, I'm speaking in generalizations here, but the, the recurring theme psychologically are these old societal scripts that women tend to internalize.

The ones of. Don't push back or successful women don't, or, uh, I'm not, you know, the, I'm not worthy type of script that most people don't even realize are running in the back of their heads. And those are the kind of narratives and old tapes that run in people's head that keep them from moving forward, especially when they're faced with external barriers on the emotional side.

What I heard over and over and over again was fear. It was fear of change, fear of success, frankly, fear of failure, fear of putting oneself out there, fear, and this is what was one that really struck home with me. Fear of disassociating my identity from my title and my salary because for so long we have been.

Trained and rewarded for the company we work for the bragging rights, so to speak, of, okay, you know, I, how much money do you make? Or what's your title? Or, you know, how big is a team that you, that you, uh, develop or responsible for? And so what I find is that, and I'm sure this holds true with with men, you can tell me the same mike, is that women that were involuntarily or voluntarily step away from that role.

There is this identity crisis, frankly, this very real notion like, who the heck am I now? So as part of that response, what I found that women tended to isolate. They tended to not voice their concerns or the fact that, you know, I'm supposed to be this high powered female executive, I'm, well, forget about female.

I'm just a high powered executive. What do I do with these feelings of not knowing, of not being that identity that has driven me for so many years? And that's a really difficult and hard place to be. And I looked at that directly in the face myself. So what I found also is the other thing that keeps women stuck from moving in a new direction or just transitioning is financial fear. Let's face it, when you get up to a certain point as an executive, you are making some pretty good money. And to step away from that or to suddenly be without that. Fear kicks in really quickly.

Oh my gosh, how am I gonna pay the bills? How, what about my retirement? All of the questions, how am I gonna pay for my kids to go to college? All of those things. And so there is this enormous amount of external and internal pressures that are keeping women from taking that leap from. Being able to have the courage.

As I say, courage is one of my core values. Having the courage in the face of all that to step into change, to step into the possibility of pivoting, to owning where they are with all of their glory in such a way that they're empowered moving forward as opposed to disenfranchised.

[00:22:47] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. I'm loving this, loving this. Fantastic. It's, it's. I, you know, the, the episode before this, um, inside of this peering podcast, we've actually launched another lane of, of episodes, and we just recorded the first one with my co-host. Um. Va or he goes by the name Zed. And the, the, the, the, this stream of episodes is called Portfolio Conversations and it's all about the, the A to Z of, of success as a, as a, in a portfolio career, as a portfolio professional.

And, um, you know, I apologize that the co-hosts are two men. Um,

but we are very much articulating. at least the male equivalent of all of these challenges that you are articulating. Obviously, we're gonna have lots of guests who are women and, and, and you could equally sort of been in one of those episodes compared to this episode.

Um. And, uh, you know, I tell the story in there. I won't regurgitate the whole thing 'cause people can go and listen to that episode. But I tell the story in there that, you know, when I left the corporate world voluntarily, uh, uh, just before I met you in, in the, at the end of March, 2002. You know, on the Friday I was somebody, you know, I, I, I was a corporate guy.

I was a senior guy. I had a great track record, a great resume, a lot of responsibility. I was well paid. I traveled the world. I had great relationships with, with top tier,

blue chip, you know, all the stuff, all the trapping. So on the Friday I was somebody on the Monday, I was nobody.

[00:24:27] Heidi Hutchison: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:28] Mike Richardson: I was just another consultant in town and, um, I didn't tell this story in the, in the other episode the other day.

But, you know, I set out, um, you know, finding my path. I ran into Tech Vistage, um, became, you know, a Vistage chair. That's where I met you. As you, as you described, sort of got into that whole launch process, which is challenging as, as it always is, and probably 18 months, um, later, you know, 18 months after I took the leap.

We're kind of making some progress and we're kind of not. And we're kind of making money and we're kind of not,

and we're certainly burning a hole in our pocket.

And my wife says to me, you know, uh, it's a Sunday afternoon. I'm in the backyard. I'm just swinging on the swing seat. I'm minding my own business, and my wife comes and sits next to me. She sort of points at the concrete verge, you know, before you get to the lawn

and she says, you see that there? I said, yeah. She said, that's the end of the runway financially. She said, can we go back? I said, back. What? What do you mean? Back? Back to what she said. Back to a paycheck. She said, back to security. And I looked at her and I said, you think we had security? I said, you know, I, we were only, we were only ever one phone call away from, from being cast to the curb, you know, uh, hey Mike, uh, we, uh, we're moving everything to Mexico and, uh, we don't need you.

[00:26:28] Heidi Hutchison: Yep.

