00;00;11;17 - 00;00;35;28 Unknown Hi, I'm Catherine and I'm Gail, and welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our award winning weekly podcast. Visit women over 70.com to learn about how you may become involved, and visit or join Aging Reimagined Circle and enjoy free participation in our monthly programs. Thank you for listening. 00;00;35;28 - 00;01;00;15 Unknown We want to thank our sponsors. Intensive. You know, as skin agents, it becomes more fragile and bruises easily. Especially in the back of your hands or forearms. I'm loving skin tensor Bruce Cream, developed by Harvard trained dermatologist specifically for mature skin. It gently moisturizes and helps process date faster. Find it at skin intensive.com for 25% off. 00;01;00;16 - 00;01;06;13 Unknown Use the code capital W capital 070. That stands for women over 70. 00;01;06;13 - 00;01;18;00 Unknown Today we're really pleased to introduce Andy Lyons, a seasoned podcaster, and she is part of the Podcasters Collaborative Collaborators Group in which we participate. 00;01;18;02 - 00;01;44;10 Unknown Now, at age 68, Andy Lyons is living proof that ambition is ageless. A four times business founder, longtime global startup mentor, and a serial podcaster since 2012. Andy brings decades of entrepreneurial spirit and broadcasting experience to everything she does. She's currently the founder of the New England Podcasters Group and the host of Don't Be Caged By Your Age. 00;01;44;12 - 00;02;16;09 Unknown A popular podcast where she's redefining what it means to thrive after 65 and through powerful conversations with people who've defied agents expectations and stereotypes. Andy helps her listeners dissolve internalized ageism and step boldly into what she calls the Renaissance years and live indivisible and purposefully engaged. Her motto pastures are for courses, not humans. Welcome, Andy to women over 70. 00;02;16;11 - 00;02;42;16 Unknown As our advocate for women aging, we're very pleased to be to be with you, Katherine and Gail. Thank you so much for having me here. I love your podcast. It always pops up everywhere and you have one exciting guest after another and you cover such wonderful topics. You are inspiring everyone everywhere they glow. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you for referring some really wonderful guests to us 00;02;42;16 - 00;03;12;19 Unknown we'd like to hear a little bit about your origin story of how and why you turned your attention to aging. Well, thank you so much for asking. I've been unemployable since 1992. I've had quite a few businesses. I say I'm a four times founder, raised millions for Adcom, thousands for a consumer product company through angels, and then my own charmed personality for a couple of online tech companies. 00;03;12;22 - 00;03;39;16 Unknown And it was while I was mentoring startup founders, which I did for a globally for about eight years, I had a monthly pitch event here in Boston for founders having 99 seconds to pitch their value prop to a live audience. We had investors and judges heavily into this group. And at that point, I'm in well into my 60s and I'm surrounded by a youth centered culture. 00;03;39;18 - 00;04;11;29 Unknown Right. Seasoned founders, of course, giving great advice. But most of the founders were under 40 years old at these events, and I never told them my age. They assumed I was maybe 5052. And I'm sitting there gone, I have shoes that could be your grandmother or okay. And I would also hear often gendered ageism explain your startup, your business, your value proposition, as if you were telling your grandma. 00;04;12;01 - 00;04;36;23 Unknown And it was never grandpa, always grandma. And I want to jump up out of the seat and go, wait a minute, what's the matter with you people? We started building tech companies in the 70s, okay? We were gaming using punch cards and mainframe in the early 80s. We had to transition from typewriters to computers before you were even born. 00;04;36;26 - 00;05;04;19 Unknown And then we had to start doing things like email and build and hire people to build websites. So don't act like we're stupid about technology. That drives me nuts. So but I was still, as a woman in our culture, so afraid to come out about my age. So when I turned 66, I said, enough, I've got to come out and I'm going to show, I don't know if you have video, but I'm going to show. 00;05;04;21 - 00;05;29;19 Unknown I took a picture of myself with the US route US 66 sign in front of me. That's for turning 60 and you could see it in my face. Will you still love me and respect me now that you know I'm so friggin old and the post on LinkedIn went viral and I learned so much from the comments and I called the post don't Be Caged By Your Age. 00;05;29;22 - 00;05;51;11 Unknown And I heard from so many people across the spectrum. People who were just devastated from having to retire had were missing, being connected and all the things to folks who were just jam packed with all sorts of new ideas doing cool things. One of my favorite stories was a guy who said, well, I read retired and I was happy to retire. 