00;00;11;17 - 00;00;30;08 Unknown Hi, Angel, and hi, I'm Catherine. Welcome to women over 70 Aged Reimagined, our award winning weekly podcast. Visit women over 70.com and learn how you may become engaged with our community through Aging Reimagined Circle. We hope to see you at our next online message meeting, 00;00;30;08 - 00;00;54;20 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;00;54;21 - 00;01;00;19 Unknown Use the code capital W capital 070. That stands for women over 70. 00;01;00;19 - 00;01;20;14 Unknown And today, we're happy to have with us Dan Golden, an advocate, creative entrepreneur and ageism activist who has built an online business designing and selling age positive birthday cards. This is as she winds down her career as a web developer and iPhone trainer. 00;01;20;16 - 00;01;40;27 Unknown In her words, she says, I'm ramping up my dream job creating a stationary business during Covid, inspired by a greeting card contest for changing the narrative. Jan used her graphic design skills, tech skills and creativity to create a line of age friendly greeting cards 00;01;40;27 - 00;01;45;28 Unknown the result? She absolutely loves designing and making cards. 00;01;46;01 - 00;02;14;16 Unknown Jan's getting a positive response to the age positive sentiments that she puts out there in the world. And her goal is to create and share a different story about aging. I love that said, welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined. Recently, I followed a post to begin on LinkedIn having to do with statement. Jokes about getting old are getting old. 00;02;14;19 - 00;02;57;10 Unknown And yes to. How do you see your role in being an ageism activist? Well, first of all, thank you so much for having this conversation. I'm excited to speak with you. You know, I live in the Denver area, and I became aware of ageism back in probably 2000, 1617, when Ashton Applewhite was speaking at a local conference and she was introducing her book called This Chair Rocks, which I'm sure you're aware of Ashton Applewhite and her work in the, you know, anti ageism activist space. 00;02;57;12 - 00;03;17;16 Unknown Are you guys aware of Ashton? Nope. We actually had her as a keynote for our, our previous symposium that we did last year. Oh, perfect. Yeah, she's a great, great speaker. And so that was the first time I became aware of ageism. And, you know, what they say is that once you become aware of ageism, you see it everywhere, right? 00;03;17;22 - 00;03;50;26 Unknown And so who kind of was intrigued after hearing her talk and Jeanine Vandenberg from previously from changing the narrative. And now she's another pro job book and I'm sure you've heard of, she is local in Denver and started changing the narrative, which is an anti ageism advocacy campaign. And so I became involved with that campaign early on in its early days, and I had an opportunity to get involved in many projects, in support of that cause. 00;03;50;26 - 00;04;16;02 Unknown So that was that was really exciting. It kept me really learning and, and interested in, you know, battling ageism and kind of doing what I could to support it. And it was during Covid, as you mentioned, Gail, that, there was an anti age's birthday card contest changing the narrative was sponsoring, and I was part of helping to organize it. 00;04;16;02 - 00;04;45;11 Unknown So I wasn't going to necessarily participate. But I remember, you know, I was online shopping because that's what we all did at that time, and probably still do. But anyway, I googled clever or funny birthday cards and, I was so astounded by what I found online, you know, and there was a lot of very, just very insulting cards that are supposed to be funny or clever on birthdays. 00;04;45;11 - 00;05;11;10 Unknown And so I got pretty fired up about, what I was seeing as a result. Of us of a search online. And these are cards that were and they still are, but they're on the shelves of retailers. You can find them in your grocery store, pharmacy, and, you know, at the top of the list. And so I decided that I would try, change the narrative also was big on flipping the script, right. 00;05;11;12 - 00;05;40;05 Unknown And changing the narrative on, on ageism. So I started with taking some ages phrases and flipping them. One of them is instead of I, there was a birthday card that said, damn, you're old. That's all it said. And I flipped mine to say I had damn, you're old. And I crossed it out in poor shot. So anyway, that's sort of the that was sort of the genesis, of the, the kind of the flipping of the script and the messages that I was wanting to create. 00;05;40;08 - 00;06;13;06 Unknown And so I put, probably 12 to 15 designs up on Etsy, and I got a really good response from more than just my friends and family. So that was cool. And so anyway, I, that was how it from me box was born, and that's how my advocacy around ageism kind of that it was really born in sort of the discovering just how much, how prevalent those ages messages are out there. 