September 24, 2025 • 37 mins
Survivor of child abuse and breast cancer
In the late 60’s, Diane followed the music scene to San Francisco, hand-crafting one-of-a-kind denim creations for Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Garcia & the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison & the Doors, the list goes on…Diane moved closer to her childhood dream in the mid-70’s when she moved to New York City. In the early 80’s she was discovered by Bloomingdale’s to produce her first full collection. Diane Gilman went on to be credited as the first designer to introduce washable silk in the US; a coup which brought her broad fashion department store recognition and millions of devoted followers.
The Jeans Queen on QVC
Be Heard, Empower Yourself—the podcast where your voice matters, your story has power, and your journey is just beginning. I'm your host, and together we're diving into real conversations, bold insights, and transformative ideas that uplift, inspire, and ignite change. This is your space to rise, speak your truth, and step fully into the life you were meant to lead. So let’s break barriers, build confidence, and become unstoppable—because when you’re heard, you’re empowered.
Books by Mimi Tallo on Amazon and Audible
https://www.amazon.com/author/raisedbywolvestrappedbydemons
https://www.amazon.com/author/unearthingmyirishroots
https://www.amazon.com/author/anatomyofanalien
Website
https://www.beheardempoweryourself.org.
YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBHQjmnjBhYMZ2Src2Wmwag
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Facebook Pages
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:03):
Hi everyone, here we are for another episode of Be
Heard Women Empowering Women.
And I'm so excited today to haveDiane Gilman, the Gene Queen.
Um, I welcome Diane, and she wasuh QVC and Home Shopping
Network's top personality afterage 60.
(00:25):
And the thing that uh motivatedher was uh blue jeans because at
a certain age we our bodieschange.
Uh Diane, introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (00:38):
Oh hi, so um Diane Gilman uh retired from live
television but deliberately totry a whole new territory called
being a silverella influencer.
I feel yeah, I feel thathonestly our um generation is so
(01:05):
underrepresented.
And when you watch cable TV, ifyou were a young person, the
first thing you'd say toyourself is shoot me before I
get old.
I uh because every commercial isabout going into old age,
feeble, diapers, taking tons ofdrugs, absolutely, yeah, which
(01:30):
is the exact opposite of me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
So I know, and you know, Diane, I I might be a
little younger than you, notmuch.
I'll be 75.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Everybody is.
Oh, come on, I just turned 78.
I mean, that is honey, I'm 75,so it's not that big.
A long tunnel to to lookthrough, and it's kind of
amazing because it feels like itwas like uh my life was a
minefield, and somehow I avoideduh I I was able to suss out or
(02:04):
avoid any major explosions andlosing limbs or anything.
SPEAKER_01 (02:10):
But you know, really good that and I bring up our age
only because when we were in thedecades of the 60s, 70s and 80s,
yeah, it was uh survival of thefittest.
Women were be they're stillbeing killed, but they were
domestic violence was not beingrecognized.
I was uh situation.
(02:32):
And that was nothing.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
I think it just being a businesswoman.
That too.
Um it was really it was reallyunique that in the field of
women's fashion, every CEO was aman, and none of them trusted
talent.
They wanted to hire you for yourtalent, but talent was so
(02:57):
ephemeral that they wanted tocrush it the minute they got it
because they couldn't reallyrecognize it.
And that, you know, for a womanlike me, where it was all talent
and I lived in breathed fashion,I love it.
Um you were easily duped andeasily taken over.
(03:18):
On the other hand, from mychildhood, which was extremely
difficult because of my fatherand his actions towards me, I
just kept looking for a fatherall my life, right?
Yes, and so one business partnerafter the next would be fiscally
(03:39):
abusive or mentally abusive forcontrol.
And it was just this endlesshamster wheel until finally and
and not coincidentally, uh, whenHSN got a new CEO and I had just
turned 50, I think I was 58 anda half, um, and had been there
(04:03):
for a while already, 20 years.
She was a woman.
Yay! And my career shot straightup.
I went to her, said, I have afashion invention.
This may sound crazy to you, butI really think it's gonna work.
And she said, Yeah, yeah, as awoman, this really makes sense
(04:24):
to me, a middle-aged gene withdifferent measurements in the
industry.
And that is how I got my bigbreak with my once-in-a-lifetime
kind of light bulb moment thatyou were saying in the beginning
about going through a mindfilland surviving.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
And you know, my first book was called Raised by
Wolves, Trapped by Demons.
Because I know my parents werethe wolves, and my first two
husbands were the demons.
Well, all a lot of men in mylife were demons.
Okay, yes, and I was held backand I was demeaned, and I was
emotionally and physicallyabused.
SPEAKER_00 (05:03):
Well, I was emotionally and physically
abused, yes, and uh at the ageof about 12, 13, um the basic
point was my father was alwaysafter me physically from the age
of about three years old.
So I was always defending myselfagainst him.
(05:23):
I spent my childhood with himrunning around the house with a
butcher knife screaming, I'mgonna kill you, because I
wouldn't do what he wanted me todo.
And I would lock myself in abathroom, and that's how I would
spend 12 hours of every weekendday.
And there was no there was nointernet or or cell phones at
(05:43):
the time.
So you just sat there staring ata white tile wall.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
I was like, And you really didn't tell people.
Like I know my father's.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
Well, though, I I went when when I got into high
school, um, there was a guidancecounselor, and I said, uh, I
don't know how to tell you this,but my father is, I'm gonna say
it in adult terms, yes, after mein a inappropriately physical
with me.
(06:12):
And you know, that was the 50sand the 1950s, and she called my
parents and said, Do you knowwhat your child is saying about
you?
She's lying, and yeah, that wasgreat going home from school
that night.
Yeah, and so my my parentsdecided because they didn't want
(06:35):
me working, and even though Ishowed an obsessive promise for
fashion at a very early age,three or four, uh, they decided
that that they should put me ina mental institution until I was
so miserable that I changed mymind.
(06:56):
And then, and this was now 1963,they were going to do an
arrangement.
Then what the medicalinstitution thing didn't happen.
My father's brother talked himout of it, but then um they
decided to lock me in mybedroom, serve me my meals in
(07:18):
there, and find a man, do anarranged marriage, and get me
impregnated immediately, andthat would be the end of my
delusions about passion.
So your mother didn't it was soscary, so scary.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
My mother agreed, but did she not believe that
your father was doing thosethings?
Did she not believe that?
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
We discussed it ever, ever, never brought up,
but she saw it.
I mean, it was so apparent thatand so when I I found out about
the mental institution when Iwas 18 and 19, and I thought
(08:01):
I've got to get out of here.
