Reinvention at 69: How I Created "Alive, Fit & Free" - a Community of Sexy, Smart and Strong Modern Seniors with Vickie Aigner

Ready for a powerful reinvention story that will help you redefine what it means to age with vibrancy, health, and joy?

Meet 69-year young Vickie Aigner, an integrative fitness guru who has transformed the lives of hundreds of seniors.

Using her virtual Alive, Fit and Free platform, Vickie helps seniors gain strength and energy, build community, and make joyful connections that support vibrant health. Her oldest member, Lois, is 101 and going strong!

These aren't your average seniors. They're modern seniors leaning into being their strongest, sexiest and self-confident selves!

Vickie has overcome numerous obstacles to powerfully reinvent herself and add value to the world. She is changing lives in the best ways!

I love what she shares about her reinvention journey and how she:

✅ transformed her disklike for how seniors are viewed and reimagined the idea of Modern Seniors
✅ created a network of connected seniors and built longevity and vitality
✅ combats isolation and helps seniors build new neuropathways
✅ overcame rectal cancer and continues to reinvent
✅ had to be willing to fall apart in order to come back together better and stronger.

As painful as certain times of her life have been (like being widowed with six kids), she says she wouldn't change a thing.

Vickie shares powerful wisdom about resiliency and how new possibilities can emerge when we're open to reinventing ourselves.

This is a beautiful episode that can help inspire your own reinvention journey!

Mentioned in this episode:

3 Ways Reinvention Rebels Adopt a "Perfectly Imperfect" Mindset

Connect with Vickie:
Website: alivefitandfree.com
Email: vickie@alivefitandfree.com
Instagram: @alivefitandfree
Facebook Group: Alive, Fit and Free
LinkedIn: Alive, Fit and Free
YouTube: Alive, Fit and Free channel

Ready to pursue your midlife a

Kick your midlife fears and uncertainty to the curb and start your Reinvention Rebels journey today. Learn about my audio program, Midlife Reinvention From The Inside Out: 8 Essentials to Greenlight Your Life.

Midlife women ready to reinvent themselves start with being curious about what's possible. Download my free audio, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity & Inspire Your Reinvention Rebel Journey to get started today. 

Insights Into Teens

A father and daughter discussion about the everyday struggles of teens in today's...

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Transcript

Vickie: It's never too late guys to start something or to share your passion with anybody. Lois started with us before she turned 100. She was 99 when she started with us, so we've gotten to celebrate her birthdays. And I mean, like I said, she was a firecracker. She can do 35 chair squats standing up. I mean, oh, yeah, she's just this powerhouse. So, my point here sharing this amazing woman is that, "Hey, she's 101 and she's showing up every day." Recruiting friends that are 75 to join the classes because that's what she's passionate about. So, it's like she's making a difference in the world no matter if you're reaching one person or hundred people, you are going to make a difference when you start sharing yourself and your passion, whatever that might be.

[Reinvention Rebels theme]

Wendy: Welcome to Reinvention Rebels, stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reimagined life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. Ready for a dose of inspiration? Let's get to it.

Hey, everyone, it's Wendy. Welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels Podcast. I am so glad you're here. This is the place to come for information and inspiration about reinventing ourselves at any age or any stage. I focus on women between 50 and 90, who are doing amazing things and lighting up the world with the reinvention journeys. I've loved sharing their stories as motivation and inspiration for all of us because I don't think we can ever get too much of that. I think that when we hear other stories, we can see a part of ourselves and lean into that and it can encourage us to move forward in our own way no matter where we are in our reinvention journey and that includes figuring things out often as I do in a very imperfect way. Sometimes I take one step forward, two steps back, I have to massage my reinventions. Even now, I've reinvented myself as a podcast host, but still reinventing myself within that and figuring things out, so it's really an ongoing process. That's what I talked about last week in the episode about being perfectly imperfect because as women, we so often we get in our own way, we try so hard, have everything lined up perfectly. That gets in the way of experience and of having more joy and of leaning into things and of sometimes messing up but recognizing that's part of the journey.

Interestingly, one of my friends messaged me on Facebook a couple days ago and showed me a picture of a tattoo she had gotten that said, "Perfectly imperfect." I thought that was so cool, what a coincidence. She said, "She wanted to remind herself that she's on this journey and that she is moving forward and it's okay if everything doesn't line up exactly the way she envisions it." Well, as long as she's making the attempt and she keeps working at it and that's what reinvention is all about. So that's a great intro actually to my guest today. Vickie Aigner, who is really extraordinary and she's a great example of perfectly imperfect. Some things work out, some things don't, but you keep on trying, you keep on making forward progress. So, sit back, relax, and let me introduce you to her.

