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As a Boomer, how are you keeping up with changes in the work environment? Or aren't you?
Mar 1, 2017
Join me today #LittleWhiteLie and let’s connect at TheLittleWhiteLie.com If you are here on replay…
Today we ask the question: As a Boomer, how are you keeping up with changes in the work environment? Or aren't you?
Our guest today is John Tarnoff. He is a reinvention career coach, speaker and author who helps his fellow Baby Boomers transition to meaningful careers beyond traditional retirement. Fired 39% of the time during his fast-paced 35-year career as a media/entertainment exec, he reinvented and re-launched his career at age 50, earning a Master’s degree in psychology to focus on professional development and training. He is the author of the best selling book: Boomer Reinvention: How to Create your Dream Career Over 50.
1. As a Boomer, how are you keeping up with changes in the work environment? Can We Keep Up With the New Work Landscape No Matter Our Age?
2. What are some of the takeaways from the people you interviewed for your book
3. What questions keep coming up for a lot of people?
4. How do they get started on this process? What things can people do to jump in and start empowering themselves towards their reinvention.
And you can do this too.
So…. What do you think? Can We Keep Up With the New Work Landscape No Matter Our Age? Post in the comments. With the hashtag #LittleWhiteLie
Get John’s book here: http://www.BoomerReinvention.com
Go check out http://www.TheLittleWhiteLie.com and get my free guide: The 5 steps to uncovering your gray Infographic.
Would you like to chat:
http://www.ConnectWithCaren.com
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:01
hello everyone Karen glasser here and
0:04
welcome to the little white lie I'm so
0:06
happy that you're joining me today and
0:08
if you're on replay make sure you make
0:12
comments down below because we want we
0:14
want to make sure we keep the
0:15
conversation going and I know that my
0:17
special guest today will be commenting
0:19
as well so let's just go ahead and
0:22
introduce him our guest today is john
0:24
turned off he has a reinvention career
0:27
coach he's a speaker author who helped
0:29
fellow baby boomers transition to
0:32
meaningful careers he said himself that
0:35
he's been fired thirty-nine percent of
0:37
the times during his traditional work
0:40
that he did and now he's reinventing
0:43
himself and he is the author of the book
0:45
boomer reinvention how to create your
0:48
dream career over 50 so today we asked
0:51
the question as a boomer how are you
0:54
keeping up with the changes in the work
0:56
environment or maybe you're not so I
0:59
want to welcome our guest John how are
1:01
you today I'm great care I'm great to be
1:04
here good to see you again i'm so glad i
1:06
mean we've known each other for a little
1:08
while now you've been on a show of mine
1:10
before and as i've started on this
1:12
journey you are one of the first people
1:14
that i knew i had to reconnect with
1:15
because of what you do and because of
1:19
who you are i just want to remind people
1:22
to go check out a little white lie calm
1:23
you can see it up on the screen and i'm
1:25
going to go ahead and take that off so
1:27
that we can see our names over here so
1:29
let's just jump right in John let's talk
1:32
about these boomer reinvention let's
1:35
talk about your book what is that mean I
1:36
mean what is that exactly well I wrote
1:40
the book because number reasons I gotta
1:42
talk around the book about fact that i
1:43
wrote the book because I can't afford to
1:45
retire myself and kind of coming out of
1:48
recession I noticed that a lot of a lot
1:51
of people aren't generation were kind of
1:53
caught up short by the loss of
1:56
retirement savings in the recession and
1:58
many people were upside down and
2:01
mortgages and I think was a big wake-up
2:03
call for us in this generation to
2:05
understand that the retirement that we
2:07
were
2:08
promise essentially by our parents it
2:11
has not come to pass it's not going to
2:13
come to pass that it turns out to have
2:16
been a myth and when you realize that
2:21
good probably depending on what kinds of
2:25
surveys you who you tap into seventy to
2:29
eighty percent of the generation if not
2:31
can be able to sustain for lifestyle our
2:33
lifestyle in quote on quote retirement
2:36
after age 65 or whatever it is beyond
2:39
the current job that we have here
2:42
there's a an ongoing problem that we
2:44
have to deal with them and coming out of
2:46
a very tumultuous business I was an
