Third Act Podcast

Your first act is school, your second act is work, but have you thought about what you’re going to do in your third act? Join host Liz Tinkham, a former Accenture Senior Managing Director, as she talks to guests who are happily “pretired” – enjoying their time, treasure, and talent to pursue their purpose and passion in the third act of their life.

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The Entrepreneurial Spirit with Kim Alexis Newton

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Kim Alexis Newton truly does it all. She’s known as a successful artist, corporate executive, and entrepreneur through her quilting, career at Hallmark, and recent launch of her book and business—The Intentional Pause. Kim’s tenure at Hallmark developed her end-to-end business perspective while maintaining her appreciation for creativity in the workplace. Her venture, Alexis Enterprises, LLC, is the umbrella company for her art and media businesses. As a corporate strategist, Kim took her passion for women and developed a strategy for them to achieve their full potential, creating and writing The Intentional Pause. Kim’s book is the culmination of her experiences in business and the creative world, launching in February to give women the permission to pause and dream about what they actually want to do as opposed to feeling overwhelmed while being underwhelmed. Kim inspires others by envisioning the potential in every person, helping them find their unique way in the chaos of life. (01:39) Act 1: Fisk and Vanderbilt, pursuing her passion path (03:07) Hallmark: integrating art and business (03:59) The value of end-to-end understanding (07:05) Time to disrupt myself (08:42) The Henry Crown Fellowship (11:45) The over-underwhelming nature of saying yes (12:34) The Intentional Pause: permission, tools, time, intention (14:07) The launch of a women’s workbook we all need (15:17) A walkabout: networking, the true inflection point (16:50) Advice from the best (21:57) Fine art and quilting with Oprah Winfrey (25:30) Powerful, Beautiful, and Brave Asmina (26:12) Quilts are the new canvas (27:13) Act 3: Alexis Enterprises’ fine art, Intentional Pause quilting company (29:05) A changing sense of identity (30:21) Not bored, but boards in the future Learn more about Kim’s work at kimalexisnewton.com, or follow Kim on Twitter @kimalexisnewton. To hear more stories of people who found new meaning and fulfillment in the third act of their life on Liz Tinkham’s Third Act podcast at thirdactpodcast.com.

Liz Tinkham (00:14):
Hi, this is Liz Tinkham and welcome to Third Act, a podcast about people embracing the third act of their lives with a new sense of purpose and direction. The third act begins when your script ends, but your show’s just not finished.

Liz Tinkham (00:34):
Today, I’m joined by Kim Alexis Newton, the entrepreneurial spirit. Kim is a successful artist, corporate executive, and entrepreneur, but she’s really just getting started. In February, she launches her book, The Intentional Pause, and her business, Alexis Enterprises, which is the umbrella company for her art and media businesses. As a corporate strategist, Kim took her passion for women and wanted to develop a strategy for them to achieve their full potential. So she created The Intentional Pause as a tool to give women the permission to pause and dream about what they actually want to do as opposed to feeling overwhelmed while being underwhelmed.

Liz Tinkham (01:15):
Welcome so much to Third Act, Kim.

Kim Alexis Newton (01:18):
Thank you, Liz, for having me. Super excited to be here.

Liz Tinkham (01:21):
We’re recording on New Year’s Day, so Happy New Year. And thanks for doing this today. Hopefully I’m not interrupting any football.

Kim Alexis Newton (01:28):
Absolutely not. This is a perfect way to kick off this year.

Liz Tinkham (01:30):
Good. So I wanted to tease out something that a piece of your art is with Oprah Winfrey. Do I have that right?

Kim Alexis Newton (01:37):
Yes. That is correct.

Liz Tinkham (01:39):
It’s a quilt. It’s beautiful. We’ll put it in our show notes. So just one of the things I’d love to do is to go back and talk a little bit about where you came from and how you got started with sort of your first act and second act. So you went to Fisk and then to Vanderbilt. So why there, and what did you want to do, and what did you want to be coming out of those institutions?

