Women in Beauty and Fashion With Roslyn Griner Business and Life Style Influencer

This week on the Mindful Miri Podcast, we talk about careers, beauty and fashion, boundaries, experimenting with beauty, and women in power with Roslyn Griner, Business and Life Style Influencer.

Roslyn believes that fashion and beauty have no age limit. Since she was a child, she’s had a passion for beauty and fashion.  They give her a sense of confidence and she believes they can transform others to be the best versions of themselves.

About Roslyn Griner:

Passionate about beauty and fashion, she spent her career as a marketing exec for brands like: Sheertex, Diva, Oberfeld Snowcap, Fusion Brands, Hanes, and Coty Beauty.

She has also worked with Reitman’s and @ashleygraham (model, mogul, mama). 

Work with Roslyn Griner:

Are you searching for a woman over 50 who dispels all the myths associated with aging? who believes age is just a number and fashion has no age limit? 

She bridges luxury with affordable finds in a tone that is both authentic and down to earth. 

Meet Roslyn Griner: a fashion/beauty executive who is now a content creator for fashion, beauty and travel.

Connect With Roslyn Griner

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howrosdoesit/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roslyngriner/

Transcript

welcome back to the Mindful Mary Podcast. Today on the show I have Rosalyn Griner and I'm gonna let her introduce herself. So, I mean, many of you may know me as how Roz does it on Instagram and TikTok, and that's something I started during sort of the pandemic. But before that, I was the vice President of marketing in the fashion and beauty world.

And I'm still very active on LinkedIn in terms of publishing about retail. I'm passionate of beauty and fashion, as you probably can tell if you follow me on Instagram and TikTok.

Wonderful. I'm so glad to have you, Rosalyn, on the show. I've been following you on Instagram and love your look and your message and just. What, inspired you in the first place? Or if you'd like to start even earlier than that, give us a little rundown of your, of, how you got where you are today.

So my passion for fashion started as a child because my mother was a seamstress in Europe and she, used to sew beautiful couture clothing for women who were wealthy. And when I was a child, she made my whole entire wardrobe and I had the most fashionable clothing as a five-year-old and up. So, so I think I would, you know, I didn't understand that people didn't dress this way, , and I was spoonfed on Vogue Magazine.

So I think from a very young age, it's ironic that I didn't get into fashion until I was much older. Because really, even when I graduated from university with a business career, my first gig was at CP Rail and my second was at Domtar. So nothing even remotely related to fashion or consumer products. And so, but I was so really wanting to get into the beauty and fashion world.

And finally I met. A headhunt who was my next door neighbor. She was taking a sabbatical from teaching and she got me into my very few first beauty company, which was Marcel Cosmetics. And I was so excited. And at the time they also owned the license for Neutrogen. So that was my first sort of beauty gig.

I was bitten. And I spent basically the next 15 years in the beauty industry working for that company for also Cody Beauty, where I worked in New York and in Montreal. And then I went on to work for a startup, which was run by Randy Shinder, which was Fusion Brands Inc. And I only got into fashion when I joined Reitman's in 2011.

It's just kind of ironic that I spend most of my career in beauty, but I always found that beauty and fashion are very related for women because they both are about inspiring women to look, confident to have a persona, to show the rest of the world. But what really got me started on my platform was c O d I was always interested in social media because I obviously managed that as part of my marketing responsibilities for the companies I worked with.

And I worked with Ashley Graham, who was very much a social media creature, and I mentioned in her book, which is kind of like, I feel very honored, but she really taught me sort of like how to sort of do Instagram.  and I think about why people connect with you on a certain platform is this feeling of authenticity, of feeling that they know you.

And in Covid, I was single. I didn't have family members living in my household. We were asked to kind of not mix and mingle with other households. It was a very lonely experience. And so I didn't have a job. I was sitting at home kind of like nothing to do. I was lonely. I was feeling very desperate.

And so I said, okay, I'm gonna do these fashion videos and start posting them on Instagram. Cause I don't even think I was on TikTok really at the very beginning, but, , you know what? And then suddenly people kind of reacted positively to it. And people started to DM me as I was telling my story on stories.

And honestly, I met some amazing people through my platform, people that I've met in person like yourself. But I've gone out and actually become friends with some of my followers. And it was really a replacement for, I needed that human interaction, human connection. And I shared sort of my journey, my everyday life.

And I really wanted to inspire women who are over 50. I mean, I just turned 60 this year, and I want to show them that, you know, life isn't over. You still have this, you can still find joy in beauty, fashion, being curious, being current. It doesn't stop just because you hit a certain age. So I really wanted to say, you know, fashion doesn't have an expiration date.

If you love it, you can enjoy it at every decade. I love that. my mom is 67 and she has been my fashion icon all these years. And, you know, she continues to dress amazingly. and I had a similar experience or a similar background. My grandmother was actually, both were seamstresses, one of.

professionally, one of 'em. Hobby, right. But sewed a lot of their clothes. And they were from the former Soviet Union, so they were You couldn't just go to a shop back in the day and buy something. You had to have it like sewn for you or you had to sew it yourself. There was no fabric. You know, all of these things.

And I have these iconic photographs in black and white of my grandmother, you know, with her coat and her hat. And I mean, I just love it. It's, fashion is so, can be so empowering. I think. You know, cuz some people think fashion is trivial, you know? Like why are you so passionate about something that feels very trivial to some people, but I feel like it is like getting dressed.

and I felt it was really important during Covid because, you know, it was like everyone was in their sweatpants, no makeup,  very, and you know what? And it just encourages you to be in a depressive mood. So I always felt that getting dressed up, even though I had nowhere to go, just made me feel better about myself.

