Vitally Aging: Retirement as the New Frontier

0:05 There are some people that make their work just another thing they have to do, and there are those that make their work something that they want to do. Welcome to Working on Purpose with your host Elise Cortez. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration from those people who have found deeper meaning and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five, it's working on Purpose. Now Here is your host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks between and again this week, I'm your host, Elise Cortez, joining you from the road here in Dundee, Oregon, which is just outside Portland, as I travel for business and pleasure. If you've been tuning in for a while, you know this program is all about helping people create more meaningful and purposeful lives and equipping leaders inside organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose that elicits passion inspired contribution, innovation, and persevering performance.

0:57 I talk with my guest to draw on their expertise and share my own experience consulting, speaking and developing workforces across the globe. Before we get into the program, let me give a shout out to our sponsor, Rent with right to Buy dot com. This real estate service offers a new way to home ownership and allows you to purchase a home when you may not be entirely ready. It's a great option if your credit is not in the best of shape or if you are in transitions. Thanks to rent with right to Buy for your program sponsorship, it is very much appreciated. Take a look if you can. Each week in these conversations, I hope you walk away with something you can immediately use in your life or your work, and if I can do anything to help you along your journey, go to my website at a least Cortez dot com. Then use to contact me feature to message me.

1:38 Let's open a dialog and explore what's going on, figuring how I might be able to help. Whether you want to learn more about how to develop purposes by our leadership and meaning infuse culture in your organization, you want to see about joining a catch fire online inspiration accountability or master my community to nurture your own passion and purpose, or you'd like me to come speak for your company or conference. At any rate, I'm glad we're connected, and thanks for listening. Now onto this week's program with this right next to me is a contemporary Oregan icon. Susan Sokol Blosser is a wine industry pioneer, community leader, environmental advocate, and author of various books, including seventy Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier. She is the co founder of Sokol Blosser Winery, and under her presidency it became known as one of the most innovative and respected oregan wineries. We'll be talking about her perspective on redefining retirement and how she sees it as the new frontier from which to manage laws, recapture joy, and discover generativity. Susan, welcome back to Working on Purpose. Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. It's been I think about three years since I first had you on the show. We talked about another book that wrote that you had written, which is when you had transitioned the winery from your presidency to your children, and that was our first brush and now you've not been able to get rid of me. I am so glad. Well, so we're going to be talking about the contents of your book and really how you have how you arrived at the perspective to how to live with generativity later on and with vitality, and it's such an important topic. But before we talk about really retirement and where that it would be, it's probably good

3:10 for us to understand and frame when did you start thinking about this notion of retirement and what happens at that time of your life and what were you doing then? Well, I was running the winery. I was president of Socio Blaster Winery, and when I turned sixty, that was a big birthday for me. I felt like I had walked through the door in the elder hood, and that was unusual because birthdays really didn't mean that much to me. But it was at that point that I started to think, I need to plan my exit. I need to plan for the future. I had two of my kids working in the winery with me, and I knew they both wanted to take over some point. So it was at that point that we started to talk about transitioning, and transitioning was really difficult for me, and that's what we talked about three years ago. Letting go was really hard.

4:16 That's a whole another topic, but it started me thinking about aging. And when I finally did let go of the presidency, it was like, well, if I wasn't Susan the CEO, who was I? And I realized that I needed to reinvent myself. I knew I needed a challenge, something that would engage both my head and my heart. What could that be? And it took me a little while, but I found it. I started a nonprofit that I can talk about later. It's called the Yamhill and Richmond Society. Or I started to take piano lessons, which I took when I was young and hated and because I hated to practice. But I found a teacher who didn't brate me if I didn't practice, and just encouraged me.