[00:26:28] Mike Richardson: Hey, Mike. Um, we've acquired another company with a similar solution set.

They've already got a guy like you and, uh, you're outta luck, uh, or Mike. Um, uh, our strategies changed. We're no longer committed to your division. Uh, we've just sold it and, uh, they don't need you.

Uh, thanks. Thanks for all your efforts, Mike. Uh, you know, good luck. And, I said, look to my wife. I said, look, even though you know, this is, this isn't a straight line journey, I think I can, you know, push on through.

I think I can get there. Indeed, I did. And I said, you know, we are now diversified more than ever before. And we will be much more secure because of that diversification than ever before. You know, trust me, I think I can do this. And indeed and indeed I did. Um, so it's a strange thing, isn't it? Because 'cause you are full of fear.

You are. It does take a lot of courage. And yet inside all of that, uh, when you can push on through and get there, it is a wonderful place to now have a degree of independence

and, and, you know, not least of all progressively to have a degree of financial independence. It doesn't mean you're sitting back and relaxing, you know, with a big bank account somewhere.

But, but to feel like I'm less dependent upon. One big paycheck, um, and one phone call can ruin my day. You, you, you are, you are touching upon similar themes. I think, uh, uh, Heidi?

[00:28:06] Heidi Hutchison: Oh, absolutely. And I mean, different scenarios, but exactly same results. Um, one of the things that I tell the women that I speak to that are currently in their position is. When you shift your understanding to thinking of your role that you're in right now as the financial runway to give you the buffer that in the in parallel you can build this portfolio career so that it's a somewhat, I mean, trust me, it's never seamless, but somewhat seamless transition.

Then do that

[00:28:39] Mike Richardson: Yeah,

One of the things I say to people is, look, it's not if you will have a portfolio career, it's only when,

because even if you retire from the corporate world, age 67, and you go through a step function retirement, about three months later, you are bored to tears. Because you, you know, you just, you're just wondering to yourself. You start asking questions, well, I wonder if I could volunteer. I wonder if I could coach and mentor. I wonder if I could teach. Um, I wonder if I could consult. And what I say to people is, whoa, those are really cool questions. It's just a real shame.

You waited until age 67 to start asking them. What if you'd asked them age 62 or 57 or 52? And you'd been spooling up, uh, these things alongside your day job and your day job would've been quite happy within reason. They'd have been quite happy for you to be out and about and spreading the word and spreading the BA brand and getting connected.

They'd have been quite happy with that, and then you could have had a much more. Smooth, seamless transition towards a portfolio career as and when it presented itself to you. So tell us more, Heidi, would you, so then as part of third 30, what sort of support ecosystem are you putting together to support women in their third 30?

[00:30:04] Heidi Hutchison: Well, uh, there's a multifold answer to that. One is. The ecosystem that I created for myself and what I realized when I was starting third 30 is community, community, community and surrounding oneself with like-minded, high performing executives that are in a safe environment. Environ very similar to peer advising, but that's essentially it is the same thing and making sure that it's a safe environment.

To explore vulnerabilities, to share fears and concerns, and also to celebrate each other, to recognize that we're all on this path together and that we all wanna rise each other up. Because one of the things that third 30 in a pillar of third 30 is community. And through, whether it be through coaching or through masterclasses and other group environments that is available in third 30, it's bringing women together virtually or in person and giving them an opportunity to see a path that may be available to them.

Well, frankly, is available to them if they are ready to look internally. Such that they can make that mind shift to take that leap to make that pivot into what their transition would be. And I want to wholeheartedly piggyback on what you said earlier about start earlier than later, because these shifts in one's core values.

And that's another thing to get back to your other question about what I learned about women now it's in their, starts in their forties, but really in their fifties, is that. Our core values change. Before it was all about climbing up the corporate ladder, making the money, and getting the title, but now that's not as important anymore.

We've checked that box. Now, what women are looking for is to feel valued, to feel that they are contributing and that they're leaving an impact. Those three things are the drivers. Of what your portfolio career will be, and they are the fundamental foundation of how you determine which direction and under what platform and what purpose you want your portfolio career to follow.

[00:32:33] Mike Richardson: Yeah. It's so interesting over the, you know, this, but over the years I've, you know, I've, I've coached many, many PE-people, you know, who've been in corporate careers in one way, shape, or form. And I've asked them the question well, have, have you ever considered. Pivoting to a portfolio career. And of course they say, what's that?

[00:32:55] Heidi Hutchison: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:55] Mike Richardson: And I still get people asking me, what's that? It happened the other day. What, what's this word? Portfolio. And, um, you know, as, as your listeners and my listeners know, of course, it means well going independent, um, becoming, you know, self-employed. Being a solopreneur, uh, becoming a consultant, coach, trainer, speaker, writer, facilitator, putting together, being on boards, you know, maybe, you know, being affiliated with different organizations, rather, like I was with Vistage and now with Ref.