This is really scary, and youand I your parents are supposed
to teach you your coping skills,your core beliefs, you're and
nurture you, right, you and itwas it was so you know, and you
(08:22):
grew up almost the same time Idid, I'm three years older.
So, what was on television?
My favorite uncle, leave it tobe bird, all of these house was
with the heels on the mouseworkswere such a quirky but happy
family kind of show.
(08:42):
And my yeah, my thing was morelike the Adams family, and so I
developed a huge um a hugedistance from anybody around me
because they weren't leading thesame life.
I was leading a double life,which is really difficult.
(09:02):
Being a teenager is difficultenough.
And uh, you know, I had toleave.
And for years, way into my 30s,I always had nightmares.
Wake up screaming that myparents were after me, like I
would have a nightmare that Iwas grocery shopping.
(09:23):
Yeah, and went and opened thetrunk of the car and they were
in the car with a giant likegunny sack and put it over my
head and dragged me out and tookme prisoner.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
And I mean, I had those kind of well, they had
taken you prisoner for yourwhole childhood of your teenage
years, and I know what that'slike because every dream I have
is crushed.
I thought I was going to be ableto do that.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
I wouldn't let them, I would not let them crush my
dreams.
SPEAKER_01 (09:54):
I I took me a long time.
But my question's a littledifferent is the fact that um my
father, who thought he wasItalian, found out later he
didn't find out, I found outlater he wasn't because he was
adopted.
Um, he would not let go of me.
He didn't want me to date, hecollege was out of the question,
the Peace Corps, service,anything I brought up, a job
(10:16):
promotion that was gonna send meto Los Angeles to work for
Capitol Records, like all thesethings.
But I was too naive.
I just didn't have the emotionalstrength to defy him.
So I did what a lot of women dowhen all the other doors are
shut.
I got married, and I got marriedabsolutely to get out of there.
(10:37):
It was an escape hatch and itwas horrible.
SPEAKER_00 (10:40):
I just got out of, I just got out of there to get out
of job.
SPEAKER_01 (10:43):
You're lucky I don't mean it too.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
You know, you're not lucky though if your life is
fueled by anger, and that was myfuel.
I was so angry.
And I asked myself this questionagain and again throughout my
life.
Why did I get the parents I got?
(11:07):
And you know, I just did Maria,I just did a um a 78th birthday
podcast on my podcast called TooYoung to Be Old, YouTube.
Yes, and it was called, I titledit Conversations, Conversations
with My Younger Self.
And I went back in time, andwhat I said to myself from the
(11:29):
age of one to let's say 15 wasit's not your fault.
Because when you've got parentslike you or I had, their word is
God, they feel they are 100%correct 100% of the time, and
you're always left feeling bad,child, inadequate child,
(11:54):
rebellious child, difficultchild.
And then when I my conversationwith myself in my latter teenage
years through my mid-20s wasbasically get the hell out of
there, escape and don't lookback.
And I lived like a nomad forabout 10 years, and when I came
(12:17):
to New York, it was much easierto just sort of disappear.
But you know, Marie, um I neverwent back to my family, I never
spoke to them.
I was terrified somehow theywould, you know, get me.
And when my father passed away,I was, I believe, 45.
(12:40):
They were older parents to beginwith.
So um I decided to go back forthe funeral.
And uh my mother would never seethat I wanted to try and make
amends with her.
She just decided that I wasafter their money, of which they
had none, totally delusional.
(13:00):
But by that point in my life, Ihad introduced Washable Silk to
America.
I had my name on the wall ofevery department store in
America, Diane Gilmancollection.
I was in every local newspaperfor spring, summer, winter,
(13:23):
fall, da-da-da-da.
And what did my mother say whensomebody said, Aren't you proud
of Diane?
She should have married a Jewishdoctor.
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Oh, I'm not surprised.
I'm not surprised.
That was it.
I just said the other day tosomeone, people have been trying
to kill me since before I wasborn.
And the reason I said before Iwas born is my mother, I had
given her a journal at the endof her life so I could have it
after she died.
And she didn't want to want towrite in it, but she wrote a few
(13:52):
things.
So she when she died, I read thejournal, and there was a chapter
that said, How did you feel?
Now I'm the firstborn.
How did you feel when you foundout you were pregnant with me?
And she wrote in this journal,Well, we didn't have a lot of
money, so I kept jumping off thesteps and I took some hot
mustard back.
In other words, that she triedto get rid of me and knew I
(14:16):
would need that.
Okay.
So I was always yeah, I wasalways told that my my reach was
beyond my grasp, that I wantedthings that weren't possible for
me.
They couldn't send me tocollege, that I couldn't go
away, so I'd get hurt, you know.
So I had to like learn that Iwas stronger than they taught me
(14:39):
I was.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
Well, when when I was at my father's funeral, I
found out that my French teacherin high school, I was adept at
languages, and he knew that Iloved fashion.
I lived in Breedhead.
He went out on his own andapplied for me and got me a
(15:02):
four-year scholarship to theSorbonne, which would have, of
course, completely changed mylife.
I would have been bilingual andthe number one language for
fashion, French.
I would have interned with Dioror Saint Laurent.
And my parents intercepted theletter and burnt it.
And I found out when I was in mylate 40s.
(15:27):
And it was, you know, the her mymother's attitude was like
nothing.
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
You don't know how much this resounds with me when
I was five.
Oh, yeah, I mean unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00 (15:40):
And so I would say the two major challenges in my
life were number one, my family,and the the lack of love, the
need for obsessive control,right?
Um, the absolute disinterest inmy talents or my happiness.
(16:00):
And the other thing would bejust when I thought, okay, I've
really fought so hard my wholelife, and I finally made it even
to my standards.
Like, okay, this is good.
I did something good for mygeneration of women, the baby
boomer gene, and I did somethinggood for myself and live living
(16:24):
a lot of my dreams, living mylife, my best life.
I get diagnosed with stage threebreast cancer, and it was like,
no, you gotta be kidding mehere.
But um did you get a massectomy?
I did you get a doublemastectomy, but frankly, I did
too.
(16:44):
That was not even emotional forme.
I think that I went through thewhole treatment, which lasted
about two years, all told,between the mastectomy, the bust
replacement, all that stuff.
And um, you know, I did it likean out-of-body experience.
(17:05):
I think I was just robotic.
I know that uh the guy that Ilived with for 20 years died of
cancer, and so I was mortallyterrified of not only cancer,
but chemo, because what he wentthrough it was and he passed
in '97.
(17:26):
So they they knew, you know,nothing like they know today
about chemo.
It was just like beingbludgeoned with a hammer.
Um, I remember saying to myselfthe night before the chemo
started, okay, Diane, this isnot a dress rehearsal.
