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The podcast focuses on fiercely empowering women in business, as entrepreneurs and women in male-dominated industries, featuring guests who embody strength, resilience, competence, and a touch of sass as they navigate business and life.
Looking for guests who are willing to bring a wealth of experience and knowledge but also possess the strength, resilience, and sass that align with the tone of my podcast.
I want their stories and insights to provide immense value to my audience, helping me to establish a powerful podcast as a must-listen for women looking to empower themselves in business. The goal is to build competence and discover how brave women can be in business.
Welcome back to Superheroes in Heels. I'm your host, Kimberly Borgans. And today I'm diving into what I think is a pretty inspiring topic that has been something that I've researched a little bit about, but I knew instinctively. Today's topic we're going to talk about what women in their 50s can learn from the powerhouse wisdom of women in their 60s. Whether you're an entrepreneur, community leader, or just simply navigating the next life stage for yourself in your business as an entrepreneur, think about how you can thrive, not just survive, in your journey ahead as an entrepreneur.
Kimberley Borgens:So today we're going to talk about how women in your 50s can learn, still learn a lot of wisdom from the ladies who have forged the path ahead of us in their 60s. By the time we reach 50s, we're moving up ladders, we've probably built some businesses, I don't know about you, but for me, we've built some business up. But at the same time, happens, we've rebranded a few times, maybe, we've scaled our operations, We've reached this level in business in our fifties that we think we've got it, right? But there's a very clear message from the ladies in their sixties. And the biggest message that is they're really putting out there is keep it simple.
Kimberley Borgens:We don't need 10 different offers anymore. We don't need five marketing funnels. We don't need endless busy work. Okay? The most successful women these days embrace the lean business model that focus more on clarity and impact.
Kimberley Borgens:They're challenging us. The ladies in their sixties, they're challenging the ladies in their fifties. They're challenging us to cut through all the noise, create a simpler life, create simpler business tactics, business strategies, keeping it simple seems to be what I've noticed in my research that the ladies in their sixties are saying is we've done the work, but we're not done. And there's still a lot to learn. And so the ladies in their 60s are showing us the way if we're willing to be open to see what they have to offer.
Kimberley Borgens:One of my best women mentors, she's in her 60s and I'm still learning so much from her. I think what happens is that a lot of times women think that as we're getting older, we're becoming more and more irrelevant. And I want to challenge you to think something different this time. I want to challenge you to think that we are not irrelevant. We still have so much game to go.
Kimberley Borgens:Look, there's an art to thriving decade after decade in business. Women in their 60s have mastered that, so why not allow us to learn from them, step into that space? They're telling us to pace ourselves. We're not done. And so we've put a lot behind us, but we're not done yet.
Kimberley Borgens:And we don't have to exhaust ourselves trying to do it all right now. In our fifties, we're kind of like, I don't know, we think we gotta push and push and push to make that difference happen. But I'm noticing that the ladies in their sixties, they're giving us some keys and I wanted to share a few of those keys with you. One, protect our energy. Protecting the energy that we're putting out there.
Kimberley Borgens:We're not young Sprites cows in business anymore in our fifties, but at the same time, we still have a lot of energy, but are we protecting it the way that we need to do that? And then another key that they're showing us is choosing our priorities. What are the priorities that we really need to set? We're not raising kids anymore in most cases, and our priorities have shifted over the years. So are we noticing what our priorities are and are we choosing the right priorities?
Kimberley Borgens:Are we just kind of still letting them happen? Are we working smarter, not harder? Alright, that's another great key is we don't have to work as hard as we did in our twenties and thirties because we're no longer trying to prove ourselves in essence. We're just trying to get through what's the next phase, what's the next change, what's the next nuance in business. It's not about just business, it's about living well in the space that we are, that we've worked our way up to be able to enjoy some of our time as well.
Kimberley Borgens:And I noticed that the ladies in their sixties are speaking about setting boundaries, boundaries that support our energy and allow us to continue to thrive for years to come. I mean, if we really think about that, how many of us have put a lot of that on the side and making it now to where we're paying attention to it because we're learning from those who have gone before us? So let's break it down a little bit. In our fifties, it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like we still have to prove ourselves, right? Especially when we're comparing ourselves to our younger competition.
Kimberley Borgens:But the women in our sixties are telling us we don't have to chase relevance and comparison because really it's a losing battle. There's always gonna be somebody to compete against. There's always gonna be somebody that is going to outshine you, try to surpass you. It's just kind of a losing battle to keep trying to chase it. True authority comes when wisdom and experience come together, not from following all the trends.
Kimberley Borgens:Trends are fads. They happen. They're short term. They don't last long. But if we can let go of our ego and focus more of, you know, comparison thinking like, should, you know, that thing, I should this and I should that, I should have done this when I was in my thirties.
Kimberley Borgens:I should have done this in my forties. We gotta stop shooting on ourselves. Okay? We gotta stop using that comparison model that we had for many years in our thirties and forties. Instead, we need to focus more on how our experiences that we've had throughout our business tenure, right?
