Leslie Capps: Hey, hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Powerful on Purpose, where we talk to amazing women who are really using their stories to impact the world and move their mission forward. I am your host, Leslie Capps the creator of Author in 30. And you know, I get pretty excited every time, but today is really a super juicy and exciting conversation that I think you're gonna just be delighted by because when I met Dr. Ann Marie, I was like, we need to have you on the podcast, right? So let me tell you a little bit about her. She is an executive coach, a leadership strategist, and the author of We'll Be Right Back, which is launching here in a few days. So it is a book for women finding their way back to meaningful work after a career pause. Through her doctoral research and decades of leadership experience, Ann Marie explores what women really experience when they step away from paid work, the identity shift, grief, confidence loss, and eventual rediscovery of purpose. And she helps women see their pause not as a professional setback, but as part of a larger comeback story rooted in clarity, resilience, and renewed ambition. You know you want to get you some of that. So welcome, Dr. Ann Marie. Super excited to have you here.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I'm so glad to be here. Thank you, Leslie.
Leslie Capps: Yes. everyone knows that I start with tell us the story of what made this so important in your own life that you said, wait a minute, one, I'm gonna get a PhD, because that's a thing in itself, right? And then two, I'm gonna take this out to a larger audience of women and start talking about this.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. And that actually takes us back a few years, Leslie. when I started
Leslie Capps: Ha ha.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: my career, which was quite a long time ago now. but I was fortunate to be an executive training program at a Fortune 500 company, and that gave me a lot of opportunities and the opportunity to work hard and perform and grow up through the organization, which was what I did for six years, and then I was expected. Our first daughter. And in it was 1995. And back then, as some of your listeners probably know, it was not common for really it was kind of unheard of for women to have or men any sort of flexible arrangement. so I plan to stay home full time with my daughter because at the time the choice was stay home full time or work full time. And when I told my boss that, she said to me, Well, what would it take to have you stay? And I said, Well, if I could work part-time and I could work from home, I would, I would stay. And she said, Let's do it. And I was so pleasantly surprised. But I also realized, you know, so many times we don't realize significant moments until we're looking back. But in that moment, I knew it was a significant moment. I knew I was being given a a privilege that others had not yet had that opportunity to do. And then I I also felt like as a pioneer, I felt responsible for doing it well so that other people in the future had the same opportunity. so so I proceeded like that for 12 years. It was a real win-win with with the organization getting me working full-time jobs at part part-time and me being able to have the time I wanted with my children, which was the most important thing to me. And then also because my career was important too, being able to continue to grow through the organization and be promoted, et cetera, and have interesting opportunities. but as sometimes happens with double working Families, my husband and I, after about 12 years of the part-time arrangement, it had just gotten to the point with his travel schedule and my travel schedule and needing to hire a new nanny. And finally I said, you know what? I'm gonna stay home full time. And it was a very difficult decision because I thought, when am I ever gonna get it? How am I ever gonna get another opportunity like the one that I have now? But stay home I did. And I was, I loved being at home full-time during that that period, and then came back as an entrepreneur. and later that in in my 50s, went back and got my PhD. And because this had always been of interest to me, I made my dissertation topic around this, you know, this path of women working, pausing, and then returning to the workplace.
Leslie Capps: Right. I love that story. And I think you and I talked about too that Being professional, non-professional, whatever that means,
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm-hmm. Exactly.