00;05;51;11 - 00;06;13;17 Unknown And so I started gardening. And then I said, we're all these bees coming from, I need to get me some hives. So then he set up some hives and he said, well, what am I going to do with the honey? Well, now he has a popular honey business, you know, stories like that. And I even had to check my bias when a 91 year old said, yeah, I just wrapped up, you know, one company about to start another. 00;06;13;17 - 00;06;37;05 Unknown And I'm like, what are you doing on LinkedIn? With my thought? And then I had to slap myself upside the head. Andy, that's ageism right there. He's 91, he's thriving and he's on LinkedIn having a great time. Where are you to say what he's supposed to be doing? So I saw my own age list beliefs happening. But the thing that really empowered me was aging out loud and proud. 00;06;37;08 - 00;06;59;21 Unknown And it really hurt my stomach for quite a few months doing that because of the messaging we get all the time that aging is bad. So I know that's that's my origin story. I've been podcasting since 2012, and I said, you know what? I am going to get out of this startup ecosystem and I'm going to focus on podcasting. 00;06;59;22 - 00;07;24;06 Unknown So in March of 2024, I launched Don't Be Scared By Your Age, and that's into my six podcast. And I launched the New England Podcasters Group because, as we all know, as we age, community is so important. But how do you meet folks? And really, we're quite discerning with who we want to spend our time with. I mean, we don't know how much time we have left. 00;07;24;07 - 00;07;47;17 Unknown You don't want to spend it with people who put you to sleep, right? So I knew I love podcasters and found them so interesting, and I knew we needed to get out of isolation, especially after the years of Covid and and podcasters tend to do all their recording in a closet, in a side room at home. And sure enough, it just suited a need. 00;07;47;19 - 00;08;11;27 Unknown Folks drive from all over New England to meet at this location we have here in Massachusetts, and it's so wonderful. It's intergenerational. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. So good story. So, the podcasters group are are these, are they covering all different topics or is it all are they all related to aging? No, it's all different topics. 00;08;11;29 - 00;08;46;20 Unknown Oh my gosh. We have someone who talks about how to do small steps in sustainability grounded in Maine. We have Andy Grants real men feel oh my gosh, it's a phenomenal podcast. We have a award winning, multiple award winning Angel, the Hartman, who has wickedly smart women and leading visionaries, both podcasts huge out of the park. We have newbie podcasters that have launched in the year, we have horror heels and we have Family Twist. 00;08;46;22 - 00;08;59;15 Unknown I mean, and then of course, the business podcast, you know, about websites and content and all of those things. It is so fascinating. And when we get together, it's just wonderful. 00;08;59;15 - 00;09;11;13 Unknown I wanted to kind of go back now to your podcast and your emphasis on aging and what are some of the myths that you really we need to debunk about women, energy, women or older men? 00;09;11;13 - 00;09;36;16 Unknown Oh my gosh. I mean, well, first of all, you said in the beginning pasties are for horses, not humans. Stop putting folks after the age of 65 quote out to pasture and stop warehousing them. But for women who are always worrying about how they look, has their body, has their skin, has their hair, all the things it's shifting the mindset from the start. 00;09;36;18 - 00;10;01;13 Unknown Stop aging. No, no, right now you can't be getting older. You got to be getting younger. And shifting that conversation to looking at every wrinkle and curve of the aging body. And for me, my gosh, the browns, I can't. Barnacles and moles that are cropping up everywhere and hair coming out, you know, to look at that and say, okay, how about you embrace the beauty of your story? 00;10;01;16 - 00;10;38;06 Unknown Because beauty really does come out from our hearts, out of our eyes, out of our smile, out of our body language and practice radical self-love. Because we're not declining as much as society likes to make us think that right, we are thriving. We belong, visible and connected and contributing to society. Still, even though women are told you got to look young, I mean, even 28 year olds are getting Botox, for crying out loud. 00;10;38;06 - 00;11;04;27 Unknown It's just awful. The, anti-aging messages that women get and never do they want to say their age. In fact, one of my guests, Judith Karnik, who's really well known in helping high performing executives transition from the C-suite into a thriving renaissance period. When I had her on the podcast, I tell everybody, you've got to be comfortable aging out loud and proud. 00;11;04;29 - 00;11;35;12 Unknown So she said, you know, 74. But she could not bring herself to tell anybody that she'd been on the podcast for about six weeks because she was like, all my friends know and my clients know I'm this age, but the rest of the world knows, and I'm really uncomfortable with that. But she finally came out after six weeks and she found out how liberating it was because the messaging and the myths out there is that there's something wrong with you because you no longer look young. 