2:49
entertainment industry executives for
2:52
many many years where I add a pretty
2:55
tumultuous career and lots of ups and
2:58
downs and of the 18 jobs that I had over
3:01
the 35 years that I worked primarily in
3:05
the industry I was fired from seven of
3:08
those jobs so that's what come up with
3:09
the idea that I you're fired thirty-nine
3:11
percent of the time and I used this this
3:14
school of statistic in a TEDx talk which
3:16
I gave in 2012 which kicked off this
3:19
whole rumor reinvention platform for me
3:22
and started the coaching that I've been
3:24
doing since then and ultimately led to
3:27
writing the book and I got a big laugh
3:30
on that line big nervous laughing from
3:33
from people in the audience and I
3:35
realized I kind of struck a nerve over
3:37
this idea that we were conditioned to
3:39
believe that getting fired with shrimp
3:41
that you're imposed to work in a job for
3:45
20 30 40 years and and if you got fire
3:49
there's something wrong with you but in
3:51
a in a world which is kind of mimicking
3:54
the movie business where it is now a
3:57
disrupted world and things are unstable
4:00
it's not unusual for people to be
4:02
changing jobs and we can certainly look
4:04
at the way our kids are going to be
4:06
navigating their careers they're going
4:08
to have the same kind of thing where
4:09
they're changing jobs every one and a
4:11
half to three and a half to four years
4:14
so there we go you know and it's
4:18
interesting what you're and it's
4:20
interesting what you're saying because
4:21
um you know I'm 60 I'm on my little
4:24
white lie journey which by the way guys
4:25
here's the reveal I mean we're growing
4:28
it out and you know I brought over for
4:31
you help thank you the people that I
4:34
work with you know the first thing that
4:35
they say to me because I'm in technology
4:37
and they say all what they say to me I'm
4:39
too old to even go into that right now
4:43
I'm just too old and so what do you say
4:45
to people about that well I think
4:46
technology is a particular bubble and
4:48
and and I think that that is a that's a
4:52
really hard cultural nut to crack in
4:55
technology I mean in I mean you're in
4:58
the bay area looking Valley if you're 40
5:00
year old right so that means that is
5:01
that that's kind of is insane and a
5:04
whole kind of outlier question but I
5:07
think the question of ageism generally
5:10
is a important one I think it is it is
5:14
arguably the last ISM and like all
5:18
examples of bigotry and racism a lot of
5:22
people just don't understand they don't
5:23
realize that they're being ages and a
5:26
lot of us in our generation are our ages
5:30
to ourselves in terms of our attitudes
5:33
about about who we are what we can do
5:36
and this idea at all i'm too old to do
5:38
whatever we have a lot of Ages thought
5:42
that we need to deal with in ourselves
5:43
as well how do you deal with it when
5:46
you're in the job i have a bit of a
5:49
contrarian attitude towards isn't I just
5:52
basically say you've got to roll over it
5:54
you're not going to change someone's
5:56
mind on the face of it by arguing with
6:00
them about it you have to be the best
6:02
that you can be and if someone's got a
6:05
problem with the fact that you're older
6:08
it's because they're miss informed so
6:11
you have to through your actions and
6:14
your positive giving attitude show them
6:18
that they are really operating in a very
6:22
very antiquated and inaccurate affect
6:25
month so it's a fair question to ask
6:28
then are boomers keeping up with you
6:32
know the changes in our environment and
6:34
our working environment
6:35
and we go to your book I mean because
6:37
that is what your book is all about
6:39
boomer reinvention with others no you
6:43
interviewed a bunch of people right yep
6:45
yeah I interviewed seven people actually
6:47
interviewed more I had seven people loud
6:49
up being featured in the book I wanted
6:52
to cut test my theories about what the
6:56
proper or effective reinvention steps
6:58
would be for people and I come up with
7:01
this five-step process in the TEDx talk
7:05
back in 2012 and something that i was
7:07
using with with coaching clients fairly
7:10
effectively and I was looking for people
7:13
who had reinvented their careers in the
7:16
face of serious personal challenges
7:19
career challenges one guy that I talked
7:22
from the birthdays Beal not only has a
7:25
file business bankruptcy but has a vile
7:29
personal bankruptcy because of the loss
7:33
of his business and his wife his new
7:35
wife left him in the process she's been