Leslie Capps: and then wanting to try and go into professional again. And sometimes those skills actually that we learned in non-professional are just as important, but how do we Carry those along with us. How do we ourselves see value in?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. And I think you hit it on the head there. So many times we don't see value in in ourselves, even when we're at the top of our game, right? imposter syndrome, et cetera. But certainly when when people are on pause or are away from a paid work environment, they begin to view themselves as as you know, not doing work that's valuable because they're not getting paid for it. So I often say to people, you know, I I'll I'll hear women say, I'm just a stay at home mom, or others say, I'm just a caregiver for my, you know, for my elderly dad. No, no, you're not. You're not just anything, of course, but but that's kind of how we've been conditioned, and that's sort of what we believe after we're separated from the workplace for some time. And and what I say and what the book talks about, which I think is very important, is hey, let's unpack that because you've actually done quite a lot during your pause that would be very valuable to an employer to walk back into the workplace. First of all, you have your whole body of work from before you left the workplace. And let's remember that, first of all, and and recognize that. But then let's let's just talk about an average day. Let's talk about you know, a just stay at home mom, right? that person is has probably done this for years, right? Average day, time management, delegation, negotiation, mediation. And if they're doing work outside the home, which many many people do, where you know, help in their community, help at a school, etc., they are probably delegating tasks To other committee members. They may be managing people. They may be training people. There's so many pieces to that. And it's unpaid, yes, but it's it still matters. It's consequential. And it's something that you can, you can it not only build your confidence, but it's something that you can talk with employers about.
Leslie Capps: Right, right. And I think what I'm hearing you say is really reframing that to look
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: at the skills that we're pulling out of that, right? and I loved your
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Exactly.
Leslie Capps: thing about we didn't forget what we learned, right? It's not like a skin that we shed and all that knowledge went away. But somehow I
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: think it can feel like that not only to ourselves and maybe we project that on employers, but I think we feel
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Leslie Capps: that from employers, right? Like I have to justify that I took a pause. And then say, but I did all this other stuff.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I think that's true, but I also think it's the way that w you use the word frame, you know, it's how we frame things. You know, I I'm one of the women that I interviewed talked about how she had been s like apologizing for her gap in interviews and then and saying, you know, well, I was I wa you know, here's what I used to do, but you know, then I was off for ten years. And then when she started to reframe it as You know, I took time to care for my family and to contribute to my community. And during that time, I developed some great skills that I think would be applicable in the next chapter of my work life. That's a much different conversation, right? Much
Leslie Capps: Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: different position to to put forward to an employer.
Leslie Capps: Absolutely. Yeah, that's brilliant. Well, tell us a little bit about, because you wrote the book in a little bit different way, right? It wasn't just you and you kind of spoke to that. So give us a little bit of taste of what we might experience in the book.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Absolutely. So, you know, I find that a lot of my own learning, I love to hear stories about other people and and the walk that they've had in their life. And really the book came from my dissertation and anyone is welcome to look up my dissertation and read it if they care to. however, dissertations are very dry and boring, but it was the process of gathering the data for my dissertation that really led to the book. And what I mean by that, Leslie, is that, you know, I I outside of the data, I started noticing with over and over again with participants that, you know, I would say, well, tell me about your career before you paused, or tell me about your job before you paused. And I would get these answers of, gosh, nobody's asked me that for years. Or, you know, I remember a couple of People saying, well, I you know, I I knew you were gonna ask me that. And I started thinking about it, and I got so much joy and so much energy thinking back about what I used to do and how much fun it was and the accomplishments I had and the challenges, et cetera, et cetera. So that made me think, you know, women need the opportunity to tell their stories. And then it was the focus group part of it where women were talking about how. the great gifts that came out of their paws, but also the challenges. And we don't always talk about the challenges, even with our friends, right? Our our personal challenges. And the how great it made women in my focus groups feel to say, Me too. Me too. Yes. Yes. You know, I and and people didn't feel alone. And that's really important. So I structured the the book to have content to help you remember who you were in the first part of your of your journey and then to talk about the time of pause, good and bad. and by bad, I shouldn't use the bad word bad, but challenging. Challenging, right? And then the the last part of the book, pulling together those skill sets that we were just talking about, you know, and we're building on that throughout the book, but pulling that together to better articulate it in for an employer. And then Tons of resources for people. But getting back to the stories, the way that each chapter is structured is whatever the topic may be. So let's say it's identity loss. We're gonna talk about that topic. Then there's a little tiny bit of research. Don't be scared. I promise it's not much. It's just enough to let you know it's a real thing. And then there are stories from the women that I've interviewed. been in focus groups with and people in my life that we we that I put into this book to let women know that yes, the other people are experiencing this and here's their story. And then finally reflection questions. And the reflection questions are not homework, but I really feel like it's something that helps helps people who are reading the book and going through these chapters Bring to life their story and their talents and who they are and what they've experienced, good and negative.
