Coffee with Tracey McAlpine

Tracey McAlpine

Founder of website Fighting Fifty

Age: 60

Zoom Coffee

Describe your career path in two or three sentences including any twists or turns ending with where you are now.

When I was 15, my father lost his business, we moved to London and I decided to leave school and find a job. Up until then, I had lived in a wonderful rural place, we had a registered livery stable and I thought I was going to run the stable and ride and care for horses every day so I was really thrown by the idea of finding a different job.

I had no idea what I wanted to do. My mother had been a hairdresser and her mother had been a hairdresser so I thought that is what I should do - mostly, because I couldn't think what else. The world was very different then, at 15, living a fairly rural life, I didn't appreciate how many different career options there were. 

I got a job as an apprentice in a hairdresser and for six months I worked incredibly hard at it. Then I became a runner for one of the stylists who did a lot of photoshoots. I was picking up dresses and taking them to the photographer's and realised the whole idea of advertising really appealed to me. And I decided that’s what I wanted to do - I wanted to be in advertising. I wanted to be involved in creating the images that I saw being produced so, after six months of hairdressing, I left my apprenticeship to find a job in advertising.

I got a job in a small London agency. I did everything - I ran the reception, I went out to see clients, I worked in production and eventually, I realised that the best position for me was as an accounting executive, acting as a go-between the client and the agency. Over the years, I worked for several different agencies, including Saatchi and Saatchi. I absolutely loved it. I stayed in advertising until my daughter was born in 1986. And then I had a massive 25 year maternity leave!

What decision / experience proved to be the most helpful to your career?

Definitely, the decision that hairdressing wasn't for me and advertising was - that was by far the best decision. For one, I met my husband in advertising. And I learned how to talk my way into the job which you could do then because you could apply for a job you saw in an ad, go to an interview and sell yourself there. You didn't have to sell yourself on paper and you didn't have to sell yourself purely on your qualifications. You could do it based on your personality and your experience, which is very, very different to now.  

Why did you decide to start Fighting Fifty?

I hit 50 and I was so upbeat about it. I've been a stay at home mum for 25 years. I made every school costume, I baked every cake, I went on every trip - I treated being a housewife and a mother in exactly the same way as I did a job. I thought this is my job now and I will give it my all. And then when I hit 50, my children were pretty independent and they didn't need me. 

At the time, there was a huge amount of negativity about older women, especially older women in the workplace. It was the time when the BBC fired Arlene Phillips and Miriam O'Reilly. The message coming out of the media was that older women really shouldn't be seen and definitely shouldn't be heard. They made women feel it was unattractive to be older. This really grated on me. I couldn't understand why when you get to 50, suddenly people perceive you as being somebody completely different.

There's also this awful kind of marketing that happens at 50, you start getting details of walk-in baths and chairlifts and funeral plans. I thought, is this how society perceives me - that my time is limited and I better start planning my funeral! This is not how I see in myself or the women I know. I see women climbing mountains, running marathons, starting businesses. And also caring for their parents, their children, their grandchildren. They are multitasking like never before. 

I thought we need to counter these messages if we are to compete with younger women. We need to learn how to stay physically fit and confident. I looked for a website that would tell me how to look good without having cosmetic surgery, how to eat well, how to exercise, how to be confident. I didn’t find one with all of this information in one place so I created Fighting Fifty. It is all about beauty, health and fitness. 

What did it take to start a website?

Looking back, I don't know where that courage to start a website came from. I had literally been in a kind of bubble for 25 years looking after the kids. I started with nothing, with no experience and no contacts. I just felt very strongly about the mission of the site. I thought I've got to do this, I have to create a space that challenges the perceptions of ageing, that makes people stop and think maybe 50 is a beginning and not heading towards an end. 

I funded everything myself. I got a great team in the West End to build the website because it had to function really well. Nine years ago when we started to build the site, the internet was a very different place. You couldn't just build a website cheaply using Wordpress or Squarespace.

In the beginning it was hard to find someone to actually listen to me. I was hoping to find a mentor but big industry people didn't want to speak to me and when I finally spoke to someone and they took my idea to someone else. I definitely had a few setbacks in the beginning.

Finally, I joined an organisation called CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) who were incredibly supportive. They loved the idea of what I was doing and thought that there was a huge place for it. One woman in particular, was very encouraging, and said ‘You've got to do this, just get it out there and do it’.  

And how is it going now, 8 years later?

It's going really well. It is not a very profitable business but it is a very rewarding one. I think it's quite hard to make a lot of money out of a website if there is just one of you. 

How has turning 50 and starting Fighting Fifty changed your outlook in terms of your sense of self and ideas about future possibilities?

It’s given me a much better understanding that at 50, you can reinvent yourself, even after a 25 year career break.  

Through Fighting Fifty., I've had some really great opportunities - I've been on live TV, I was elected to the committee of the Guild of Health Writers, which in fact, I'm still on, and none of this would have come about without Fighting Fifty.

So having the opportunity to write and support women and challenge this perception of what it's like to get older, has been really important. I think that that's the biggest kind of lesson for me is that yes, you can reinvent yourself. It's not over at 50.

What advice would you give your 20 year old self knowing what you do now?

At 20, I thought I would live forever. I felt incredibly grown-up and now at 60, I think I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing. So, I'd tell my 20 year old self that you think you've seen it all, but you ain't seen nothing yet. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge for people making a career re-entry or re-invention later in life?

Confidence is one of the biggest issues for both men and women, but especially for women.

It’s jolly hard when you get to 50 - you’ve got everything going on at once - you might be going through menopause, your children are grown up and leaving home, or some are getting married, having children and your role is changing.

At the same time, the way society is perceiving you is changing. So you have a hell of an emotional rollercoaster to deal with. And if you can come through it confidently, I think you can conquer anything.

What do you think are the opportunities for people wanting to work in their 50s and 60s and beyond.  

It's a great time to start your own business. I think there's never been an easier time to try and start something. We are seeing this now with COVID, we’re seeing how people and also companies are adapting to completely different situations. If older people can prove that they can work efficiently at home and produce the same work or better than a younger colleague, then the perception of your age shouldn't matter. 

What is your top tip for people thinking about re-inventing their careers?

My top tip is to find your tribe, find those people who support you, who want the same end result as you. I have an amazing gang of women who are all approaching 50 or in their 50s, who believe like I do, that age is irrelevant - it's your personality, your experience, your ethos, your views on life that people are attracted to. So surround yourself with people who build you up and give you the confidence to go for it. 

Recommendation: Favourite book to read, website to browse or podcast to listen while sipping coffee?

I was given a book in 1971 when I was 12 by my father. It’s called Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I think my father gave a copy to every one of his friends. It's a story of achievement, about working towards a goal and how you have to stick with something. My father really instilled a work ethic in me, although I can't say he was a great success because my career started because his failed. But he always gave me the confidence to try anything and made me believe I could do anything if I really put my mind to it. So Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a book that I've had pretty much my whole life and I still dip into it every few years. 

As far as websites, one of my favourites is a company called A Little Find. Every time, I look at the website, I find something I didn't know I needed. But I do once I've seen it, I absolutely need it. They also do a great newsletter. 

In terms of podcasts, I usually listen to beauty-related ones like Emma Guns Show or Outspoken Beauty.

I love podcasts like Food for Thought - it's all about nutrition.

So I realise that even in my kind of switch off moments, I'm still trying to learn.