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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: October, 2019
Oct 28, 2019

This is the occasion of the release of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide For Those in the 2nd Half of Life, Third Editions. Mark Anthony Dyson, the host of The Voice of Job Seekers podcast, has Marc on as a guest and this is the interview that was shared on that podcast. Marc shares some of the highlights of the book. Mark asks about ageism, necessary skills, and necessary mindsets for getting work that has meaning for you and will provide income in the second half of life. Listen in for sound advice for job seekers.

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:

[1:24] Marc welcomes you to Episode 151 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:36] 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.

[1:55] Marc’s expenses to put this podcast on are about $400.00 a month. At 151 episodes, Marc is humbled by all the positive feedback and reviews.

[2:14] 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.

[2:20] 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-151.

[2:41] The Repurpose Your Career podcast is entering the fourth year. Marc is back in Ajijic, Mexico and getting back into the groove of being home. Marc has lots of new guests planned.

[2:56] Next week’s episode will be a replay of Marc’s interview on the Second Act Stories podcast. It is a worthwhile podcast for Marc’s audience.

[3:10] This week is a replay of Marc’s appearance on The Voice of Job Seekers podcast with Mark Anthony Dyson from September 10th. Marc hopes you enjoy this episode.

[3:20] Mark Anthony Dyson welcomes his regular guest Marc Miller to The Voice of Job Seekers in recognition of the release of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd half of Life, Third Edition.

[3:53] Marc talks about the evolution of his book, starting in 2012 after the Great Recession when many Boomers started to realize they weren’t going to retire like their parents but would have to keep working.

[4:58] The Second Edition of the book, in 2017, addressed the concerns of GenXers, who found themselves in much the same financial circumstances as the Boomers.

[5:15] In 2019, we are in “full employment.” Everybody who wants a job has a job — except for those over 50, who are experiencing unemployment as high as 13 to 14 percent. Many of us will work into our 70s and it will take some planning. It’s probably not a full-time job.

[6:13] Marc hears from his online community that people want the freedom to work on what they want to do, when they want to work, and how hard they want to work. We are realizing the only safety there is in employment is in ourselves. An employer is not going “to take care of us.” Marc worked for IBM for 22 years. He thought he would finish there.

[7:04] The world doesn’t look the same as it did when Marc started at IBM.

[7:12] Mark says looking at the three percent unemployment statistic should not tell you that you should be able to find a job. We don’t read statistics correctly. We need to parse them out into their age brackets. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not measure underemployment, either.

[7:47] If you’re older and you want to go back to work, you are not going to go back to the same gig you had before. Mark knows a former VP of a college who just retired from Starbucks. Starbucks has great benefits, but it’s not being the VP of a college.

[8:29] We are going through tremendous creative destruction and disruption. Marc tells people who switch industries to make sure that industry ‘has legs.’ Stay away from retail, education, and other industries that are being disrupted.

[9:08] Marc talks of people whose careers fell apart in five years. One was in marketing real estate. Marc got her into the HQ of Keller Williams to talk to Jay Papasan, who co-authored The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results with Gary Keller. He was the only person over 50 in the company.

[9:53] Marketing today is all clicks and analytics. Marc was in high-tech marketing in the ’90s. The marketing practices he followed no longer exist. In the ’70s and ’80s, people in marketing didn’t need to know any math. Now marketing is all analytics.

[10:27] Mark wrote on this subject for The Financial Diet. Talking about your 20-plus years of experience is the beginning of the death of your employment possibilities. 20 years of experience is less significant now than it has ever been.

[11:10] Marc has a chapter on ageism in his book. He uses a metaphor of trading in a 2003 vehicle to a dealer. It will be downgraded because it is old and doesn’t have the features of a new vehicle. It has wear-and-tear on it. Today, you need to be very aware of the skills that you need to acquire for today’s jobs.

