Lori Gian

I attribute my success to my passion for life and my tenacity. It's a never give up attitude, because I've been through so many different struggles. Being a single mom with my two girls, I made sure they got on the right path. My older daughter is a doctor of physical therapy right now, and my younger daughter maintains an apartment in Brooklyn on her own at 22 and is studying to get her master's in speech therapy. My girls are all my joy and my pride, that's what I put out there in the world. I'm grateful for all those years after I got divorced as a single mom, because it was all about providing for them and making sure that they were where they needed to be. Plus, they had the example of me caring for my parents, who've been coming to live with me for 24 years every single season, and it gave them an opportunity to be very, very close with my parents. I think generational love is the most important thing.

The best career advice I ever received was don't be afraid to make a change. My dad, at a certain age, moved from a big corporate company to a smaller company, and I remember my whole family was in on this decision. It was the best thing that ever happened to him. Fast forward 40 years later, and he's healthy and still going strong. That example taught me not to be afraid of making changes in my career, and I've carried that with me throughout my life as I've transitioned from occupational therapy to massage therapy to coaching.

My advice to young women entering my industry is to really know yourself. If you're a results-oriented person, you have to put yourself in a situation where you're going to be lit up by the results of helping someone else. To know yourself will direct what your passion is and what direction you need to go in life. Not everyone has the wherewithal to do that kind of introspection, and that's the sad part about our society. People don't really look inward, they're always looking outward to get what they need or to find it from the outside of themselves. But you need that introspection to kind of figure it out on your own. When you find your purpose, you have passion for life, and they go hand in hand.

In my field, there are so many opportunities because there are so many people who are lost or on automatic. They go to work every day, they just go through the grind, but they don't have that passion because they haven't identified their purpose. When you find your purpose, you have purpose and you have passion for life, and they go hand in hand. At this stage of life, which is our older mid-life for women anywhere between the ages of about 45 to 65, it's really the time that you kind of hone in on what your gifts are and what you want to contribute to the world. That's what I help women do, to help them reach what is their purpose, what are their gifts, and what is the next chapter.

I would say really kindness and taking care of people are the most important values to me. As my sisters say to me all the time, Lori, you're the real deal. It's very much a New York thing, not to mince words, to be straight on about things with people. We're not pussyfooting around or being indirect. I'm very straight on about what I want or what's going on. But at the core, it's about kindness and taking care of people, whether that's my clients, my family, my aging parents who live with me for four months every year, or the women I help through my coaching programs.