How Women Over 40 Redefine Identity, Purpose, and Business

Many veterans say the hardest part isn’t leaving service—it’s deciding who they are after the uniform. That truth runs through Cat’s conversation with Navy veteran and business strategist Chanda Coston, who helps women over 40 build businesses that honor their season of life. The dialogue opens with origin stories—how branch choices shape identity, how deployments spark curiosity, and why family can pull us away at the halfway mark. Chanda’s travel-honed perspective carries into her civilian pivot, and Kat mirrors it with her own Air Force upbringing, setting a frame where resilience is not a buzzword but a muscle built over moves, separations, and reinvention.

The transition to corporate life is frank: a few quiet months, the shock of a laptop and VPN instead of a squadron, and the grief of losing a second family. Yet that gap also sharpened purpose. Consulting at Deloitte and later in government contracting gave Chanda a front-row seat to efficiency and systems at scale. Then life interrupted—she lost her brother to gun violence—and the detour into nonprofit work opened a door to coaching. Teaching youth and mentoring adults revealed a theme: clarity creates momentum. When people understand their next right step, action follows. The episode leans into that idea, reminding listeners that grief can pause plans without canceling them, and that service to others can surface your own calling.

From there the focus tightens on entrepreneurship after 40. The sticking point isn’t capability; it’s visibility. Moving from program management to a personal brand asks for a different kind of courage. In the military and corporate worlds, professionalism is armor; in entrepreneurship, relatability is currency. Cat and Chanda unpack social media nerves, imposter syndrome, and the fatigue of always being “on.” They offer practical anchors: choose authenticity over performance, share wins and pains without oversharing, and let community reflect your strengths back to you. Trust arrives when your audience can see themselves in your story, not your perfection.

Building a business that fits your life is the central operating principle. Chanda’s rule is simple: design for the season you’re in. She aims for a 20-hour workweek and urges clients to test ideas against four filters: are you good at it, is it needed, will people pay, and does it fit your life right now? Time tools follow: calendar audits to expose leaks, batching to protect focus, and the triad of delegate, automate, eliminate. Kat adds “sticky note time” to clear mental clutter and celebrate progress tangibly. Paired with the 12-week year method and daily Top Three priorities, these practices convert ambition into a cadence that survives caregiving, moves, and surprise life shifts.

Systems alone don’t move the needle if the mind resists. Chanda gives clients a plan of action and a resource guide that tackle skill and belief together, focusing on the 20 percent of effort that drives 80 percent of results. Two execution sprints inside her program force real-world progress and quick feedback loops. The aim is to graduate from overwhelm to clarity, from scattered tasks to a narrow, high-leverage runway. They also stress grace: when life surges—a parent moves in, a child needs support—maintain a minimum viable routine, park big projects, and return with refined priorities rather than guilt.

Community becomes the antidote to doubt. The right room normalizes goals, keeps stakes high, and softens low days. Share goals to raise your odds of achievement, and add accountability to nearly guarantee follow-through. Curate your five closest influences so momentum is contagious. The close is both simple and urgent: start before you’re ready, and make your why strong enough to pull you through rough patches. If tomorrow isn’t promised, the next tiny, clear step matters most today.