Nantucket to Nurseries: Blooming After 40

This is your Women Over 40 podcast.

Welcome back to Women Over 40, the podcast where experience meets empowerment and every new decade is a fresh canvas. Today, let’s talk honestly about what it takes to reinvent yourself after 40—because if you’re listening and feeling that itch for something more, you are not alone, and you are not late.

Many of us wake up in our 40s, look around, and realize something fundamental has shifted. Maybe your career feels stale, maybe your relationships have changed, or maybe you simply crave a sense of personal fulfillment that’s been missing. That’s exactly what happened to Susan Lister Locke on Nantucket. After her retail business closed and her marriage ended in her late 40s, she deliberately made lists—not resumes or business plans, but lists of what she genuinely liked, what she was curious about, and what made her feel alive. That led her back to real estate, and more importantly, to nurturing her artistic side through jewelry-making classes. She started small, simply following joy, and before she knew it, her pieces were selling not just privately but in upscale boutiques and even Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Transformations like this don’t require grand gestures. Often the pivot is quiet at first—a class you sign up for, a notebook filled with ideas, or even a solitary moment deciding it’s okay to pursue your own interests. Take Shinde, who reignited her curiosity in her 40s by tending to her family’s neglected nursery. Her journey began with grief and uncertainty, but she simply showed up each day, jotting notes and experimenting with new ways of growing and sharing plants. Soon, she was learning from Japanese gardening experts on YouTube and presenting her work publicly, thriving on her own terms at Ashokvatika Nursery.

There’s a reason stories like Toni Morrison’s or Vera Wang’s resonate so deeply. Morrison's first novel was published at 40. Vera Wang didn’t design her first wedding dress until 40. Arianna Huffington launched The Huffington Post at 55. According to Keri Ford, whose own reinvention journey began with a health transformation at 40, age is a springboard, not a finish line.

What often holds us back isn’t a practical barrier, but our own labels and self-judgments—the voices telling us we’re “set in our ways,” or “too late to change.” Reinventing yourself is about rewriting those scripts. Life coach advice? Get clear about what you want and allow yourself to begin—today, in small ways. Find mentors, take classes, immerse yourself in things that challenge your habitual thinking.

And remember, vision isn’t enough without commitment. Transformation takes work, but take inspiration from all the women building new dreams after 40—their stories prove that you don’t have to have it all figured out to take the first step. Your possibilities are not behind you. They’re right here, waiting for you to say yes.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Women Over 40. If this episode inspired you, please subscribe—wherever you get your podcasts—so you never miss an empowering story. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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