Kim Alexis Newton (02:00):
Yeah, no, that’s great to think about that as my first act. So I grew up in California and Fisk University is in Nashville, Tennessee. My dad went there, it’s a historically black college, and he really wanted me to have that black college experience. And so I moved all the way from San Francisco to Nashville to go to undergrad. And I majored in accounting and I love the idea of internships because the one thing I learned when I interned in accounting is that I did not want to do it a day in my life. I was really, really good at it. So I got good grades. So I actually graduated in accounting and counter to, which is a theme for me, counter to the advice I got, I actually went straight through to Vanderbilt, which is also in Nashville to get a marketing MBA.

Liz Tinkham (02:56):
Did you like that better?

Kim Alexis Newton (02:58):
I did.

Liz Tinkham (02:59):
Good, because you ended up being pretty darn good at it.

Kim Alexis Newton (03:02):
Absolutely. So I was in Nashville for six years between the two.

Liz Tinkham (03:07):
How’d you end up at Hallmark?

Kim Alexis Newton (03:09):
Well, I have a huge art piece to my life and always have, my aunt’s an artist. I worked through an art gallery all through school, and I wanted to integrate art and business. And so coming out of school, I had a couple of offers, classical marketing, P&G, Arthur Anderson, which is now Accenture, and then Hallmark because it was one of the largest creative organizations and business organizations at the time. And I really, really wanted to mix the two. So I came to Hallmark and they had a rotational leadership program that was very attractive to me. And I was super excited and I wanted to get in multicultural marketing and they had the Mahogany brand, which at the time had about a 91% brand awareness. So I really, really wanted to come to Hallmark.

Liz Tinkham (03:59):
And you told me that you saw your career kind of in three parts. Can you describe that a little bit?

Kim Alexis Newton (04:06):
Sure. So I was at Hallmark for a very long time, great career. I was able to see the company through several lenses and instead of going through all of my different jobs there, I always talk about it in three chapters. So my first chapter, I was a functional leader, all things, marketing, multicultural marketing, product marketing, retail marketing.

Kim Alexis Newton (04:26):
And then I transitioned to my second chapter, which I call the cross-functional leader. So I was a leader on business transformation, which we were changing about 80% of the processes in the company. And I was able to see the company end to end, and really start to think about other parts of the business beyond marketing.

Kim Alexis Newton (04:47):
And then I actually moved into a general manager role where I ran about a billion dollar product P&L for everyday greetings, which was Hallmark’s largest business at the time. And that kind of was the impetus for moving into my third chapter, which I call the enterprise leader. I was actually plucked out of that line role to run strategy because they really wanted a leader with an operational mindset to lead strategy. So I did strategy for the largest business unit and then moved into business development and digital capability development, and eventually corporate strategy. Hallmark also owns Crown Media and is in 90 countries with an international business.

Liz Tinkham (05:36):
Yeah. I don’t think most people know that. When you think about Hallmark, you think about cards and the Hallmark channel, but 90 countries? Wow.

Kim Alexis Newton (05:43):
Yes. Crown media, whole nine yards.

Liz Tinkham (05:47):
Most people today, like I think about my own kids who work, will not stay at the same company for as long as you did, or as long as I did, many of our sort of peers did that. If you were to draw a line after you left Hallmark and look back at your career, in terms of the way you thought about those three chapters, I mean, we have more younger listeners now, which is great. And would you advise them to think about it in terms of those three chapters as well regardless of the company that they’re at?

Kim Alexis Newton (06:19):
I thought it was a natural progression for me and it was a way to keep me engaged. And I honestly think it was because of those chapters and the growth that I was able to do at the same company that kept me engaged. But with that being said, I’d say becoming a cross-functional and learning how the business works end-to-end, I recommend it to anybody, especially younger folks. I thought I was a good marketer until I understood how the whole thing worked. I was an okay marketer. I was a much better marketer after I understood all the different components. And yeah, if there’s aspirations to be more at that enterprise leader level, not everybody has that aspiration, but then I definitely think that that is a great progression.