It just, when I looked in the mirror, I felt more alive. So I felt it was really, you know, connected to my mood. And so I made an effort to get dressed up and not just stay all day in sweatpants. go back to traveling and experiencing life, you know, and connecting with people. And I think that's the thing that Covid really taught us is really we needed that human connection. And that's why everyone has been really going out. More, you know, going to restaurants, traveling.

I, think experiences became something that we were deprived of. And so now we really sort of take it and we're going out with gusto to sort of have those experiences. Beautifully said. Absolutely. I'm a lover and a hater of sweatpants But I think that the clothes that you put on are almost a uniform, you know, you can have a conditioned response to them.

And if you're constantly, if you're continuously using them in a certain way, like I put on my workout clothes for the gym, I put on, you know, this certain outfit for work, and it prepares you. There's a, sense of preparation and priming that sets you up for success. That's why we don't wear our clothes, our regular clothes to bed.

You know, not only. Cleanliness kind of stuff, but like we we're setting the stage and it's a ritual. It is. You know, I, I remember when I was working, I always, you know, like when the moment I came home I would change because it's like you wanna put away your work clothes and get into your chill, you know, at home or going out clothes.

Like I always made an effort to say, even though I was going out that evening, I would change cause I didn't wanna be in my work clothes unless absolutely I couldn't, you know, make the effort to leave work to get to where I was going. But I do think clothes, you know, they're part of our identity, they're part of our personality.

It shows your personality. And I think, and that's where I'm saying, what I show is like my personality. It's not necessarily everyone's taste and it's. I love to sort of see the reaction of people to all my outfits of the day to sort of say, I would never wear that, or, I love that. Or you just, you know, brought me to think somewhat differently about how to wear, you know, a turtleneck or something, you know, how you put it together, inspires me in some way.

And that's the biggest compliment for me. If I inspired somebody, like to think differently or inspire them to go out and play with clothing. And like I said, I think it's part of like, when we were little girls and we played dress up and, you know, with our dolls, well it's the same thing now as adults, you know, we play dress up with ourselves Absolutely.

and it allows you to be someone else. Sometimes, sometimes I, I'll dress up and it's almost like a costume. Like, I can, I can step into this role.  that maybe my day-to-day doesn't allow and I can be a little bit more adventurous or a little braver, those kinds of things. I completely agree.

You know, I recently, saw an article like in the United States that they were talking in the House of Representatives in Missouri, that they're introducing a dress code for the people in the House of representatives telling women what they should be wearing. And I thought like, okay, that is so archaic.

Like, first of all, no man should be telling a woman what to wear , or what is this? What is, is there one ideal of what is to be decorum? You know what I mean? So, I just, can't believe that. I feel like we're almost walking back into the Handmaid's Tale. Like that was fiction, but it's becoming truth and it's a little scary right now with what's happening in politics.

And I think, I was never a very political person, but if I lived in the United States, I think I would be very political cuz I just, I can't tolerate sort of what I see, you know, the intolerance, you know, telling women what they can do with their bodies, which, whether or not you believe in pro-life or no, it's still a private decision for a woman to make.

So I feel like almost like, it really irks me when I see that. And I feel sorry for sort of the new generation coming up to have to face this and fight this battle that I thought we as women fought like 50 years ago. Yes. Agreed. All on all counts. I think that it's a very personal decision. I don't.

Endorse in any way terminating a life. But of course there are situations in which a woman is not ready and she has the right, in my opinion, she has the right to make that decision. Yay or nay. Exactly. I, like I said, no one is putting all of these boundaries on men like they can choose to do anything they want and no one's saying what they can and cannot do.

And I feel like it's a double standard and I feel as much purpose as we've made. I feel like we're stepping back a little bit and I think it's still difficult, you know, for women in power. And I, really do feel, I still face this ageism as a woman trying to find employment today at my age, if I wasn't, man, I'm 60, they think I'm in my prime and I'm like, you know, leader and they would never sort of dismiss a man, wanting to continue his career at age 60.

And there are many examples the current c e o of, Peloton is in his sixties, and he was brought in to sort of turn around the company. But I do feel women, especially as they get into their fifties and onward, It's very difficult. We face this sort of like, well, you're not gonna be current.

You're not gonna be, if you let your hair go gray, you know, you look older, you know where a man looks distinguished, so do we have to play this role to look a certain way? I always say, you know, when you look at actresses, they are forever like in their 30, right?

Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, you know, they're all women in their fifties. They look amazing. But there is this expectation. That you must stop the clock and that you're only relevant if you look a certain way. And I feel like that is very sad. But there is this intense pressure on women to look a certain way to maintain themselves.

If it's something you choose to do for yourself, it's one thing. But if you feel like you have to do it because the world won't accept you or cherish you, you won't find love, you won't find a job. all those kind of pressures that women face, I always say we are the harder race.

we can bear the pain of children, we can ba bear more pressure, we multitask better. We're more emotional creatures, we're more empathetic. Versus, but I do think there's a lot of pressure on women today and that's why sometimes I don't think people realize just how much is on the shoulders of women every day as they go through life.

I completely agree. There's the expectations are. very different gen, you know, with the double standard of gender. Tell me a little bit about what kinds of messages you got growing up about being a woman. So I came from a very traditional household of my, parents met late in life, so my father was in his fifties when he met my mother.