Leslie Capps: Right? And it's it's a beautiful line you've drawn, right? Between let's bring who we were to now, incorporate that
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm.
Leslie Capps: so we can move forward to who we're becoming.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right, exactly. And Leslie, you know, one thing, yes, the book does have some really great practical tools like a 90 day plan, a lot of resources on how to connect with, no, how to network, how to connect with employers, how to build your resume, lots of of resources like that and references to them. But I I think that that it's important to stay to say that the book is also very valuable. to reconnect with yourself and you might decide, you know what, I don't want to go back to work. That's not my path. My path is something else. My ch my next chapter is something different. So I think it's valuable for everyone.
Leslie Capps: yeah, without a doubt. Especially as women, right? Because I think
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: we have a lot of hmm not only in our head, but societal things around pausing, working,
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Exactly.
Leslie Capps: choosing not to pause, whatever the things are. Everybody has an
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: opinion.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. Exactly. And and you know, one just a great example of something we don't talk about as often as perhaps we should. you know, grief. particularly at mid-career, a lot of us are experiencing grief in some way. And normally we think of that as, someone passed away, and gosh, god forbid it's something like that. But it's grief, it's grief that Maybe when you stepped away, you were mommy when you first paused. And now you're an empty nestor, or now you have teenagers. You know, so there's that grief of your role changing. There's the grief of your role as a daughter, maybe now becoming more of being the parent to your parent. You know, so so I love that aspect of the book because I feel like I covered things that people can relate to and then actually kind of work through, if you will. For themselves.
Leslie Capps: For sure. And I can also see there's a grief probably of where we thought we'd be, where
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm-hmm.
Leslie Capps: we wanted to be. Maybe we're somewhere else that we didn't envision. And still maybe there's a grief in that, right? So it's
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: very multi-layered, exactly. Well, is there one
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: woman that when you think about the book, you recall that particular woman's story?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I love I love this story. this is somebody who was in a very successful role, you know, a hard worker. And and I have to tell you, Leslie, most women that I talk to are hard workers and superstars. They have to get reminded of it. I do too, but but most most women are are fall in that category. But she was a rising star in her organization, loved, loved, loved. her job, her colleagues, everything about it. And when she was, you know, had been in the position for a while before she was expecting her first child, but grew up in a family where her mother stayed home full time. And this was not, you know, we I have a lot of stories in the books, a book about different reasons women leave the workplace. You know, and hers was a full on, this is what I always knew I wanted to do. I wanted to be a full time mom. And so she made she made that that election. That didn't mean that she was not losing her identity, that she didn't still email colleagues and kind of try to stay in the loop, have one foot in both places, even though she was staying home full time. all of that was still present until, of course, you know, over a period of time it kind of fades away. And she was very focused, on her family, but also on her community. And so as her family grew, she was involved in organizations that they were involved in, whether it was sports or church or school or whatever the case may be. And one of those organizations saw the superstar that she was and approached her and said, Hey, would you come on board? And it was like kind of a minor, like not a minor role, but a part time role that wasn't like, you know, an executive director of something, right? But so she thought, okay, I can't I'm gonna, you know, kind of dip my toe back in in this way. But of course, she's a superstar. She's great at what she does. She comes into this organization and cracker jacks it, you know, and and makes it so much better and and eventually she's running the place now, right?
