Nancy Griffin, MMH
Founder and CEO
Nancy’s career pivot after three decades in hospitality and wellness was inspired by her grandparents. Her mother’s parents helped found a Quaker-based senior living community outside Baltimore, where both sets of grandparents lived out their years. Despite best intentions, the Continued Care Retirement Community (CCRC) was steeped in an institutional approach. She knew there had to be a better way.
After receiving her master’s in hospitality management from Cornell University in 1994, Nancy became a serial entrepreneur. Her first venture was consulting firm The Wellness Resource, followed by SpaTrade, and SpaExec, which she sold to Questex in 2008. After serving as Executive Director of Content for the Beauty and Wellness Group, Nancy launched Contento Marketing in 2011.
Nancy’s foray into the business of aging well began with the Glowing Older Podcast, launched in August 2020, featuring experts on life’s “third act.” In April 2021, she founded SeniorTrade, a business-to-business platform for senior living and aging services. A recognized expert on the business of aging well, she is an industry scholar with the Cornell Institute of Healthy Futures (CIHF)--with recent keynotes for eCornell and CIHF.
After hundreds of podcast interviews and blog posts, Nancy realized that ageism is the biggest hurdle to aging well. To combat ageism in the beauty and wellness industry, Nancy launched the movement #ExposeAgeism in March 2023. To date, more than 40 companies have made the pledge to eliminate the phrase “anti-aging” in product descriptions and marketing by 2025.
Nancy is excited to leverage her experience working with small business owners to help individuals develop life plans that bring purpose, belonging, and joy.
Our Guiding Principles
Our organizational core values are integrity, respect, advocacy, and compassion. We are committed to embodying these values when working with our clients, partners, community, and one another.
We are:
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On your side. We won’t judge you, scold you, or convince you to do something you don’t want to do.
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Here to listen to you. We’re not here to tell you what to do or push you toward a specific product or service.
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Open to feedback. Our work is collaborative, and we always want to do better.
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Respect and encourage boundaries. We’ll be clear about how we can work best with you, and we want you to tell us how best you can work with us.
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Always learning.
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Excited to support you GLOW OLDER.
Our Story
The idea for Glowing Older was born out of a real-life conversation between friends. In February 2023, Katherine Lord (37), reached out to Nancy Griffin (58) for guidance on how to counsel her parents through their disappointment in their senior living community. Katherine knew Nancy would be a tremendous resource given her background in hospitality, her experience with her own parents, as well as her deep knowledge of the business of aging, including the senior living industry. Further, Katherine knew Nancy’s work from her podcast, Glowing Older, which, at that time, had 140 episodes with experts in the business of aging well.
As a member of the “sandwich generation,” meaning adult children navigating care for both their parents and their own children, Katherine’s situation was not unique, but, none-the-less, difficult. Often, adult children find themselves with a void in knowledge, support, and resources when confronted with the spectrum of challenges that face aging adults, coupled with the strain on their time and energy from raising children. Katherine, like many, wanted to provide her parents with both comfort and input on their situation, but needed one-on-one help to do so. Through their conversation, Katherine gained some critical insights from Nancy that she, in turn, shared with her parents. Thanks to that conversation, together, Katherine and her parents were able to discuss essential topics that would help improve their outlook and quality of life.
Following our conversation, we realized that the helpful exchange between us would be the foundation of a great business: helping adult children and their parents navigate the joys and challenges of aging. We saw that our combined experience and passions aligned to grow this one-time conversation into a fully realized service. With the assistance of our senior advisor, Wendy Bosalavage (67), we launched Glowing Older, LLC.
Glowing Older is a coaching firm that supports people in creating their plans to age well. Through facilitating conversations, presenting options, and identifying resources, Glowing Older provides curated, personalized service to help clients discover what’s possible in the third act of life.
We are three women of three generations at the helm of this organization, motivated by the belief that we all deserve to glow older. Our goal is to help people explore what really excites them, inspires them, and frustrates them; what they want, and what they don’t; and to be their greatest champion in improving their quality of life by addressing the opportunities and challenges of aging head-on.
