One of the greatest privileges of our work is getting to talk with women who completely redefine what it means to be successful entrepreneurs. Jon Polt is one of those women. Her story isn’t about chasing a five-year plan or building a business in a boardroom. It’s about trusting your voice, embracing discomfort, and building something powerful in midlife – for yourself and for others.
What started as a creative outlet turned into a viral platform, a community, and ultimately, a career. In this conversation, Jen shares how she went from corporate to confidence coach, why discomfort was the push she needed, and what it really means to “make up for Glossed Time.”
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
I’m Jen Polt. I never set out to be one of those successful entrepreneurs you read about. In fact, I often say I’m an unexpected entrepreneur, an accidental influencer, and a corporate escapee. I left my 25-year career in sales and training in corporate America to become a full-time image and confidence coach, helping women to not feel invisible in midlife.
At the age when women feel the most powerful and activated, that’s when society starts to say, “Okay, that’s enough out of you.” We are faced with so much messaging that we’re supposed to dial it back, and we’re just still so counterintuitive. It just infuriated me, so that is how Glossed Time LLC started and why I created this community.
Beth Mazza, Female Mavericks
What were the final set of thoughts that made you jump out of the corporate world?
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
Glossed Time started as a passion project during the COVID lockdown. I never thought it was going to be anything more than a creative outlet. I enjoyed sharing my knowledge and my passions with other women. That’s when it started to take off, unexpectedly. And then two years in, I had a couple viral moments, and I doubled my community. I went from 3000 followers to 40K followers, and then six months later, I had another viral moment, and I went to 100K people.
Once I hit the first viral moment, I started to get opportunities to partner with brands, which was something I hadn’t even considered. And, so I was making some side hustle money, which was nice. There was a moment as the side business was building where it started to show me that if I had more time to dedicate to it, I might be able to replace what I was doing in corporate. I knew that it was going to have to be a bit of a leap, because it wasn’t enough to say, okay, pull the trigger. But at the same time, I knew, if I had the time and the resources and I made the pivot, that I could do it.
When I hit 100K, I really started to believe this could be my career. It was pulling in all of the things that I thought were my superpowers – connecting with people, my passions around confidence and image and coaching people. And, I was like, “Whoa, could I really design my own job description, do something that I love, work from wherever I want, and work with who I want to work with when I want to work?” That all sounded very appealing to me at 50-something years old. So, I started to put plans in motion.
Beth Mazza, Female Mavericks
How much financial leeway did you have to give yourself before you took the plunge? I think a lot of women say, “Oh, I could never do it…” particularly if they’re moms.
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
I would love to tell you that I was super planned out about it. When I first took the leap, it was in partnership with my husband at the time. I had a baseline of income that I knew would continue, and so I knew what I could continue to contribute to the household. But there was a bit of a leap – I knew I could do more if I wasn’t working full-time at my corporate job; I just didn’t have the time.
There wasn’t a trigger that made me jump ship, per se, but I was going through a lot in my job at the time. The job had become very tactical and less about people, neither of which are my strengths. In general, I had been pretty unhappy for a couple years. It was becoming more and more Soldier and less and less General. It was a lot of, “You do this, take this, design that, and execute it…” There wasn’t that feeling of creativity. There wasn’t that sense of self in my work anymore. And so I really broke down at a dinner with my husband, and I was like, I need to get out of here. I need to go, like, I have to, I have to take this chance. I’m not happy doing what I’m doing. It was kind of the perfect storm of all these things coming together.
Beth Mazza, Female Mavericks
In your brain, were you thinking, “Oh, my God, I’m 50. What am I thinking?”
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
I’ve never had the mindset where I felt limited by my age. My husband was very wired for safety, security, and stability, which I had. But, there was also the feeling – some people call it mid-life crisis – I call it mid-life reckoning. It’s the place where you think, “Is this what I thought my life was going to look like? Is this all that there is for me?”
So many women get to this place as our roles are redefined. Because when we’re younger, and we have families and partners and all of the things – and we get defined by who we serve – so and so’s wife, so and so’s partner, so and so’s mom, and there’s less about who she is.
