We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrija Barker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrija below.

Andrija, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

For several years, I had this idea to start a podcast dedicated to the topics of aging and ageism. At first, the motivation stemmed from my personal interest and fascination with the topic but then, the more I chatted with friends and family, I realized that everyone thinks about age and what it means to get older. A couple years ago, I told one of my sisters about my idea and she encouraged me to make it happen. Over the next year plus, she would ask if I was doing anything with the idea and each time, I felt a little ashamed that I hadn’t. Everyone that I mentioned it to responded with “you have to do this!” however, there was always an excuse, yet I know that I was just afraid and a bit paralyzed by the HOW. I decided to let the idea go but couldn’t shake it from my mind.

Then one day, I was texting with my friend, Kelly and jokingly threw out the idea of her playing co-host on this pet-project-podcast. She immediately responded with, “tell me more!” and then, “let’s schedule a call to chat about this”. Soon, I had no more excuses and within months, she and I had curated a plan to record six episodes and then reevaluate. The first episode took me weeks to edit – partly because I didn’t know what I was doing and partly, because I was afraid of messing it up. More than anything, I was terrified of putting it out into the world, of being judged. Finally, we released the first episode and started getting some great feedback. It was motivating to hear how people resonated with the topic and wanted more. I quickly became quite adept at editing and realized that I was truly enjoying the process. Kelly and I quickly went from conversations between the two of us to interviewing guests; both structures had their own challenges. Those first six episodes flew by and the response that we have received has been incredible! We are now launching season 2 and looking forward to how this project will evolve.

Andrija, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Young For My Age is a podcast dedicated to conversations about aging and ageism particularly in this youth-obsessed culture that we exist in. I have been in the health and wellness industry for more than a decade and have gone from the young-kid in the company to the middle-aged experienced woman. That process has been eye-opening in many ways – one of which is how easily you can be dismissed based purely on a number. My co-host, Kelly Anderson, is a corporate-9-to-5-er turned career-life coach dedicated to helping people discover their “why”.

Our focus with YFMA is to facilitate conversations, evoke self-examination and thoughtful discussion about the topic of aging. While we ourselves, experience aging as females, we deliberately choose guests that have their unique experience with aging that will resonate with various subsets of listeners. We believe that it is important to challenge the anti-aging cultural obsession that permeates every facet of social media and the over-arching belief that looking externally younger is the holy grail.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

In 2022, I left a job that had sucked me dry of energy and enthusiasm and left me feeling like a shell of myself. When I was finally able to step away, I began to realize how toxic my experience had been. It felt like I was in recovery from a major trauma, all I wanted to do was sleep and I had zero motivation to pursue any of the things that I thought I would do if ever given the chance to pursue – such as writing, podcasting and other creative pursuits. After several months, I came upon a video that Kelly Anderson had posted, inviting people to join a Zoom call to learn more about her career-life coaching methodology. I joined the call and loved her energy, her focus and the language she used, all around the “why”. I decided to hire her for 6 months to try to re-focus myself, to get the the crux of what I wanted in a career and to spend some time rebuilding my self. It was a tough and powerful experience. While working with her, I began writing the book that I had put off for years and narrowed down my job search to find something that aligned with my ethos and my personality. After our professional relationship, we stayed in touch and became friends. Fast forward about a year and I asked her to be my co-host on Young For My Age, she said yes and the rest is history.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of the most poignant pivots that I have had to make in the past five years was realizing that I was in a job that didn’t serve me in any way. In fact, it drug me down and pulled the life and light out of me. Pivoting from the “what am I doing wrong and how can I fix it” mentality that eventually spiraled me into a fairly intense mental and emotional crisis to the “this is not right for me and I need to make a change” was way more difficult than it should have been. However, once the change was made and I allowed myself time to absorb the weight of those two years and then begin to recover has led me to so many beautiful things. I learned to create boundaries both for myself and for others in relation to me and I shifted my thinking into a more productive and self-aware space.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @youngformyage