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Repurpose Your Career | Career Pivot | Careers for the 2nd Half of Life | Career Change | Baby Boomer

Repurpose Your Career podcast brought to you by Career Pivot is a podcast for those of us in the 2nd half of life to come together to discuss how repurpose our careers for the 21st century.  Come listen to career experts give you proven strategies, listen to people like you tell their stories about how they repurposed their careers and finally get your questions answered.   Your host, Marc Miller, has made six career pivots over the last 30 years. He understands this is not about jumping out of the frying pan into a fire but rather to create a plan where you make clear actionable steps or pivots to a better future career. 
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Now displaying: September, 2019
Sep 30, 2019

Paul Taylor Vogelzang is an award-winning blogger, podcaster, writer, and producer, known for his down-to-earth accessible reporting and advice for men and women in the fifty-plus age community. Paul was one of the founding editors of MommyCast and MommyCastLatina, the wildly popular, very first Momcast in audio and video, and he was its producer from 2004 to 2009. MommyCast has been featured in the Hollywood Reporter, Washingtonian, Businessweek, Variety, USAToday, and The Wall Street Journal, along with others. Paul’s current award-winning podcast, The Not Old — Better Show, launched in 2014. Paul continues to share vibrant, focused, entertaining content on the show and writes frequently about the subjects of fashion, grooming, entertainment, technology, and relationships for those in the fifty-plus age community.


Marc is asking for your financial support for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Please donate at Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer to support this Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:33] Marc welcomes you to Episode 147 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:46] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[2:04] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. After nearly 150 episodes, Marc is grateful for his growing audience. It’s clear that the stories from experts and people like yourself on this podcast have had an impact. Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining content, mindful of your time.

[2:48] Marc is asking for direct listener support. Marc asks you for a donation of $5.00 a month but you can contribute as much or as little as you like. Every penny counts.

[3:01] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you love what Marc is doing, please support the podcast today. Go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-147.

[3:25] Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition, is now available! The book tour has launched. Marc had a great first week. There are almost 30 Amazon reviews. Marc will be in New Jersey, and Erie, Pennsylvania, the week of September 29th and D.C., the following week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[3:54] Marc has four events planned for New Jersey and Pennsylvania and a meet-and-greet in D.C.. Please go to CareerPivot.com/launch to find out more.

[4:10] Marc has yet to decide on the subject of next week’s podcast episode will be. It will likely be an interview Marc had with Mark Anthony Dyson on The Voice of Jobseekers podcast, but depending on how things go, it could be something different.

[4:28] This week, Marc interviews Paul Vogelzang, a career pivoter who, after being laid off from one of the big tech giants in his late 50s, is now a successful podcaster. Paul has The Not Old — Better Show, on which Marc has guested, twice. Mar gives an introduction for Paul and welcomes him to the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[6:24] Marc and Paul are fans of each others’ work. Paul has worked in the private sector, technology, healthcare technology, and in the government. His passion is in the area of communications. All along the way, he has held communications roles. Now, in his ‘second act,’ he is doing communications again.

[7:39] Paul is the host, editor, and ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ of The Not Old – Better Show. Paul is grateful for the chance to talk to many people and learn from guests that have done interesting things. Paul has always been excited about learning. Paul continues to do communications work for the federal government.

[8:27] Paul hosts podcasts for The Smithsonian, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and has done some work for the Department of Defense.

[8:40] Paul’s work focuses on telling stories. Paul is passionate about helping other people share information about what they’ve done, how they’ve done it, and where they’re going.

[9:04] Paul is a multipotentialite. Marc is one, too. Marc has a blog post on multipotentialites. Marc has tended to change career areas every three years.

[9:51] Paul explains how he became a podcaster. In 2004, Paul was the producer of Mommycast, the very first mom podcast. Paul’s wife, Gretchen and her friend, Paige Heninger, the co-hosts.

[10:36] Paige and Gretchen had a lot of success telling stories to moms and families. They had a lot of wonderful guests. The podcast lasted about seven years. Paul worked, full-time in the federal government while he produced the podcast, part-time.

[11:11] Paul eventually moved into the private sector, working for a large technology company. Paul refuses to give them publicity here. He was laid off at age 58. He desperately needed to do a career pivot, to use Marc’s term. Paul decided he was going to continue to work in technology, in communications.

[12:08] The company that laid Paul off had a significant outplacement service. Paul went on close to 100 interviews but never was offered a position. Technology was booming in the D.C. area where Paul lives, but in 2015, no one was looking for workers with his experience.

[13:09] Paul had a lot of energy to put to work. He had a lot of interests and personal, career, and financial goals. He was not in a position to retire. He enjoys working and he needed to continue.

[13:39] Paul started writing on LinkedIn. Some of the things Paul was writing about his interview process got a lot of reactions. Paul would return optimistic from an interview with ‘a great young person’ and then hear nothing. So, he wrote about it. As his writing took off, he decided to return to podcasting, this time, as the host.

[14:58] He planned to talk to some of the people who had written back to him about their stories of applying for jobs and finding the technology sector was unusually harsh for those of us over the age of 55. Some of the stories were gut-wrenching. This is what Paul turned into The Not Old — Better Show.

[15:38] As Paul developed the show, he started talking to authors and to people in the entertainment sector. He did some occasional work for the federal government that led to some introductions to government agencies for which he now produces podcasts. It has been a circuitous path with a lot of support from others. He wants to give support.

[16:41] After more than four years, The Not Old — Better Show is doing great! Paul has had a lot of fun, and he has a lot more to do.

[16:58] As a former federal employee, Paul enjoys supporting government agencies tell really great stories with their podcasts. Paul shares how he worked with guest interviews on NASA’s story of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Shot. Most of Paul’s audience is of an age to appreciate these stories from the past.

[18:26] The Smithsonian offers programs throughout the United States, along with the National Park Service and others. Paul explains some of the work he does with experts, authors, scientists, and others about their work for the Smithsonian Institution. Paul believes those are really important stories.

[19:13] Paul talks about the podcasts he does for the National Institutes for Health and the National Institute on Aging, which are related to physical and mental fitness in the years over age 55.

