We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Penelope Richards. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Penelope below.

Penelope, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I had a small nutraceutical company with my ex-husband in the 2000’s. After divorce I retained the rights to our product formulation and started my own company, Gaia Goddess LLC, at age 64, during the world wide COVID-19 pandemic. I produce a potent, immune support, antioxidant nutraceutical product called “Athena’s Leaf of Life.” Then, on March 20, 2022 I died of cardiac arrest.

Penelope, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Originally from Silicon Valley, I worked for years for Fortune 500 companies including Apple Computer and Genentech, but as a lifelong spiritualist, I’ve always known I have a “purpose.” I’m also an Artist and teach art and love to inspire others! Always creative, but I never touched a paintbrush until my mid 40s and a “hobby” turned into a business as a professional muralist, faux finisher, and trompe l’oeil artist. In my ’50s I took up belly dancing for exercise and fun, joined local drum circles, then began teaching it as well. Through my company, I’ve created a new Women’s Empowerment Community called “Gaia Goddesses” and my program to empower women is called “Get Your Goddess On!” Every quarter I hold an event where we begin with belly dancing, camaraderie, holistic health modalities, healthy food, massages and Oracle card readings. I also do Goddess portraits of attendees and give as a gift to remind them how gorgeous they truly are! I have a PR background and am a natural dot connector. I design my products around my clients needs and wants. Our product is in a pilot program of volunteers from my community and the most astounding testimonial was that it stopped severe night sweats in menopausal women! So my clients, and their age-related needs, are what drive me to develop future products! Although we are female centric, our products can be used from “womb to tomb” by everyone, including fur babies, as it also works for dogs and horses!
On March 20th, 2022 I mysteriously died of cardiac arrest, was revived and put in a cold coma for 6 days. I have no heart issues and my team of doctors were completely perplexed! Prognosis looked dire so family and friends were called to say their final goodbyes before pulling the plug, when suddenly I popped back in my body, fully awake and scared the hell out of everybody! Doctors wanted to keep me another week for observation and study, but I said no, and checked myself out of the hospital the next day as I needed a shower, my bed and a cheeseburger…In that order! With 10 different IVs of drugs pumped into my body, including fentanyl and oxycontin, I used my OWN antioxidant product to detox and heal my body. So, I definitely “walk my Talk” as they say! I’ve had many spiritual readings and a hypnosis regression session to find out “where did I go during my 6 day nap?” and found my “raison d’etre” is to help people heal on Gaia.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Having come from 30 years of corporate America, my biggest lesson was to “change my way of thinking” of how life and business are. I never planned for this path, It was not on my radar. But intuitive messages were just too strong and kept nudging me and leaving breadcrumbs for me to follow. When I finally succumbed, I made a deal with the universe…and said ” I will agree to drive this bus, but YOU have to bring me the right people FOR the bus!” And…it did! Much to my compete surprise and in the most unexpected and odd ways. I’m now structuring my company, my products and my corporate culture organically as my community grows and unfolds. Birthing this type of “baby” is the most creative thing I’ve ever undertaken. My personal message is “it’s never too late”, “You’re never too old”, so just ‘Get Your Goddess On!” and always follow your intuitive breadcrumbs for they can lead to riches you couldn’t even begin to dream of! The word retirement is not even in my vocabulary. What keeps me going? When a woman who has taken my product sits at my kitchen table crying happy tears of how something I produced has “literally changed her life profoundly”…that’s all I need to stay motivated.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

In ANY field…you are always going to be learning! Beyond a college campus and degree, as life today changes so damn rapidly. I am a lifelong student, but self-taught. I do not hold a business degree but have years and years of business experience. I paid attention. I saw how people thrived, and also failed. I watched and studied CEOs/Presidents of huge corporations and found that it was their integrity, kindness and how they genuinely treated people that impressed me the most. Not their balance sheets or stock ratings. Who has “heart?” The world is in instantaneous information machine now. Read, study, observe, take what resonates with you…and leave the rest. When I was kvetching in overwhelm of how am I going to do all of this myself… The intuitive message came very clearly “You don’t have to know how to do all this …you just have to know how to hire the right people who do!” So simple…and so obvious! Delegating is my forte now. Coordinator. Bus driver.
Network with peers, ask a lot of questions, read, listen to podcasts, stay positive and above all ..tell “fear” to piss off on a daily basis as it will always try to creep in and infect your party along with its buddy “imposter syndrome.”
People ask me all the time… When do you know you’re an artist? My answer:: The moment you decide to put a brush to canvas, you are an artist. The same goes in business The moment you declare you are a “CEO”… You are one. The trick is actually believing it. Owning it. You may not be a “good” artist or CEO right out of the gate, but you will learn and grow and evolve like anything or anybody else. Mistakes and failures are the best teachers in self taught Earth School. Learn from them, and keep putting one foot in front of the other.! We all reinvent and tweak as we go. “Fine tuning” is also an art form!

Contact Info:

• Website: Gaiagoddess.cc
• Facebook: Penelope Richards
• Other: peneloperichards1111@gmail.com

Image Credits
Penelope Richards