[music]

How many people have the gumption and courage to start a small business in their 60s refining what senior living means? How many people can reimagine senior fitness in adventurous and innovative ways and grow a global presence? Vickie Aigner sure can and that's just what she did. Now 69, several years ago, Vickie began a movement to redefine what being a senior means. As Alive, Fit & Free's Chief Fitness and Wellness Officer and a modern senior herself, she was well established in the health and wellness industry for seniors. She had more than 30 plus years of experience working as a personal trainer and as a health and wellness coach with various senior residence facilities, corporations and individuals but for the past five years, her business has grown to new heights. Vickie has focused on creating in-demand classes that allow modern seniors to live their life they want, and focus on staying energized and connected for as long as possible. A few years ago, she and her business partner, her daughter Sophie took the platform global now reaching people in about 20 different countries. Vickie is an energized and inspired reinvention rebel with a powerful story to share about what's possible when we look beyond our midlife doubts and fears, and find new and exciting opportunities. Vickie Aigner, welcome to the Reinvention Rebels' guest chair.

Vickie: Oh, my gosh, thank you Wendy. That was fantastic. I mean I have you write my bios from now on [Wendy laughs] and give me introductions everywhere I go. I'm going, "Oh, my goodness, that's amazing." I love it. Oh! Thank you so much for having me. A lot of fun discussions getting ready for this, so I can't wait to see where we go.

Wendy: I can't either. I want to tell our audience about how we connected, which is that you sent me this message saying, "Oh, Wendy, I'd love to be considered for your podcast as a guest." But I never got it. You kept emailing me, you were very persistent. I said, "I didn't get it." But can you please email me the information and that's how we got started. Then you told me your story and I was really, really intrigued. [Vickie laughs] I'm just excited. 

Vickie: Me too. Well not and she's leaving out part of that story because every time I communicated with her through email, she gave me more questions to answer and it's like, "Okay." [laughter]

Wendy: [crosstalk] great, you passed the test, and you're like-- 

Vickie: I did pass the test. [laughs]

Wendy: Yes. Right, I just really was drawn to your story and-

Vickie: Aww. Thank you 

Wendy: -about the possibilities that you're creating. I want to start our conversation by asking you about what inspired you to want to reinvent yourself in this very bold way with what you're doing now in your 60s?

Vickie: Well. My reinvention actually started earlier than that, but I have been-- my goal was always to be a stay-at-home mom. I have six kids so we lived in the country and in 2001, my husband passed away. I had been in the fitness profession previously. But it was like, "Here I was." We were living in Mississippi at that point, both of us from California. I know that's like a whole another world in and of itself. It was like, "So what am I going to do now." And I'm going to-- at that time as well I found that fitness was my grief outlet. I could go and just get on a treadmill or get on an elliptical and pick up some weights. And what helped me through that grieving process that was my passion and when I was in that particular place it really bothers me when I see people doing moves incorrectly because they're going to either injure themselves or not get the benefits that they're looking for. So, I became passionate about and I said, "Okay, enough of this, I'm just going to go get my personal training degrees." I had been in the field before.

So, I did and we all moved out to Arizona, my son came out to go to ASU and I landed before we moved, I set up interviews, landed three different jobs in gyms, doing personal training. That's kind of how I started here, moved into wellness coaching with a private company that worked with corporations and native American groups, which was really a lot of fun. It was great for me because I could teach people how to be well and healthy. They dint give me any script. I could just go talk to people all day long and I just had a ball. And through that process, Alive, Fit, & Free started evolving or coming into being certainly not what it is now. But I would research and I would gain information, I get excited about stuff and then I could share it on my little Alive, Fit, & Free website, and then I could share it with the clients I was meeting with.

But fast forward to 2017, I began working in a senior living facility, they were looking for a line dance teacher and my friend and I kind of co-teach together. She didn't want to drive that far, I said, "Well, I'll go," and went and absolutely fell in love with the resonance there and pretty soon one class turned into five. Then, I thought, "Well, this is so much fun." So, I just made flyers and every time I would pass a senior living facility, I'd stop and pass flyers out. And pretty soon I got so busy, I had to hire a team of instructors to work with me. In the meantime, I'm always researching and studying different techniques and moves and what works and what's effective and I landed in a particular exercise genre called Naam. It's called a form of yoga, but it's not really yoga that you've ever seen before and it's based off of movement and sound and hand postures and breath work. When I first went to the class, the teacher was talking about all these benefits, and I'm going, "Hmm, I'm going to have check this out." And see if what she's saying is real and I've been there now since 2017 and started using some of the techniques that I was learning with my seniors. And "Oh, my goodness." The changes that I was seeing mentally, emotionally, physically, energetically were crazy.

Wendy: Wow.

Vickie: And those classes became their very favorite. I've kind of put together my own system that I call energy up that incorporates a lot of that and so that's how we started in the senior industry. I'm a little blonde sometimes and I didn't realize that I wasn't senior when I started. [laughter] They were there a few years older than I am, but I'm in that senior classification being 69 this year. And it was like, "Oh, my gosh, I'm one of them."