[19:43] Paul posts his podcasts everywhere his audience is found. His podcasts are on Next Avenue, and podcast directories like iTunes and Google Play, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, and even Facebook and LinkedIn, depending on the topic of the show.

[21:15] Marc takes a moment to talk about the Career Pivot Membership Community, which continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the beta phase of this project to grow and thrive.

[21:36] Marc shares a testimonial from Vickie: “The Career Pivot Community has been a strong support system for me, the past year. Having a sharp, supportive group with diverse career backgrounds and experience to use as a sounding board has been invaluable, particularly when I felt isolated and doing battle with negative self-talk.”

[21:59] Vickie continues: “Members provide a perspective that I would have never considered on my own in helping me move forward when I felt stuck or lost.”

[22:11] This is a paid membership community where Marc offers group coaching, special content, mastermind groups, branding sessions, and Slack channels. More importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to Careerpivot.com/community to learn more.

[22:38] Paul reveals the secret to making money podcasting! He didn’t make money when he first started. Paul has been doing three shows a week for almost five years. He does video, as well. It has taken a long time to ramp up an audience, and enough topics and expertise of his own. He has improved his ability to interview and to tell stories.

[23:39] Paul has progressed with his podcast audience. Over the course of about two-and-a-half years, and mostly over the last year, with getting top-name guests to appear on the show, Paul has started to produce interest from potential advertisers.

[24:29] Paul works with healthcare companies, health insurance companies, and technology companies. The hurdle has been that advertising agencies are taking a while to “get” this audience in the second act of their lives. But those over 50 represent a large, affluent market that interests advertisers.

[26:15] Paul sells ads on the podcast. He has prepared a marketing document he sends to advertisers when they show an interest. When they get back to him they work out an advertising package.

[26:45] Some companies call Paul to do voiceover work for their brands. Some people have called him to do guest hosting of other podcasts, such as the Smithsonian podcast and the healthcare-oriented podcasts he hosts.

[27:10] Paul has had to be creative in terms of making money from the podcast. He gets income from a few different sources.

[27:45] Marc notes that the podcasting business has a very long tail. It takes a while. Marc guested on Paul’s show a couple of months ago. Paul has eight-to-ten times the downloads that Marc has. He is also two or three years ahead of Marc. Persistence is required.

[28:25] Because Paul is a former federal employee, which helped pave the way to get in the door for opportunities like hosting the Smithsonian and other agency podcasts. Paul knows the shorthand of government communications and he understands what the government can promote and what they cannot promote.

[29:16] Paul’s podcasts for the government are not selling books or products but are spreading awareness. Federal communications personnel have confidence that Paul will not step over a line but will represent them appropriately in a journalistic style with fact-checking and being prepared for his guests.

[30:29] Paul’s first story-telling work was for NASA. He was interested in the role of women at NASA after seeing Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures. He approached NASA to help them tell their story behind getting the motion picture made. Paul interviewed Taraji P. Henson and also the author of the book Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly.

[31:32] It took some patience to get in the door, some understanding of the environment within the federal government, and making sure the agency was comfortable with him so they could turn over bits and pieces of the story to Paul, confident that he would tell the story fairly and properly. It took persistence. It helps that Paul lives near downtown.

[32:36] When Paul approached NASA, they did not have a budget for promotion or advertising. When Paul offered to tell their story, it appealed to them and they were happy with the result. He was in the right place at the right time. Paul spends a lot of time editing the audio to be as good as possible technically. Marc talks about editing.

[34:35] Paul says there are going to be a lot more of our age group coming up.

[34:51] Marc hopes you enjoyed the episode. Paul is hitting a home run with his podcast. It is very difficult to make any money from podcasting. Paul has eight-to-ten times the downloads that Marc has, and he’s just now getting to the point where he has sponsors. Marc needs donations because he is a long way from getting sponsored.

[35:30] The Career Pivot Membership Community is a platform to provide both inspiration and practical help in creating changes in our lives and careers. It continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project.

[35:39] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else.

[35:44] Marc is recruiting members for the next cohort. If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[35:58] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[36:08] Please come back next week!

[36:15] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[36:25] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-147.

[36:37] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, the Overcast app, or the Spotify app.

Sep 23, 2019

Jon works with startup business founders and early-stage company CEOs and management teams to help them set clear, growth-oriented goals and get the best possible outcomes. He serves on several advisory boards and speaks regularly about the role of technology and innovation in healthcare; he helps entrepreneurs who are 50-plus. He is the author of SLAM: Build your startup idea or early stage business with the Startup Launch Assistance Map,


Marc is asking for your financial support for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Please donate at Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer to support this Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:40] Marc welcomes you to Episode 146 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:54] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[2:13] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. After nearly 150 episodes, Marc is grateful for his growing audience. It’s clear that the stories from experts and people like yourself on this podcast have had an impact. Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining content, mindful of your time.

[2:50] Marc is asking for direct listener support. Marc asks you for a donation of $5.00 a month but you can contribute as much or as little as you like. Every penny counts.

[3:05] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you love what Marc is doing, please support the podcast today. Go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-146.

[3:31] Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition, is now available! The book tour has launched. Marc will likely be in Austin when you hear this episode, the week of September 22nd. Marc will be in New Jersey, the week of September 29th and D.C., the following week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[3:50] Marc has two events planned for Austin, four for New Jersey and a meet-and-greet in D.C. Please go to CareerPivot.com/launch to find out more.
[4:03] Next week, Marc will interview Paul Vogelsang, a career pivoter who, after being laid off by one of the big tech giants in his late 50s, is now a successful podcaster. He has The Not Old — Better Show, which Marc has been a guest on, twice.

[4:22] This week, Marc interviews Jon Warner, author of SLAM: Build your startup idea or early stage business with the Startup Launch Assistance Map. Marc shares Jon’s bio and welcomes Jon to the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[5:20] Jon shares his purpose for writing SLAM. Jon had been using the Lean Business Model Canvas. He found it to be transformational for startups, but he started noticing a few issues people struggled with in using it. Jon started annotating and making up ways of compensating for those issues.

