Standing at the Crossroads with Special Guest Magdalen Radovich

Magdalen Radovich (0:00)

The word retire for me brought up a real feeling of loss, irrelevance, loss of meaning, loss of purpose. I had people saying to me as I was going through the process, well, how are you going to kill time? If we look at life as something that needs to be endured, and time is something that has to be filled up so that we can get through it, for me, there's no purpose in continuing.

So when people have said to me, you're retired, I don't know. I quit my job and I took my pension.

Anna Gibbs (0:34)

Welcome to Monday Morning Mojo, the podcast that helps you start your week with clarity, confidence, and a bold shot of inspiration. I'm your host, Anna Gibbs, business leader, coach, and fellow growth seeker, here to challenge your thinking, fuel your purpose, and share real tools to help you design a life and business you love. Let's kick off your week with purpose because your next level starts now.

Before we get into today's conversation, I want to share something I've personally been using and truly believe in. It's Thrive Cosmetics. I love beauty and makeup, but what really drew me to Thrive is that it's bigger than beauty. That's actually their mission. For every product sold, Thrive donates to help women and communities thrive, whether it's women fighting cancer, survivors of domestic violence, veterans, youth, or those facing homelessness. With every purchase, you're not just getting a great product, you're joining a movement that gives back, uplifts, and empowers others. I genuinely support them because their purpose aligns with what I care about, strength, confidence, and community impact. If you're curious about Thrive Cosmetics, the products I mentioned and their mission, you can check out the link in our show notes, or visit my resources page, and you'll get a discount. Everybody, welcome back to Monday Morning Mojo with me, Anna Gibbs. I'm excited because I have my dear friend with me today. Her name is Magdalen Radovich, and Magdalen is an amazing individual. She is a transitions coach, a poet, and a writer.

She also spent 27 years working as an educator and a leader in the school system, both in the Hudson Valley area of New York and New York City. She's now transitioned into focusing her work on coaching, writing, and building this amazing creative community for women. Through her brand Creative Transitions, she is helping women navigate life crossroads using reflection, writing, and conversations as tools for insight and change. She's also the creator of Creative Pencraft, a written and spoken word community that hosts poetry readings and gatherings in Hudson Valley and she is going to share some things about her and her story.

I know that you're going to find this to be an incredible conversation because when Magdalen and I get together, in her kitchen or mine, the conversations are always amazing. Aren't they, my friends?

Magdalen Radovich (3:07)

Absolutely.

Anna Gibbs (3:09)

Welcome to the show, Magdalen. We've talked about you doing this for a while. I'm really glad you're here.

Magdalen Radovich (3:15)

I appreciate that.

Anna Gibbs (3:16)

I'm happy to be here too.

That's awesome. So, let's just dive right in, you know. One of the things that we've talked about a lot is you feeling like you have these two different sides to yourself. And I think a lot of women could relate to that. I know I did when you and I first talked about it. And those two sides being, you know, the career that you've built for nearly 30 years in academia as a leader, and then there's this creative, spiritual side to you. So, I want you to talk a little bit about that. Maybe, you know, share with us when you first realized that you were working in those two spaces, and how that integrated before or not.

Magdalen Radovich (3:58)

Well, I think I've always been aware of that. I mean, every situation that you're in, there's a set of rules. But the rules change depending on what it is.

So, the me that was a teacher, and then later an administrator and a school leader in New York City, had one set of rules I had to follow. And those rules frequently create a conflict for me between what I could publicly put out in terms of my poetry, my art, my photography. For a while, I was doing tarot readings, another kind of archetype work of people. And those were things that clashed with, the persona, the public persona of being, you know, an official for New York City.

Anna Gibbs (4:47)

Yeah.

Magdalen Radovich (4:48)

So there have been times where I've had to shut down different things like websites.