From Refugee to Founder to Burnout and Back: Terry Tateossian's Reinvention Story

Terry Tateossian's life reads like three different biographies stitched together — refugee at 11, tech entrepreneur through the dot-com boom, Forbes contributor and 40 Under 40 founder running a 40-person agency, and now a health and mindset coach after her own body forced a reckoning. Jen and Terry talk about what it actually felt like fleeing communist Bulgaria as a kid, why Terry never internalized being "the only woman in the room" as a disadvantage, the uncomfortable truth about women undermining other women at work, and the eighty-pound weight gain and undiagnosed perimenopause that finally slowed her down. It's a conversation about immigration, ambition, burnout, and what it means to stop measuring your worth by a number on a scale.In this episode:Fleeing Bulgaria at 11 and the 30-day asylum interrogation in AustriaLanding at JFK in 1989 and learning five languages in a refugee housing complexBecoming a "40 Under 40" tech founder during the dot-com boomWhy Terry never saw being a woman in tech as a disadvantage — and the surprising place she actually faced pushbackThe real conversation about women undermining other women in the workplaceBurnout, an 80-pound weight gain, and perimenopause hitting at 37 with zero warningTwo ER visits she thought were heart attacksWalking away from the business she built to rebuild her health insteadWhy "paper thin" isn't the goal — the case for strength, muscle, and resilience over a number on the scaleTerry's retreats and coaching work with 700+ womenHer take on AI music (and why she started making her own)Guest links:Website: houseofrose.comInstagram: @howgoodcanitgetFacebook: How Good Can It GetConnect with The Midlife Edit:themidlifeeditco.com@thejenweinsteinJoin The Edit Room (private Facebook community)Enter the Edit Box giveaway — deadline extended, enter here