Fresh After Forty
Since when does it have to be youth versus experience?
A colleague of mine half-joked that she was asked to work on an agency account “only because of her grey hair.” Surrounded by 20-something smart fellers, the client still needed to know somebody on the account had actual marketing experience.
But this 50+ colleague is no dinosaur—she’s totally with it. Rather than growing stodgy and doing a fade-out, she’s found the sweet spot where youth and experience not only work together: they live hip and happily ever after within the same person.
How? She shows that staying creatively fresh isn’t about Botox, or dressing or acting like she graduated yesterday. Rather, she simply remains eager to learn anything new and different, even if most of her teachers are young enough to be her children.
Her ongoing accomplishments reflect the one-two punch of combining a youthful outlook with wisdom gained over time. Understanding that experience is the gateway to respected savvy is a real incentive to gain more—by embracing the now and reaching for the what next.
Some simple ways to stay current:
> Get a Facebook page, get LinkedIn, and Twitter
> Explore YouTube or StumbleUpon.com
> Do an art crawl
> Sample trendy restaurants, mags, and art-house flicks
> Ask some under-30 peeps what they’re watching and what’s on their iPods–then tune in
> Learn some new lingo (you don’t have to use it) at UrbanDictionary.com
> Learn to text
> Take a class: art, dancing, digi-photography…
Nancy Fuller McRae is an endlessly curious, experienced marketing communication consultant. Find her on LinkedIn, or at nancy@visivoxinc.com.