Carol Fishman Cohen: Welcome to 3,2,1 iRelaunch, the podcast where we discuss return to work strategies, advice, and success stories. I'm Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and co-founder of iRelaunch and your host. Before we get started, I want to remind anyone listening to make sure if you're a relauncher, to post your profile on our Job Board, because that is where employers come to find people who are returning to work after a career break for their career reentry, jobs and programs.

All right, now onto today's conversation. Today, we welcome Alicia Fernandez Miranda. Alicia is the author of My What If Year, her book, which is documenting the year when she left her full-time job to pursue a series of internships. And we're going to discuss the book in detail in a few minutes. But first I wanna give a shout out to Zibby Owens, as My What If Year is one of the inaugural 12 books published by Zibby's Publishing Company, Zibby Books. So this is the first 12 book collection and My What If Year is part of that, so really exciting on that level too. And also, we've interviewed Zibby because she's a relauncher. And if you wanna listen to, the Zibby interview after you listen to today's interview, you can go onto our podcast link at iRelaunch.Com.

Now Alicia, more on Alicia. She serves as chair and former CEO of IG Advisors, which is an award-winning social impact intelligence agency that consults with some of the world's biggest nonprofits, foundations, philanthropists and corporations on their philanthropy and social initiative. A graduate of Harvard University and the London School of Economics, her writing has been featured in Vogue, Business Insider, Romper, and The Huffington Post. Originally from Miami, she currently lives in Scotland with her husband and children. Alicia, welcome to 3,2,1 iRelaunch

Alisha Miranda: Carol. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Yeah. And I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. You have had quite a career. And before we get into a conversation about the book itself, I want to know, can you just give us a sense of your career path and the work that you were doing before writing the book?

Alisha Miranda: Yeah, absolutely. So I did my undergraduate degree in women's studies, as it was called then. It's much, has much broader name now, but this was some time ago. And, the thing I always really liked about studying gender was that it was very interdisciplinary and it gave you the opportunity to look at lots of different fields through a gender lens and understand them. So I could study economics, literature, I could do pretty much anything I wanted, and that suited me just fine. And so right after I finished my graduate degree, which was also in gender, I went into business strategy consulting for the now defunct Monitor Group. So I got a kind of entry level strategy consulting job, which I was convinced that with my very interdisciplinary degree I would be very good at, and I found it so challenging. Because while consulting, I think is billed as a generalist career path. It was, really, I was doing at the time, this was like the early two thousands I was doing, marketing strategy for pharmaceutical companies. That was like 90% of their business. So, it felt very, very far from where a lot of my passion was.

I had been studying gender. I had been very interested in what was happening with women around the world and I wanted to do something about that. And through a wonderful kind of chance meeting with a friend of mine from college, I ended up very quickly leaving Monitor Group and moving into a consulting firm that focused specifically on corporate social impact.

At the time that was really companies just starting to think about how to be more strategic with their corporate giving. So, as opposed to taking your 28 million that you put in your corporate foundation and giving it to anybody who asked, you would actually think about, okay, what are our business objectives?

What do we want to achieve? And then how do we use our philanthropy to create some good for the world as well as ideally some good for the business? And so it was like the wild west. Now there's like entire degrees you can get in this field, but at the time there was very little and so , we were like a really young team of people in our twenties making this up as we went along.

So there's a lot of strategic thinking, a lot of helping companies think about where to give, how to give, and how to set up kind of programs that were gonna meet this both social impact, but also have an impact on the business. And so I did that as a consultant for several years. I then moved to the UK and I went in-house.

So I worked for a large international bank called Standard Chartered Bank, in their sustainability team. So again, looking after their community programs, doing the same type of work. But this time I was doing it for a company as opposed to consulting to a lot of different companies. And then I moved on to Thompson Reuters and I did a similar type of thing for them with their corporate foundation.

And in the kind of meantime, in early 2011, my husband, whose background had been in major gifts fundraising, so that's raising money for nonprofits at the highest levels, he decided to set up a consulting firm in London that would be really about bringing together the people who were giving money and the people who were raising money.