[12:17] Boomers grew up with employers who kept us up to date and trained us. That’s not the case, anymore. Marc tells people to listen to podcasts. There’s a podcast for everything, including chameleon breeders. Stay up-to-date on your nickel.

[12:41] When you start marketing yourself, your next job, if you are over 50, is going to come through relationships. Much of your network that made you successful may have died or retired or changed roles. So you need to continually rebuild your network outside of your comfort zone.

[13:19] Marc interviewed Ashton Applewhite in CareerPivot.com/episode-118. Ashton talks about how we self-segregate. She recommends networking with people who are much younger. Marc has a friend who volunteered for the Beto O’Rourke campaign, which completely changed his view of Millennials.

[14:23] We need someone to tell us that people don’t do what we used to do, or think the way we used to think. Mark talks about his CTS Cadillac 2005. Newer cars have more functionality. Unless you upgrade your skills, employers are not going to pay for your functionality, except for simple things, and not for very long.

[15:37] Mark and Marc had to learn to edit audio and video, put it online, and make sure it makes sense to any audience. These were new skills and functionalities they had to learn. There are things any older worker is going to have to learn to do to be employed.

[16:21] Even if you don’t have all the new skills, Know what they are. Marc talks about image consultant Jean Lefebvre of Austin. At age 71, Jean has started a Fulfilment by Amazon business where her first product is earring lifter backs under the brand name Wardrobe Jazz, for women with sagging earlobes.

[17:34] Marc also helped a guy who was doing retail arbitrage through Fulfilment by Amazon. He became a certified vendor and bought clearance items through box stores and shipped them to Amazon to ship out. It’s not for everybody, but he enjoys doing it. This is a business model that didn’t exist five years ago.

[18:37] Marc is publishing his fourth book, running Amazon ads and Facebook ads. Over the last six or seven years, Marc has sold over 5,000 copies of his books. It’s a side income that fosters other pieces of his business.

[19:17] Marc shares some of the stress involved with working with a book cover designer, MamiSerwaa, living in Ghana.

[20:10] Older workers are still thinking that you have to be in person to make traction. You have to get used to making traction online and virtually. You need to be able to work with people anywhere in the world. If you communicate so that the borders are seamless, you can make strides in the 2020 gig economy.

[21:19] Marc has a virtual assistant, Stephanie, who lives in Florida. Marc found Stephanie by putting a request on LinkedIn looking for a virtual assistant.

[21:51] Hannah Morgan was a recent guest on Repurpose Your Career. They met online and have not met face-to-face.

[22:04] Marc and Mark have never met face-to-face, but they’re very comfortable talking to one another.

[22:22] The world of work has changed and it’s going to continue to change.

[22:31] Marc hopes you enjoyed that episode. Mark Anthony Dyson is a dear friend of Marc’s who has helped Marc’s podcast and has also been an inspiration to Marc. The Voice of Job Seekers is entering its seventh season! Give it your support!

[22:50] 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. This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else. Marc is recruiting new members for the next cohort.

[23:05] If you are interested in the Career Pivot Membership Community and would like to be put on a waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[23:19] 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.

[23:30] Please come back next week when Marc replays his appearance on the Second Act Stories podcast.

[23:36] Please support the Repurpose Your Career podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer. This link is also at the top of the show notes.

[23:51] You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-151.

[23:58] 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!

Oct 21, 2019

Marc lays out his experiences during his recent tour for the third edition of Repurpose Your Career. He shares the places he visited, the people he met, and how he had to meter his energy and leave time for self-care to avoid depression. He found the trio exhausting although he met most of his objectives on the trip.

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:

[1:24] Marc welcomes you to Episode 150 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.

[1:53] This is Episode 150 and the third anniversary of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc just finished the book tour for the launch of the book Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition. Marc is recording this episode in Austin, a bit on the exhausted side.

[2:14] For the last month, Marc has been speaking, promoting the book, and meeting with people. Marc is a closet introvert while appearing to be an extrovert, so he is tired.

