41: She Did It! Real Retirement Stories with Diane Blumenthal

Today's guest is Diane Blumenthal, who has been incredibly generous in sharing her own retirement story.   She took the leap into becoming a self-employed consultant after a long and very illustrious career in pharma and biotechnology.   Diane has helped build and transition companies from the startup and research and development phase into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with approved commercial, manufacturing, operations, and products.   She also has extensive experience in the transfer and scale-up of processes from the laboratory bench to commercial-scale manufacturing.   Listen in as Diane shares her journey as a female leader in a male dominated industry, how she planned for retirement and to continue working as a self-employed consultant afterwards, and why she firmly believes that success comes down to being comfortable with being uncomfortable.   Key Topics: Being a female leader in chemical engineering in the 1980s (6:57) Being comfortable with being uncomfortable (13:42) How Diane planned for her retirement (18:22) About stock options (22:41) What factors Diane considered when it came to retirement (26:25) Diane's first day in retirement (28:29) Why Diane decided to continue doing consulting work in retirement (31:04) The biggest challenge and the best part of being self-employed (35:40) Diane's three criteria for choosing work today (36:54) Knowing how to price your services (39:43) Diane's advice to woman considering retirement and how to spend their time afterwards (43:35) "You don't have to live like a king, but you don't have to live like a pauper, either." (46:37) Stephanie and Kevin's takeaways (51:51)     If you like what you've been hearing, we invite you to subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Tell us what you love about this episode! Or better yet, tell us what you want to hear more of in the future. [email protected]    You can find the transcript and more information about this episode at www.takebackretirement.com.   Follow Stephanie on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.  Follow Kevin on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.