Right. Um, it's part of my portfolio. I'm piecing together this portfolio business model, which is a combination of all of those things that come together around a common core, a common passion, and, and that is, is coming across so loud and clear with your own portfolio business model that your passion is all about women in their third 30 and how they can have.

A, a crescendo of their career, not an epilogue to their career.

[00:34:09] Heidi Hutchison: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And by taking that leap, and to your point, identifying that passion, that's where the biggest. Support network is needed is because what I found with not only my own clients, but with talking in these communities is that there's this niggling idea maybe in the back of your mind of what you're calling, 'cause calling sounds so big and grandiose, but it really, when you get to the essence of what are your core values.

What do you really care about? What, what, what moves you? What lights you up in the morning? And if you identify that and align that with a career path, ergo get through to elegant simplicity. Your portfolio career unfolds itself. It's that common truth, that common theme, the through line, so to speak, that you need to identify in order.

To create that path of a portfolio career, and that's what I work with

[00:35:10] Mike Richardson: I.

[00:35:10] Heidi Hutchison: on.

[00:35:11] Mike Richardson: I love the link back to the whole idea of elegant simplicity. Everybody on the other side of complexity. Yes. You know, when, when you ask someone, you know, if they're considering, you know, or, or, or launching or executing a portfolio career, and you ask them, well, what's your, what's your passion?

What's your purpose? What's, what's that set of core values, those set of core drivers that, that you, you're on the cent of, you have an instinct about.

[00:35:39] Heidi Hutchison: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:39] Mike Richardson: Um, you know, that's not a five minute exercise, everybody. That's not, oh, well it, I think it's this. That's quite likely to be stupid simple, not elegantly simple.

It's gotta be simple. But it's that willingness, isn't it, to get messy and just go through the complexity and sort of, I love that idea, Heidi, that we live life forwards, but we understand it backwards to look back on your whole career and as you just said, ask. Yourself. What has been the long thread of my life and my career that has brought me here?

Feeling ready, willing, and able to do this thing? And I think I'll ask you that question, Heidi. What's the long thread of your career that you now more clearly and elegantly simply understand that. Causes you to feel ready, willing, and able to do something incredibly powerful here around third 30. What, what, what is that long thread?

What would you say?

[00:36:48] Heidi Hutchison: Well, I think it started just, I mean, going back to an example of what leadership is all about. One thing that I have always spent my career on is building and developing potential in people. And I know that in some cases that's a very trite phrase, but for me it was very real. And interestingly enough, in some of my more recent jobs, um, I was detracted on for not firing enough people.

That is a cultural disconnect. I'm not kidding. Um, that is a cultural disconnect that really. Forced me to ground myself in Who? Who do you wanna be? How do you wanna show up? And I find that one of the critical components that's missing for a lot of, and I'll say people 'cause I hold that this is true for men as well as women, is they don't take the time to do the heavy lifting, to do the deep work to determine.

What are your core values? What is really important to you? What is your through line? For me, I mean, this goes back to my days at Smith College. I mean, I have always been a women's empowerment advocate. I just never named it that. I didn't know that that's what my through line was until I was literally forced into a situation to first advocate for myself and then realize that, whoa, wait a second, Heidi.

You've got something here, and I, I mean, literally I get the chills when I talk about this. You are onto something that you are passionate about. You have a purpose, and you know you can get to profit with it because clearly that's important too. And when I realized that that was what I needed, that was the nugget, the deep work that we needed to do in order to get to the action plan, to the business plan, that led me to a portfolio career.

[00:38:43] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. Beautiful. And so when you let yourself dream a little bit, Heidi, and you imagine yourself a few years, maybe five years, maybe 10 years down the road here. What do you dream? What do you dream of, of building here? What do you dream of providing, uh, as an ecosystem of support? Just, just paint that picture for us of what you are, what you're all about in creating here in, in helping women in their third 30.

What, what, what's it gonna look like, uh, when your dream comes true?

[00:39:13] Heidi Hutchison: Well, my BHAG, as they say, is I want third 30 to be a multimillion dollar business. And a global movement whereby hundreds of thousands of women are activating their third 30 with purpose, passion, and profit, and they in turn are serving as the role model for the next generation of women coming through.

'cause I got a 17-year-old daughter and I don't want her going through what I did.

