We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jill Loris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jill, appreciate you joining us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
Let me preface this question by saying that I worked in elder care for years. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been enamored by older adults: I wanted to hear their stories, learn their wisdom and understand their perspective on life. And in return, they called me an “old soul”.
I never had an idea or vision for a business like this. It wasn’t until I went through emergency open heart surgery, followed by a series of strokes in my late 40s, that each and every day could be my last.
All the funny cliches you’re told when you’re young like, “life is short, eat the cake,” aren’t just cliches— there’s real truth behind them. Your time on this Earth is extremely limited, whether you recognize it when you’re 20, or when you’re in your 40’s like I was.
When I woke up in the hospital, I was so overwhelmed by how close I had come to no longer being alive. I didn’t leave my house for two whole years after being discharged from the hospital, unless absolutely forced to. I felt weak. Powerless. Like I was so fragile that I could die at any minute if I didn’t return home as quickly as possible. For someone like me, who’s known for my strength and resilience, it was a huge blow to my confidence.
The idea to build the Old Cow brand came to me in a discussion with my very worried children. I remember it like it was yesterday– I was washing the dishes and my teenage son and daughter took my hands and urged me to sit down with them on the porch. I thought they had something important to tell me about them and their lives. Little did I know my kids were staging an intervention to me about the need for me to do something with mine.
My son asked me “What do you want to do for the rest of your life?”
I told him I couldn’t go back to eldercare because I was not in a headspace to be around people who were afraid to die.
And then my daughter said “Mom, you don’t have to go back to that work or any work. You just have to go back to living.”
I hadn’t thought about living in a long time. I was too busy surviving. And it didn’t help that everywhere I turned: the media, my friends, everyone was talking about fighting the appearance of aging.
I spent two years so scared of dying, and now I’m suddenly beating myself up for looking older which society had trained me and all women to equate with looking ugly. Enough was enough!
We’ve become so obsessed with trying to beat the clock as we age that there’s a huge disconnect between what we want out of this life, how old we need to be to get there, and when we are too old to be valuable in society anymore. It finally hit me. I desperately needed to change what we deem as the norms on aging.
I knew I certainly didn’t want to be the definition of “old” that society has for women past 40. I didn’t want to be an OLD COW as they oftentimes used to refer to women back in the day. And I didn’t want anyone to be that ever again.
When I said I wanted to build a community and media company called “Old Cow” to change the narrative and grasp the attention of people, my daughter said “Mom, I don’t think people will like it.”
And that’s the point: I don’t want anyone to like it. I want people to recognize how stupid they are for having rules and regulations over what we can and cannot do once we reach a certain age. I don’t want people assuming their lives are over at 40 or 50 or even 80, like I believed mine was after my surgery. “It’s not over until it’s over” is my tagline and I own it. So I have wrinkles? So I sag here and there. I own that too.
Hell, I even made my logo a cow to emphasize the point that I can be an old cow, but also a hot cow. As of a couple of years ago, I even gave her a bull counterpart to represent all the older men who are part of the Old Cow community. Spoiler: there are thousands of them!
I took to Facebook in 2019 to see if my mission resonated with anyone. I’d rant about my perspective on aging as a woman: Menopause, wrinkles, skincare, mindset, dating, etc. I spoke out to the masses, and soon enough, they spoke back. The feedback on my viral posts was nothing short of positive. People worldwide were thanking me for speaking out, for saying the message they were too scared to say themselves. It emboldened me to transition once and for all from the Jill who ended her 40’s very ill and very sad about aging into the woman in her 50’s who now completely embraces it, has a worldwide following because of it, and a brand to build off of it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Jill Loris, and I am the Founder of Old Cow: A NYC-based media company that writes articles, produces podcasts, and creates content that’s catered to redefining the narrative of aging.
I founded this business to build a community that’s meant to inspire, educate, and inform others on matters of aging. From having Cancer Research Doctors, Authors, Forbes Editors, and Cosmetic surgeons talking on our podcast, to writing investigative articles on divorce, sex, and careers past 40, I’m very thankful to have built a platform in which people value my opinion in conjunction with the words of experts.
What sets this company apart from others is the simple fact that our mission stems from something deep within me. I sought to create the very community I seeked when I was hiding myself away for those two years after my strokes and open heart surgery.
