Vitally Aging: Retirement as the New Frontier

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortes. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning again this week. I'm your

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host, Elise Cortes. Join you
from the road here in Dundee, Oregon,

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which is just outside Portland, as
I travel for business and pleasure.

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If you've been tuning in for a
while, you know this program is all

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about helping people create more meaningful and
purposeful lives and equipping leaders inside organizations to

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cultivate meaning and purpose that elicit's passion, inspired contribution, innovation, and persevering

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performance. I talk with my guests
to draw on their expertise and share my

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own experience consulting, speaking and developing
workforces across the globe. Before we get

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into the program, let me give
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It is very much appreciated. Take a

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look if you can. Each week
in these conversations, I hope you walk

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away with something you can immediately use
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if I can do anything to help
you along your journey, go to my

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website at at leastcretes dot com and
use to contact me feature to message to

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me. Let's open a dialogue and
explore what's going on for you and how

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I might be able to help.
Whether you want to learn more about how

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to develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning, if use culture in your organization,

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you want to see about joining a
catch fire online inspiration accountability or master my

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community to nurture your own passionate purpose, or you'd like me to come speak

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for your company or conference. At
any rate, I'm glad we're connected,

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and thanks for listening. Now onto
this week's program with us. Right next

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to me is a contemporary Oregon icon. Susan Sokolblusser is a wine industry pioneer,

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community leader, environmental advocate, and
author of various books, including seventy

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Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier. She is the co founder of Socle

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Blusser Winery, and under her presidency
it became known as one of the most

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innovative and respected Oregon wineries. We'll
be talking about her perspective on redefining retirement,

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on how she sees it as the
new frontier from which to manage laws,

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recaps her joy and discover generativity.
Susan, welcome back to Working on

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Purpose. Thank you. I'm delighted
to be here. It was it's been

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I think about three years since I
first had you on the show. We

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talked about another book that you wrote, that you had written, which is

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when you had transitioned the winery from
your presidency to your children, and that

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was our first brush and now you've
not been able to get rid of me.

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I am so glad. Well,
so we're going to be talking about

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the contents of your book and really
how you have how you arrived at the

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perspective to how to live with generativity
later on with vitality, and it's such

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an important topic. But before we
talk about really retirement and where that it

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would be, it's probably good for
us to understand and frame when did you

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start thinking about this notion of retirement
and what happens at that time of your

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life and what were you doing then? Well, I was running the winery.

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I was president of Socoblaster Winery and
when I turned sixty, that was

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a big birthday for me. I
felt like I had walked through the door

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in the elderhood, and that was
unusual because birthdays really didn't mean that much

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to me. But it was at
that point that I started to think,

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I need to plan my exit.
I need to plan for the future.

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I had two of my kids working
in the winery with me, and I

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knew they both wanted to take over
some point. So it was at that

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point that we started to talk about
transitioning, and transitioning was really difficult for

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me, and that's what we talked
about three years ago. Letting go was

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really hard. That's a whole nother
topic, but it started me thinking about

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aging and when I finally did let
go of the presidency. It was like,

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well, if I wasn't Susan the
CEO, who was I? And

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I realized that I needed to reinvent
myself. I knew I needed a challenge,

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something that would engage both my head
and my heart. What could that

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be? And it took me a
little while, but I found it.

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I started a nonprofit that I can
talk about later. It's called the Yamhill

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and Richmond Society or Y. I
started to take piano lessons, which I

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took when I was young and hated
and because I hated to practice, but

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I found a teacher who didn't berate
me if I didn't practice, and just

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encouraged me. And I can feel
the little gray cells multiplying as I try

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to play these notes with both hands. I love gardening, I do some

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traveling, I do some speaking,
and life for me is much more balanced

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and fulfilling. Well, so fast
forward. You told us that was your

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sixtieth birthday? Was that big point? And now today you've narrated a few

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things that you're up to for our
listeners and for me. How old are

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you today? Well? I am
seventy four today, but in a month

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I will be seventy five. Oh
well, I'll have to sing your birthday

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song, but listeners, I'll do
it off there. Don't worry, Okay.

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So I love that you're doing all
the things that you're doing, the

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travel, the fact that you've started
this nonprofit, and I do want to

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talk about that later in the show. I wanted to have you back on

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the show, Susan when I came
back out to here in July for family

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reasons and I ran a half marathon
right through your vineyard, your beautiful vineyard,

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and we came out to talk with
you, and we were talking about

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what you said of how you were
conducting your life today in your quote retirement

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years, and what that meant.
And I said, oh my gosh,

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we have to have you back on
the show, because retirement is not all's

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cracked up to be. We keep
here, people say, oh, I

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got when I retire, life is
going to be amazing. And as you

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say in your book, retirement actually
means pretty negative, awful things like withdrawing.

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You know, there's just a whole
list of them. And I have

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learned that retirement actually is really not
very good for our well being in the

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traditional sense that people have gone about
it, and that's why I wanted to

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have you back on the show say
a little bit more about your perspective of

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what traditional retirement that you've learned about
what it means. Well, the conventional

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view of retire is that every day
is like vacation and you spend your time

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playing golf or bridge or you know, in between, sitting in the rocking

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chair whatever. But it's not productive. And my generation, at least my

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friends and I want to feel that
we make a difference. We have skills,

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we've learned a lot over our careers, and we want to put those

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skills to use. So regardless of
what we choose, that is the goal.