Liz Tinkham (07:05):
Yeah. I think I did very similar. So you told me that after 20 years, you’d sort of outgrown the company. I sometimes felt that way at Accenture, but I got fortunate because I changed clients or changed roles. So how’d you resolve that?

Kim Alexis Newton (07:19):
Yeah. So 20 years is a long time.

Liz Tinkham (07:22):
Yes it is. And it goes very fast I think too.

Kim Alexis Newton (07:26):
It does. And I just started to feel like I wanted to disrupt myself. It was really my own dissatisfaction. Nothing was really wrong. I felt like I wasn’t meeting my own potential. And also in strategy you see a lot. You get a chance to see kind of … Every company I believe has their eternal problems. And I always took jobs that required half of my brain or it required it to be out of the building, but it was very insular culture. And so I very, very specifically at 20 years said I’m going to explode my network. So I had started the women’s network at Hallmark and I joined a network for executive women. I joined the executive leadership council, which is for African American corporate leaders. And then I joined the Henry Crown Fellowship, which I’m sure we’ll talk about. But I very, very specifically wanted to raise my head up and make more connections externally than internally. So I think that was the beginning of my, what else is out there and how could I reinvent myself?

Liz Tinkham (08:42):
Well, let’s talk about this Henry Crown Fellowship. So you got in at, you snuck in under the wire at age 44. What an honor though. And so how did you get the fellowship and what have you had to do as a part of it?

Kim Alexis Newton (08:55):
Well, as most great things in my life, usually start with an amazing conversation with my girlfriends.

Liz Tinkham (09:01):
Yes, I would agree. All right.

Kim Alexis Newton (09:04):
Really good friends, let me say that. My husband is in that list as well. So we were on a spa weekend and I was kind of explaining just what I explained to you about how I was feeling. And my girlfriend goes, “You need to do the Henry Crown Fellowship.” Then I said, “Okay, great.”

Liz Tinkham (09:22):
That has never come out of any of my friends’ mouths.

Kim Alexis Newton (09:27):
I think she was thinking about it herself. And so she’s like, you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it. And I’m like, okay, great. I’ll do it. But what is it? And so I went on this investigative, trying to understand what it is, and it’s a two-year success to significance journey or intrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in business. And I was really blown away. I was really impressed by what it would provide, but you have to be nominated so you don’t nominate yourself. So I heard it was best to be nominated by other fellows. So I went about introducing myself to a couple of Henry Crown fellows. And what was really interesting is that you have to be at an inflection point. That is one of the requirements. I didn’t even really know that I was at an inflection point, but you have to articulate it. And there’s about 500 people nominated every year, 60 people are interviewed and 20 are chosen.

Liz Tinkham (10:27):
That’s amazing.

Kim Alexis Newton (10:29):
You have to be 45 or younger. And I was 44. So I was like, might as well give it a good old try. But honestly I was chosen, which was amazing, but it was the process that was really the gift for me because I had to get my storyline together. So many times when you’re comfortable at a company, you don’t even have your resume together or how to talk about or how to market yourself. And so I had to articulate the fact that I wanted to disrupt myself and I felt like I was outgrowing. So I believe that was kind of the beginning of the end of my time.

Liz Tinkham (11:07):
At Hallmark right?

Kim Alexis Newton (11:08):
Yeah. But about the same time the CEO knocked on my door, he was literally the only leader I had worked for. And he wanted to lead a new direction for the Hallmark brand and do it through the lens of consumer experience. So he asked me to help lead that. And that was very re-engaging for me. I like challenges, and I like new territory. So I was going through this fellowship and had this new job.

Liz Tinkham (11:35):
So it was a good inflection point for you?

Kim Alexis Newton (11:39):
It really was. Yeah. And you had to start a venture, which I was excited about because …

Liz Tinkham (11:43):
And what was your venture?

