About me
After 50+ years in schools, as both student and educational leader, Helen’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning has never waned. Using her leadership experience as a jumping off point, she became a newly minted social entrepreneur in her late sixties.
Helen is a well-respected and sought-after thought leader who has appeared in several major national media outlets, on television, podcasts and radio. She advocates, writes and speaks about our new longer lives, age diversity in the workforce, intergenerational connection, and how to mitigate the damaging impacts of ageism on individuals, society and economies. Her mindset is longevity focused!
Watch Helen’s TEDxKanata talk: Embrace Age with a Longevity Mindset.
What do you do and why do you do it?
In my mid-sixties, I began to lose confidence in myself. I felt invisible and somewhat irrelevant. I also began to hear from other friends and former colleagues that they felt similarly, so I began to research what I was experiencing. Coincidentally, a former student introduced me to social entrepreneurship and I started taking courses online.. I discovered that what I was experiencing was self-directed or internalized ageism. I had internalized all those negative messages about growing old from media, TV, movies, over my lifetime and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I lost my way. Fortunately, I found a coach who helped me get started.
Today, I am the Founder and CEO of Top Sixty Over Sixty, a niche age consultancy that promotes age diversity and educates about longevity and ageism. Ageism continues to be socially acceptable and needs to be recognized for its negative impacts. It causes loneliness, depression and earlier death and the abundance of negative myths keeps older adults out of the workforce at a time when they need or want to work.
What changed for you after age 50?
For me, the major changes happened later in my 50s. Then, everything changed. It felt as though I was starting life over again. I reinvented myself a few times in my 60s and again at the end of my 60s. I became a social entrepreneur at age 67 and have never looked back.
What would you tell the 20 or 30-year-old YOU?
What do you think you’ll tell yourself in retrospect at the end of your life?
I think I’d tell myself how lucky I have been to be born when I was and how privileged I’ve been. I would reflect on my good fortune in life and how grateful I am for having had interesting and challenging work and the love and support of family and friends.
What impact do you think increased visibility can have on your business?
The more visibility, the greater the chance I’ll be invited to do keynotes, address audiences on TV, radio, and on podcasts and write articles about ageism and the much needed longevity mindset. I am dedicated to educating individuals, businesses, and policy-makers on the inordinate damage caused by ageism. Every time I address an audience, do a podcast or write articles, I hear that my messages resonate. Most individuals really do not understand how prevalent, insidious and unchallenged ageism is. It has impacts on individuals, society and our economies. It is the only “ism” that is omitted from 92% of Diversity strategies globally and if not addressed soon, the demographic shift to older will become a crisis.
Who or what inspires you and why?
Jane Goodall. She has persisted in championing the environment, animals and all of humanity into her soon to be 90 years. She is tireless, traveling 300 days/year to bring messages of hope to audiences of all ages. She writes and speaks globally.
Something else I’d like to share
I grew up in a time when there were no role models for women in leadership. I had to forge the way for other women:
- to have maternity leave although I never had that benefit.
- to be able to apply to become leaders. It was in the 60s and early 70s when civil rights, and feminism gained some meaningful ground . Now, in my 70s, I realize how few role models there are for women who are older and still contributing meaningfully to their communities and workforces.
For this reason, I hope to hold an event for the Top Sixty Over Sixty, extraordinary, ordinary individuals so that younger generations can look to aging as a positive and as the privilege that it truly is!
