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Join us for a heartwarming journey as Karen DeLuca unfolds her life's adventures, threaded with tales of strength, reinvention, and unyielding determination. The essence of our conversation captures the art of navigating life's challenges, from the demanding world of fitness to the strategic plays within the corporate sphere, all harmonized with the symphony of twin parenthood. Karen's story resonates with the rhythm of connections made, sometimes serendipitously, and how these bonds blossom over time, teaching us the beauty of being present and receptive to the hidden melodies of life's encounters.
In the throes of physical setbacks and the mental gymnastics that accompany them, Karen's spirit shines as a testament to finding joy in movement, even as the years add texture to our stories. We wade through the waters of recovery, discussing how injuries can reshape our understanding of self-care and the importance of tuning into our body's whispers for moderation. There's a lesson in each pause and a dance in every step taken with care, a narrative Karen illustrates with the grace of a seasoned fitness guide, encouraging us to embrace the journey of health as it evolves.
As the episode unfurls, we're inspired by Karen's chameleon-like adaptability in her professional life. We witness her seamless transition from the fitness arena to a coveted role at MasterCard International, and eventually to the creative haven of her own landscape design business. This courageous new venture falls inside her husband, Jim’s, stunning design world of award winning architectural homes on the Gold Coast of Long Island. We wrap up our conversation by celebrating the successes of passion and pride that blooms within a family, sharing the achievements of children who have grown under the canopy of values sown by their parents. Karen's story, interwoven with reflections on the triumphs of both our families, invites listeners to ponder the rich stories of their lives and the courage it takes to pursue one's passions at any stage.
Become one of Karen’s very first supporters on Instagram in her new venture @sageandstonelandscapedesigner
Explore Jim’s artistic architectural designs @delucadesignsarchitects
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Intro voiceovers by her family: son, Billy Alexander; daughter, Mackenzie Alexander; and husband, Bill Alexander.
Music by Bill Alexander
Produced by Bill Alexander
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Two one.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to.
We Are Made For More.
I am your host, megan Alexander, and this is my podcast.
Hello everybody.
So today on my show we have aspecial guest.
I guess I say that every timebecause I happen to think every
guest is special.
So welcome to my friend, karenDeLuca.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey Karen, hello, good to be here.
How are you Very good?
Thank you, I'm excited to haveyou.
Thank you, I'm excited to behere Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
So what I want to do first is tell everybody a little
bit about you, and then we'lljump in and have a fun
conversation.
That's my goal, OK sounds good.
So, everyone, karen's is a storyof resilience, constantly
evolving with the times andchanges in life, from fitness,
professional to corporateAmerica, to starting a family,
navigating the juggling ofraising her twins while working.
(00:53):
Today We'll talk about some ofKaren's life philosophies and
how she navigated the manychanges that came her way.
So I like to kick off, karen,because we're going to have a
fun conversation and let's tellpeople a little bit about you so
they know you're here, right,yeah, so let's kick off with how
we know each other.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah Well, I have my husband to thank for that
because he, being an architect,has the pleasure of having your
husband help him, his clients,with their audio visual needs,
and that developed into a reallynice friendship and we started
(01:33):
seeing each other throughout theyears at different parties and
then we came together when youhad some fitness needs and you
had some interest in that and itjust we had such great
conversations every time we gottogether.
It just became a greatfriendship.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Totally, totally great, and it's so cool how life
happens that way, right, I'msure everybody can relate to
that.
You meet someone and you'redrawn to that person for a
number of reasons, andthroughout the years we've been
lucky enough to get to know eachother a lot better, and you're
one of my people, so and it'sfunny.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's interesting because there are a few people
in my life where I have met themand instantly felt some kind of
I don't know kindred spirittype of Do I know them from
somewhere else, did I?
Run into them at some point andI kind of felt that way with
(02:32):
you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wow, really.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, from the very start.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
OK, I like hearing that.
It's interesting you say thattoo.
That's something that's been onmy mind lately and we'll
probably talk about this morethan once today which is we've
both recently been injured, andthroughout this kind of injury
journey, we kept running intoeach other at physical therapy.
(02:56):
So here's the funny thing aboutit, though On my very first
podcast episode, my guest talkedabout how there are no
accidents.
You did.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, but there are so many hours in the day Right
and seven days well, six daysand on open on Sundays Right and
two locations and two locations, and so it was funny like the
first time, oh wow, it's sogreat to see you here.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then it happened again and, like you said, one
day it'd be at 10 AM, one dayit'd be 11 AM.
We never planned it and it justkept happening.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yep, it's like we're being drawn together for some
reason.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
For some reason, and I want to OK, let's talk about
that for one minute.
Has anyone out there evernoticed that all of a sudden,
they're running into somebody inlife, and maybe it happens more
than once.
I would implore you to pauseand think about that.
(03:58):
Like, why do I keep runninginto you?
Instead of just saying oh howfunny, what a coincidence, we
keep running into each other.
If you say in some moment, likeI keep running into somebody,
stop and pay attention to that,Absolutely.
Because I think the universe istrying to tell you something.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Am I crazy?
No, I totally agree with that.
I think that you need to be.
You just need to be aware ofthings that are going on in your
life, Because in this crazylife, everyone's rushing, going,
doing, never really taking thattime to pause and think about
things, and I think theimportance of that is that you
(04:34):
can.
Unfortunately, you can miss outon a lot of opportunities if
you don't take the time to pauseand think about why am I
running into Megan, all this?
every time I go to PT at allthese different hours and
different days and differentlocations.
How is that happening?
We have very differentschedules.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We have very busy schedules.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yet we keep running into one another.
So, yeah, and what I love aboutit is that I'm 61 years old and
at 61 years old I met a reallyimportant someone who I think is
a really important person in mylife, and I think I said this
to you recently that our spiritskind of maybe were meant to be
(05:20):
together or to be in eachother's lives.
It just took a really long timefor it to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yes, you did say that Because I think I started to,
like I said, pay attention to usrunning into each other, and I
sent you a text like OK, again,we're friends, we see each other
in other circumstances, but itjust kind of kept happening
where it was.
So like, OK, this isintentional and that's why we
decided to.
We've got to get together andtalk and have this conversation
(05:47):
with everybody out there,because we wanted to pay
attention to it.
So you did, you said hey, I'mso glad that this came full
circle and even though we'vebeen in each other's lives,
we're paying more attention tothat now and able to spend more
time together.
So, yeah, yeah, love it.
So the show is called we AreMade For More.
That's why I just spent so muchtime, even on that segment of
what we just discussed, becauseI think it's important that we
(06:10):
all stop and reflect on things alittle more often.
But everything whizzes by us soquickly and, like you just said
, the pause helps sometimesbring I don't know more clarity
to things, and I'm talking aboutthis right now too, because
your journey is pretty cool.
You just mentioned that we alsohave crossed paths with my
(06:34):
fitness journey.
I've had six guests so far.
Three of them have been part ofmy fitness journey.
What?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
does that tell you I'm?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
constantly trying.
Listen everybody.
Try and fail, try and succeed.
Try, try, try.
I keep trying, but you're oneof those fitness people in my
life, so tell us a little bitabout your story.
Let's start with the fitnessworld, because it started when
you were really young, didn't it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, yeah.
In fact, I love to tell thisstory because it's kind of funny
.
I was three years old and mytwo older sisters, who were only
like 20 months apart from oneanother, they had gone off to
school and I was home.
I was three years old and I washome with my baby sister, who
(07:16):
was only six months old, and Istarted watching.
I was watching TV one day and Ithink it was Romper Room was a
show that was on, and rightafter Romper Room the Jack
LaLaine show would come on.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Jack LaLaine would talk to the television and say,
hey, go get your mom, yourgrandma, your granddad and bring
them over to the TV.
And I felt like he was talkingto me personally and of course I
tried to get my mom to do it.
She never would, but I starteddoing Jack LaLaine his fitness
program at the age of three.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
My goodness, I talked about it very young age.
She got started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And I loved it, and I just from there.
I continued in the fitnessworld.
I became a gymnast and acheerleader.
Then, when I went to college, Iwas teaching intramural
exercise classes.
At the time, jane Fonda was thething, the craze.
This is 1981.
I remember that well.
Yep, and I was doingintramurals at Stony Brook
(08:18):
University and then shortlythereafter, a gym opened, which
that wasn't really a thing backin those days.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
True, they had like hardcore gyms when like guys
went and pumped iron.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
This was more of a fitness club and it was called
Greg Buttle's Health and FitnessCenter and it opened up the
first one.
He ended up owning three, twoon Long Island, one in New
Jersey, but the first one was inEast Meadow and I went in and I
was the first aerobicsinstructor that they hired Wow,
(08:51):
yep, and started teachingclasses, all kinds of low impact
aerobics high impact aerobics,toning classes, stretching
classes.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And how old were you at that time around, or what did
you talk about?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I think I was 20.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
OK, so I'm thinking back to 21.
I love when people tell theirstories.
I kind of try and put myself inthat place.
Where was I then?
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I do remember well the Jane Fonda era, yep and the
tights and the and the legwarmers and the headbands yes,
did you do all that too?
Oh, yes, of course, we alltried to do that.
And then, though, you're right,I remember there was something
called like Jazzercise.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, Right around that time.
Yep, that was all around thesame time.
Yes, but like Jazzercise wasjust for women, that was like a
women's club OK.
It was just classes.
This was a fitness club thathad machines and free weights
and a room just specifically forthe exercise classes and there
was a pool and a hot tub andsteam rooms and so on.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, ok, so it was a full gym at the time.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, and a restaurant and a beauty salon.
I mean it had everything.
It was really truly a club andit was great.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was like belonging to a club.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So that was your first foray into getting paid to
do fitness.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yes, that was my first paying fitness job.
And at the time there wasn'tanything called personal
training.
People would come to the gym,so I was teaching aerobics
classes, but I also was trained.
They trained me.
The fitness director trained meto show people how to use the
equipment.
We used to do fitnessevaluations, so nobody would
(10:24):
start their workouts until theywere evaluated to make sure that
they were healthy enough toactually do a fitness program.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
OK.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So I was trained on all of that, and I was a college
student at the time.
So, I went to school and then Iwas at the gym most of the time
.
I was sometimes opening up orbeing at the gym at 6 in the
morning doing a stretch class at6 AM.
I mean, most college studentswould not be getting up that
early to go to a gym.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So true, I mean, as I hear you talking about it now,
and like I've already said toeverybody that we've known each
other a number of years nowbecause you've always done it.
It's part of the fabric of whoyou are and it's why you look
the way you do.
Quite frankly, you lookfantastic, thank you, amazing
and it's inspiring.
It's inspiring to be aroundsomeone that has such like a
(11:15):
constitution to make that such avalue in your life.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's always been really important to
me.
It makes me feel really goodfor my own health, but it makes
me feel good when I help otherpeople feel good about their
health and it's not necessarilyabout the way they look.
The way you look throughfitness is really just a bonus.
(11:39):
The fitness part of it is howyou feel and I enjoy helping
people feel good.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, let's just put some quotes around that and
boom, we could.
We could be done with thisepisode.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's how good that was.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I feel that that's totally who you are.
When I think of Karen DeLuca,it's that she cares, and I would
say that's my husband.
Like we started working outtogether I don't remember
exactly when, it was a littleover a year ago and I would come
to your fitness studio at yourhouse and I'd always you just
said it I'd feel fantastic afterI left, and it wasn't just
because of the workout.
(12:14):
Karen, you're blast.
You're a blast.
You made it fun.
You know when you're on thebike for 20 minutes and you
would just keep.
Next thing, you know 20 minuteswas over.