5:18 And I can feel the little gray cells multiplying as I try to play these notes with both hands. I love gardening, I do some traveling, I do some speaking, and life for me is much more balanced and fulfilling. Well, so fast forward. You told us that was your sixtieth birthday? Was that big point? And now today you've narrated a few things that you're up to for our listeners and for me. How old are you today? Well, I'm seventy four today, but in a month I will be seventy five. Oh well, I'll have to see your birthday song. But listeners, I'll do it off there, don't worry. So I love that you're doing all the things that you're that you're doing, the travel, the fact that you've started this nonprofit, and I do want to talk about that later in the show. I wanted to have you back on the show, Susan when I came back out to you in July for family reasons and I ran a half marathon right through your vineyard, your beautiful vineyard, and we came out to talk with you, and we were talking about what you said of how you were conducting your life today in your quote retirement years and what that meant. And I said, oh my gosh, we have to have you back on the show, because retirement is not all it's cracked up to beat.

6:30 We keep her people say, oh my god, when I retired, life is going to be amazing. And as you say in your book, retirement actually means pretty negative, awful things like withdrawing. You know, there's just a whole list of them. And I have learned that retirement actually is really not very good for our well being in the traditional sense that people have gone about it. And that's why I wanted to have you back on the show say a little bit more about your perspective of what traditional retirement that you've learned about what it means. Well, the conventional view of retirement is that every day is like vacation and you spend your time playing golf or bridge or you know, in between, sitting in the rocking chair whatever. But it's not productive. And my generation, at least my friends and I want to feel that we make a difference. We have skills, we've learned a lot over our careers, and we want to put those skills to use. So regardless of what we choose, that is the goal. And I look on aging as being the next frontier for my generation because we retirement. Conventional retirement is not for us. We want to redefine aging and retirement to be relevant.

7:59 We have no idea what that means. And it's a frontier because we haven't been there before and we're trying to figure it out. And my analogy in my book is that this is not our first frontier. Our first frontier was changing the plane field for gender relations, and we did that when we were in college and there were for me, at any rate, there were very strict rules for women, none for men, but very strict rules for women. And by the time we graduated, there was no longer a dean of women, and the social regulations had loosened considerably. By the time my son went to college, there were co ed dorms, so things happened pretty fast. And the plain field, you know, men and women are still adjusting the plane field, but there've been significant changes. Meanwhile, we have grown older and we're facing our current frontier, which is defining aging to be relevant to us so much in that season. Okay, but first I want to go to this whole notion that your whole book was inspired when you were out speaking at an AARP Portland vital aging conference. The fact that there's even a conference on vital aging it's so encouraging to me. So you went out to speak at this conference and you gave the message that you did, and you realized, oh my gosh, they ask you you need to write this

9:30 down. We need to be able to read it and reread it. So what was when was this conference and who who is attending? Well? I was invited to speak at this conference, and I was actually quite surprised. I thought, why do you want a winery person to speak about aging at the AARP. But I thought, okay, I'm going to talk about my experience, and I did and found I was I mean, I had no idea there was such a thing as a vital aging conference. So that was interesting. But it was very well attended. It. It was in a huge ballroom in Portland, and I had no idea whether what I had to say would be well received, how many people would go to sleep while I was talking. But the fact is that I hit a note and a number of people came up afterwards and said that was so interesting. I said, oh, okay, I'm going to write this down. So I wrote.

10:35 I elaborated on the speech. I got an old friend who's an editorial cartoonist to do some drawings for me about me aging, and put together this little book which I entitled Seven Lessons at seventy, Notes from the front Line, And it really is not just for people who are seventy, but people who are starting to be thoughtful about what does aging mean? By the way, the illustrations are delightful. When I was reading the book and I and Hack, since I know you and I've seen you many times, and I saw it and it was there, it was and it was just delightful to get to dance with you like that. So really decided to do that. I wanted to lighten it up a bit because aging is not a cheery topic for many people. No it isn't. In fact, one of the things that I thought about is I was getting ready for this conversation Susan. I remember when I was at a conference. It was a women's development leadership conference, and we were in Seattle, Washington, and they had a futurist speaker come in and talk and she looked around the room. They are about forty five of us women in the room, and she said, those of you in this audience who are about fifty some years old, in decent physical shape, there's a pretty good chance that you're going to make it close to one hundred years of age. And two thoughts crossed through my mind immediately. The first one is, yes, hot dog, I've got more time to go after all my goals that I know, all the things I want to get done.

