I am joined by Carrie Vee and we are talking about a super controversial and juicy topic, which is are you too old for an online business? 

I'm sure there's there is there are people who would say, “Absolutely, you could do it”, and others who would say “you know, you hit a certain point, and you've reached your pinnacle of what you can do online.” 

What do you think it is that makes people think you know that I'm too old to do this? Or you can do this because you're young, but I'm too old? Like where do you think that comes from? 

I'll speak from my opinion. It was the fear of learning technology. So when you think about it, when I was growing up when I was in kindergarten grade school, we didn't have computers, we didn't have iPods, we didn't have anything technology-related. I can remember my senior year of high school, my brother bought the first computer that we had in the house, our first home computer, it was a beta and it had like feeders on the side of the paper. And it printed in this weird kind of black ink and the screen was amber, it was something that I mean, you probably have never seen anything like this thing that came into our house. And it was hard to use. I can remember holding my babies as newborns when the internet was coming out and trying to dial up to the internet and being charged long distances for every single minute that you were on the internet. It was just a whole different world, a whole different world. 

Looking at an online business, my kindergarten grandson knows more about technology than I do. So building a business online just feels impossible without the knowledge of having grown up with all of these things that we use to build an online business. 

100%. I think that it's so easy to compare yourself to people that you see hypothetically under the age of 40. So what does that mean for me? Have you had any of those thoughts? And for you like what ultimately triggered those thoughts?

I had those thoughts like crazy if you think back to when we first started working together, and I was working on my very first version of the radical empowerment method, which was not even called that back then. And you had given me a deadline for when we were going to launch this thing and I procrastinated and procrastinated and procrastinated because I didn't know how to record a video and get it into teachable, which is what I was using them. And that was the only reason the content was there. I knew what I wanted to say if you put me up on a stage and put a microphone in my hand I could have delivered it flawlessly. But the thought of recording myself and then getting it somewhere where people were going to log in and watch it. I could barely log in and watch online courses at that point. And it really was a stumbling block and it took you you saying it's launching. 

So get your first video done. Just figure it out. Take it to step by step and start doing it. And if you take the first step you'll know how to do the second one and the third one. You don't have to know how to do it all today. And that was, that was a key in getting me over that hump because I was triggered, I was feeling old. 

Taking that first step, I just hit play and recorded and then figured it out from there. It was definitely a learning curve for me. But I did it. And that's how I know other women can too. I was over 50, I was well into my 50s when I did that. 

I love that you say that you're well into your 50s if you didn't learn? Or if you didn't know how to do something you set out to do it. And isn't that also similar to what all of us do? We don't know how to do something. So why do you think it is for some people over 50 to feel like it is that much more difficult? Or from what I hear a lot like in the network marketing space, “no one's going to want to join me because I'm over 50.” How do you respond when you hear things like that out in the online space or from your clients or things like that? 

It rankles my feathers like I'm just it makes me so angry, not at the person saying it. But at society as a whole. Who wants us to believe that? I heard all my life growing up when you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And I believed that and you know, the truth is old dogs can learn new tricks. They absolutely can. A dog is always teachable. So are people. 

Two parts there one with learning this technology, we absolutely can learn. My mother before she died, was on her brand new version iPhone all the time searching the internet on her phone, texting people, she learned how to do it. It didn't come naturally to her. But she was open to learning and she could learn it. We can learn, we can always learn something new if we want to. 

The other part of that is well who would want to join me at my age that also is a societal belief, where we are told that the world belongs to the youth. I heard that all the time growing up to seize your dreams now because the world belongs to the young. And we have believed that message. And so we internalize it. And then we say, well, who's going to want to join my team? I'm over 50. And it's our belief that we are projecting onto people. And because we're projecting it forward, nobody does want to join our team, because that's what we're telling them. You don't want to join my team. I'm over 50 It's it is a belief that we've been taught, and we need to unlearn it. And we can absolutely unlearn it. 

Carrie, what are the steps that someone let's say over 50 can take if they're ready to stop believing these thoughts and these stories that they tell themselves about being too old for an online business? What can they start to do to step into building a business their way?

Number one, I would say hire a business coach. That was the pinnacle of my changing was to get you in my corner. And to know that I could ask you a question. I wasn't going to go to you and say, “Okay, how do I do this” until I really tried doing it. And then if I walk got stuck, I could come to you and say, “Hey, I'm lost. I don't know how to do this.” You taught me how to do my very first podcast with a guest. That's why you were my first guest. But I was very relieved that you were my first guest because you walked me through the process of even how to have a guest on my podcast. I asked if I couldn't figure it out myself. 