And I had a lot of experience with the people who were giving away money. He had a lot of experience with the people that were raising money. So like many people, I think that was my side hustle for a while. I continued working for the big companies. I had my children, took a long maternity leave, came back to work in the big companies, and eventually, our business that we had set up grew to the point where it made sense for me to join full time, and then take over as CEO. So that was what I was doing up until the point that I ran the book. I was working with individuals, families and foundations with companies, thinking about how to create more impact with the work that they were doing and the money they were giving away, and how to ideally do things that were good for them and good for the world.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Wow. Okay. So that makes me even more curious now about my next question, which is what prompted you to leave your job and go on this search for internships? Or did you have the book idea first and then you thought you'd do the internships, or do you do the internships and then the book? And also how did that even come into your head, given now the history that you've told us about your career so far?

Alisha Miranda: Totally. So I, I had always really enjoyed my job and I had always been a person who was very committed to achieving. I had my goals, I had set them when I was young. I was gonna get to them. I, I was taking on increasing responsibility and, all of a sudden I found myself approaching 40, CEO of my own company.

I had ticked off all the clients that I had wanted to work with, and I should have been coasting, and instead of coasting, I was just feeling, this little voice inside of me just being like, is this it? Have I reached the pinnacle of my career now? Is this all I'm ever gonna do? Am I gonna do this forever?

And I found that terrifying and, scary, upsetting. And I just, I couldn't believe that was the case. I still felt, I still feel really young and the, this idea that this was the end and I was just gonna do this until I retired, really depressed me. And so I started trying to get at this problem in different ways, and the internship idea came well before the book idea.

And the internship idea really came from, I, I would say originally from this very deep love I have always had of musical theater. And I have just always been fascinated with it. And I would go to shows and I would come out with this like warm glow you get when you see like an amazing theatrical production.

I would just think, God, if I could just, I would do anything, if I could just sit in on rehearsals, if I could be behind the scenes, if I could understand what it would be like to be part of this world, I would get people coffees. I would clean the bathrooms. I would usher people to their seats. Literally, I'd do anything.

What an amazing opportunity this would be. And actually, at the time, we had a fundraising client who was a big theater in London. And this idea came to my head, maybe I could offer to intern for them, ha ha wouldn't that be hilarious? Who would ever wanna take on pushing 40 CEO who wanted to be an intern?

And I, I really, I couldn't let go of the idea. And I shared it with a few friends who encouraged me and got me starting to think, what if it wasn't just musical theater? What if it was a number of different things you wanted to do? And it felt like I, I really needed a change and, I just wanted so desperately to be pushed out of my comfort zone to try something different.

I just felt stuck. So gradually I put together this internship plan. It was gonna be a year of internships. Originally, I had said I was gonna try to do five internships in a year, and the original plan was to take mini sabbaticals from my CEO job to work things. My clients would know I would be gone for a month or six weeks at a time, and then I'd come back, ideally very refreshed and done with these fun projects and just go back into the same path I was before, which is not really what happened.

And also this was all planned for 2020, which was a year that didn't go to plan for anybody.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Right. Well, that is quite a story and I guess, I have a bunch of questions, but before I, I ask the next one, I just wanna make a few observations because some of the things you're talking about are very relevant to the relauncher population.

Many of us, and I, myself included, because I took my own 11 year career break before returning to work, but we have this moment that often doesn't come until we take the career break. You were fortunate. You're thinking about this as you're on the job. And we have this moment where we think, was I even on the right career path to begin with?

And was I fulfilling someone else's expectations or I just fell into something and should I be relaunching in a different direction or something related to what I did before? One of the recommendations of this, there's a famous book called Working Identity by Hermenia Ibarra, and she talks about this idea of trying out, and there used to be this company called Vocation Vacations, where they encourage people to try something like that, you wanted to work in a bakery, or whatever, do it during your vacation time and they would arrange these very short term things. So all of this is going through my head while you're talking, and it's relevant for all the relaunchers who are thinking about how do you try something, how do you just dip in and try something on any level.