They both, came through the Holocaust. So they were Holocaust parents, you know what I mean? They were very frugal. They only had me, I was an only child. They vested all of their hopes and dreams on me. They gave me everything, but I felt like this pressure, like my father had his first heart attack when I was five.

So I felt like I was a caregiver from a very young age to my parents cuz they were older. My father was not well and then, when he passed away, I was in my twenties and then, I had this opportunity to go to New York and I was conflicted because I thought like, should I go, should I leave my mother?

I'm the only child. We didn't have a huge family. And I was seeing a therapist and she really encouraged me like, you need to do this for your, you need to live your life. Because I felt like I was taking care of everyone. And in some ways, you know, if you were to psychoanalyze why I am still single, maybe it's cause I don't wanna be a caregiver.

I want someone to take care of me. So  I always say like, why am I still single? why didn't I get married and have kids in the traditional? But they did have these very traditional expectations, coming from the background that they did. You needed to get married. If you didn't get married.

What's wrong with you? I mean, my parents, like, are you dating? You know, why aren't you getting married? Like, why isn't he asking you to ma you know, get married? There was always that kind of pressure, you're two career oriented, it wasn't encouraged, even though they encouraged education, it was more like you go to university to find a man, get married, and then he quit.

So that was, they, they came from a very traditional background and I don't think my parents really understood that. I was very career oriented and ambitious and didn't think the way did because I was like their first generation born here in Canada. So I do think, maybe it was a bit rebellious cuz I wanted to, you how we are as teenagers and every teenager's the same way.

My parents don't understand me, , you know, and you wanna go off and be rebellious and do things, so I was no different, Yes, absolutely. I didn't know we had that shared background with are you're Jewish, I'm assuming? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah, my, grandmother as a Holocaust survivor lost a lot of her family.

But I'm very grateful to have been born in this country, the us even even the political climate that is currently happening, . Cuz otherwise I would be in Ukraine right now, and that's no better. Oh my God, it's so sad what's happening in Ukraine and I don't know, you know, like Russia's just run amuck, it's just, I feel like the world's going a little crazy.

I feel like even the beginning of 2023, it's felt really odd. There were so many celebrity deaths and, things happening in the world that. Can't explain. although I am not religious, I feel I have faith that there is a bigger power and that we don't understand. that there is a reason, there's a meaning.

And I guess, you know, I've always tried to live my life as seeing glass half full versus half empty. And even though, we all go through, things in our lives that don't work out the way we want them to work out. I've lost jobs, I've lost friends, things that I feel like I strive for didn't get.

But then it opened doors to other things that happened that, gave me joy in my life. And I met new people. And that's why I always feel like I wanna put it, the energy out there of the energy I want to be returned to me. Mm-hmm. . And sometimes, and you can't go with the expectation that it will be, but I always live my life with that kind of mantra that put the energy out there and.

Even if it doesn't come back exactly the way you think, it'll come back. What is needed for you? And I do believe that. Beautiful. Yeah. I, do think that there is a karmic energy. What goes around, comes around or, something like that. And a higher power. I'm with you I'm, not practicing Judaism regularly.

No, but we're cultural Jews, and I think a lot of, those who are in the west are cultural Jews, There's, a reason that we fled wherever, The diaspora took us, and, we're pioneers in some way.

We have that in our genes because our parents came here. I do think it's important to always sort of remember the Holocaust, cuz I see some, you know, denialism out there. And I think when I see what's happening in Iran, I really do believe we are doomed to repeat history if we do not, think about what causes this kind of, Thing to happen and bubble up.

it could happen in Russia, it could happen in Iran because, people believe we're the only ones that are right and everyone else is wrong. And especially now that we're in this economic turmoil of a possible recession, there is always a temptation to blame people that they think are responsible.

it's like the Jews, or rich people or whatever. The, they're the ones responsible for my misery and what's happening in the world, So, it's a little scary, but I just feel like we're kind of moving backwards. when I look at the, political and religious and sort of, what's the climate out there right now?

I think we have to be very cautious that there's a lot of stirring of, hate. And, when I saw what happened, at, January 6th, I was like, I'd never, I never in. Whole life could believe somebody would attack the capitol in that way, or that you would have a president, a former president, instigate that or be in such denialism of one.

He wanted to be a dictator and basically say, I wanna stay in power and let's just throw out everybody's votes. And I couldn't believe it at the time, like, is this like something that could happen today in the Twentie? first century, you don't think that, but now it's like, whoa, that could happen.

There's so many, that's why I'm saying we have to be very cautious and sort of like, the good thing is today we have social media and that keeps people accountable because you can't hide anymore. even in Iran where you they're trying to like stamp out people's rights and in China they're still getting the word out somehow in social media cuz they're sending it through WhatsApp and you know Yeah.

All kinds of VPNs and whatever. So, that's the thing. Social media keeps us accountable, you know what I mean? Yeah, as long as it, the channels stay open, right? Yeah. I mean when, they are private organizations, all of those, so they have the right to censor whatever they wanna censor their agenda, unfortunately.

Yeah. I mean that's what I, I was a little worried about sort of Elon Musk when he took over Twitter, you know what I mean? Cause he was letting like everything hang out. Like anything you want goes now on Twitter . Well, and maybe, if, I, wouldn't say that he's correct in his actions, but in terms of, you know, free the free press, like their speech, I believe in freedom of speech and I, I think it's okay.