00;06;13;09 - 00;06;46;25 Unknown Wow. And so where have you taken it from there. Yeah. I you know, when I've been in business for years, in my fourth year, and right about the time I started, there was some research by Doctor Becca Levy with breaking the H code, and I was thrilled to see her research that reinforce the concept that your mindset about aging has a big impact on your your longevity. 00;06;46;26 - 00;07;15;17 Unknown In fact, her famous stat is it impacts your longevity by up to seven and a half years. And so for me, I just really connected the dots with what I was doing, which was, you can really, especially on a birthday if you have a loved one that you care enough to send a card to. Why are you making them feel bad about their birthday and potentially impacting or reinforcing their negative beliefs about aging? 00;07;15;17 - 00;07;38;00 Unknown It's a perfect opportunity to actually make someone feel better about getting older. And so anyway, I just kind of drew the connection with that. And I to this day, use that research as a strong backbone and kind of the why as to why I'm, I do what I do. So that's, kind of where things evolve from there. 00;07;38;01 - 00;08;09;24 Unknown I presently have over 120 designs on a bunch of different, categories. It turns out that not just with birthdays, but there's there was a need for better retirement cards or better milestone birthday cards to help people celebrate their 60 or 7089 years, even 100th birthdays. So, there's a lot of, like, grandparent cards that are missing out in the marketplace and caregiver appreciation cards. 00;08;09;24 - 00;08;34;29 Unknown So as I started looking and getting more involved in the greeting card industry, I realized there was all these other categories, occasions that older adults celebrate, and they were just kind of missing or underrepresented in the market. So it's been a lot of fun just finding those niches. You know, seeing what I could do to kind of fill in the gaps for what's available out there. 00;08;35;01 - 00;08;51;15 Unknown I was searching for an 80th birthday card just recently for a man, and I could find nothing that was suya that had 80 on it. Yeah, exactly. I've got a few. So yeah. 00;08;51;15 - 00;09;01;12 Unknown say a little bit more about the longevity mindset and, and how that fits into what you're trying to accomplish? 00;09;01;14 - 00;09;55;10 Unknown Yeah. I actually what's been interesting focusing on, you know, internalized ageism, how we think about aging and our self-talk around aging. There's a lot of self-deprecating humor that people use around age. There's a lot of avoiding the topic, not wanting to celebrate their birthday, feeling bad about getting older and with, doctor Becca Levy research and understanding the impacts on longevity, it's been just great to also remind people that not only is this harmful to you personally and or your loved one, but it's also, reversible so you can adopt a positive mindset about aging at any time that you want and actually kind of turn, turn the tides on your own, you 00;09;55;10 - 00;10;39;05 Unknown know, impacts and longevity. And whenever somebody I mentioned, I mentioned that to somebody, people know somebody in their lives that is in their 60s or 70s or 80s that they have either a group of people that they know that are really aging around aging well. Is the correct term, but there's people who have kind of given up when they retire and just are sedentary and blame age for everything and therefore, as a result, have maybe more health issues, are more lonely, more isolated, and then they'll have these people in their lives that they can see as like shining examples of how they want to age, you know, and are very inspirational as far as like 00;10;39;08 - 00;11;00;17 Unknown the things that they're doing, the activities that they're involved in and all of those things. So the thing about the birthday card is, the connection that people have, first of all, is understanding how these attitudes seep into our brains. Part of it is those birthday cards that you see on the shelf, so you can't avoid a lot of it. 00;11;00;17 - 00;11;29;08 Unknown Is also it advertising in the media, and it's also arama humor around age. So you mentioned my tagline, which is jokes about getting old or getting old, which is is really true. So for a lot of people, older adults and I'm talking like 50s, 60s, 70s, which is, by the way, the strongest segment of consumer buying color and part of the the longevity economy from an AARP perspective. 00;11;29;08 - 00;11;59;21 Unknown So we have a huge amount of influence on purchasing power in this country. It's it's, a really good opportunity for people to kind of embrace that age positive piece. And, you know, actually being able to take action on doing something to make people feel better about getting older and themselves to. So we we talk a little bit about the production and how how do you manage the actual designing of the cards, the production, the distribution? 