You were talking up a storm andyou know how to network people.
Every minute you say thingslike do you know this person?
Do you know that person?
Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
person.
Does it sound like you?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, yeah, so like the gift of gab on top of it,
like just helps people move,helps get them going.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, well, it's, and it's a good distraction and
it's a good way to you know,exercising can sometimes be a
little bit of a chore.
Let's face it.
But when you're doing it withsomeone who you feel really
comfortable with, who you knowthat their goal is to help you
to feel better, you know it justmakes it.
(13:01):
You get sort of a connectionwith them that you can't really
get like when you just go to thegym and you're working out on
your own.
But that's not to say youshouldn't do that.
If that's important Any waythat's going to get you to
exercise, I'm all for it, aslong as it's healthy and
everything's in moderation.
That's my mantra reallymoderation.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah Well, that's a great mantra For me.
Personally, I keep trying to doit.
It's like a get back on thehorse again and weave into our
injuries a little bit here.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know we just mentioned your age.
I'm in my early 50s, so I canrelate to the kind of you know,
age part of life where my bodydoesn't work the same way it
used to and you think it does,you think you're going to get
out there and oh, I can do this,and you feel great, and then
the body doesn't work the sameway, whether it's tendons or
bones or what have you.
(13:55):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat happened with your injury.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well, and just you know, just so everybody knows,
the older you get, the harder itgets.
So it's not that, oh, thisperson is so much better off
than I am.
Everybody has experiencesinjuries at some point in their
life.
As you get older, it does get alittle harder to come back from
the injuries.
I was always very consistent inmy exercise and so it was
(14:22):
pretty shocking to me, not justphysically but emotionally.
It was shocking to me that Igot injured the way I did,
because it was not somethingfancy I wasn't out like doing
like skiing some moguls orsomething.
I was literally demonstrating anexercise to my six am clients.
(14:44):
I had two clients that wouldcome two, three times a week at
six in the morning and I wasdemonstrating a lateral shuffle,
you know, to.
They were just getting intoplaying pickleball and I had
googled what's a good exerciseto strengthen the muscles for
pickleball playing, and thisexercise was one of them and I
went to demonstrate it Because Ido an interval training.
(15:06):
As you know, my workouts areusually interval training, so we
go from one station to anotherstation and this was the last
station of the workout for thatparticular morning and I
shuffled across and I had builtup some momentum and I my foot
caught and my body kept going,so my leg bent the wrong way and
(15:29):
I broke my tibial plateau,which is where all of your
weight bearing goes.
So, that's a that's a tough oneand I was told by my doctor like
, oh, you got the footballinjury.
That's like a big yeahapparently it's only like 2% of
fractures are of the tibialplateau and it's usually
football players or athletes youknow I decide and some of them
(15:51):
well they, they plant, theirplanting and somebody hits them
from the side.
So the leg bends the wrong way.
Yeah, it bends sideways.
So it was.
You know.
I can't even say if it waspainful, because all I knew is,
as I was flying through the air,I knew something bad happened,
because I heard the sound, and Iknew something bad happened.
(16:15):
But I landed and I was like,okay, get myself together.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And I'm gonna, we're gonna, continue exercising it's.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Oh, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
But then you know your body tells you, yeah, okay,
something is really wrong.
So about 20 minutes later I waslike, okay, not feeling great
Time to listen to my body and Istopped the workout.
And as it turned out, it was,it was, it was a break and there
was also ligaments that were,you know, pretty severely
(16:47):
sprained, so from it was tough.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
How long of a recovery was that?
Speaker 1 (16:52):
it was.
I was six weeks in a fullylocked brace, no weight bearing
at all.
So if I had to, you know, go tothe bathroom or take a shower
showering was really hard Iwould have to do that on
crutches, but I couldn't put anyweight on it at all, Wasn't
allowed.
So, it's tough, it was reallytough.
(17:12):
And then six weeks where theyunlocked the brace, I still
couldn't put weight back and Icouldn't you know no weight
bearing.
But I was able to get around alittle better because I could
bend the leg a little bit youknow, because the brace was
unlocked and then it was so thatwas 12 weeks and then it was
probably about another fourweeks without the brace, except
(17:36):
if I was in public.
They wanted the brace on and I,yeah crutches.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So I get that too.
Yeah, they want people to notbump into you.
And it really does make adifference and I'm going through
some of that right now withmyself myself my shoulder
surgery that I had.
But that's not what this storyis about.
But I get that Because I'm outof my sling now.
But they say, wear it out inpublic if you're going like
somewhere because you're stillhealing Right.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They are more considerate when they see a
brace or something and they'llhelp you.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
People will help you like.
Oh, can I open the door for you, or can I right?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, oh, it's amazing how people will really
come, you know, to your aid whenthey see you in a brace or a
sling like you are, and crutches.
So yeah, I would say, alltogether it was.
It was a pretty long process,probably around 15, 18.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, that's a lot, karen, and I saw you a couple of
times during that process so Idefinitely, you know, watched
you kind of go through that.
I don't want to say strugglethrough it, because you always
had a brave face and a smile onyour face, because that's who
you are, but what were some ofthe struggles for you that
during that time?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, the biggest struggle for me was the, the
emotional part and the realitythat I'm not invincible you know
, I, I always worked out, Ialways felt great and I thought,
you know, I never even occurredto me that I could get an
injury that was going toincapacitate me to that degree.
(19:06):
It literally never evenoccurred to me.
So that was a big blow to myego a little bit.
You know, a couple people saidto me oh no, not you, not Karen
DeLuca, you're, you're asuperwoman or a wonder woman or
whatever, and like it was kindof nice that that's how they
(19:29):
looked at me.
Yeah, but it at the same timeit made me a little upset
because I was like no, I'm ahuman being and human beings can
.
I mean I didn't say that toanyone who would say that to me
because I didn't want to makethem feel badly, but I, it was a
little upsetting to me becauseI was like no, I, you know I'm
human, I can't get injured.
You know I'm not invincible andI'm having to come to those
(19:51):
terms.
So everybody around me bettercome to those terms too, and you
know so, I think, and beingsedentary for me right.
I can imagine not someone likeyou.
Yeah, not tough.
What did you do, were?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
you able to do any anything at all during that time
, physically, in terms of movingyour body, because it's your
life, your whole life, yeah well, what my husband did, was he I
was.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I was really just in the den in our family room
because we have an electric youknow, electronic recliner.
So that's where I was sleeping.
Yeah, and that's where I was,and we also have a powder room
in there so I could get to thebathroom a little easier, but
that's where I stayed most ofthe time.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And then recovering, yeah, but then I would.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I was able to hobble into the kitchen and then
showers.
You know my husband would haveto help me with the shower.
That was.
That was the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Okay, listen, I hope everyone can appreciate that I
keep weaving my own story intothis only because the similarity
is real, that I just wentthrough a surgery myself and had
the same experience in terms ofwe knew there would be healing
involved, of course, but Icouldn't move my left arm at all
and my husband had helped me aswell with the showering.
(21:09):
So let's just get personal.
How was that for you?
Did it improve your marriage ordid it hurt your marriage?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You know he was the poor thing.
He was so stressed through thewhole time because, you know, it
was just me and him at home,the kids live in Boston and we
didn't have we really didn'thave any help.
So I felt bad, like so much wason his plate with his business
and now he was like having totake care of me.
(21:36):
And you know, when you're soaccustomed to being an
independent person and notrelying on other people, that
that's a hard pill to swallow.
It is you know and I felt like Iwas.
It was becoming more of anissue for him and I didn't you
know, I felt bad.
I wanted to try to ease hisburden you know, that's my goal
is always to try to ease hisburden, because he's got a lot
(22:00):
on his plate, but now I wasadding to it, so but, I, was, I
was helping him.
I do his administrative workfor him you know for his
business.
So we were able to.
They said our IT guy set us upat home.
He set me up with a laptop andconnected me to my husband.
So I would, I would sit in thedining room with my leg up and I
(22:20):
would do, you know, theadministrative stuff for my
husband.
So I was still able to do that,but that was not until about, I
would say about three or fourweeks into my injury.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, of course you know I've got to heal and so
forth, but it's a listen.
One thing that I walked awaywith my own personal experience
was that I felt so grateful thatI had my husband home, and also
I had I had my kids home.
You just said your kids wereaway.
Well, we'll get to that in aminute.
But I had a family here thatcould, could all help and pitch
in.
But you're right, all of asudden I couldn't do all of
those things that I normallycontribute to household.
(22:52):
Right, and that was tough.
It was hard.
Now grateful for number one,but also tough because I didn't
want to put a burden oneverybody.
But then I think about peoplethat maybe don't have someone at
home to help them through adifficult time or a surgery, and
I was really reflective whendid you feel that at all?
Like moments of like wow, Ithink I have my husband, yes,
and now I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I absolutely did.
But I think, for you know, forwomen, we're just naturally
caregivers Great point, which isfunny because the term is
caretaker.
But really I guess we're takingcare of someone but we're giving
care to people and so not thatmen can't do that they can.
(23:38):
But for women I think it's likea natural thing to want to take
care of people and then, whensomebody has to take care of you
, you feel this like guilt.
But I did get to a point whereI was like I have to let that go
Because I need to focus.
Actually, a friend of mine shesaid that to me.
She said you have to stopfeeling guilty and stop feeling
(24:00):
like you're a burden Because youneed to heal.
You need to use your energy toheal your body.
And she said to me you know howyou use your energy to work out
.
And she said you know how muchthat requires when you're
exercising.
She said your body right now,your knee is working out.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Without moving, it's working out.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's healing.
The healing process is work,and that made a lot of sense to
me.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I love that.
I'm glad you just paused onthat too, because I feel the
same way in life, likeespecially these days, there's
such a push to do so much andwe're used to.
Okay, what you just said iswomen, we I'll say the same
thing as women, we do a lot.
I'm not saying that men don'teverybody.
(24:47):
We're not saying that.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We're just happy talking about ourselves.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So.
But you know mothers, you knowwives, professionals, and then
households, whatever thosethings are.
So it's women to me do a lot.
So it's hard to let somebodyelse step in and like, I guess,
take care of us for a while.
But the healing back to thehealing.
Sorry, got back to the healingfor a minute.
I also believe that you reallycan't fully heal properly when
(25:15):
you have constant stress aroundyou.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yes, Would you agree with that?
Totally agree with that?
Yes, you need.
You need peace and calm in yourlife in order for you to heal.
And you know I had a lot ofstress this summer.
I was still having some stressin my life and it definitely
wreaks havoc on your body.
And if you have something extragoing on in your life, like a
(25:42):
surgery in your shoulder, abroken knee, a torn labrum, that
I now have from a car accidentthat happened at the end of my
when I just started drivingagain.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Unreal.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But I do feel like and I'll get back to it but I
feel like that was a blessing indisguise maybe, but you know,
the stress factor definitelydelays healing and it really, it
really can hinder it.
So you have to, you have tokind of go into a little bit of
(26:15):
a meditation mode, you know,like inward, and just focus on
you know, put all of your energyto your shoulder.
Yeah, the shoulder needs toheal when you're in PT, like lay
there.
I know a lot of times it'ssocial people that are there.
There's lovely people at the PTplace and they want to talk and
(26:37):
whatever, and that's fine.
But when you have theopportunity, focus and just
think about your shoulder andkind of visualize what's
happening inside there and it'shealing and all the little
fibers are coming back togetherand all the nerves are, you know
, regaining their energy againand sending the right signals.
(26:58):
You have to send the signalfrom your brain and from your
emotions to that part of yourbody and I try to do that when,
even with just regular exerciseyou know I'm also a Pilates
instructor- yes, I know.