You know, cuz people, I was at lunch today with a friend and she says, do you censor or block, you know, people who have negative comments on your platform because especially on TikTok, I would say you get more. I call the trolls that like will have like really negative comments and usually they're people who, it's user 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

They have no content themselves. They just go on other people's accounts and say, you know, negative things. I said, as long as it's not like something that is really, that I would not agree, like something that is sexual or something that is like, you know, I wanna kill you or something like that.

Mm-hmm. , if it's just, I don't like your outfit, people are allowed not to like my outfit or think I look old or you know, like I don't, that doesn't bother me. And so I think it's important, if you're gonna put yourself out there in the public venue, you have to be prepared that not everyone is gonna love what you do.

You know, I always find that it's like a different audience on Instagram where they're much more respectful. I don't really get the negative comments on Instagram, but boy, when I went on TikTok, it was a whole other. Experience, but I do love TikTok because you can be so authentic. It's not like so curated and so crafted.

Mm-hmm.  that it's a very different experience than what I would normally want to do on Instagram. It's definitely a different vibe. It's a different vibe, but I, I enjoy it. And I think it was also me wanting to sort of prove to future potential employers that I'm pretty relevant, that I understand digital and social media very well, and like the fact that I could organically grow to 50,000 followers on TikTok in less than a year.

I, I understand, you know, how the algorithm, I shoot all my content on a tripod, I edit and cap cut, and then I, you know, put it out there. So it's like, I'm a one woman director, creative director, producer, actor. And I, just put it all out there and every single day.

Fabulous. I have something to learn  from you a lot, I'm sure. But in that, in that realm specifically. Yes. Which is really interesting. Cause when I look at my sort of psychographics and demographics of who's following me mm-hmm. , I'm always surprised that I have, followers from every age demographic.

It's not necessarily only my own, cuz I thought I'm putting out a account where I'm specifically saying inspiring women over 50. Right. I thought it would primarily be women about to turn 50 or older that would be following me. And I have a lot of younger women who are inspired by what I'm putting out there as content.

And I think the best compliment I ever rec received was a younger girl saying, you make me not afraid to age. I was just gonna say that and I love that. And like that to me was like, oh my God, you just made my day. like that was the best comment ever. Yes. I've heard from. Lots of friends that they did not become vain until, they didn't feel vain until they started hitting around 40 and things started changing.

And change is inevitable. Like the alternative is death. Right. Exactly. . And so we've had a lot of conversations about, okay, do I feel pressured, like you said before, do I feel pressured to change this or is this for me? would say most of the things that I've done have been for me, I will admit to being vain.

I mean, I think if women don't say that they are, like, if they say they're not, I don't think they're being totally truthful. because I wanted externally to feel a little bit of what I was feeling. Like I feel like I'm 25 inside. I don't feel, I don't know what I was supposed to think I was gonna feel like at 60.

I felt like, oh my God. You know, I remember thinking at 30, my mother seemed old. You know what I mean? Like, and now it's like, I think today. we live healthier lives, we eat better, we exercise, I always tell women it is not inevitable that menopause means you can let yourself completely go and that you're gonna develop a pot and everything goes to pot.

Yes, it is harder, but you can stay in shape. I work out, basically five days a week. But I did it for myself because it helped me mentally yes, to feel better because exercise is my sort of dopamine. You know, some people, drink, some people do drugs. This was my drug of choice, which was to exercise.

It was healthy. . And so I walked a lot during Covid, which I think was really good for me. I worked out a lot at home on different platforms. I love doing different things, like I'm trying a new discipline called the Lari Method cuz I was always into Pilates, but I never tried tore, which is a completely sort of variation of Pilates, It's really tough. And I went to a Legree session and I feel I love it. That's what I'm saying. I always wanna learn new skills. I wanna keep myself out there. But in terms of like, yes I do Botox I haven't had that much filler done to me. I've had like a little filler. I think the thing I regret the most is doing thread lift , and I did it on camera.

And, you know, I thought I was going to get rid of those little jowls, you know, so I had dreads. They kind of like a marionette. They'll pull your cheeks up. But in truth, it didn't really last. And I think for the cost of it, I wouldn't have recommended it. I did have a necklace when I was 47 and I feel like it stayed fairly good.

I had my eyes done around the same time. So I had work done. I, you know, go for regular facials. I've done laser treatments. I color my hair. I do those things, but I do it for me. It's not so much that I feel like. there is the external pressure. Like I feel like if I went on interviews and people expect me to look a certain way, you know, when people say, oh, you look good for your age, and I really like dislike that comment.

Like, what is that? what does that mean? i's just say, why can't you just say you look good as a woman? You know what I mean? Right. Regardless what for your age, And I think that's why women feel this pressure, like, you have to look good for a certain age. you look younger, you look older, there's always some sort of critique that as women we face, from the outside world.

Do you feel that working in the beauty and fashion industry, it, does it ever feel like it gets deeper than skin deep? I think, it's interesting. I feel like you know, the pressure to look a certain way in the fashion industry, but I feel like when I was working with Ashley Graham, she really changed the face of the fashion industry at first it was like the token plus girl, you know?

But when she went on Sports Illustrated and made the cover and then started to be featured on runways, she kind of opened the door, to this diversity of body type. even Victoria's Secret is no longer relevant. remember at the height it was all about the skinny white girl, walking the runway with those angel wings, , these girls in the pushup bra, you know.

