Meet Lorraine C. Ladish | Co-Founder Viva Fifty Media LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lorraine C. Ladish and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lorraine, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always worked for myself and when I’ve worked for others it has been on a contractor basis. I’m 58, and worked full-time from the age of 20, so that’s a long time. It also means that it’s possible to pull this off. My latest venture, Viva Fifty Media, that includes a bilingual website, VivaFifty.com for women over 50, TheFlawedYogini.com, a website that focuses on yoga, and my personal website LorraineCLadish.com, was initiated in 2014, when I asked myself what I could be passionate about, day in, day out, in the next 5-10 years, while making a living with it. I felt underrepresented when I turned 50. I didn’t realize that at a time in my life when I was feeling my best physically, mentally and emotionally, other women felt like they were falling apart and even worse, ashamed of their age. I started a publication and associated social media that fulfilled a need that I had: seeing myself portrayed as a vibrant, energetic, go-getting midlife woman. I didn’t know whether it would be profitable at all and it was profitable in the first year, and we’re going strong. That said, we bootstrap and don’t have huge overheads. I like it this way.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I come from a family of artists and writers. When I was young, there was no internet, there were no cell phones and faxes were just starting to be a thing. I found a way to freelance with dubbing and sound studios adapting US sitcoms to Spanish, in Spain, where I was born (I’m half Spanish, half American) and then continue doing it from a different city. I used couriers to send the VHS and Beta tapes and the manuscripts I adapted. At first the managers of the studio would not year of it, but I convinced them to let me try “telecommuting” which didn’t even exist back then. I was so effective that I worked this way for decades.

When the internet came around it was like technology caught up with my mindset. Unfortunately one thing that sets me aside from others is that I show up. If I say I will answer an interview I do it. If I am given a deadline, I meet it.

This should not be something to be impressed about, but a matter of professionalism.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am never caught up in external places. The best times can be had anywhere, with the right company.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband Phillippe Diederich, a photojournalist and published author who trusts I know what I’m doing in social media. Everyone and anyone who gave me a hand back in 2008-09 when I went from being a middle class journalist/translator/book author to a broke single mom of two little kids during the bust. The young businessman who gave me a break back then commissioning some very low paid (but paid) blog posts, probably doesn’t even know that he got me started on my writing, editing and publishing career online. Who would have told me I’d master SEO, social media and even creating and editing reels for a living. And yet here we are.

Website: https://www.lorrainecladish.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorrainecladish

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorraincladish

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorraincladish

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LorraineCLadish

Image Credits
Phillippe Diederich