Wendy: That realization, I love--

Vickie: Yeah. Oh, wow. Because for a long time in your early 60s you don't ever really want to tell anybody how old I was. 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: They really didn't look like it and then it was like, "You're darn right that's my age." I'm going to own that. I look pretty good and I feel pretty good. And so, it kind of turned into-- so, fast forward my daughter has lived internationally, has been in entrepreneurship and startup companies around the world. And we both said, "We could take the spiritual and have a bigger audience and reach more people." Then, she became my business partner in 2019. I say that she is the brains and the beauty of the company, I just get to play and be [unintelligible [00:12:40] and have fun. So, it works really well because we're total opposites. So, COVID hit and one week, we're on site and facilities and the next week, we were virtual. So, it was just like, "Okay, we're just going to do this thing." So that's how the virtual platform really took off, and got to going. But through the whole process too Wendy, the redefining what senior means, being in the industry, and then realizing that you are a senior. I did not like the way that seniors were being marketed to or even being defined. It was like the marketing and the branding and the targeting was like I say, baby blue and beige, sitting in the rocking chair and people call you honey, when you go to the grocery store. "You need some help, honey?" It's like, "Don't you dare call me honey, I'm perfectly capable--" [laughs] You know what I'm saying? 

Wendy: I do.

Vickie: It's like something's got to change. That's the definition for my grandmother, when she was in her 60s right. That's not a definition of who senior are today. We are modern seniors, we're all totally different, we live a totally different lifestyle than seniors used to. So, it's like we need to redefine what that looks like so that we break that mold, or that definition that people classify seniors as, it's like, "Honey that just doesn't work anymore." 

Wendy: Yeah, yeah.

Vickie: This is who we are vivacious, active, energetic, alive. We've got-- so many things I want to do and explore and connect. We found that our virtual community is just that place to do that, I mean we have people. This has been through COVID and even now they stayed, this is their people. These are them. These are the people, this is the community, we come and we connect and we interact and this is where we do life together. 

Wendy: I love it.

Vickie: Yeah. It's just the coolest thing ever. I mean there are people from all over and if somebody doesn't show up, somebody else is going to check on him to find out where they are. That's the really cool part. 

Wendy: I just love what you've created. I love really this sort of trajectory because I heard you say so many things in describing what has been a multi-year-- over many years reinvention that has morphed in different ways. One of the things, first and most importantly, what I heard is that out of tragedy, we can create something new and of course when things happen, where we often fall apart for whatever reason from grief or disappointment or something not going the way we expect it because as we know, life is such a challenge. And there really are no guarantees, so sometimes we do have to reimagine our lives, but I see that from what occurred to you, here you are, six children, you become a widow, you have to really reimagine things. I also see though you took it in steps, it wasn't that you went from 0 to 60 and all of a sudden, you have this global presence and really kind of connecting seniors, it was something that evolved over time. I think it's so important about reinvention to feel we don't have to do it all right away, that we can take-

Vickie: Yeah.

Wendy: -baby steps and see what happens and then kind of figure it out from there. So, I love how you're like, "Okay, I'm making some [crosstalk]-

Vickie: Yeah. 

Wendy: -and then kind of moving on.

Vickie: Yeah, for sure and you said a couple things that were really important and I think, number one, I've always been a person that went-- it seems like, I guess, I'm hardheaded or it takes me a lot to learn before I go, okay, uncle and I'm laying down in the dirt when I go. But it takes big things in my life for me to-- And so, I guess that's just the way I do or learn, but I also think that those circumstances or events that happen in our lives or that we go through in our lives, they're not just for our purpose, but they're for other people as well. It's like losing a husband, with six children, my youngest was 3, my oldest was 18. There were some other events, we're in the middle of building our own home and it's like when you're in that time, you just do what you have to do to get through the day.

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: I mean you don't have time to stop and think about it, you just live. Then at some point you have to take time to grieve, but that's not really where I wanted to go with this. But all of those things just build not only more character into us if we let those circumstances have their way with us and we share that and we're real and we're vulnerable, that also touches somebody else or somebody else can grab a hold of something that you say or they can have some hope so as always, my desire to say here. What I've been through this, grab my hand and I'm going to help you get through this. If I can do this, you can too because we do, we take that experience. Like if we were at tapestry, we've different colors and depths and dimensions into us that couldn't happen any other way. Whatever circumstances for each one of us is going to be different. When I started, I knew fitness and then in my early 20s, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and I chose to heal myself with natural methods. So, then I learned nutrition and natural healing and so I had those two pieces which were fantastic. But I always knew that there was another piece that was missing and that was the emotional and mental health. When Ken passed away that was the healing piece that was the piece that needed to get added to the other ones to make it a full-

Wendy: Yeah. 

Vickie: -like the whole thing, everything fit together because you can't separate your physical from your mental or your emotional or your energetic, so it was that missing piece that needed to happen to reach a more whole, a fuller spectrum of people that maybe needed to hear that because that healing has to start on the inside. It has to start inside and then it works out.

Wendy: Yes.

Vickie: It's as difficult as all of that was where I am today-- I wouldn't change where I'm today and do anything different. I know that's a crazy thing to say I wouldn't wish that whole scenario on anybody and I definitely would never want to go back and do that again.