So Pilates and now practice ofPilates it's we call it mindful
exercise, and I always say to myclients I've probably said it
(27:20):
to you as well you want you toconnect your mind to your muscle
.
So if I'm saying we're workingyour bicep right now, I want
your mind to go right to thatmuscle.
When you do that, it is amazinghow much more effective you can
feel the difference.
And so it's the same thing.
You know whether it's fitnessor it's healing, if you can use
(27:42):
your mind.
I always say fitness is like80% mental, you know, 20%
physical.
If you can use your mind tohelp connect to your body and
tell your body what you want itto do, it makes a huge
difference.
Unfortunately, over the summer,when I was like in like an
(28:03):
emotional roller coaster ride orspiral, I should say I forgot
that for a while.
I guess I was having a littlebit of a pity party.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you're allowed.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I guess I forgot that I needed to spend that time
focusing on healing and gettingmy mind to connect to that part
of my body, so that that's soimportant.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely.
I love that you just describedthat.
And, taking me back to yourPilates classes that I took as
well, and I'm also thinkingabout you know, you talked in
the beginning of this, thisconversation, about how you care
about people, and a couple ofthings also just came to mind.
One is that you also brought abunch of your clients together,
myself included, to go to a yogaclass here on Long Island.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Oh, that's right, I forgot you were with me that day
.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yes, and so here you teach your own Pilates classes,
but you think enough of, hey,let's all try this together.
And then we went to this lovelyplace called the Dreaming Tree
in Northport, New York, but itwas a place of you just made me
think of it because you'retalking about healing and
getting your mind to think andyou walked in this Zen
experience and I love that youbring your clients to to
(29:11):
different moments like that.
Another one was Karen brought meto acupuncture.
Oh wait, I don't know if youthank me for that one?
Yes, I did, but you know, theseare some other things I think
about when I think of you is howdeeply you care about your
clients, is you go above andbeyond.
It's not just okay, a fitnessclass and okay, see you later,
which that there's nothing wrongwith that.
(29:31):
That's great too, but you bringpeople to things that they need
in their life, and you thoughtacupuncture would be great for
me, for something that I needed,and you actually went with me.
You didn't just say hey, here'sthe guy's number, right, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna take you youand sat in the room with me
while I had the needles put it.
So that's just, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So I forgot and you know I forget these things that
I do, sometimes Bad, justhappens when you 61.
Yeah, well, trust me, I'malready.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I think I'm already starting to feel some of those
things too.
I'm like the words.
Do you ever see this?
Like you could see the word upthere in the top of your head
yes, and you're trying to pullit down.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, the simplest words, that's what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, like okay, I know it's there.
Can you please help?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
me.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
What's that word?
About the words, about that,one of my biggest fears, right
now is, is that exact kind ofthing, like from a professional
perspective, even like when youhave to speak in front of the
room and the words sometimes aregetting jumbled these days.
I'm like, come on, you could doit.
You could do it.
Yeah, is that ever happened toyou.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Oh yeah, all the time .
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So just to shift gears for a moment, we talked a
lot about the fitness side of it.
You also were in corporateAmerica, and I don't want to get
too much further withoutmentioning that you have an
amazing family.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
So let's pause for a sec.
Your husband, jim DeLuca, hereon Long Island, has his own
business.
As you mentioned earlier, ourhusbands work together and Jim
owns DeLuca Design Architectshere and would you say, it's in
Cold Spring Harbor.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, Cold Spring Harbor.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yep, and he builds.
Just how would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I mean, he designed my home first of all yes, we're,
we're which has now become myfavorite home, oh wow.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
No it really has.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I love your style.
I love everything you've donein this house.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Thank you, you should do.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You should do a podcast.
Just going around your house,do video taping and talking
about each room.
Very interesting stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Thank you, it's different.
It's different.
I love it, but the outside isjust you know, it's a DeLuca, we
call it, it's a DeLuca Designhouse.
Yeah, so it is, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, I mean he does.
He does mostly residential,custom residential, but he also
he does do some commercial, butnot a lot.
And he definitely has a style.
Like a lot of people will say,I want that DeLuca style.
You know which is it'sbeautiful peaks and you know
(31:46):
beautiful windows and I meanit's just kind of like a
traditional transitional.
Maybe you can call it thatstyle, but he's, it's great.
He's been in business now forabout I want to say, about 35
years.
Has it been Okay?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
He does most of his business I would say like 92% of
his business is in the townshipof Huntington.
I mean, huntington Township ispretty big and wide but he does
a lot in Cold Spring, harborLloyd, harbor Lloyd, nack, santa
Port, huntington, huntingtonHarbor, huntington Bay is a big
one now.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Beautiful homes yeah, they really are.
Oh, thank you.
They're stunning and I you know.
You just mentioned that DeLucahas a look.
I'll mention here my daughtershe's 16 years old has said
numerous times I hope that I'llbe able to have a DeLuca design
house when I own a house.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Oh that, that's a huge compliment.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's what I said.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I'm like you're 16.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Like, maybe we'll hope for that for you too, but
she just, you know, he's notretiring anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So so there you go yeah, he'll be around.
Well, I'm just going to try tokeep him healthy.
I get him to go to the gym too.
I'm sure you do.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
But yeah, jim looks like he works out, so you've
done a good job.
You look great, jim.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, yes, he's doing great, but yeah, so his
business is you know what'sdoing.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Well, and part of I don't know where you were going
just now.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You go, you go and go for it Part of of his business.
He always referred his clientsto landscape designers.
Mm hmm, you know, when it gotto that point and this summer,
when I broke my knee and I wasincapacitated, and literally
(33:28):
like two minutes after Iannounced to my clients that I
was incapacitated and was goingto be for, I thought six weeks,
because that's what the doctororiginally told me six weeks, no
weight bearing.
So I thought, oh, in six weeksfrom now I'll be back.
Mm hmm, that wasn't the case,but everybody went elsewhere,
which I can't blame them, youknow they want to continue with
(33:50):
the fitness program.
So, they had to go find anothergym or whatever and I couldn't
teach any Pilates classes,obviously.
And I realized I need to be aproductive person.
Mm, hmm, I need to be able tomake money.
I'm getting older, yeah, and Ineed to find a way to make some
(34:13):
money and feel productive andfeel like I'm contributing
something positive that doesn'tnecessarily require me to use my
body.
Okay, and that's when I hadsort of an epiphany over the
summer and started reallyseriously thinking about
landscape designing because Ihad done it.
I've always had a huge interestin it and we've done several
(34:34):
projects at my own home and thenI've helped other people,
friends of mine and then one ofmy friends said to me it was
like I was having this thought.
And then she said to me youknow, I was just thinking, I
just saw this advertisement fora landscape designing class.
I think you should look into it.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh really, that's how it started and that's how it
started.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So I looked into it and literally the day that I
called to find out about it wasthe last day for enrollment.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So it was like it was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So I enrolled in the class and in the beginning,
because it was in September, Iwasn't driving yet.
So my husband drove me to thefirst couple of classes, which
was at night, seven to 10pm on.
Thursday nights and he drove meand then a couple weeks, like
(35:27):
maybe the third week, I starteddriving myself.
Unfortunately, that was when Igot into a car accident on the
way home from my class.
Yeah, sitting out of red light,I got rear ended.
Which sort of respray didn't rebreak, thank God but, respray
my ligaments and I tore my hiplabor.
So for me it was like it wasalmost like somebody was
(35:49):
smacking me, you know and goinghello in case you didn't get the
message the first time, youneed to recreate yourself and
this is serious Like don't takethis as like all right, I'm
taking this class and if maybeI'll do something with it, maybe
I won't, you need to dosomething with it.
(36:11):
Right and that's kind of like Ialmost like heard the voice in
my head saying that and so Itook it seriously and I finished
the class, even though I was,you know, now re injured.
I went back, didn't miss oneclass at all and completed it
and got my certification.
It's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, that's really, and so now it's going to be
called it's called Sage andStone Landscape Designer.
Wonderful and it will.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
It's a it's a division of Deluca Designs
Architects.
So now, instead of my husbandreferring his clients to other
landscape designers, he canrefer them to me.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Good for you, Karen.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I mean that's really incredible.
You know I started out thisepisode by saying, like yours is
a story of resilience.
Hopefully we've proven that,the amount of kind of changes
that you've had to make andwe've really only touched, of
course, on a little bit of yourlife, although a big fabric of
it has been fitness right, andso now it's going to be
landscape design.
(37:16):
So a little plug for you hereon Long Island, for anyone
that's looking for landscapedesign in this area We'll put it
up on the thread.
How to find you?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
It's an Instagram it's a brand new Instagram page.
Yes, so I haven't really posted.
I put one little post up there,but I'm I need to go back into
my photo album and find all ofmy before photos and after
photos on some of the projectsthat I've done over the years
that I didn't get paid to do.
(37:45):
But I was just doing, you know,for fun, for friends and family
members and for myself, as Isaid before.
So I will be posting more.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
I'm going to start, I'm going to have an official
launch at some point, okay, andthat's great, but I encourage
anyone that wants to go followKaren, because she needs some
followers.
Yes, because that's part of thecommunity here too is we are
made for more, and yours is astory of that.
You know the constant need,like ebbs and flows of life, and
you're jumping into somethingnew for yourself.
(38:16):
So I hope it's going to begreat.
But I also want to just say youhave two, two children that are
they're grown children now.
They're young adults andthey're out in the world Jake
and Olivia, and they're twins,yes, twins.
Are we allowed to say how oldthey are?
What they might?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
be.
Yeah, no, age is just a number,it's just a number.
They're in their twenties,right?
They're twenty six.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, they're twenty six.
So you know, we jumped fromkind of the beginning of your
story to where we are today,right, we skipped the whole part
, but this was a big part, sojust to talk about, like the,
the kind of changing tides ofyour life cause you were also in
corporate America.
And we can't talk abouteverything today, but tell us
just a little bit about, if youcould, how you transitioned from
(38:57):
okay, went from fitness, keptfitness in your life, but then
to having a family and a littlebit about the corporate part in
the middle.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yeah, so, um so, out of college.
So I, I was teaching classes atGreg bottles and training
people in the fitness room, um,all through college.
And then, when I finishedcollege, they were opening up
their second location and theyhad a trailer uh which, greg,
(39:26):
but I'll approached me and hesaid I want you to sell
memberships pre-openingmemberships, okay, cause he knew
I had just graduated and youknow, I was kind of not figured,
not knowing what I was going todo.
And he said I want you to comeand work for me full time.
So I did, I sold memberships inthe trailer.
That wasn't even, it was underconstruction.
(39:47):
And that's how I met my husbandbecause, he came into the
trailer one day and now, notknowing um that he was the
architect, I tried to sell him amembership and I'm showing him
the model of the gym which hedesigned and he built that model
.
That's great, and he just let mego through this whole, my whole
spiel.
And then at the end I said so,how would you like to pay for
(40:08):
your membership?
And he said, oh well, actuallyI'm the architect who designed
it and I get a free membership.
And I was like I was so annoyed, so right from the start he
annoyed me, so of course I hadto marry him he.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I was going to say he wanted.
He probably loved what he sawand wanted to hear you talk all
about how wonderful his designwas.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Nice job, but all I did was get annoyed with him
because I'm like you, justwasted my time, that's anyway,
so that's how we met, but wereally just were friends for a
long time, um and then.
So I sold memberships at thegym and I would see him.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I would see him there and you know, sometimes he
would walk me to my car at theend of my shift or whatever.
And I did that for about I wantto say maybe a year and a half,
and then I ended up working fora publishing company.