You had this idea, I love the origination with the musicals. So then what happened after that? Did you, like, how did, what's the, what were the logistics and the milestones?

Alisha Miranda: I had this idea and then nothing happened for a long time. Because I was, I was very afraid, it seemed so far-fetched that this could actually be a plan that I put into place.

So I think I, I skipped like a large chunk of time in between having my neatly laid out 2020 and having this original idea, because in that time I was convincing myself that I could do this, but mostly convincing myself there was no way I could do this. And I just, I just kept thinking of reasons that it wouldn't be possible.

I have responsibilities. I have a mortgage, I have my children. I have, I, how could I ever do this? And exactly as you said, this idea that I had put so much time and effort into getting where I was, the idea, I would just throw that away to go be a brand new something in a field that I had never experienced, seemed so irresponsible.

And I am like a responsible person if nothing else. It's, I now can tell you it's far from irresponsible. But I think I was in this mindset where I was really like, I just, I couldn't possibly do it. I took a lot of emotional unpacking for me to get to a point where the risk of doing it was smaller than the risk of not doing it.

Cause worked myself up. I had, I really needed something. And so then I would say January, the idea kind of formed. August, I was like, alright, I'm gonna block some time off in my calendar for six months from now and I'm gonna try to plan this out. Gosh, what did I do? I had not applied for a job in a really long time.

So I like went to look up, what does a resume look like? People put their pictures on resumes now. They have like interactive resumes. This is terrifying to me. So then I of course like, forget it, I can't do this. Okay. Then a week later I come back. I worked on my resume. I went through a dozen drafts of cover letters that would really articulate that I was a, an unorthodox candidate for this type of role. And that even though I had a big title on my CV, I was willing to do anything. I was willing to work hard. I fully expected to come in at an entry level and do anything that was asked because I really just wanted the opportunity to learn what it was gonna be like to work in these different fields that I had chosen.

And then I just stalked everybody I knew on LinkedIn, on all forms of social media. Anybody who had any connection, no matter how tenuous to any of the fields that I was interested in working in that were on my shortlist, I reached out, can we have a coffee? Can I send you my resume? Do you know of any opportunities?

Let me just explain to you what I'm doing. And so I just, networked, networked, networked, and I asked so many people to help me. I did apply cold to a number of opportunities, but those really did not go anywhere. In the end, I ended up doing four internships throughout 2020 in spite of that change of plans that the pandemic brought.

And they were all through either family friends, friends of friends, one or two degrees of separation within my network. In every case there was somebody willing to vouch for me and say, she's legit. Like she's, she is really gonna work hard. She is gonna do this for you. And that was crucial.

I don't think I would've gotten a single opportunity without that. And occasionally, now just for fun, I will apply for some internship to people who don't know me, and they'll be like, no thanks, but thanks for asking.

Carol Fishman Cohen: This is such an important point, the relevance and importance, the crucial importance of that personal handoff. And you're illustrating it right here, where it really didn't work to try to do this cold. And all of them came about through family friends, friends of friends. So just wanted to underscore that message for our listeners because that's also extremely relevant when you are relaunching.

Alisha Miranda: Yeah, I was, it was very humbling. I really did think, surely I've built up enough of a career track record that I can get an internship. Yeah. I really wasn't what people are looking for. That's frankly why I find this community that you are running so fascinating because, I just think there's, I know I brought value to all the places that I worked with. I would not hesitate to bring on someone who had established themselves in a different career in any of the different pieces of work I'm doing now and give them an opportunity.

But I really did not, I did not expect the, the roadblock that I did. I had to just take rejection and keep trying and trying until I found something.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Yeah. That's also part of the process and a really hard part of the process. When you say you stalked people and you asked them questions, can you give us a line, like what was the subject line on some of these emails? Or did you call What we like to get into the nitty gritty. Yeah. So maybe give us a sense of that.