Like you cannot afford to useany of your energy feeling sorry
(17:50):
for yourself or feeling scaredor not, or saying um no, because
I had so many people around mesaying, Oh, don't do chemo, just
do green drinks, and yeah, okay,perfect.
And um I came out of the otherside of cancer so much more
(18:12):
prepared to live the rest of mylife productively.
I yeah, you know, when you are afashion designer and you live in
Manhattan, which is all aboutfashion, unlike most of the rest
of the world, and you're livingin a penthouse overlooking
(18:35):
Central Park, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
And everyone is saying, Oh,Diane, you had another great
show on TV, you set anotherrecord uh financially.
You live in a bubble.
When you get cancer and you'resitting there with a hundred
other women waiting to get aninfusion, or you're going that
(18:59):
morning to the hospital to getyour breast whacked off.
Um, you start to realize thatcancer can teach you a lot of
valuable lessons.
It was for me the great levelerand equalizer.
It taught me how to beempathetic and compassionate.
(19:24):
It taught me that there wasthere are situations in life,
and honestly, growing older isone of them, where you're just
one of many.
That's it.
You're all at the same level.
And I um I never look back onthe cancer with any bitterness.
(19:45):
No, I look back on it and think,bravo to you, Diane.
You took a terrifying negativeand made it into a positive.
And whenever I think about it, II only have I only have positive
thoughts.
You know, I had um credibledoctor, the surgeon was
(20:08):
incredible, and she's now thehead of all cancer surgery at
Mount Sinai in New York.
And I only got to see her and Igot speed railed in, um,
partially because of my presenceon TV and the doctor I knew who
got me in there, but justpartially out of luck.
(20:29):
And uh she looked me up and downwhen she met me.
And she said, Well, you looklike a totally healthy human
being to me with a localizeddisease in a part of your body,
if we have to take it away thatyou don't need.
And I thought, Bravo.
SPEAKER_01 (20:48):
That's holy God, I got the right person because I I
I need to put this part in sincewe're talking about breast
cancer.
I had no problem, I handledwhatever problems I've had with
my body, and there'd be many andlike you.
And I remember her saying it waslike a lumbectomy.
Oh, okay, a lumbectomy.
(21:09):
And then she said to me, I askeda female surgeon, also, she said
to me, Would you mind waiting aminute though?
I didn't get this one test back.
And I really I said no all aboutthe water, so she kind of calls
me back in and she said, Great,I I hate to tell you this, but
it's a very aggressive type ofcancer, and there's more of a
throat than we thought.
(21:31):
So I'm going to do the sectomy.
And I said to her, do a double.
And my husband could not believethat.
I said, Oh, absolutely, takethem both off.
And then, unfortunately, I hadnot done the research about
breast implants that I shouldhave.
I had breast implants thatcaused me infections and
(21:53):
surgeries for three years.
SPEAKER_00 (21:54):
Oh my God.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
So what I did a couple years ago, the last time
I had an infection, I told myplastic surgeon, I said, take
them out.
I said, uh, let me look like a10-year-old boy.
I don't care.
I am not going through any moreof this.
And he did.
So it's just roll with thepunches, I guess.
(22:17):
But thank God I didn't.
SPEAKER_00 (22:18):
For me, I it I had always wanted to get a breast
lift.
I never had large breasts tobegin with, you know, a B cup,
not a big deal.
Um, and I had no emotionalattachment to it, but when I got
the inserts, it was and andfinally I got all of those
(22:39):
horrible drains out.
That was the thing that drove menuts.
Um, I thought, wow, this is whata breast lift is like.
I and it was good.
I have to say, you know, thesurgeon chose two plastic
surgeons for me, and I got tochoose one.
I I chose one who was like oneof them was very showy guy on
(23:05):
Park Avenue, and I thought,screw that, I don't I don't want
some star.
And the other guy was verystaided, but had been in the
neighborhood forever, was threeblocks away from me.
And and um, you know, it whenyou are faced with mortality, it
(23:26):
really and truly is that's likeclimbing Mount Everest.
Yeah, whoa.
That was amazingly scary.
SPEAKER_01 (23:36):
I have been in many life-threatening situations,
both health-wise and with men,and at far access.
SPEAKER_02 (23:44):
Me too.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
And you know, I'm supposed to be here.
And what I want to do is alsoask you, and this is a branding
question because I am trying tobrand myself.
I'm very new at this.
So after the breast cancer, Iimagine you had to rebrand
yourself.
Am I right?
Did you have to rebrand yourselfafter your breast cancer?
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
Well, I had a huge active fan base of about 650,000
women.
And I remember when I got thenews about cancer, I asked the
surgeon, I said, can we could wewait about two weeks before we
(24:27):
start chemo?
I have because she sort ofoversaw the whole thing.
She's Dr.
Lysaport, genius, written fivebest-selling books on breast
cancer, New York Times.
She said, Yeah, we can't waitmuch longer than that.
So I go down and I have to givea speech and basically say, I'm
(24:48):
gonna take a year off televisionto have a new career, saving my
life.
Please don't forget about me.
Let me introduce my substitute.
So the network doesn't reallywant me to say anything.
They sort of want me todisappear, but that's absurd.
So I give the speech afterthey've gone through it.
Next day, I I call my assistantand I said, I don't know if I
(25:13):
did a good job with my speech.
What's on Facebook?
And she said, Oh, about 80responses.
And I said, 80, because youknow, HSN has Facebook pages.
And she said, no, Diane, 80,000.
And by the next day, it was a130,000 messages of love and
(25:43):
wishing me well.
And I think because my messagewith uh fashion was always
forget about the younger woman,we should have our own fashion
brand, and I'm doing that foryou, and I'm wearing it every
day along with you.
I so agree.
(26:03):
Kind of a seamless highway intoreintegrating myself, and then
when I stepped away from livetelevision to do podcasting and
social media, that message wasso ingrained in me and so much
part of my belief system that Ithink my biggest challenge was
(26:27):
knowing that a lot of theteleretail QBC HSN customer had
sort of aged out.
They did not have a real directattachment to social media, so I
had to reintroduce myself to awhole new audience.
And I reintroduced myself withthe skills I learned while going
through breast cancer treatment: compassion, kindness, empathy, (26:52):
undefined
and wanting to build not anuclear family around me, but uh
a family of women around me.
Yes, all of us going through thesame like challenges, which
(27:14):
included, you know, one in everythree women are going to have
cancer within their lifetime,one of every two men are gonna
have cancer within theirlifetime.
So it's not like you're alone,but how do you get to these
people and offer them a messageof hope and inspiration and
(27:38):
aspiration to a better life?