00;11;59;23 - 00;12;27;22 Unknown Yeah, that's a good question. I yeah, because I'm also I hit interviewed a lot as far as being a creative entrepreneur. I started this business at age 60. I just had my 64th birthday and, I started printing at home and not wanting to have that be an obstacle. And I'm pretty big, big about let me just try and, get started and try to put some cards out there in the world. 00;12;27;22 - 00;12;53;27 Unknown I have a graphic design background, and so I'm familiar with all of the tools. And so, as far as, like the actual tools that I need to create a greeting card design, that wasn't all that difficult, but I also did some research on understanding, like the types of greeting cards people are making the size. There's the greeting card industries, huge, huge industry, and you need to comply with the standards. 00;12;53;27 - 00;13;00;06 Unknown Or a retailer store will buy your card. So I quickly. 00;13;00;09 - 00;13;19;13 Unknown Learned that I wasn't going to make a lot of money selling a card for $5 at a time on Etsy, and that I needed to get my cards into retail stores. And so when I took that leap, I started, I became a member of the Greeting Card Association, which is a big nonprofit organization that supports a greeting card industry. 00;13;19;15 - 00;13;41;02 Unknown And I volunteered on a few committees. So I got to know some of the people involved in the greeting card association. And then I took a training course on how to somebody pause on how to get ready for trade shows and how to sell the stores and of those two things really made me feel equipped to start selling to stores. 00;13;41;02 - 00;14;04;13 Unknown Which part of that was? I found a local printer in the Denver area that would print my cards. I ran some tests for runs, was happy with the quality. So tools to this day to use the local printer in my community to print the cards. I try to keep everything as local and eco friendly as I possibly can, so I'm still a one person shop. 00;14;04;19 - 00;14;16;22 Unknown I'm. I have some help from family and friends when I get a big order coming through, but basically a solopreneur basically is solo entrepreneur, so. 00;14;16;22 - 00;14;19;15 Unknown Is there much competition yet for. 00;14;19;16 - 00;14;54;09 Unknown Oh, that's such a great age friendly cards mean. Yeah, I have a great story around that too. And my first trade show, you you exhibit at a booth, and there's people, neighbors that are exhibiting greeting cards as well, and that it's not so much a competition, but I have peers in the industry that are making ages, cars, you know, and so what's been interesting is, is modeling, you know, between my Instagram post and my LinkedIn post, just talking about each positivity and the benefits of it. 00;14;54;12 - 00;15;30;19 Unknown It's been interesting to see how they've not only taken down and stopped producing the ages cards, especially anybody who's got, some type of social activism in their line and like, you know, Pro-women cards or LGBTQ or, you know, kind of Black Lives Matter or, you know, anyway, it's, any minority group, any marginalized group, they're like horrified when they figure out that what they're producing is insulting people because of their being older, because they just think, you know, they're being funny. 00;15;30;19 - 00;15;54;12 Unknown And most of them are probably in their 30s, so that the jokes don't kind of land the same way they do when you're when you're a little bit older. So it's been surprisingly not. The ageism in the greeting card industry is very deeply rooted and is deeply rooted with Hallmark and American Greetings, who are the two largest players by far? 00;15;54;15 - 00;16;19;28 Unknown They're turning the tides on it a little bit. Hallmark was famous for. I don't know if you guys remember Maxine, that character in the mid 80s. Who was that? You know, she had the bunny slippers, and she was the sarcastic woman who just grumbled about everything in life and she threw a gin there as well. And that was just a huge, huge moneymaker for them for a long, long time. 00;16;19;28 - 00;16;51;00 Unknown And part of what happened there is there's that that introduced the caricature of what an older person looks like, basically. And then all these copycats pile on. So that's why in greeting cards, still to this day and these large companies, you see these exaggerated caricatures of sagging body parts and just ridiculous, people like, they don't create caricatures of people of color, for example, or other marginalized groups on their cards. 