Starting Over at 40 & 50: From Self-Doubt to Purpose | Lisa Huppee

Ever feel like you’re living on the sidelines of your own life?

In this powerful episode, Lisa Huppee shares her journey from self-doubt and feeling like the “black sheep” to rebuilding her life after divorce, illness, and unexpected setbacks. 

From starting over at 40 to launching a home care business after 50, right before COVID, this is a story about resilience, reinvention, and finally listening to the voice within.

If you’re navigating a life transition, questioning your path, or ready to step into your next chapter, this conversation will meet you exactly where you are.

Reach out to Lisa:  

Website:  https://justlikefamily.ca/fraservalley/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/lisa.huppee

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

Julie's Website

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Okay, so I would like to introduce Lisa Hupe. She is the owner of seven, not one, but seven just like home care locations across British Columbia. She leads with compassion and heart. She has built one of the region's most trusted home care providers, enhancing the lives of seniors and those who need support. So let's welcome Lisa.

Career Resets And The Denturist Dream

Illness Forces A New Crossroads

Choosing Senior Home Care On Purpose

Launching With No Name Recognition

Building Through The Shock Of COVID

What Real Success Looks Like

Never Too Late To Rewrite

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I feel really honored to be here with all these great women speaking. I wanted to start by asking you something. Have you ever felt like life was happening to you instead of for you? Like you, I felt that way for a long time. I felt like I was playing like a supporting role in other people's lives, in someone else's story. But it was never quite happening to me. Things weren't happening to me the way I wanted them to be. And that was for a big part of my life. That was me. I grew up feeling like the black sheep of my family. Not necessarily unloved, but knowing I was different and not really understood. I never quite fit the mold. And things that seemed to come naturally to other people didn't come naturally to me. I was very shy as a child. That's where I'm getting emotional. I carried a belief that maybe I wasn't really meant to succeed. And, you know, that maybe I was there to support other people in being successful and chasing their dreams. I really believed that for a long time. But deep down I had a little voice that told me you're meant to do more. And that that I always dreamed at some point of starting my own business. And it wasn't for status, it wasn't for money, it was to genuinely make a difference in other people's lives. I wanted to build something meaningful and something that mattered, something that helped people feel seen and supported and cared for. Something that mattered. Dreams can be scary. And at that point, I wasn't really ready to believe that I deserved my dream. Because I didn't really fully believe in myself. So I've had different careers in my life. And at 40, I started over from a terrible divorce. And I taught school for about 20 years, and then I tried designing. And I thought that would be my creative outlet. So I designed cabinetry for homes, and that was kind of neat, but not ending up being what I felt made a difference. So I took a faith, a leap of faith at one point. And I, this is the denturist chapter of my life. So I got into dentura school. So basically, I took out a loan and enrolled in dentura school, and it was huge. I had like committed to something I thought was going to make a difference in people's lives. And stepping into something professional in a different way that was stable. And I felt like I could prove that I could accomplish something important. And this is interesting because when I got into the school, they kind of pulled me aside and they said, You've gotten the second highest score ever in this program. And I thought, for someone who's been spent so many years doubting myself, I thought, you know what? That's kind of validation that maybe I'm capable. And it's a sign that I should be doing this because it's like I have an aptitude for it. So I threw myself into it. I was working 30 hours a week to be able to afford to go, even though I took it alone. But, you know, it's expensive. Went to school full-time and I was determined and I was very driven and focused. And then my body said no. I became incredibly sick and exhausted in pain, and I couldn't keep up with work in school. And I just kept pushing myself until I couldn't anymore. And I remember thinking I had completely failed. I'd worked so hard to get to that point. And I remember thinking, this was my chance, and I blew it. What I didn't know at the time was that my gallbladder was failing, like literally failing. And I was having life-threatening attacks. And so it was my body was trying to save me. But emotionally, that dream died for me. So when your dreams die, you kind of get where you're standing at a crossroads, and you're thinking, okay, now what? So I hit that moment that many people hit in life, that now what moment, and looked at being a realtor, like Shanna there. And uh and I thought, okay, that's a really cool thing. And I can help people with, you know, buying a home. And I researched the courses, I convinced myself almost that it was the not logical next step for me. But something just didn't sit right. And there was another pull, and this tug on my heart kept bringing me back to I wanted to help people, especially seniors and vulnerable people, helping families that were overwhelmed and didn't know where to turn. And I had seen how hard it was for families trying to care for loved ones. And I'd seen seniors lose their independence, and seen how different people had fallen through the cracks in our healthcare system. And I knew I knew there had to be better options and more dignified options and