[2:29] After recording, Marc and Mrs. Miller will start their drive back to Ajijic, Mexico. This week, Marc will keep the intro and outro simple and he will take you through his experiences of the last month on tour. Marc hopes you enjoy this episode!

[3:00] On the afternoon of October 14, 2019, Marc is in Austin, Texas four weeks after leaving Ajijic, Mexico. On September 16th, Marc had pushed the ‘publish’ button on Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition. On September 17th, the Millers made their way to Austin, where they had lived for 40 years.

[3:35] This trip started with emptying their storage in Austin, then a visit for Mrs. Miller to the clinic for a year’s supply of medicine not available in Mexico, then Marc’s high school reunion and book tour. Marc talked at a couple of Austin job clubs.

[4:14] Marc was in Austin for a week before he headed up to New Jersey to visit his brother, present four talks at job clubs around New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and go to his 45th high school reunion. Then Mrs. Miller joined him to go to Washington D.C. Marc also did meet-and-greets and with his online community.

[5:17] In D.C. the Millers visited their son and daughter-in-law and combined the book tour with the trip for tax purposes. Marc tried out some new presentations on the tour and did some brand building. All told, the trip went well.

[5:56] On this trip, Marc was around a lot of people. Although Marc spent years honing his public speaking skills and is good at it, he is an introvert, not an extrovert. He behaves like an extrovert but he gets his energy by being alone, not from being around people. Marc expected the trip to be exhausting and it was.

[6:49] Marc flew to Newark, New Jersey Monday evening, spoke to a job club in Somerset, Tuesday evening and in Princeton, NJ on Friday morning. A planned visit with Richard Eisenberg of Next Avenue fell through. Also on Friday, Marc was interviewed by Andy Levine for the Second Act Stories podcast.

[7:48] Marc found he had to meter his energy. He took some time visiting Princeton alone. On Saturday was Marc’s high school reunion. Marc didn’t enjoy his childhood or high school days. Marc had only been back to Central New Jersey once in 45 years, to stop in at his 25th high school reunion.

[8:31] With some trepidation on Saturday night, Marc walked into a reunion of 150 strangers he had not seen for 45 years. Earlier in the day, Marc had run a meet-and-greet in Metuchen, NJ at a Whole Foods. One person had come but that was fine with Marc.

[9:49] In a class of 800 graduating, Marc hadn’t made many friends, except with his Track teammates. Most of those friends didn’t show up at this reunion. Marc stayed to the end of the party, and when a bunch of people went out afterward, Marc went back to his hotel. He had had enough of people.

[10:35] The uncertainty around who Marc was going to meet at his high school reunion caused Marc to experience certain symptoms of depression. Marc has learned over the years to spot the physical signs of depression before he gets depressed. All week, Marc was watching for the signs.

[10:58] Sunday, rather than going out for brunch with some classmates, Marc drove around Central New Jersey, exploring places he hadn’t seen in decades — his high school and grade schools, in the East Brunswick neighborhood, the house he grew up in. Many things had changed, but not everything.

[11:45] Marc spent a lot of time observing how he was reacting to being around people. He recalls how he behaved at his nephew’s wedding in May. He had switched back and forth between how he wanted to behave and how he had been trained to behave, as a “geek that could speak.”

[12:25] Mrs. Miller joined Marc and they drove to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; that evening Marc spoke to a jobs club in Philadelphia and the next morning to a group in King of Prussia. Marc was exhausted and was experiencing anxiety and frustration.

[13:40] Marc got through the jobs club presentations pretty well and then he crashed, “big-time.” That afternoon, they turned in the rental car and got on a relaxing train ride to D.C. to find their hotel. Throughout the week, Marc had to meter his energy and stay away from people. He spent a lot of time alone.

[14:46] Many of us have to act in our careers. Marc was paid pretty well to act differently than his introverted nature would have preferred to act. It exhausts him.