I left there.
I felt like I needed to move on.
I was still teaching, I wasstill connected to the fitness
(41:01):
world because I continuedteaching exercise classes always
.
I, you know I really kind ofnever stopped, except for when I
was pregnant with the twins,but I continued teaching all
along.
So I ended up at a publishingfirm and I was there for eight
years and I started out as anaccount manager no an account
executive and then, uh, withinabout a year and a half, I
(41:25):
became district manager and inabout, at about year three, I
became branch manager of all ofLong Island and Queens and
Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Right, and it was a big job.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
It was a big job.
It was a lot of stress, um, andduring that time Jim and I
ended up getting married and, um, and then buying a house in
Santa port and we, you knowwe're just going along, but it
was a very stressful job and atone point I the company had been
, it went public and then theywere bought out by an
(42:00):
acquisition acquisitions companyand it was just the writing was
on the wall.
They kind of were like pushingme, they wanted me out.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I was making too much money.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, so yeah, good for me, but they were causing me
a lot of stress.
So, um, yeah, so I negotiated agood deal with them and I ended
up leaving and I said to myhusband I said I am so done with
corporate America.
I can't take the stress anymore.
And this before we had the kids, I said I I want to go back to
(42:28):
fitness full time.
So that's when I got certified,as you know, a real
certification as a personaltrainer, cause that's when, now,
personal training was like thething.
Yes, it wasn't back in the earlyeighties when I was first in
the fitness world.
It was not really a thing.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Now it was yeah, and look at it today.
Today is really a thing.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So I got my certification Um and I started
working at a gym and like veryquickly I had I had like 40
clients.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Really it was, yeah, it was, it was really crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
And I was back to back to back clients and it was
a little it was rough, you know,I would have to like say to
somebody oh, jump on the whileyou're warming up on the
treadmill so I could run to thebathroom, you know, real quick,
and then grab a bite ofsomething.
It was a lot, it was a lot, so,um, but I was enjoying it and I
love, you know, I just lovebeing in that world.
(43:22):
And then my former regionalmanager from the publishing
company I had worked for, he hadleft and he moved to mastercard
international and he calls meand he says I have the perfect
job for you.
So I went and I interviewedwith the marketing firm.
Now, did you have kids yet?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Nope, you didn't get this point.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Didn't have kids yet no, um, I went, I interviewed, I
was like.
I said to him I'm like Steve, Ihave no interest in corporate
America.
He's not.
No, no, no.
This is going to be verydifferent.
Trust me, he's like and you'regoing to, it's going to be, it's
a project that you're going torun the show and you're not
going to have to deal with otherpeople.
It's going to be like your ownlittle business within this
marketing firm yeah.
Very compelling.
(44:03):
So I went and I interviewed andI was so Disinterested I can
want to say in in going backinto this corporate world, that
I was so relaxed on thisinterview, so relaxed that, um,
they loved me.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
And then I you were like thinking yeah, I was
thinking I don't want this.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
I have this now.
I don't want this, so I'll justgo.
I had to do it because, steve,you know, as a favor to him.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
I didn't want to make him look bad.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And then I I.
They wanted, you know, theywanted me for this job.
They presented my offer.
I gave them an offer of what Iwanted to earn and they um went
to MasterCard and they said,okay, they met everything I.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I don't want to say demands, but my criteria,
decision to make, because hereyou didn't want it, you're like
I'm going to ask for somethingthat they won't even give me.
They give it to you.
Yes, was that a hard decisionto make to do it?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Well, yeah, and it was kind of funny because when
they told me that they uh, theowners of the marketing firm,
when they called me and said, uh, mastercard agreed, and I was
like it was on a Friday, I go,okay, well, can I think about it
over the weekend?
And they were like, think aboutit.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
We just met all of your.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
I didn't know what I was.
I don't know why you said that,but I did.
I need to think about it.
So that weekend my husband andI sat down and we wrote all the
pros and cons of each thing,staying with in the fitness
world or taking this job and, um, the job kind of had a lot more
benefits.
So I took the job, so you wentfor it.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
I went for it.
We have to pause for one secondbecause I feel like you just
nailed some perfections ofinterviewing.
So for those that are thinkingabout interviews, you know, be,
relaxed, be relaxed is numberone like be yourself, like how
much better can you be if youshow up as your true self?
Of course do your best.
Everybody but relaxed is likeyou could get to see who you
really are right.
(46:03):
And then you talked about whichpart?
Oh, asking for what you reallywant, yes, if you can, right, if
it's in the right marketplacewhere you can ask what you
really want, yeah, and then,even if you get what you want,
number three is think about it,make sure it's the right
decision for you.
So anyway, I just right, youjust kind of nailed those things
, yeah, so thought I'd talkabout it.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, and it's funny because I obviously didn't do
that intentionally, but ithappened.
But it happened and it workedout.
It worked out great because thenI ended up loving that job and
he was right.
It was like my own little world.
I kind of lived in there.
You know, I didn't I didn'tengage with a lot of all the
other account managers because Ididn't have to.
(46:44):
We all had our own accountsthat we managed.
So it was perfect.
And I dealt with MasterCardInternational just like the VPs
with that and at that companyand Ticketmaster, because I was
yeah, oh really yeah, master two.
Yeah, Because the program that Ispearheaded was called the gold
ticket event program and at thetime American Express was doing
(47:04):
their gold card event programand we changed the name to gold
ticket you know, get the goldenticket a golden ticket, maybe we
called it.
You get the best seats in thehouse, Right, if you use your
gold MasterCard, and so myliaison was Ticketmaster,
because if we were, if we had asporting event that we wanted to
(47:25):
get the best seats in the housefor our MasterCard gold
cardholders, I would have tonegotiate with Ticketmaster and
they would work with thewhatever the sporting event
person or the Broadway showproducer, and they would help us
get the best seats in the house.
And you know, it would be likea block of seats and whoever
(47:46):
first come, first serve, whoeverordered the tickets first with
their gold MasterCard, would getthose best seats in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Okay, yeah, so it was a great program.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
I did all the advertising for them.
I actually did some of thedesigning of the ads, so I
worked with our.
We had a whole creative team atthe marketing firm that I
worked for and I would work veryclosely with them and I love
doing the design.
Okay, you know, I've always hadlike a little bit of a you know
(48:14):
interest in designing.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
There you go, because now you're designing a
landscape Right, but yes, yeah,and even with fitness designing
bodies.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's true too, I'm designing bodies.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Now I'm designing landscaping.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I designed ads for newspapers and magazines and
billboards back in the day.
So I got to do.
My creative juices were being,you know really met and how long
were you there, for I was thereabout two and a half years,
okay, but I became pregnant withthe twins during that time and
(48:47):
the job was I did a lot of latenights because a lot of times I
had to be at my office with thecreative team If we were placing
an ad in a newspaper LA Times,you know, 530, hour time is 830,
their time, yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
So I would have to be there.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I would have to be there, and you can't do that
with two babies at home, I know.
So you knew what was important.
Yes, so I left that job, eventhough I really it really
bothered me to leave it.
But I left that job and had thetwins in about three months
into it, after they were born, Iwent right back into fitness
Amazing.
(49:26):
And yeah, and built up apersonal training business.
I trained people at a couple oflocal gyms, yeah.
But then I started trainingpeople at their homes and you
know I worked it around the kidsschedule, my husband being in
his own business.
Yeah, you know, a lot of timesI was training people at 530 in
the morning.
I know they're all sleeping.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
They're all sleeping, right, and then you still get
up and do it, yeah, but like wesaid before, that that's fitness
has been in your life since youwere three years old.
So, yes, I love that.
I love that, I love your wholestory and, like we said, it kind
of, you've shown how youtransition from all these
different things as life goes on.
So just a couple of lastthoughts here as we wrap up
(50:08):
today what inspires you in life?
What are some things thatinspire you?
Speaker 1 (50:14):
You know I was.
I was actually just saying thisrecently to a friend of mine
about how what I love aboutbeing 61 years old is that I'm
still learning.
And as long as you're stilllearning, you're still living,
and I think that's so important.
(50:35):
Like, I've learned a lot oflife lessons over the last year,
almost a year, maybe about ayear.
A lot of life lessons and youthink that you know, you think
at a certain age, you get to acertain age and there's not,
there's nothing more to reallylearn.
But I'm realizing that there'sa lot to learn and I'm also
(50:55):
realizing that it's never toolate to make a change in your
life.
You know, if you, you know, ifyou feel the need to, that
there's something else out thereyou want to do, go for it.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
You know you go for it.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
It doesn't mean you have to leave what you're
presently doing.
You can continue doing that,but if you feel this need to and
it's good sometimes to hang onto what you are doing and then
transition into what you'rereally meant to do- Ooh, I like
that.
I think that that's.
That's something I really havelearned through this experience
(51:31):
with my knee and you knoweverything else.
I've learned that, yeah, it'sjust never too late to make
changes in your life.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Absolutely.
I love it.
I love it.
Thank you for that one.
And what about if I were to sayyou know, what are you most
proud of?
And I'm sure there's a lot ofthings, but Well, I'm going to
say the usual.
Okay, let's go.
People will say my childrenOkay.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
And the family that my husband and I have, you know,
created together.
I think they're amazing.
Kids yeah, they.
Or people.
They're not kids anymore.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
They're your kids, they're my kids.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
They're, they're just amazing.
They have incredible integrityand to me, that is the one of
the most important things I'vealways said to my kids you know
when, if you're going to dosomething, do it from the heart
and um, and you know, be proudof what you're doing you know,
(52:33):
and.
I think, yeah, I think I wouldsay that that's probably the
thing I'm most proud of.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Well, that's a good one, Karen, I have to say it's a
good one.
You brought two people into theworld that you're proud of and
the life lessons that you'vetaught them as you kind of share
your own story.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
And they both exercise is invaluable.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And one works for a fitness company.
I just have to say oh yes,that's true.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Olivia works for no bull, right?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
No bull no bull, not noble right.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
No, bull, which is an athletic, you know clothing
company, yes and uh she, she gotinto that through CrossFit.
She was doing CrossFit and theywere CrossFit sponsors.
So that's really.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
I say it's an up and coming company, but it is fairly
new to the marketplace it isgot a lot of really cool things
going on and Tom Brady justsigned on with them.
Yep, he's like joining forceswith them, which we'll have to
all watch, that everybody.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
And then Jake is your son and he's not in the fitness
world, but no, but he has beenexercising, which was a
challenge to get him to exerciseFor a very long time, and now
he's so into it and I'm so happyfor him because he he really
feels great and he looks amazing.
That's the benefit.
You know he exercised becausehe needed to feel good and and
from it he looks amazing.
(53:48):
So yeah, so he's.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
And they're both in Boston.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Um, and which is a great town, so we get to go and
visit and we love that, exactly,exactly.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Exactly, is there anything as we close today,
anything else that you want toshare with, with everybody?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Um.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
I know it feels like a loaded question, but I don't
leave anything out, just in case.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah, you don't leave any stone unturned.
Sage and stone.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
There we go, sage and stone by the way, Sage is
Olivia's middle name and stonebecause Jake is a landscape.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
Well, he's, he has his undergrad in architecture,
he has his graduate in landscapearchitecture and urban design
and we are going to use him as aconsultant for our for my
landscape designing business.
So whenever there's, you know,patios or a pool or a cabana or
anything like that, he will beconsulting with us.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
That's fantastic.
I love how you brought yourchildren into the name of the
company.
Yeah, that makes it even morespecial.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yep, they're my inspiration.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I can relate to that.
I can relate to that.
That's beautiful.