Alisha Miranda: Love it. Yes. No actual stalking occurred. I did not show up at anybody's house. The occasional, deep Google search to find out what people are doing. I often, I have found throughout my entire career, whether I was selling consulting work or trying to get an internship or anything I've ever tried to do that people are usually very happy to meet with you, especially if the thing you want to talk about is them and their job.

So the subject line would be coffee anytime soon, or can we get on a Zoom call. This was pre covid, so we were doing less zooming, but still occasionally. And, sometime, depending on how well I knew the person, I would either say, Hey, I know you really well, good friend, this is what I'm trying to do. I'm attaching my resume and cover letter. Do you have any leads for me? Who do you think I could reach out to? Promise to make you brownies next time I see you. Thanks. Love you. Bye . That was like a very warm contact or a close friend. My college roommate, Laura, it was her dad that secured me the two placements that I got in the theater. John had known me since I was 18 years old in college, like not cleaning my room, so I could send an email like that.

If it was somebody that I knew less well, so this wonderful woman who I had known tangentially through work, and I knew she was very well connected in the art space, so I just said, can we have lunch? Like, I'd love to catch up and hear what you're doing. I am a real extrovert, so "networking" leans into my strengths and also my interests.

I love meeting people. I love hearing what people are up to. I genuinely enjoy learning about people's lives. So this did not feel in any way difficult to me. If you are a person who doesn't enjoy that, there might be different approaches that you are better at. But I have rarely had people say they did not wanna get a coffee to just catch up and share.

I'm really interested in what you're doing. Do you have 20 minutes? I'll buy you a coffee and I would like to hear about your job because I'm undergoing this, I think I billed it to people as a pre-midlife crisis. I think I said. . And obviously changing the message based on who the person was, how formal I needed to be with them, how well I knew them, but it was some variation of that.

I would like to learn about what you do. Can you spare a little bit of your time? And, plenty of people did not respond to me. Enough did that, I had a decent set of leads coming out of a lot of those meetings.

Carol Fishman Cohen: That's super helpful. Thank you. I love hearing the details.

Alright, so at this point, was there any discussion or thought about a book or you were purely focused on getting, now these four interviews scheduled around the calendar year and maybe take us through, what did you end up doing and was the book, when did the book come into, into the picture.

Alisha Miranda: Sure. So in this like initial martini fueled evening with my college roommates actually workshopping this idea together, the next morning at breakfast, my, my friend Rebecca said, you should do this and you should write a book about it. and I think she was the one that said you should call it the 40 year old intern. Which is funny that we have that fun name in common. And it was in the back of my head, but I had not, I just, the idea of writing a book seemed like a fantasy. Like I didn't think I would be able to do it. It seemed like a lot of time. I had never done it before, but of course I enjoyed creative writing.

But I had decided from very early on that I wanted to heavily journal this experience because I knew it was gonna be special. I knew I was doing something that I was gonna wanna look back on. I've always journaled when I was younger, and I enjoy going back and looking at those journals now.

I took good notes, I took good notes on what I was doing. And so throughout my first internship, which was really shadowing and sitting in on two productions of Broadway and an off Broadway production in New York of musicals that were scheduled to open in the spring of 2020, and then eventually opened 18 months later. That, I was just, I knew I was having this life changing experience. I was doing the thing I always wanted to do as part of musical theater in this very tiny way. And so I wrote everything down. And those were like, I was mostly, they didn't need me there really?

So I tried to make myself useful. I did things like refilling the water jug and offering to go do coffee runs at all of the breaks that were scheduled by Actors Equity. I swept the floor after rehearsals. I taped stuff to prop bags. I begged to be allowed to do anything. I went into the offices of one of the theater companies and filed, so like real intern tasks, or say entry level tasks that I was doing. So I did that and then COVID happened two and a half weeks into my internship. The theater shut down. I had to fly back home to the UK and go into lockdown with my family.