[15:06] Marc recounts some problems on the trip, including misplacing his credit card and needing to get it replaced. His author copy books from Amazon KDP were going to be a week late. So Marc canceled that order and ordered retail copies to ship to the various job clubs he was going to visit.

[18:13] All during this time, Marc was careful of his self-care. His reunion experience with people he used to know a bit was stressful and different than he had expected.

[19:09] In D.C., on Saturday, Marc held a meet-and-greet with six or seven people from the Career Pivot Online Community. Marc talked to Kerry Hannon, with whom he has co-operated on a few articles. Kerry was a guest on CareerPivot.com/episode-141. Marc and Mrs. Miller spent two days with their son.

[20:02] This trip has been an emotional roller coaster ride, being around all the people, in spite of how kind people are when he speaks at events. Marc donated 10 books to each event, with the proviso that they sell the books to their members for a donation. When you pay for a book, you will read it.

[21:13] The Millers flew back to Austin on October 13 for orthodontist and audiology appointments, shopping for tall and thin clothes sizes they don’t find in Mexico for Marc and will have driven back to Ajijic starting the afternoon of October 15, to Laredo and then to Matehuala on October 16. Wandering livestock make night driving difficult.

[23:51] The Millers like to stay at the Las Palmas Midway Inn before leaving the next morning for Ajijic on October 17.

[24:27] This is the third anniversary of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc talks about the experience of the last 18 months of living in Mexico. The trips back to the U.S. are very interesting, although exhausting, as Marc observes who he is now. He has left behind his work persona and does not want to behave anymore as he did at work.

[25:15] Marc wants you to think about what you have made yourself into, what you want to do in the second half of life, and what it will take to get you there.

[25:33] Marc hopes you enjoyed that episode. Many of you may be able to see yourselves in Marc’s experiences on tour.

[25:48] If you are interested in the Career Pivot Membership Community, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[25:56] 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.

[26:11] Please come back next week! Marc will be back in Mexico!

[26:19] You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-150.

[26:32] 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 and a lot of other places!

Oct 14, 2019

Marc explores the creative destruction of industry, starting with the invention of the phonograph which eventually replaced the piano in the home, to the invention of the iPhone, which rapidly replaced many communication and entertainment functions and created an array of new industries. Marc gives solid advice for keeping your career ahead of the creative destruction wave that is sweeping all areas of employment. This material comes from a presentation Marc has given several times during the recent tour for the third edition of Repurpose Your Career.

Listen in to be prepared for changes that are only accelerating.


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:

[1:21] Marc welcomes you to Episode 149 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:34] 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.

[1:51] 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.

[2:25] Marc is asking for direct listener support. Marc needs help continuing to provide entertaining content, mindful of your time. 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.

[2:40] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you like 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-149.

[3:06] Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition, is now available! The book tour has launched and is almost complete. Marc is recording this podcast introduction and ‘outro’ from a hotel room in Washington, D.C. When this episode of Repurpose Your Career is released, Marc should be in Austin, preparing to drive back home to Ajijic, Mexico.

[3:26] Marc thanks everyone who’s made this tour a success. Marc is tired and looking for some downtime!

[3:35] Marc has yet to decide what the subject of next week’s podcast episode will be. It will be Episode 150 and Marc is approaching three years of doing the Repurpose Your Career podcast!

[3:48] This week, Marc is giving an abbreviated version of one of the talks he has been giving during the book tour, called “Embrace Creative Destruction or Be a Turkey. It’s Your Choice.” Marc hopes you enjoy this episode!

[4:03] Marc has given this presentation multiple times during the past month and thought it would be a good topic for the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You can find a blog version of it at CareerPivot.com/surviving-creative-destruction and the PDF version of the presentation can be found at https://careerpivot.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Embrace-Creative-Destruction-podcast.pdf

[4:30] Marc starts by defining creative destruction as industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, destroying the old one and creating a new one. It has been going on for many centuries. One technology destroys a previous one. Jobs are destroyed and jobs are created.