Well, speaking of inspiration,thank you for the inspiration
that you brought here today toall of us, to myself, for
spending this time with me anddoing this episode.
I hope that.
I hope that a number of peoplehear it.
We always say if one personhears it and it makes a
difference for them, great.
But please like and share,follow the podcast.
(55:18):
Everybody, we are made for more.
Feel free to look me up onMegan Alexander being real and
look up Karen at Karen at Sageand stone.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Oh no, yes, yeah, sage and stone.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
See so new no it is so new, so bear with us Sage and
stone.
Landscape designer.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
That's what.
That's what's on.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Instagram, instagram.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
It's just Sage and stone landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
Perfect, and we can even have them look up your
husband which is Deluca, designsarchitects on Instagram
Wonderful.
And they could take a look athis amazing houses here on Long
Island and hopefully peoplereach out to as well.
But thank you again for coming.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
All right, everybody.
You know what I love to sayPeace out.
Two one.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello and welcome to.
We Are Made For More.
I am your host, megan Alexander, and this is my podcast.
Hello everybody.
So today on my show we have aspecial guest.
I guess I say that every timebecause I happen to think every
guest is special.
So welcome to my friend, karenDeLuca.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey Karen, hello, good to be here.
How are you Very good?
Thank you, I'm excited to haveyou.
Thank you, I'm excited to behere Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
So what I want to do first is tell everybody a little
bit about you, and then we'lljump in and have a fun
conversation.
That's my goal, OK sounds good.
So, everyone, karen's is a storyof resilience, constantly
evolving with the times andchanges in life, from fitness,
professional to corporateAmerica, to starting a family,
navigating the juggling ofraising her twins while working.
(00:53):
Today We'll talk about some ofKaren's life philosophies and
how she navigated the manychanges that came her way.
So I like to kick off, karen,because we're going to have a
fun conversation and let's tellpeople a little bit about you so
they know you're here, right,yeah, so let's kick off with how
we know each other.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah Well, I have my husband to thank for that
because he, being an architect,has the pleasure of having your
husband help him, his clients,with their audio visual needs,
and that developed into a reallynice friendship and we started
(01:33):
seeing each other throughout theyears at different parties and
then we came together when youhad some fitness needs and you
had some interest in that and itjust we had such great
conversations every time we gottogether.
It just became a greatfriendship.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Totally, totally great, and it's so cool how life
happens that way, right, I'msure everybody can relate to
that.
You meet someone and you'redrawn to that person for a
number of reasons, andthroughout the years we've been
lucky enough to get to know eachother a lot better, and you're
one of my people, so and it'sfunny.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's interesting because there are a few people
in my life where I have met themand instantly felt some kind of
I don't know kindred spirittype of Do I know them from
somewhere else, did I?
Run into them at some point andI kind of felt that way with
(02:32):
you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wow, really.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, from the very start.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
OK, I like hearing that.
It's interesting you say thattoo.
That's something that's been onmy mind lately and we'll
probably talk about this morethan once today which is we've
both recently been injured, andthroughout this kind of injury
journey, we kept running intoeach other at physical therapy.
(02:56):
So here's the funny thing aboutit, though On my very first
podcast episode, my guest talkedabout how there are no
accidents.
You did.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, but there are so many hours in the day Right
and seven days well, six daysand on open on Sundays Right and
two locations and two locations, and so it was funny like the
first time, oh wow, it's sogreat to see you here.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And then it happened again and, like you said, one
day it'd be at 10 AM, one dayit'd be 11 AM.
We never planned it and it justkept happening.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yep, it's like we're being drawn together for some
reason.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
For some reason, and I want to OK, let's talk about
that for one minute.
Has anyone out there evernoticed that all of a sudden,
they're running into somebody inlife, and maybe it happens more
than once.
I would implore you to pauseand think about that.
(03:58):
Like, why do I keep runninginto you?
Instead of just saying oh howfunny, what a coincidence, we
keep running into each other.
If you say in some moment, likeI keep running into somebody,
stop and pay attention to that,Absolutely.
Because I think the universe istrying to tell you something.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Am I crazy?
No, I totally agree with that.
I think that you need to be.
You just need to be aware ofthings that are going on in your
life, Because in this crazylife, everyone's rushing, going,
doing, never really taking thattime to pause and think about
things, and I think theimportance of that is that you
(04:34):
can.
Unfortunately, you can miss outon a lot of opportunities if
you don't take the time to pauseand think about why am I
running into Megan, all this?
every time I go to PT at allthese different hours and
different days and differentlocations.
How is that happening?
We have very differentschedules.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We have very busy schedules.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yet we keep running into one another.
So, yeah, and what I love aboutit is that I'm 61 years old and
at 61 years old I met a reallyimportant someone who I think is
a really important person in mylife, and I think I said this
to you recently that our spiritskind of maybe were meant to be
(05:20):
together or to be in eachother's lives.
It just took a really long timefor it to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yes, you did say that Because I think I started to,
like I said, pay attention to usrunning into each other, and I
sent you a text like OK, again,we're friends, we see each other
in other circumstances, but itjust kind of kept happening
where it was.
So like, OK, this isintentional and that's why we
decided to.
We've got to get together andtalk and have this conversation
(05:47):
with everybody out there,because we wanted to pay
attention to it.
So you did, you said hey, I'mso glad that this came full
circle and even though we'vebeen in each other's lives,
we're paying more attention tothat now and able to spend more
time together.
So, yeah, yeah, love it.
So the show is called we AreMade For More.
That's why I just spent so muchtime, even on that segment of
what we just discussed, becauseI think it's important that we
(06:10):
all stop and reflect on things alittle more often.
But everything whizzes by us soquickly and, like you just said
, the pause helps sometimesbring I don't know more clarity
to things, and I'm talking aboutthis right now too, because
your journey is pretty cool.
You just mentioned that we alsohave crossed paths with my
(06:34):
fitness journey.
I've had six guests so far.
Three of them have been part ofmy fitness journey.
What?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
does that tell you I'm?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
constantly trying.
Listen everybody.
Try and fail, try and succeed.
Try, try, try.
I keep trying, but you're oneof those fitness people in my
life, so tell us a little bitabout your story.
Let's start with the fitnessworld, because it started when
you were really young, didn't it?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, yeah.
In fact, I love to tell thisstory because it's kind of funny
.
I was three years old and mytwo older sisters, who were only
like 20 months apart from oneanother, they had gone off to
school and I was home.
I was three years old and I washome with my baby sister, who
(07:16):
was only six months old, and Istarted watching.
I was watching TV one day and Ithink it was Romper Room was a
show that was on, and rightafter Romper Room the Jack
LaLaine show would come on.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Jack LaLaine would talk to the television and say,
hey, go get your mom, yourgrandma, your granddad and bring
them over to the TV.
And I felt like he was talkingto me personally and of course I
tried to get my mom to do it.
She never would, but I starteddoing Jack LaLaine his fitness
program at the age of three.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
My goodness, I talked about it very young age.
She got started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And I loved it, and I just from there.
I continued in the fitnessworld.
I became a gymnast and acheerleader.
Then, when I went to college, Iwas teaching intramural
exercise classes.
At the time, jane Fonda was thething, the craze.
This is 1981.
I remember that well.
Yep, and I was doingintramurals at Stony Brook
(08:18):
University and then shortlythereafter, a gym opened, which
that wasn't really a thing backin those days.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
True, they had like hardcore gyms when like guys
went and pumped iron.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
This was more of a fitness club and it was called
Greg Buttle's Health and FitnessCenter and it opened up the
first one.
He ended up owning three, twoon Long Island, one in New
Jersey, but the first one was inEast Meadow and I went in and I
was the first aerobicsinstructor that they hired Wow,
(08:51):
yep, and started teachingclasses, all kinds of low impact
aerobics high impact aerobics,toning classes, stretching
classes.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And how old were you at that time around, or what did
you talk about?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I think I was 20.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
OK, so I'm thinking back to 21.
I love when people tell theirstories.
I kind of try and put myself inthat place.
Where was I then?
Right?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I do remember well the Jane Fonda era, yep and the
tights and the and the legwarmers and the headbands yes,
did you do all that too?
Oh, yes, of course, we alltried to do that.
And then, though, you're right,I remember there was something
called like Jazzercise.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, Right around that time.
Yep, that was all around thesame time.
Yes, but like Jazzercise wasjust for women, that was like a
women's club OK.
It was just classes.
This was a fitness club thathad machines and free weights
and a room just specifically forthe exercise classes and there
was a pool and a hot tub andsteam rooms and so on.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, ok, so it was a full gym at the time.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, and a restaurant and a beauty salon.
I mean it had everything.
It was really truly a club andit was great.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was like belonging to a club.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So that was your first foray into getting paid to
do fitness.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yes, that was my first paying fitness job.
And at the time there wasn'tanything called personal
training.
People would come to the gym,so I was teaching aerobics
classes, but I also was trained.
They trained me.
The fitness director trained meto show people how to use the
equipment.
We used to do fitnessevaluations, so nobody would
(10:24):
start their workouts until theywere evaluated to make sure that
they were healthy enough toactually do a fitness program.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
OK.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So I was trained on all of that, and I was a college
student at the time.
So, I went to school and then Iwas at the gym most of the time
.
I was sometimes opening up orbeing at the gym at 6 in the
morning doing a stretch class at6 AM.
I mean, most college studentswould not be getting up that
early to go to a gym.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So true, I mean, as I hear you talking about it now,
and like I've already said toeverybody that we've known each
other a number of years nowbecause you've always done it.
It's part of the fabric of whoyou are and it's why you look
the way you do.
Quite frankly, you lookfantastic, thank you, amazing
and it's inspiring.
It's inspiring to be aroundsomeone that has such like a
(11:15):
constitution to make that such avalue in your life.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's always been really important to
me.
It makes me feel really goodfor my own health, but it makes
me feel good when I help otherpeople feel good about their
health and it's not necessarilyabout the way they look.
The way you look throughfitness is really just a bonus.
(11:39):
The fitness part of it is howyou feel and I enjoy helping
people feel good.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, let's just put some quotes around that and
boom, we could.
We could be done with thisepisode.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's how good that was.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
I feel that that's totally who you are.
When I think of Karen DeLuca,it's that she cares, and I would
say that's my husband.
Like we started working outtogether I don't remember
exactly when, it was a littleover a year ago and I would come
to your fitness studio at yourhouse and I'd always you just
said it I'd feel fantastic afterI left, and it wasn't just
because of the workout.
(12:14):
Karen, you're blast.
You're a blast.
You made it fun.
You know when you're on thebike for 20 minutes and you
would just keep.
Next thing, you know 20 minuteswas over.
You were talking up a storm andyou know how to network people.
Every minute you say thingslike do you know this person?
Do you know that person?
Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
person.
Does it sound like you?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, yeah, so like the gift of gab on top of it,
like just helps people move,helps get them going.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, well, it's, and it's a good distraction and
it's a good way to you know,exercising can sometimes be a
little bit of a chore.
Let's face it.
But when you're doing it withsomeone who you feel really
comfortable with, who you knowthat their goal is to help you
to feel better, you know it justmakes it.
(13:01):
You get sort of a connectionwith them that you can't really
get like when you just go to thegym and you're working out on
your own.
But that's not to say youshouldn't do that.
If that's important Any waythat's going to get you to
exercise, I'm all for it, aslong as it's healthy and
everything's in moderation.
That's my mantra reallymoderation.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Yeah Well, that's a great mantra For me.
Personally, I keep trying to doit.
It's like a get back on thehorse again and weave into our
injuries a little bit here.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know we just mentioned your age.