[5:56] Jon started keeping notes for himself about the issues and developing adjunct materials of his own. He saw he was re-engineering the process and wrote an article a couple of years ago about it. The article seemed to resonate. It became the idea for the SLAM model book.

[6:29] The SLAM model gives startups an exploratory grid to help them navigate the typical risks that happen in startup life.

[6:51] Jon answers how the SLAM model can apply to those over 50. The challenge in entrepreneurship is to ‘de-risk’ what you are doing, as much as possible. The risk is greater for those who are in the second half of life. Jon focuses on the healthcare realm. He is very interested in innovation and technology for older adults.

[8:31] Marc refers to the podcast Episode 136 with Diane Mulcahy, author of The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want. Diane has a section in her book on how to de-risk.

[9:00] Jon uses a real case study of 50-plus food truck owners to illustrate the SLAM model in his book. Jon teaches two models. The first is a validation process consisting of an eight-step pathway to think about scaling a startup or a side hustle. Validation is the most important process to see if you have the potential to execute your startup.

[10:38] The second model is the execution template. Jon has an acronym for it: GRAND, starting with Goals. Putting the two models together gives you the GRAND SLAM and the success you want.

[11:08] Both models are designed as exploration templates, giving people a framework to ask questions to which answers need to be discovered, ideally, in the eyes of the customer you are most focused on serving.

[11:32] The SLAM process has eight steps. Step 1: Drill into the unmet need of the customer tribe, which Jon calls the ‘hair on fire tribe.’ Step one can take months or years to gather enough data to validate the need. Step 2: Identify the key team you need to solve the problem for that tribe of customers.

[13:07] Step 3: Develop the Value Proposition to solve that problem for that tribe. These three steps are the ‘Product-Market Fit.’ Step 4: Corroborate that the hypotheses around the product and the market fit are accurate in the eyes of customers. Step 5: Determine that the market is large enough for you to achieve what you want to achieve.

[13:57] Step 6: Develop a go-to-market strategy. Where does the tribe hang out and how do you reach them? Identify the channels carefully. Step 7: Monetization. What does the business model look like? What is the tribe willing to pay to solve that particular problem or pain point?

[14:16] Step 8: Map the Business Ecosystem. Jon explains what this involves.

[14:50] Marc emphasizes the importance of Step 1. Don’t make stuff up. Marc shares from his experiences developing curriculum in 40 countries. No matter who he thinks the audience is, he’s always wrong!

[15:18] Jon Quotes Steve Blank that “No plan survives first contact with a customer.” You can’t just build it and expect that they will come. A small sample is a problem. The pain points of a few friends do not give enough credentials to start a business. Get valid feedback from real customers to see if you can scale a solution for them.

[16:25] The SLAM model doesn’t distinguish between product or service businesses, or business size. It is going to be more useful at an earlier stage of a business. By the time a business has institutional capital, it is usually beyond this process.
[17:16] The SLAM model is aimed at people who are ideating about a business idea, or have a side hustle going they want to scale, or have taken the first steps and are a few months into their business startup and have bootstrapped it.

[17:58] Jon talks about the steps where he sees people make the biggest mistakes: assuming they know the unmet need they are solving, and getting into ‘product build’ too quickly. People like to start with the minimal viable product right out of the gate before they know if it solves the market pain points.

[18:56] These mistakes may require either re-engineering the product, or throwing it away at a waste of time and money.

[19:16] Marc asks about service-based businesses. Jon points out that service businesses can be very different from product businesses, and the intended scale is very important. The process of validating the business potential is the same, requiring answers to the same questions.

[20:19] Jon specifies that customer discovery is a very separate activity from product research. Discovery is finding out from customers what keeps them up at night and what they are doing about it right now as a temporary solution, and listening hard to them.

[21:11] Marc talks about a member of the online community building a service-based business helping small construction companies, and a bad assumption that he had.

[21:43] Jon says a lot of books will give broad ideas for business you could start. Jon mentions businesses jumping onto Shopify as an ecommerce solution. Don’t look at general ideas. Dig in and find the tribe, pain point, and a unique solution you can provide.

[22:55] An older entrepreneur will learn from the book SLAM that there is a pathway they can follow. They have a lot of world experience, but Jon notes that what they have done in the past doesn’t necessarily apply to what they want to do next. The book helps them deconstruct their bad assumptions and mental traps to avoid.

[23:44] SLAM will encourage the older entrepreneur to test everything and assume nothing. Assumptions are the enemy of a successful startup if they’re not corroborated at scale. The book is an exploration grid. It helps individuals to tip their thinking upside-down.

[24:25] Jon’s advice for the older entrepreneur: Spend as little money as possible from the beginning and engage deeply in research about the sector they’re thinking about. Avoid building a product. Go and talk to customers. It’s scary at first, but hugely valuable to talk to 25 or 30 members of the tribe you want to serve. Look for patterns.

[25:40] Another tip is that the smaller you make your beachhead markets, the more likely you are to be successful. When you tailor your offering to a particular need, your chances of getting traction are better and you can dominate that sector quickly. Then look at adjunct sectors a step at a time, and scale slowly.

[28:00] Marc shares a big mistake he sees. People either want to have a traditional business with employees or they want to do it all themselves. They forget about virtual assistants that you pay with 1099s. Marc talks about his background with IBM and Lucent Technologies. Those are not the models to follow.

[29:03] Jon refers back to Step 2, the Key Team. This can be made of a co-founder or two and several virtual assistants, consultants, and advisors. Digitalization has helped us get a team that can be dispersed internationally.

[31:04] Marc’s co-author is in Portugal and his book designer is in Ghana, while Marc is in Mexico. They talk to each other on Facebook.

[31:18] Jon shares his book and contact information: SLAMProcess.com, Jon C. Warner on LinkedIn, JonCWarner on Twitter, and SLAMProcess on Facebook.

[31:28] Marc thanks Jon for being in this episode of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc hopes you enjoyed the episode. Marc brought Jon into the Career Pivot Membership Community group to discuss the entrepreneurial mindset. Marc may use that fascinating discussion in an upcoming episode.

[31:50] The Career Pivot Membership Community is a platform to provide both inspiration and practical help in creating changes in our lives and careers. It continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project.