12:05 And then I also thought, oh wow, I better take better care of this circus that's got to carry me around to get there. So what I would like you to talk about is the extent to which we are living longer. We have longer lifespans. That means we do have to make sure that our finances can get us there, our physicality can get us there. Your perspective on that, well, I think one of the things one of the big lessons for me is how important health is. And there's there's a limit to what you could stop of the aging process with good eating and exercise. But if you don't do those things, you're going to go downhill fast.

12:48 And so one of the things that I love to eat. I'm in a you know, the wine industry. Wine and food just go together. And I used to tell people that when I work the market, I would go to a city and eat my way across, but only in the best restaurants because that's where I wanted my wine. So I can't eat as much as I used to. And if I try, number one, I don't feel good and number two, I gain weight. So what's wrong with this picture? So I've found that I need to watch what I eat. I really need to cut out a lot of carbohydrates. And you know, I love carrot cake, and so maybe once a month I allow myself. You can't cut out everything, but you have to really treat yourself carefully and exercise.

13:48 And it's not just exercise the way we think of it as walking or jogging. Its strength training because osteoporosis, particularly for women, is huge, and the way to combat that is through strength training. So I've started that too. These are all things that, to a great extent I put off during my career because I was so focused on the business. But I can't put it off now. It's such good advice, and you do go into quite good detail in your book about your diet and your exercise, and I completely agree to all of that. And just to kind of finish up this last segment here, I want to go back and really situate how we're going to distinguish what traditional retirement is from how you're going to go about it.

14:37 So again in your book, you actually make a whole list of many words that are syndyms related to retirement. Let me read them. Relinquishment, separation, resignation, removal, laying down, exiting, retreating, withdrawal, departure, recession, retreat, abdication, severance. And these are also unappealing, as you say, and what I love is you. You instead offer some other favorite words like graduation, transformation, reinvention. I liked those a lot better. Well, I looked up retirement in the dictionary, and those are the words I found. I know, thought, oh my gosh, that's just awful. So we have to think of it in a different way.

15:18 It's not stepping back, it's stepping forward into a new life. Yes. Well, and that's again why I wanted to have you back on the show, Susan, Because what's what I'm all about is working on purpose. And that means across your whole life. It means being of service, being being of service to others. And that generativity we're talking about, is that just that. And what that is is that gives us a purpose. It gives us a direction, a reason to get out of bed. I know that my parents probably would have lasted much longer, as we were speaking, before they died in their in their in their early seventies, if they had had a purpose, if they had been what we call in logotherapy self transcendent, self serving beyond themselves into something bigger than themselves. And they had all those talents to give Susan. They were big business owners, just like you, They had so many talents and they could have drawn from them and they didn't occur to them. So appreciate very much your message, and with that, let's grab our first break. Okay, all right, I'm at Last Cortez, your host, moving on the air with Susan Soco Blossom. She's a wine industry pioneer, community leader, environmental advocate, and author of various books, including Seven Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier. She's the co founder of Soco Blossom Winery and under her presidency it became known as one of the most innovative and respected Origan wineries. We are here together at Soco Blossom Winery for this conversation. We've been talking a bit about really where her perspective came from, on contributing her thoughts toward vital aging and after the break, we're going to get more into what ways we can activate a better way of living in these in these later years. Stay with us, we'll be right back.

16:59 A last got as as a speaker and engagement and development catalyst, she designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for staying with this, and welcome back to working on purpose if you just join us. My guest is the contemporary organ icon Susan Soko Blosser. She's a wine industry pioneer, community leader, environment advocate, and author of various books, including Seven Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier. She's the co founder of Social bloss Or Winery, and under her presidency it became known as one of the most innovative and respective oregan wineries.

