Why I Started RestlessUrban: The Stories We Need After 50

I was 56 when I started RestlessUrban. At an age when I probably should have had things figured out, I was starting over. Again.

I’d spent more than 30 years in corporate communications, working with some of the world’s best-known brands. I’d built a career, raised a family, gone through a divorce and learned that life rarely turns out the way you planned. And now I was starting a media company, something I’d never done before.

A recent appearance on The PR Week podcast got me thinking about why I started RestlessUrban in the first place. We talked about my move from corporate communications to publishing, how life after 50 is changing and why the media hasn’t always kept up with the people living it.

Listen to My Conversation on The PR Week

The conversation brought me back to something I’d been thinking about for years. I wasn’t interested in reliving my past or trying to be the person I was at 35. I wanted to figure out what came next, and I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one.

You can hear the full interview here.

The Part of Life Nobody Quite Prepares You For

Your 50s have a way of changing how you think about time. You start noticing how quickly the years go by. You think about the things you’ve accomplished, the decisions you might have made differently and the experiences you still want to have.

You also realize that the life you imagined and the one you’re living aren’t necessarily the same. Careers change. Marriages end. Kids grow up. Parents get older. Your health demands a little more attention. Sometimes the identity you’ve spent decades building doesn’t feel like it fits anymore.

You find yourself asking questions you thought you’d answered years ago. Who am I now? What matters? What do I want the next 20 years to look like? I’ve asked myself all three.

Divorce changed my understanding of relationships and family. Leaving corporate life meant letting go of a professional identity that had defined me for decades. Starting RestlessUrban meant accepting that I could have plenty of experience and still have absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

There’s something both unsettling and liberating about that. At this age, you know enough to recognize the risks, but you also know that waiting for the perfect moment can mean waiting forever.

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When Did We Become Invisible?

Here’s something that always struck me during my corporate career. Companies spend extraordinary amounts of money trying to understand their customers. They study behavior, analyze demographics and develop elaborate strategies to reach the right people.

Yet somewhere around 50, those same customers seem to become a lot less interesting. Suddenly, we’re the retirement audience. The healthcare audience. The people who apparently spend their days worrying about prescription medications and finding a comfortable mattress.

Nothing against a good mattress. At this age, I appreciate one. But seriously, is that all there is?

Look around. People our age are changing careers, starting businesses, dating again, traveling, raising teenagers and discovering interests they never had time for before. They’re also dealing with financial uncertainty, health concerns, aging parents and relationships that don’t always work out.

Some are having the time of their lives. Others are having a difficult time. Most are somewhere in between. That’s what makes this stage of life interesting. It’s complicated, unpredictable and occasionally ridiculous, and it’s a lot more nuanced than the version of aging we’re so often shown.

I began wondering why more of the media wasn’t reflecting that reality. The people I knew weren’t disappearing from the world, but the stories being told about them often suggested otherwise.

I Wanted Something I Couldn’t Find

When I started thinking about RestlessUrban, I wasn’t looking to create another publication about getting older. There were already plenty of those, and I wanted something I’d actually look forward to reading.

Stories about health and wellness that didn’t make aging sound like a medical condition. Honest conversations about relationships, including the messy parts. Coverage of technology that didn’t assume everyone over 50 needed a beginner’s guide. I wanted travel, culture, entertainment, work, personal stories and the occasional article that made me laugh.

I also wanted writing that respected the intelligence and experience of its readers without taking itself too seriously. Life after 50 isn’t one thing, and I didn’t want a publication that pretended otherwise.

You can be excited about a new relationship and worried about your finances. Confident about your career and uncertain about your future. Happy with the life you’ve built and still wonder whether there’s something else you should be doing. Sometimes all before lunch.

That’s the kind of life I wanted RestlessUrban to reflect. Not a publication about growing old, but a publication about living.

We’re Still Part of the World

One of the topics we explored on The PR Week was how adults over 50 are using social media and artificial intelligence. It’s an interesting subject because there’s still this assumption that technology belongs to younger generations.

I’ve never understood that. Many of us spent our entire careers adapting to new technologies. We watched the internet transform business, smartphones change how we communicate and social media reshape the world around us. Now we’re figuring out what AI might mean for our work and personal lives.

Some of us love experimenting with new technology. Others couldn’t care less. That’s true at any age, and the same goes for music, fashion, travel, entertainment and just about everything else.

Our interests don’t suddenly disappear because we’ve celebrated another birthday. We may become more selective about how we spend our time, and we may care less about what other people think. Personally, I consider that one of the better parts of getting older.

We’re still curious, engaged and interested in what’s happening around us. The media should recognize that, and so should the brands trying to earn our attention.

More Than an Age Group

One thing I learned working with major brands is how easy it is to lose sight of the person behind the demographic. People over 50 are often discussed in terms of spending power, retirement trends and healthcare needs.

Those things matter, but they don’t tell you much about someone’s life. They don’t explain why a person starts dating again after a difficult divorce, walks away from a successful career or books that trip they’ve been putting off for 20 years.

They don’t capture the smaller things, either. An old friendship. A new interest. The satisfaction of doing something you weren’t sure you could do. Those are the experiences that shape our lives, and they’re the stories that interest me.

If RestlessUrban can help change how the media and businesses see adults over 50, that’s a worthwhile accomplishment. But there’s something more important to me. I want people who visit RestlessUrban to recognize something of themselves.

Maybe it’s a story about starting over. Maybe it’s an article about a place they’ve always wanted to visit. Maybe it’s a perspective they disagree with. That’s fine, too. I don’t want RestlessUrban to tell readers what to think or how they should live. I want to give them something worth thinking about.

The Stories Ahead

I’m approaching 60 now, and I find myself looking at life differently than I did even five years ago. I don’t feel 30, and I don’t want to be 30 again.

I’ve made mistakes, learned a few things and had experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything. There are others I’d happily skip if I had the chance. I have more perspective than I did when I was younger, although I still make the occasional questionable decision. Starting a media company at 56 might qualify.

But I’m glad I did. RestlessUrban is still evolving, and so am I. There are things I want to accomplish, places I want to see and questions I haven’t answered. I suspect a lot of people reading this feel the same way.

That’s really why I started RestlessUrban. I wanted a place for the stories that reflect this part of our lives, with all its possibilities, contradictions and imperfections. Somewhere we could explore what comes next without pretending we have everything figured out, and perhaps recognize a little of ourselves in someone else’s experience.

We’re not trying to be younger. We’ve already done that. We’re trying to make something meaningful out of the lives we’re living now, and I think those lives deserve some pretty good stories.