[32:00] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else. They have been hovering at about 50 members for a while. Members are experiencing successes like going back to work, starting new businesses — even someone buying a franchise. Some leave the community when they’ve found success, while others stay.

[32:23] Their legacy stays with the community as they have built an extensive library of forum entries and discussions. Marc will be publishing shortly testimonials of what they got from being part of this community. There are successes in just about every week. It’s all about perseverance and mutual help.

[32:44] Marc is recruiting members for the next cohort. If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community. The members of the initial cohorts help set the direction of the endeavor.

[33:06] This is a paid membership community with group coaching, mastermind groups, and special content. More importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more.

[33:24] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[33:42] Please come back next week, when Marc will interview podcaster Paul Vogelsang.

[33:50] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[34:02] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-146.

[34:13] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, the Overcast app, or the Spotify app.

Sep 16, 2019

When this episode is released, on September 16th, Marc’s book, Repurpose Your Career, A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, Third Edition,  co-authored by Susan Lahey, will be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback versions. In this episode, Marc reveals the process of writing the book, from leaving the corporate world, to branding himself as a career transformation expert, and working with a professional writer to produce a guide for Baby Boomers as they move from a traditional career to creating networks, finding opportunities, and digitally rebranding themselves. Boomers are preparing to work into their 70s. The Third Edition focuses more on reinvention and less on job searching. Marc explains some of the obstacles he faced and the successes he found in his book publishing journey. Listen in for ideas, and some motivation to buy the book.

Marc is asking for your financial support for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Please donate at Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer to support this Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:22] Marc welcomes you to Episode 145 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:35] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[1:54] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. After nearly 150 episodes, Marc is grateful for his growing audience. It’s clear that the stories from experts and people like yourself on this podcast have had an impact. Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining content, mindful of your time.

[2:36] Marc is asking for direct listener support. Marc asks you for a donation of $5.00 a month but you can contribute as much or as little as you like. Every penny counts.

[2:48] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you love what Marc is doing, please support the podcast today. Go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-145.

[3:14] Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition, is now available! Marc thanks his co-author, Susan Lahey, his book cover designer, Mami Serwaa, the great review team, and all of the people on the Career Pivot Membership Community, who supported the launch. As of September 9, Marc has well over 100 pre-orders.

[3:40] Marc has recorded many podcast guest appearances and continues to record them. Some of which have already been published with more to come. Go to CareerPivot.com/launch you’ll find all the links of all the podcast episodes.
[4:01] Marc will be in Austin the week of September 22nd, the New Jersey area the week of September 29th, and D.C., the following week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[4:12] Marc has multiple events planned for Austin, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Marc will then have a meet-and-greet in D.C. You can find the events on CareerPivot.com/launch.

[4:41] Next week, Marc will interview Jon Warner, author of SLAM: Build your startup idea or early stage business with the Startup Launch Assistance Map.

[4:53] This podcast episode will release on September 16th, when Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition is published in paperback. In this episode, Marc takes you on the journey of how he created this series. Marc started telling the story in CareerPivot.com/episode-25. This time he will go deeper.

[5:14] Kindle and paperback versions have been released. The Audible version will release in January of 2020. A minor update will be published at that time.

[5:26] Marc’s journey to create the Repurpose Your Career series started in 2006. Marc had just come out of a year-and-a-half of teaching and joined Launchpad Job Club.

[5:53] There, he found a room of people that looked like him, in their late 40s and older, many spit out by the tech industry, like IBM, Dell, Freescale (Now NXP Semiconductors), Motorola, and others. Many of them were lost. That’s when Marc came up with the Career Pivot concept and Repurpose Your Career.

[6:23] Marc went to work in the nonprofit sector and that lasted a year. Marc then started working for a tech startup, Lifesize Communications, just before the Great Recession. Marc joined the board at Launchpad in late 2006. By 2009, the Friday meeting attendance at Launchpad was from 300 to 400 people.

[7:04] Launchpad members look like the people who listen to this podcast – older, spit out by their former employer, and needing to go back to work. When Marc quit at Lifesize in January 2011, he started figuring things out. He started the CareerPivot brand in February of 2012. He also met Susan Lahey at that time.

[7:32] Marc and Susan put together a whitepaper, “Don’t Retire... Even if You Can: A Boomer’s Manifesto.” That whitepaper became the seed for the first Repurpose Your Career Book. Marc provided Susan with 15 or 20 blog posts and asked her to take the manifesto and blog posts and turn them into a book. That was enough for a small book.

[8:12] Marc also had a friend Gudjon Bergmann, who had published a book, The Author’s Blueprint: Successfully Write a Non-Fiction Book, Conquer Procrastination and Never Get Writer's Block Again. Gudjon has published many books. Gudjon told Marc, “When you write, particularly your first book, write a book, not the book.”

[8:44] Marc first put the book out as a PDF to a bunch of friends. They liked the book but their big complaint was that all Marc’s career pivot stories were from his own experience.

[9:01] Gudjon had suggested Marc add action steps at the end of each chapter. Marc also created a resource center of the action steps in Word documents. Marc learned that in order to get a binding, a book needs at least 131 pages. They picked a font style and size that got them to a little more than 131 pages.

[9:44] Marc published the book in early 2013. The goal was to update it about every 18 months to two years. The book sold about 2,000 copies in six years and still sells a copy or two, every few months.

[10:23] Susan went on to other projects and Marc tried working with three different writers, none of which stayed with him. He published his next book, Personal Branding for Baby Boomers: What It Is, How to Manage It, and Why It's No Longer Optional, as a 60-page ebook. It has only sold a couple of hundred copies.

[10:50] Marc got back with Susan in 2016 and they started working on the Second Edition of Repurpose Your Career. Marc discovered that a lot had changed in the employment world. It was not going to be friendly to Boomers. Marc planned for three new chapters: Career Failures and Recoveries, Make Stuff Up Disorder, and Weak Ties.

[11:52] Weak Ties was accidentally cut from the book and never made it back in. So, Marc made it into a major new chapter in the Third Edition of Repurpose Your Career.

[12:05] For the Second Edition, Marc added a lot of stories, based on the experiences of the many clients he had worked with since the First Edition was written.That was the biggest update to the book. They released the Second Edition in 2017. His time, Marc put the book up for pre-order and bought Amazon ads.