18:11 I'm your host at Last Cortez. Okay, Susan, for this next statement, well, we want to get into here is a little bit deeper dive and also some of it more of the challenges that aging people start to experience. And so we talked also to in a last satement about physical health. But there's also this notion of emotional health that's so critical to a quality of human life. So say more about your perspective on emotional health. Yes, well, that's the whole thing really for me about aging is what happens inside of you. Obviously you've got to stay healthy, because if you don't have your health, it's everything else pales by comparison. But it's what's going The aging process takes place inside and there have been identified by those who study it three challenges of aging, and they're all things that happen inside. The first one is managing loss, and this is you can all relate to.

19:15 This is starts as physical loss, the pull of gravity, lost wasteline, wrinkled skin, painful joints, and you know, if you have been really athletic or really beautiful, this is going to be very difficult. We can try and stay in shape and with exercise and eat healthy, but there's no going back. We lose the stamina of youth. We can't do the amount of activity we did when we were younger. Our energy starts a downward spiral, which no amount of healthy eating can erase. And that's the physical side.

19:56 But more important is the emotional loss, the law we feel when we retire from a job where we made an important contribution and were left without the identity of a title and position. It's easy to feel no longer needed. That's a sense of loss. And I have a personal example when I turned control of Soco bloss Or Winery over to my kids. I mentioned before how difficult it was because I felt this sense of loss and I realized I was grieving. I was grieving for my lost identity, and I kept asking myself, why is this so difficult? This was my decision to do this transition, and it was only after I was told this is grief that I realized what was happening. And then, of course, the biggest loss is friends, family, beloved animal companions. This they start dying off at an accelerated rate as we get older, and loss is not a cheery topic. We need to recognize it, we need to deal with it. We can't let it define us. We need to move on. But the next two challenges are more upbeat, and they really prescribe a path towards what I will call wellness. The second challenge has been described as recapturing innocence or recapturing joy.

21:33 I interpret this as recapturing the feeling admiration for life, the joy of life one had as a child. And this would be appreciating the beauty of a bud opening into a flower, the miracle of a tiny seed that becomes a plant, the wonder of cloud formation, the purring of a kitten. You get the picture. It means finding joy in your life, particularly in the little things, little things that you might not have noticed in the course of your career because you were so busy. This is different from happiness. Joy is a condition of the soul, happiness of the ego. I think this is an important distinction. You feel happy when things go your way, joy when you connect to the wonder of the universe. So joy is always available even when you're feeling down. You could be feeling very sad and yet feel joy watching a puppy frolic in the grass. Recapturing innocence is taking time to appreciate the small things that we may have overlooked. And then the third chail is a big, awkward word called generativity, and this is continue means continuing

23:07 to grow, even if you're not trying to further your career or climb the career ladder. Don't close yourself in. Many people as they age tend to end up in a little silo, close it, limiting their involvement with other people and with the outside world. But your world does not have to shrink with age. And here's your chance, for example, to follow an interest which you put off earlier. For me, this was starting the piano lessons, which you know, I've been taking piano for almost a year and I have learned five pieces. So I'm not going to be a concert pianist, and I'm not playing for anybody else, just for myself. You don't have to be a commercial artist, but you could learn how to paint a water color. That's what I'm talking about. The challenge is on vitality and creating.

24:07 So the big question is how well will you meet these three challenges of managing loss, recapturing in a sense, and generativity. And I want to dive into those really quick. Okay, so really quick. So first I want to go back to what you and I talked about and what's in your book. This whole thing of first, embracing that you're aging. Right, that's the first thing, because I see so much and I'm sorry for those of you that you're in the space of if this is I don't mean it to be offensive, but you know, fighting aging tooth and now whatever it takes, right, I think that that's kind of a losing battle and it's probably going to produce depression. Well, that's definitely a losing battle. You can't it's well, let's put it this way, it's a battle you can't win. And you know, when I turned sixty, a friend gave me a book called The Wisdom Beautiful. I can't actually can't remember the name, but it was a picture book of old women. I mean old women with a lot of wrinkles, but they were beautiful. There was a beauty to them that was just really melted me. Yes, and it gave me courage.