Kim Alexis Newton (11:45):
Well, the requirements are that you’re passionate about it and it makes the world a better place. As I mentioned, I’m really super passionate about women meeting their full potential and companies, but women in particular and I think I was knee-deep in the women’s network at Hallmark. And I mentor literally hundreds of women through the ELC or at other companies, not just Hallmark. And I was seeing this trend where super ambitious, killing goals, but a lot of women just really overwhelmed, saying yes to all these things, because they felt like they needed to. But really underwhelmed and not personally fulfilled. And I just thought that was so fascinating. And I was going through my own version of it.

Kim Alexis Newton (12:34):
So I decided to research that a little bit more. My venture is now what is called The Intentional Pause Project, which I didn’t know that it was going to be called then. But I did research with 400 ambitious women, actually did two different kinds, a quantitative study and a qualitative study because I really wanted to understand what is up with that? Like why are we wired like that?

Liz Tinkham (13:00):
And what’d you find?

Kim Alexis Newton (13:02):
Yeah, I found that women and I would say like us need three things, permission to pause because a lot of times we see that as a sign of weakness. Tools to help move forward. Can’t stop or relinquish control. And time to actually like step back and look at the big picture. So I think that’s actually required. And then tools to help people move forward with intention. So a lot of people read books for inspiration, which is great, but they actually wanted tools. What do I need to do? How do I figure this out? And then strategies to face and move beyond fear. Because by far the biggest challenge was this thing that goes on in our heads around all the reasons why we can’t do something. Or it’s not the right time. Or I don’t have this, You know how women are wired. We’ve all read that research. We’ve got to know and have done everything before we even try. And men are wired a little differently.

Kim Alexis Newton (14:07):
So women in my study, 91% said they’re unapologetically ambitious, but 81% were overwhelmed personally and 73% professionally. Self-care is a big deal to these folks, but not necessarily the mental self-care. And this was the one that felt like they were on a track to follow their dreams. And so when I had to go back to the Henry Crown fellowship and say what my venture was, I was like I want more women to follow their dreams, talk about broad. So it was how do I make that tangible? And so I developed a process to get that going.

Liz Tinkham (14:54):
And you’re publishing that in a workbook, correct? Because I’ve actually seen it.

Kim Alexis Newton (14:56):
Yes.

Liz Tinkham (14:57):
I got a preview copy of it. And you’re going to launch that as part of your business in February?

Kim Alexis Newton (15:03):
Correct. It’s my passion platform for more women to follow their dreams.

Liz Tinkham (15:07):
It’s amazing. And one of the things we’re going to do is follow up with you when you do that with a salon to the Athena Alliance, which will be terrific. So you can talk more through it, but we’ll also have it in the notes so people can look at it. Now, one other thing that you talked about with Henry Crown is you did this thing called a walkabout. Talk about that.

Kim Alexis Newton (15:23):
Yeah. So this was actually a recommendation from one of my Henry Crown brothers. So I should finish my homework story really quickly. So a couple of weeks from graduating from the Henry Crown Fellowship, a lot of things had happened that we don’t have time to talk about, but I was a little bummed because I hadn’t left Hallmark, because it was my inflection point. And I knew that I wanted to do something different, but there were lots of reasons why I had doubled down in my career. I was on vacation and I get up and I watched the sunrise on vacations, it’s part of my pausing. And I remember having this long conversation with God, I’m a spiritual person. And I said, I’m bummed because I haven’t left yet. I really need a signal.

Kim Alexis Newton (16:09):
Liz, I promise you, two weeks later, the CEO I was reporting to, grandson of the founder. He and his brother had been running the business for a very long time, decides to step down and a new CEO comes on and decides he wants to go a different direction. And so my job was eliminated. And so I’m sitting there in the moment, not like oh my God, how could you convince me? But I’m like, oh my God, look at God. There’s my answer. And I was just stunned by how clear, but don’t pray for clarity unless you’re ready for it. I’ve learned that many times. And I was so ready for it. So one of my Henry Crown brothers was like, okay, you’ve got to do a walkabout. I’m like, great. What’s a walkabout?