7:37
founded so this was a significant
7:40
tournament but it took him six years
7:44
which in the scheme of things is not a
7:45
long period of time to really come back
7:48
from this and he he really worked it the
7:51
right way and he was able to find a job
7:54
that was in a slightly different area
7:56
that was paying him a lot less but it
7:59
kept him solvent and it kept his mind
8:01
from going completely nuts while he
8:04
developed the idea for a new business
8:06
was able to overcome the really in his
8:11
case unjustified reasons why he had to
8:14
lose the business from power back up to
8:17
use the victim of a privilege lawsuit so
8:20
he was able to pull himself back
8:21
together to reestablish his reputation
8:24
develop a consulting practice India's
8:27
Muse old business while starting an
8:29
entirely new business and then falling
8:32
11 the process and getting remarried and
8:35
buying a new house I mean he's really
8:38
made some remarkable progress and very
8:41
very inspiring story that's a great
8:44
that's a great glory and warm up and I
8:46
want you to share a couple more if you
8:48
don't mind but I will
8:49
ask our viewers if you want to answer
8:52
and tell us if you are keeping up with
8:54
changes in the work environment go ahead
8:57
and put it in the post and we'll share
8:59
it up on the screen so the John can
9:00
respond back to you if you want to share
9:02
now and again if you're here on replay
9:04
put it there because I know John and I
9:06
are going to be going in there like
9:07
little mice and we're going to be typing
9:09
seriously did we find to all of you so
9:11
tell us about it somebody else that you
9:14
interviewed well you know you want to
9:16
talk about about best practices here and
9:21
I think there are certainly mistakes
9:24
there are a number of mistakes that
9:25
people make in this process I'm kind of
9:31
thinking that that one person that might
9:35
be good to talk about here as a woman
9:37
named Judy Contreras who was an HR
9:40
executive for her entire career a very
9:45
motivated very energetic woman who was
9:50
divorced three kids and a successful HR
9:55
exec who trained and and you know added
9:59
skills and also in the recession and the
10:02
result of the recession companies were
10:06
doing bad stuff I'll say the word stuff
10:08
because where I guess with whatever and
10:13
she was increasingly disturbed by having
10:18
to be at a succession of companies who
10:21
were doing things that were kind of
10:24
against the workers a kind of greedy bad
10:29
management uh and and she kind of had it
10:32
up to here with EHR world inside of that
10:34
she no longer wanted to be working for a
10:37
company or working for company and HR
10:40
but she really didn't know what to do
10:43
and so she thought she could continue to
10:46
consult profs an HR then she realized
10:49
that was going to be difficult because
10:51
of the larger consulting firms that kind
10:54
of have a monopoly on the outsourcing
10:56
world in that business so she thought
10:58
okay maybe i'll i'll use my retirement
11:01
savings or a portion my retirement
11:02
savings
11:03
and I will buy franchise so she got
11:06
herself a franchise darker she connected
11:08
with small business administration that
11:10
that this is a really important thing
11:14
that she did she used the SBA to hook
11:16
her up with a business coach who helped
11:20
her to really figure out the best
11:23
strategy for her to start her new
11:26
business the surprising thing that
11:28
happened to her this is something which
11:29
i think is really important for people
11:31
to remember is that as she was trying to
11:34
figure out what the right franchise was
11:36
she began to become interested in the
11:39
business that the franchise broker pad
11:41
and realized that rather than rather
11:44
than buying into a business where she
11:47
was going to be kind of the first person
11:49
in to turn on the lights the morning
11:51
last person to turn on out the lights at
11:53
night have a staff it's not all but the
11:56
questions about you know these retail
11:58
franchise business she wanted his job
12:01
she wanted to brokers job oh right it's
12:05
it with her lifestyle if it was the way
12:07
she worked you know and and that's what
12:11
she eventually did so she actually has
12:14
turned the tables on a broken to look
12:15
you know how you doing what you're doing
12:17
let me learn more about that and can you
12:19
help me what she did to set herself up
12:22
in her own business as a friend has
12:24
burgers looking for all of these
12:26
franchisors but then again working with