25:23 Let me say, I wish I could remember the name of it, but I think I passed it on to another friend. But you're absolutely right, you know, we have to. That's part of managing loss is admitting, you know what, I'm old, Yeah, and I'm you know, and it's a badge, right, it's a badge. And so then the other thing I wanted to make sure we talked about, because there's so much in your book that I actually say when I'm out speaking in my programs around being vitally inspired. There's very some very strong connections around your focus on emotional and well being and the work that I do, and certainly this whole notion of recapturing joy and being able to dance with life to those beautiful examples that you gave in the book are so great and what you just said, and definitely being able just to enjoy, like noticing that flower has opened or something like that. And one thing I was going to share along those lines quickly is that in my program I encourage people to really start to cultivate inspiration.

26:22 An element of inspiration is awe. So when you can actually go out and experience the world around you in a way that gives you a sense it's actually an emotion of awe, it opens something in you. And so for me, I have these really great conversation Susan with owls. When I'm outside they talk back to me. They're talking to me, and so when they hoot at me, I hoot back, and it is so delightful to dance with them. And so when I read that part of your book, I went, yes, that's I know what she means by that. I love the word awe. I mean that really is connecting to the wonder of the universe. It is, it really is. And so that whole notion. And I think you also have something in there too about being grateful. Yes, I think gratitude. You know, when you look at what you do have instead of what you don't have, it makes a big difference. It really does. And you know, I find myself very very very frequently. You know, stand I'm I've got to smile on my face most of the time because I get to live my purpose. I have an amazing, beautiful life.

27:26 I'm sitting here with you in this winery having this conversation for the second time, not this exact one, but another conversation. I think that's amazing. I drove up your beautiful driveway to get up here, and I thought, I'm the luckiest person on the planet. Well, that's so nice. I thought I was the luckiest person on the planet. We can argue about that, we'll see, but it's it's it is so important. And then I wanted to also just take a moment because to me, there's a celebration element in one of the other books that you wrote, The Vineyard Years. It's you call it The Vineyard Years, a memoir with apiece, and I know that you love to eat, and that also made me think about that whole notion of connecting to joy again. So say a little bit about that book. What's in that book. Well, the Vineyard Years is the story of social bloss or winery and the story my personal journey as a Liberal arts major with no skills who learned to farm and run a business. And it deals with from the very beginning of you know how it answers the question why did you do this? You know, there was no wine industry in Oregon when we started, and goes up through the challenges that we had, and the transition talks about our family, and the transition deals with how I decided to turn over the winery to my kids and how they did and the family, you know, I went through divorce, just a lot of personal things.

29:00 But also there's a lot of food memories and they are some family recipes from chefs which are for the home cook. You don't have to cook for the restaurant to follow these recipes and just there. It's not a cookbook, but the food memories are woven into the story and there are recipes, so it just makes it, you know, wine and food and ties it all together. And this goes back into generativity as well. Now you are you're doing something where you're giving something of yourself which is helpful to other people and lists of other people, and that is so important, that whole notion of being. And you said before it's a hard word to say generativity. What I know from my studies in human development, which are at largely psychology and sociology, is that that is a predictable stage that people go through and when you can embrace it as something that you can use to be able to give of yourself what you've learned, all these talents, all these skills, your heart, your soul, your memories, that is so incredibly It gives us such a sense of well being and fulfillment and it helps the next generation up well, I hope. So that that's the goal. So can I talk about the question we face or would you say that the hold because that's I know what that question is, and I want to I want to treat that next because we've got just about one more minute left here and I want to make sure we have time for it. So hold that, hold that thought on that, okay, because that's I thought that was hopelessly big gobs of