I'm in my early 50s, so I canrelate to the kind of you know,
age part of life where my bodydoesn't work the same way it
used to and you think it does,you think you're going to get
out there and oh, I can do this,and you feel great, and then
the body doesn't work the sameway, whether it's tendons or
bones or what have you.
(13:55):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat happened with your injury.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well, and just you know, just so everybody knows,
the older you get, the harder itgets.
So it's not that, oh, thisperson is so much better off
than I am.
Everybody has experiencesinjuries at some point in their
life.
As you get older, it does get alittle harder to come back from
the injuries.
I was always very consistent inmy exercise and so it was
(14:22):
pretty shocking to me, not justphysically but emotionally.
It was shocking to me that Igot injured the way I did,
because it was not somethingfancy I wasn't out like doing
like skiing some moguls orsomething.
I was literally demonstrating anexercise to my six am clients.
(14:44):
I had two clients that wouldcome two, three times a week at
six in the morning and I wasdemonstrating a lateral shuffle,
you know, to.
They were just getting intoplaying pickleball and I had
googled what's a good exerciseto strengthen the muscles for
pickleball playing, and thisexercise was one of them and I
went to demonstrate it Because Ido an interval training.
(15:06):
As you know, my workouts areusually interval training, so we
go from one station to anotherstation and this was the last
station of the workout for thatparticular morning and I
shuffled across and I had builtup some momentum and I my foot
caught and my body kept going,so my leg bent the wrong way and
(15:29):
I broke my tibial plateau,which is where all of your
weight bearing goes.
So, that's a that's a tough oneand I was told by my doctor like
, oh, you got the footballinjury.
That's like a big yeahapparently it's only like 2% of
fractures are of the tibialplateau and it's usually
football players or athletes youknow I decide and some of them
(15:51):
well they, they plant, theirplanting and somebody hits them
from the side.
So the leg bends the wrong way.
Yeah, it bends sideways.
So it was.
You know.
I can't even say if it waspainful, because all I knew is,
as I was flying through the air,I knew something bad happened,
because I heard the sound, and Iknew something bad happened.
(16:15):
But I landed and I was like,okay, get myself together.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And I'm gonna, we're gonna, continue exercising it's.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Oh, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
But then you know your body tells you, yeah, okay,
something is really wrong.
So about 20 minutes later I waslike, okay, not feeling great
Time to listen to my body and Istopped the workout.
And as it turned out, it was,it was, it was a break and there
was also ligaments that were,you know, pretty severely
(16:47):
sprained, so from it was tough.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
How long of a recovery was that?
Speaker 1 (16:52):
it was.
I was six weeks in a fullylocked brace, no weight bearing
at all.
So if I had to, you know, go tothe bathroom or take a shower
showering was really hard Iwould have to do that on
crutches, but I couldn't put anyweight on it at all, Wasn't
allowed.
So, it's tough, it was reallytough.
(17:12):
And then six weeks where theyunlocked the brace, I still
couldn't put weight back and Icouldn't you know no weight
bearing.
But I was able to get around alittle better because I could
bend the leg a little bit youknow, because the brace was
unlocked and then it was so thatwas 12 weeks and then it was
probably about another fourweeks without the brace, except
(17:36):
if I was in public.
They wanted the brace on and I,yeah crutches.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So I get that too.
Yeah, they want people to notbump into you.
And it really does make adifference and I'm going through
some of that right now withmyself myself my shoulder
surgery that I had.
But that's not what this storyis about.
But I get that Because I'm outof my sling now.
But they say, wear it out inpublic if you're going like
somewhere because you're stillhealing Right.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
They are more considerate when they see a
brace or something and they'llhelp you.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
People will help you like.
Oh, can I open the door for you, or can I right?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, oh, it's amazing how people will really
come, you know, to your aid whenthey see you in a brace or a
sling like you are, and crutches.
So yeah, I would say, alltogether it was.
It was a pretty long process,probably around 15, 18.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, that's a lot, karen, and I saw you a couple of
times during that process so Idefinitely, you know, watched
you kind of go through that.
I don't want to say strugglethrough it, because you always
had a brave face and a smile onyour face, because that's who
you are, but what were some ofthe struggles for you that
during that time?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, the biggest struggle for me was the, the
emotional part and the realitythat I'm not invincible you know
, I, I always worked out, Ialways felt great and I thought,
you know, I never even occurredto me that I could get an
injury that was going toincapacitate me to that degree.
(19:06):
It literally never evenoccurred to me.
So that was a big blow to myego a little bit.
You know, a couple people saidto me oh no, not you, not Karen
DeLuca, you're, you're asuperwoman or a wonder woman or
whatever, and like it was kindof nice that that's how they
(19:29):
looked at me.
Yeah, but it at the same timeit made me a little upset
because I was like no, I'm ahuman being and human beings can
.
I mean I didn't say that toanyone who would say that to me
because I didn't want to makethem feel badly, but I, it was a
little upsetting to me becauseI was like no, I, you know I'm
human, I can't get injured.
You know I'm not invincible andI'm having to come to those
(19:51):
terms.
So everybody around me bettercome to those terms too, and you
know so, I think, and beingsedentary for me right.
I can imagine not someone likeyou.
Yeah, not tough.
What did you do, were?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
you able to do any anything at all during that time
, physically, in terms of movingyour body, because it's your
life, your whole life, yeah well, what my husband did, was he I
was.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I was really just in the den in our family room
because we have an electric youknow, electronic recliner.
So that's where I was sleeping.
Yeah, and that's where I was,and we also have a powder room
in there so I could get to thebathroom a little easier, but
that's where I stayed most ofthe time.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And then recovering, yeah, but then I would.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I was able to hobble into the kitchen and then
showers.
You know my husband would haveto help me with the shower.
That was.
That was the hardest part.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Okay, listen, I hope everyone can appreciate that I
keep weaving my own story intothis only because the similarity
is real, that I just wentthrough a surgery myself and had
the same experience in terms ofwe knew there would be healing
involved, of course, but Icouldn't move my left arm at all
and my husband had helped me aswell with the showering.
(21:09):
So let's just get personal.
How was that for you?
Did it improve your marriage ordid it hurt your marriage?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You know he was the poor thing.
He was so stressed through thewhole time because, you know, it
was just me and him at home,the kids live in Boston and we
didn't have we really didn'thave any help.
So I felt bad, like so much wason his plate with his business
and now he was like having totake care of me.
(21:36):
And you know, when you're soaccustomed to being an
independent person and notrelying on other people, that
that's a hard pill to swallow.
It is you know and I felt like Iwas.
It was becoming more of anissue for him and I didn't you
know, I felt bad.
I wanted to try to ease hisburden you know, that's my goal
is always to try to ease hisburden, because he's got a lot
(22:00):
on his plate, but now I wasadding to it, so but, I, was, I
was helping him.
I do his administrative workfor him you know for his
business.
So we were able to.
They said our IT guy set us upat home.
He set me up with a laptop andconnected me to my husband.
So I would, I would sit in thedining room with my leg up and I
(22:20):
would do, you know, theadministrative stuff for my
husband.
So I was still able to do that,but that was not until about, I
would say about three or fourweeks into my injury.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, of course you know I've got to heal and so
forth, but it's a listen.
One thing that I walked awaywith my own personal experience
was that I felt so grateful thatI had my husband home, and also
I had I had my kids home.
You just said your kids wereaway.
Well, we'll get to that in aminute.
But I had a family here thatcould, could all help and pitch
in.
But you're right, all of asudden I couldn't do all of
those things that I normallycontribute to household.
(22:52):
Right, and that was tough.
It was hard.
Now grateful for number one,but also tough because I didn't
want to put a burden oneverybody.
But then I think about peoplethat maybe don't have someone at
home to help them through adifficult time or a surgery, and
I was really reflective whendid you feel that at all?
Like moments of like wow, Ithink I have my husband, yes,
and now I absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I absolutely did.
But I think, for you know, forwomen, we're just naturally
caregivers Great point, which isfunny because the term is
caretaker.
But really I guess we're takingcare of someone but we're giving
care to people and so not thatmen can't do that they can.
(23:38):
But for women I think it's likea natural thing to want to take
care of people and then, whensomebody has to take care of you
, you feel this like guilt.
But I did get to a point whereI was like I have to let that go
Because I need to focus.
Actually, a friend of mine shesaid that to me.
She said you have to stopfeeling guilty and stop feeling
(24:00):
like you're a burden Because youneed to heal.
You need to use your energy toheal your body.
And she said to me you know howyou use your energy to work out
.
And she said you know how muchthat requires when you're
exercising.
She said your body right now,your knee is working out.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Without moving, it's working out.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It's healing.
The healing process is work,and that made a lot of sense to
me.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I love that.
I'm glad you just paused onthat too, because I feel the
same way in life, likeespecially these days, there's
such a push to do so much andwe're used to.
Okay, what you just said iswomen, we I'll say the same
thing as women, we do a lot.
I'm not saying that men don'teverybody.
(24:47):
We're not saying that.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We're just happy talking about ourselves.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So.
But you know mothers, you knowwives, professionals, and then
households, whatever thosethings are.
So it's women to me do a lot.
So it's hard to let somebodyelse step in and like, I guess,
take care of us for a while.
But the healing back to thehealing.
Sorry, got back to the healingfor a minute.
I also believe that you reallycan't fully heal properly when
(25:15):
you have constant stress aroundyou.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yes, Would you agree with that?
Totally agree with that?
Yes, you need.
You need peace and calm in yourlife in order for you to heal.
And you know I had a lot ofstress this summer.
I was still having some stressin my life and it definitely
wreaks havoc on your body.
And if you have something extragoing on in your life, like a
(25:42):
surgery in your shoulder, abroken knee, a torn labrum, that
I now have from a car accidentthat happened at the end of my
when I just started drivingagain.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Unreal.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But I do feel like and I'll get back to it but I
feel like that was a blessing indisguise maybe, but you know,
the stress factor definitelydelays healing and it really, it
really can hinder it.
So you have to, you have tokind of go into a little bit of
(26:15):
a meditation mode, you know,like inward, and just focus on
you know, put all of your energyto your shoulder.
Yeah, the shoulder needs toheal when you're in PT, like lay
there.
I know a lot of times it'ssocial people that are there.
There's lovely people at the PTplace and they want to talk and
(26:37):
whatever, and that's fine.
But when you have theopportunity, focus and just
think about your shoulder andkind of visualize what's
happening inside there and it'shealing and all the little
fibers are coming back togetherand all the nerves are, you know
, regaining their energy againand sending the right signals.
(26:58):
You have to send the signalfrom your brain and from your
emotions to that part of yourbody and I try to do that when,
even with just regular exerciseyou know I'm also a Pilates
instructor- yes, I know.
So Pilates and now practice ofPilates it's we call it mindful
exercise, and I always say to myclients I've probably said it
(27:20):
to you as well you want you toconnect your mind to your muscle
.
So if I'm saying we're workingyour bicep right now, I want
your mind to go right to thatmuscle.
When you do that, it is amazinghow much more effective you can
feel the difference.
And so it's the same thing.
You know whether it's fitnessor it's healing, if you can use
(27:42):
your mind.
I always say fitness is like80% mental, you know, 20%
physical.
If you can use your mind tohelp connect to your body and
tell your body what you want itto do, it makes a huge
difference.
Unfortunately, over the summer,when I was like in like an
(28:03):
emotional roller coaster ride orspiral, I should say I forgot
that for a while.
I guess I was having a littlebit of a pity party.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you're allowed.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I guess I forgot that I needed to spend that time
focusing on healing and gettingmy mind to connect to that part
of my body, so that that's soimportant.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely.