12:29
the business coach to make sure that she
12:31
was doing it the right way that she had
12:33
the right financial projection and he
12:36
really instilled a certain amount of
12:38
financial rigor disciplined with her so
12:41
that she could project her first year
12:44
first two years and and adjust her
12:47
lifestyle accordingly so that she could
12:50
build as much ramp as she possibly could
12:52
and this is an important planning aspect
12:54
for people who are going I second our
12:57
career so I mean I'm is it is it fair to
13:00
say that somebody who is older actually
13:03
has the benefit of their age to be able
13:06
to maybe not get wrapped up in their way
13:11
and maybe look at some other options is
13:13
that the case absolutely absolutely so
13:15
the
13:16
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation which
13:18
studies entrepreneurship has a statistic
13:21
that is often quoted about the idea that
13:24
entrepreneurs over 40 are twice as
13:28
successful as entrepreneurs under 30 so
13:31
it laptop gives the lie to this whole
13:34
mystique that we have about the 20 year
13:37
old tech entrepreneur taking over the
13:41
world there are a few of them but the
13:43
vast majority of younger entrepreneurs
13:45
are less successful by a factor of half
13:49
than the more seasoned entrepreneurs who
13:53
have experience they know there's their
13:55
flaws they've learned a lot of lessons
13:57
and they are much better equipped to to
14:01
venture forward and I would say if
14:02
you're over 50 and if you're over 60 for
14:06
that matter you have even more
14:08
background and experience and life life
14:11
maturity for goodness sake to be able to
14:13
make good decisions and know when you
14:17
should move you know once you told them
14:18
what the whole and all that stuff right
14:20
so we can keep up is what you're saying
14:22
we can keep others and I do agree with
14:25
that i mean as i said i could I turn 50
14:27
I've been doing technology forever I
14:29
don't look at it an age thing but I
14:31
understand how that could get in the way
14:33
of or somebody you always I think it's
14:36
you know if your attitude about the
14:38
issue that's the issue not to me not the
14:40
issue itself so I think this is why the
14:43
first step in my five-step process is
14:46
called reframing because if you're not
14:49
able to change your mindset around who
14:52
you are what you can do how the world
14:53
works what the opportunities are if
14:55
you're not able to kind of look at
14:57
different angles you know then you're
14:59
not going to be able to to make any kind
15:01
of a change whatsoever you have to start
15:03
with that mindset so let's talk about
15:06
how people can jump in and get started I
15:08
just put the website up there boomer
15:10
reinvention com that's where they can go
15:12
get the book that's where they can get
15:14
interact with you so all right what else
15:17
can they do to jump in and get started
15:19
right now the first thing that I
15:22
advocate for for new clients is to start
15:25
a journaling process and this is really
15:28
based on a 1
15:29
book called the artists way by I love
15:32
that book I love that book yes um Julie
15:37
Cameron was the writer I this is really
15:39
the sheesh this idea of the morning
15:42
pages so that writers could deal with
15:45
writer's block by writing about
15:48
everything except the work that they
15:51
were writing both adopting adapting this
15:55
to the career reinvention process the
15:57
morning pages and I really encourage
16:01
everyone to go out and buy a special
16:03
notebook you're going to use your
16:04
writing in longhand you're doing this
16:05
every day whether it's the morning or
16:08
evening have that that little notebook
16:10
by your bedside and write two or three
16:14
pages a day 15-20 minutes that's all you
16:16
need to do but if you do it consistently
16:19
day in day out you start to get back in
16:22
touch with the part of you deep inside
16:24
yourself that has all that inspiration
16:26
that knowing that sense of who you
16:29
really are what you're really good at
16:30
how you can be useful out in the world
16:33
and you want to be able to develop that
16:36
dialogue because there is so much
16:40
cultural influence that says all the
16:43
solutions out there then I disregard
16:45
yourself just figure out where you can
16:48
fit in because you know goodness knows
16:50
you're if you're lucky enough to be
16:52
hired by someone out there in the
16:54
marketplace just accept whatever it is
16:56
that you get because it's so hard for