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And I look on aging as being
the next frontier for my generation because

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we retirement. Conventional retirement is not
for us. We want to redefine aging

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and retirement to be relevant. We
have no idea what that means. And

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it's a frontier because we haven't been
there before and we're trying to figure it

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out. And my analogy in my
book is that this is not our first

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frontier. Our first frontier was changing
the Plaine field for gender relations, and

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we did that when we were in
college and there were for me at any

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rate. There were very strict rules
for women, none for men, but

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very strict rules for women. And
by the time we graduated, there was

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no longer a dean of women and
the social regulations had loosened considerably. By

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the time my son went to college, there were co ed dorms, so

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things happened pretty fast. And the
plain field. You know, men and

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women are still adjusting the plain field, but there have been significant changes.

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Meanwhile, we have grown older and
we're facing our current frontier, which is

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defining aging to be relevant to us. So much in that suasan okay,

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but first I want to go to
this whole notion that your whole book was

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inspired when you were out speaking at
an AARP Portland vital aging conference. The

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fact that there is even a conference
on vital aging is so encouraging to me.

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So you went out and to speak
at this conference and you gave the

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message that you did and you realized, oh my gosh, this They ask

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you you need to write this down. We need to be able to read

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it and reread it. So what
was when was this conference and who is

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attending? Well, I was invited
to speak at this conference and I was

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actually quite surprised. I thought,
why do you want a winery person to

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speak about aging at the AARP.
But I thought, okay, I'm going

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to talk about my experience, and
I did and found I was I mean,

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I had no idea there was such
a thing as a vital aging,

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so that was interesting. But it
was very well attended. There was in

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a huge ballroom in Portland, and
I had no idea whether what I had

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to say would be well received.
How many people would go to sleep while

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I was talking. But the fact
is that I hit a note and a

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number of people came up afterwards and
said that was so interesting. I said,

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oh, okay, I'm going to
write this down. So I wrote.

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I elaborated on the speech. I
got an old friend who's an editorial

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cartoonist to do some drawings for me
about me aging, and put together this

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little book which I entitled Seven Lessons
at seventy, Notes from the front Line,

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And it really is not just for
people who are seventy, but people

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who are are starting to be thoughtful
about what does aging mean? By the

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way, the illustrations are delightful.
When I was reading the book, I

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and have since I know you and
I've seen you many times, and I

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saw it and it was there as
it was, and it was just delightful

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to get to dance with you like
that, so real, Well, thank

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you decited to do that. I
wanted to lighten it up a bit because

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aging is not a cheery topic for
many people. No it isn't. In

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fact, one of the things that
I thought about is I was getting ready

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for this conversation student. I remember
when I was at a conference. It

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was a women's development leadership conference,
and we were in Seattle, Washington,

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and they had a futurist speaker come
in and talk and she looked around the

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room. They were about forty five
of us women in the room, and

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she said, those of you in
this audience who are about fifty some years

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old and in decent physical shape,
there's a pretty good chance that you're going

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to make it close to one hundred
years of age. And two thoughts crossed

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through my mind immediately. The first
one is, yes, hot dog,

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I've got more time to go after
all my goals that I you know,

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all the things I want to get
done. And then I also thought,

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oh wow, I better take better
care of this carcass that's got to carry

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me around to get there. So
what I would like you to talk about

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is the extent to which we are
living longer. We have longer life spans.

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That means we do have to make
sure that our finances can get us

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there, our physicality can get us
there. Your perspective on that, well,

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I think one of the things one
of the big lessons for me is

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how important health is. And there's
a limit to what you could stop of

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the aging process with good eating and
exercise. But if you don't do those

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things, you're going to go downhill
fast. And so one of the things

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that I love to eat, I'm
in, you know, the wine industry.

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Wine and food just go together.
And us to tell people that when

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I work the market, I would
go to a city and eat my way

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across, but only in the best
restaurants because that's where I wanted my wine.

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So I can't eat as much as
I used to. And if I

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try, number one, I don't
feel good and number two do I gain

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weight? So what's wrong with this
picture? So I found that I need

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to watch what I eat. I
really need to cut out a lot of

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carbohydrates. And you know I love
carrot cake, and so maybe once a

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month, I allow myself, you
can't cut out everything, but you have

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to really treat yourself carefully and exercise. And it's not just exercise the way

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we think of it as walking or
jogging. It's strength training because osteoporosis,

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particularly for women, is huge,
and the way to combat that is through

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strength training. So I've started that
too. These are all things that,

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to a great extent, I put
off during my career because I was so

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focused on the business. But I
can't put it off now. That's such

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good advice, And you do go
into quite good detail in your book about

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your diet and your exercise, and
I completely agree to all of that.

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And just to kind of finish up
this last segment here, I want to

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go back and really situate how we're
going to distinguish what traditional retirement is from

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how you're going to go about it. So again in your book, you

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actually make a whole list of many
words that are synonyms related to retirement.