Kimberley Borgens:How those experiences have moved us forward, how that experience has made sure that we continue to grow and build that legacy. So instead of focusing on how our experiences can move us forward, want to make sure that we're having everyday conversations with people. We want to show that our experiences have strategies behind them and they have that grit that we've had to get to where we are. It's what's gotten here, right? So we have all this wisdom, experience, we have this grit and resiliency, all these amazing things that we can share with the people who are coming up ahead of us.
Kimberley Borgens:Coming up faster than we ever did because of so many changes in technology and social and all of those things. But the women in their 60s, they didn't have all that. So they have different kinds of wisdom that we can still use as we're continuing to build with the new technologies and things. I noticed that the women in their 60s are helping us to refine what success looks like on our own terms. For many women in their 50s, we feel that race against time.
Kimberley Borgens:We've hit revenue goals, we've built legacies at some level, and we do it all. We carry a lot of the weight. In the 60s they're inviting us to pause. They're inviting us to ask a question: what does enough look like for you? You know that success is really something deeply personal.
Kimberley Borgens:You get to define what success means for you. Sometimes success means more money. Sometimes it means more joy. And sometimes it means more freedom to be able to do what it is that you want to do. The reality is though it's up to you to decide what that means for you.
Kimberley Borgens:You get to determine and to clarify what matters most for you. What's the most important thing for you that makes you feel successful? You get to create that vision of what it truly looks like for you. You get to decide that because that's what's going to continue to fuel you when you don't have to be the up and coming gal. Got to really think about that.
Kimberley Borgens:What does success look like for you? And only you can determine it. Only you can decide what success looks like for you. Nobody else, just you. And the ladies in their sixties are telling us, it's time for you to figure out what it looks like now because what success looked like twenty years ago could be completely different than what you want it to look like now.
Kimberley Borgens:What about the insights from the women in their sixties on the importance of planning on what's coming next. I remember in my thirties and forties, I'll be honest, there wasn't about what's next in the sense of I've reached this level thirty plus years in business, what next? In my thirties and forties it was like, what next is okay, how do I get that next bill paid? How do I bring in the next clients? How do I bring in what's next?
Kimberley Borgens:That kind of thing in business. But as we're winding down, we're not winding down in business, we're just winding down in busyness, the drive that says we got to go. The workaholic mentality is shifting when you get into your 50s and into your 60s. It's about designing what that next chapter is. That's what I'm hearing from the ladies in their 60s, is design what that next chapter looks like for you.
Kimberley Borgens:Think about your financial planning, your succession planning, You're cultivating passions outside of your business. Look, when I was younger, when I heard those kinds of words like your financial planning, your succession planning, you know, what are you gonna do for your future when you retire? They didn't really mean anything to me. I mean I own that, right? I didn't get it.
Kimberley Borgens:The main reason I didn't get it is because I was never shown how important that was, but it is important. It is important to say that we need role models. When I was younger we didn't have role models that were sharing information about planning retirement, especially as an entrepreneur. Retirement was in big businesses, but as entrepreneurs, we're just working. We love what we do.
Kimberley Borgens:We're creating this passion. Nobody really was out there saying to the women entrepreneurs that you have to set yourself up for that succession plan. Right? Have that financial plan for when you reach your sixties or seventies, whichever it is for you, retirement age would be. But I have to tell you something, it's not too late.
Kimberley Borgens:Even in our fifties, the sixties people are saying it's not too late. To get started you have to catch up the best that you can. Know Trump put out the big beautiful bill and what they're saying is for catch up retirement now instead of putting it all into a four zero one ks, if you have a four zero one ks, right? As an entrepreneur, you may not even have that. Right?
Kimberley Borgens:But creating everything you can goes into an IRA now. Now the benefit of that, what's really nice about that is you're paying today's tax rates. Taxes are not going down. They're never gonna go down. I just want you to know In a four zero one ks, when you're doing catch up for example, pre tax.
Kimberley Borgens:It's the pre tax money that goes into your four zero one ks. It's saving you taxes now. The problem is, is since taxes are not going down, then what happens is later you have to pay the tax when that comes out. Where an IRA, which is what I know that Donald Trump talks about with the big beautiful plan, here's benefit of it, that you're paying today's taxes to catch up for your retirement. That way when you do retirement, you do decide to retire, you're pulling that money out, and it's already in tax.
Kimberley Borgens:So you won't get taxed on that money again. That's the whole purpose of that. But there's catch up. You can pay up to X amount of dollars. Do your research.
Kimberley Borgens:Is it for you? I know there's a federal number, but I'm gonna have you do research. Find out what it is. What can you put into? If you're putting in a $100 a week, a $100 a month into something, look in our fifties, we better be doing a little bit more than a $100 a month.
Kimberley Borgens:I'm just gonna say that if you need to catch up on retirement. Because I'm hearing from the ladies in their sixties, you gotta have that plan. You have to have a financial plan for your future. The business world changes so quickly, but you have to decide now if you haven't already done so. If you have, God bless you.