16:59
people who are over 50 to get work well
17:01
of course it's hard to be able to get
17:03
work but the problem is fitting yourself
17:06
into a job at this the stage in your
17:09
life is it is the prescription for
17:11
failure because you just know a lot you
17:14
know you know more in many ways and the
17:16
people who are hiring you you have more
17:19
value and the problem is you don't know
17:22
what that value is so it is a dialogue
17:25
with yourself to figure out what the
17:27
value is and then figure out a way of
17:29
getting it out there and we talk more
17:31
about that in the book that's the book
17:34
is called boomer reinvention how to
17:35
create your dream career over 50 or 40
17:38
or 60 whatever year it is but it happens
17:41
to be 50 in the book
17:43
and they can get it on your site and I
17:46
would again I wanted criminal justice or
17:48
exam above and actually we have a link
17:50
right up in above this post here they
17:52
can click on the amazon link as well to
17:54
go go check out the book and i encourage
17:57
you to do that and i encourage you to do
17:58
that and i also encourage you to post at
18:01
even on replay make sure you post you
18:03
know as a Boomer are you keeping up with
18:05
the changes in the work environment or
18:07
do you feel like life is passing you by
18:09
and how are you relating to that and how
18:11
you dealing with that I want to make
18:13
sure though that people can find you so
18:15
I'm going to go ahead and put also
18:17
that's not what I'm going to put up that
18:19
is not the correct I don't want to break
18:21
it off you're not a yarn off that and
18:23
we're on live we're live so we're good
18:25
we're going to go with a British yawn
18:27
yarn Asiata it so for those of you who
18:33
just figured out it's John Tarnoff com
18:36
yes which is it's John right over there
18:40
and make sure when you're posted use the
18:44
hashtag little white lie so that we can
18:46
go and grab all of these comments that
18:49
are coming in because we want it we want
18:51
to be able to share your journey as well
18:53
in this little white lie journey any
18:55
last comments that you want to share
18:56
with our viewers John sure so you were
18:59
talking about about best practices and
19:01
things that people do to to stay up up
19:04
to date on what's going on and and the
19:06
one thing which I which may also be
19:09
contrarian which I saved a lot of people
19:11
and they find this surprising is that
19:12
your resume is not going to get you a
19:14
job and you know eighty-five percent of
19:19
jobs are filled through referral the
19:22
average reader spends about seven
19:23
seconds scanning a résumé your résumé is
19:27
not the calling card that it used to be
19:29
in the pre-digital era so what you need
19:32
to do is you need to focus on your
19:34
network and you need to be able to
19:36
activate that network to really find the
19:38
people who have an affinity for who you
19:40
are what you're trying to do use
19:43
LinkedIn have a completely filled in
19:45
LinkedIn profile do not lie about your
19:47
age you proud of your age we put all the
19:50
dates in any what one we does not want
19:53
to hire you because you are
19:55
older is not someone that you want to
19:57
work for in the first place and that
19:59
sounds important oh my god that's no no
20:02
room exactly and you know I actually and
20:06
one of those people that had a regular
20:08
job I mean for those who know me I'm a
20:10
retired clergy woman I was at a
20:12
synagogue for 16 years and then found
20:15
myself in 2009 without a job when I
20:18
moved up to the north day and I had to
20:21
reinvent myself and really it was a
20:23
struggle for me as well I mean so it's
20:26
you're not alone is the message you are
20:29
not alone we all go through it it's how
20:31
we deal with it and being able to meet
20:33
people like John Tarnoff read his book
20:36
and and literally reinvent yourself John
20:39
I am so happy that you were on with us
20:41
today I hope that you will come visit us
20:44
again as we continue this journey and
20:46
again i won yeah and I want to thank our
20:49
viewers because we know that you have a
20:50
choice as to where you spend your time
20:52
then you chose to spend it with us today
20:53
and we love that and I want to thank you
20:55
again go visit little white live com go
20:58
visit boomer reinvention calm get
21:00
engaged go get the book and reinvent
21:03
yourself John have a great rest of the
21:05
day and we'll see everyone next week of
21:07
I everyone
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