All of a sudden I'm homeschooling and no idea when we're ever leaving or when I was gonna be able to go back to the US or if I was ever gonna be able to do another internship. And at that point, my husband said to me, are you gonna write, put some kind of story together about your New York experience?

And I was like, no. I couldn't possibly, it's too soon. I'm too emotional about it. Everything is a mess. But you know when you don't have a social life and you're seeing no people and you're like desperate for any sort of creative outlet, I, at one point I did sit down. I was like, okay, maybe I will start to write about it.

And before I had even started my second internship, I had a narrative of what I had been feeling and what I had done in New York. And it was very rough. But it felt good to write it down and to reflect on it. Especially because I knew I was gonna be, I knew I was going through some kind of big change and that we were going through this huge moment in human history that one day maybe my grandchildren were gonna wanna read about.

So I wrote as I went. I ended up doing three more internships. So I, a virtual internship during first lockdown from my living room for a retro dance and fitness company that offers dance and fitness classes. And they had been doing that in person in London and all of a sudden had to switch to virtual fitness during the pandemic.

So a lot of my work there was helping Frankie, who runs Retro Glow Studios, do market research. I did a lot of social media posting , which I was not very good at. I had to learn a lot about how to get the right voice for that and all of that sort of thing. And so I, and I tried two dozen different exercise classes from all over the world and filled out a spreadsheet helping her understand what those were. And then I wrote, and then I wrote about that. And then I went on and did two more. So I worked for a contemporary art dealer in London, and then I worked for a hotel and restaurant, on the Isle of Sky, which is the far northwest corner of Scotland.

Carol Fishman Cohen: And on the last two what were you doing?

Alisha Miranda: So for the art dealer, Harry was just starting up his kind of new dealership. He was relaunching this new venture coming out of Covid. And gosh, that was a, it was a little bit of everything it, 'cause it was really just me and him at the time. I would be researching particular works of art that he had access to or was thinking about buying or selling to figure out what was their provenance and filling out this huge database that he has, with the information about them. I was going to pick things up and drop things off at various galleries around London. I took myself to a bunch of galleries around London to steep myself in the art world. And yeah, what that was very desk-based, a lot of research, but I got to spend a lot of time around art, which was just, extraordinary for me to be able to do that. And especially coming out of Covid, just being outta the house, frankly, was like, a novelty and a great one. And then on the Isle of Sky, they put me on a rotation. So I did a week in the kitchen. I did a week in the restaurant, front of house. week front of house.

So that was the bar, but also checking people in and out. And then I did some filing work back in the office as well. .

Carol Fishman Cohen: Wow. were any of these internships paid or how did that part work?

Alisha Miranda: So they were all unpaid, and I was clear from the beginning that, in many cases I was working for friends of mine, and that I didn't expect them to pay me. Funnily enough, two of the four have actually become ongoing paid consulting and advisory work that I continue to do for them. So that's been the happy, happy accident that kind of came outta this process. But no, and that was obviously a decision that I was fortunate to be able to take because I still had my business that we were running and that was still providing enough income to keep us afloat.

Obviously my husband was still working full-time. So I was able, because I was still dipping in and out of "normal job," I was able to offer my time unpaid. I don't know if they would've been as interested in taking me on if I, because, again, these were not people that were necessarily looking for interns.

These were like friends of mine who were like, yeah, sure, you can come learn about the hotel business if you want. So I felt like I was doing them a favor. And I felt like it was a mutual exchange. They were giving me access, they were giving me an opportunity to try something new, knowing that I had no experience or background in it.

And I was giving them my blood, sweat, and tears and, spilling things all over myself and all my muscles sweating and that kind of thing .

Carol Fishman Cohen: So I don't am I allowed to ask you this or is it a spoiler for the book? And just tell me if you can't answer it.

But, by having these four experiences, were there any of them that clicked with you, that you thought, this is what I'm doing next?