00;11;35;14 - 00;12;00;14 Unknown And, you know, same thing I talked about with the technology. We bust in that myth all the time. You just have to hop on to TikTok and you will see thousands of folks over the age of 65 rocking their technology. And that's not easy to do. Figuring out how to upload the video, add the tags to the music, talk to the camera, doing all of these things, you know, from weightlifting, all of that. 00;12;00;16 - 00;12;34;07 Unknown Yeah, the myths out there just, Maya, are people into feeling stuck. And I don't know if you know this, but in 2021, the World Health Organization came out with the fact that retirement is considered an epidemic, costing societies billions of dollars. And when I say societies, I mean America, Canada, UK, Australia, other societies and cultures embrace the older, the older adult. 00;12;34;07 - 00;13;01;20 Unknown But our societies are constantly saying, no, no, don't get old. And I love this shift that we're starting to have Catherine and Gail where we're going. Okay, I don't need to fix myself now that I'm aging. I don't want to feel a shame that I can't stop aging. And please don't hate me because my neck looks like it belongs out with the herd of turkeys right now. 00;13;01;22 - 00;13;31;05 Unknown I, you know, we're starting to shift and look in the mirror and accept this beautiful self that we have. Celebrate that we're even friggin alive to be going. Yay! Right? Look at, you know, those wrinkles and really shift the conversation. Flip the script as we're talking about here in May during Older Americans Month to what we can do and contribute. 00;13;31;11 - 00;14;12;07 Unknown And then the biggest mess, especially for women, is the ability to keep thriving in the workplace, right? Institutions? Corporations cannot let go of this idea, that ambition ends at age 50, that we can't have an older person here. And, well, right now in 2025 is when you want your older adults working because they're unflappable. They've been through difficult times where they've had to figure out new supply chains, ways to keep clients on boarded and continuing, and all the things they've been there before. 00;14;12;07 - 00;14;36;05 Unknown And they're a steady resource for the younger crowd who's all going, oh my God, we're all going to die. You know, because we've been through a 1987 was terrible, of course, 911 and the Great Recession. And, you know, all the things that have happened, we've been through all of those times. And certainly 1976 was a disaster as well in those years. 00;14;36;08 - 00;15;04;14 Unknown And so, those are the myths that I like to bust all the time. So if those those go ahead, you still tell us, you know, don't be caged by your age is just a great name for your podcast. And how did you come about with that originally? And I think I was using it with the younger startup founders. 00;15;04;14 - 00;15;22;00 Unknown Right. Because, you know, 18, 19 year olds were coming up with brilliant ideas for companies. And I said, well, don't be scared by your age, right? Your ideas are valuable. You're investable, you know, and all of that. And then I went, why am I not telling that to myself? 00;15;22;00 - 00;15;26;21 Unknown And that's why the logo has this really funny looking bird, right? 00;15;26;26 - 00;15;52;25 Unknown Looking ahead, ready to fly. Right. It's like, where am I going to go next? You know, setting that tone, not cardigan wearing, sitting on the couch and no longer caring about how you look. And that's a that's another that's I want to bust. If you guys don't mind me saying this is the fashion, whatever that looks like. We have one man and you can see him on Instagram all the time. 00;15;52;25 - 00;16;21;12 Unknown In TikTok. They're rocking recycled clothes, vintage clothes, state of the art clothes, current clothes, whatever they want to wear. And they're rocking it. As Susie Lange, who has her platform women over 60, she's the photographer that takes photos of women over 60, really showcasing their wrinkles in their beauty and all of that. This is the myth we want to change, and that's why I came up with Don't Be Caged By Your age. 00;16;21;14 - 00;16;37;20 Unknown Now, in podcasting terms, that's way too long of a title. But I did the focus group and everybody just found it memorable. It lit them up, they got it right away and it caused it had an emotional charge to it. And so tell us about the podcast. 00;16;37;20 - 00;17;13;29 Unknown In terms of but what's the format and what are some of the major themes that that are that you cover? Thank you for asking such a great question. So I'm into agitating. Right. So I like to interview people and how I work this podcast is interview style, and I like to showcase folks who have shattered those age related expectations and stereotypes, right, that provide representation from all walks of life to show folks. 00;17;13;29 - 00;17;38;25 Unknown Because if you see it, you can be it. Right? And so or, and or if you're listening, if you hear it, you can be it and show folks. Well, here's someone who started a resume company because she realized she needed to gamify the, scanning systems that knock your resume out. Here's somebody who has decided to go into acting or become a comedian. 