Number two then is to grab a journal and start writing down every idea you have of something you might want to do online. Because you can't build something if you don't know what you're building. You can't build a house if you don't know what the plans look like. You've got to get real with yourself and say, “Well, what do I want to build? Do I want to? Do I want to get into skincare or makeup? Do I want to coach people do I want to help people get through a hard time have I been through a really horrible divorce and do I want to coach people on how to get through a divorce? Have I survived cancer and now I want to help other people survive cancer is what exactly does your business look like? Do you want to make cards? Do you want to start a watercolor business?” There are so many options. Everything can be done online. And we just have to get it down on paper and figure out what we're going to do. 

The third thing is to go back to that coach and say this is what I want to do and start working on. This is where we're going to start that's why you have a coach. You don't have to know how to do it. That's my point. You get to learn how to do it. You don't have to know how to do it from day one. I certainly didn't. 

I feel like some people are looking for a reason for why something just won't work. And it seems like what do you think carry for some age just seems to be like that easy scapegoat to share it as doing something or to explain why something didn't work when there could be another much more logical or situational reason why something didn't go your way. 

Age has been used as an excuse for 1000s of years. And it's a poor excuse. It doesn't exist, because you can always find proof of the opposite. I actually was recording a podcast with a woman the other day, and her mother who was well into her 70s in her late 70s, just learned how to work Pinterest, and she is now taking on clients where she runs their Pinterest accounts and is doing amazing. It's not an excuse. You don't get to use that. I'm taking it off the table. 

Your only reason that you're not doing it is that you're not doing it. 

Plain and simple. 

When we look at even specifically like network marketers. I've even had people who were around when I started my network marketing career when that's what I was doing. And now they're like, “Well, I had to step back. Because I'm pretty, I'm pretty old.” It's so interesting. I think people are like, I can't do things like I used to. But why not adapt the business rather than thinking because you can't do it the same way you did 10 years ago, that you can no longer do it. 

We're not the same people we were 10 years ago, we're not the same people, we were 10 minutes ago, we are constantly in a process of growth and evolving into who we were created to become. So using saying, Well, I can't do it the way I used to do it, that's a good thing. Because you're not the same person you have grown, you have learned things you don't step into network marketing and know everything there is to know about that company, or how to build your team, or even what the products are going to do. Because you've just you have just stepped into it. You have just started using these things. Or you have just started learning how to do this 10 years later, you're not going to do it the same way. Your life is different. Maybe now your kids have left the house, maybe now you have grandchildren living with you. Maybe now you have survived a life-threatening illness, maybe you have lost loved ones. Everything has changed in 10 years if I think I can't remember how long it takes for your body to fully shut all its skin and put a new skin on. But you've done that a couple of times in 10 years. Two, you're literally not the same person you were. So why would you try to do it the same way? Technology isn't the same. Think of what existed what didn't exist 10 years ago, that we have now. 

Instagram didn't exist, right?

Did Pinterest even exist 10 years ago? I don't think so. 

Instagram could be gone tomorrow. We don't know, we could wake up and they could have decided to take down Facebook and Instagram. And we're all going to be in the same boat of building a new platform. There's always a new way to build and grow so saying “I can't do it the way I used to.” You don't have to. No one expects you to, except yourself. And it's an unrealistic expectation. 

Carrie, I know that you are specifically working with a lot of women over 50 to change how they view the aging process and really enjoy this chapter of their life. Can you tell us more about what you're helping women do in 2022? 

I have a few in their 60s who are really just now beginning to step into their power. I had a woman send me a picture of something that she is creating. She's starting this online business and she sent me a picture and she was like what do you think this is her first try at this and it's absolutely beautiful what she's doing I'm not going to give it away. But it took some time of sitting with her and saying you can do this. If you want this bad enough you can do this and that is our first step is to step into the belief because until we believe it until we believe about ourselves that we can do this thing we want to do, it's not going to happen. It doesn't matter if I believe in you, I'll carry all the belief in the world for you. But you have to have at least a little bit, you have to believe, at least a little bit more than you don't believe. And once they can start to believe just a little bit that this can be a reality, then we start working on the steps,

People are building online businesses, it doesn't belong only to young people. I just want to hit on that again, because I remember hearing that all the time, even from people I followed on social media, who would get up who would be on a live recording or a live presentation. And they would say things like that? If you know, I mean, the young people, they know how to do this, and they're going to make all the money and that space is flooded. And I would be like, really, with all the billions of people in the world. The only people who can make it on an online business are the ones who are doing it now because they have enough for everybody, I don't think so. There are enough people for all of us. And when we don't share our gifts, we are not serving the people we are supposed to be serving. I heard someone yesterday say it or in New York City and other the other day, say if we don't put our product out there, we are forced to keep forcing people to buy a substandard product, because what they need is our product. They need our expertise. And we are forcing them to buy something they don't want because we are not doing what we are called to do. That really struck me. We're leaving them open and bleeding on a table. And we're not giving them how to fix it. So true. And so great reminder that a lot of the reasons why we're holding back and throwing out these excuses is is our own selfishness because it is uncomfortable and it is new. And it is a learning process that will have bumps and potholes in the road. 

I hope you liked this one. 

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