30:33 fun right there. So just really quick, I just want to I want to acknowledge that you, that you're you so are passing the baton and encouraging people to give more of themselves, dig more deeply of themselves, and live more of the beautiful life that is available to them. And I just really want to say thank you for that message. That's why I wanted to have you back. It's so important. Well I love your message as well. At least thank you. I mean, we have one precious life. We don't get him logan, we don't get a do over, and so I want to see more people out there really dancing with it like you are. Thank you, Yes, thank you. Our next break, I'm Elise Cortez, your host. We're on the air with Susan Sokolblosser, a wine industry pioneer, community leader in Barmlo, advocate and author of various books, including seventy Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier and also at the Vineyard Years.

31:21 We're here, We're here together in her winder and done the organ Stay with us, We'll be right back. Elise Cortez is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on purpose. If you're just tuning in, my guess is a contemporary organ icon. Susan Soko Blosster is a wine industry pioneer, community leader, environmental advocate, and author of various books, including Seven Lessons at seventy eight Notes from the Frontier. She's the co founder of Soko Blosso Winery. At Under her presidency, it became known as one of the most innovative and respected organ wineries. I'm your host, Elise Cortez So.

32:50 Next, Susan, I want to talk about one of these other major challenges that you talk about here in the book. I just literally laughed out loud when I read your chapter on whether we want to be l or old farts. I'll take the former any day, But would you distinguish for us what you mean by those things? Well, I have a friend who asks that question, you know, and I say, how well will you manage the three challenges of managing loss, recapturing, innocence, and generativity? She says, Okay, do you want to be an elder? Do you want to be an old fart? So the elder? Let me describe this. The ideal is that your past has given you a weathered, compassionate wisdom which you move us to move forward and stay engaged. That would be the elder with a capital E. An old fart would be bitter, stuck in the past, complaining a lot, resenting the present, devoid of joy. You probably know both. But here's the rub. Nothing prepares us for elderhood.

33:59 And that was one of the things that really struck me that all the buzz as we grow up is on accumulation. You want, you know, net education, networking, financial well being, influence, all friends. Nobody talks about what happens next, about letting go, about what happens when you need to divest yourself of some of these. So I found a quote. I don't know if you want me to talk about this quote, but it said, in the end, only three things matter. How much you have loved, how gently you have lived, and how gracefully you have let go of things not meant for you. And the gracefully let go of things not meant for you really struck me because at the time is when I was trying to let go of my position at social blossom. But I thought that was kind of an interesting way of looking at getting older. I think that's absolutely remarkable, and I love that. I remember seeing that quote in your book and I completely agree with that. And definitely, for me, I'm much more focused on experiences and connections and for me, so who's in what I'm up to? And I'm going to ask you a question about this next for you.

35:23 But what I'm up to and what really produces I think a sense of well being in me as I'm focused on helping one million people across the globe discover their passion, inspiration and purpose because I know that the world is a better place when that happens. I had a guest in my show sometime ago named Karen Hoyas, and she said, today only one percent of the global population is fully living in their purpose. When we get to one percent, human consciouness will be raised such that peace is actually possible. I'm in for that game. So that's what I care about. And yes, I like nice things, and I love a nice meal, and you know I love a nice class of wine. But that's what I'm focused on, not material acquisitions. So I'd love to hear you share a bit about some of the errors in your life that give you the most fulfillment. Well, I certainly admire your taking on one million people to help. I think so far, i've my scope is a little bit narrower. But I started a nonprofit where in Yamhill County, which is the county that I live in, called the Yamhill Enrichmond Society or Yes, and our mission is to provide access to our literacy and music programs for the youngest members of our county. So we have not many programs, but I just want to tell you about two of them.