00;17;38;27 - 00;18;07;14 Unknown There's just so many different ways to highlight stories and so for me to especially, you know, for women in this time period to showcase how unfettered we're all feeling that so often we have been focused outward, taking care of everything outside of ourselves. And all of a sudden we're saying, wow, I can think about what feels my passion and what might fill my pocketbook. 00;18;07;14 - 00;18;34;07 Unknown This is amazing. So when I have several stories. So Deborah, cosmic CPA for 40 years, I mean, you can't do anything dryer, right. And accounting and providing financial reporting. Well, what does she do when she retired? She becomes a voice actor. She got coaching and figuring all the things out and set up her beautiful soundproof room in a closet doesn't cost that much to do that. 00;18;34;10 - 00;19;10;17 Unknown And started getting picked up by museums for narration commercials for, automobile companies and and stories from children's stories to adult stories. Who would have thunk that? And another great story is Wendy Knox. Okay, so here's a classic Wendy turning 50 years old. Top of her game in LA, one of the top paying, highest rated, executives in the advertising PR industry, right? 00;19;10;20 - 00;19;41;07 Unknown Everybody knows her landed all the big contracts for this big, well-known company she worked at. Thriving career celebrates her 50th birthday with her coworkers and everybody. Yeah, this is great. The next day, she gets let go. Oh, no, she's too old. Oh, my goodness, what a slap in the face. And I got to tell you there, I'm sure there's listeners out there who heard this story before and she's like, wait, no, you can't do. 00;19;41;10 - 00;20;14;24 Unknown And she had to hang out in some serious muck before she found the silver lining, right? In her experience. But now in their 70s, early 70s, she is inspiring people everywhere. She's written a book that Helen and does workshops to help women turn their muck into magic like she did. Another story is Sarah Freeman Smith, who lost her vision at the height of her career in her 50s, and it was due to an autoimmune disease. 00;20;14;27 - 00;20;55;05 Unknown I mean, talk about. And she traveled everywhere. She was just well known in her industry and she had to do a complete, as you can imagine, to lose your vision. Right? But here she is at the age of 70. She wrote a book called Turning Stones into gems. And at 70, she's totally into the cool, innovative tech for folks who have lost their vision, including the AI driven Ray-Ban meta smart glasses and these she uses to create engaging video for social media content hands free. 00;20;55;08 - 00;21;23;11 Unknown It's so wild. So, you know, there's all these great inspirational stories out there. Another one of my favorites is Charlotte Livingston, who loved fashion, loved doing design clothes when she was young and has spent so many years working just regular jobs raising her family. And when she entered her 60s, she's like, I want to be in fashion and I want to be a fashion model, and I want to model sustainable clothing. 00;21;23;13 - 00;21;52;16 Unknown Now, when you think of the older models, you tend to think of those women who are beautiful no matter what, right? They're tall, willowy. Yeah, they got the makeup, they've got the hair, all of that. Charlotte's tall, but she and and she's very attractive. But she's every day kind of attractive, right? Not only does she take all the courses, learn how to walk the runway, wear the clothes, do the videos, all the things she is a working model now. 00;21;52;16 - 00;22;18;12 Unknown She gets paid to model and she's over 65 years old. So these are the conversations that I love to have on the podcast, as they did with you two when I had you both on Don't Be Caged By Your Age to provide us examples of folks who figured out things that you would not imagine, where your internalized voices are going to tell you, no, no, no, you can't do that. 00;22;18;14 - 00;22;44;03 Unknown No, no, no, that you're too old, you're too fragile, you're too all the things. So that's what enlivens me about don't be caged by your age. Yeah. The fact is that there are thousands of stories like this, right? That it isn't just the people who are in the media who are making, you know, authors and doing that. 00;22;44;03 - 00;23;18;09 Unknown There are everyday people who are living their lives with such purpose, right? And who are contributing to society in their own very quiet ways and continuing after the age of 50, 60, 70, 82 to just, you know, show up. Right, guys? Yeah. Paula, actually, she's down in the Bronx and she she's all about fitness, right? She's 72. She's out there lifting the weights. 00;23;18;09 - 00;23;45;26 Unknown She's an everyday gal. Well, she's got a great following on TikTok and Instagram helping us keeping, you know, strong and moving our bodies. Just not some celebrity. Right. It's an every day. Well and getting out there with her wonderful, beautiful Bronx accent and bringing us the the gems we need. So and what else? I know you're involved in other things that have to do with pro aging. 