Kim Alexis Newton (16:50):
He’s like, I need you to make a list of 30 people you want to sit down with and talk to them. Not about what job you can do, but just talk to them about life and how do they make big decisions and what have they learned? And when they are going through a transition, what advice do they have? And break bread with them if you can, and do not limit who you put on your list. If you want to sit down with, he did say Oprah,. sit down with Oprah, you’d be shocked at who will talk to you when you don’t want anything from them. And I was just so thankful he said that to me because I made a list and I started with a couple of my corporate crushes.

Kim Alexis Newton (17:32):
But I talked to artists because I have that side of me, I talked to CEOs, I talked to business owners, I talked to yoga teachers, I talked to astrologists. Like I really took my time. I did not rush back into a corporate role to figure out what I wanted to do. And I spent the summer with my daughter. So it was amazing. You asked me about advice. I think everyone should go on a walkabout and not wait until they have a big moment, but it should be a part of life.

Liz Tinkham (18:03):
I want to ask you something because I’m thinking about this. I’m like, Liz Tinkham, you’re listening to Kim. You’re always trying to figure out what you should do next. There are people you would love to ask. I’m too afraid to do it. So how did you get in, like I have my corporate crushes. I have people I’d love to talk to. Heck, I’d like to have them on this podcast. How did you do that? How did you pass that fear?

Kim Alexis Newton (18:26):
This is so crazy. So I literally listened to my friend who said, “You’d be shocked at who’s willing to talk to you when you don’t want anything from them.” So I did reach out to warm folks that I knew, but I’ll tell you about one in particular, Carla Harris, who is vice chairman, one of the longest standing African Americans on Wall Street. I am in the same organization with her, but hadn’t met her from Adam. I sent her an email at 5:15 in the morning and I told her I was going on a walkabout and that she was on my list and I explained it briefly. And I told her I’d be in New York. And she answered back at 5:22 and said, “A walkabout? That’s amazing. Come on over to my office. I’m free at 10:30.” It literally was that. And another person on my list was back to the creative side of me, Josh Silverman who’s at Etsy. I have a friend who knows him.

Liz Tinkham (19:25):
The CEO?

Kim Alexis Newton (19:25):
The CEO. Correct. I have a friend who knows him. I’m like, “Hey, I really want to talk to Josh about this.” And she sent him a text. He said, “Have her send me an email.” And I got on his calendar and he gave me some great advice as well. So I did, I literally called up people that I didn’t know. And they didn’t all answer just to be honest but I got some of the best advice from people that I didn’t know.

Liz Tinkham (19:54):
Give us a couple of great pieces of advice because I mean, you previewed some to me. So we have to share this with the listeners because this is good stuff.

Kim Alexis Newton (20:03):
Resist the familiar. That was for Mindy Grossman who’s the CEO of … That’s one of my corporate crashes. And she gave me great stories, but resist the familiar. Carla Harris said to me, “Kim, why wouldn’t you invest in yourself for 18 months? I know you gave 125% to Hallmark. Why not give yourself 150 and you’ll know so much more. But when you do it, just pay attention to how things happen. When obstacles show up, do they remove themselves easily or not? Pay attention because it will help you understand if you’re on the right path or not, and those signals are terribly important.”

Kim Alexis Newton (20:49):
Josh told me, “Listen to everyone, then listen to no one.” He was in a transition and he said, “I literally took every call and thought about every opportunity. And then I took four months off with my family and I literally talked to no one. And those things that really stick with you will just pop into your mind.”

Liz Tinkham (21:14):
Collect all the feedback and then go away and just process it without any noise.

Kim Alexis Newton (21:20):
Exactly, exactly. But the best one, can I just add that one is do the thing that you’re uniquely positioned to do, which to me set me off and actually was the impetus behind a big piece of The Intentional Pause, which is, what are you uniquely positioned to do? What is the thing that you can do that no one else can do because of your experience, your passion, your skills?

Liz Tinkham (21:57):
So now let’s talk about your art, which is a big piece of what you do. So you learned to quilt from your grandmother. Is that correct?

Kim Alexis Newton (22:04):
I did when I was 22.