And then women really rebelled against and say, well, those bras aren't really comfortable. They may be pretty, but they're not comfortable. and then like, they don't fit me if I'm a certain type. And I, I worked in the plus size industry, so that was my fashion job. I worked for a plus size line called Ionel, and Ashley Graham was the model and she was a catalog model at that time, working for Lane Bryant for addition, for many plus size lines.

We were on a photo shoot one day and we were talking and she says, I, have a vision board and on my vision board I have certain goals for myself, and one of them is to have my own lingerie line. And this was 2012. This is was around the time at the height of Victoria's Secret.  and, and I said, you know what?

There's no one, you are the Victoria's Secret. If she was like, 50 pounds heavier because she was the ultimate sex pot gorgeous woman, but more voluptuous and she just wouldn't have fit into the sample size of Victoria's Secret. And so I said, you know what? That's really interesting. And I went back to my head merchant at the time and I said, I proposed the idea of like, what if we, did a license with Ashley and did her own lingerie line and showed that sexy really was not about a size.

And so that's how it all got started with Ashley Graham, where we signed her to license. And I would say up until like I left 2019, we were doing her lingerie line and. It was kind of like the first opportunity of where she had a license where she got to sort of create product and then she went on to like be a host and talk show and this.

So now she's like a full-blown celebrity with millions and millions of followers. She's like Kim Kardashian, but way nicer. And you know what? I think the nicest thing and just to show you how authentic, when I went on Twitter, cuz she was already on Twitter, she like followed me. Say, I'm so proud of what you're doing.

And I thought like, wow. You know, it's the ultimate compliment cuz she didn't have to really be nice to me anymore. We didn't work together in any capacity. But it just shows you genuinely what, an authentically good person. And she didn't forget the people who helped her along the way, who gave her those opportunities?

That's beautiful. I think that is the hardest part, maybe about being famous or in the public eye is, staying grounded. And staying authentic. I think for me, you know, when people DM me and ask me questions, I'm always like responding. And I think sometimes people are shocked that I actually like respond, to my dms.

I'm like going, well, who else is gonna do what? It's gonna be me. And I'm very happy when people have questions, And I'm very like, the way I speaking you today is the way I speak on camera to my Instagram stories or to my TikTok. There's no filter, there's no, you know, like facade of like, this is my sort of face to the world of when I'm on camera and then I'm a different person when I, shut down the camera.

I'm the same person. I'm just as unspoken. I say it like it is, you know, sometimes I'm not perfect, but I've told everybody the truth of everything I've done to myself. If people ask, I don't say it, it's just because I used olive oil on my skin, like J Lo, I'm like, Come on, Jayla.

We know you've had Botox like don't lie, . That shit's not natural.

You said something about being single and not following the traditional path and kind of being rebellious. What kinds of responses have you had in really staking a claim in the life that you wanna live? So it's interesting, People expect like, okay, you're single. you're at the end of latter part of life.

That's somehow, you know, it's over. And people are shocked that I will go to dinner by myself. I will travel. I went to Barcelona, Spain, Ibiza, and Marba. I traveled by myself. I think things that traditionally men would, not nobody would look and say anything about a man traveling on his own or going to dinner on his own, but when a woman does it, it's like, oh my God, how shocking.

And I said, well, what am I else? Am I supposed to do? live my life, hide out in my cave of my apartment and never go out. And that's how you meet people and that's how you have experiences. And I just wanna sort of say that, you have to put yourself out there. If you want to sort of experience life, and I'm only going to go through this life once, so I'm not going to sort of take a bite out of the apple at every step.

So for me, it's not that I wouldn't want to be in a partnership or a relationship with someone. I'm definitely open if that is going to come into my life. But while I'm waiting, I am not going to sit there and like say, oh, well, I'm waiting for a man to take me to dinner, or I'm waiting for a man to like take me on vacation.

No, if I worked hard, I earned my own money. I see no problem to basically get on a plane. I had a great time. I met so many different people while I traveled in Spain. I never really lacked for company if I wanted it. And so I feel. People, there's still this like strange double standard when it comes to like how you're supposed to live your life as a single woman.

And it's funny, one of my married friends, doesn't invite me to dinner because I don't know, if you're not in a couple, sometimes you don't get invited by other couples, And I think like, are you worried I'm gonna take your man or, so I don't know what it is, you know, like why can't I be the third wheel, in the relationship.

But there are some people who have very traditional archetypes of what it is to be in a married relationship versus a single relationship that only single people need to be with single people. Although I do have great married friends that I go out with for dinner, so, but it's. The different sort of stereotypes that people have for, what I should or shouldn't do.

But I just like, regardless of what people think, how I should live my life, I live my life, this is my life. I live it on my own terms. And so far, I've been, you know, enjoyed what I've experienced in some ways. Like I said, I'm free because I don't have the kids and the responsibility to kind of like get up and go at a moment's notice, I don't have to range for babysitters or whatever.

I love children, I love dogs, I love everybody. But it's, it does allow you a certain freedom that I sometimes think that people like, once they're like in a long-term relationship, they almost, yearned for that day where they can be alone for a minute to kind of like experience. So I think there's good things on both sides and there's bad things on both sides.

And I'm not gonna say that, being single is like, cakewalk. Cuz there are times, like I said, during Covid, I was super lonely, super depressed. I'm a human being, I craved the connection of other people. I wanted my friends, I wanted to hang out with people. I wanted to go out.

