Hi, I’m Bettina,

Journalist, TEDx speaker, longevity researcher, and former breast cancer patient, who believes women can get younger with age… and I’m living proof.

My journey began with two plot twists: becoming a first-time mom at 44, and then — four years later — hearing the words nobody wants to hear: you have cancer. Nothing makes you rethink aging faster than imagining your child growing up without you. So I turned myself into a walking science experiment and discovered something astonishing: we have far more control over our biological age than we’ve ever been told.

Since then, I’ve spoken on three continents — from C-suite executives in Washington, DC, to intimate leadership retreats in the Saharan Desert — sharing the science and psychology behind becoming biologically younger, mentally stronger, and wildly more alive in midlife.

I lead Younger With Age Journeys, women-only experiences that are part longevity retreat, part adventure camp, part “I can’t believe I’m doing this” life reset. Imaging a group of likeminded super supportive female mavericks in their 40s and 50s, who have a blast, while getting younger together! Get on our WAITLIST right here to be the first to know about the next journeys.

I also host the Younger With Age Podcast, where we talk science, mindset, identity, and what it really takes to reinvent yourself from the inside out.

And in 2026, we’ll launch Your Year of Getting Younger — a deeply personalized longevity and age-reversal program designed to give every woman her own blueprint for rejuvenation, with a community that carries and uplifts each other through a full year of transformation.

I’m certified as a Lifestyle & Wellness Coach through Harvard Medical School Executive Education, and a Certified Mental Strength Trainer through Mentalakademie Europa.

But my real credentials?
Mother at 44. Survivor at 48. And a woman who decided to make aging optional.

My love for journalism and asking questions has shaped me into who I am today. 

Throughout my career, I had the good fortune to talk to and learn from impressive individuals like Adventure Capitalist Jim Rogers, whose multiple journeys around the world landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. John Mackey was a college dropout when he started Whole Foods and went organic decades before it became fashionable. NY Times bestselling author Daniel Pink surprised the world with "A Whole New Mind."

Futurist Faith Popcorn coined terms like "Cocooning" or "Cashing Out" before they became household names. My fellow Austrian, the late Horst Rechelbacher, revolutionized the cosmetic industry when he founded AVEDA and became the BIO-neer of holistic beauty.

Ken Fisher has a passion for Redwood trees and showed up to our interview with a briefcase held together by duct tape, which I found charming given the fact that this man is a self-made billionaire. Michael Bloomberg was fired from Salomon Brothers before building his Bloomberg News empire from scratch and becoming one of New York City's most popular mayor in history. 

Here's one of the most valuable lessons I've learned in decades of journalism:

Breakthroughs occur when we look at a situation differently than most other people do. A shifted perspective, ever so slightly, is key to success.

These are a few photos from the time I received my certification as a Mental Strength Trainer by the Mentalakademie Europe. We trained in Tuscany, Italy, as well as South Tyrol. During the last week of my training, I found out I was pregnant. I credit this education and its focus on what's possible to be pivotal for my mindset to conceive.

If, for whatever funny reason you still don't have enough of me, here's the full monty of my bio:

At the beginning of my career I was the speechwriter to a famous Austrian Industrialist – Georg von Mautner Markhof – who was also a member of the Austrian parliament. He was an older wise gentleman, with bushy eyebrows and an impressive collection of pipes. He was constantly cloaked in a cloud of sweet and soft tobacco and I usually smelled him before I saw him turning a corner. Once Georg asked me to research what seemed an impossible amount of information given my deadline of fewer than 30 minutes. “This is impossible!” I blurted out. He looked at me as only a sage could look at the rooky. He warmly, but sternly answered: “Impossible is a word you need to scratch from your vocabulary, Bettina.”

I am forever grateful for this lesson. That mindset gave me a resolute outlook on life.

Journalism became my door to the world. It suited my genuine interest in people and their challenges and victories. I quickly was hired by the biggest media publications in Austria. This allowed me access to people I would otherwise not have met, let alone sit down with to interview. I became fascinated with human nature and studied hundreds of individuals I came in close contact with.

In 1996 I left my home town Vienna (and a bad relationship) to move to New York City to pursue my career as a foreign correspondent and columnist with a focus on finance and business (see the pictures above).

When I arrived in the Big Apple I had no friends; no contacts; no office. I accosted people in the elevator of my apartment building to get at least some social interaction going. My neighbors, Joe and Marilyn, eventually became my surrogate parents. Joe walked me down the aisle at my wedding. He was a dignified stand-in for my beloved father, who had passed five years earlier with me at his side.

For a little while, I was head of communication for a Managed Futures fund in New York City. Money, status, long hours – the works. I tremendously enjoyed the steady and hefty paycheck. In the end, my longing for an independent lifestyle that fits my personality won, and I left the office on Park Avenue.

I´ve raised money. I´ve lost money. I value it for the freedom it offers. And I remember well when I attached my own self-worth to the number of dollars I made each month.

I´ve dedicated more than two decades to the hands-on study of consciousness, self-actualization, and a variety of wisdom traditions. It all started in 2000 when I embarked on an amazing 10-day journey with a Native American warrior woman. This experience showed me how limited my science-oriented and intellectual mind had been until that point and marked the beginning of my personal spiritual quest and a huge growth spurt.

Then came the biggest self-discovery journey I would ever undertake: at age 36 I met my future husband, Joshua, at a marketing seminar in New York City. Eight years later I birthed our son. Then I turned myself into an entrepreneur. Relationship - parenthood - entrepreneurship ... the holy trifecta of personal growth!

What do I do for fun? I like to hang out in remote places of the world like the peak of the highest mountain of South-East Asia (in Borneo); an island as big as a New York 3-bedroom apartment off the Australian Great Barrier reef; a sheep farm in New Zealand where I was enlisted as a sheep sheerer; an 1860 like Rendezvous (a meeting of settlers and trappers) in the high desert of Nevada; an all-male prison in Oklahoma where the inmates tamed wild mustangs; a hidden place in Bali where the infamous cockfights take place; and CNN founder Ted Turner’s Flying D ranch in Montana, where buffalos roam free. 

I deeply love animals and people. 

If you wonder what makes me happy: hand me a camera and turn me loose in a part of the world I’ve not been to before. For where to send cameras and tickets, please email me and I’ll hook you up!

With a big smile,

Bettina