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Let me read them. Relinquishment,
separation, resignation, removal, laying down,

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exiting, retreating, withdrawal, departure, recession, retreat, abdication,

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severance. And these are also unappealing
as you say, and what I love

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is you. You instead offered some
other favorite words like graduation, transformation,

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reinvention. I like those a lot
better. Well, I looked up retirement

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in the dictionary, and those are
the words I find. I know,

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thought, oh my gosh, that's
just awful. So we have to think

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of it in a different way.
It's not stepping back, it's stepping forward

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into a new life. Yes.
Well, and that's again why I wanted

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to have you back on the show, Susan, Because what's what I'm all

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about is working on purpose. And
that means across your whole life. It

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means being of service, being being
of service to others. And that generativity

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we're talking about is just that.
And what that is is that gives us

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a purpose. It gives us a
direction or reason to get out of bed.

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I know that my parents probably would
have lasted much longer, as we

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were speaking, before they died in
their early seventies if they had had a

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purpose, if they had been what
we call in logo therapy, self transcendent,

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self serving beyond themselves into something bigger
than themselves. And they had all

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those talents to give Susan. They
were big business owners just like you.

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They had so many talents and they
could have drawn from them, and that

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didn't occur to them. So I
appreciate very much your message. And with

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that, let's grab our first break. Okay, all right, I'm a

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last Cortez, your host, moving
on the air with Susan Socoblosser. She's

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a wine industry pioneer, community leader, environmental advocate, and author of various

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books, including Seven Lessons at seventy
Notes from the Frontier. She's the co

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founder of Soco Blosser Winery, and
under her presidency it became known as one

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of the most innovative and respected Origan
wineries. We are here together at Soclo

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Blosso Winery for this conversation. We've
been talking a bit about really where her

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perspective came from, on contributing her
thoughts towards vital aging and after the break,

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we're going to get more into what
ways we can activate a better way

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of living in these in these later
years. Stay with us, we'll be

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right back at least. Corte is
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

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She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her

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expertise to your organization. She will
help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that

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00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:18.799
will increase employee engagement, performance and
retention. To learn more or to invite

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00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:23.519
Elise to speak to your organization,
please visit her at www dot Elisecortes dot

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00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:29.480
com. She would welcome the opportunity
to help get your employees working on purpose.

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This is working on Purpose with Elise
Cortes. To reach our program today,

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00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:47.599
send an email to a lease Alise
at Alisecortes dot com. Now back

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to working on purpose. Thanks for
sting with this and welcome back to working

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on purpose if you're just joining us. My guest is the contemporary orgon icon,

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Susan Soca Blosser. She's a wine
industry pioneer, community leader, environmental

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advocate, and author of various books, including Seven Lessons at seventy Notes from

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the Frontier. She's the co founder
of Social bloss Or Winery, and under

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her presidency it became known as one
of the most innovative and respective Oregon wineries.

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I'm your host, Alist Cortez.
Okay, Susan for this next segment.

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What we want to get into here
is a little bit deeper dive and

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also some of the more of the
challenges that aging people start to experience.

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And so we talked also to in
a last statement about physical health. But

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there's also this notion of emotional health
that's so critical to a quality of human

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life. So say more about your
perspective on emotional health. Yes, well,

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that's the whole thing really for me
about aging is what happens inside of

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you. Obviously, you've got to
stay healthy, because if you don't have

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your health, it's everything else pales
by comparison. But it's what's going The

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aging process takes place inside. Ply
have been identified by those who study it

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three challenges of aging, and they're
all things that happen inside. The first

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one is managing loss, and this
is you can all relate to this.

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This starts as physical loss, the
pull of gravity, lost waistline, wrinkled

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skin, painful joints, and you
know, if you have been really athletic

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or really beautiful, this is going
to be very difficult. We can try

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and stay in shape and with exercise
and neat healthy, but there's no going

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back. We lose the stamina of
youth. We can't do the amount of

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activity we did when we were younger, our energy starts a downward spiral,

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which no amount of healthy eating can
erase. And that's the physical side.

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But more important is the emotional loss, the law we feel when we retire

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from a job where we made an
important contribution and were left without the identity

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of a title and position. It's
easy to feel no longer needed. That's

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a sense of loss. And I
have a personal example when I turned control

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of Soco bloss Or Winery over to
my kids. I mentioned before how difficult

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it was because I felt this sense
of loss and I realized I was grieving.

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I was grieving for my lost identity, and I kept asking myself,

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why is this so difficult? This
was my decision to do this transition,

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and it was only after I was
told this is grief that I realized what

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was happening. And then, of
course, the biggest loss is friends,

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family, beloved animal companions. This
they start dying off at an accelerated rate

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as we get older, and loss
is not a cheery topic. We need

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to recognize it, we need to
deal with it. We can't let it

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define us. We need to move
on. But the next two challenges are

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more upbeat, and they really prescribe
a path towards what I will call wellness.