Alisha Miranda: Yeah, I've continued, I still work for Harry and his art dealership. I still do some work here and there for Ken Luck Lodge. And I wrote, they asked me to write the narrative for a cookbook that they released last year to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They have never once asked me back to waitress because I was so truly terrible at that job, that even when they've needed an extra pair of hands, they have not wanted my hands to be spilling their food all over the place.

But I'm grateful that they found some other skills. Really the big thing that I realized coming out of all of these internships is that I really missed learning. I really missed having the opportunity to try different things. And I wanted to see if there was a way to create a career that I could do some version of this constant learning, experiencing, experimenting, and get paid to do it.

So I spend my time now doing six or seven different things. None of them are full-time. I am writing. I wrote this book, which I hope you will all buy, but also I'm writing, working on other books and short pieces. I'm doing some work for Harry. I'm still the chair of our consulting business. So I get involved with clients I've known a long time or particularly interesting pieces of work that I still wanna do. And, I'm just seeing where there's something that really sparks my interest or something that feels like it's gonna be challenging and or something that scares me and I dunno why it scares me and trying to create a work life where I can do those things.

It is not always easy. There are plenty of challenges that come along with that. But that is the phase I am at right now. I think I decided that I did not wanna jump full-time into anything, although I gotta tell you, if someone called and said, do you wanna come produce this musical? I would probably be on the next plane to New York and agree to do it.

But besides that, which I've gotten involved in theater in other ways, that sparked joy for me. I think I really just, there's so much out there that I want to know about and learn, and so that's where I'm trying to focus my energy right now. .

Carol Fishman Cohen: All right. I'm gonna wrap a couple of questions together into one 'cause I'm, I was gonna ask you, is there anything that you learned that you thought would be particularly applicable to relaunchers?

But I also want to ask you the question that we ask all of our podcast guests, which is, what is your best piece of advice for a relaunch your audience, even if it's already something we've already talked about today? So, kind of the same question.

Alisha Miranda: Gosh, I love this idea of a relaunch and I really believe to the point now that I tell my children, , you don't have to decide what you wanna do when you grew up.

You just have to decide the first thing you wanna try. But I, I think so, I love that this exists as a concept. I love what you're doing. I think that the piece of advice I wish someone had told me when I was going into this was, to not be so afraid and to just do it. It's hard to know what would have happened had I not done this during 2020. Had I not during, done this during the pandemic. Had I not sat around twiddling my thumbs for eight months, being afraid to do this before I actually decided to take the next step, which was then another six months away. Had, if this happened during 2019 before the world shut down, who knows, maybe I would've ended up at a marine biological institute, which was one of the things I wanted to do.

Or working at a fashion magazine in New York, which was another. I don't know. I'm happy with the way things have gone and ended up, I feel like the right, I did the right thing at the right time, but I wish I would not have been so afraid. I think I felt like this felt huge. Yeah. It felt so big. And actually what I did is I took a series of small steps that ended up being very big in the end, a big change in my life, but I did not do it all at once. And, I wish I had just gotten to that point sooner where I realized, okay, lemme just do this one thing. I'm just gonna work on my resume.

I'm gonna send my cover letter out to five people. I'm gonna, try to clear my calendar for just this one short period of time. See if I can get two weeks where I can make this happen. And, i, I waited a long time to do that. And so I would just say to the relaunchers, don't be afraid.

And maybe just take a small step if a big step feels too huge, because many small steps can get you to very far away actually, if you keep on taking them. So I think that's probably what I would share.

Carol Fishman Cohen: And that is fantastic advice, this idea of relaunching through baby steps, is sometimes much more accessible for people and less frightening.

And so I love that you're talking about it and you're an example of doing it. So really helpful to our community. Alisha, I wanted to ask you about a couple of things before we sign off. One of them is you have a podcast and it's called, Quit Your Day Job, and I wanna know if you can talk to us a little bit.

Was that, a byproduct of the book or before it? And what do you do on that podcast?