Wendy: Of course not.

Vickie: But it did bring me to the person that I am today where I am today, which is really cool, but another thing I've learned is, yeah, you add a new flow, you flow with it and one piece comes in and something might block you from going in the direction that you thought you were going to go. Well, that's okay because there's probably something better if that door shuts on you, another one opens. It takes you in a different direction.

Wendy: Yes. 

Vickie: It's like sitting in an inner tube floating down the river, if there's a rock in the way, the tube doesn't just sit there stuck on the rock, it goes around it. 

Wendy: Yes. I think, Vickie, what you said is to me really the essence of reinvention because so often it feels like to me or certainly been my experience, things have happened to me in my life that have been upsetting or disappointing, or the kind of thing where you're questioning like, "Why is this happening to me?" Like, why did this happen to me. I do believe that all of those things like you so beautifully articulated, you had all these different experiences from getting cancer in your 20s and overcoming that to all the other things that happened to you. I feel like all those things were preparing you for this for all of those pieces to come together, and I know that when it's happening to us to any of us and I think especially as we're thinking about reinventing ourselves. So, to the amazing people that are listening that are thinking, I don't know, I feel unsure. I don't know if I can do this, but I'm listening to Vickie's story and I'm thinking okay, well, Vickie reinvented herself in a way that was her own way that evolved over time, so maybe I can have my own version of that. So, I think when we hear other stories, we can perhaps get a little more certainty about our own even though we're on a totally different path, right. We're all on our own path but I do believe all those experiences that you had were really preparing you as I've experienced-

Vickie: Absolutely. 

Wendy: -also to even do this to reinvent myself as a podcast host based on many other things I did, some of them didn't work out at all. 

Vickie: Yeah. Right.

Wendy: I was so disappointed until now. So that idea of having that trust, that space right even though maybe we can't see it and even though the pieces might seem disparate that there is a point where we can bring them all together in a way that celebrates our wisdom and experience.

Vickie: Absolutely. I was just listening to a special seminar put on by Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi, and one of the things that Tony kept saying was, "Don't worry about the how." What is it you want to do? What is it you want to do and why do you want to do it? Don't worry about the how, the how is it going to come. Just stick with that passion and don't overthink it and that's one thing, I think it's a blessing. I don't overthink anything. This can be a curse as well. My daughter is totally the opposite and she holds me but it's like, "Man, I get a zillion ideas every day." And it's like, "Oh, yeah, let's just go do this." And then I'll just blast into it and then halfway through, I go, "Oh my gosh, what did I get myself into?" [Wendy laughs].

I don't overthink things and if I have to sit around and think about something [unintelligible [00:23:08], "You can't just do that. We have to plan it out and we have to get all these pieces." I'm exhausted before I ever started with all of that and so that's the difference in the way that you think. But that's one thing I'd say is, "Don't overthink it." Just take that first step and do what you can, whatever that might be. If it's the wrong step so what at least you took a step and you're moving and then you can keep moving in the right direction. 

Wendy: That is everything. What you just said is everything that idea of just do something and even if you don't know the how, because I feel like as women we get caught up in wanting to do everything right.

Vickie: Oh. It has to be perfect.

Wendy: Right. Something that we're socialized with from a young age to be much more cautious, to not always take chances, to get everything lined up. But I feel like with reinvention part of it is the adventure of it.

Vickie: Absolutely. Be willing to make mistakes or be silly or whatever that is or cry in front of people if you need to cry, just be real. Let's just be real instead of the social media definition of everything's perfect all the time.

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: It's like when nothing-- everything is perfect, nothing's perfect all the time. And it's like, "Let's just be real and share who we are." And that's all we're called to do in this life is share who you are. Just share who you are, own that, figure it out, find out what excites you and build that fire inside of you and you get passionate about, get a spark in your eyes when you talk about it, find out what that is, and then figure out how to do it. Do something that brings our gift to life and you know what that's a full life. That's why we're here you know.

Wendy: Yeah. That is why we're here. Figuring out that why I think it'd be a lot of fun. I know that sometimes again, we're like, "Well, if I could just figure out what I meant to do." I don't know if this is true for you, but for me so much of figuring out my why and understanding that I really wanted to share the stories of really amazing midlife and older women, it came from within, it came from getting quiet and still. I literally heard reinventing rebels one day when I was meditating.

Vickie: Wow.

Wendy: It wasn't one I was running around, being busy, and doing 100 different things, it was when I got really quiet and that tells me. I really believe, Vickie, that we all have deep wisdom within us. 

Vickie: Absolutely.

Wendy: We have the answers.

Vickie: We have it in here. 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: Yeah. Absolutely

Wendy: It's you.

Vickie: I agree.

Wendy: For willing and open to get more quiet, to get curious, as you said to be adventurous, to really listen to what that little tiny voice is saying that we can hear much more clearly if we aren't so busy, then even getting started doesn't have to be so hard.

