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it's time to reinvent yourself we're talking with reinvention career coach John Tarnoff on today's super boomerang
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lifestyle show this is the show for super boomers and beyond that will enhance your lifestyle health
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empowerment and more hello everyone this is karen Glasair and i am so delighted
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that you chose to join us today on the super groovy lifestyle show we have a really really great show for you today
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and you just have to believe me when I say that we have a return guest he's been on my show a couple of times and
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we're thrilled that he's coming back to join us today we are going to be talking
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about reinventing ourselves but before we do that if you're here live we're delighted that you're here live make
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sure you put a comment in there that says I live and if you have anything to say during the show put it up on the
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screen and if you're here on replay just as good make sure you let us know you're
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on replay and make some comments and I will come back and respond to you and of course share share share you know I you
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know you want to write you know you want you so go click that button share it out and bring your friends back in alright
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guys today our special guest is a John Tarnoff he is a former entertainment induced industry executive he has
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appeared on numerous national TV news and radio shows he's been featured in too many to mention magazines he is the
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author of the wildly successful book a boomer reinvention now you know why he's
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on the show and how to create your dream career over 50 and he is also recognized as a top top influencer on Aging the PBS
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and I'm trying to get this to come down here my screen is having a little bit of a connection fit here by PBS and next
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Avenue so without further ado I'm going to go ahead and bring John in how are
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you doing today John welcome to the show Thank You K I'm better than ever well I
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know you are you know what we had a great conversation even before the show started and it's kind of like I wanted I
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wanted to like put a hold on it so we didn't like you know forget to mention it on the show so we're gonna make sure
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that we comment everything that we talked about but the first thing that we always do on the show is we talk of how would you describe a super boomer
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and this is how I describe a super boomer super boomer is not defined by their age it's how they show up in life they're
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fearless and they can do anything that they want to do so John how do you
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describe a super boomer super boomer someone who feels that life is precious
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and that each day is a new gift that is
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a wonderful definition and I want I want people to actually think about that as we have this conversation because the
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topic today if you're just tuning in is time to reinvent yourself and we're talking to John turnip he is a
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reinvention career coach so let's just jump right in what the heck is a reinvention career coach this kind of
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hit me about I know eight years ago now I was noticing that a lot of people are
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having difficulty in the boomer generation recovering from the recession
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people had lost about you know third to a half value of their homes of their
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retirement accounts and we're kind of waking up to this new reality that retirement was not in the cards
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so if retirement is not affordable and by the way when you go out to look for a
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job in your 50s you find that all of a sudden you're staring at a blank wall
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that people kind of look at you funny what why are you still here what are we going to do right now how are we going
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to prolong our careers and I think the idea of reinvention goes to a
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reassessment of who we are at this stage in our lives because we're different
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right so much more that we've learned about life we naturally as we get older
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past the age of 50 start to think about questions that we didn't think about
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earlier questions like what legacy am i leaving you know what is the meaning of
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life so we quite naturally want to inject greater meaning and a sense of purpose
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into everything we do and for a lot of people who actually are still working in
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their 50s for whom you know there may be some job security they may be feeling
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like why am I still doing this I'm coming that's right what else do I do so
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a lot of that people kind of going well I want to change my career but I don't
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know what I could do or what I want to do and you're the perfect person to talk about that as probably I am is too I'm
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too because I have changed my careers multiple times let's talk about your career your background you were in the
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entertainment industry you know executive in the entertainment your your and you told me that you've been fired
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quite a few times so let's talk about that that's the elephant in the room right I joke about this in the book and
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this this really came up in a TEDx talk which I did in 2012 which really
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launched this whole career coaching and focus on career reinvention and working
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with people over 50 and when I did the TEDx talk I I got up I said so okay so
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what qualifies me to be talking about career change and career extension and
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so I kind of did a little math exercise about all of the jobs that I had had up to that point in entertainment and it
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comes down to 18 jobs over at that point
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36 or so years so about two years per job on average and of those jobs I was
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fired from seven of them so 7 out of 18 that's 39% and that's kind of the joke
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that's okay right it's okay it's well
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the idea is to is to remove this stigma that we have around getting fired because in the world that we grow up
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with getting fired meant that you did something wrong right because the world
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was you go to get a good education that entitles you to get a job and you work
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for 40 years and then you retire and the world doesn't work that way anymore right now and career transition
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has to do with fit and companies are changing very rapidly and this is unfortunately very cruel in many
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instances because they do this process terribly badly but the idea of fifth is
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really the key and just to kind of jump ahead here what I advocate for people is
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to really change their attitude about their job and their their identity in
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their job you know and we're too used to the idea of applying for jobs you know
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what how can what I do solve your problem you know what what do you need
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me to do to send me in coach right I've got 35 years doing this particular thing
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and I've got these skills and these experiences and you know I could do that job all right and this is the wrong way
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to go about it and I work with many many people trying to get them off of this
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this thing which I kind of call a job porn which is the process that they go
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through when they're discouraged of going home at night and bringing up monster or indeed or any of the
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recruiting sites I'm just kind of going through these job postings and and
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fantasizing about these jobs that they could do and invariably the positions
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are wrong right the truth is if there's a position that is on a job board
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they're probably not going to want to hire you for that job right and you got
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you got a look at the years of experience that are that are required it's seven years ten years so how do you
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go and said well I have 30 years experience I have 20 years experience it's like so overwhelming so let's talk
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about the boomer reinvention you you wrote this book and was this in response to that because there's so so many challenges that that 50-plus years you
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know women do right well so after the TEDx talk people kept saying and I had a other another consulting
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business going on in education at a anchor client that I still work with an education and this is this is my second