So I think because I had startedthat focus, even while I was
selling my own fashions, which Iloved and I'm wearing today, um,
I carried, I was able to carrythat forward.
And and like you, for me, socialmedia, at least being very
(28:02):
active on it, is new.
I take it as an adventure, but II think my whole challenge now
is integrating the fashion endof me for older women, which
virtually nobody else does orcares about.
We're we're treated like we'redisposable, with um an audience
(28:25):
that really and truly seeks abetter, more active, more
comfortable, more productivelife as they grow older that
nobody teaches us right we canhave.
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Yeah, I'm coming back this because I said we have
a lot of similarities.
Um 2020 pandemic, I had animmune disease, not only also
getting over breast cancer.
My husband has Parkinson's andhe was going into stage three.
I found myself being mean tohim.
I knew that it was depression.
(28:59):
I knew, and I contacted atherapist on Zoom, and she was
the one that encouraged me towrite a book.
And she said every day when heshuts down, because he would not
speak to me after four o'clock,he was silent.
I would go in and write achapter.
And I to segue off that, andreaching women, I got such
(29:20):
response to that book, raised byWolves Chat by Demons, that I
started the podcast, Be Heard,Women Empowering Women, which
you are on right now, right?
And this is what we need to oh Istarted the new book.
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
I started the podcast off my second book,
which was written from aslightly different point of view
of someone who had climbed MountEverest a zillion times and just
didn't think at the age of 72 Iwas gonna get hit like that.
But let me tell you a dream Ihad, and I had this dream the
(29:58):
night before Kimo.
I can't even believe I slept thenight before I chemo.
So I my favorite car in thewhole world for me was my little
trenchcoat beige BW thug.
I dreamt I was going down arural country road with
(30:21):
wilderness on both sides, and itwas super pebbly and rocky and
bumpy.
And I had this feeling I had toget somewhere.
And I had these dreams all thetime, like constantly climbing
stairs and never getting to thetop.
Okay.
So I'm driving and I'm drivingand I'm driving and I'm driving.
(30:42):
And suddenly I hit what lookslike a wall, but I look up and
it's literally a perpendicularmountain that comes to a needle
point on the top.
I back the car up, I gun it.
I go up a little bit, I fallback down.
(31:03):
I back the car up, I gun itagain, I go up a little more and
come back down.
And then I think to myself,well, what would you even do if
you got to the top?
You just tip over the other endand crash.
And I got out of the car andgrew into a giant, and the
(31:25):
mountain became a sharp pebblethat I stepped over.
And that I believe wouldsummarize the rest of my life.
Oh, that's a great metaphor.
You have to grow.
Yes.
You are you are in some waysvery much in charge of you.
(31:46):
So if you see a problem, if yousee a scary situation, better to
look at it from a giant's pointof view, like eagle-eye point of
view, and see the whole terrainthan look at it from a tiny
point of view where it looksinsurmountable.
(32:07):
And so that dream, I I've haddreams like that before that
aren't just a dream, they'resort of a message from the
spirit world.
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
I relate to that because I always dream about not
being able to find my classroom,my car keys.
SPEAKER_00 (32:24):
Yeah, like the years you've got to take the final and
you can't find the classroom.
SPEAKER_01 (32:30):
We're so alike, and in my first book, I wrote about
in my second marriage, well, itwas actually the second time I
married this guy.
Oh my gosh.
And uh a Liz Taylor moment.
I uh it was I said it was likeSisyphus going up that mountain
with the chain, and the godswould just push him back down
and he reached the top.
(32:50):
And that's how I felt about myex-husband.
And until I got that mindset,which really uh took a long time
before I got that grit that umstrong will that knew I could
overcome anything, nothing wasgonna change.
You know, you have to find thatwithin yourself, don't you,
Gary?
(33:11):
You have to find yeah, it's inyou.
You're not gonna get it from aman, a husband, an employer,
anybody.
It's in you.
And before we run out of time,how would you advise our
listeners to take a chance andreach for their dreams, whether
they're in midlife or beyond?
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
You know, um that is interesting because uh everybody
said to me when I said, youknow, the thrill is gone.
I I really want to leavetelerling.
I've been here 30 years.
I can do it in a coma.
I am so used to it, but thatdoesn't mean it's good.
SPEAKER_02 (33:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:46):
And I'm gonna be 78.
I mean, if not now, when?
I want to try something else.
Now I've developed mycommunication skills on TV.
I don't really feel I had thembefore.
I like being in front of acamera, I like the girly stuff,
the makeup, the hair, all ofthat.
(34:08):
And I love have building afemale familial audience, and I
want my legacy to be helpingwomen live their best life.
So I felt I had no encouragementwhen I left.
I had a lot of people very angryat me, like, what do you mean
(34:33):
you're leaving?
Well, you're a money.
As you as you would if you'rethe meal ticket, right?
And they're losing the mealticket.
Right.
And I thought, what do you wantfor the rest of your life?
And that would be the question.
And I wanted my heart to beatquickly again.
I wanted to get excited, Iwanted to feel like, oh my god,
(34:57):
I did it.
Like, I will say that mypodcast, Too Young to Be Old,
which is rated on YouTube.
We were just named to be in thetop 80 of podcasts for females
over 55.
And then we found out yesterday,Marie.
(35:17):
We are now in the top 10.
That's fantastic.
And I thought right on, Diane,right on.
Like I felt when I when I madethat decision, and I know
nothing about electronics or theinternet, or you know, I just
(35:40):
know about communication.
I thought, my God, this feelslike going to the top of the
Empire State Building, putting abungee cord around your waist
and saying, Yeah, hey, bye-bye.
I'm gonna jump in.
SPEAKER_01 (35:51):
I so understand the excitement of that.
Because and I know that anybodythat read my first book, I that
has reached out to me, hastouched them.
There's something in their lifeas a woman that they relate it
to in my book.
But the marketing of on my own,trying to get that book out
there was mind-boggling.
(36:12):
And that's when I decided, look,if you if you live to be a
hundred, this means you're inyour last quarter.
You gotta get the message out tothese women.
And that's when I started thepodcast, which I'm teaching
myself as I go, but I have 25episodes of it.
SPEAKER_00 (36:27):
Me too.
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
But thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (36:30):
Oh, I think I've only done about 15.
But you know what?
SPEAKER_01 (36:34):
I'm gonna go look them up.
SPEAKER_00 (36:35):
No matter what.
You've gone, thank you.
Um, you look at the one that'smy solo podcast, because I
usually do it with guests, butthe one that's conversations
with my younger self.
Yeah, I'm gonna look at that.
I think you'll really, reallyrelate to that.
Um I am going to posted.