[5:01] Creative destruction is accelerating. Understand it, or become a turkey. Nassim Taleb said, in Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, “A butcher feeds a turkey for 1,000 days. Every day, the turkey’s life remains constant and confirms the surety of his current existence. This is the way it goes. This is the way it always has gone.

[5:39] “This is the way it will always go. All his data confirms that butchers love turkeys. The turkey can rest confident in this idea because he has 999 days of benevolent treatment to back it up. Then, a few days before Thanksgiving, everything in his worldview is upturned.”

[6:02] This is what Taleb calls a Black Swan Event. All the evidence proves it can’t happen — until it does.

[6:14] In 1905 there were 400K pianos made and sold. If you wanted music in your house, you bought a piano. In 1877, the phonograph was created but it didn’t destroy pianos. In the 1930s, radio came about. In 1919, phonographs had a revenue that was three times that of pianos.

[6:50] It took from 1877 to 1919 for phonographs to start taking over for pianos. By 1933, two-thirds of all households had a radio. In 2013, 30K pianos were sold. Steinway, the major piano manufacturer stopped making pianos in WWII and made coffins.

[7:21] What came out of the demise of the piano is the music industry of today, whether online or radio. It took 50 years for the changeover to happen.

[7:51] Kodak was in the business of film, not cameras. In the 1990s, Marc worked in an IBM briefing center when Kodak came in for a briefing. Kodak knew they had a problem with the coming digital revolution. They were not sure how to make the transition. Kodak created the first digital camera in 1975.

[8:58] The problem was, Kodak didn’t see why anyone would want to see their pictures on a TV screen. So they didn’t do anything with it. By 2001, 26 years later, Kodak was number two in the digital camera market. Marc had one of those Kodak digital cameras. Kodak lost $60.00 on every sale. Kodak declared bankruptcy in 2012.

[9:44] The digital image revolution was the creative destruction that took down Kodak in less than 40 years.

[9:55] There are all kinds of things that happened as part of the digital image revolution and the demise of the photographic film industry.

[10:10] Adobe, Canva, JacquieLawson.com, Steve Coyle Photography and many more are examples of companies created by the digital image revolution.

[11:19] Amazon was founded in 1993. Amazon’s business was selling books. It took 18 years to put Borders Group out of business. Things are accelerating. Amazon introduced Prime in 2005. Marc has a Vitamix blender. One Sunday morning Marc broke the glass container. He had a replacement by 5:00 pm from Amazon.

[12:27] Amazon is having incredible impacts on all retail. Sears, JCPenney, and JoS. A. Bank are three examples of companies hurt by Amazon. The number accelerates. Fulfillment by Amazon allows anybody to sell online. Last week, Jean LeFebvre explained her offering, Wardrobe Jazz, on Episode 148 of the podcast.

[13:11] Marc has a friend who has two products he sells on Amazon. One is a set of gym gloves and the other is a wrist strap for weightlifting. He sources all of his products out of China.

[13:59] OnlineSellingExperiment.com is a competitor to the Amazing Selling Machine. They teach how to sell on Amazon. Marc learned about Online Selling Experiment from Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcast. Online Selling teaches retail arbitrage for buying things on clearance and selling them competitively online.

[15:33] Amazon has created all kinds of opportunities, besides destroying retail.

[15:47] 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.

[16:06] Marc reads a member testimonial from community member Mark: “Wondering what’s next? You want meaningful work and more freedom to pursue what matters most to you in your second half of life? Since joining the Career Pivot Community, I’ve found like-minded people in a similar path.

[16:25] “Marc Miller is a master at creating community and meaningful connections. This has been encouraging and informative and a confidence booster. If you want to go further and faster, join Career Pivot.”

[16:39] This is a paid membership community where Marc offers group coaching, special content, mastermind groups, branding sessions, Slack channels, and more importantly, it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to sign up to learn more.