I love that you just describedthat.
And, taking me back to yourPilates classes that I took as
well, and I'm also thinkingabout you know, you talked in
the beginning of this, thisconversation, about how you care
about people, and a couple ofthings also just came to mind.
One is that you also brought abunch of your clients together,
myself included, to go to a yogaclass here on Long Island.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Oh, that's right, I forgot you were with me that day
.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yes, and so here you teach your own Pilates classes,
but you think enough of, hey,let's all try this together.
And then we went to this lovelyplace called the Dreaming Tree
in Northport, New York, but itwas a place of you just made me
think of it because you'retalking about healing and
getting your mind to think andyou walked in this Zen
experience and I love that youbring your clients to to
(29:11):
different moments like that.
Another one was Karen brought meto acupuncture.
Oh wait, I don't know if youthank me for that one?
Yes, I did, but you know, theseare some other things I think
about when I think of you is howdeeply you care about your
clients, is you go above andbeyond.
It's not just okay, a fitnessclass and okay, see you later,
which that there's nothing wrongwith that.
(29:31):
That's great too, but you bringpeople to things that they need
in their life, and you thoughtacupuncture would be great for
me, for something that I needed,and you actually went with me.
You didn't just say hey, here'sthe guy's number, right, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna take you youand sat in the room with me
while I had the needles put it.
So that's just, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So I forgot and you know I forget these things that
I do, sometimes Bad, justhappens when you 61.
Yeah, well, trust me, I'malready.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
I think I'm already starting to feel some of those
things too.
I'm like the words.
Do you ever see this?
Like you could see the word upthere in the top of your head
yes, and you're trying to pullit down.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah, the simplest words, that's what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, like okay, I know it's there.
Can you please help?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
me.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
What's that word?
About the words, about that,one of my biggest fears, right
now is, is that exact kind ofthing, like from a professional
perspective, even like when youhave to speak in front of the
room and the words sometimes aregetting jumbled these days.
I'm like, come on, you could doit.
You could do it.
Yeah, is that ever happened toyou.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Oh yeah, all the time .
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So just to shift gears for a moment, we talked a
lot about the fitness side of it.
You also were in corporateAmerica, and I don't want to get
too much further withoutmentioning that you have an
amazing family.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
So let's pause for a sec.
Your husband, jim DeLuca, hereon Long Island, has his own
business.
As you mentioned earlier, ourhusbands work together and Jim
owns DeLuca Design Architectshere and would you say, it's in
Cold Spring Harbor.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, Cold Spring Harbor.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yep, and he builds.
Just how would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I mean, he designed my home first of all yes, we're,
we're which has now become myfavorite home, oh wow.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
No it really has.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I love your style.
I love everything you've donein this house.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Thank you, you should do.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You should do a podcast.
Just going around your house,do video taping and talking
about each room.
Very interesting stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Thank you, it's different.
It's different.
I love it, but the outside isjust you know, it's a DeLuca, we
call it, it's a DeLuca Designhouse.
Yeah, so it is, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, I mean he does.
He does mostly residential,custom residential, but he also
he does do some commercial, butnot a lot.
And he definitely has a style.
Like a lot of people will say,I want that DeLuca style.
You know which is it'sbeautiful peaks and you know
(31:46):
beautiful windows and I meanit's just kind of like a
traditional transitional.
Maybe you can call it thatstyle, but he's, it's great.
He's been in business now forabout I want to say, about 35
years.
Has it been Okay?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
He does most of his business I would say like 92% of
his business is in the townshipof Huntington.
I mean, huntington Township ispretty big and wide but he does
a lot in Cold Spring, harborLloyd, harbor Lloyd, nack, santa
Port, huntington, huntingtonHarbor, huntington Bay is a big
one now.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Beautiful homes yeah, they really are.
Oh, thank you.
They're stunning and I you know.
You just mentioned that DeLucahas a look.
I'll mention here my daughtershe's 16 years old has said
numerous times I hope that I'llbe able to have a DeLuca design
house when I own a house.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Oh that, that's a huge compliment.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's what I said.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I'm like you're 16.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Like, maybe we'll hope for that for you too, but
she just, you know, he's notretiring anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So so there you go yeah, he'll be around.
Well, I'm just going to try tokeep him healthy.
I get him to go to the gym too.
I'm sure you do.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
But yeah, jim looks like he works out, so you've
done a good job.
You look great, jim.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, yes, he's doing great, but yeah, so his
business is you know what'sdoing.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Well, and part of I don't know where you were going
just now.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You go, you go and go for it Part of of his business.
He always referred his clientsto landscape designers.
Mm hmm, you know, when it gotto that point and this summer,
when I broke my knee and I wasincapacitated, and literally
(33:28):
like two minutes after Iannounced to my clients that I
was incapacitated and was goingto be for, I thought six weeks,
because that's what the doctororiginally told me six weeks, no
weight bearing.
So I thought, oh, in six weeksfrom now I'll be back.
Mm hmm, that wasn't the case,but everybody went elsewhere,
which I can't blame them, youknow they want to continue with
(33:50):
the fitness program.
So, they had to go find anothergym or whatever and I couldn't
teach any Pilates classes,obviously.
And I realized I need to be aproductive person.
Mm, hmm, I need to be able tomake money.
I'm getting older, yeah, and Ineed to find a way to make some
(34:13):
money and feel productive andfeel like I'm contributing
something positive that doesn'tnecessarily require me to use my
body.
Okay, and that's when I hadsort of an epiphany over the
summer and started reallyseriously thinking about
landscape designing because Ihad done it.
I've always had a huge interestin it and we've done several
(34:34):
projects at my own home and thenI've helped other people,
friends of mine and then one ofmy friends said to me it was
like I was having this thought.
And then she said to me youknow, I was just thinking, I
just saw this advertisement fora landscape designing class.
I think you should look into it.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh really, that's how it started and that's how it
started.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So I looked into it and literally the day that I
called to find out about it wasthe last day for enrollment.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
So it was like it was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So I enrolled in the class and in the beginning,
because it was in September, Iwasn't driving yet.
So my husband drove me to thefirst couple of classes, which
was at night, seven to 10pm on.
Thursday nights and he drove meand then a couple weeks, like
(35:27):
maybe the third week, I starteddriving myself.
Unfortunately, that was when Igot into a car accident on the
way home from my class.
Yeah, sitting out of red light,I got rear ended.
Which sort of respray didn't rebreak, thank God but, respray
my ligaments and I tore my hiplabor.
So for me it was like it wasalmost like somebody was
(35:49):
smacking me, you know and goinghello in case you didn't get the
message the first time, youneed to recreate yourself and
this is serious Like don't takethis as like all right, I'm
taking this class and if maybeI'll do something with it, maybe
I won't, you need to dosomething with it.
(36:11):
Right and that's kind of like Ialmost like heard the voice in
my head saying that and so Itook it seriously and I finished
the class, even though I was,you know, now re injured.
I went back, didn't miss oneclass at all and completed it
and got my certification.
It's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, that's really, and so now it's going to be
called it's called Sage andStone Landscape Designer.
Wonderful and it will.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
It's a it's a division of Deluca Designs
Architects.
So now, instead of my husbandreferring his clients to other
landscape designers, he canrefer them to me.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Good for you, Karen.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I mean that's really incredible.
You know I started out thisepisode by saying, like yours is
a story of resilience.
Hopefully we've proven that,the amount of kind of changes
that you've had to make andwe've really only touched, of
course, on a little bit of yourlife, although a big fabric of
it has been fitness right, andso now it's going to be
landscape design.
(37:16):
So a little plug for you hereon Long Island, for anyone
that's looking for landscapedesign in this area We'll put it
up on the thread.
How to find you?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
It's an Instagram it's a brand new Instagram page.
Yes, so I haven't really posted.
I put one little post up there,but I'm I need to go back into
my photo album and find all ofmy before photos and after
photos on some of the projectsthat I've done over the years
that I didn't get paid to do.
(37:45):
But I was just doing, you know,for fun, for friends and family
members and for myself, as Isaid before.
So I will be posting more.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
I'm going to start, I'm going to have an official
launch at some point, okay, andthat's great, but I encourage
anyone that wants to go followKaren, because she needs some
followers.
Yes, because that's part of thecommunity here too is we are
made for more, and yours is astory of that.
You know the constant need,like ebbs and flows of life, and
you're jumping into somethingnew for yourself.
(38:16):
So I hope it's going to begreat.
But I also want to just say youhave two, two children that are
they're grown children now.
They're young adults andthey're out in the world Jake
and Olivia, and they're twins,yes, twins.
Are we allowed to say how oldthey are?
What they might?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
be.
Yeah, no, age is just a number,it's just a number.
They're in their twenties,right?
They're twenty six.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, they're twenty six.
So you know, we jumped fromkind of the beginning of your
story to where we are today,right, we skipped the whole part
, but this was a big part, sojust to talk about, like the,
the kind of changing tides ofyour life cause you were also in
corporate America.
And we can't talk abouteverything today, but tell us
just a little bit about, if youcould, how you transitioned from
(38:57):
okay, went from fitness, keptfitness in your life, but then
to having a family and a littlebit about the corporate part in
the middle.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yeah, so, um so, out of college.
So I, I was teaching classes atGreg bottles and training
people in the fitness room, um,all through college.
And then, when I finishedcollege, they were opening up
their second location and theyhad a trailer uh which, greg,
(39:26):
but I'll approached me and hesaid I want you to sell
memberships pre-openingmemberships, okay, cause he knew
I had just graduated and youknow, I was kind of not figured,
not knowing what I was going todo.
And he said I want you to comeand work for me full time.
So I did, I sold memberships inthe trailer.
That wasn't even, it was underconstruction.
(39:47):
And that's how I met my husbandbecause, he came into the
trailer one day and now, notknowing um that he was the
architect, I tried to sell him amembership and I'm showing him
the model of the gym which hedesigned and he built that model
.
That's great, and he just let mego through this whole, my whole
spiel.
And then at the end I said so,how would you like to pay for
(40:08):
your membership?
And he said, oh well, actuallyI'm the architect who designed
it and I get a free membership.
And I was like I was so annoyed, so right from the start he
annoyed me, so of course I hadto marry him he.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
I was going to say he wanted.
He probably loved what he sawand wanted to hear you talk all
about how wonderful his designwas.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Nice job, but all I did was get annoyed with him
because I'm like you, justwasted my time, that's anyway,
so that's how we met, but wereally just were friends for a
long time, um and then.
So I sold memberships at thegym and I would see him.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I would see him there and you know, sometimes he
would walk me to my car at theend of my shift or whatever.
And I did that for about I wantto say maybe a year and a half,
and then I ended up working fora publishing company.
I left there.
I felt like I needed to move on.
I was still teaching, I wasstill connected to the fitness
(41:01):
world because I continuedteaching exercise classes always
.
I, you know I really kind ofnever stopped, except for when I
was pregnant with the twins,but I continued teaching all
along.
So I ended up at a publishingfirm and I was there for eight
years and I started out as anaccount manager no an account
executive and then, uh, withinabout a year and a half, I
(41:25):
became district manager and inabout, at about year three, I
became branch manager of all ofLong Island and Queens and
Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Right, and it was a big job.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
It was a big job.
It was a lot of stress, um, andduring that time Jim and I
ended up getting married and, um, and then buying a house in
Santa port and we, you knowwe're just going along, but it
was a very stressful job and atone point I the company had been
, it went public and then theywere bought out by an
(42:00):
acquisition acquisitions companyand it was just the writing was
on the wall.
