Would you start all over again at 53, when you already had a successful career?

For Episode 006 of The Reinvention Series, I'm looking at a woman whose story has stayed with me for exactly that reason: Trinny Woodall.

Most of us first knew Trinny through fashion and television. After two decades in media, she had already built a career, a name and a community around helping women understand what suited them and, importantly, how they wanted to feel.

She could have stayed there.

Instead, in 2017, she started again.

An overflowing makeup bag became an idea

I particularly love where the idea for Trinny London began because it wasn't some grand business plan.

It was a problem.

Trinny has spoken about constantly battling an overflowing makeup bag and beginning to decant her makeup into small portable pots. That simple solution eventually became the idea behind the now recognisable Trinny London Stack: portable cream-based makeup pots designed to click together.

It is something I relate to enormously as a founder.

Estetika also started with a problem around beauty organisation. Sometimes the best product ideas don't begin with asking, what business should I start?

They begin with asking, why hasn't somebody made this better?

Starting again doesn't mean starting from scratch

What I find most interesting about Trinny's story isn't simply that she built another successful career.

It's when she chose to do it.

She had already spent decades developing an understanding of women, style, beauty and the everyday frustrations women experience with their routines. When she became a founder, she didn't leave all of that experience behind.

She took it with her.

That's the distinction I think we sometimes miss when we talk about reinvention in midlife.

You aren't starting from zero.

You're starting with everything you've already learned.

Why this one feels personal

I started Estetika at 50 after a completely different career.

Now at 54, I'm still building the business and also figuring out what the next chapter of my own life looks like.

That's why I keep coming back to women who have changed direction in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.

There can be a strange idea that by this point we're supposed to have everything worked out.

I don't think that's true at all.

Sometimes experience gives you the confidence to finally see what you want to do next.

And sometimes an overflowing makeup bag is enough to start something entirely new.

At 50, you're not starting from scratch. You're starting with experience.

Here is Trinnys Story: 

The Reinvention Series is my weekly look at women whose second, third and sometimes fourth chapters remind us that there is always room for another one.

Happy listening, Wanda x