Liz Tinkham (22:07):
And tell us about fine art and quilting.

Kim Alexis Newton (22:10):
Yeah. So my grandmother taught me the very traditional way. We made a quilt together, 40 days and 40 nights of quilting. And I came to Hallmark right after that, and I met a quilt artist and she taught me a little bit more of a modern approach. And she did these amazing storytelling quilts. And I was like, wow, I want to define my own medium. And I fell in love with this. So I started doing storytelling quilts. So my quilts typically had words and images on them. And I would lay down what I wanted to remember. So my first quilt said, “The heart of a woman will never be found in the arms of a man.” And it was a woman looking in the mirror. And I learned that like my first year of marriage which is a whole other podcast.

Liz Tinkham (23:02):
We’ll get Brené Brown on for that one as well. I have my own stories too.

Kim Alexis Newton (23:10):
I always had people that were interested in buying them, but I never wanted to sell them because they weren’t for sale. They were like my kids, I wanted to remember them. But I always had this idea that maybe I could manufacture them one day, but let’s put that aside. So I was in art shows episodically throughout my career. But as you know, when you’re busy and have a family… So I would do one every so often. And in 2018 I was invited to be in a show and I had just gotten the fellowship. And I was like, I don’t have time for this and have a good girlfriend in my life who was like, “You’re going to make two quilts. You have plenty of time. You’ve got to develop this side of you even more.” And she literally threatened me. And so I sent these two quilts that I just fell in love with again. And I’m like, why is it that I love this so much, and I give so little time to it?

Kim Alexis Newton (24:04):
And so when I left Hallmark, I decided I was going to do an art show. I wanted, it said so on my bucket list, I’m like, why wait until I retire? I’m going to do a solo show. And when I was sitting with Mindy Grossman, WW, amazing leader, we’re at the end of our discussion. And she’s like, “Did you say that you’re doing an art show? Like, I didn’t even know you were an artist.” And I was like, well, I hadn’t really embraced that title yet. And so I show her a piece and then she goes, “Kim, this is amazing. I have to give this to Oprah for her birthday.” And I’m like, “Oh no, no, no Mindy, no, no, no, no. I’ll make you a quilt for Oprah.” She’s like, “No, I want this one.” And a month later, she not only bought the quilt, but she sends me a note. It’s like two sentences long. And it says, “Hey, crazy idea. Why don’t you come with me and get a chance to meet her? And it could be fun. XOXO Mindy.”

Liz Tinkham (25:01):
It could be fun.

Kim Alexis Newton (25:01):
And so two months later, I found myself on her vision tour that was sponsored by WW. And I wasn’t there at the moment she got it. But I met her the next day as the quilt lady, and back to Carla Harris, pay attention to what happens. It was a very validating moment for me.

Liz Tinkham (25:22):
Well, and the quilt, the name, I’ve seen it, it’s gorgeous. Maybe we’ll figure out a way to put a picture of it in it. It’s called The Lady? What name is it again?

Kim Alexis Newton (25:30):
Well, Powerful, Beautiful and Brave is what I named it. But one of the questions Oprah asked me, she said, “Well, what’s her name?” And I said, “Well, the artwork is powerful.” She goes, “No, no, no. What’s her name?” Oprah always has some questions. So I actually named her Asmina, which means brave. And so, yeah, it’s a profile of a woman and she actually has a tear coming down.

Liz Tinkham (25:58):
It’s gorgeous. It’s gorgeous. So how is it that you, I mean, you’re going to keep up with your fine art, but talk a little bit about the last piece of Kim Alexis Enterprises, or Alexis Enterprises, which is going to be the gift quilt company.

Kim Alexis Newton (26:12):
Yeah. So I did learn a little something about putting words on products. And I have a background through Hallmark. And I want to support people on their emotional journeys. I’d say that is the thing that ties my artwork together, that ties my gift quilts together and this Intentional Pause Project as well. And I believe that a quilt is a great way to remember. And so I wanted to create a line of quilts with very affirming messages. I call them your daily warming reminders, and they are there to help fight fear. So there’s a lot of messages around fighting fear in this first line, but they are literally quilts. They’re so soft. They’re amazing. They have images and words on them and they’re like an adult security blanket.