And the moment you couldn't do all of those things, it was kind of like, believe me, if I could have gotten on a plane to Florida, I would've been there in a second. , it was like we couldn't even travel. That's how restricted we were in Canada. It was like you couldn't go anywhere. It was like you were locked down like in China, it was like really crazy.

Wow. I think that the pandemic was really eyeopening for a lot of people in a lot of ways. And for some it was tragic and some, a silver line. You know, there was definitely silver linings for me. My family slowed down a lot and we did a lot less and had a lot more family time. But also you, really couldn't, as a single person, travel very much.

And there everything was locked down, even if you did travel and wanted to have fun and interact with people who were willing.  and self-care was locked down. I had to get a bootleg, a black market massage, , you know, , I have to say, you know, like I was coloring my own hair and all those kind of things.

Like you had to do all that self-care. I, you know what, I look back on all the photos, taken during that time period and I said, wow, I was pretty good at the maintenance. It was like I didn't lose a step, but I also think it opened up a world for self-care and slowing down. I think that was probably the good thing cuz we've come to appreciate those moments of like having conversation and not running from this to that.

like you probably had more time to have a conversation with people than and get to know them than you probably would've during normal times. where everyone says I have an appointment to get to or whatever, I certainly discovered my fitness during that time period. I don't think I worked out as much as I did.

I'm actually in probably better shape as a result of Covid than I was prior to Covid cuz I was working like a dog and I wasn't going to the gym as often. going to the gym, but not like five days a week or whatever. So

tell me a little bit about how your, your feelings around your body have changed as you've grown as a woman. Look, I think, You, kind of have to accept that there are certain changes. And even as much as I work out and take care of myself menopause, you dry up in certain places you never thought you would dry up, you know what I mean?

And your skin texture changes. I mean, things still droop a little bit more. Your skin becomes more lax. So you kind of have to still have this like look in the mirror and just find ways to accept it, but also like, show the best element of yourself, So I always say my arms are my best element, so I, I'll show that more often than I will show my knees, even though I know.

I've done that sometimes just as shock value, you know, to say yes, they're a little craggy, but, get used to it. If I'm okay with wearing shorts, sometimes So be it. I think it's all a matter of, what we will, accept in ourselves. But I think, regard, it's not just menopause.

Your body changes after having children, childbirth. There's all kinds of changes as women we go through in our bodies. And I think, because ours are so attached to our hormones, we experience them much more deeply than men. I think the only thing is they lose a little bit of their testosterone down the road, but it's like the whole estrogen and progesterone and all of these things have much more dramatic changes, from when we go into, our menstruation cycle and then, going to the next cycle. But I'm a big proponent of hormone replacement therapy. I use bioidentical hormone replacement. I think that, we were taught to think that hormone replacement was bad, that it caused cancer.

But now that they've done further study, it's an infinitesimal risk and there's many more benefits to it. So it's again, a private discussion that you need to have with your doctor whether you will choose to go on it, I have been on it for, over 15 years, I'm fine. And I feel like why suffer if you don't have to suffer?

I don't have hot flashes and all of those things that can make your life very miserable. if you're going down that path of life and you don't feel you're very best, it's hard to sort of be, feel very confident and motivated. So, our bodies are connected, how our bodies, you are functioning.

Is connected to our mind and our confidence level and our mood. And it's just as funny just as we were like hormonal teenagers, as we're just entering those crazy hormonal times. You become a little bit like a hormonal witch  at the end of time. So it's kind of like we go through those hormonal, turbulent time periods of highs and lows, right?

But I feel, okay and accepting of, my body and, I work at it and I feel like I'm as good as I'm gonna be for the age I'm at. I'm not in denial to say I look 30 anymore. I look good for the time period I'm in. I feel good and confident in my body that I'm in and that, like I said, my only measure is what I think about myself versus what people other people think about me.

I'm actually one of those people really, I don't do anything for anyone else. I do it for myself if I feel good. Then I feel I express that in my external sort of reactions with other people. But very seldom have I done something, for somebody else. if a guy had told me in my youth say, you need a boob job, I would said no.

it's like, but if somebody wants to do it and it makes them feel fantastic and self-confident way, it's like, getting the nose job when you were a certain age or whatever. We all do these things that, I think as long as you do them for the right reason and it's for your own personal, that, but there can come if, you're doing it to like change your mental state.

I think that's the problem. like if you do too much. Hoping for some sort of mythical outcome that will never come. Like I always say, I would never wanna not look like myself. I want people to still recognize me, like how I, like an older version. But like I always say, you wanna look well rested, like a well rested version of yourself.

But if you, like I look at Madonna as a case and point of like, she does not look anymore like Madonna. Like even at her age, she has completely transformed her face where, she is a little bit a caricature of what she was. You know what I mean? And I think when she's trying to hard to recapture something, you can't recapture, you have to be the version you are, but a sort of a improved version of you what you are.

But you cannot hope that plastic surgery or injectables or whatever is going to replace what's in here in your head, And if you can't accept. That nothing you do to yourself will make you feel better about that. I agree. I coach women to feel great in their bodies and we talk a lot about mindset and mindfulness and things like that and being in your body.

But one of the things that  was eye-opening for me was, I, started dieting when I was in second grade, which is really sad. But I always had this like 30 pounds that I, I needed to lose. And every time I lost it, I was miserable because I didn't do the inner work first.

