Friendship, Reinvention & Resilience: What a College Reunion Taught Me About Aging Well

Reconnecting with old college friends after 40 years might sound nostalgic, but in this solo episode of The Optimal Aging Podcast, host Jay Croft uncovers deeper insights about aging well — insights that can reshape how you approach your business and connect with clients over 50.

Jay reflects on a recent reunion at Colorado State University and the three big takeaways that emerged: the power of lifelong friendships, the need for reinvention after disruption, and facing mortality with joy and purpose.

This is a heartfelt, thoughtful episode full of lessons on how connection, resilience, and perspective can enrich the aging experience — and how fitness professionals can use those insights to better serve their clients.

🔍 Episode Highlights:

💬 Lifelong Friendship & Health

• How social connection supports longevity and wellness
• Why gyms and fitness businesses must create community

🔄 Reinvention After Disruption

• Newspaper careers upended — and what that teaches about adapting with age
• How older clients may be navigating life reinventions when they come to you

⏳ Mortality Without Morbidity

• Honest reflections on aging and loss — without becoming morbid
• Why purpose, laughter, and joy matter in your message

⏰ Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro & personal message
 01:00 – The reunion at Colorado State University
 03:20 – Lifelong friendships and healthy aging
 05:10 – The role of community in fitness for older adults
 06:40 – Reinvention after career disruption
 08:30 – Reinvention and resilience in fitness as we age
 10:00 – Mortality and mindset: acknowledging without fear
 11:30 – Final 3 takeaways for fitness professionals
 12:10 – Wrap-up: gratitude, purpose, and reflection

🎤 Host: Jay Croft

Jay is the founder of Prime Fit Content and host of The Optimal Aging Podcast, helping fitness pros market effectively to the over-50 population.

🌐 Podcast Website: https://www.primefitcontent.com

📬 Contact Jay: jay@primefitcontent.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primefitcontent

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/croftjay

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Friendship Fuels Longevity
• 0:23 Host Welcome & Purpose
• 0:44 A Reunion After Forty Years
• 2:28 Lifelong Bonds and Health
• 4:24 Community As a Fitness Asset
• 4:24 Reinvention After Disruption
• 6:41 Mortality Without the Gloom
• 8:23 Actionable Takeaways for Pros
• 11:39 Reflecting on Gratitude and Joy
• 11:42 Closing Questions & Farewell

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Friendships matter. Social connection matters. It's not just nice to have, it's essential to health and longevity. So treasure your friends, treasure your old friends, and build new ones too. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Optimal Aging Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Croft of Prime Fit Content. This show is for fitness, health, and well-being professionals trying to reach more people over 50. And I usually interview an expert or thought leader or gym owner, something like that, on these topics. But today I want to do something different. I want to share a personal story with you, one that got me thinking about some of the most important aspects of healthy aging that shouldn't get lost in all this talk about marketing and messaging and programming fitness for people over 50. And before I go any further, let me apologize for my stuffiness. Anyway, last weekend I was in Fort Collins, Colorado, for a mini reunion with college friends. It had been almost 40 years since we were all together, although I've stayed in touch with many of them individually. We bonded in the 1980s while working on the student newspaper at Colorado State University, the Collegian, which provided the single most important part of our college experience for all of us, I think. And now, four decades later, we came together again. There wasn't any special reason. Someone just got the idea, started calling the others, and suddenly there we were. And all weekend long, there wasn't any great big drama or shocking revelation. Just lots of love and good vibes all the way around. Beautiful weather in this idyllic college town at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. But the weekend offered plenty of lessons about aging, resilience, and connection that I think are worth talking about here and keeping in mind as you work with people who are 50, 60, 70, and over to help them live healthier, happier lives. First, lifelong friendships and how they relate to healthy aging. You know, some friendships just pick up right where they left off, no matter how many years go by. That's what it was like for us. This last weekend, the years just vanished instantly. We were back in the college newsroom, back in the tavern, back in the student union, trading stories and laughter and looking ahead to the future, right? Now, science tells us what we already know in our hearts. Strong relationships are good for our health. Loneliness has been linked to heart disease, early death, dementia, all sorts of health problems. And on the flip side, people with deep connections tend to live longer and live healthier lives. That reunion reminded me that friends from our formative years, the ones who knew us before careers and marriages and kids and setbacks and gray hair, can be especially powerful. They remind us of who we were, who we wanted to be, and they help us see who we've become. Maybe even reconcile any differences. For those of you running gyms or working with clients, this talk about social connections for people among the older crowd has a direct takeaway. Community matters, not just lifelong friends, but new friends, people we associate with on a daily or weekly basis. People don't come to you just for the workouts, they come for the relationships as well, a sense of belonging, a shared experience, mutual accountability. So creating space where friendships can form is just as important as your fitness programming. The second theme, reinvention after disruption. Now, most of us from college in this group of friends, after graduation, we went into newspapers. That was our chosen field. And back in the 80s, who had any idea that there would ever be any problem with that, right? We thought we'd spend our careers in newspapers. But then along came the internet and mass disruptions to the newspaper industry. And suddenly in our 40s, almost all of us had to reinvent ourselves in new careers, whether in, I don't know, corporate communications or teaching or something completely different. It wasn't easy. Reinvention never is, but it's also essential to longevity, resilience, the ability to adapt when the world changes around you without asking your permission and just keeps going on. Well, that's what keeps you moving forward through it. And that doesn't stop, you know, at college graduation. Oh, here's your degree, everything's set now. It doesn't stop in your 40s when you're working in your careers, and it doesn't stop in retirement either. So we always have to be resilient and open to change. And this is true for fitness too, because as we age, our bodies change. Maybe we can't do certain things that we used to be able to do. Maybe we have new goals that never occurred to us before. You know, that's fun too. People who take up triathlons in their 60s. I love hearing those stories. So we don't stop, but we change. Maybe we take up strength training or yoga or walking or whatever it is that's going to keep us active and engaged. And so for you business owners, think about your clients and your prospects. Many are coming to you at a time of reinvention. Maybe it's something they saw coming, maybe it's something that shocked them. Retirement, a health scare, divorce, new grandkids, whatever. Big life changes. And they're coming to you to help answer questions like who am I now? And how do I stay strong for whatever's coming next? If your marketing and your services reflect that you understand all of this, you're going to build deeper trust with these folks. And they're going to be better, longer customers for you. Finally, the third theme that emerged for me anyway over the weekend was mortality. Now, if you get a group of 60-somethings together, there will inevitably be some in the group who are facing serious health challenges or have in the past faced serious health challenges, right? It's just a fact of life. And at least two of our college crew are no longer with us. They've died in the years since school. So it was impossible to escape the specter of mortality, to be dramatic about it, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00: 7:23

Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to grow your business with people over 50? If you are, then you need to know how to communicate with them, how to market to them, and how to get them to trust you with their fitness, well-being, and money. We're talking about millions of people who are a little older than the typical market that the fitness industry usually pursues. They have more money, more time, and better motivation to make the best long-term fitness consumers you'll find anywhere. If you're not focusing on them, you should be.com. That's Prime, like Prime of Your Life, fitcontent.com.

SPEAKER_01: 8:17

Back to the show. But you know it's always there as we age in particular, and you can't deny it. But here's what struck me, and what I hope to take away from the weekend is that nobody was morbid about it. We talked about it without it becoming this depressing topic. We laughed, we told stories, we talked about hope and fear, and we enjoyed every minute. And that's a powerful lesson. We can't deny that aging brings health challenges, but we don't have to let them dominate the narrative either. Humor, camaraderie, purpose, these are the anecdotes. And this is exactly how you should be talking to clients and your communities about exercise for people over 50. It's as a way to live fully now. The message should be feel, move, and look better today. Improve your quality of life, extend your independence. Go ahead and play with the grandkids, travel, dance, enjoy your life. I was 22 years old when I graduated from CSU. I'll be 62 this month, 40 years exactly. And you know, I couldn't help but wonder what the younger me would think about last weekend and all of us gathered together again and what we'd done with ourselves in the intervening four decades. You know, some of us have gone through divorce, illness, recovery, career upheaval. Some are retired, some are still working. None of it's been perfect, but we're still here. We're still telling stories like we always intended. We're still connected like we'd always hoped. And that to me is the essence of healthy aging. Gratitude for what remains possible, joy in everyday moments, and perspective that comes from seeing the long arc of our rich lives. So, what can you take away from all of this? Let me boil it down to three big lessons for you fitness, health, and well-being professionals out there listening and how hoping you can relate a little bit better to your clients who are a little bit older. Number one, friendships matter, social connection matters. It's not just nice to have, it's essential to health and longevity. So treasure your friends, treasure your old friends and build new ones too. Number two, reinvention is part of the deal. Whether it's your career, your fitness, your identity, staying adaptable keeps us moving forward. So help your clients see that reinvention is an opportunity, not a loss. Number three, can we try to acknowledge the inevitable but balance it with joy, purpose, and gratitude? I hope so. Last weekend in Fort Collins didn't deliver one big dramatic moment for me, but it gave me plenty to think about when it comes to optimal aging, plenty to feel good about, to be grateful for, like great old friends and new memories to go with the old ones. Revisiting one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people, and learning that I can love the present and the past rather than pointlessly obsessing about the way things used to be. So let me leave you with this. Who are your old friends you haven't seen in years? What's the place makes you see life as hopeful and somehow pure? And how might reconnecting remind you of the power of friendship, resilience, and joy at any stage of life? Thanks for listening. Join me again next time.