This month, my Guest Contributor for October is my friend and queen of reinvention, Susan Feldman. Susan is a perfect example of someone who lives the mantra “age is just a number.”
A true entrepreneur and the visionary behind the wildly successful home decor company One King’s Lane, Susan’s most recent role is Founder of the popular “aging up” lifestyle blog Get in The Groove. I think her new platform is one of the best online resources dedicated to providing women 50+ with fashion and lifestyle inspiration. Plus, the shopping advice and product recommendations are highly curated and a far cry from what you’d see in Grandma’s closet.
Read on to find out how Susan got in her groove, starting a new career for herself at age 65. Get ready to be inspired, because it’s never too late to reinvent yourself.
xxMelissa
You Know What - Age Is a Number by Susan Feldman
It’s funny, but age has never been something that bothered me, or that I even thought about that much over the years. Maybe it’s because my story is a little different. After a successful career in the fashion business, I started my own company, One Kings Lane, at 53. Today, I have a new business Get In The Groove. At 65, I’ve finally realized what age means to me. It means that I have a lot of experience, I have a healthy perspective on what’s important and what’s not, and I know what works for me.
Like all great origin stories, I was inspired to create One Kings Lane because of something personal. I had just moved from an apartment in New York to a house in Los Angeles, and saw a home goods industry just waiting to be disrupted. I knew that it was a huge opportunity to do something special and fill a white space. We were so focused on the day-to-day work of getting the business going that we weren’t thinking about how huge it could get. However, after we launched and it took off, we started to understand just how big One Kings Lane could become… and it did! We sold One Kings Lane in 2016, and I thought, what now? I knew I had another act in me.
Get In The Groove was born because all around me, 50ish year old women were describing the same thing. These women had lead happy, full lives but suddenly, they were starting to feel invisible. The idea of going from feeling on top of the world to feeling like your stock was approaching an expiration date just seemed crazy. I thought, “Where do we go online to get inspired? To navigate the challenges of growing older? To feel like we’re heard and seen?” So, I started doing some research. And it didn’t take me very long, because there weren’t a lot of places for us! Especially not any online destinations that reflected the kind of women I know and love: smart, stylish, interesting, and wickedly funny. I thought, “Someone should do this.” So I did. Enter Get In The Groove… a lifestyle destination for age-defying women.
So many women feel ignored or not relevant. In order to be heard, you need to be a part of the cultural conversation. And in order to be apart of the conversation, you need to be informed. Get In The Groove is a resource for all of that information, so women can have access.
My dream is for Get In The Groove to become the go-to brand for age-defying women. That it will become a community for time-tested women who are ready to unleash the potential of what’s next, empowering them to become a part of the conversation, and maybe even their best selves yet. I hope you’ll join us.
About Susan Feldman
Susan Feldman is the founder of In The Groove, a new life-style destination for age-defying women. In The Groove is a community that celebrates and engages these women as the evolving and relevant women they are. Founded with a sense of humor, community, and self-awareness, In The Groove is on a mission to free women from rules, age limits, and expectations.
Prior to In The Groove, Susan was the co-founder and visionary behind One Kings Lane, the go-to destination for home decor. One Kings Lane launched in March 2009 and an industry was disrupted. Today One Kings Lane is a daily source of shopping and design inspiration for millions of people both online and offline One Kings Lane was sold to Bed, Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) in June 2016. Susan remains a strategic advisor to the company. Susan has been featured in national publications including Elle Décor, House Beautiful, INStyle, New York Magazine, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators and NBC’s The Today Show. Susan was named to Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” list twice in the past six years.
Prior to co-founding One Kings Lane, Susan held executive positions in the apparel industry—at Ralph Lauren Swimwear, Polo Jeans, Warnaco/Authentic Fitness Corp., and Liz Claiborne. Susan has an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a BA.
Want a daily dose of Susan and In The Groove? Follow at:
Instagram @getinthegroove1 - Instagram @susankfeldman - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest - Youtube