And it's the same with cosmetic surgery. If you don't do the inner work or bariatric surgery or any kind of changes that you, you'll never feel good about yourself. You're never gonna feel good about yourself until you. Do the internal work and then if you want, you're outside to match. You can do something about it in this day and age if you have the means.

But, it should not, like you said, it should not be for anybody else but you. You know, it's interesting cuz like Ashley spoke about the fact, she's had, twins plus her initial child and she's probably 25, 30 pounds heavier than she was at her peak of her modeling. And she's okay with it.

You know what I mean? And she's out there, it's. She's gotten this point of acceptance, like, this is my body and I've earned all the stretch marks and I have these beautiful babies as a result of it. And she just has this natural confidence about her. Again, she's just like saying, I feel beautiful in my skin.

So who cares if I'm 20, 30 pounds? But you know what I see, especially like, being quite active on TikTok is like the Ozempic trend. that, when the celebrities were taking Ozempic, not because they had pre-diabetic, Issues, but they wanted to lose quick 18 pounds, like Kim Kardashian to fit into a dress.

That's like the wrong reasons. And, and like the problem is people who follow her, these young impressionable girls think that whatever she does, they should do as well. And that's my fear is like, people just like see that and they think it's so easy, but they probably don't see like all the side effects.

And the moment you go off it, you gain all the pounds right back and you can't stay on these drugs and they're expensive and they're injectables and it's like, it's crazy. All the off prescription ways people are using drugs to, in the pursuit of beauty. Right. Well, and actually you see the same thing in the male gender with steroids, you know?

Oh yeah. There's so many complications with that and. There are more men now getting plastic surgery than ever before. It's funny, you think that women are vain, but men are just as vain, especially this generation kind of coming through. like there's so many things that men are doing.

There are as much, I think, going into the plastic surgeon doing Botox injectables and stuff like that as much as women. So it's really, it's become genderless now, this pursuit of looking your best. You know what I mean? I think it went from looking your best to trying to, you know, like I said, look your best for the moment you're in versus recapturing your youth.

You're never gonna be 20 or 30. Right? But I don't wanna go back and be 20 and 30. I value the wisdom and the freedom that I have and everything that I've earned. do I wanna be, 70 or 80. I never thought, like, I, I don't know what the image I had of myself being 60, but I feel like I'm the same person I was, but when I was 50, so I don't know what I thought it would it was such a big milestone birthday and I was like, oh my God, I'm really old now.

I'm, almost at like, collecting my unemploy, my retirement insurance, And I was like, I'm not ready mentally there, you know what I mean? I still feel this energy to want to work. So, so in a way I kind of created work for myself through becoming a content creator and hoping that, it will pay off in the end, So I put the energy that I put into other things, but, and so far, I'm pleasantly surprised that, some really amazing opportunities have come up. I think the biggest compliment was I got invited by TikTok to present to L'Oreal. They had a conference for the L'Oreal division here in Canada, and I was invited by.

Like three other, content creators on the platform who had much bigger following. And I was like, so complimented to be included to represent my demographic. And I thought, oh, people are noticing . You never think anybody's watching what you do on your platform. So it's always like, I'm still in this shock and awe, like anyone is following me.

Like I'm doing it the same way I did it when I had like 10 people like looking at my platform. Well you're very authentic and what an honor. Congratulations on that . Thank you. That's wonderful. And you do look fabulous for you look fabulous. Not for your age, not for anything. You look fabulous and you exude this like, This energy, I don't wanna say a youthful energy, because it's not just for youth  for any age, it's for energy.

You have this vitality, in the way that you present yourself and speak and all of those things. And I think you're making the world a better place. Oh, a photos to you. Thank you. Yeah. I think that's honestly the best, outcome of what I do on this platform, it truly was meant to sort of inspire other women.

And when I feel like I get that kind of feedback, it's like genuinely the best type of feedback because I just think that, it makes people feel more confident to sort of, I, I always say like, the best time to take a risk is like today. So like, don't wait. Don't put off those things that you wanna do in your life.

you see like, you don't know what tomorrow holds. So I always say don't postpone anything you can do today. And that's why I'm saying I always take advantage of living in the moment. I've always been a person who doesn't really like look back, like the good old days were 30 years ago. I always into like current music, evolving my look, sort of what is happening today, what is the movie, I loved Wednesdays as much as the Gen Z loved Wednesdays, so.

I feel like I have this like voracious nature to consume everything at any, all the experiences that life has to offer in the moment. And that's the way I choose to live my life. And I feel like I get so much back from that, from being like I think you have to be present, in the moment.

Agreed. Who are your style icon? My style icons, honestly, I love street style a lot, so they're not like people who are famous. I love, for me, when I look at Fashion Week, the, best part of Fashion Week is a street style. And especially I love the European Street style, because people are more creative.

I did love Carolyn Bassett, when she was alive, I thought her style was impeccable. Like she really inspired me. But so does Sar Jessica Parker, I love the quirkiness. I'm a little bit of like the minimal meets quirky, because I feel like I'm not one particular style, I, do reinvent myself into various, styles. some people are very consistent. I wear a certain type of like persona style wise. I'm not that way. So I would say like between a Carolyn Bassett and a Sar Jessica, those two kind of like are the style icons that I really look to in terms of, but I follow a lot of content creators that inspire me, like Karen Brik, who I love her style.