[12:42] Marc paid a narrator for the Audible version of the original book. Working with a narrator was too much work, so Marc read and edited the Audible version of the Second Edition, himself. The Audible version came out later and was more successful. The Second Edition has sold about 2,000 copies in two-and-a-half years.

[13:40] When Marc and Susan started the Third Edition, they found the world had continued to change. Marc also had started the Career Pivot Online Community. Baby Boomers are aging. Gen-Xers are now coming into their early 50s and are running into the same problems.

[14:13] ProPublica ran an article claiming that “If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours,” and 90% will not recover. In the online community, many will work into their 70s and later because they have to but probably not in a traditional full-time job. Older workers don’t want to work for a boss.

[15:09] For the Third Edition, Marc and Susan pulled out some chapters that related to tactical job searching and put them in the Resource Center. They have added chapters on ageism, creative destruction, creating opportunities and stopping reacting, life as a square peg, and planning how you are going to work into your 70s.

[15:53] The last two new chapters are about a playbook for strategic relationships and building weak ties, which was left on the floor for the Second Edition. A lot of the book is devoted to creative destruction and what you need to do to keep yourself viable. The world has changed and how we look at our careers and make money has to change.

[16:23] The book cover changed to an image with women’s shoes. Mrs. Miller suggests putting both men’s and women’s shoes, walking to a sunrise.

[17:11] Much of the material in the book comes from disparate sources, including blog posts. They used a copywriter who used to be an editor at the Austin American-Statesman. For the Third Edition, Marc and Susan pulled together the voice and the strategies into a coherent thought thread. They got most of the way there.

[17:54] Marc will make some minor updates in January, when they release the Audible version. For example, he will point out that the strategies and weak ties that you use for job searching, you can also use for client search in an entrepreneurial realm. This will be a much more aspirational than a tactical book.

[18:39] We all have to get to the place where we are willing to take control. We will not be looking for that job and waiting for that layoff to happen. We will have a mixture of things to earn our income. Marc included stories of people who are doing that — reinventing themselves, creating their businesses; things that don’t look like a job.

[19:21] Russ Eanes is an example, from the episode of two weeks ago, CareerPivot.com/episode-143. Marc will soon have on the podcast his image consultant, Jean LeFebvre, who has started a Fulfillment by Amazon business in her early 70s. Jean’s first Amazon product is a pierced earring back for sagging earlobes.

[20:00] This being Marc’s fourth book, he is getting better at launches. He had a very large review team, for which he is very appreciative. The quality of this book is the best that Marc and Susan have produced, largely because of the review team’s great work.

[20:39] A subset of the review team will be writing reviews on Amazon, by the time this podcast is released. Marc thanks everyone who has pre-ordered the book. That helps tremendously in the Amazon rankings. Marc is also putting a lot more material in the Resource Center.

[21:44] Marc hopes this book will funnel people into the Career Pivot Online Community. Most of us will need help to reinvent ourselves. It is hard to do alone.

[22:08] This is the first time Marc has had a platform behind the book. Marc is really excited about what the online community can do for people. It is a place for you to go and get help. There are links in the book to the community.

[22:39] The idea is to give you the resources such that you know you are not alone.

[22:47] The Third Edition is about 180 pages. Marc and Susan plan to update it in 18 months to two years. It’s an evolving process. Marc hopes you read the book, write an honest review, and let Marc know what you think. Marc is really proud of it and he wants to know how it helps you.

[23:52] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. The third edition of Repurpose Your Career is a milestone that Marc is quite proud of.

[23:59] The Career Pivot Membership Community is a platform to provide both inspiration and practical help in creating changes in our lives and careers. It continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project. Look for an announcement for a formal launch, this Fall!

[24:24] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else. They have been hovering at about 50 members for a while. Members are experiencing successes like going back to work, starting new businesses — even someone buying a franchise. Some leave the community when they’ve found success, while others stay.

[24:46 ] Their legacy stays with the community as they have built an extensive library of forum entries and discussions. Marc will be publishing shortly testimonials of what they got from being part of this community. There are successes in just about every week. It’s all about perseverance and mutual help.

[25:05] A good example is Russ Eanes, the podcast guest from a couple of weeks ago on CareerPivot.com/episode-143.

[25:11] Marc is recruiting members for the next cohort. If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community. The members of the initial cohorts help set the direction of the endeavor.

[25:31] This is a paid membership community with group coaching, mastermind groups, and special content. More importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more.

[25:49] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[26:02] Please come back next week, when Marc will interview Jon Warner, the author of SLAM.

[26:10] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[26:20] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-145.

[26:33] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, the Overcast app, or the Spotify app. Marc will add to this list soon as he is finding new places to listen!

Sep 9, 2019

David wanted his daughter, Nikki, to be raised to overcome the obstacles of life. When Nikki was young, David wrote a series of books full of inspirational messages for her. Now that Nikki has a young son of her own, she felt it was time to put these stories she loved as a child into circulation for other children to enjoy with their parents. Nikki painted the illustrations and designed the book and working with resources in Thailand, where she lives with her family, she was able to produce them affordably. The best part for them is that the Yeagers donate 100% of the profits from each book to Kids in Need of Defense, working with children separated from their parents at the American border.

Listen in for their story and their plans for books to come.

Marc is asking for your financial support for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Please donate at Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer to support this Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:38] Marc welcomes you to Episode 144 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Career Pivot is the sponsor of this podcast; CareerPivot.com is one of the very few websites dedicated to those of us in the second half of life and our careers. Check out the blog and the other resources delivered to you, free of charge.

[1:51] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[2:10] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. After nearly 150 episodes, Marc is grateful for his growing audience. It’s clear that the stories from experts and people like yourself on this podcast have had an impact.

[2:57] Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining and mindful content. Marc is asking you for a donation of $5.00 a month but you can contribute as much or as little as you like. Every penny counts.

[3:19] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you love what Marc is doing, please support the podcast today. Go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-144.

[3:40] When this podcast releases, on September 9th, it will be seven days from the formal launch of the next edition of Repurpose Your Career, and days away from the soft launch on September 12th.