There need to be, oh, thank you.
(36:56):
There needs to be more of us,Marie.
There need to be more women whoare entering our what I call our
third act and deciding to do itin a grand way, in a big way, in
a public way, in a helpful way.
And you know, I always said, Ihope my legacy is after I'm
(37:18):
gone, my name is mentioned, andpeople say, And then you think
God, she helped me so much.
Diane's or Diane was so kind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:28):
So you know wrap it up because I'm gonna get it.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
Thank you for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_01 (37:34):
Let's share each other's podcast.
That's the way to go.
I love it.
Okay, I'll get back to you.
We'll do this again.
All right.
Hi everyone, here we are for another episode of Be
Heard Women Empowering Women.
And I'm so excited today to haveDiane Gilman, the Gene Queen.
Um, I welcome Diane, and she wasuh QVC and Home Shopping
Network's top personality afterage 60.
(00:25):
And the thing that uh motivatedher was uh blue jeans because at
a certain age we our bodieschange.
Uh Diane, introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (00:38):
Oh hi, so um Diane Gilman uh retired from live
television but deliberately totry a whole new territory called
being a silverella influencer.
I feel yeah, I feel thathonestly our um generation is so
(01:05):
underrepresented.
And when you watch cable TV, ifyou were a young person, the
first thing you'd say toyourself is shoot me before I
get old.
I uh because every commercial isabout going into old age,
feeble, diapers, taking tons ofdrugs, absolutely, yeah, which
(01:30):
is the exact opposite of me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
So I know, and you know, Diane, I I might be a
little younger than you, notmuch.
I'll be 75.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Everybody is.
Oh, come on, I just turned 78.
I mean, that is honey, I'm 75,so it's not that big.
A long tunnel to to lookthrough, and it's kind of
amazing because it feels like itwas like uh my life was a
minefield, and somehow I avoideduh I I was able to suss out or
(02:04):
avoid any major explosions andlosing limbs or anything.
SPEAKER_01 (02:10):
But you know, really good that and I bring up our age
only because when we were in thedecades of the 60s, 70s and 80s,
yeah, it was uh survival of thefittest.
Women were be they're stillbeing killed, but they were
domestic violence was not beingrecognized.
I was uh situation.
(02:32):
And that was nothing.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
I think it just being a businesswoman.
That too.
Um it was really it was reallyunique that in the field of
women's fashion, every CEO was aman, and none of them trusted
talent.
They wanted to hire you for yourtalent, but talent was so
(02:57):
ephemeral that they wanted tocrush it the minute they got it
because they couldn't reallyrecognize it.
And that, you know, for a womanlike me, where it was all talent
and I lived in breathed fashion,I love it.
Um you were easily duped andeasily taken over.
(03:18):
On the other hand, from mychildhood, which was extremely
difficult because of my fatherand his actions towards me, I
just kept looking for a fatherall my life, right?
Yes, and so one business partnerafter the next would be fiscally
(03:39):
abusive or mentally abusive forcontrol.
And it was just this endlesshamster wheel until finally and
and not coincidentally, uh, whenHSN got a new CEO and I had just
turned 50, I think I was 58 anda half, um, and had been there
(04:03):
for a while already, 20 years.
She was a woman.
Yay! And my career shot straightup.
I went to her, said, I have afashion invention.
This may sound crazy to you, butI really think it's gonna work.
And she said, Yeah, yeah, as awoman, this really makes sense
(04:24):
to me, a middle-aged gene withdifferent measurements in the
industry.
And that is how I got my bigbreak with my once-in-a-lifetime
kind of light bulb moment thatyou were saying in the beginning
about going through a mindfilland surviving.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
And you know, my first book was called Raised by
Wolves, Trapped by Demons.
Because I know my parents werethe wolves, and my first two
husbands were the demons.
Well, all a lot of men in mylife were demons.
Okay, yes, and I was held backand I was demeaned, and I was
emotionally and physicallyabused.
SPEAKER_00 (05:03):
Well, I was emotionally and physically
abused, yes, and uh at the ageof about 12, 13, um the basic
point was my father was alwaysafter me physically from the age
of about three years old.
So I was always defending myselfagainst him.
(05:23):
I spent my childhood with himrunning around the house with a
butcher knife screaming, I'mgonna kill you, because I
wouldn't do what he wanted me todo.
And I would lock myself in abathroom, and that's how I would
spend 12 hours of every weekendday.
And there was no there was nointernet or or cell phones at
(05:43):
the time.
So you just sat there staring ata white tile wall.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
I was like, And you really didn't tell people.
Like I know my father's.
SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
Well, though, I I went when when I got into high
school, um, there was a guidancecounselor, and I said, uh, I
don't know how to tell you this,but my father is, I'm gonna say
it in adult terms, yes, after mein a inappropriately physical
with me.
(06:12):
And you know, that was the 50sand the 1950s, and she called my
parents and said, Do you knowwhat your child is saying about
you?
She's lying, and yeah, that wasgreat going home from school
that night.
Yeah, and so my my parentsdecided because they didn't want
(06:35):
me working, and even though Ishowed an obsessive promise for
fashion at a very early age,three or four, uh, they decided
that that they should put me ina mental institution until I was
so miserable that I changed mymind.
(06:56):
And then, and this was now 1963,they were going to do an
arrangement.
Then what the medicalinstitution thing didn't happen.
My father's brother talked himout of it, but then um they
decided to lock me in mybedroom, serve me my meals in
(07:18):
there, and find a man, do anarranged marriage, and get me
impregnated immediately, andthat would be the end of my
delusions about passion.
So your mother didn't it was soscary, so scary.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
My mother agreed, but did she not believe that
your father was doing thosethings?
Did she not believe that?
SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
We discussed it ever, ever, never brought up,
but she saw it.
I mean, it was so apparent thatand so when I I found out about
the mental institution when Iwas 18 and 19, and I thought
(08:01):
I've got to get out of here.
This is really scary, and youand I your parents are supposed
to teach you your coping skills,your core beliefs, you're and
nurture you, right, you and itwas it was so you know, and you
(08:22):
grew up almost the same time Idid, I'm three years older.
So, what was on television?
My favorite uncle, leave it tobe bird, all of these house was
with the heels on the mouseworkswere such a quirky but happy
family kind of show.
(08:42):
And my yeah, my thing was morelike the Adams family, and so I
developed a huge um a hugedistance from anybody around me
because they weren't leading thesame life.
I was leading a double life,which is really difficult.
(09:02):
Being a teenager is difficultenough.
And uh, you know, I had toleave.
And for years, way into my 30s,I always had nightmares.
Wake up screaming that myparents were after me, like I
would have a nightmare that Iwas grocery shopping.
