Building Community for Fresh Starts with Genevieve Dreizen

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

Stephen Sakach (0:17)

Well, welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here once again with my co-host, Tullio Siragusa and we've got a special guest who we'll introduce in a moment. There are moments in life that people are expected to celebrate publicly, right? Weddings, babies, graduations, new homes, new jobs. But there are also moments when people are starting over quietly, divorce, grief, breakups, moving, career change, a major life transition that requires not only emotional strength, but practical rebuilding. Often people want to help others during this, but they just don't know how. Today we are exploring Fresh Starts.

Tullio, introduce our guest today.

Tullio Siragusa (1:02)

My pleasure. Our guest today is Genevieve, known as Jenny Dreizen. She's the co-founder and COO of Fresh Start Registry. Jenny is an operations specialist, marketing professional, and modern-day etiquette expert, alongside her sister, Olivia Dreizen Howell.

She co-founded Fresh Starts Registry after both experienced major relationship transitions and recognized that people needed better tools, language, and community support when starting over. Fresh Starts Registry is a first-of-its-kind platform offering free registry tools, curated product bundles, a vetted expert guide, educational resources, podcasts, and community support for people navigating divorce and other major life changes. Jenny, welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast.

Genevieve Dreizen (1:53)

Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here. We have just a little pre-show chat and I'm so excited to get into it with you guys, because I can tell smart and so intuitive and it's going to be great.

Stephen Sakach (2:07)

Sometimes I'm so bummed we're not recording the pre and post shows.

Tullio Siragusa (2:09)

I know. The best conversations happen.

Stephen Sakach (2:12)

I know.

So Jenny, Fresh Starts Registry is built around this powerful idea that people deserve support not only when life begins in expected ways, we all celebrate like we mentioned, but also when life begins again. Yes. What do you think our culture misunderstands about starting over?

Genevieve Dreizen (2:33)

Well, I tell you this, I've become like the on threads. I'm like the police of when somebody calls it a failed marriage. I'm like, oh, we don't do that. We don't call it a failed marriage.

I think that people, it's such a built in Judeo-Christian belief that we are supposed to be married and we are supposed to do the right thing and follow the path. If we step outside of that, that's seen as an aberration.

But the reality is that there is no reward at the end of a long unhappy marriage. There's no reward to staying married if you are not happy. And the other reality is that happy marriages don't end in divorce. And so we want people to just explore the ceiling of their joy and be able to have a joyous, peaceful life. And I think that that's sort of what people miss is that happy marriages don't end in divorce. And if there is a reason for a marriage to end and it ends in divorce, then that's okay. And there's no shame in that. We're not talking about, my sister and I are big on, you can't, this is not something to be won. This is not about vengeance. This is about you. This is about you moving forward and going to find your most happy place because you deserve that, your children, if you have them deserve that. And both parties do, like, you know, I ended my engagement six years ago, and I just think at the time, like, that wasn't fun for him either, being in that relationship, nobody was having a good time. Like, it is important for us to be able as a society to go, this is okay, and it doesn't mean you failed, it doesn't mean you've done anything wrong, you've learned, and you're just transitioning into another phase of relationship with that person, especially when you have kids with them, you're not getting away.

Tullio Siragusa (4:20)

I think a lot of the challenge is often around people find themselves needing to explain why they're there, and that's just so much pressure, and it's not just marriages, sometimes it's major relationships, friendships that feel very much so like you just went through a divorce. Now, Fresh Starts Registry began after you and your sister both experienced major relationship transitions and you saw a gap in support.

What did that personal experience teach you about what people actually really need in those moments, which I'm assuming is not having to explain yourself over and over again.