[17:00] The iPhone was created in 2007. We used to buy cameras, maps, and newspapers. We used to search for keys. Marc uses the Tile to find his keys. We used to have to carry insurance cards. Now, Marc has his State Farm app on his phone.

[17:48] You used to have to buy a TV and buy cable. Now you can get TV directly on your phone with services like SlingTV. Also, Marc can answer all the questions his wife asks him just by “Googling.” We used to have phones on the wall. We now have Skype on our phones.

[18:20] We text one another. The most-used app among Marc’s gringo expats is Whatsapp, which is an app for calling and texting without connecting to a phone network. The iPhone and smartphones have changed the world so much.

[18:50] Think of the number of products that have been destroyed. Think of the service jobs that have been lost. Now you can order your Big Mac® on your phone. New industries are being created. Social media brings interconnectedness. We now have the Internet of Things, including the Tile and the Ring doorbell camera and connected apps.

[19:52] You can now create audiobooks and other forms of audio. You can have a podcast like Marc, on iTunes (Apple Podcasts). Marc will use ACX to make an Audible audiobook from Repurpose Your Career, third edition.

[20:22] All of this has accelerated. Are you scared or excited? This will affect you. What can you do about it? 1) Attend an industry conference every year. 2) Listen to industry podcasts. 3) Get online training.

[21:16] Marc has attended the National Career Development Association Conference, several Birkman Conferences (because he is a Birkman consultant) and Podcast Movement. Marc plans to go to the 2020 Podcast Movement conference. Why attend conferences? You need the face-to-face contact with people to keep up with trends.

[22:07] Marc either stays at the conference hotel at a discount or at a hotel within walking distance of both the hotel and a Whole Foods store where Marc picked up dinner and the next day’s breakfast of yogurt and fruit.

[22:47] Podcasts are a wonderful way to keep learning. There is usually a podcast for your topic of interest. If there really isn’t, why don’t you start one? There are many places to listen to podcasts. Marc’s two favorite financial podcasts are Roger Whitney’s The Retirement Answer Man and Alworth Financial’s Money Matters.

[23:58] Marc also listens to Buffer’s The Science of Social Media, Problogger, and Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcast.

[24:16] Online training is not expensive. Marc gives examples such as MOOC.org, and EDX.org, Udacity, General Assembly, Skillcrush, LinkedIn Training, Coursera, Skillshare, and Udemy. Anyone can put up a course and sell it on Udemy.

[25:21] You need to be attending industry conferences, listening to podcasts, and taking online training. If you do not, you could very easily find yourself in a career disaster area. Marc wrote an article on Living in a Career Disaster Area based on two clients who saw their careers blow up in under five years.

[25:54] When you start looking at career pivots, look for jobs that have ‘legs.’ Ask yourself if industries will survive because creative destruction is killing so much. Listen to Episode 143 with Russ Eanes. Russ got hit with a double whammy in the business of religious publications. Religion is in decline, and publishing is in decline.

[27:08] Russ got really tired of laying people off. There are just so many times you can lay off a friend before it really takes a toll on you.

[27:30] Hopefully, you now understand that have to manage your career, your skill sets, and where your industry is going. Creative destruction will continue to accelerate. Where is your career going and where is your industry going? If you can’t answer those questions clearly and confidently, the chances are you will be a turkey!

[28:20] Pick up the book Repurpose Your Career third edition and this presentation is essentially found in one of the chapters in it. Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode.

[28:45] The Career Pivot Membership Community continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project grow and thrive.

[28:52] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else. 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.

[29:13] 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.

[29:24] Please come back next week! Marc will be back in Mexico!

[29:32] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[29:43] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-149.

[29:56] 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 and a lot of other places!

Oct 7, 2019

Fashion is what you see in the magazines and stores. Personal style is how you make your fashion. Jean LeFebvre is a certified personal color and style consultant who has spent more than 35 years dressing clients ages 9 to 90, sizes 0 to 26. Her first career was interior design. Then she discovered she preferred working with the architecture of the body and conducting seminars and writing about fashion and style. Now she has added Amazon entrepreneur to her list of careers. Seeking out clever, hard-to-find wardrobe helpers that make getting dressed easier and more fun.


