For more than a decade, I’ve worked in nonprofit branding – the business of shaping how a product, person, or service is perceived by an audience. It’s a process that’s both strategic and deeply intentional, rooted in understanding what people want, how they feel, and what sparks connection. I’ve spent years mastering analytics and, equally important, honing my intuition. I can read a room and a market, navigate a communications crisis, and build a vision that aligns with an audience’s needs.
And yet, while I help organizations and entrepreneurs present their most polished, purposeful selves, my own personal brand has suffered from a serious lack of attention. Somewhere between raising kids, navigating career climbs, managing a household, and squeezing in the fun side hustles, my personal identity became more accidental than intentional. I stopped asking the foundational branding questions that are second nature in my profession: What’s unique about me? What do I value? What do I want to showcase with the world?
Stepping into all the shifts – some gentle, others massive – that come with a new chapter helped me realize that hitting 60 is the perfect time for a personal rebrand.
Something rare and wonderful happens when you enter your 60s. Obligations begin to shift. The 9-to-5 is likely winding down or fully behind you. The kids are launched, the calendar opens up, and suddenly what lies ahead looks less like routine and more like possibility.
This stage of life isn’t about hustling for approval or bending toward expectations. It’s about embracing long-awaited autonomy, leaning into curiosity and embracing adventure with both arms. It’s a time when you can pause to evaluate who you are now and who you want to become.
Are you finally freeing your spirit with a creative hobby, linking arms with a nonprofit that lights you up, grabbing your passport for bucket-list travel, or entertaining the thrill of new friendships and relationships? This decade is not a decline. It’s a redesign.
Traditional branding is audience-centric. But personal branding in your 60s? That’s self-centric – in a soul-expanding way.
Thankfully, this rebrand isn’t about what the corporate ladder dictates, who your kids need you to be, or how culture and community expect you to present yourself. It’s about who you want to be now, freed from decades of roles and responsibilities.
Here are a few questions to anchor your next-chapter personal brand identity:
Your answers become your brand pillars – the foundation for your reinvention.
If you love clarity (and who doesn’t?), here’s a framework to guide your rebrand:
Take inventory of your routines, commitments, style, habits, digital presence, and social circles.
What feels outdated? What feels like “you” from 20 years ago? What no longer supports the woman you are now?
What matters most in this chapter? Is it freedom, relationships, creativity, health, connection, adventure, peace, contribution?
Let these become your new North Star.
Rebranding includes the visual you:
Clothing, hair, energy, body language – not just what you wear, but how you wear it with pride and purpose. It’s about more joy, more expression, fewer rules. Evolving your style doesn’t have to be drastic or expensive. Viewing a menu through signature reading glasses or lacing on bright colored trainers for the gym can create a vibe that’s all about the updated you.
Fill your weeks with experiences that reflect your new brand: travel, volunteering, classes, community, spiritual growth, fun. And don’t forget connection. Staying in touch and expanding your circle is so important in the later years.
Share it in conversations, social media, your journal, or simply your daily choices.
This is who you are now, so own it boldly, and most importantly, enjoy the story to tell.
When I was contemplating my own rebrand, what I wanted more than anything was a steady stream of inspiration to fuel the process. When I couldn’t find it, I decided to create it myself. That’s how Spark 60was born, a weekly email that presents a one-minute dose of inspiration, clarity, courage, and a spark of delight. Each week’s Spark delivers an idea, a shift in perspective, or a tiny action to keep the midlife momentum going.
Reinvention doesn’t belong to the young. It belongs to the brave. And women in their 60s have never been braver, wiser, or more ready. Your next chapter is calling – and it’s finally, beautifully, unapologetically yours.
Have you wondered who you are today? Are you different from your 40-year-old self? How do you show yourself to the world?
Tags Reinventing Yourself
After my divorce, my children relocated and I did, too. They were off to grad school or the Peace Corps for a few years.
For nearly twenty years I longed for them. Sure I made lots of friends in my new community in the mountains but it wasn’t the same. Many, many trips to see them every 6-12 weeks for nearly 20 years I decided to relocate close to one.
At this point, both had their own lives, busy careers, children. I had a new home where it was really hard to meet people. Cultural, I know.
In time, I developed my own life. The longing to be close ended. They are both private people, self-reliant and I had moved to a southern state with a strong sense of community. I fit in perfectly.
Over time, I worked on the feelings of abandonment from my family or origin and my former 28 year marriage. I learned to dig deeply within for my own peace of mind. Too many cultures are told to look outside themselves. Buy this, go to this guru, spend, consume, spend.
The sixtie are fabulous as were my fifties. Seventies require a wholly different kind of emotional strength to manage a body not so youthful anymore. You definitely can’t go home anymore. If we do it right we can go within.
Congratulations, Janel! Developing a new life is a monumental task and equally impressive. Here’s to enjoying more adventures and opportunities for fun in 2026!