Meet Chilly Jilly: Entrepreneurial Success After 50!

Meet Chilly Jilly: Jill Boehler Traded Empty Nest for Entrepreneurial Success After 50!

Jill Boehler of Chilly Jilly went from to empty nest to a midlife career change and entrepreneurial adventure! Turning fifty provided this woman with an incredible freedom, inspiration, and success as a “meno-preneur”! See how Jill’s midlife business adventure turned out…

I was approaching my 55th birthday, (how did that happen) my last child left for college and we moved to a new city. No friends nearby, no job, no kids! Everything familiar and safe was gone and I didn’t even know how to get to the grocery store without my GPS. I envied my husband who returned from work each evening excited to share his accomplishments and experiences. I knew I could easily get a job as a speech therapist and continue my familiar life and then it hit me.

I’d always been an entrepreneurial wanna-be, and it was now or never. Everything I needed was right in front of me. I had my health (body and brain), time and my great idea. I was ready to become a “MENO-preneuer”.

I was always freezing in air-conditioned restaurants and I was tired of dragging around a sweater in the hot months and tying it around my shoulder or waist. Inevitably, I would leave it in the restaurant and have to go back or lose it altogether. If I forgot it, I ended up wearing my husband’s jacket, covering myself with napkins or taking breaks into the warm air during dinner. It was time to fix this problem for myself and for women everywhere. And so the CHILLY JILLY was born.

A Chilly Jilly is a wrap in a small bag. It is unique because it’s designed to be kept in a woman’s purse at all times. It is made of the same micro fiber as popular athletic wear so it is crease free, lightweight, soft and provides just the right amount of warmth.

Along with my 55th birthday came an excitement I had not felt in years! Over the last year I have experienced things I never would have imagined, and I am watching my dreams become a reality. I was on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, on MSNBC Your Business and interviewed by several magazines including Baltimore Magazine, Inc. Magazine My typical day is busy and exciting from morning until evening. I speak to truckers, manufacturers, factories, customers, and am entrenched in business all day long. I hardly recognize myself.

This is one of the most exciting times of my life and I can’t believe I was ever dreading it. I had a great idea and it was because I was at the right place in my life that it succeeded.

I am in the throngs of midlife and loving it. I have met and made connections with amazingly talented women whom I never would have met. As I observe other women in their 30’s and 40’s, I remember how happy I was back then but I also know I do not want to be there now. I am having the time of my life!! My 50s have given me a second shot and I KNOW I am more interesting, exciting and growing mentally and spiritually every day. Who knows what may happen – and I wake up every day excited to find out.