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:

[1:49] Marc welcomes you to Episode 148 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[2:01] 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.

[2:31] Marc is recording this podcast introduction on October 1st in Totowa, New Jersey. When this episode of Repurpose Your Career is released, Marc should be in Washington, D.C.

[2:48] 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.

[3:30] 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.

[3:44] If the Repurpose Your Career podcast is a part of your week and you like 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-148.

[4:08] 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 is in Philadelphia, early this week and D.C., later in the week. Marc would love to meet his readers and listeners.

[4:22] Marc has a meet-and-greet this Saturday at the Friendship Whole Foods Market in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Please go to CareerPivot.com/launch to find out more.

[4:35] 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.

[4:48] This week, Marc is playing the audio from a webinar Marc did with Jean LeFebvre for the Career Pivot Membership Community. Marc shares Jean’s bio. This is the third time Marc has had Jean talk to the Career Pivot Community about her journey into becoming a Fulfillment by Amazon entrepreneur. Marc welcomes Jean to the podcast.

[6:21] Jean tells how she got started with Fulfillment by Amazon. Two sets of friends had started a successful course on selling on Amazon. Several of Jean’s friends joined the course and had a good measure of success. Jean was looking for something that would allow her to have an expanded income without as much hourly work.

[7:00] Jean consults people on their wardrobes. She helps them clean out their closets and takes them shopping for new clothes to match their style, according to a personal color analysis. Marc went through this process. Marc is an ‘Autumn.’

[7:35] Jean took the course Amazing Selling Machine. One of the first things Jean learned was how to select a product. It took Jean a year to select her product. First, she tried a product that was unrelated to her experience. It turned out to be wrong for her. She finally chose to sell a product that matched her existing audience.

[9:54] Most people do not start with a large following. Jean did, which is a built-in market for her. Jean hopes if you have something you are already good at, with product potential, don’t disregard what you know or who you know.

[10:35] Jean’s product is an earring lifter back that “makes earrings sit up pretty.” They give a youthful look. It’s an easy sell.

[11:30] Jean has learned that you don’t have to be the number one vendor for your product to make a profit. You will likely move into more than one product. Having a line of 10 or 20 products is common. Don’t leave all your eggs in one basket.

[12:27] Jean sources the product from China. The course taught her to use Alibaba, a group of Chinese manufacturers that are vetted by Alibaba. They have rankings and gold is the top ranking for manufacturers who have been with Alibaba for more than two years and have been investigated on fulfillment and good reviews.

[13:25] The manufacturer ships  a moderate quantity of the products to Jean and she has laser-printed labels that she attaches to the package. She has the labels printed inexpensively at FedEx while she listens to an audiobook. Jean ships them to Amazon.

[14:17] The first earring lifter backs that Jean ordered were formed in a shape that somebody else was in the process of patenting in the U.S. After a day on Amazon, the patent holder complained and the product was removed.

[15:52] So Jean hired a patent attorney who had a patent searcher. They learned that the patent violation was a design patent violation, not a use patent violation. After some research, she ordered them in a different shape that was not patented so she could sell them in the U.S.

[17:10] Jean also learned that the name she had been using for her consulting company was not eligible for a trademark. There were too many companies already using that name, Panache Images. Jean came up with the name WardrobeJazz, which she uses now for both for the earring lifter backs and her consulting practice.

[17:47] WardrobeJazz says more about what Jean actually does, so she likes the name. She applied for a product trademark for that name and expects approval soon. The approval can take six months to a year.

[18:01] 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.

[18:22] Marc reads a member testimonial from Jean: “I’ve been a member of the Career Pivot Community for many months now and have been delighted with the support and guidance that I’ve received. This isn’t a group and Marc isn’t the type of person that makes ridiculous promises or puts you under pressure to get a lot of quick results.”