more compassionate options. So then I started researching different home care companies. I looked into do I start my own business from scratch? And I still felt kind of like maybe I wasn't ready for that. Should I join something established? So I looked at all the different home care companies that that were out there in the lower mainland. Could I even do this at my age? Because I was over 50. Society has a funny way of making us think that after 50, we're supposed to slow down. We're supposed to have it all together, play things, play safe, and stay comfortable. But something inside me was just waking up. And that's when I found, just like family home care. And the values aligned with mine. Their focus was on dignity and compassion, person-centered care. And it matched exactly what I believe seniors and families deserved. And I remember thinking, am I ever going to do something this bold? This is this is it. This is what I'm going to do. So I started, I took a scary step. And it seemed like such a big step at the time. And so I signed on, excited, kind of terrified, kind of at all at once. And my first location was here, Abbotsford Chilliwack Mission, kind of all the way to Hope. And that was the only location that was available at just like family that had somebody wasn't already owning. So here's the honest truth. No one here had ever heard of just like family home care here in the valley. In Vancouver, they knew about us. Not one single person. We had no reputation, no name recognition, no roadmap for success in that territory. Just me, a dream, and a whole lot of determination. And I remember thinking, okay, Lisa, you've really got your work cut out for you here. And so I started in September of 2019. Now that's the plot twist. Now it was six months before COVID. And literally everything was shut down. You couldn't go into anywhere and do kind of face-to-face marketing or anything like that. And so it really was a challenging time. Suddenly, I was building a healthcare business in the middle of a global healthcare crisis. And fear was everywhere. People didn't know if they should put their loved one in a care home, if they should keep them at home, should they even allow anybody in their home. It was just like really, really just a kind of fear-mongering time for everybody. Staffing was uncertain. There was definitely staffing challenges. Families were overwhelmed with what do I do? And the world felt really unstable. So, but something incredible happened. People needed care more than ever. And I realized this wasn't just a business, it was my calling. So today I can say I own multiple franchises and I've worked really hard for that. Sometimes when you achieve more, people think it's easy, but it really isn't. It may look easy on the outside, but there's a lot of days where you show up where it's not easy. We support hundreds of families in a year, probably thousands over the almost seven years I've been doing this now. And we have hundreds of caregivers, but the numbers aren't what I'm most proud of. What I'm most proud of is helping seniors stay in their homes longer, get the getting the help they need. It's giving exhausted families the break they need, because that's important. Supporting people through some of the most vulnerable times of their life. Caring for a dying parent, us caring for people that are palliative, those are all very vulnerable points. Creating jobs for compassionate caregivers and building teams that care about people and are compassionate, like that is a huge thing. It's not out there everywhere. So the things that I remember are when I see a client and the caregiver is holding their hand, and they're just, you can tell that they feel at ease. Every time that a family tells me that they can finally sleep at night, every time a senior smiles because they feel safe and respected. And especially for me, every time a family calls in, and sometimes we call into check-ins, is when they say, I have the perfect caregiver. We love them. They're like part of the family. And then that's how I know that I'm exactly where I need to be. So starting a business after 50 is also something that is that taught me different things. Life experience is not a limitation. It's your greatest asset. Every setback, every mistake, every moment you weren't enough, it all becomes preparation. That failed denturist dream, it taught me resilience. Feeling like the black sheep of the family taught me empathy. Getting sick and having to quit in the denturist program taught me to listen to my intuition and my body. And every failure was actually a redirection that I wasn't supposed to do that other thing. So becoming the main character of my life is part of my journey. Something shifted at some point, and I stopped waiting for permission. I stopped waiting to feel ready. And I stopped believing that my age was defining opportunities. And I realized something that changed my life. You don't become the main character of your life when everything goes right. You become the main character the moment you decide to keep showing up. So for anyone that feels behind, I hope that you can take from my story that it's never too late to reinvent yourself. It's never too late to chase your purpose. And it's never too late to rewrite your story. And sometimes the people who feel like the black sheep are actually the brave ones that can walk a different path. So success to me isn't titles or locations or numbers. Success is knowing that I created something that actually helps people live with dignity. Success is knowing that my grandchildren will see a woman who didn't give up on herself. Success is waking up knowing what I built makes somebody's hardest day a little easier. So for most of my life, I thought I was actually watching my story from the sidelines. But somewhere along the way, I picked up the pen. And if my journey means anything, it's this you're never too old, never too broken, never too behind to become the hero of your own story. Thank you for coming.