And then we get to our 50s, and there is the feeling – if I am not a full-time mother anymore, what am I? The kids are off to school. They’ve moved out. They’re grown. You know, when the roles start to shift and women don’t have to focus as much on those roles the way they used to, and it frees up that bandwidth to be able to say, okay, well, what’s in it for me now, like I I’ve done all these things for everybody else, but how about me? So, I call it midlife reckoning, just that feeling of, I didn’t feel like I was done. I have a lot of friends who are talking about, oh, well, we’re 15 years of retirement, and I was like, I’m not going to coast for 15 years in the job that I’m miserable in just to do this.
Beth Mazza, Female Mavericks
Our entrepreneurial path always seems to center on where we can make the money, but your journey feels much more personal.
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
For sure. Mine was much more soul driven. I was actually fine if I didn’t make as much money as I did in my corporate job, as long as I was happy doing what I was doing,
It just felt like it was the right move, and I felt like I had the support of my partner. And, then three weeks later, it turns out I didn’t. I found out we were going to get a divorce, and I didn’t see that coming. It was three weeks after I had quit my job. I was like, oh shit, I can’t go back now. When it first happened, I was like, seriously, you couldn’t have told me three weeks ago before, but honestly, I don’t think I would have taken the leap if I had known that was the path I was about to go down.
Victoria Sivrais, Female Mavericks
It’s funny how often the most uncomfortable path turns out to be the right path. I always say to Beth, if I would have known the risks I would undertake when we started our business, there’s not a chance I ever would have taken the leap. But the trials and tribulations successful entrepreneurs go through is what makes the journey so amazing.
Beth Sivrais, Female Mavericks
We talk to younger women all the time exploring entrepreneurship and they are so focused on the risks that it’s hard for them to see any of the benefits. Risks exist and once you accept that, you can change your mindset.
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
I just gave a talk over the weekend, and I said one of the things that you need to really think about if you’re going to do something like this, is that you should assume that you’re going to do it alone. Because sometimes when you make big moves, people aren’t going to be along for the ride with you, and sometimes when you take big leaps, people aren’t going to jump alongside you.
When it happened, I was devastated for quite a while, but there was still that feeling for me that I still wanted this.
Beth Sivrais, Female Mavericks
How do you get over discomfort? Were you cognizant enough to say, I’m super uncomfortable right now, but I’m still doing it?
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
Yeah. There were definitely days when I just didn’t function. There were days that I ate Oreos on the couch and didn’t put a bra on. And, I gave myself some grace to sit in that.
What actually started to help was I started sharing the more vulnerable things and the more painful things publicly. I found that once I started to share it and put a voice to what I was feeling, I started to move through it and process it. I felt a bit like an imposter at the time, to be out there telling women to go chase their dreams and confidence. And I was boo-hooing as soon as I turned the camera off, and I thought, why am I not sharing this with these women?
I think that sharing my story and showing up and being vulnerable allowed these women to realize I’m not superhuman. My platform may seem very glossy and veneered, and yet, there’s still someone who struggles and there’s still someone who struggles with imposter syndrome and feeling bad for herself. When I started to share what was happening to me and how I was moving through it, that’s when the community became super connected to me and like voracious about me and cheerleading me.
Beth Sivrais, Female Mavericks
It’s a year from now, where’s Glossed World? Where are you?
Jen Polt, Making up for Glossed Time
I’m in the middle of some new directions with what I’m doing. I’ve started to do more speaking engagements. I’m really focused on keynotes and motivational speaking. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for my whole career, and I’ve done it in some way, shape or form, but never as a title. And so, I’m focused on speaking engagements. I’m doing some group workshops, thinking about maybe some retreats around confidence – wellness retreats, but with fun activities help build confidence.
I have the Confidence Collective workshops that I’m running that are virtual workshops for ~20 women in a Zoom where they get a really intimate community to be able to share some of the things that they’re going through, help women get back in touch with their purpose and their passions and make new friendships.
I’m also working on a podcast maybe, and I’ve got an online talk show coming that will be launching on Apple TV and Fire TV.
Female Mavericks
Jen’s story is a reminder that successful entrepreneurs don’t always start with a plan, but rather a gut feeling. Sometimes, they start with discomfort, a dream, and the courage to leap. Entrepreneurship is rarely a straight line. It’s raw. It’s uncertain. Jen didn’t have everything figured out – but she had purpose, resilience, and a willingness to move forward through the discomfort. That’s what we see time and time again in the women we talk to: successful entrepreneurs aren’t fearless – they’re just brave enough to take the next step anyway. Discomfort isn’t the enemy – it’s the signal you’re stepping into something bigger.
