The Hat That Started It All

Big Dog watched me clip on that VIP hat before I hit record on my first episode and just raised an eyebrow. “You’re really doing this, huh?” he said.

Yes. Yes, I am.

Because here’s the thing nobody tells you about getting older: it’s not that people are mean about it. It’s that they get quiet. Fewer people ask what you’re building. Fewer people assume you’ve still got something cooking. And if you’re not careful, you start believing the quiet means it’s true — that maybe your value came with an expiration date stamped somewhere you couldn’t see.

I don’t believe that. Not for one second. And now I know why I picked up this hat.

What VIP Really Means After 60

VIP, in my world, doesn’t mean velvet ropes and bottle service. It stands for three words I think every woman over 60 needs stitched somewhere she can see them.

Valued

Your worth was never tied to a job title, a paycheck, or how many people needed something from you today. You are valued because you exist, full stop. Nobody gets to vote you out of that.

Insightful

Insightful is just a fancier word for wisdom. You’ve lived through things — the hard seasons, the mistakes, the moves that didn’t work out — and you came out the other side with a clarity you simply didn’t have at 30. That’s not nothing. If anything, it’s the one asset that only appreciates with time.

Purpose

This is the word that stops people cold, because in the video I ask it plainly: what’s yours? Not what was it. What is it, right now, today?

“Nobody on their deathbed wishes they’d spent more time being invisible.” That line has rattled around in my head since my funeral home days, and it’s the whole reason this series exists.

Why the World Gets Quiet About You (And Why That’s a Lie)

I spent seven years managing the books and the schedules at a funeral home. If a job teaches you anything, it’s what people actually regret at the end. Nobody’s final thought is “I wish I’d shrunk myself smaller.”

Suddenly your calendar is empty of meetings, and if you’re not careful, that emptiness starts to feel like proof that you’re done contributing. You’re not. You’ve just changed jobs — from whatever you used to do, to figuring out who you are without it.

My Reinvention Story: From Funeral Home Books to Blogging and AI

When I retired in 2022, there was still a life that needed to be taken care of and maybe not so much time for Gigi. But now, it’s time.

And I found I had two choices: settle into a quiet chapter, or build a loud, messy, figuring-it-out-as-I-go one. I chose loud.

It had been some time since I had been blogging. I’d never touched AI tools. I definitely didn’t know what a “content pillar” was.

But I started anyway — learning ChatGPT one clumsy prompt at a time, building this website, starting a YouTube channel, launching a Substack, and eventually pulling together everything I’d learned into my ebook on building an online business after 60. It has been humbling. It has occasionally been hilarious. And it has been one of the most alive I’ve felt in years.

If you want the fuller version of that story, I wrote about it in What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Reinventing Yourself After 60 — the unfiltered, no-makeup version of everything above.

How to Find Your Own Purpose After Retirement

I’m not going to hand you a five-step formula, because purpose doesn’t work that way. But here’s what actually helped me find mine:

Notice what you do without being asked. Nobody assigned me a blog. I just kept wanting to write things down and share them. That wanting is a clue — follow it.
Revisit what you were too busy for. Before retirement, I didn’t have time to learn new technology or sit with my own thoughts. Both turned out to be doors, not dead ends.
Let your history point the way. Seven years around families in their hardest moments taught me not to waste the time I have left. Your own history is trying to tell you something too — what has it taught you?
Start before you feel ready. I started my business having no idea what I was doing. I still don’t have it all figured out. Start anyway.
Ask the question out loud. Say it to your spouse, your girl tribe, your journal: “What’s my purpose right now?” You’d be amazed how differently your day goes once you’ve actually named it.

If you want a cozier, slower space to sit with a question like that, I’ve found a good journal makes all the difference — more on that below.

For more reading on purpose and healthy aging, AARP’s research on purpose in later life is a solid, trustworthy external resource to cite if you want to back up the “purpose matters at every age” point with outside data.

Join Me Every Wednesday

Every Wednesday from here on out, I’ll be putting that hat on and sitting down with you — same as I do here — to talk honestly about what it means to build a second act after 60. Some weeks it’ll be practical. Some weeks it’ll get a little vulnerable. All weeks, it’ll be unfiltered.

This isn’t about pretending retirement doesn’t change you. It does. But it doesn’t retire your worth, your wisdom, or your reason for getting up in the morning. Those three things don’t clock out just because you did.

Prefer to Watch?

Step into the VIP room below 👇

“Welcome to the VIP room. What you’re going to find here is that you’re valued, you’re insightful, and you have a purpose.”

Your Turn

Watch this week’s episode above, and then tell me in the comments: what’s your purpose, right now, today? Not what it used to be. Not what you think it should be. What is it?

I read every single comment, and I’d love to know yours.