Episode 47: Midlife in Full Color with guest Mary Webb

About Mary Webb

Let's go way back – Mary started her career started in advertising. She worked for many years at advertising agencies. Mary then switched over to advertising sales with some prominent media companies in Toronto, Canada. She had a very successful career on the outside looking in. She was very successful, made great wages, and everything looked fantastic.

As she was approaching her 50th birthday, Mary realized that, on the inside, she didn't feel as fulfilled as she was hoping to feel. As she was approaching middle age, she had a lot of questions and started to question her life and what she was doing. What happens next was unexpected, but part of Mary thinks that she manifested it through her own feelings and thoughts.

Just after Mary turned 50, she went into work one day and was let go. She was shellshocked and left wondering, "Ok, now what? What's next?"

Mary had a lot of processing to do. Being fired was like dealing with a death in that you have to go through the stages of mourning. Eventually, you come to accept and acknowledge that "Yes, this actually happened to me. I was actually let go from a career that I had for 25 years."

Then you come out on the other side.

Mary had to decide whether she wanted to seek out another career in advertising and advertising sales. But she realized that it wasn't fulfilling her anymore. It was time for her to take a step back and look back. She needed to develop a new plan for herself.

Mary's journey of self-discovery

Mary had to dig deep to uncover her desires. She went back 30-years and considered the following questions:

What was I passionate about?
What did I want to do before I fell into the world of advertising?

She realized that she was always very passionate about fashion, and she always loved clothes. So, she tried to explore that avenue for a little bit through retail, and she managed to move up the ladder in retail quite fast.

It was during her time in retail that Mary realized that some people consider individuals of a certain age to be irrelevant. At first, this realization was very shocking to Mary. She was taken off guard when some of the younger people that she worked with dismissed her ideas. She realized how easily her ideas and her experiences weren't valued. She knew that this experience of being dismissed was not just happening to her, but that it was very prevalent.

Mary knew in her heart that she had to do something to help women who faced a similar experience. She wanted women in midlife to realize that they had value to share and a tremendous amount of experience to contribute. At first, Mary didn't know how exactly she was going to share this message – but the blogging and influencer business was a very new industry. However, the people in the blogging and influencer space that were really taking off didn't look like Mary. They were in their 20s. They were beautiful and looked like models. Mary was in her 50s. She thought to herself how fascinating a career in the blogging and influencer space could be, and she had come from the world of promotion and advertising. Mary understood the role of the influencer and the blogger - she had an innate understanding of it. What she didn't know was whether there could be an audience for a woman in her 50s. Mary didn't see this represented at the time. So, instead of pursuing blogging right away, Mary spent a lot of time questioning herself. Still, she knew that blogging was something that she wanted to do.

Mary wondered if there could be an audience out there for a woman in her 50s talking about:

Fashion
Beauty
Trends
Health
Self-worth

That Color Though: Midlife in Full Color

Before starting her blog "That Color Though: Midlife in full Color," Mary honestly reveals that she dragged her feet for a long time. If you have an idea that you want to pursue but are afraid to take the leap, Mary encourages you to GO FOR IT!

Mary dragged her feet on it a lot longer than she should have, but then she started to come across Instagram accounts of women that were closer to my age. Catherine Grace (Instagram: @catherinegraceo) and Forever Fierce is someone who made a big impact on Mary. The Forever Fierce movement is all about bloggers, influencers, and women over 50 who are deciding that they have something to share. They want to be heard and are taking the steps to actually do it.

When Mary saw that other women in their 50s were spreading their message and growing an audience, it really encouraged her. She decided that it was time to jump right in and start her blog.

At first, the purpose of Mary's blog was to share her own story and her personal feelings, but it has grown into something more.

The meaning of "midlife in full color"

Midlife in full color means that women in their 50s, 60s and beyond are not like their mothers or their grandmothers. You are the baby boomers who grew up in a time when you learned what it meant to take better care of yourself. You know what it means to keep yourself healthy and strong by going to the gym and through proper eating. You're active, and you enjoy life in a way that perhaps your grandmother and even your mother didn't, because there were different expectations for that. You grew up through the 70s and the bra-burning period. Mary realizes there is still a lot of work to do for the progress for women, but she doesn't want to underestimate the progress that has been made to date. Women of Mary's age aren't stuck at home. They don't have to retire or lose themselves. She can be whomever she wants to be:

She can be single
She can be married
She can be active
She can start a new career at this stage in her life
She can live in full color and not be stuck in the gray world.

When you're afraid to fail, you're not going to make a lot of progress. Mary encourages women to jump in and seek out their dreams before they're ready.

Take messy action and to live in full color.

"Progress over perfection."

The future of "That Color Though"

Mary’s goals for the future of her website are two-fold:

Mary wants to shift the focus of her blog away from her and to start bringing in different perspectives and different ideas. She wants to feature the empowering stories of women over 50, how they got started and the amazing work they are currently doing.
Mary also wants to go back to sharing more about fashion. She wants her platform to encourage women to wear what they like. If something makes you feel good, wear it. Don’t worry about the “rules” and ask yourself, “Who created these rules anyway?”

Conclusion

To learn more about the work that Mary Webb is doing to empower women in their midlife and beyond, you can find her in the following places: