I’ve always had an instinct within me to help others. Throughout my extensive career of high performance coaching, I’ve delivered results by challenging my clients to dig deep and find the excellence that I believe exists within all of us. 

But when the pandemic struck in 2020, I was suddenly without work for the first time in my life. As I began to look for new opportunities, it became clear that despite all of my experience, I was no longer considered desirable because of my age. Somewhere along the way, someone like me — a woman in my 60s, with a long successful career and thousands of hours of experience and proven results — was considered past due. I was being viewed with all the myths that persist about us older workers — that we don’t understand technology, don’t use social media, are old fashioned, or are difficult to train.

But I know from experience that none of that is true. In fact, it’s the opposite. Older workers have deep knowledge that they have carried with them through the years. We are adaptable, hard-working, and have careers that have spanned decades, witnessing and adjusting to significant societal shifts. It just didn’t make sense to me, and as I started to research, I saw the problem everywhere. Friends and colleagues, approaching 65, were expected to leave the workforce and resign themselves to a life devoid of real purpose. People like me, who wanted to continue to contribute, were being pushed out, passed over and dismissed.