Leslie Capps: All right.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: So so, you know, those are the kind of of stories that you hear. And and Others with similar stories where like they weren't necessarily looking for a job, I've heard a people say, Well, you know, a job just fell on my lap. No, no, it didn't. The job did not fall in your lap. I can tell you what happened. What happened was you just described to me the superstar that you were before and during your pause, and someone really smart recognized the work that you were doing and snatched you up. That's what happened.
Leslie Capps: Yeah, exactly. So there's a inspirational component too, right, to this book because we all love
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes,
Leslie Capps: to read like the men that are listening, I know you agree with me, stories about powerful people, especially women, stepping
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. Right.
Leslie Capps: into her going, Well yeah, I could come probably fix a few things and they end up running the place. Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. Right, exactly. Exactly. It's terrific.
Leslie Capps: Right? So Tell us where we can find your book because it's coming out in a few days.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes, it's coming out September 16th And you can get to it from my website, annmariepeters.com. there's a book tab on my website, so you can get to it that way. You can also go directly to Amazon. either way you're gonna get to Amazon and the the link there. If you if it's you know, if you're listening to this podcast and it's more than a couple weeks after September 16th You can you might be better off going to my website only because it will give you lots of platforms that you can choose for from after the book's been out a couple weeks. There's it will be very widely available and then you can choose your favorites.
Leslie Capps: There you go. Yeah. Multiple choice. And then I know you had a free gift for the audience. You wanna talk a little bit about that?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. The there's a companion workbook and within the book there's a QR code that you can click on or click on, you can use your camera and and access. And and it's it's really designed so that you don't have to keep a notebook or you don't have to have, you know, your scrap from your kitchen counter wherever you're grabbing a pen and a paper, to help keep all of that in one place.
Leslie Capps: And my last question for you, because you've given us so much food for thought, but is there one thing that as you went through this process that really surprised you about the
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm.
Leslie Capps: book, about women, about anything like in the whole process that you thought back and you thought, wow, I didn't see that coming.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. I I thought that because the research will tell us and it's accurate research that it's very challenging for women to get back into the workplace for a number of reasons. I thought I would hear about challenges for with resumes, building a resume and the and the gap, challenges in interviews and The majority of the women that I talked to actually were pursued by by someone in their own community when they went back into the workplace. And I found that to be very, very surprising. I
Leslie Capps: Great. Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: don't know why, because that's how I started my business as an entrepreneur when I returned to the workplace, you know, with with two other women, someone approached me and and we did that together. So but nonetheless, that was a surprise for me.
Leslie Capps: Interesting. So maybe I mean we couldn't make broad generalizations but maybe sometimes
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: the places that we're looking are further out than really where the opportunities are. And maybe that's true
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: of not just working, but so many other things.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes, I think that's very true. It's great statement.
Leslie Capps: Yeah. Well, off the cuff, right? And it was just reflecting your brilliance. So is there anything else that you'd like to share, Ann Marie, as we're wrapping up here?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I think the most important part of the book is that I want women to feel seen. I want women to feel like they're not alone on their journey. And that's why I wrote the book. I'm I I want them to have someone along with them as they go to their next chapter and hopefully to feel excited that the next chapter, whatever they choose. may be their best yet.
Leslie Capps: Ooh, I like that. That's juicy. And I would add, because I hear that throughout when you're talking, is whatever you choose is right for you and
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: everybody else can bugger off.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. And very importantly, your first landing place doesn't have to be the end of it, right? Like you might land somewhere initially, and like the the woman, the example I gave, you know, she went over to kind of do a little part-time gig, and you know, next thing she knows, not next thing she knows, but it, you know, over a short amount of time she's she's running in the place. So you that's the other piece of it. This this first decision. Is not your last decision or your last opportunity either.
Leslie Capps: Hmm, all right. Great words, prophetic words to land on. So thank you so much, Ann Marie Super looking forward to your book launch and all the exciting things that it's gonna bring for you and other women.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Thank you very much, Leslie. I really appreciate your having me on the show. And yeah, my website's also a great place for people to look for when I'm speaking and and podcasts, et cetera. So yours will be on there shortly. Thank you. Thanks again. It was really a pleasure.