They kind of were like pushingme, they wanted me out.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I was making too much money.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, so yeah, good for me, but they were causing me
a lot of stress.
So, um, yeah, so I negotiated agood deal with them and I ended
up leaving and I said to myhusband I said I am so done with
corporate America.
I can't take the stress anymore.
And this before we had the kids, I said I I want to go back to
(42:28):
fitness full time.
So that's when I got certified,as you know, a real
certification as a personaltrainer, cause that's when, now,
personal training was like thething.
Yes, it wasn't back in the earlyeighties when I was first in
the fitness world.
It was not really a thing.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Now it was yeah, and look at it today.
Today is really a thing.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So I got my certification Um and I started
working at a gym and like veryquickly I had I had like 40
clients.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Really it was, yeah, it was, it was really crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
And I was back to back to back clients and it was
a little it was rough, you know,I would have to like say to
somebody oh, jump on the whileyou're warming up on the
treadmill so I could run to thebathroom, you know, real quick,
and then grab a bite ofsomething.
It was a lot, it was a lot, so,um, but I was enjoying it and I
love, you know, I just lovebeing in that world.
(43:22):
And then my former regionalmanager from the publishing
company I had worked for, he hadleft and he moved to mastercard
international and he calls meand he says I have the perfect
job for you.
So I went and I interviewedwith the marketing firm.
Now, did you have kids yet?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Nope, you didn't get this point.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Didn't have kids yet no, um, I went, I interviewed, I
was like.
I said to him I'm like Steve, Ihave no interest in corporate
America.
He's not.
No, no, no.
This is going to be verydifferent.
Trust me, he's like and you'regoing to, it's going to be, it's
a project that you're going torun the show and you're not
going to have to deal with otherpeople.
It's going to be like your ownlittle business within this
marketing firm yeah.
Very compelling.
(44:03):
So I went and I interviewed andI was so Disinterested I can
want to say in in going backinto this corporate world, that
I was so relaxed on thisinterview, so relaxed that, um,
they loved me.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
And then I you were like thinking yeah, I was
thinking I don't want this.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
I have this now.
I don't want this, so I'll justgo.
I had to do it because, steve,you know, as a favor to him.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
I didn't want to make him look bad.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And then I I.
They wanted, you know, theywanted me for this job.
They presented my offer.
I gave them an offer of what Iwanted to earn and they um went
to MasterCard and they said,okay, they met everything I.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I don't want to say demands, but my criteria,
decision to make, because hereyou didn't want it, you're like
I'm going to ask for somethingthat they won't even give me.
They give it to you.
Yes, was that a hard decisionto make to do it?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Well, yeah, and it was kind of funny because when
they told me that they uh, theowners of the marketing firm,
when they called me and said, uh, mastercard agreed, and I was
like it was on a Friday, I go,okay, well, can I think about it
over the weekend?
And they were like, think aboutit.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
We just met all of your.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
I didn't know what I was.
I don't know why you said that,but I did.
I need to think about it.
So that weekend my husband andI sat down and we wrote all the
pros and cons of each thing,staying with in the fitness
world or taking this job and, um, the job kind of had a lot more
benefits.
So I took the job, so you wentfor it.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
I went for it.
We have to pause for one secondbecause I feel like you just
nailed some perfections ofinterviewing.
So for those that are thinkingabout interviews, you know, be,
relaxed, be relaxed is numberone like be yourself, like how
much better can you be if youshow up as your true self?
Of course do your best.
Everybody but relaxed is likeyou could get to see who you
really are right.
(46:03):
And then you talked about whichpart?
Oh, asking for what you reallywant, yes, if you can, right, if
it's in the right marketplacewhere you can ask what you
really want, yeah, and then,even if you get what you want,
number three is think about it,make sure it's the right
decision for you.
So anyway, I just right, youjust kind of nailed those things
, yeah, so thought I'd talkabout it.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, and it's funny because I obviously didn't do
that intentionally, but ithappened.
But it happened and it workedout.
It worked out great because thenI ended up loving that job and
he was right.
It was like my own little world.
I kind of lived in there.
You know, I didn't I didn'tengage with a lot of all the
other account managers because Ididn't have to.
(46:44):
We all had our own accountsthat we managed.
So it was perfect.
And I dealt with MasterCardInternational just like the VPs
with that and at that companyand Ticketmaster, because I was
yeah, oh really yeah, master two.
Yeah, Because the program that Ispearheaded was called the gold
ticket event program and at thetime American Express was doing
(47:04):
their gold card event programand we changed the name to gold
ticket you know, get the goldenticket a golden ticket, maybe we
called it.
You get the best seats in thehouse, Right, if you use your
gold MasterCard, and so myliaison was Ticketmaster,
because if we were, if we had asporting event that we wanted to
(47:25):
get the best seats in the housefor our MasterCard gold
cardholders, I would have tonegotiate with Ticketmaster and
they would work with thewhatever the sporting event
person or the Broadway showproducer, and they would help us
get the best seats in the house.
And you know, it would be likea block of seats and whoever
(47:46):
first come, first serve, whoeverordered the tickets first with
their gold MasterCard, would getthose best seats in the house.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Okay, yeah, so it was a great program.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
I did all the advertising for them.
I actually did some of thedesigning of the ads, so I
worked with our.
We had a whole creative team atthe marketing firm that I
worked for and I would work veryclosely with them and I love
doing the design.
Okay, you know, I've always hadlike a little bit of a you know
(48:14):
interest in designing.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
There you go, because now you're designing a
landscape Right, but yes, yeah,and even with fitness designing
bodies.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's true too, I'm designing bodies.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Now I'm designing landscaping.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
I designed ads for newspapers and magazines and
billboards back in the day.
So I got to do.
My creative juices were being,you know really met and how long
were you there, for I was thereabout two and a half years,
okay, but I became pregnant withthe twins during that time and
(48:47):
the job was I did a lot of latenights because a lot of times I
had to be at my office with thecreative team If we were placing
an ad in a newspaper LA Times,you know, 530, hour time is 830,
their time, yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
So I would have to be there.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
I would have to be there, and you can't do that
with two babies at home, I know.
So you knew what was important.
Yes, so I left that job, eventhough I really it really
bothered me to leave it.
But I left that job and had thetwins in about three months
into it, after they were born, Iwent right back into fitness
Amazing.
(49:26):
And yeah, and built up apersonal training business.
I trained people at a couple oflocal gyms, yeah.
But then I started trainingpeople at their homes and you
know I worked it around the kidsschedule, my husband being in
his own business.
Yeah, you know, a lot of timesI was training people at 530 in
the morning.
I know they're all sleeping.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
They're all sleeping, right, and then you still get
up and do it, yeah, but like wesaid before, that that's fitness
has been in your life since youwere three years old.
So, yes, I love that.
I love that, I love your wholestory and, like we said, it kind
of, you've shown how youtransition from all these
different things as life goes on.
So just a couple of lastthoughts here as we wrap up
(50:08):
today what inspires you in life?
What are some things thatinspire you?
Speaker 1 (50:14):
You know I was.
I was actually just saying thisrecently to a friend of mine
about how what I love aboutbeing 61 years old is that I'm
still learning.
And as long as you're stilllearning, you're still living,
and I think that's so important.
(50:35):
Like, I've learned a lot oflife lessons over the last year,
almost a year, maybe about ayear.
A lot of life lessons and youthink that you know, you think
at a certain age, you get to acertain age and there's not,
there's nothing more to reallylearn.
But I'm realizing that there'sa lot to learn and I'm also
(50:55):
realizing that it's never toolate to make a change in your
life.
You know, if you, you know, ifyou feel the need to, that
there's something else out thereyou want to do, go for it.
Speaker 2 (51:08):
You know you go for it.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
It doesn't mean you have to leave what you're
presently doing.
You can continue doing that,but if you feel this need to and
it's good sometimes to hang onto what you are doing and then
transition into what you'rereally meant to do- Ooh, I like
that.
I think that that's.
That's something I really havelearned through this experience
(51:31):
with my knee and you knoweverything else.
I've learned that, yeah, it'sjust never too late to make
changes in your life.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
Absolutely.
I love it.
I love it.
Thank you for that one.
And what about if I were to sayyou know, what are you most
proud of?
And I'm sure there's a lot ofthings, but Well, I'm going to
say the usual.
Okay, let's go.
People will say my childrenOkay.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
And the family that my husband and I have, you know,
created together.
I think they're amazing.
Kids yeah, they.
Or people.
They're not kids anymore.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
They're your kids, they're my kids.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
They're, they're just amazing.
They have incredible integrityand to me, that is the one of
the most important things I'vealways said to my kids you know
when, if you're going to dosomething, do it from the heart
and um, and you know, be proudof what you're doing you know,
(52:33):
and.
I think, yeah, I think I wouldsay that that's probably the
thing I'm most proud of.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Well, that's a good one, Karen, I have to say it's a
good one.
You brought two people into theworld that you're proud of and
the life lessons that you'vetaught them as you kind of share
your own story.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
And they both exercise is invaluable.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
And one works for a fitness company.
I just have to say oh yes,that's true.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Olivia works for no bull, right?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
No bull no bull, not noble right.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
No, bull, which is an athletic, you know clothing
company, yes and uh she, she gotinto that through CrossFit.
She was doing CrossFit and theywere CrossFit sponsors.
So that's really.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
I say it's an up and coming company, but it is fairly
new to the marketplace it isgot a lot of really cool things
going on and Tom Brady justsigned on with them.
Yep, he's like joining forceswith them, which we'll have to
all watch, that everybody.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
And then Jake is your son and he's not in the fitness
world, but no, but he has beenexercising, which was a
challenge to get him to exerciseFor a very long time, and now
he's so into it and I'm so happyfor him because he he really
feels great and he looks amazing.
That's the benefit.
You know he exercised becausehe needed to feel good and and
from it he looks amazing.
(53:48):
So yeah, so he's.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
And they're both in Boston.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Um, and which is a great town, so we get to go and
visit and we love that, exactly,exactly.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Exactly, is there anything as we close today,
anything else that you want toshare with, with everybody?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
Um.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
I know it feels like a loaded question, but I don't
leave anything out, just in case.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah, you don't leave any stone unturned.
Sage and stone.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
There we go, sage and stone by the way, Sage is
Olivia's middle name and stonebecause Jake is a landscape.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
Well, he's, he has his undergrad in architecture,
he has his graduate in landscapearchitecture and urban design
and we are going to use him as aconsultant for our for my
landscape designing business.
So whenever there's, you know,patios or a pool or a cabana or
anything like that, he will beconsulting with us.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
That's fantastic.
I love how you brought yourchildren into the name of the
company.
Yeah, that makes it even morespecial.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yep, they're my inspiration.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I can relate to that.
I can relate to that.
That's beautiful.
Well, speaking of inspiration,thank you for the inspiration
that you brought here today toall of us, to myself, for
spending this time with me anddoing this episode.
I hope that.
I hope that a number of peoplehear it.
We always say if one personhears it and it makes a
difference for them, great.
But please like and share,follow the podcast.
(55:18):
Everybody, we are made for more.
Feel free to look me up onMegan Alexander being real and
look up Karen at Karen at Sageand stone.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Oh no, yes, yeah, sage and stone.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
See so new no it is so new, so bear with us Sage and
stone.
Landscape designer.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
That's what.
That's what's on.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Instagram, instagram.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
It's just Sage and stone landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
Perfect, and we can even have them look up your
husband which is Deluca, designsarchitects on Instagram
Wonderful.
And they could take a look athis amazing houses here on Long
Island and hopefully peoplereach out to as well.
But thank you again for coming.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
All right, everybody.
You know what I love to sayPeace out.
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