Vickie: Right.

Wendy: We can lean easily into that 'why' that you're talking about.

Vickie: Absolutely. I think if we ask ourselves the question or ask, okay, just ask yourself. What is that thing that fires me up that gets me passionate and what is my 'why' or what would be my first step? Once we start thinking on those things, guess what, they start showing up, maybe they show up, maybe they were always there we just didn't pay attention to. But now we're tuned into that on that same vibrational level and then things start happening. Things start happening, so I heard somebody one time said, "We all know that people say so what's your 'why'." Then come up with the first 'why.' Why? Ask why five times? Every time you answer that question, ask another why. And it takes you really deep into that. And it's like, "Oh, I don't know, let me think about this." Because most of the time, we don't really think that deeply about stuff. It's like so why do I want to help people live happy and healthy and their best life. Well, I don't know. Why is that so then you go a little bit deeper with it and it's really a fun exercise because it doesn't take us to that place inside where maybe we can be quiet and tune in more to those answers that we have inside. We have them in there, but we are so busy flitting around and not paying attention, looking for everything on the outside that we forget that it's all right here. It has to start inside.

Wendy: Exactly, exactly and it doesn't have to be quite as hard as we, I think, sometimes make it out to be.

Vickie: Mm hmm. Absolutely.

Wendy: We can tune in. I love that idea of going deep because I feel like we live in a very superficial society, focuses, "I want this, I want it now, I want it to all magically work out-

Vickie: Yup.

Wendy: -on my first attempt." Not this push and pull. This one step forward, two steps back this idea that sometimes reinvention, whatever that means for us takes, time and-

Vickie: It does.

Wendy: It does take that trying. Sometimes it's figuring out what works. As you said, what if you fail, then you start over, you try something different.

Vickie: You start over, yeah.

Wendy: Yeah. It's not for nothing that sometimes things don't work out at first, but to your point-

Vickie: Absolutely.

Wendy: -often guiding us, right. 

Vickie: Yeah.

Wendy: It's that rejection is pointing us sometimes toward where we're supposed to go.

Vickie: Absolutely. It's in those "failures" and I don't think anything is a failure. It's all part of that learning process because if we didn't have that experience to see what does not work right, we would still be stuck trying to do that thing that's not working. But now we know what doesn't work so that we can figure out what works and we can try another avenue. And guess what if that doesn't work, then we've just solved another issue, solved another problem. We know now another aspect that's not going to be the right avenue for us. So, it's all part of the process, it's all good no matter whether it works or not it's still an adventure, it's still a journey. Look what you're doing, oh my gosh, you've stepped out there and you've discovered something about yourself, your resilience, the way you process. What fires you up, how you can bounce back, you've discovered courage and self-confidence that maybe you never knew you had before and that's the cool part. That's one of the cool parts.

Wendy: It really is and I think that those feelings of doubt and uncertainty and am I too old, just being unsure about things can easily be replaced by the things that you're talking about.

Vickie: Absolutely.

Wendy: I am a resilient person. I can do this.

Vickie: Yes.

Wendy: I can take a mini win and see that I could do it and build on that. 

Vickie: Mm-hmm. To remember to focus on those aspects of yourself that are good instead of going through the checklist of everything that's not okay. At the end of the day, well, you didn't check, check, check, check. No, I did this, this, this, and this. It's all good because often we forget to do that, as women especially I think we're so used to like you said, being busy, out there taking care of everybody else and everything, and realizing that you know what look at what you did do today.

[music]

Wendy: Hey, everyone. I hope you're enjoying this interview with Vickie and the insights that she's sharing. It's pretty cool, right. What she's doing to redefine the idea of seniors and what that means. I love it. By the way, if you are thinking about your own reinvention journey, if this is inspiring you and you're like, I don't know where to start, I just want to take a moment and encourage you to download my free offering, five questions to spark your curiosity and inspire your reinvention rebel journey, because it really all starts with getting curious and asking yourself some questions and getting quiet and leaning into those answers and this is a great way to help jumpstart that process, so check it out. Now, back to this great interview with Vickie.

Vickie: I wanted to tell you about my oldest community member, she's 101 and a half.

Wendy: Whoo-ooh.

Vickie: Her name is Lois. She lives by herself. I mean this lady is a firecracker. 

Wendy: Wow.

Vickie: She has a housekeeper that comes in once a month only because her children say she has to and she comes on to all of our classes. So, her dining room is her workout area, she's got her weights, she's got her computer, she has an elliptical, she has a mini trampoline with a bar on it so that she can jump, so she does our classes and then she does all different kinds of classes. But Lois has now started recruiting other people to come in and do classes with her. So, she's got a 75-year-old that comes to classes now that wouldn't work out by herself. So now, this new friend comes in and sits next to her. I saw her for the first time the other day, she usually sits off camera because she's a little timid [unintelligible [00:33:01] because Lois is recruiting all of these youngsters, 75 years old, to come and do the classes with her. So, it's never too late guys to start something or to share your passion with anybody. Lois started with us before she turned 100, she was 99 when she started with us.