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The second challenge has been described as
recapturing innocence or recapturing joy. I

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interpret this as recapturing the feeling the
admiration for life, the joy of life

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one had as a child. And
this would be appreciating the beauty of a

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bud opening into a flower, the
miracle of a tiny seed that becomes a

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plant, the wonder of cloud formations, the purring of a kitten. You

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get the picture. It means finding
joy in your life, particularly in the

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little things, little things that you
might not have noticed in the course of

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your career because you were so busy. This is different from happiness. Joy

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is a condition of the soul,
happiness of the ego. I think this

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is an important distinction. You feel
happy when things go your way, joy

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when you connect to the wonder of
the universe. So joy is always available

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even when you're feeling down. You
could be feeling very sad and yet feel

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joy watching a puppy frolic in the
grass. Recapturing innocence is taking time to

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appreciate the small things that we may
may have overlooked. And then the third

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channel is a big awkward word called
generativity. And this is continue means continuing

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to grow, even if you're not
trying to further your career or climb the

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career ladder. Don't close yourself in. Many people as they age tend to

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end up in a little silo,
close it, limiting their involvement with other

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people and with the outside world.
But your world does not have to shrink

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with age. And here's your chance, for example, to follow an interest

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which you put off earlier. For
me, this was starting the piano lessons,

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which you know, I've been taking
piano for almost a year and I

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have learned five pieces. So I'm
not going to be a concert pianist,

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but and I'm not playing for anybody
else, just for myself. You don't

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have to be a commercial artist,
but you could learn how to paint a

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water color. That's what I'm talking
about. The challenge is on vitality and

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creating. So the big question is
how well will you meet these three challenges

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of managing loss, recapturing, innocence, and generativity. And I want to

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dive into those really quick. I
okay, so really quick. So first

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I want to go back to what
you and I talked about and what's in

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your book. This whole thing of
first embracing that you're aging, Right,

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that's the first thing, because I
see so much and I'm sorry for those

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of you that you're in the space
of if this is I don't mean it

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to be offensive, but you know, fighting aging tooth and nail, whatever

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it takes, right, I think
that that's kind of a losing battle and

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it's probably going to produce depression.
Well, it's definitely a losing battle.

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You can't it's well, let's put
it this way, it's a battle you

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can't win. And you know,
when I turned sixty, a friend gave

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me a book called The Wisdom Beautiful. I actually can't remember the name,

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but it was a picture book of
old women. I mean old women with

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a lot of wrinkles, but they
were beautiful. There was a beauty to

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them that was just really melted me. Yes, and it gave me courage.

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Let me say, I wish I
could remember the name of it,

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but I think I passed it on
to another friend. But you're absolutely right,

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you know, we have to Be's
part of managing loss as admitting you

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know what, I'm old, Yeah, and I'm you know, and it's

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a badge, right, It's a
badge. And so then the other thing

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I wanted to make sure we talked
about, because there's so much in your

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book that I actually say when I'm
out speaking in my programs around being vitally

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inspired. There's some very strong connections
around your focus on emotional and well being

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and the work that I do,
and certainly this whole notion of recapturing joy

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and being able to dance with life, to do those beautiful examples that you

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gave in the book are so great, and what you just said, and

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definitely being able to just to enjoy, like noticing that flower has opened or

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something like that. And one thing
I was going to share along those lines

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quickly is that in my program I
encourage people to really start to cultivate inspiration.

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And an element of inspiration is awe. So when you can actually go

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out and experience the world around you
in a way that gives you a sense

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it's actually an emotion of awe,
it opens something in you. And so

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for me, I have these really
great conversation Susan with owls. When I'm

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outside they talk back to me,
they're talking to me, and so when

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they hoot at me, I hoot
back, and it is so delightful to

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dance with them. And so when
I read that part of your book,

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I went, yes, that's I
know what she means by that. I

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love the word awe. I mean
that really is connecting to the wonder of

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the universe. Yes, it is, it really is. And so that

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whole notion. And I think you
also have something in there to about being

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grateful. Yes, I think gratitude. You know, when you look at

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what you do have instead of what
you don't have, it makes a big

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difference. It really does. And
you know, I find myself very very

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very frequently. You know, stand, I've got to smile on my face

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most of the time because I get
to live my purpose. I have an

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amazing, beautiful life. I'm sitting
here with you in this winery having this

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conversation for the second time, not
this exact one, but another conversation.

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I think that's amazing. I drove
up your beautiful driveway to get up here,

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and I thought, I'm the luckiest
person on the planet. Well,

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that's so nice. I thought I
was the luckiest person on the planet.

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We can argue about that, we'll
see, But it is so important,

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And then I wanted to also just
take a moment because to me, there's

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a celebration element in one of the
other books that you wrote, The Vineyard

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Years. You call it The Vineyard
Years, a memoir with and I know

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that you love to eat, and
that also made me think about that whole

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notion of connecting to joy again.
So say a little bit about that book.

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What's in that book. Well,
the Vineyard Years is the story of

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Soco bloss Or Winery and the story
my personal journey as a Liberal arts major

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with no skills who learned to farm
and run a business. And it deals

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with from the very beginning of you
know how it answers the question why did

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you do this? You know,
there was no wine industry in Oregon when

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we started, and goes up through
the challenges that we had, and the

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transition talks about our family, and
the transition deals with how I decided to

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turn over the winery to my kids
and how they did and the family,

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you know, I went through divorce, just a lot of personal things,

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but also there's a lot of food
memories and they are some family recipes from

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chefs which are for the home cook. You don't have to cook for the

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restaurant to follow these recipes and just
there. It's not a cookbook, but

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the food memories are woven into the
story and there are recipes, so it

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just makes it, you know,
wine and food. It ties it all

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together. And this goes back into
generativity as well. Now you're doing something

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where you're giving something of yourself which
is helpful to other people and lists of

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other people, and that is so
important that whole notion of being. And