(09:23):
Yeah, and went and opened thetrunk of the car and they were
in the car with a giant likegunny sack and put it over my
head and dragged me out and tookme prisoner.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
And I mean, I had those kind of well, they had
taken you prisoner for yourwhole childhood of your teenage
years, and I know what that'slike because every dream I have
is crushed.
I thought I was going to be ableto do that.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
I wouldn't let them, I would not let them crush my
dreams.
SPEAKER_01 (09:54):
I I took me a long time.
But my question's a littledifferent is the fact that um my
father, who thought he wasItalian, found out later he
didn't find out, I found outlater he wasn't because he was
adopted.
Um, he would not let go of me.
He didn't want me to date, hecollege was out of the question,
the Peace Corps, service,anything I brought up, a job
(10:16):
promotion that was gonna send meto Los Angeles to work for
Capitol Records, like all thesethings.
But I was too naive.
I just didn't have the emotionalstrength to defy him.
So I did what a lot of women dowhen all the other doors are
shut.
I got married, and I got marriedabsolutely to get out of there.
(10:37):
It was an escape hatch and itwas horrible.
SPEAKER_00 (10:40):
I just got out of, I just got out of there to get out
of job.
SPEAKER_01 (10:43):
You're lucky I don't mean it too.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
You know, you're not lucky though if your life is
fueled by anger, and that was myfuel.
I was so angry.
And I asked myself this questionagain and again throughout my
life.
Why did I get the parents I got?
(11:07):
And you know, I just did Maria,I just did a um a 78th birthday
podcast on my podcast called TooYoung to Be Old, YouTube.
Yes, and it was called, I titledit Conversations, Conversations
with My Younger Self.
And I went back in time, andwhat I said to myself from the
(11:29):
age of one to let's say 15 wasit's not your fault.
Because when you've got parentslike you or I had, their word is
God, they feel they are 100%correct 100% of the time, and
you're always left feeling bad,child, inadequate child,
(11:54):
rebellious child, difficultchild.
And then when I my conversationwith myself in my latter teenage
years through my mid-20s wasbasically get the hell out of
there, escape and don't lookback.
And I lived like a nomad forabout 10 years, and when I came
(12:17):
to New York, it was much easierto just sort of disappear.
But you know, Marie, um I neverwent back to my family, I never
spoke to them.
I was terrified somehow theywould, you know, get me.
And when my father passed away,I was, I believe, 45.
(12:40):
They were older parents to beginwith.
So um I decided to go back forthe funeral.
And uh my mother would never seethat I wanted to try and make
amends with her.
She just decided that I wasafter their money, of which they
had none, totally delusional.
(13:00):
But by that point in my life, Ihad introduced Washable Silk to
America.
I had my name on the wall ofevery department store in
America, Diane Gilmancollection.
I was in every local newspaperfor spring, summer, winter,
(13:23):
fall, da-da-da-da.
And what did my mother say whensomebody said, Aren't you proud
of Diane?
She should have married a Jewishdoctor.
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Oh, I'm not surprised.
I'm not surprised.
That was it.
I just said the other day tosomeone, people have been trying
to kill me since before I wasborn.
And the reason I said before Iwas born is my mother, I had
given her a journal at the endof her life so I could have it
after she died.
And she didn't want to want towrite in it, but she wrote a few
(13:52):
things.
So she when she died, I read thejournal, and there was a chapter
that said, How did you feel?
Now I'm the firstborn.
How did you feel when you foundout you were pregnant with me?
And she wrote in this journal,Well, we didn't have a lot of
money, so I kept jumping off thesteps and I took some hot
mustard back.
In other words, that she triedto get rid of me and knew I
(14:16):
would need that.
Okay.
So I was always yeah, I wasalways told that my my reach was
beyond my grasp, that I wantedthings that weren't possible for
me.
They couldn't send me tocollege, that I couldn't go
away, so I'd get hurt, you know.
So I had to like learn that Iwas stronger than they taught me
(14:39):
I was.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
Well, when when I was at my father's funeral, I
found out that my French teacherin high school, I was adept at
languages, and he knew that Iloved fashion.
I lived in Breedhead.
He went out on his own andapplied for me and got me a
(15:02):
four-year scholarship to theSorbonne, which would have, of
course, completely changed mylife.
I would have been bilingual andthe number one language for
fashion, French.
I would have interned with Dioror Saint Laurent.
And my parents intercepted theletter and burnt it.
And I found out when I was in mylate 40s.
(15:27):
And it was, you know, the her mymother's attitude was like
nothing.
Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
You don't know how much this resounds with me when
I was five.
Oh, yeah, I mean unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00 (15:40):
And so I would say the two major challenges in my
life were number one, my family,and the the lack of love, the
need for obsessive control,right?
Um, the absolute disinterest inmy talents or my happiness.
(16:00):
And the other thing would bejust when I thought, okay, I've
really fought so hard my wholelife, and I finally made it even
to my standards.
Like, okay, this is good.
I did something good for mygeneration of women, the baby
boomer gene, and I did somethinggood for myself and live living
(16:24):
a lot of my dreams, living mylife, my best life.
I get diagnosed with stage threebreast cancer, and it was like,
no, you gotta be kidding mehere.
But um did you get a massectomy?
I did you get a doublemastectomy, but frankly, I did
too.
(16:44):
That was not even emotional forme.
I think that I went through thewhole treatment, which lasted
about two years, all told,between the mastectomy, the bust
replacement, all that stuff.
And um, you know, I did it likean out-of-body experience.
(17:05):
I think I was just robotic.
I know that uh the guy that Ilived with for 20 years died of
cancer, and so I was mortallyterrified of not only cancer,
but chemo, because what he wentthrough it was and he passed
in '97.
(17:26):
So they they knew, you know,nothing like they know today
about chemo.
It was just like beingbludgeoned with a hammer.
Um, I remember saying to myselfthe night before the chemo
started, okay, Diane, this isnot a dress rehearsal.
Like you cannot afford to useany of your energy feeling sorry
(17:50):
for yourself or feeling scaredor not, or saying um no, because
I had so many people around mesaying, Oh, don't do chemo, just
do green drinks, and yeah, okay,perfect.
And um I came out of the otherside of cancer so much more
(18:12):
prepared to live the rest of mylife productively.
I yeah, you know, when you are afashion designer and you live in
Manhattan, which is all aboutfashion, unlike most of the rest
of the world, and you're livingin a penthouse overlooking
(18:35):
Central Park, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
And everyone is saying, Oh,Diane, you had another great
show on TV, you set anotherrecord uh financially.
You live in a bubble.