[4:00] On September 12, the Kindle edition will be available for $.99. On September 16th, the paperback version will publish, but you can pre-order it now! On September 16th the paperback version will sell for $14.97 and the Kindle edition will go to $8.97. Marc will be lowering the prices on previous editions.

[4:28] Go to CareerPivot.com/Launch to find all the links to order your book.

[4:34] Marc has recorded many podcast guest appearances and continues to record them. Some of which have already been published with more to come. Go to CareerPivot.com/launch you’ll find all the links of all the podcast episodes.
[4:51] Marc will be in Austin the week of September 22nd, the New Jersey area the week of September 29th, and D.C., the following week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[5:04] Marc has multiple events planned for Austin, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Marc will then have a meet-and-greet in D.C. You can find the events on CareerPivot.com/launch.

[5:16] Next week, Marc will take you on a journey on how he created the Repurpose Your Career series. Marc is a recovering engineer, not a writer. If Marc can do this, you can, too! Marc discussed part of the journey on CareerPivot.com/episode-25 but this time, he will go deeper. This new episode coincides with the release of the 3rd edition.

[5:42] This week, Marc interviews Nikki and David Yeager on the podcast. Nikki is David’s daughter. Nikki wrote to Marc about her father’s decision to donate 100% of his children’s book proceeds to KIND, an organization that offers pro bono legal services and policy education to help families who have been separated at the U.S. border.

[6:18] Nikki lives in Thailand. Her dad lives in Florida. Nikki is illustrating the books that her father wrote when she was a child. You can hear more at DavidYaygrrBooks.com. There is also a link to it at CareerPivot.com/episode-144

[6:50] Marc welcomes you to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc introduces Nikki and David Yeager and the DavidYaygrrBooks website.

[7:49] Nikki and David recently self-published a children’s book, Nikki Durant and the Terrible Can’t, together. David originally wrote the book when Nikki was “a little baby.” Thirty years later, with a child of her own, Nikki drew the illustrations for the book. When it was ready, Nikki worked to “get it out into the world for him.”

[8:38] David saw tremendous value in sitting with his daughter and reading books to her. As he was doing that, he came up with stories of his own to tell, that he thought would be worthwhile, educational, and inspirational, not only for Nikki but also for other children. He wrote multiple books, over time.

[9:57] Nikki explains the story of Nikki Durant, who overcomes all the obstacles in her way to get to a place called “There.” David wrote the story as an example and a message for his daughter, Nikki.

[10:58] David intended the story as a means of opening a dialog with Nikki about not being intimidated by the challenges of life.

[11:20] Nikki had started a company with her mother and brother a few years ago and David had started working at the company. Recently, they sold the company and David retired. With more time and energy on their hands, Nikki and David had time to dedicate to the project, including Nikki’s work to illustrate the book.

[12:05] With Nikki’s son being four years old, and being fascinated by books, Nikki felt now was the time to get it done. Nikki also wants her son to be raised to overcome any obstacles that come his way with a strong sense of self-advocacy, so she is glad to have the book in his hands.

[12:57] The Yeagers are donating 100% of the profit to Kids In Need of Defense — KIND, that works to provide legal services to children who have been separated from their families at the U.S. border. They also provide representation for children who would otherwise be showing up before judges alone.

[13:49] KIND also advocates for changing the laws that impact children coming into the U.S. and being separated from their parents.

[14:18] David was a stay-at-home dad while his wife pursued a career. David became a foster parent, as well, to do something positive for others. Over several years, they fostered four children at different times. David learned how traumatic it is for children to be separated from their parents, even when it is necessary to protect them.

[16:14] David wants to help, in whatever way he can, to mitigate some of the damage and contribute to helping the people working to lessen the negative impacts of some of the policies and practices in place, separating children from families.

[16:43] There are different ways to communicate with children. Sometimes it can be through books and discussions more than just trying to explicitly teach somebody a lesson.

[17:10] Nikki is living in Bangkok, Thailand with her husband and son. They have been there for about a year.

[17:27] Nikki started illustrating the book about 10 years ago. She stopped after three pages, having lost interest in illustrating “other people’s books.” She put it away until very recently. Nikki painted in acrylics. She finished all the pictures, redoing some of them. Then she scanned them all to a computer and did the layout electronically.

[18:05] Publishing books is very affordable in Bangkok. Production costs in the U.S. are much higher. For the next run, production costs, with shipping, will be less than $1.00 per book. At a selling price of $10.00, they will donate almost $9.00 per book sold. The first production run came to about $3.00 per book.

[19:00] David wrote a lot of books. There will be quite a few more to come. Nikki drew the pictures for another one, many years ago, that she is considering redoing, and there is another she may start illustrating soon. Nikki’s goal is to have a second book done in the next six months.

[20:00] David is 65. This experience is a reinvention for David and a time of discovery. Both David and his wife retired at the end of 2018, so they are exploring how to use the time available to them, including working with his writings of the past.

[20:59] It was a joy for David to see the book become real that had always been in his head.There is a real sense of satisfaction that Nikki, the child David was trying to teach and inspire, is now a part of the process of completing the book, for others and her own child.

[22:11] Nikki tells how she could tell her usually unexcitable father was excited on first seeing the book.

[23:16] Nikki had the story in an email sent from David. Nikki had to break it into pages and come up with the images based on the words on the page. Besides the interior illustrations, she designed the cover, using illustrations from the book.

[24:57] Nikki tells how it came to pass that she illustrated the book. She had gone through a vocational art program. Once or twice David had hinted that it would be nice if Nikki or someone she knew drew the pictures for the story.

[25:31] It’s nearly impossible to get a children’s book publisher to pick up an unknown author. There are so many children’s books, already. To pay someone to do high-quality illustrations is extremely expensive, so it’s hard to recoup those costs. Nikki always considered that she had the capability to do it and she really loved David’s books.

[26:02] It almost felt to Nikki like an obligation to do the illustrations for the books she had loved from her childhood, so that’s how she came around to it.

[26:14] Marc has a good friend through Leadership Austin who aged out of the foster care system. Marc also knows people in organizations at the border and he lives in Mexico, so he feels connected to the Yeager’s story in several ways.