[00:39:44] Mike Richardson: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And, um, it's, it's, it's so funny. I, I was at an event Thursday, Friday last week. I spoke, uh, on the Friday afternoon. Around the concept of collective intelligence, which is kind of peer power on steroids, right? Um, it was a phenomenal event, uh, not too far away from both of us in Coronado, in in San Diego. Uh, probably two thirds, maybe, maybe even 75%. Three quarters of the people in the room were women. Uh, it was probably, probably a hundred, 150 people in the room. The, the lady that brought it all together is just a phenomenal dynamic woman, and she has launched. Something. She's a, she's a successful prior CEO that sold her business and she's launched something that she calls billion dollar impact, billion dollar impact.

And she invites the audience members to conceive their own billion dollar impact projects. And, uh, it just popped for me, Heidi,

that I think that you are gonna have a billion dollar impact here because you are creating. You are creating, uh, an ecosystem of support. As a, as a woman. In your third 30, you are creating an ecosystem of support for hundreds of thousands of other women in their third 30.

All of whom can be building businesses of hundreds of thousands, half a million, million dollar impact. And that math adds up quickly to a billion dollar impact. And, uh, I think, uh, not that any of us are doing this for the money, uh, obviously the money. Piece needs to work, otherwise it's the fastest thing that will stop us doing it.

Uh, but, but most of all, I'm sure we're doing it for the footprints that we leave in other people's lives and, and the

impact that we can have. And so I think, um, the legacy indeed, I think, uh. The, the women in their third 30 who, who have not yet realized how blessed they are for the work that you are doing, uh, they're gonna discover that, uh, before too long.

What else? Uh, what else do you wanna share with our listeners, uh, Heidi, about what you're up to and where you're headed?

[00:42:19] Heidi Hutchison: Well, I just shared with you my, my VAG. So where I'm heading now is as part of the building process, is I have, uh, master classes that I. But bring together six to 10 different women. I'm starting one in Q1. It'll probably, uh, launch in, in March, the beginning of March. So that's where I bring together women.

So tapping into community, but also literally going through a framework, a curriculum that takes one through where they are in the moment. Whether it be stuck or just knowing there's something else out there and walking them through both the internal landscape as I call, which is a mindset work, and then the external roadmap.

Because one of the things I also found in my research is that there's a lot of talk about mindset shift. There's a lot of talk about finding your why. But how to translate that into an action plan that'll bring you to activation is soly missing. So that's one thing that, uh, my masterclasses do. And then one-on-one coaching, it's like if you, if you wanna get access to accelerate that process, I'm here for it.

And then of course, um, speaking, I do have, um, some engagements coming up where I get to share the message. Um, and. Obviously there's my TED Talk, which I just did at the, uh, last year, which is basically another origin story for third 30. Um, so there's a lot going on and I'm here for it.

[00:43:42] Mike Richardson: Yeah. And where can everybody find you? Uh, Heidi, what's your, uh, website?

[00:43:47] Heidi Hutchison: Well, my website is third thirty.com and that's T-H-I-R-D three zero. Dot com. You can email me directly at heidi HEID i@thirdthirty.com or just go ahead and you can easily find me on LinkedIn. Uh, but it's probably easiest to contact me directly. Um, and let's talk, let's see how I can support you.

[00:44:11] Mike Richardson: Anything else that you wanted to say to our listeners before we start landing the plane here, Heidi?

[00:44:16] Heidi Hutchison: Just that. There is so much opportunity out there is that midlife truly is an expansion, not a decline. And I am just so committed and passionate about bringing every woman along to recognize that their best years are ahead of them, not behind.

[00:44:36] Mike Richardson: Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. So you're getting a sense, everybody of why I was so excited to have Heidi here today. Everything we said, you know, uh, uh, she's so schooled in the power of peers, uh, with her history, as you've heard. Um, she has had the courage to, uh, pivot to a portfolio career herself, and now she's launching, you know, a whole peer powered ecosystem of support, uh, to help other women in their third 30 find the courage to pivot to a.

Portfolio career as well. Because as I would say, it's not if, it's only when, uh, everybody is gonna be doing that in the future. And, uh, or at least that's the only safe assumption. So how do we start getting spooled up sooner, not later, so that we're, we're ready, uh, for when, you know it happens, uh, unexpectedly or expectedly.

Uh, it doesn't matter. So there we have it everybody. Another episode of the Peering podcast. If you wanna see the future, the best way is to peer into it. Together. We've been blessed to have you here, Heidi Hutchinson today. Thank you so

[00:45:44] Heidi Hutchison: Thank you so much for.

[00:45:46] Mike Richardson: We'll put all your links and things in the show notes and, uh.

Go look up Heidi, everybody. She's doing great work and uh, we'll have her back and, uh, talk more about portfolio careers in that other lane of episodes here in the Peering podcast. Thanks so much, Heidi. Thanks everybody for being here. We'll catch you next time. Take care.