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you said before it's a hard word
to say generativity. What I know from

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my studies in human development, which
are at largely psychology and sociology, is

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that that is a predictable stage that
people go through and when you can embrace

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it as something that you can use
to be able to give of yourself what

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you've learned, all these talents,
all these skills, your heart, your

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soul, your memories, that is
so incredibly It gives us such a sense

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of well being and fulfillment and it
helps the next generation up well, I

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hope. So that that's the goal. So can I talk about the question

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we face or would you guys say
that for the hold on, because that's

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I know what that question is,
and I want to I want to treat

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that next because we we've got just
about one more minute left here and I

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want to make sure we have time
for it. So hold that, hold

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that thought on that, okay,
because that's I thought that was hopelessly big

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gobs of fun right there. So
just really quick, I just want to

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I want to acknowledge that you,
that you're you so are passing the baton

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and encouraging people to give more of
themselves, dig more deeply of themselves,

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and live more of the beautiful life
that is available to them. And I

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just really want to say thank you
for that message. That's why I wanted

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to have you back. It's so
important. Well I love your message as

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well. At least thank you.
I mean, we we have one precious

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life. We don't get a more
again, we don't get a do over,

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and so I want to see more
people out there really dancing with it

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like you are. Thank you,
Yes, thank you. Our next break,

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I'm Elise Cortez, your host,
Riamnir with Susan Sokoblosser, a wine

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industry pioneer, community leader, environmental
advocate, and author of various books,

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including seventy Lessons at seventy Notes from
the Frontier and also the Vineyard Years.

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00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:25.599
We're here, We're here together in
her Winer and Dundee, Oregon. Stay

394
00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:36.839
with us, We'll be right back. Alis Cortes is a speaker and engagement

395
00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:41.880
and development catalyst. She designs and
delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops

396
00:31:41.960 --> 00:31:47.680
and can bring her expertise to your
organization. She will help ignite meaningful development

397
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:52.839
within your workforce that will increase employee
engagement, performance and retention. To learn

398
00:31:52.839 --> 00:31:56.720
more or to invite Elise to speak
to your organization, please visit her at

399
00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:01.480
www dot Elisecortes dot com. She
would welcome the opportunity to help get your

400
00:32:01.559 --> 00:32:14.319
employees working on purpose. This is
working on Purpose with Elise Cortes. To

401
00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:20.759
reach our program today, send an
email to a lease Alise at Aleascortes dot

402
00:32:20.759 --> 00:32:25.839
com. Now back to working on
purpose. Thanks for staying with us,

403
00:32:25.880 --> 00:32:29.720
and welcome back to working on purpose. If you're just tuning in, my

404
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:34.599
guest is a contemporary organ icon.
Susan Soco Blosser is a wine industry pioneer,

405
00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:37.880
community leader, environmental advocate, and
author of various books, including seven

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00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:42.839
Lessons at seventy Notes from the Frontier. She's the co founder of Soco Blosser

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00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:45.599
Winery. At Under her presidency,
it became known as one of the most

408
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:50.319
innovative and respected Orgon wineries. I'm
your host Atlas Cortes. So next,

409
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:52.960
Susan, I want to talk about
one of these other major challenges that you

410
00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.680
talk about here in the book.
I just literally laughed out loud when I

411
00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:01.720
read your chapter on whether we want
to be old farts. I'll take the

412
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:06.039
former any day, But would you
distinguish for us what you mean by those

413
00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:10.480
things? Well, I have a
friend who asks that question. You know,

414
00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:15.640
when I say, how well will
you manage the three challenges of managing

415
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:21.480
loss, recapturing, innocence, and
generativity, she says, Okay, do

416
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:22.920
you want to be an elder?
Do you want to be an old fart?

417
00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:31.079
So the elder, let me describe
this. The ideal is that your

418
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:38.079
past has given you a weathered,
compassionate wisdom which you use to move forward

419
00:33:38.279 --> 00:33:44.519
and stay engaged. That would be
the elder with a capital E. An

420
00:33:44.519 --> 00:33:49.160
old fart would be bitter, stuck
in the past, complaining a lot,

421
00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:54.319
resenting the present, devoid of joy. You probably know both, but here's

422
00:33:54.359 --> 00:34:00.359
the rub. Nothing prepares us for
elderhood. And that was That's one of

423
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:06.559
the things that really struck me,
that all the buzz as we grow up

424
00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:14.719
is on accumulation. You want,
you know, net education, networking,

425
00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:22.360
financial well being, influence, all
friends. Nobody talks about what happens next,

426
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:29.400
about letting go, about what happens
when you need to divest yourself of

427
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:35.119
some of these. So I found
a quote. I don't know if you

428
00:34:35.159 --> 00:34:37.440
want me to talk about this quote, but it said, in the end,

429
00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:43.639
only three things matter. How much
you have loved, how gently you

430
00:34:43.719 --> 00:34:47.079
have lived, and how gracefully you
have let go of things not meant for

431
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:52.840
you. And the gracefully let go
of things not meant for you really struck

432
00:34:52.880 --> 00:35:00.199
me because at the time is when
I was trying to let go of my

433
00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:05.599
position at Soco Blossom. But I
thought that was kind of an interesting way

434
00:35:06.039 --> 00:35:10.599
of looking at getting older. I
think that's absolutely remarkable, and I love

435
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:15.079
that. I remember seeing that quote
in your book and I completely agree with

436
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:20.119
that. And definitely, for me, I'm much more focused on experiences and

437
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:22.840
connections and for me, Susan,
what I'm up to and I'm going to

438
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:25.760
ask you a question about this next
for you. But what I'm up to

439
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:30.840
and what really produces I think a
sense of well being in me as I'm

440
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:36.280
focused on helping one million people across
the globe discover their passion, inspiration and

441
00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:38.679
purpose because I know that the world
is a better place when that happens.