Alisha Miranda: Yeah, so the amazing Zibby Owens, as you already referred to in your introduction, so once I, Zibby does so much. It's actually hard to keep track. If I tell you all the things she does. while we're recording this, when this airs, she'll have already taken on two new really exciting things because her mind works a million miles a minute and she's got a lot of follow through.

So she had started the publishing company. She had signed me to the company and a few other of the initial authors that were in that kind of first set of cohort that was brought on. And then she reached out to everybody one night and she was like, I think I'm gonna start a podcast network.

Does anybody have any ideas for a podcast? And so I put a couple of ideas together, and this one really appealed to her and it really appealed to me. So, Quit Your Day Job was born out of that. And I have found, I like still can't believe that it gets to be part of my job, that I get to just have conversations with interesting people and then record them and other people wanna listen to them.

It was really thinking about are there ways to learn about other jobs in the way that I very immersively did through my internship, period, but without necessarily having to go and leave your job. So it really started out with people who I knew that were working fascinating jobs that I've just always wanted to know about.

What is it like to be a TV director? What is it like to be a spy for the CIA? If you are a Broadway actress, what do your days look like? All of these things. And so really focusing in on these jobs that I was very interested in to learn about them. And Quit Your Day Job still does a lot of that, but now it's also become a, it's ended up featuring a lot of people who you would call relaunchers. So people have had a big pivot or a big shift in their career. And just learning about them and how they did it and what their story was and how they got there. And just having these kind of fun and interesting conversations that bring in a little bit about their job and what it's like, but also, how they ended up where they are.

Because I think people's personal journeys are very fascinating and I think it's so you can reflect back on your work story and you see this very linear path, but actually when you're going through it, it doesn't often feel like it's linear at all. You're making the best choice in the time and so I really enjoy going through people's stories with them and kind of picking up where and how they made these different pivots and you know what they're doing now. So it's so much fun to do. I'm in the third season and I just love it.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Oh, that's awesome. I have to say, because I think I've done about 250 episodes of this podcast and I love, I have the same love for people's stories and just hearing how their career paths have unfolded.

And of course we talk about their relaunches. And everyone, I'm just fascinated and I'm never tired of doing it. It's always exciting and fun. So I share that with you.

Alisha Miranda: It's so cool. my biggest risk is that I'm gonna end up offering. The first season I offered to intern with everybody I interviewed. I was like, would you like an intern? Would you like an intern? My husband is always stop interning, please .

Carol Fishman Cohen: That's so great. And then finally, a very important question. We want our audience to know, how they can find out more about My What If Year, where they can buy it, and how they can find out more about your work generally.

Alisha Miranda: So I would love you to read My What If Year. Now you've heard the story, hopefully you'll wanna know more. And, it is available at bookstores everywhere, so you can buy it online or you can pop into a bookstore and ask for it if they don't have it, and make them order it for you. And you can keep up with me on Instagram.

I am @alishafmiranda, or on my website, alishafmiranda.com. You can sign up for my newsletter, which I might send you occasionally, but don't worry, I won't spam you.

Carol Fishman Cohen: That's awesome. And would you mind spelling that for us? We usually want people to spell out their website so everyone has the correct letters.

Alisha Miranda: Yep. Perfect. So it is A L I S H A F like Frank, and then Miranda, M I R A N D A.com.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Perfect. All right, Alisha, thank you so much for joining us today.

Alisha Miranda: Thank you so much for having me. This was so awesome, and I just hope to be able to connect with lots of relaunchers throughout my book tour and in the course of all of the great things I'm getting to do in the voyage of this book.

Carol Fishman Cohen: Wonderful. Thank you and thanks for listening to 3,2,1 iRelaunch, the podcast where we discuss return to work strategies, advice, and success stories, I'm Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and co-founder of iRelaunch and your host. And finally, one additional reminder like I did at the beginning for our relaunchers to make sure that you go to iRelaunch.Com, not only to listen to these podcasts, but also to register on our Job Board, which is especially where employers look for people who are coming off of career break.

Thanks for joining us.