36:57 One is called Imagination Library. This is actually run by the Dolly Parton Foundation in Tennessee. We are the local affiliate. We enroll children from birth to five, and Imagination Library we enroll them without charge. And Imagination Library sends each child to their home each month an age appropriate book. So if you are enrolled from the time you're born, by the time you're five, you have your own library of sixty books that are all age appropriate for whichever age you were. And then you graduate and you go to kindergarten and this prepares you really well. Each book comes with a series of ideas for parents on how to read this book to your child and how to interact with them.

37:53 It's an incredible program and we raise money to fund it. The second program is also part of a larger program. This is an international program called El Systema. It started in Venezuela with the idea of using the power of music for social change and was really aimed at the poorest kids in the barill that get them playing music. The conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a graduate of this program. So we started an el Sistema program at a school in Newburgh, which is one of the cities in Yamhill County, where every kindergartener that's a hundred students will learn to play the violin. It's a strings primarily. It starts as a strings program. We hired a yes, hired a music teacher to work with the school music teacher during music class. This was three years ago. Those children went to then went to first grade, a new crop of kindergarteners, and last spring, the first graders had their first public non school appearance at the Newburg Noon Rotary and they played Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. There was not a dry eye in the audience.

39:20 You know, I could stand and talk till I was blue in the face about the benefits of this program. But for the rotarians to see the discipline and the focus and the intensity of these first graders playing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, they were just they got a standing ovation for this little song. So those children are now in second grade. It becomes at that point of volunteer program after school, so we have about a third of the children signed up for that, and we introduced cello and viola so that they can learn to play little ensembles, don't you know of course our vision. You know we started small, because a very expensive program in one school. Our vision is that every school in Yamhill County will have this program. Oh I love that. And talk about making a difference in the world and taking all the things that you've learned in this beautiful life of years so far and bringing it back and contributing it right back into your own backyard. I think that is so beautiful and what a great example of definitely not just retiring from life.

40:37 Well, I'm really quite passionate about this program. The research on the benefits of both early reading and music are just so compelling. And what I find is that I can take what I have learned in my career and all the contacts that I've made to help me become the almost full time fundraiser that I've had to become to make these programs, to fund these programs so that they can grow. But I'm willing to do that because I believe in them, and I can do it well. And again just looking at looking at you when you were talking about that, and even just those of your listeners that are hearing her, you can hear the energy coming out of you. How you get lit up by that. And that's why I do what I do, Susan to be able to help people find their their passion and their inspiration, because that is it's life juice. And when you have life juice, you can not only live longer and more fulfilling, but you give something back to the world that wasn't there before. Yes, is there? What else are you putting yourself onto that that you find that's fulfilling, that that fuels you, that gives you something. Well. The other thing that I have found is really important in my old age is mentoring, mentoring other young women.

41:58 And this is while my daughter would be one, she's now CEO of the winery, and if she comes to me, I want to give her the benefit. I try very hard not to interfere because she is the CEO. I am not, but I also feel like I am her mentor. I work with a number of young women in with the m hill En Richmond Society, and I feel a certain mentoring for them. And I've been working on mentoring women generally in the wine industry. My helped found a women in Wine symposium that brought together women from all various aspects of the wine industry for a day of education and community. That kind of thing that's so beautiful.

42:55 And again there's what I appreciate that I know that all TechEd energy too, right. It takes time and energy to do all these ys, and I sometimes think, why am I doing this? What can I cut back? I'd really like to read a good book, which I also do. Actually, I started a book club which has been fun, awesome, and that gets me. And I'm knitting. I love to knit. Now. I wouldn't be happy only knitting, right, but it's a piece of I wouldn't be happy only you know, fundraising for yes, or only playing the piano. But each of those fills a little niche in my life. My grandchildren are fun to be with, So all of those things, well, it's beautiful. And what I like about that too. It speaks to the way that I live my life and how I try to help others give the access the possible that they can too, is that I don't I actually don't see my life, as you know pieces, it's all interwoven together. So for example, I'm a business owner. I don't work money through Friday nine to five. I work every single day in some different capacity, but that I weave in a johnt to come see you here at the winery. I go and I speak at some conference, I go and play in a river with my daughter who's sixteen, right. And so to me, it's all interwoven.