Leslie Capps: Yay, woo-hoo! yes, it was a delight to have you. And everybody else, be sure and subscribe because you don't want to miss these fun, entertaining, always insightful, I should say, conversations with women who are really using their stories to change the world for better. Catch you on the other side.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I'm so glad to be here. Thank you, Leslie.
Leslie Capps: Yes. everyone knows that I start with tell us the story of what made this so important in your own life that you said, wait a minute, one, I'm gonna get a PhD, because that's a thing in itself, right? And then two, I'm gonna take this out to a larger audience of women and start talking about this.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. And that actually takes us back a few years, Leslie. when I started
Leslie Capps: Ha ha.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: my career, which was quite a long time ago now. but I was fortunate to be an executive training program at a Fortune 500 company, and that gave me a lot of opportunities and the opportunity to work hard and perform and grow up through the organization, which was what I did for six years, and then I was expected. Our first daughter. And in it was 1995. And back then, as some of your listeners probably know, it was not common for really it was kind of unheard of for women to have or men any sort of flexible arrangement. so I plan to stay home full time with my daughter because at the time the choice was stay home full time or work full time. And when I told my boss that, she said to me, Well, what would it take to have you stay? And I said, Well, if I could work part-time and I could work from home, I would, I would stay. And she said, Let's do it. And I was so pleasantly surprised. But I also realized, you know, so many times we don't realize significant moments until we're looking back. But in that moment, I knew it was a significant moment. I knew I was being given a a privilege that others had not yet had that opportunity to do. And then I I also felt like as a pioneer, I felt responsible for doing it well so that other people in the future had the same opportunity. so so I proceeded like that for 12 years. It was a real win-win with with the organization getting me working full-time jobs at part part-time and me being able to have the time I wanted with my children, which was the most important thing to me. And then also because my career was important too, being able to continue to grow through the organization and be promoted, et cetera, and have interesting opportunities. but as sometimes happens with double working Families, my husband and I, after about 12 years of the part-time arrangement, it had just gotten to the point with his travel schedule and my travel schedule and needing to hire a new nanny. And finally I said, you know what? I'm gonna stay home full time. And it was a very difficult decision because I thought, when am I ever gonna get it? How am I ever gonna get another opportunity like the one that I have now? But stay home I did. And I was, I loved being at home full-time during that that period, and then came back as an entrepreneur. and later that in in my 50s, went back and got my PhD. And because this had always been of interest to me, I made my dissertation topic around this, you know, this path of women working, pausing, and then returning to the workplace.
Leslie Capps: Right. I love that story. And I think you and I talked about too that Being professional, non-professional, whatever that means,
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm-hmm. Exactly.
Leslie Capps: and then wanting to try and go into professional again. And sometimes those skills actually that we learned in non-professional are just as important, but how do we Carry those along with us. How do we ourselves see value in?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. And I think you hit it on the head there. So many times we don't see value in in ourselves, even when we're at the top of our game, right? imposter syndrome, et cetera. But certainly when when people are on pause or are away from a paid work environment, they begin to view themselves as as you know, not doing work that's valuable because they're not getting paid for it. So I often say to people, you know, I I'll I'll hear women say, I'm just a stay at home mom, or others say, I'm just a caregiver for my, you know, for my elderly dad. No, no, you're not. You're not just anything, of course, but but that's kind of how we've been conditioned, and that's sort of what we believe after we're separated from the workplace for some time. And and what I say and what the book talks about, which I think is very important, is hey, let's unpack that because you've actually done quite a lot during your pause that would be very valuable to an employer to walk back into the workplace. First of all, you have your whole body of work from before you left the workplace. And let's remember that, first of all, and and recognize that. But then let's let's just talk about an average day. Let's talk about you know, a just stay at home mom, right? that person is has probably done this for years, right? Average day, time management, delegation, negotiation, mediation. And if they're doing work outside the home, which many many people do, where you know, help in their community, help at a school, etc., they are probably delegating tasks To other committee members. They may be managing people. They may be training people. There's so many pieces to that. And it's unpaid, yes, but it's it still matters. It's consequential. And it's something that you can, you can it not only build your confidence, but it's something that you can talk with employers about.