Wendy:  Amazing.

Vickie: So, we've gotten to celebrate her birthdays, and like I said she is a firecracker. She'd do 35 chair squats standing.

Wendy: What.

Vickie: She is just like, "Oh yeah, she's just this powerhouse."

Wendy: I love it.

Vickie: So, my point here sharing this amazing woman is that, "Hey, she's 101 and she's showing up every day, recruiting friends that are 75 to join the classes because that's what she's passionate about." 

Wendy: Yeah 

Vickie: She's making a difference in the world. No matter if you're reaching one person or a hundred people, you are going to make a difference when you start sharing yourself and your passion whatever that might be. 

Wendy: I love that story, Vickie. First of all, it's amazing. 

Vickie: Oh, my gosh. It's like I want to be Lois when I'm her age. [laughs]

Wendy: Me too. I want to be Lois. I mean it's so inspiring and it goes to show you again this idea about what's possible. Sometimes we see what we can't do but here's a great example and I think that's what can motivate us to hear these stories. [crosstalk] We might have a totally different journey but hearing Lois' story, it reminds me, wow, almost anything is possible. The other thing I also hear and you're talking about this and you talked about this a little earlier, Vickie, is this idea of community.

Vickie: Huge.

Wendy: As we age often, our worlds get smaller, they shrink, we care about pass away. 

Vickie: Yeah.

Wendy: I think that for me because I've always been a community person anyway at any age and I've just loved people, but I see why it's so important because so many people we know even younger people these days after the pandemic especially are isolated-

Vickie: Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

Wendy: -and don't have that sense of community so I love what you've created that has connected people from all over. 

Vickie: Yes. Super, super cool. At the start, when COVID first hit, it was essential that not only seniors and senior living communities, but individuals could gather at someplace. And so, it kind of became their saving, this is what they did to have that social interaction. Because a lot of the ladies that began with those during that time, they were widowed, and they lived by themselves, and they needed that connection, so that's kind of how it started. But then morphed into more, it was like people kind of came from all over and we have one lady from Germany and she got with us because her daughter was friends with Sophie. We got her joining us from Germany and then we connected with these amazing tour guides from around the world in these various countries and started connecting with them from Rome and Budapest and Peru, and Mongolia, and Tokyo. 

Wendy: Wow.

Vickie: Oh, my gosh, it's been so much fun and Indonesia. Just meeting these people from around the world and learning about their cultures and so it became-- and that was the dream was to have this international melting pot where everybody came together, there're no boundaries, there're no borders, there're no limitations. We all are people that are looking for the same thing, community and connection. We want to belong to something and I hear from people a lot, "Well, I don't like online stuff." Well, that's fine but do you have a community where you can meet in person, that's wonderful. But if you don't, or you choose to join this community that's online it's almost as good. It's almost as good because you're still having those meaningful connections, those meaningful conversations, you're meeting with your friends, and you don't have to drive 20 miles to go and see them. And so, in my mind it's a no brainer. It's a fantastic way to stay connected and especially for people that maybe can't get out, or they have a busy day, or they're going to go do something, but they want to connect with their tribe with their community. It's like hotline and meet with one another and so I think that's super, super important combating the isolation especially as people age. 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: Actually, as people age, yeah.

Wendy: That's a daunting thing.

Vickie: We all need that.

Wendy: Yeah. We really do and I think that when we can leverage technology, I know that there's a stereotype of that older people often not being very tech savvy, but I don't believe that's true.

Vickie: Oh, don’t you believe it.

Wendy: Not at all. [Vickie crosstalk] I mean, my mom is 90 and pretty tech savvy. 

Vickie: Yup. 

Wendy: I mean, yes, in any age group, there are people that are not and that are. So, it certainly isn't--

Vickie: Yeah. No, guess what anybody can learn. Yeah.

Wendy: Yes. 

Vickie: There are a lot of tech companies for aging adults that give free lessons and free whatever is that, we have walked hundreds of people through the process and if you've show them how to do it just like anybody else, guess what they've got it. It's not that when you turn 65, the brain shuts off and you can't learn anything new. It's like totally opposite, but on our classes work a lot on brain health, mental health, emotional health, energetic. We talk about the four pillars a lot and that's everything that we do in movement no matter what exercise class you do, or what movement you do, it should be targeted physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically, or you're getting shortchanged. Because we are a whole being, we can't separate our mind from our body. You can't separate our emotions from our mind or our energetic system from any of it because it's all intertwined. So, whatever we do should affect all of those levels, right.

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: We make sure that we are targeting all of those in our classes. We do a lot of silly things to get you laughing because that puts us in that calm and collected state, stops the adrenaline and the cortisol from being released, helps us feel happy, combat the depression and anxiety, and then we do things to work on the brain. We [unintelligible [00:39:36] a lot to pull new neural pathways to build new neural pathways in the brain. And then we do a lot of funny things like get that energy going inside of those energetic meridians that run in the body. So, at first you might go, "Oh, my gosh, this is a crazy group.". Well, it is and we're having a lot of fun for various reasons. It's not just because we're goofy and silly, although we are, but there's a specific purpose [laughs] right and if you can't have fun moving your body, you shouldn't be doing it. 