[26:52] Nikki talks about the distribution of the book. They also created lesson plans that go along with the book and they plan to do read-alouds in schools, with activities for teachers and classes.

[27:31] Nikki and David are working very hard to get more reviews and word-of-mouth. Nikki invites listeners of the Repurpose Your Career podcast to spread the message.

[27:48] Find the book on DavidYaygrrBooks.com. The Yeagers get the most money to donate if you buy from their website. The book is also on MagicBeans Bookstore, which donates books to children in need. You can also buy it at Back in the Day Books in Dunedin, Florida, where David lives.

[28:46] David also appreciates the help any of the listeners can give in getting the book out there. It’s nearly impossible for a new author to get a book published, no matter how worthwhile it is.

[29:26] When Nikki approached Marc, he felt this was a cool story to share on the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[29:49] Marc thanks Nikii and David Yeager for being on the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. Marc had a bunch of fun talking to Nikki and David.

[30:41] The Career Pivot Membership Community continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project to grow and thrive. The community has moved on to the next phase where community members who have experienced success get to share their successes and teach others.

[30:57] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else out.

[31:02] The community is about to go to a formal launch. Look for more on the online community as Marc launches a new version of the Career Pivot website toward the end of September or early October.

[31:18] They have been hovering at about 50 members for a while. Members are experiencing successes like going back to work, starting new businesses — even someone buying a franchise. Some leave the community when they’ve found success, while others stay.

[31:37] Their legacy stays with the community as they have built an extensive library of forum entries and discussions. Marc will be publishing shortly testimonials of what they got from being part of this community. There are successes in just about every week.

[31:57] Marc is recruiting members for the next cohort. If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[32:05] This is a paid membership community with group coaching, mastermind groups, and special content. More importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more.

[32:22] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[32:35] Please come back next week, when Marc discusses the journey of writing the Repurpose Your Career series.

[32:42] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[32:53] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-144.

[33:04] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, the Overcast app, or the Spotify app. Marc will add to this list soon as he is finding new places to listen!

Sep 2, 2019

Russ Eanes enjoyed a long career as a publishing executive for the Mennonite church in the U.S. and Canada. With the disruption of the publishing industry and the decline in church membership and attendance, Russ found himself downsizing staff and merging locations until he was exhausted by it, so he downsized himself and took a sabbatical, including a walk on the Camino de Santiago. On that sabbatical, he found a new purpose. He is now publishing the story of his walk and starting a journey of teaching other walkers how to self-publish books chronicling their experiences.

Marc is asking for your financial support for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Please Donate monthly at Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer to support this Podcast.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:32] Marc welcomes you to Episode 143 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Career Pivot is the sponsor of this podcast; CareerPivot.com is one of the very few websites dedicated to those of us in the second half of life and our careers. Check out the blog and the other resources delivered to you, free of charge.

[1:59] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[2:17] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. After nearly 150 episodes, Marc is grateful for his growing audience. Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining and mindful content. Marc is asking you for a donation of $5.00 a month but you can contribute as much or as little as you like. Every penny counts.

[3:27] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you love what Marc is doing, please support the podcast today. Go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-143.

[3:55] Marc has uploaded the manuscript of Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition to KDP Amazon, the self-publishing arm of Amazon.com. Proof copies of the paperback edition are in the hands of the volunteers of the Repurpose Your Career release team to review for fit and finish. The soft release of the book is days away, on September 12th.

[4:24] On September 12, the Kindle edition will be available for $.99. On September 16th, the paperback version will publish, but you can pre-order it now! Go to CareerPivot.com/Launch to find all the links to order your book, now.

[4:45] Marc has recorded many podcast guest appearances, some of which have already been published with more to come. Go to CareerPivot.com/launch you’ll find all the links of all the podcast episodes.
[4:58] Marc will be in Austin the week of September 22nd, the New Jersey area the week of September 29th, and D.C., the following week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[5:13] Marc has multiple events planned for Austin, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Marc will then have a meet-and-greet in D.C. You can find the events on CareerPivot.com/launch.

[5:26] Next week, Marc will interview Nikki and David Yeager on the podcast. Nikki is David’s daughter and she wrote to Marc about her father’s decision to donate 100% of his children’s book proceeds to KIND, an organization that offers pro bono legal services and policy education to families who have been separated at the U.S. border.

[5:59] Nikki lives in Thailand. Her dad lives in Florida. Nikki is illustrating the books that her father wrote when she was a child. You can hear more at DavidYaygrrBooks.com. Marc was really touched by the story Nikki shared. Marc is way too familiar with what is going on at the border, having lived in Texas for many years and now living in Mexico.

[6:44] This week, Marc interviews Russ Eanes. Russ is a member of the Career Pivot Online Community who left his job more than a year ago at the age of 60. Russ suffered a double whammy: both his industry and his career path were disappearing.

[7:04] Come listen to his story of getting lost and finding his way to writing a book and starting a business to help others self-publish. Marc hopes you enjoy this episode.

[7:16] Marc welcomes Russ Eanes to the Repurpose Your Career podcast and invites Russ to relate what he did in the first half of life.

[8:01] Russ worked in ministry for several years in the Mennonite Church. Russ also has worked many years in publishing, which is his “real love.” Russ has also been a University administrator. He has explored several career paths. He is most interested in publishing, writing, editing, and anything literary.

[8:29] Most recently, Russ was at the top of his career, Executive Director for MennoMedia, the publisher for the Mennonite Church in the U.S. and Canada. They publish books, curriculum, music, and magazines. It required a lot of work and contact with the constituents, managing a sizeable staff at multiple locations in both countries.

[9:03] The publishing business and churches today are going through tremendous changes. Churches are decreasing in number. The publishing industry has been disrupted over the last few decades. A church publisher is at the nexus of that decline. After 11 years of downsizing, Russ was worn out and downsized himself, at age 60.

[10:53] Marc talks about his first tech startup being bought by Lucent and then spun out as Agere Systems. Marc was on the team picking who would be laid off.