When you get cancer and you'resitting there with a hundred
other women waiting to get aninfusion, or you're going that
(18:59):
morning to the hospital to getyour breast whacked off.
Um, you start to realize thatcancer can teach you a lot of
valuable lessons.
It was for me the great levelerand equalizer.
It taught me how to beempathetic and compassionate.
(19:24):
It taught me that there wasthere are situations in life,
and honestly, growing older isone of them, where you're just
one of many.
That's it.
You're all at the same level.
And I um I never look back onthe cancer with any bitterness.
(19:45):
No, I look back on it and think,bravo to you, Diane.
You took a terrifying negativeand made it into a positive.
And whenever I think about it, II only have I only have positive
thoughts.
You know, I had um credibledoctor, the surgeon was
(20:08):
incredible, and she's now thehead of all cancer surgery at
Mount Sinai in New York.
And I only got to see her and Igot speed railed in, um,
partially because of my presenceon TV and the doctor I knew who
got me in there, but justpartially out of luck.
(20:29):
And uh she looked me up and downwhen she met me.
And she said, Well, you looklike a totally healthy human
being to me with a localizeddisease in a part of your body,
if we have to take it away thatyou don't need.
And I thought, Bravo.
SPEAKER_01 (20:48):
That's holy God, I got the right person because I I
I need to put this part in sincewe're talking about breast
cancer.
I had no problem, I handledwhatever problems I've had with
my body, and there'd be many andlike you.
And I remember her saying it waslike a lumbectomy.
Oh, okay, a lumbectomy.
(21:09):
And then she said to me, I askeda female surgeon, also, she said
to me, Would you mind waiting aminute though?
I didn't get this one test back.
And I really I said no all aboutthe water, so she kind of calls
me back in and she said, Great,I I hate to tell you this, but
it's a very aggressive type ofcancer, and there's more of a
throat than we thought.
(21:31):
So I'm going to do the sectomy.
And I said to her, do a double.
And my husband could not believethat.
I said, Oh, absolutely, takethem both off.
And then, unfortunately, I hadnot done the research about
breast implants that I shouldhave.
I had breast implants thatcaused me infections and
(21:53):
surgeries for three years.
SPEAKER_00 (21:54):
Oh my God.
SPEAKER_01 (21:56):
So what I did a couple years ago, the last time
I had an infection, I told myplastic surgeon, I said, take
them out.
I said, uh, let me look like a10-year-old boy.
I don't care.
I am not going through any moreof this.
And he did.
So it's just roll with thepunches, I guess.
(22:17):
But thank God I didn't.
SPEAKER_00 (22:18):
For me, I it I had always wanted to get a breast
lift.
I never had large breasts tobegin with, you know, a B cup,
not a big deal.
Um, and I had no emotionalattachment to it, but when I got
the inserts, it was and andfinally I got all of those
(22:39):
horrible drains out.
That was the thing that drove menuts.
Um, I thought, wow, this is whata breast lift is like.
I and it was good.
I have to say, you know, thesurgeon chose two plastic
surgeons for me, and I got tochoose one.
I I chose one who was like oneof them was very showy guy on
(23:05):
Park Avenue, and I thought,screw that, I don't I don't want
some star.
And the other guy was verystaided, but had been in the
neighborhood forever, was threeblocks away from me.
And and um, you know, it whenyou are faced with mortality, it
(23:26):
really and truly is that's likeclimbing Mount Everest.
Yeah, whoa.
That was amazingly scary.
SPEAKER_01 (23:36):
I have been in many life-threatening situations,
both health-wise and with men,and at far access.
SPEAKER_02 (23:44):
Me too.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
And you know, I'm supposed to be here.
And what I want to do is alsoask you, and this is a branding
question because I am trying tobrand myself.
I'm very new at this.
So after the breast cancer, Iimagine you had to rebrand
yourself.
Am I right?
Did you have to rebrand yourselfafter your breast cancer?
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
Well, I had a huge active fan base of about 650,000
women.
And I remember when I got thenews about cancer, I asked the
surgeon, I said, can we could wewait about two weeks before we
(24:27):
start chemo?
I have because she sort ofoversaw the whole thing.
She's Dr.
Lysaport, genius, written fivebest-selling books on breast
cancer, New York Times.
She said, Yeah, we can't waitmuch longer than that.
So I go down and I have to givea speech and basically say, I'm
(24:48):
gonna take a year off televisionto have a new career, saving my
life.
Please don't forget about me.
Let me introduce my substitute.
So the network doesn't reallywant me to say anything.
They sort of want me todisappear, but that's absurd.
So I give the speech afterthey've gone through it.
Next day, I I call my assistantand I said, I don't know if I
(25:13):
did a good job with my speech.
What's on Facebook?
And she said, Oh, about 80responses.
And I said, 80, because youknow, HSN has Facebook pages.
And she said, no, Diane, 80,000.
And by the next day, it was a130,000 messages of love and
(25:43):
wishing me well.
And I think because my messagewith uh fashion was always
forget about the younger woman,we should have our own fashion
brand, and I'm doing that foryou, and I'm wearing it every
day along with you.
I so agree.
(26:03):
Kind of a seamless highway intoreintegrating myself, and then
when I stepped away from livetelevision to do podcasting and
social media, that message wasso ingrained in me and so much
part of my belief system that Ithink my biggest challenge was
(26:27):
knowing that a lot of theteleretail QBC HSN customer had
sort of aged out.
They did not have a real directattachment to social media, so I
had to reintroduce myself to awhole new audience.
And I reintroduced myself withthe skills I learned while going
through breast cancer treatment: compassion, kindness, empathy, (26:52):
undefined
and wanting to build not anuclear family around me, but uh
a family of women around me.
Yes, all of us going through thesame like challenges, which
(27:14):
included, you know, one in everythree women are going to have
cancer within their lifetime,one of every two men are gonna
have cancer within theirlifetime.
So it's not like you're alone,but how do you get to these
people and offer them a messageof hope and inspiration and
(27:38):
aspiration to a better life?
So I think because I had startedthat focus, even while I was
selling my own fashions, which Iloved and I'm wearing today, um,
I carried, I was able to carrythat forward.
And and like you, for me, socialmedia, at least being very
(28:02):
active on it, is new.
I take it as an adventure, but II think my whole challenge now
is integrating the fashion endof me for older women, which
virtually nobody else does orcares about.
We're we're treated like we'redisposable, with um an audience
(28:25):
that really and truly seeks abetter, more active, more
comfortable, more productivelife as they grow older that
nobody teaches us right we canhave.
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Yeah, I'm coming back this because I said we have
a lot of similarities.
Um 2020 pandemic, I had animmune disease, not only also
getting over breast cancer.