44:20 And I think that's the opportunity is to be able to create a beautiful, fully woven or knitted life that contains all the elements in it that are really important to you, and that you don't let one of them go at the expense of another. Right. And I think that's a really good point because when I was running the winery, my total focus emotionally and time wise was on the business. And as I said, life now and what you're saying, life is more balanced. There are a number of things that give fulfillment. Yes. And I think what I appreciate about the way that you're describing your life and what I've come who have come to know you as is that you're being intentional about how you create and live this life well We're not just one thing. You know, I'm not just business, although I was for many years, and I've realized I'm much more than that, and it takes more than that to satisfy me. Now, we didn't talk about this, but I want to just make the presence it really quick. You know you talked about that you, as an elder, have much to give.

45:27 How can how would you suggest or how would you invite those of us who aren't quite yet elders to best engage with you? Well? Read my books, okay would be one and they're all available on Amazon. I think depending on what people are interested in, there are so many opportunities for giving back to the community. There's you know, boys and girls clubs, there's soup kitchens, there's a lot of things that are industry related, whatever industry you happen to have been in. So just so many opportunities for engagement, and it's just a matter of finding one that tickles your fancy. Yes, And that's how I see this is I would I want to find more ways to ask elders to be involved, to share their experience, their perspective, their history, all the things they've learned their experiences because I think one. We can learn from those things, and too, they're incredibly inspiring. We need those things. Yes, So here we are once again. We've managed to find a way to get rid of a whole hour again together you and I, Susan. So you know this show is about helping listeners across the globe more meaningfully and productively connect with their work. What would you like to leave

46:58 our listeners with today? Well, I have two quotes, okay, I'd like to leave you with. One is it's not how old you are, but how you are old. That's one. The second one is, any decision you make is not a decision about what to do, It's a decision about who you are. That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. And so much of what your message is to me, Susan is really is really being mindful and intentional about who you want. Who do you want to be in this world? Do you want to be an old fart? You want to be an elder? I'll take an elder any day I had that direction. You make sure I stand course? Will you? I'll work on it? Okay.

47:42 I don't think there's any danger that you're going to go off course? Okay, good, good, well again, I thank you for the delight of coming back on the show, and also before we go, when I came back here in July to drop through and just see you and catch up. And that's what, what what spawned this idea to have you back on the show. I want to also say again this notion of being generous and kind and being thoughtful. I brought my sixty year old daughter with me and you remembered she'd liked to cook, and what did you do? But you had a few cookbooks for her. And I just think that it's so indicative of who you are, and I thank you for that. It's beautiful. Thank you. Listeners. If you want to learn more about Susan Sokolblosser and all she's up to these days, including her the Yamhill and Richmond Society, or her five books, her various other groups, her reading books or what do you thought you you've got a reading Oh we have a book club, book club, but I'm on good Reads, good Reads, okay, good, all right? And I think a place to start is her website, which is just susansocol Blosser dot com. Let me spell that for you.

48:44 Sus A N. Socol is s O k O L and then Blosser b L O S s e Er Susan Sooklblosser dot com. Last week, if you missed the live show, you can always get your recorded be a Record podcasts. Excuse me. We were on the year Selina Santa Bannie is talking about her nonprofit organization she founded called the Boardroom Project. We talked about how this initiative is helping educate young girls about the world of business and preparing and providing board world opportunities for women to involve their careers and make optimal impact. It was an incredibly inspiring conversation. We'll see you see you next week. I remember that work is at least a third of our lives, so let's work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to Working on Purpose featuring your host Alice Cortez, each week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, find your life's purpose at work fo