Leslie Capps: Right, right. And I think what I'm hearing you say is really reframing that to look
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: at the skills that we're pulling out of that, right? and I loved your
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Exactly.
Leslie Capps: thing about we didn't forget what we learned, right? It's not like a skin that we shed and all that knowledge went away. But somehow I
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: think it can feel like that not only to ourselves and maybe we project that on employers, but I think we feel
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Leslie Capps: that from employers, right? Like I have to justify that I took a pause. And then say, but I did all this other stuff.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I think that's true, but I also think it's the way that w you use the word frame, you know, it's how we frame things. You know, I I'm one of the women that I interviewed talked about how she had been s like apologizing for her gap in interviews and then and saying, you know, well, I was I wa you know, here's what I used to do, but you know, then I was off for ten years. And then when she started to reframe it as You know, I took time to care for my family and to contribute to my community. And during that time, I developed some great skills that I think would be applicable in the next chapter of my work life. That's a much different conversation, right? Much
Leslie Capps: Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: different position to to put forward to an employer.
Leslie Capps: Absolutely. Yeah, that's brilliant. Well, tell us a little bit about, because you wrote the book in a little bit different way, right? It wasn't just you and you kind of spoke to that. So give us a little bit of taste of what we might experience in the book.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Absolutely. So, you know, I find that a lot of my own learning, I love to hear stories about other people and and the walk that they've had in their life. And really the book came from my dissertation and anyone is welcome to look up my dissertation and read it if they care to. however, dissertations are very dry and boring, but it was the process of gathering the data for my dissertation that really led to the book. And what I mean by that, Leslie, is that, you know, I I outside of the data, I started noticing with over and over again with participants that, you know, I would say, well, tell me about your career before you paused, or tell me about your job before you paused. And I would get these answers of, gosh, nobody's asked me that for years. Or, you know, I remember a couple of People saying, well, I you know, I I knew you were gonna ask me that. And I started thinking about it, and I got so much joy and so much energy thinking back about what I used to do and how much fun it was and the accomplishments I had and the challenges, et cetera, et cetera. So that made me think, you know, women need the opportunity to tell their stories. And then it was the focus group part of it where women were talking about how. the great gifts that came out of their paws, but also the challenges. And we don't always talk about the challenges, even with our friends, right? Our our personal challenges. And the how great it made women in my focus groups feel to say, Me too. Me too. Yes. Yes. You know, I and and people didn't feel alone. And that's really important. So I structured the the book to have content to help you remember who you were in the first part of your of your journey and then to talk about the time of pause, good and bad. and by bad, I shouldn't use the bad word bad, but challenging. Challenging, right? And then the the last part of the book, pulling together those skill sets that we were just talking about, you know, and we're building on that throughout the book, but pulling that together to better articulate it in for an employer. And then Tons of resources for people. But getting back to the stories, the way that each chapter is structured is whatever the topic may be. So let's say it's identity loss. We're gonna talk about that topic. Then there's a little tiny bit of research. Don't be scared. I promise it's not much. It's just enough to let you know it's a real thing. And then there are stories from the women that I've interviewed. been in focus groups with and people in my life that we we that I put into this book to let women know that yes, the other people are experiencing this and here's their story. And then finally reflection questions. And the reflection questions are not homework, but I really feel like it's something that helps helps people who are reading the book and going through these chapters Bring to life their story and their talents and who they are and what they've experienced, good and negative.