[18:39] “Results come from making incremental changes regularly but they do come. Marc helps each of us to grow in our own way. The community is a comfortable, safe place to discuss our common problems and to work toward long-term improvement.”

[18:57] This is a paid membership community where Marc offers group coaching, special content, mastermind groups, branding sessions, Slack channels, and more importantly,  it’s a community where you can seek help. Please go to CareerPivot.com/Community to sign up to learn more.

[19:28] Back to the interview — Jean went to Fiverr to get bids to have a logo made. Jean selected a graphic designer she liked, who gave her five concepts. Jean chose one of them and with a couple of adjustments, it was exactly what she wanted. The logo cost her $65.00.

[20:51] Marc notes he had a Membership Community training with former member Jim Addams, who explained how he used Fiverr.

[21:09] Jean launched the product again and went through a refining process. She learned how to market. She started with Facebook ads, which were too expensive for the results she got. Over months, she changed the wording of her listing, changed the title and bullet points and paid for keywords. She included professional photos.

[22:25] The image stood out beautifully. Then, in two weeks, 10 other sellers copied the style of her image, so they all look similar. This is an example of how you need a thick skin to sell online. You get knocked down and you have to get right back up.

[22:55] Sooner or later you will get the progress you want. It’s not for wimps.

[23:16] Jean notes that a lot of people price too low and then their competitors buy their product for resale. When you have a special deal you must set a restriction that the quantity is limited to one or two.

[24:00] Jean has run Amazon ads, and that is the next step she wants to master. She will not go back to Facebook ads, for now. She sees more value in Amazon ads.

[24:33] Jean’s audience is people from 35 to 65. A lot of women in their 60s are still working and are a market for earring lifter backs.

[25:38] Jean’s biggest challenge has been keeping her chin up. The business is not easy. Having the community with Amazing Sales Machine helps when Jean needs answers. Having experienced mentors helps. Jean’s next goal is to have this product produce enough income to justify adding another product and then another.

[26:29] Marc has marketed his book with Amazon ads for a couple of years and now is going to Facebook ads. Marc took an Ads For Authors course from Mark Dawson. Mark talks about a formula: test, measure, test, measure, test, and particularly with Facebook ads that work for a while and then stop working. When you figure it out, it will change.

[27:28] Jean likes the category of fashion and wardrobe helpers for her next product. You could buy them in the notions department of a fabric store. People who need these things are often too busy to go looking at a fabric store. People like the convenience of buying on Amazon.

[29:08] The Amazing Selling Machine has videos on how to select products. Their advice is to pick something that’s not too popular but still a known product. The next point is to choose for weight, size, and price. Shipping large objects takes longer than shipping by air.

[29:35] Jean didn’t realize at first how smart she had been to pick a product less than an ounce, that ships by air. She can restock in two weeks with no problem.

[30:24] Jean’s advice: Don’t quit your day job. Don’t do it on your own. Get some training and find a supportive group that understands the technology of what you are doing. There is a learning curve.

[31:44] Marc is in Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula Facebook group because he bought the Ads for Authors course. Whenever Marc has a question, people in the group answer it for him. You can also search the previously asked questions.

[32:26] Marc also uses the Facebook groups for Mexico expats. That’s how he found the shoe repair man, Umberto. His only website is on Facebook. Marc suggests you should find your tribe.

[33:15] Marc thanks Jean and he hopes you enjoyed the episode. Jean didn’t sugar-coat anything. This takes perseverance. Marc will continue to follow Jean’s progress through the Career Pivot Online Community and this podcast. Link to The Amazing Selling Machine and WardrobeJazz to learn more. All sales help Jean.

[34:05] 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.

[34:14] This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else.

[34:19] 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.

[34:35] 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.

[34:49] Please come back next week!

[34:56] Please support this podcast by going to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer.

[35:08] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-148.

[35:24] 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 and a lot of other places!

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