Kimberley Borgens:I'm glad to hear that. Keep going. Do the best that you can. Keep adding as much as you can to your retirement. But if you haven't started, start now.
Kimberley Borgens:It's no longer about, know, someday when I retire, you're getting closer to it. So invest in your after business life when it comes to this, because it really is important. And don't think that, oh my gosh, I'll get Social Security, but if you're an entrepreneur and you haven't been paying to the taxes and the Social Security realm, you're not gonna get nearly as much as you think that you're gonna get. If you've just been paying yourself under the table look, I'm just being real and honest. You gotta pay the taxes.
Kimberley Borgens:You gotta pay yourself a paycheck because if you're not doing it, you're not adding into the Social Security. Yeah. I know. I've been hearing it for, I don't know, twenty, thirty years. Social Security is not going to be around when we when we age out.
Kimberley Borgens:Well, okay. But until that happens, you still need to be paying into it as an entrepreneur. So don't get caught up in all of that, but I want you to just really think about what can you do now to plan for that next phase, because the ladies in their sixties are telling us how important that is. What about this? I'm gonna throw it out here.
Kimberley Borgens:Maybe one of the greatest gifts that men in their sixties have is their perspective. They've survived recessions. They have survived industry shifts, tech upheavals, personal loss, personal gain. They have had wins, and they've had failures, and they have looked bad at sometimes, and they've looked phenomenal at other times, have wisdom and knowledge that we still might be missing as women in our 40s and 50s. They have a lot of other wisdom too.
Kimberley Borgens:Their advice quite often is that very few things in business really have an ending. They lead with this steadiness and this grace, and they don't lead with panic. We don't want to lead with panic. I mean, come on. Think about when the big happened in 2020.
Kimberley Borgens:How many people thought that they were losing their jobs? Businesses had to shut down. Was hard for a lot of people. There was so much panic, but guess what? Those women in their sixties, they were pivoting.
Kimberley Borgens:They were readjusting based on what's happening in that moment. They can close their doors and go into hiding, like many people did, many of the younger generation, because they didn't know how to navigate through that the same way as their 60 people. Want to make sure that we see that the people that have gone before us, they leverage their knowledge. They leveraged their experience. They recalculated, regrouped, rebranded.
Kimberley Borgens:They just got in. I remember at the time during the big C, I was part of B and I. I'm not currently part of B and I, but I don't have any negativity towards it. But I was part of B and I. We were meeting every week in person.
Kimberley Borgens:When the big C happened, we had to move to Zoom. And most of the people in my B and I chapter had never even heard of Zoom. But I had been using it in business for multiple years by the time that had happened. So I'm like, come on guys, we're gonna get you in. Within the first two weeks I had everybody moving into except one person.
Kimberley Borgens:He just was not committed to doing virtual, and that's okay. But we had everybody moved in. We pivoted quickly because of knowledge, skill set, and so on. I think the women in their sixties had even stronger levels of knowledge and wisdom that we could learn from. For me, I've been in business for over thirty years, and at the time I thought I'd seen most everything, but nope, I had never seen the Pixie.
Kimberley Borgens:That was totally a new one for me, let me tell you. But I was able to use my past experiences, especially February, because of my experience with the economy shutting down quite a bit, people losing their jobs, people losing their homes. What could I learn from or use from learning at that time into my business in 2020? Also, me, I'm old enough in my wisdom and my skill set and the ladies in their sixties, especially here in California, is we went through the Rodney King riots. The riots started happening in 2021, We got to help clients, we got to help employees and businesses navigate through that experience.
Kimberley Borgens:It was a tough experience for so many people, and there's still lasting effects of that. And so it's the wisdom and the knowledge and the experiences that we all have as we're moving up the ladders in business and moving up the scales in our age even, especially as women in businesses, the women in their sixties, entered so much more pushback of being women industries and being top leaders and being the women CEOs. They're the ones who pushed and moved mountains to create the path for us to be able take that journey also. I want to just really put in there today is if you're in your 50s, remember that there's a whole generation of incredible women ahead of you. They are willing to share their wisdom.
Kimberley Borgens:The question that I'm gonna put out to you is, are you willing to listen? They're reaching out to you, and you just may not be noticing it. You wanna embrace simplicity. Protect your energy, let go of the shoulds or I should have, and to find what success looks like for you. Prepare yourself for the next chapter, and always choose grace over grind.
Kimberley Borgens:That's the biggest message that I heard when I was doing my research from the ladies in their sixties. So how can this help you? Well, here's what I'm going to say. It's time to live boldly and beautifully. No matter what age you are, step into your next chapter.
Kimberley Borgens:Be ready. Learn from those who step before you, because that's how we're going get through to the next phase of whatever that is in our business journey. Thank you for tuning in to Superheroes in Heels. I'm Kimberly Borgans, and until next time keep your heels high and your standards even higher. Have a blessed week!