Leslie Capps: Right? And it's it's a beautiful line you've drawn, right? Between let's bring who we were to now, incorporate that
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm.
Leslie Capps: so we can move forward to who we're becoming.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right, exactly. And Leslie, you know, one thing, yes, the book does have some really great practical tools like a 90 day plan, a lot of resources on how to connect with, no, how to network, how to connect with employers, how to build your resume, lots of of resources like that and references to them. But I I think that that it's important to stay to say that the book is also very valuable. to reconnect with yourself and you might decide, you know what, I don't want to go back to work. That's not my path. My path is something else. My ch my next chapter is something different. So I think it's valuable for everyone.
Leslie Capps: yeah, without a doubt. Especially as women, right? Because I think
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: we have a lot of hmm not only in our head, but societal things around pausing, working,
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Exactly.
Leslie Capps: choosing not to pause, whatever the things are. Everybody has an
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: opinion.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. Exactly. And and you know, one just a great example of something we don't talk about as often as perhaps we should. you know, grief. particularly at mid-career, a lot of us are experiencing grief in some way. And normally we think of that as, someone passed away, and gosh, god forbid it's something like that. But it's grief, it's grief that Maybe when you stepped away, you were mommy when you first paused. And now you're an empty nestor, or now you have teenagers. You know, so there's that grief of your role changing. There's the grief of your role as a daughter, maybe now becoming more of being the parent to your parent. You know, so so I love that aspect of the book because I feel like I covered things that people can relate to and then actually kind of work through, if you will. For themselves.
Leslie Capps: For sure. And I can also see there's a grief probably of where we thought we'd be, where
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm-hmm.
Leslie Capps: we wanted to be. Maybe we're somewhere else that we didn't envision. And still maybe there's a grief in that, right? So it's
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: very multi-layered, exactly. Well, is there one
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: woman that when you think about the book, you recall that particular woman's story?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I love I love this story. this is somebody who was in a very successful role, you know, a hard worker. And and I have to tell you, Leslie, most women that I talk to are hard workers and superstars. They have to get reminded of it. I do too, but but most most women are are fall in that category. But she was a rising star in her organization, loved, loved, loved. her job, her colleagues, everything about it. And when she was, you know, had been in the position for a while before she was expecting her first child, but grew up in a family where her mother stayed home full time. And this was not, you know, we I have a lot of stories in the books, a book about different reasons women leave the workplace. You know, and hers was a full on, this is what I always knew I wanted to do. I wanted to be a full time mom. And so she made she made that that election. That didn't mean that she was not losing her identity, that she didn't still email colleagues and kind of try to stay in the loop, have one foot in both places, even though she was staying home full time. all of that was still present until, of course, you know, over a period of time it kind of fades away. And she was very focused, on her family, but also on her community. And so as her family grew, she was involved in organizations that they were involved in, whether it was sports or church or school or whatever the case may be. And one of those organizations saw the superstar that she was and approached her and said, Hey, would you come on board? And it was like kind of a minor, like not a minor role, but a part time role that wasn't like, you know, an executive director of something, right? But so she thought, okay, I can't I'm gonna, you know, kind of dip my toe back in in this way. But of course, she's a superstar. She's great at what she does. She comes into this organization and cracker jacks it, you know, and and makes it so much better and and eventually she's running the place now, right?
Leslie Capps: All right.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: So so, you know, those are the kind of of stories that you hear. And and Others with similar stories where like they weren't necessarily looking for a job, I've heard a people say, Well, you know, a job just fell on my lap. No, no, it didn't. The job did not fall in your lap. I can tell you what happened. What happened was you just described to me the superstar that you were before and during your pause, and someone really smart recognized the work that you were doing and snatched you up. That's what happened.
Leslie Capps: Yeah, exactly. So there's a inspirational component too, right, to this book because we all love
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes,
Leslie Capps: to read like the men that are listening, I know you agree with me, stories about powerful people, especially women, stepping
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. Right.