Liz Tinkham (27:13):
All right. So your third act is Alexis Enterprises’ fine art, Intentional Pause quilting company. Where do you see all this headed in the next couple of three years?

Kim Alexis Newton (27:25):
I really on the Intentional Pause side, I hope that I can continue to share the philosophy and I really want more women following their dreams. I know that sounds so corny, but I think the world would literally be a better place for it. And I should say people in general. So I hope that it’s adopted and embraced. There is a system that’s there, but I would love to evolve that and learn from folks actually going through the process and making it better. And the quilt to me is a physical manifestation of pausing. And I want them to be spiritual tools for reinvention. And I’m expanding the line and launching with a line that is focused on affirmations for women and dealing with a lot of the topics I have in the Intentional Pause so they actually dovetail nicely.

Kim Alexis Newton (28:21):
But very quickly, we’ll fast follow with sympathy quilts, and quilts to support people through cancer. My best friend went through breast cancer, several friends actually, and it’s just a really lonely time. And I think that I want to be there for people in that emotional journey as well, and then for celebration. So I’d love to expand the line and see where that goes. But I think at this moment, this is what I’m uniquely positioned to do. Art quilts and gift quilts and The Intentional Pause. But this experience I think will uniquely positioned me to do something else. So I hope it’s successful.

Liz Tinkham (29:05):
Oh, I think it will be. One thing I want to ask people is, so you were a hard-charging corporate executive and now you’ve got the signal clear, you’ve completely changed. I mean how’s your sense of identity changed?

Kim Alexis Newton (29:24):
It has been hard to be honest. I break out in hives every three or four weeks because I’m like, oh gosh, I’m not making the money I was making. And it’s just so different to be an entrepreneur versus being at the top of a company, it’s such a different self-motivating moment I think.

Liz Tinkham (29:48):
What do you say when you introduce yourself now? Because I used to say hello, I’m Liz Tinkham, senior managing director, Accenture. Now I’m like, I don’t know what to say.

Kim Alexis Newton (29:58):
I think I say Piper’s mom a lot.

Liz Tinkham (30:00):
Okay, your teenage daughter.

Kim Alexis Newton (30:03):
Yes exactly, my daughter. But now I do say, “Hey, I’m Kim and I’m an artist.”

Liz Tinkham (30:09):
I know I’m not done yet. You’re definitely not done yet. You’ve mentioned, I mean, you’ve got such a big enterprise about to launch. Anything else that you think of that’s still in your future?

Kim Alexis Newton (30:21):
I really want to sit on boards. There are a couple of connection points back to helping companies meet their full potential. And so I have been pursuing some board work and I’m advising some startups, which is amazing. They are at a point of scale. And so I can bring my skills, but I can also relate to them as entrepreneurs. I’ve sat on boards for years, nonprofit boards, but I really want to keep up my connection to the corporate world because I do appreciate that grind and it’s part of my surname. So I want to keep that connection going. I am interviewing for boards. So I do see that as a huge part of my future.

Liz Tinkham (31:09):
Oh, great. Well, listen, thank you so much for joining us on Third Act. Where can our listeners find you online?

Kim Alexis Newton (31:16):
So I’m at kimalexisnewton.com and that’s where my everything will be. All right there.

Liz Tinkham (31:24):
Well, we’ll look forward to looking at it and seeing your quilts and can’t wait to hear your salon as well. Thanks so much, Kim.

Kim Alexis Newton (31:30):
Thanks Liz.

Liz Tinkham (31:34):
Thanks for joining me today to listen to the Third Act Podcast. You can find show notes, guest bios, and more at thirdactpodcast.com. If you enjoyed our show today, please subscribe and write a review on your favorite podcast platform. I’m your host, Liz Tinkham. I’ll be back next week with another guest who’s found new meaning and fulfillment in the third act of their life.

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