David Stewart on Ageist: Rethink Aging and Redefining Later Life (#83)

Our Guest Today: David Stewart

David Stewart (@WeAreAgeist) is the founder of Ageist, a website filled with beautiful photography and interviews with successful, vibrant people, generally over the age of 50. David’s mission is to better understand of this inspirational, influential but underserved generation.

Popular marketing and advertising campaigns relentlessly and exclusively chase after young millennials, even centennials (born after 2000). Yet as a generation, the over-50s control two-thirds of the world’s wealth.

How should we live our lives after the so-called prime time? Is it inevitable to associate negativity, constant fear with aging? David challenged himself to a better question: What are we doing about this?

David decided to dedicate his life’s work to seeking out, interviewing and photographing people over the age of 50 who are living lives that we should all be aspiring to. Furthermore, “Agiest is a place where alternative templates of aging are created for generations to come.”

Agiest’ interviews with sung and unsung heroes, over the age of 50, stretch across people who are actively pursuing arts, music, business. Among dozens of stories, my friend Gilles Berube is one of them. Gilles is in his peak physical state and competing in fitness year-around.

In addition to sharing invaluable learnings and wisdoms, David and I talked about the business side of things of Ageist. How do we balance between a passion project and paying the bills? What is the monetization model for Agiest?

I hope you enjoy this episode and please help spread the word of Feisworld Podcast by sharing with your family and friends who could benefit from the mission of Agiest.

• The number of people today aged 60 and over has doubled since 1980.
• The number of people aged 80 years will almost quadruple to 395 million between now and 2050.

Stats from World Health Organization

There is no better time than now to understand how we can live, to change the preconceptions associated with aging, and ultimately, to make the most of our precious lives.

Show Note:

• [07:00] In your own words, what Ageist is?
• [08:00] What do you think are the factors that make some of your guests feel empowered at that age?
• [09:00] There’s a lot of work behind producing an online magazine. What made you decide to start such a project? Where did the idea come from?
• [15:00] What are some of the things you’ve learned during the past two-three years?
• [21:00] Can you comment about people who have structured lives, a very well planned routine and life, and seek retirement as the utmost goal?
• [24:00] What are some of your most memorable guests, or experiences you’ll never forget while producing ageist?
• [31:00] Where did you grow up and how were your family dynamics?
• [35:00] What were your dreams when you were 10 years old?
• [36:00] How do you find interesting people and prepare your interviews?
• [39:00] Who are some of the other team members you have for running and collaborating on ageist?
• [40:00] What’s Ageist’s business model?
• [44:00] How are people discovering Ageist organically?
• [47:00] What are some of the tools and places you used to look for clients at companies?
• [50:00] These days, what you you throw yourself at and what are the things you avoid?

Favorite Quotes:

• [07:00] It’s characterized by an attitude: I am powerful, I’m not an invalid, I’m not injured, I have tremendous amount of capacity.
• [09:00] ‘People (in their 50s) who take good care of themselves and look at the recent statistics, they think ‘Wow, I’m only half way through my life. Isn’t that awesome? I have another half of life!’
• [11:00] In the advertising industry, there is this millennial obsession.
• [12:00] The advertising culture tends to be populated by younger people. You won’t see much people over the age of 40.
• [16:00] It’s an amazing wealth of wisdom. I personally learned that, so much of what’s going on in my life, things that are important to me, or things I’ve made or that I’m planning on making, are really typical, for people like myself.
• [22:00] We are designed to work hard, we are designed to have a purpose, and the reason retirement kills people, it’s because it removes those two things.
• [25:30] Everyone is fascinating, you just need to ask the right question…
• [49:00] One of the gifts of being older is that you have experience, you can look back and rationally identify what works and what doesn’t. I’m interested in a lot of things, I have a perpetual mind, but I focus on the things I can make the most impact and the things that brings me the most satisfaction.

Transcript

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