00;16;51;00 - 00;17;16;18 Unknown But, you know, caricature of an older adult is still up for grabs, although they're getting they're getting better. There's still is a lot of ages cards in those lines. So anyway, I've learned that I get a lot of resistance and pushback if I try to tell people, that's not funny, don't buy those cards, because a lot of people are like, you know what? 00;17;16;18 - 00;17;42;10 Unknown You can't tell me what to buy or what to laugh at. So humor can be very tricky. So instead I just provide alternatives because their argument is always like, well, this stuff sells. So these kind of cards and jokes sell and but now once you provide an alternative and say, well, people also want this kind of thing, you can be clever about age, about getting older without being mean, right? 00;17;42;10 - 00;18;07;27 Unknown And without being insulting. So and that's part of what I do. My line, greeting card line is different because I don't skirt around the issue of age. I address it in ways that are either thought provoking or clever or inspiring, and that and invoke a conversation. So that's what I'm most proud about in my line, is that I'm actually sparking conversations about age on people's birthdays. 00;18;07;27 - 00;18;36;12 Unknown So. And that particular niche is not being done really very well at all by anybody sort. Yeah. But there's enough room for everybody. So bring it on like anybody has any any ideas for, you know, different flavors and versions of age positivity. You know we all know we have enough, flavors and varieties of the ages cards out there that there's room for a lot more, I argue, gaining traction. 00;18;36;15 - 00;19;01;04 Unknown Jan. Yeah, I've done really well by standards. For in the greeting card industry, I have, I have cards, in over 300, almost 400 stores across the U.S. and I have cards and Barnes and Noble and paper stores, which, those are big box retailers are some of the most coveted man, you know, places to be. 00;19;01;04 - 00;19;24;23 Unknown They pick 1 or 2 cards and try them out to see if they sell. And it's kind of a longer process. But I've got now I've got four cards on the shelves at paper stores. I started with one card about two years ago, and in the greeting card association, I'm also I've won, been nominated for a few awards, but they have annual awards that are sort of like the Academy Awards for the greeting card industry. 00;19;24;23 - 00;19;46;04 Unknown And this year I'm up for a writer of the year, which is pretty poor because my age is pro age. Messaging is it's actually been recognized and, nominated with three people in the end of July. The award ceremony is and I'll find out, if I won. But I still won by being one of the top three. 00;19;46;05 - 00;20;13;06 Unknown So, so that's been great. So that keeps me motivated for sure. Is is the response, to what I get to what I'm doing and then just people, you know, wanting more basically. So that's exciting. Yeah. And you show us some something. Yeah. Of course I have with you here with me. So this is one, this one says, the elbow. 00;20;13;06 - 00;20;34;18 Unknown The older you get, the more beautiful you are, inside and out. This one has a great story. I have a friend in the greeting card industry. One of my makers, she lives in New York City and she. When people find your card in the wild or somewhere, they all send you a picture of it and text you and say, I found your card. 00;20;34;22 - 00;20;55;23 Unknown This woman was at a birthday party, and this card was given to the birthday person. And and everybody was like, oh, that's a great card. So this woman was celebrating her 30th birthday. And she got the card. The older you get, the more beautiful you are inside. Now, how cool is that? Right? I thought that was just, 00;20;55;26 - 00;21;17;19 Unknown And then this is another one that's a top seller. It says, don't worry about getting older. Everyone's doing it. And so that's a good, that's a great card to give to somebody who is worried about getting older. And then this is another top seller. It says it says, thanks for being an old friend. And I've crossed out old and I put old time. 00;21;17;19 - 00;21;45;08 Unknown I mean, long time, a long time friend. So the idea there, there's a couple double meanings on this one. So you're kind of complimenting on someone for not acting old, if you will, but also flipping the language from old friend to longtime friend. So this one has been really good too. And then this is one of my newer ones, which when you find somebody in your life, it says, here's to an another year of crushing age stereotypes. 00;21;45;11 - 00;22;07;16 Unknown So, I mean, these are just like to the point and nothing like this exists out there for people to give to somebody to actually say, hey, I recognize that you are, you know, crushing age stereotypes or I recognize that you are worried about getting older, and I'm letting you know that there's nothing to worry about with getting older. 