442
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.360
I had a guest in my show
some time ago named Karen Hoyas, and

443
00:35:43.400 --> 00:35:47.079
she said, today only one percent
of the global population is fully living in

444
00:35:47.119 --> 00:35:52.519
their purpose. When we get to
one percent, human consciousness will be raised

445
00:35:52.519 --> 00:35:57.199
such that peace is actually possible.
I'm in for that game, So that's

446
00:35:57.239 --> 00:35:59.480
what I care about. And yes, I like nice things, and I

447
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:01.159
love a nice me and you know
I love a nice class of wine.

448
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:07.280
But that's what I'm focused on,
not material acquisitions. So I'd love to

449
00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:09.679
hear you share a bit about some
of the errors in your life that give

450
00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:16.400
you the most fulfillment. Well,
I certainly admire your taking on one million

451
00:36:16.519 --> 00:36:25.599
people to help. I think I've
my scope is a little bit narrower.

452
00:36:27.159 --> 00:36:34.480
But I started a nonprofit in Yamhill
County, which is the county that I

453
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:37.840
live in, called the Yamhill Enrichmond
Society, or Yes, and Our mission

454
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:47.079
is to provide access to art,
literacy, and music programs for the youngest

455
00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:53.880
members of our county. So we
have not many programs, but I just

456
00:36:53.920 --> 00:37:00.880
want to tell you about two of
them. One is called Imagination Library.

457
00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:06.400
This is actually run by the Dolly
Parton Foundation in Tennessee. We are the

458
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:14.360
local affiliate. We enroll children from
birth to five, and Imagination Library we

459
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:21.679
enroll them without charge. And Imagination
Library sends each child to their home each

460
00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:28.280
month an age appropriate book. So
if you are enrolled from the time you're

461
00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:30.840
born, by the time you're five, you have your own library of sixty

462
00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:37.719
books that are all age appropriate for
whichever age you were. And then you

463
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:43.559
graduate and you go to kindergarten and
this prepares you really well. Each book

464
00:37:43.679 --> 00:37:51.719
comes with a series of ideas for
parents on how to read this book to

465
00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:55.880
your child and how to interact with
them. It's an incredible program and we

466
00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:02.320
raise money to fund it. The
second program is also part of a larger

467
00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:09.760
program. This is an international program
called El Sistema. It started in Venezuela

468
00:38:09.800 --> 00:38:15.480
with the idea of using the power
of music for social change and was really

469
00:38:15.519 --> 00:38:23.679
aimed at the poorest kids in the
barrio that get them playing music. The

470
00:38:23.679 --> 00:38:30.480
conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as
a graduate of this program. So we

471
00:38:30.559 --> 00:38:36.719
started an el Sistema program at a
school in Newburg, which is one of

472
00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:44.599
the cities in Yamhill County, where
every kindergartener that's a hundred students will learn

473
00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:49.159
to play the violin. It's a
strings primarily. It starts as a strings

474
00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:53.039
program. We hired, yes,
hired a music teacher to work with the

475
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:59.920
school music teacher during music class.
This was three years ago. Those two

476
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:04.639
children went to then went to first
grade, a new crop of kindergarteners,

477
00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:12.079
and last spring, the first graders
had their first public nonschool appearance at the

478
00:39:12.199 --> 00:39:17.440
Newburgh Noon Rotary and they played Twinkle
Twinkle, Little Star. There was not

479
00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:22.679
a dry eye in the audience.
You know, I could stand and talk

480
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:27.039
till I was blue in the face
about the benefits of this program. But

481
00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:34.960
for the rotarians to see the discipline
and the focus and the intensity of these

482
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:42.400
first graders playing Twinkle Twinkle, Little
Star, they were just they got a

483
00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:47.760
standing ovation for this little song.
So those children are now in second grade.

484
00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:53.400
It becomes at that point a volunteer
program. After school. So we

485
00:39:53.639 --> 00:39:59.320
have about a third of the children
signed up for that, and we introduced

486
00:39:59.400 --> 00:40:04.559
cello and viola so that they can
learn to play little ensembles, don't you

487
00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:08.119
know, of course, So our
vision you know, we started small is

488
00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:15.719
a very expensive program in one school. Our vision is that every school in

489
00:40:15.800 --> 00:40:22.400
Yamhill County will have this program.
Oh I love that. And talk about

490
00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:24.639
making a difference in the world and
taking all the things that you've learned in

491
00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:29.719
this beautiful life of yours so far
and bringing it back and contributing it right

492
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:31.239
back into your own backyard. I
think that is so beautiful and what a

493
00:40:31.280 --> 00:40:37.280
great example of definitely not just retiring
from life. Well, I'm really quite

494
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:44.440
passionate about this program. The research
on the benefits of both early reading and

495
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:50.679
music are just so compelling. And
what I find is that I can take

496
00:40:51.760 --> 00:40:55.800
what I have learned in my career
and all the contacts that I've made to

497
00:40:55.960 --> 00:41:04.360
help me become the almost full time
fundraiser that I've had to become to make

498
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:09.599
these programs, to fund these programs
so that they can grow. But I'm

499
00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:15.920
willing to do that because I believe
in them and I can do it.