[11:32] Russ needed a sabbatical. His wife suggested he take a year off and live on savings before getting back to work. Russ visited his son in South America, then biked across the UK. He fulfilled a long-held dream of walking the Camino de Santiago across Spain. He used that walking time to set a new pattern and pace for his life.

[13:24] Russ completed the walk in May of 2018 and then went home. He had an idea to start a business to help people self-publish. However, he felt that he no longer fit into the fast pace of American culture. He decided to write a book about his experiences walking on the Camino.

[15:00] During his walk on the Camino, his love of writing had re-awakened. He wrote letters home, emails, and social media posts. When he started his book, the writing poured out of him; it wasn’t like work. He had never wanted to write a book but now it came naturally. He worked with an editor and developed a style of writing by narration.

[16:16] He chronicled the journey of 500 miles over six weeks, telling of his experiences at different stages of the journey.

[16:51] For over 20 years, Russ had kept meeting people who had walked the Camino, and that created in him a desire to walk it, also. On the Camino, the unexpected happens, all the time. There are no schedules and no lists. You just take your bag and guidebook and walk about twenty-five kilometers a day.

[18:13] As a young man, Marc talks about the five weeks he took off, to hike Colorado and Utah. He hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It took Marc almost two weeks to lose track of the day of the week, and not care. Russ never had any idea of the day of the week on the Camino, but he did have a calendar.

[18:36] Russ only kept track of the day his wife was going to meet him — Friday, April 27.

[19:00] Marc has found, by living in Mexico, that there are a lot of things that used to be important to him that are no longer interesting. He is uncomfortable in the U.S.. Russ notes that everything you need is in a 16-pound pack on your back. Russ missed family on his trip, but the only material possessions he missed were books.

[19:29] Whenever Russ would stop and spend the night, if he found a book in English, he would devour it. He carried only a guidebook and a book on the history and culture of the towns on the Camino.

[20:06] After Russ started the book, with an editor, he was surprised by the amount of rewriting he needed to do. He ended up working with two editors. They kept pointing out patterns in his writing. After nine months of writing, by the time Russ started the last chapter, he had weeded out most of his bad writing habits.
[20:46] Russ found that writing is tough mental work, and it exhausted him to write day after day, after day.

[21:01] Marc worked with Susan Lahey, who also worked with Russ. Marc says, “It doesn’t make any difference what you think — it’s what your readers think.” You have to get outside of your own head. A good editor will point out inconsistencies, redundancies, and problems that you don’t notice.

[22:00] Russ is publishing the book himself under the imprint he created, the Walker Press. He hopes to do more books and also help others through the process of self-publishing books about walking. Russ will publish the book on Labor Day. He is opening it on Amazon and IngramSpark, the main self-publishing channels in the U.S.

[22:31] Russ is working on promotional ideas, advertising, and a few events. Russ loves talking about his walk on the Camino. He took about 3,000 pictures, so he shows pictures when he makes a presentation.

[22:54] Russ has started working with the first few clients for self-publishing and hopes to find his capacity of how many people he can work with at a time.

[23:06] Russ has learned that he has a lot of fun in writing. It is a tremendous creative process. When Russ finished a chapter, he sent it out to a team of readers for their feedback. About 25 readers have given Russ excellent feedback, which was very valuable. Russ is very happy he has been able to fulfill a dream.

[24:11] Russ has also learned how much longer it takes than you might imagine. He originally thought he would have the book published five months ago. Russ has had to learn how to be his own boss and obey his boss. He realized that to get serious work done, he had to leave the house to escape the distractions of home.

[25:02] Russ went to a local coffee shop, three days a week, and hunkered down for several hours. Russ found it was a good atmosphere for writing.

[25:40] Russ chose readers from among his friends and family and from posts he put on Facebook, and on a forum for people who have an interest in the Camino de Santiago. He found a dozen readers who had walked the Camino. Russ says these are his best readers because they know the experience exactly.

[26:50] Marc says a lot of people don’t get started writing because they are not willing to go get feedback. They don’t want to hear that their writing needs work. Feedback is very important.

[27:24] Russ asks you, if you give feedback to a writer, to try to frame it in a positive way. The authors are writing about themselves! Russ’s wife is ruthless in marking grammar and punctuation errors and striking out words! Sometimes an editor or a reader is off, but mostly they are right.

[28:03] Russ set the publishing date of Labor Day, September 2, 2019, because he has a trip planned for the end of September to do a two-week walk between Rome and Florence in the Umbrian Mountains, with his wife, for their 40th wedding anniversary. Russ wanted the book out of the way to get ready for the walk.

[29:31] To learn more about Russ and his projects, go to RussEanes.com or TheRustyWalker.Wordpress.com, or see the book, The Walk of a Lifetime: 500 Miles on the Camino de Santiago.

[30:30] Russ has been in the Career Pivot Online Community for about six months. He has found a lot of people like him, who hit the second half of life and are ready to take life and work at a different pace and try something different. Some have tried several different things. You discover you’re not alone. It gets Russ out of his own head.

[31:58] Marc thanks Russ for being on the Repurpose Your Career podcast and for being in the Career Pivot Online Community. Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. Russ is on an interesting journey that is not over. If you are interested in his book or other projects, go to CareerPivot.com/episode-143 for the links to his book and website.

[32:35] The Career Pivot Membership Community continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project to grow and thrive. The community has moved on to the next phase where community members who have experienced success get to share their successes and teach others.

[32:51] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else out. They have been hovering at about 50 members for a while. Members are experiencing successes like going back to work, starting new businesses — even someone buying a franchise. Some leave the community when they’ve found success, while others stay.

[33:13] Their legacy stays with the community as they have built an extensive library of forum entries and discussions. Marc will be publishing shortly testimonials of what they got from being part of this community. There are successes in just about every week.

[33:44] Marc is recruiting members for the next cohort. If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[33:59] Those who are in these initial cohorts set the direction. This is a paid membership community with group coaching and special content. More importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more.

[34:22] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[34:39] Please come back next week, when Marc interviews Nikki and David Yeager from David YayGrr Books.

[34:49] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[35:02] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-143.

[35:18] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, the Overcast app, or the Spotify app. Marc will add to this list soon as he is finding new places to listen!

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