00;22;07;16 - 00;22;41;13 Unknown So anyway, there conversation starters for sure. Yeah. They are. My goodness. Yeah. So, tell me, do you have any thoughts about your own aging? Yeah, that's a good question. I just turned my birthday was last weekend. I turned 64. And, you know, I'm having a ball with where I'm at in my life, which is basically can begin to do a career like this that is creative and rewarding and needs a need. 00;22;41;13 - 00;23;05;08 Unknown And it's been, you know, really rewarding. I do have kind of an interesting story, though. I don't know if you are parents at all, but my son turned 40 last year, so I wrote a blog post on what 40 years feels like when your child turns 40. Right? And so anyway, there's always things that make you stop and think about your own age. 00;23;05;08 - 00;23;28;04 Unknown And to me, it's more of a a passage of time and the milestones and and just reflecting back on, you know, while that was the I can't believe he's 40 right. And he didn't care. And so it's just more of the amount of life that you've lived already. And then the runway, looking forward. But I have another story. 00;23;28;04 - 00;23;56;20 Unknown Wasn't that this year, but last year I have, three grandchildren and my ten year old grandson. You know how kids will write out a card, you know, themselves. And he made me this pro advocate card. He said something like, I can't believe you are like 62, which is kind of ages. But he's like, he was basically saying, you, I'm so proud of you for being a 62 year old woman or something like that. 00;23;56;20 - 00;24;22;18 Unknown Anyway, it was really a cute thing. So I realized, you know, ageism starts really young with kids, and just having them be aware of what I do and having the influence on younger generations. And then also just being able to spark conversations about age makes me feel good about, you know, the age that I am so yeah, my own aging is is is what it is. 00;24;22;18 - 00;24;50;04 Unknown Right. So yeah. You're you were six. Yeah. Exactly. This is 64 people. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Right. So do you have any last thoughts you like to share with people? The only, I think. Gail, I met you, I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, meeting you. I've been really involved in the American society on aging, and part of their Ageism and Culture Advisory Council. 00;24;50;07 - 00;25;16;15 Unknown I feel like, you know, for me, I mentioned I volunteered in the greeting card association, and it's just a really great way to understand and kind of fast track your knowledge about a particular industry and organization. And the same goes true for the American Society on Aging. And I realized also that I had this phrase early on. And so embrace the twinkle in your wrinkle, right? 00;25;16;15 - 00;25;38;19 Unknown Which is cute, but you I put it on a greeting card and I had a couple people say, like, I don't know if I'm going to like, happy birthday. Embrace the twinkle in your ankle. Sure. So, I realized like three years ago that I needed to create stickers and buttons that are really just advertisements for pro age messaging. 00;25;38;19 - 00;26;13;04 Unknown So, a lot of the social activist movements, like I was mentioning with, you know, the feminist movement and black Lives Matter and LGBTQ, they have t shirts and buttons and people boards and everything, you know, promoting their cause. And so I really enjoyed creating a line of stickers and buttons. And I have an art print called An Age Belief Manifesto, which is just all of the purged phrases that I've encountered because I'm a collector of them. 00;26;13;04 - 00;26;47;14 Unknown Right. And I have a huge, huge list still that I haven't used, but oh, and one poster. And so that's been extremely rewarding, is also being a person who's actually promoting the pro age movement by creating basically little mini billboards for people to, you know, display where and talk about, but also spark conversations about age. So that's been a really cool side benefit of getting into this business that I wouldn't have ever imagined I'd be. 00;26;47;21 - 00;27;19;01 Unknown I'm calling myself in the swag business for for for senior living or, you know, elder care. So anyway, is that that's been a pretty, pretty cool, side business or a pretty big part of my business, actually, and pretty big sense of pride and joy for me as well. So anyway, it's been really fun to meet people like you, Gail and Catherine that are also doing things to just promote people you know, older adults and all the amazing things that that people do right now. 00;27;19;01 - 00;27;55;12 Unknown It's her thing. That's the go. Well, thank you so much for being with us, Jan. We appreciate it very much. And listeners, make your voice heard as together we change the conversation about women aging, explore women over 70.com and join us at Aging Re-imagine circle. And if you enjoy women over 70, we want to recommend Wendy Battles. She hosts Reinvention Rebels, a podcast that celebrates bold women 50 to 80 plus who are rewriting the aging narrative and designing the lives they want to live. 00;27;55;12 - 00;27;56;07 Unknown See you next time.