00;23;45;29 - 00;24;21;02 Unknown Can you share that with us too? Mostly it's been out in the world, so one of the things I love to do is curate content that I pull off of Instagram, and I repurpose it on TikTok, on my own feed, on Instagram, on YouTube shorts of whether it's a celebrity or everyday person who is doing something that's just mind blowing and an example of how you can thrive so it can be something extraordinary, or it can be something that anyone can do. 00;24;21;04 - 00;24;48;16 Unknown And for me, that's just the constant conversation of being in the world, being able to say right there on LinkedIn, on my header, I'm 68 and feeling great. And so being able to really amplify through local gatherings in person, gatherings at conferences and just amplify the message of pro aging, what does that really mean to celebrate this time period? 00;24;48;16 - 00;25;07;23 Unknown And I have to tell you, one of the best benefits I've had from the podcast are the 40 and 50 year olds who tag me, ping me, come up to me and say, you know what? I've been really dreading getting old. But I hear these stories of these women in their 60s, 70s and 80s and I'm like, I can't wait. 00;25;07;23 - 00;25;39;00 Unknown This is great. I have something to look forward to because so often we're like, oh boy, I mean, you can be, oh boy, retire. But you arena so that many folks they have that first six months of we who I'm free but they can only play so much golf or pickleball or travel or whatever. They actually have to keep working somehow to cover their overhead, and they often just end up on the couch stuck. 00;25;39;02 - 00;26;02;11 Unknown And that's what you and I we're all doing, is trying to help people get off the couch that they deserve. Her being on purpose. They are worthy of being connected and seen, and their wisdom is so important. Their lived experiences are so important and can be repurposed. So that's my message that I love to get out there. That's. 00;26;02;13 - 00;26;22;29 Unknown So before we have to close, what about you? I think I know the answer to this, but how do you feel or think about your own aging? Now listen. What next for Andy Lyons? Yeah, I am feeling much better since I started the podcast. I can tell you it's really helped me. Now, that said, I have to go somewhere where I have to wear a bathing suit. 00;26;23;01 - 00;26;46;25 Unknown That's that. That does not make me happy. I'm putting that on. That's honestly, that's not feeling so great. But I'll be turning 69 in August, and I just have a whole different view about this age. I'm no longer feeling ashamed that I look this way, right? I'm able to look at myself in the mirror and go, wow, this is how I am supposed to look. 00;26;46;29 - 00;27;03;11 Unknown Given my DNA package, given how I handled my body over the decades. Right? Everybody needs to embrace what that age looks like for them. And the worst insult you can get is when someone says, oh, you look good for your age. 00;27;03;11 - 00;27;14;12 Unknown And then what's really lighting me up? And actually, as someone who's launched many things in their lives, many businesses and endeavors, I'm really loving the New England podcasters community. 00;27;14;14 - 00;27;40;13 Unknown It's really an opportunity again, for that intergenerational connection that I would never be able to get because I'm an hirable, unemployable. But now I can get it in a community. All the different ages, the decades are represented and being able to set the tone and the space and just watch the magic happen with the conversations and how everyone's collaborating. 00;27;40;13 - 00;28;08;03 Unknown We have a featured speaker every month who ups our game and, it's really, really exciting. And I have lots of plans just to actually scale that. So that's how I'm feeling. That's great. Andy, thank you so much. You're truly, truly inspiring. And I love the way you use words. Just I wish I could have I'll listen to this again so I can write them down and thank you. 00;28;08;06 - 00;28;32;29 Unknown Thank you so much. I love your podcast. I love listening to it. I love seeing it pop up. It's so popular. Feed spot is always sending it to my email box is one of their favorite podcasts out there. I was so excited to hear your interview with Judy Collins. I mean, you guys are just the best representation and are really serving our age group at our society with your conversation. 00;28;32;29 - 00;28;50;00 Unknown So I'm so honored to be here. Thank you. Thank you so much for and Liz would like to see more of you at our monthly online programs, Make Your Voice Heard as together we change the conversation about women aging. 00;28;50;00 - 00;28;58;07 Unknown and if you've enjoyed this podcast, we want to recommend Beverly Glaser. 00;28;58;09 - 00;29;24;21 Unknown Are you ready to ignite your next chapter? Aging with Purpose and Passion is the weekly podcast that inspires women over 50 to embrace bold life shifts and unlock their potential through captivating stories from trailblazing senior women. Check their website. Aging with Purpose and Passion that can and thank you for listening.