{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Build Your Own Boat","title":"Why It's Not Too Late to Start a Business After 60 — Helen Hirsch Spence on Ageism, Reinvention & Building Top 60 Over 60","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2261,"description":"Episode Summary\nCan you build a thriving new business in your 60s and beyond — after decades inside an institution? In this episode of Build Your Own Boat, Helen Hirsch Spence proves you can. After 35 years as a leader in Canadian education — principal, founding executive of the Ontario Principals' Council, and head of an all-girls school — Helen walked away from institutional authority and, in her 60s, founded Top 60 Over 60, a social enterprise dedicated to dismantling ageism and advancing what she calls longevity literacy.\nHelen shares the moment atop Mount Kilimanjaro that changed everything, the decade of solo adventures that followed, and the internalized ageism that eventually sparked her life's work. She talks candidly about the hard parts of solo entrepreneurship in later life — self-promotion, learning technology from scratch, pricing, and finding clients in a brand-new market category. She also walks through self-publishing her evidence-based book, Reset: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life, and why she urges women to trade the idea of \"retirement\" for reinvention.\nKey Takeaways\nInternalized ageism is structural, not personal. The loss of confidence many women feel as they age isn't a personal failing — it's the product of a culture, shaped by post-WWII economics and marketing, that has taught us to fear a natural process. Recognizing this is the first step to reclaiming your power.\nSelf-promotion is a learnable skill, even when it feels like bragging. Helen took a year and a half to publish anything in her own voice. Her fix: get help — a friend, a mentor, or someone 20 years younger who can guide you through the digital tools and the mindset shift.\nPivoting isn't failure — it's the entrepreneurial default. Helen never stopped pivoting. She argues that rigid five-year plans blind you to the real opportunities that appear along the way. Stay open and iterate, like design thinking.\nNiche down. Helen's biggest regret was trying to be \"all things to...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bQsbNia0IsmMmK-_EAZWTPLH0_5ooXLhZABkhXi9Cis/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zMjY3/NTllZmQ4ZTljNzVj/NTZmNzZiZTMzMmIy/ODBlNC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}