So I follow like some of the current, content creators that are popular today. And I, but again, I get my inspiration from seeing people on the street, and, and just sort of recreating those looks, Sammy, Jeff Coat, who wears a lot of harnesses, so it's like sometimes I'll see something on like TikTok and I'll say, Hmm, I think I wanna try that.

and it's just sort of added the blue, whatever. Peaks my interest. I look and see what's happening in fashion week. I think I get my style, cues. I get a lot of beauty stuff from TikTok because like, there's so much beauty content creators on TikTok, so I'm always trying, like underpaintings a big thing where you put your contour and your concealer on before you put your foundation or tinted moisturizer.

So been experimenting with beauty, trying to see how does it look on the mature skin, you know, cuz like a lot of the content creators are about 10. So I always like to say, does it really work when you try to do it on somebody who's not 10? So I feel like I resonate because I'm like the anti, first of all, I'm not a makeup artist, so I'm doing it.

The way the normal person who's not a makeup artist is gonna try and experiment. And I like to showcase even if their epic fails, you know what I mean? I wanna do it and like show it like in real time. So I do a lot of get ready with me makeup wise now in the morning just to kind of like say, this is what it's really like to try to recreate some of these crazy looks that you see on social media and let's do it together and see if it works.

I love your openness and like your candor and you're just unfiltered. It's beautiful. I am totally unfiltered. It's, it is been the bane of my existence. It's either, cuz in business it can work against you, you know what I mean? I always was very direct in business, like in terms of like giving, constructive feedback but giving constant feedback.

Cuz I kind of always felt in business, the worst thing you can do is not tell someone when they're doing something wrong or they can do it better. not tell them how to do it, but just sort of saying, This is the outcome. And if you want some feedback, I'll give you feedback in terms of how to get there.

But I need to tell you it's not working out the way you're doing it right now, so. So some people appreciate that in business and other people didn't, it's interesting cuz I've been able to work in direct to consumer companies, which are so different environment than the legacy big corporate structures.

So I've kind of worked in all different kind of business environments and I think I'm kind of made more for the entrepreneurial type of company. Kind of, just get in and do everything. I, I'm the kind of person who likes to do versus being, delegating everything to everyone.

It, I was a terrible VP of marketing because in some ways I love to do things, so I wanted to do some of the tasks that, well, I was supposed to let my staff do . even like in social media, I was kind of always like, oh, I have content, creative ideas too. I think I was better suited to like sort of the one, like a smaller company environment, working in that kind of environment.

Although I didn't last very long in the D T C world, because that's another kind of experience of the founder based businesses, And they're very young and they also wanna do everything by themselves and they . So I got a little bit of my own medicine started to serve back up to me. Well, this seems like a good place to come full circle and. In my community we talk about body freedom. And body freedom to me is feeling light, healthy, confident, and free. Being able to walk down the street in a burlap sack and feel amazing. What does body freedom mean to you? I completely agree. I mean, body freedom is when I put on an outfit and I feel like really good in that outfit, I think you just strut.

You, have that strut, right? So I feel like I know when I put on an outfit that I feel it, and there's times when I put on an outfit, it's like, It's like a, I'm putting on a costume and I don't really feel it. And I know those days when they're like more epic fails. I know it before the people gimme the feedback that it is.

So I love when you put on an outfit and you just like, I feel so good in that outfit. I completely agree. I think the moment you sort of like have this feeling of acceptance about yourself and you're not afraid, And you just kind of go for it. It's that freedom of like letting go of people's, expectations, your, those perceptions of what perfection.

There is no such thing as perfection. So, every morning I, I wake up and I say, oh, I have that mini gel if only didn't have that mini gel. And you know what, now it's like, it's part of my personality, it's part of my face. I accept it. And I was like, just move on. It's gonna be there and I choose not to fix it at this point, And so that's that freedom of like letting go and just saying, this is good enough. I feel good enough. I feel like just, you know, put on that lipstick, make your hair put on a great outfit and just like, go for it. And like I said, I don't. Perfection. You can look amazing at every weight. I always love looking at Trinity London when she does those makeover takeover shows and she makes over women and they're like different heights, different weights, different ethnicities, and they always look fabulous in the end because they put on a little makeup and she shows them the, proper colors to wear and the clothes.

It makes people feel like a million bucks. So I do believe in the power of beauty and fashion to, to give you confidence and to transform you, to make you feel the best version of yourself.

And how about if, how about without it? I think, you know what, you have to also be able to, take off all the artifice and still love yourself. So, I never would have let people see me without makeup. And now I've, I've gotten, cause I was a little bit like, I don't think people should see me like in my natural state, and I did a l a few of those, get ready with me in the morning with me starting off with no makeup.

And I was kind of like, I even had to get used to seeing myself with no makeup, but people really appreciate it. And then I got all this positive feedback and I thought, okay, you all continue to do that. you gotta love yourself even when you're not putting on the face. Absolutely. Well, Rosalyn, it's been such a pleasure speaking with you.

You are a wealth of knowledge about the fashion industry, about the beauty, and doing right by yourself, staying authentic, working. Body without, sacrificing vitality or letting anybody get in your way. So I love it now. Thank you. Where can we find wish for the invitation? Oh, absolutely.

Where can we find out more about you? Well you can find out more about me on LinkedIn. I'm Rosalyn Griner on LinkedIn under my not a pseudonym, . So if you're interested in business and learning, you know about my thoughts in terms of business world, that's where it is. And if not, it's at how Roz does it both on Instagram and TikTok and you can follow for stories and basically whatever I'm doing, I share with my community.

Awesome. We'll have those links in the show notes. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. And take good care. Thank you so much. It was really fun. Awesome.