Leslie Capps: into her going, Well yeah, I could come probably fix a few things and they end up running the place. Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. Right, exactly. Exactly. It's terrific.
Leslie Capps: Right? So Tell us where we can find your book because it's coming out in a few days.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes, it's coming out September 16th And you can get to it from my website, annmariepeters.com. there's a book tab on my website, so you can get to it that way. You can also go directly to Amazon. either way you're gonna get to Amazon and the the link there. If you if it's you know, if you're listening to this podcast and it's more than a couple weeks after September 16th You can you might be better off going to my website only because it will give you lots of platforms that you can choose for from after the book's been out a couple weeks. There's it will be very widely available and then you can choose your favorites.
Leslie Capps: There you go. Yeah. Multiple choice. And then I know you had a free gift for the audience. You wanna talk a little bit about that?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right. The there's a companion workbook and within the book there's a QR code that you can click on or click on, you can use your camera and and access. And and it's it's really designed so that you don't have to keep a notebook or you don't have to have, you know, your scrap from your kitchen counter wherever you're grabbing a pen and a paper, to help keep all of that in one place.
Leslie Capps: And my last question for you, because you've given us so much food for thought, but is there one thing that as you went through this process that really surprised you about the
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Mm.
Leslie Capps: book, about women, about anything like in the whole process that you thought back and you thought, wow, I didn't see that coming.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. I I thought that because the research will tell us and it's accurate research that it's very challenging for women to get back into the workplace for a number of reasons. I thought I would hear about challenges for with resumes, building a resume and the and the gap, challenges in interviews and The majority of the women that I talked to actually were pursued by by someone in their own community when they went back into the workplace. And I found that to be very, very surprising. I
Leslie Capps: Great. Yeah.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: don't know why, because that's how I started my business as an entrepreneur when I returned to the workplace, you know, with with two other women, someone approached me and and we did that together. So but nonetheless, that was a surprise for me.
Leslie Capps: Interesting. So maybe I mean we couldn't make broad generalizations but maybe sometimes
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Right.
Leslie Capps: the places that we're looking are further out than really where the opportunities are. And maybe that's true
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: of not just working, but so many other things.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes, I think that's very true. It's great statement.
Leslie Capps: Yeah. Well, off the cuff, right? And it was just reflecting your brilliance. So is there anything else that you'd like to share, Ann Marie, as we're wrapping up here?
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: I think the most important part of the book is that I want women to feel seen. I want women to feel like they're not alone on their journey. And that's why I wrote the book. I'm I I want them to have someone along with them as they go to their next chapter and hopefully to feel excited that the next chapter, whatever they choose. may be their best yet.
Leslie Capps: Ooh, I like that. That's juicy. And I would add, because I hear that throughout when you're talking, is whatever you choose is right for you and
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes.
Leslie Capps: everybody else can bugger off.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Yes. And very importantly, your first landing place doesn't have to be the end of it, right? Like you might land somewhere initially, and like the the woman, the example I gave, you know, she went over to kind of do a little part-time gig, and you know, next thing she knows, not next thing she knows, but it, you know, over a short amount of time she's she's running in the place. So you that's the other piece of it. This this first decision. Is not your last decision or your last opportunity either.
Leslie Capps: Hmm, all right. Great words, prophetic words to land on. So thank you so much, Ann Marie Super looking forward to your book launch and all the exciting things that it's gonna bring for you and other women.
Dr. Ann Marie Peters: Thank you very much, Leslie. I really appreciate your having me on the show. And yeah, my website's also a great place for people to look for when I'm speaking and and podcasts, et cetera. So yours will be on there shortly. Thank you. Thanks again. It was really a pleasure.
Leslie Capps: Yay, woo-hoo! yes, it was a delight to have you. And everybody else, be sure and subscribe because you don't want to miss these fun, entertaining, always insightful, I should say, conversations with women who are really using their stories to change the world for better. Catch you on the other side.