Wendy: Right. 

Vickie: We got to enjoy it. 

Wendy: Yeah. I think because some people have not a great, perhaps experience with exercise, sometimes older people or they've maybe a very old school idea of what that means.

Vickie: Yeah.

Wendy: Things have changed so dramatically, in terms of moving our bodies and this whole idea of integration that you're talking about how we can integrate these different things for our overall well-being. I love this idea of people trying it out and seeing if it resonates with them.

Vickie: Absolutely. 

Wendy: Because it sounds like this whole idea of the modern senior that I can have this. I can be 85, I can be 101 like Lois and I can be fit.

Vickie: Absolutely. It's like if you don't like something then change it up, do something that you like. I mean no matter what age you are at I would give that advice. If you hate what you're doing, then you need to stop, step back and figure out what it is, like you said, go inside, forget what it is that you like, and start doing that. 

Wendy: Yes.

Vickie: Start doing that, life is too short. I don't care if you're 15 or if you're 101. Life is too short to waste in doing something that you hate. 

Wendy: Yeah. Exactly. As you think broadly about your experience this multi-year decade reinvention to create where you are right now, in this place that you really love, what would you say is the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself?

Vickie: Oh, wow. Yeah. Nothing like a tough question. [Wendy laughs] Umm. That's really a hard one. I would say one thing that's kind of forefront right now is that I really care what people think about me and its perfectionism. It's like I have taken a break this last six months, we've had a lot of things in my family happening. I was diagnosed with stage II rectal cancer and went through radiation and chemo and then directly after that the radiation burnt a hole through my colon wall. And I was rushed to the hospital septic and so had major-- all this stuff. And then, in the middle of all of that, which I'm absolutely fine now clean bill of health, and I bounced back because of my energy and fitness system. I know that that's why I came back so fast, but in the middle of all that my mother had a stroke. She lives in California, moved out, wanted to come live with us and she had dementia so we had all of this going on during that six-month period. So, I took a break from social media during that time, there was nothing that I could do. And now I need to go back in but I also need to share my journey and it's like I'm doing everything that I just told people not to do. I'm overthinking it, I'm overthinking it and it has to be perfect and I'll probably shoot everything 22 times until I get it just right. [laughs]

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: Because I think it has to be a certain way, so I've learned that I am a perfectionist and that as much as I share about me, I'm vulnerable, I'm real, I still have a way to go there. So, I'm learning to kind of lay those things aside and also stop, look, and listen before I blast into things. Because if I think a little bit, not overthink, but if I think a little bit then maybe it's going to stop me from having to redo things so many times and just being able to let go and hold things more loosely. I mean, those are kind of some of the hard things. Especially, this last bout with my health, here I am, this mega workout 10 times a week, don't take any medications, healthy as a horse and then I get rectal cancer. It's like I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: It was like, "How could this be?" 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: I'm a wellness coach and it was like, "Oh, I have to share this with people." But none of us are exempt from those kinds of things, so stepping back and going okay what is this all about, why is this happening and what am I supposed to learn from this?

Wendy: I know, so hard for you, you're like a picture of health. It sort of seems like, "That should never happen to me."

Vickie: Yeah. You do and like I said I really had to work through that and then it went way deeper going back into childhood and the whole health thing and I'm killing all of those layers of a belief system that didn't work anymore. And get into the bottom of that and really working to that hard stuff and be willing to do that as those layers come up and fall into pieces and letting go of them and realizing that you believe something all of your life, you've been operating out of a belief system that was never yours or that really was not the truth, you know what I'm saying? 

Wendy: I do.

Vickie: All of those layers of things and standing still to just let that happen and letting go of your total identity was like, I have to just let go of my whole identity basically and go okay, I have no idea who I am or what I want to do now or what do I like to-- I was just like, I had to just sit back and let it all happen, and just go, okay, just do the work. 

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: Do that work God and I don't want to waste this. I don't want to waste this one. [laughs] Let's get everything done-

Wendy: Yeah.

Vickie: -that needs to happen. So yeah, those are some of the hardest. 

Wendy: Yeah. Those are all powerful lessons, all of them in different ways.

Vickie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure.

Wendy: I think it speaks to this idea you talked about before that we are resilient and we can work through even really difficult things or unexpected things. I didn't expect to have rectal cancer when I'm super healthy, but yet here's a situation, so I'm going to navigate the best way I can even if I fall apart, but then I can rebuild myself as you've done. 

Vickie: Yeah. Absolutely, we have to be willing to do that.

Wendy: Yes.

Vickie: What, is there going to be another huge life circumstance that comes along and tries to teach us what we should have learned the first time.

Wendy: Right. Yeah, no kidding. You know how it is, sometimes we have to learn these lessons too many times. 