500
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:19.800
M M M. Hmm. Well, and again just looking at looking at

501
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.639
you when you were talking about that, and even just for those of you

502
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:25.639
listeners that are hearing her, you
can hear the energy coming out of you.

503
00:41:25.800 --> 00:41:28.920
How you get lit up by that. And that's why I do what

504
00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:31.280
I do, Susan to be able
to help people find their passion and inspiration,

505
00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:36.119
because that is it's life juice.
And when you have life juice,

506
00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:38.199
you can not only live longer and
more fulfilling, but you give something back

507
00:41:38.239 --> 00:41:42.440
to the world that wasn't there before. Yes, is there? What else

508
00:41:42.480 --> 00:41:45.440
are you putting yourself on to that
that you find that's fulfilling, that that

509
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:50.519
fuels you, that gives you something. Well, the other thing that I

510
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:57.800
have found is really important in my
old age is mentoring, mentoring other young

511
00:41:57.840 --> 00:42:02.880
women. And this is well,
my daughter would be one. She's now

512
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:08.239
CEO of the winery, and if
she comes to me, I want to

513
00:42:08.280 --> 00:42:15.519
give her the benefit. I try
very hard not to interfere because she is

514
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:21.400
the CEO. I am not,
but I also feel like I am her

515
00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:27.320
mentor. I work with a number
of young women with the ym Hill and

516
00:42:27.400 --> 00:42:32.159
Richmond Society, and I feel a
certain mentoring for them. And I've been

517
00:42:32.239 --> 00:42:42.840
working on mentoring women generally in the
world wine industry. My helped found a

518
00:42:43.079 --> 00:42:49.239
women and Wine symposium that brought together
women from all various aspects of the wine

519
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:55.079
industry for a day of education and
community. That kind of thing that's so

520
00:42:55.119 --> 00:42:59.840
beautiful. And again there's what I
appreciate that I know that all takes energy

521
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:01.840
to right. It takes time and
energy to do all the things. And

522
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:07.360
I sometimes think, why am I
doing this? What? What can I

523
00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:12.880
cut back? I really like to
read a good book, which I also

524
00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:16.400
do. Actually, I started a
book club, which has been fun and

525
00:43:16.519 --> 00:43:21.239
that gets me. And I'm knitting. I love to knit. Now,

526
00:43:21.320 --> 00:43:25.719
I wouldn't be happy only knitting,
right, but it's a piece of I

527
00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:31.960
wouldn't be happy only you know,
fundraising for yes, or only playing the

528
00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:37.760
piano. But each of those fills
a little niche in my life. My

529
00:43:37.840 --> 00:43:44.480
grandchildren are fun to be with.
So all of those things, well,

530
00:43:44.480 --> 00:43:46.199
it's beautiful. And what I like
about that too, and it speaks to

531
00:43:46.239 --> 00:43:50.880
the way that I live my life
and how I try to help others give

532
00:43:50.920 --> 00:43:53.800
the access a postble that they can
too, is that I don't I actually

533
00:43:53.800 --> 00:43:59.239
don't see my life, as you
know pieces, it's all interwoven together.

534
00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:02.679
So for example, I'm a business
owner. I don't work Monday through Friday

535
00:44:02.760 --> 00:44:07.800
nine to five. I work every
single day in some different capacity, but

536
00:44:07.840 --> 00:44:10.679
that I weave in a jount to
come see you here at the winery.

537
00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:15.840
I go and I speak at some
conference, I go and play in a

538
00:44:15.960 --> 00:44:19.360
river with my daughter who's sixteen,
right. And so to me, it's

539
00:44:19.400 --> 00:44:22.880
all interwoven. And I think that's
the opportunity is to be able to create

540
00:44:22.880 --> 00:44:27.960
a beautiful, fully woven or knitted
life that contains all the elements in it

541
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:30.599
that are really important to you,
and that you don't let one of them

542
00:44:30.679 --> 00:44:34.400
go at the expense of another.
Right. And I think that's a really

543
00:44:34.440 --> 00:44:39.440
good point because when I was running
the winery, my total focus emotionally and

544
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:45.880
time wise was on the business.
And as I said, life now and

545
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:52.039
what you're saying, life is more
balanced. There are a number of things

546
00:44:52.079 --> 00:44:57.920
that give fulfillment. Yes. And
I think what I appreciate about the way

547
00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:00.039
that you're describing your life and what
I've come who have come to know you

548
00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:05.320
as is that you're being intentional about
how you create and live this life well

549
00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:09.480
We're not just one thing. You
know, I'm not just business, although

550
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:15.599
I was for many years, and
I've realized I'm much more than that,

551
00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:20.960
and it takes more than that to
satisfy me. Now, we didn't talk

552
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:22.280
about this, but I want to
just maybe the presence at really quick.

