Never Retire: Learn From This Life Meets Work Success Story
When I interviewed her for today’s newsletter, I failed to ask
if she intends to Never Retire. But I’m going to assume she has a Never Retire mindset and—as quickly becomes obvious—plan.Because, why not?
She lives. She writes. And she makes a living doing it.
That’s the dream. At least, one of them. And—as I indicated in the previous installment that inspired this one (link at the bottom of the page)—there are lots of people selling the dream, but very few who live it.
Anyhow, Charlie is a top writer on Medium. She edits the Rooted, which is a boostable publication. And, of course, she writes The Sauce, a Substack dedicated to food and drink.
My wife and I have hung out with Charlie and her husband,
, twice in Spain. And we’re planning on doing it again in 2025. In Valencia and in Porto, Portugal, which is where Charlie and Sam live.Pursuant to Friday’s installment, there’s lots here you can use as inspiration and knowledge to help inform where you’re at and wanted to be headed, particularly if you have the second act of your life on your mind.
Tell the story of what you did before.
In 2013 my husband and I opened a hybrid wine store and bar (like an Italian enoteca) in a seaside town close to London. We built the business up from scratch and it was an amazing thing to do. To become fully immersed in wine - which had previously been a huge passion - was incredible. This is a fascinating, geeky world that stretches way beyond just getting drunk. It's about nature and culture and I was so happy to be involved in that.
As it was my business, my day-to-day consisted of everything you can think of from buying new wines to orders to working the floor (both the retail and bar side of things). I was also in charge of everything to do with our PR, advertising, social media and website work which was a lot of work.
We had many arms to our business including hosting events, selling to private clients, selling online, running a wine club and wholesaling to restaurants as well as the day to day running of the shop and bar. And I - along with my husband - did it all. The work was tough and long but immensely satisfying...for a while at least.
Why and how did you decide to make a change?