Vickie: Right. 

Wendy: Like, I should know better by now. I should be more open to leaning into the difficult thing instead of avoiding it-

Vickie: Absolutely.

Wendy: -which is, you know right, I kept done some in the past so I love that. 

Vickie: Yeah. Again, it's layers. We were talking about little pieces building on top of each other. It's that layer when you're going inside and doing that deep emotional healing. If all of that guts chipped away in one fast blow, man, I don't know if we'd ever get up. But it is, it's like the layers in an onion, one layer comes off and then when we're ready for the next layer, that line peels off, and then the next one and that one, and then when it gets down to the core, you go, oh, can we be done yet, but we're still willing to let that come off and let's see what happens. 

Wendy: Exactly.

Vickie: Let's see where we go. How's it going to look on the other side, we don't know. 

Wendy: We don't know. I love it. As we wrap up Vickie, I want to ask you one last question which is if you had to give this beautiful journey you've been on for many years. This way that you've reinvented yourself many times over and evolved into who you are today, if you had to give that journey a theme, what would it be.

Vickie: Umm. A journey of joy, enthusiasm, and adventure. Holding that, holding, always coming back to that. Sometimes, it takes a little bit longer, but I really feel like a little girl on the inside, jumping up and down and be really excited. I mean, when I see myself that's how I feel. It's like I just want everybody to be happy and sometimes like this last six months have been super tough. It's taken a while to grab that sense and my prayer lately has been let me feel excited about life again and get that adventurous spirit and be tickled. I just want to be tickled and just want that spark. And so, a sparky sparkly adventure, you know, life is a sparkly adventure and like you said, it's resilient. So, we pop up and do it all over again.

Wendy: I love that. Life is a sparkly adventure.

Vickie: There you go.

Wendy: Awesome.

Vickie: Basically, that's Alive, Fit & Free. When I said I like this company Alive, Fit & Free because that's what it is. It's freedom from all of that stuff that we've carried with us so long. We are alive and we're a living life fit and healthy and just bubbling over. 

Wendy: I love this so much. I have to ask you because I know that people who are listening are like, I want some of that. How can I find Alive, Fit & Free. So, if you wouldn't mind Vickie telling us how people can connect with you? 

Vickie: Oh, sure. I'd love to tell you. We are across different social media platforms, but our website is alivefitandfree.com. We have a special right now with a 14-day free trial and we don't even ask for your credit card. [laughs]-

Wendy: Whoa.

Vickie: -so just give it a try. We run live classes for you in that virtual community. I think we have about 30-a-month live classes and then we have a prerecorded video library that you can access anytime that works into your own schedule. We have weekly question and answer sessions with me and we can talk about whatever you want to talk about, questions that you have. Then we also are on Facebook and we have a Facebook group called Alive, Fit & Free At Any Age.

Wendy: Wow.

Vickie: We're on Instagram and it's all [unintelligible [00:51:27] @alivefitandfree. So, Instagram Alive, Fit & Free, LinkedIn, Alive, Fit & Free as well as our personal pages. And then we also are on YouTube, where we have a lot of videos posted where you can catch just little short workouts, longer workouts, and even some of our tours and interviews are up there. 

Wendy: That sounds amazing. And all the information that you just shared is in the show notes. So, people can easily just do a little tapping or clicking to get right to where you are.

Vickie: Yeah. Fantastic.

Wendy: Vickie Aigner, I cannot thank you enough for joining me for this really fabulous, fun, and sparkly conversation today.

Vickie: [laughs] Thank you for having me, Wendy. It was a blast. I know we connected so well just in our other conversations like, oh my God, it's going be so much fun. So, thank you so much for having us and for the conversation that was really cool.

Wendy: Yeah. It was awesome. I'm excited for more people to find you more seniors-

Vickie: Me too.

Wendy: -and soak this up. All our listeners just soak it up and get inspired.

Vickie: Fantastic, Yay. Thank you.

[music]

Wendy: I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did Reinvention Rebels. It was such a pleasure to be in conversation with Vickie. She has so many amazing insights and inspiration and how she's inspiring so many older people, people older than herself about what's possible, I love it. By the way, reach out to me on social media. If we're not already connected, let's connect on Instagram or Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. I'd love to know your thoughts about the episode and I'm looking forward to seeing you next week for another great episode. Until then, keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.

Hey, rebels before we go, let me ask you a question. Is there a career pivot on your horizon? Are you interested in changing jobs, return to the workforce, starting a business or a side hustle? I'm asking because my friends Dana and Wendy of Camp Reinvention are hosting a free webinar on October 18th and 20th that I hope you'll attend with me because it's going to be awesome. We're going to be talking about how to make a professional pivot when you're over 50. And you're going to learn how to avoid the number one career pivot pitfall. Three ways to make your age and asset which seriously we all need to figure out how we can do that and a proven process to get into action quickly. It's going to be awesome and did I mention it's free, totally free. I hope you can join me, details are in the show notes.

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