553
00:45:23.079 --> 00:45:25.840
You know, you talked about that
you, as an elder, have much

554
00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:30.679
to give. How would you suggest
or how would you invite those of us

555
00:45:30.679 --> 00:45:37.599
who aren't quite yet elders to best
engage with you? Well, read my

556
00:45:37.679 --> 00:45:45.280
books, okay would be one and
they're all available on Amazon. I think

557
00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:53.599
depending on what people are interested in, there are so many opportunities for giving

558
00:45:53.679 --> 00:46:02.239
back to the community. There's you
know, boys and girls clubs, there's

559
00:46:02.840 --> 00:46:12.239
soup kitchens, there's a lot of
things that are industry related, whatever industry

560
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:19.679
you happen to have been in.
So just so many opportunities for engagement,

561
00:46:20.199 --> 00:46:27.079
and it's just a matter of finding
one that tickles your fancy. Yes,

562
00:46:27.159 --> 00:46:30.079
And how I see this is I
would I want to find more ways to

563
00:46:30.280 --> 00:46:35.280
ask elders to be involved, to
share their experience, their perspective, their

564
00:46:35.320 --> 00:46:38.119
history, all the things they've learned
their experiences, because I think one we

565
00:46:38.159 --> 00:46:43.960
can learn from those things, and
two they're incredibly inspiring. We need those

566
00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:49.000
things. Yes, So here we
are once again. We've managed to find

567
00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:51.079
a way to get rid of a
whole hour again together you and I,

568
00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:54.039
Susan. So you know this show
is about helping listeners across the globe more

569
00:46:54.079 --> 00:46:58.719
meaningfully and productively connect with their work. What would you likely are listeners with

570
00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:01.800
today? Well? I have two
quotes, Okay, I'd like to leave

571
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:07.480
you with. One is it's not
how old you are, but how you

572
00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:14.880
are old. That's one. The
second one is, any decision you make

573
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:20.960
is not a decision about what to
do, it's a decision about who you

574
00:47:21.119 --> 00:47:25.679
are. That's beautiful. That's really
beautiful. And so much of what your

575
00:47:25.719 --> 00:47:30.599
message is to me, Susan is
really is really being mindful and intentional about

576
00:47:30.639 --> 00:47:32.519
who you want, who you want
to be in this world. Do you

577
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:35.440
want to be an old fart?
You want to be an elder? I'll

578
00:47:35.440 --> 00:47:37.519
take an elder any day if I
had that direction. You make sure I

579
00:47:37.559 --> 00:47:42.599
stay in course, will you?
I'll work on it. Okay. I

580
00:47:42.599 --> 00:47:45.079
don't think there's any danger that you're
going to go off course. Okay,

581
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:50.519
good, good, Well again,
I thank you for the delight of coming

582
00:47:50.559 --> 00:47:52.199
back on the show, and also
before we go, when I came back

583
00:47:52.199 --> 00:47:57.119
here in July to drop through and
just see you and catch up, and

584
00:47:57.199 --> 00:48:00.880
that that's what spawned this idea to
have you back on the show. I

585
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:06.599
want to also say again this notion
of being generous and kind and being thoughtful.

586
00:48:07.079 --> 00:48:08.039
I brought my sixteen year old daughter
with me, and you remember,

587
00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:10.280
and she liked to cook, and
what did you do? But you had

588
00:48:10.519 --> 00:48:15.360
a few cookbooks for her. And
I just think that it's so indicative of

589
00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:17.639
who you are, and I thank
you for that. It's beautiful. Thank

590
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:22.920
you listeners. If you want to
learn more about Susan Socle Blosser and all

591
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:25.559
she's up to these days, including
her the yam Hill of Richmond's Society,

592
00:48:25.599 --> 00:48:31.320
or her five books, her various
other groups, her reading books or what

593
00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:35.199
do you thought? You've got a
reading and we have a book club,

594
00:48:35.239 --> 00:48:37.320
book club. But I'm on good
Reads, good Reads, okay, good

595
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:40.199
all right, And I think a
place to start is her website, which

596
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:45.000
is just Susan Socoleblosser dot com.
Let me spell that for you. S

597
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:49.119
U. S A. N.
Socle is s O K O L and

598
00:48:49.159 --> 00:48:53.480
then Blosser B L O, S
S E R Susansocoblosster dot com. Last

599
00:48:53.519 --> 00:48:55.639
week, if you missed the live
show, you can always get your recorded

600
00:48:57.280 --> 00:49:00.199
be a recorded podcast. Excuse me. We were on the year Selena Santavigniez

601
00:49:00.280 --> 00:49:05.880
talking about her nonprofit organization she founded
called The Boardroom Project. We talked about

602
00:49:05.920 --> 00:49:09.280
how this initiative is helping educate young
girls about the world of business and preparing

603
00:49:09.320 --> 00:49:14.760
and providing board role opportunities for women
to develop their careers and make optimal impact.

604
00:49:15.079 --> 00:49:17.559
It was an incredibly inspiring conversation.
We'll see you next week. See

605
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:20.679
you next week. You remember that
works at least a third of our life,

606
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:29.840
So let's work on purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program.

607
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:34.840
Be sure to tune in to Working
on Purpose, featuring your host Alis Cortes,

608
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:38.880
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. This week, find your

609
00:49:38.960 --> 00:50:01.079
life's purpose at work