My husband has Parkinson's andhe was going into stage three.
I found myself being mean tohim.
I knew that it was depression.
(28:59):
I knew, and I contacted atherapist on Zoom, and she was
the one that encouraged me towrite a book.
And she said every day when heshuts down, because he would not
speak to me after four o'clock,he was silent.
I would go in and write achapter.
And I to segue off that, andreaching women, I got such
(29:20):
response to that book, raised byWolves Chat by Demons, that I
started the podcast, Be Heard,Women Empowering Women, which
you are on right now, right?
And this is what we need to oh Istarted the new book.
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
I started the podcast off my second book,
which was written from aslightly different point of view
of someone who had climbed MountEverest a zillion times and just
didn't think at the age of 72 Iwas gonna get hit like that.
But let me tell you a dream Ihad, and I had this dream the
(29:58):
night before Kimo.
I can't even believe I slept thenight before I chemo.
So I my favorite car in thewhole world for me was my little
trenchcoat beige BW thug.
I dreamt I was going down arural country road with
(30:21):
wilderness on both sides, and itwas super pebbly and rocky and
bumpy.
And I had this feeling I had toget somewhere.
And I had these dreams all thetime, like constantly climbing
stairs and never getting to thetop.
Okay.
So I'm driving and I'm drivingand I'm driving and I'm driving.
(30:42):
And suddenly I hit what lookslike a wall, but I look up and
it's literally a perpendicularmountain that comes to a needle
point on the top.
I back the car up, I gun it.
I go up a little bit, I fallback down.
(31:03):
I back the car up, I gun itagain, I go up a little more and
come back down.
And then I think to myself,well, what would you even do if
you got to the top?
You just tip over the other endand crash.
And I got out of the car andgrew into a giant, and the
(31:25):
mountain became a sharp pebblethat I stepped over.
And that I believe wouldsummarize the rest of my life.
Oh, that's a great metaphor.
You have to grow.
Yes.
You are you are in some waysvery much in charge of you.
(31:46):
So if you see a problem, if yousee a scary situation, better to
look at it from a giant's pointof view, like eagle-eye point of
view, and see the whole terrainthan look at it from a tiny
point of view where it looksinsurmountable.
(32:07):
And so that dream, I I've haddreams like that before that
aren't just a dream, they'resort of a message from the
spirit world.
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
I relate to that because I always dream about not
being able to find my classroom,my car keys.
SPEAKER_00 (32:24):
Yeah, like the years you've got to take the final and
you can't find the classroom.
SPEAKER_01 (32:30):
We're so alike, and in my first book, I wrote about
in my second marriage, well, itwas actually the second time I
married this guy.
Oh my gosh.
And uh a Liz Taylor moment.
I uh it was I said it was likeSisyphus going up that mountain
with the chain, and the godswould just push him back down
and he reached the top.
(32:50):
And that's how I felt about myex-husband.
And until I got that mindset,which really uh took a long time
before I got that grit that umstrong will that knew I could
overcome anything, nothing wasgonna change.
You know, you have to find thatwithin yourself, don't you,
Gary?
(33:11):
You have to find yeah, it's inyou.
You're not gonna get it from aman, a husband, an employer,
anybody.
It's in you.
And before we run out of time,how would you advise our
listeners to take a chance andreach for their dreams, whether
they're in midlife or beyond?
SPEAKER_00 (33:28):
You know, um that is interesting because uh everybody
said to me when I said, youknow, the thrill is gone.
I I really want to leavetelerling.
I've been here 30 years.
I can do it in a coma.
I am so used to it, but thatdoesn't mean it's good.
SPEAKER_02 (33:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:46):
And I'm gonna be 78.
I mean, if not now, when?
I want to try something else.
Now I've developed mycommunication skills on TV.
I don't really feel I had thembefore.
I like being in front of acamera, I like the girly stuff,
the makeup, the hair, all ofthat.
(34:08):
And I love have building afemale familial audience, and I
want my legacy to be helpingwomen live their best life.
So I felt I had no encouragementwhen I left.
I had a lot of people very angryat me, like, what do you mean
(34:33):
you're leaving?
Well, you're a money.
As you as you would if you'rethe meal ticket, right?
And they're losing the mealticket.
Right.
And I thought, what do you wantfor the rest of your life?
And that would be the question.
And I wanted my heart to beatquickly again.
I wanted to get excited, Iwanted to feel like, oh my god,
(34:57):
I did it.
Like, I will say that mypodcast, Too Young to Be Old,
which is rated on YouTube.
We were just named to be in thetop 80 of podcasts for females
over 55.
And then we found out yesterday,Marie.
(35:17):
We are now in the top 10.
That's fantastic.
And I thought right on, Diane,right on.
Like I felt when I when I madethat decision, and I know
nothing about electronics or theinternet, or you know, I just
(35:40):
know about communication.
I thought, my God, this feelslike going to the top of the
Empire State Building, putting abungee cord around your waist
and saying, Yeah, hey, bye-bye.
I'm gonna jump in.
SPEAKER_01 (35:51):
I so understand the excitement of that.
Because and I know that anybodythat read my first book, I that
has reached out to me, hastouched them.
There's something in their lifeas a woman that they relate it
to in my book.
But the marketing of on my own,trying to get that book out
there was mind-boggling.
(36:12):
And that's when I decided, look,if you if you live to be a
hundred, this means you're inyour last quarter.
You gotta get the message out tothese women.
And that's when I started thepodcast, which I'm teaching
myself as I go, but I have 25episodes of it.
SPEAKER_00 (36:27):
Me too.
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
But thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (36:30):
Oh, I think I've only done about 15.
But you know what?
SPEAKER_01 (36:34):
I'm gonna go look them up.
SPEAKER_00 (36:35):
No matter what.
You've gone, thank you.
Um, you look at the one that'smy solo podcast, because I
usually do it with guests, butthe one that's conversations
with my younger self.
Yeah, I'm gonna look at that.
I think you'll really, reallyrelate to that.
Um I am going to posted.
There need to be, oh, thank you.
(36:56):
There needs to be more of us,Marie.
There need to be more women whoare entering our what I call our
third act and deciding to do itin a grand way, in a big way, in
a public way, in a helpful way.
And you know, I always said, Ihope my legacy is after I'm
(37:18):
gone, my name is mentioned, andpeople say, And then you think
God, she helped me so much.
Diane's or Diane was so kind.
SPEAKER_01 (37:28):
So you know wrap it up because I'm gonna get it.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
Thank you for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_01 (37:34):
Let's share each other's podcast.
That's the way to go.
I love it.
Okay, I'll get back to you.
We'll do this again.
All right.
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