When my following grew to over 250K on Facebook, and over 8K on Instagram, the next phase was opening the floor for merchandise. After so many people asked me for gift suggestions for family and friends and even for fun things for themselves, I immediately opened up a storefront with funny merch and cute home goods with some lighthearted, funny catch phrases that are in line with the theme of enjoying life and embracing whatever age you are.
After that, I took things one step further: I started a personal blog so I can document the stories of the people I meet and my own journey. With the amount of people writing to me and asking further questions about my writing topics, and advice on embracing aging and the changes that come with it, I realized the over 40 community doesn’t just want to watch or listen. They are looking to have more interaction. To that end I did two things. I started speaking in small forums and for those desiring more direct, one on one advice, I combined my experience in elder care with what I do now and developed an “Ask The Cow” program where people can schedule time with me as their life coach and aging advisor.
For example, one of my client’s wives has dementia. He does not. They are both in their late 70s. He wanted help navigating the situation and asked me outright: “am I supposed to go into the dementia abyss with her?”
I know what you’re thinking – he’s crazy or he’s selfish – But people are always struggling with moral dilemmas like this as they age. You don’t hear about it because nobody is talking about it, except Old Cow. Everyone deserves to live life to the fullest: it doesn’t matter if they’re 60 or 90, married, divorced or widowed.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
While my mission started out as appealing to women my age and older, I didn’t realize that I had quietly gained a large men’s following as well. It hadn’t occurred to me that men, who are not generally encouraged to talk about their feelings openly, would also feel the need to have a place where they could say, “yeah, those frown lines suck…and dating at 68 isn’t like it was in my 20’s.” In this way, both men and women are identical.
Recently, I saw that I’d gained a following of 20-30 years old. While it surprised me at first, it also made perfect sense. If society makes people over 40 feel badly about being over 40, it should go without saying that everyone slowly approaching 40 is also being given anxiety by society about how their lives will be changing for the worse in the near future. My mission for my creative journey changed immediately: I knew my brand had the opportunity to soothe the anxieties of those who fear getting old just as much as it aids the over 40 crowd, to embrace their age and enjoy the freedoms that being older can offer them.
It’s what made me start my signature “Young VS. Old” debates on the Old Cow Podcast, with my Brand Manager, Anesa Feratovic, who’s in her 20s. I want to learn what their fears in aging are rooted in and offer eye opening assurance that the future is bright for those her age. My children’s age.
It’s not just Americans. It’s the world. It’s not just those already 40+. It’s those in their 20s too. While people may fight about many things across the world, the one thing we all have in common is that we are all aging.
And growing old is a privilege. Me walking out of the hospital that day was a privilege.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My biggest advice would be do what you believe in. Be honest and genuine, and they will come. Focus on the people your message is meant for. I speak to my audience only, and while I do have a lot of young people that follow me, I like to be authentically me in my message and the medium in which I send my message. I curate a different approach to each social media platform and really try to cover a lot of ground with my podcast and blog articles. And it’s working. People regularly share what I post which brings my message of positive aging to millions of people across the globe.
In fact, for Women’s History Month, I decided to implement a campaign titled “Who you calling old?” where I asked women to submit photos and a bit about themselves to start a conversation that being attractive does not and should not equate to being young and certainly should not apply to only women. The responses have been nothing short of impactful.
On the note of being honest, I’ve been approached by so many people because I have such a large audience, but I don’t want to work with brands if I don’t believe in them or trust their product(s). I don’t care if it is a $4 mascara brand or a $300 skin care regiment. I am clear to anyone who asks me to feature them or to be a guest on my podcast, that nothing will make me lie to my audience. If I am going to feature a person or product, it will ONLY be after I try it myself and it does what it is supposed to do.
My audience comes first and they always will! After all, I’m not just growing my following, but rather fostering a community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oldcowllc.myshopify.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oldcowmedia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OldCowLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oldcow/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Old__Cow
- TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@o.c.media?_t=8lEgkcW6G9m&_r=1
- SPOTIFY PODCASTS: https://open.spotify.com/show/4z48bEpyWqX1hI8S6k4fDD?si=86Qqs7VXRSeCkt8NZnVCSw, https://open.spotify.com/show/4z48bEpyWqX1hI8S6k4fDD?si=30cd1000e58c410a