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act career coming out of entertainment as a production executive mostly this
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was very intentional on my part to get more involved in education so that's that's what I've been doing and this
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became an adjunct of that because people kept saying well so do you coach do you coach people around this I'm going well I do have a psychology degree so I
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suppose yeah I should I should be doing this so that's kind of how that that started to to to happen and and the idea really
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from the book was I've got all these I mean I talk about these five stages of career reinvention tedxtalk and I
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thought I got to expand that into something that's practical both in terms of so I know what it is what the hell is
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that I'm doing but also to give people some really actionable specific
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practices that they can use to make this career transition pause and that's why I
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like the book so much one of the many reasons is because it has boomer in the title I'm a boomer you know you're a
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boomer and I have reinvented myself there it's clear that I've reinvented myself from from the time when I was out
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of high school and teaching music to moving into becoming a clergy woman which was you know where did that come
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from for 16 years and then moving into technology and finally moving into what I'm doing today actually twofold because
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you've never can have just one job of course you have to have multi and we'll talk about that we're always doing a lot of different multi things but this is this is a
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direct correlation what I'm doing today based upon my hair and I didn't say no I
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didn't say oh my gosh I can't get in front of a camera and do this in fact I said I'm gonna get in front of a camera and do it and since then even though I
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still do this I've moved into something else as well and we were talking about that before I'm the president of a cannabis company I mean who would have
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thought that a clergy woman would be doing that and that's because I don't say no so let's address that why do
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people why are people afraid to step into their greatness I think identity has a lot to do with it
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if you've been working for you know 10 or more years in
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one company doing one role perhaps at various levels you develop this sense of
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identity around the job around the company around the role and ironically the the more successful people that I
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work with have the hardest time making this transition because on a certain
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level they're saying well if I'm not doing this then I'm a failure or I'm
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afraid I could be a failure you know or I can't achieve at the level that I have achieved and that's not necessarily the
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case but also you know your your requirements change as you get older and
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the the money the position the status
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don't have the same allure that they had when you were in your 30s now you're
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actually going to be more drawn towards this sense of meaning and purpose giving
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back people paying it forward and you know someone might be listening this and
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going no no I still am ambitious I still want to be master of the universe and I
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just don't have the right venue for that that's why I'm unhappy Yeah right and
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I'm gonna push back on you and say things change things change when you're in your 50s Arthur Brooks who is the
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head of the American Enterprise Institute did a Atlantic article about a month or so ago that got a lot of it was
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in my inbox a lot talking about this inevitable decline that happens in your 50s and here's a guy who has done a lot
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who is achieved he's one of these top achievers who is now moving into retirement or some next step in his life
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and he is lamenting this situation but what he doesn't get and my colleague
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rich Eisenberg at or actually was chris farrell the the marketplace financial
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reporter took him to task i think it was the next avenue or elsewhere on this about saying basically dude you don't
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get it you know because we're not past this stage yet you know you're looking at the client it is there is actually no
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decline there is actually a downshift into a much more resonant you know richer
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period of wisdom and purpose and accomplishment and right you can make at
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this stage of life so what's what's past is prologue and and we are at a at a
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juncture in our lives in our fifties where because of the longevity
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opportunity that we have facing us now this extended life span for most of us
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there's an entirely new renewed opportunity to make the impact to get
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stuff done to live the life and do the work that we've always wanted to do and how exciting is that if you're listening
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live or on replay let us know if you're in this stage of life are you fifty or you are you 55 you sixty are you 63 like
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me what you don't to tell us how old you are if you don't want to but you can tell us let us know what stage of
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reinvention you're in as you are now jumping into boomer ISM I don't know if
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that's a real word boomer ISM there are a lot of but there are a lot of challenges don't think people that are fifty and again I think
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this is beyond you know one generation now you know it was it was boomers but
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now the the oldest gen Xer 5354 you know
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this is about a live stage that starts at age 50 and one of the alarming
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statistics that came to light over the last few months was a study that was done by Pro Publica and the Urban
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Institute which compiles statistics on employment and and firing and people
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leaving jobs 56% of people over 50 are going to get forced out of their job one
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way or another 56% that's just that's insane that is a huge number so what do they do well
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that's the whole question you know the question is right so yeah so you can come to me certainly you read my book
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that you know that the book is designed so you don't have to come to me can read the book and do the process there you go
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and and figure it out look we're still in a transitional
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around this the culture the economy hasn't quite figured out and by the way
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the culture and the economy have to figure it out because the burden the financial burden of having 76 million
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boomers dependent on Social Security is is not viable so it's not viable for the
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economy right people need to keep working for all of us to survive and by
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the way in continuing to work we gain tremendous benefit and longevity and
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health ourselves so continuing to work and figuring something out beyond your
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first act right figuring out something that is going to ask yeah it's going to
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adapt to the realities you know we can't you know we can't we can have the moon all we want about that 56% figure but
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that's the reality and and and on the other side of it my solution is to say
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don't go looking for a job don't surly don't go looking for a job which was
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just like the last job you had because they probably want someone ten years younger in ten years cheaper than what
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was supposed to do because you can't be ten years younger right so but but that's the point the point is figure out
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who you are now what you really want to do make this into a deep dive you know
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into your heart and soul and and what
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was the one is line in the book that TL came when I was on the CBS show just kind of loved about you know just some
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about it about the deep dive into the into the into who you are to figure out what it is that you want to do and it's
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a process right you may not know that initially right what's up but the way
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you figure that out is that you have to share right you have with people around
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yeah you have to go out and you have to you have to build a cadre of trusted
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advisors around you your own personal board of directors if you will to start this dialogue about what should
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I be doing and what do I really love to do and and and they're gonna tell you you know you were great at this you're
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lousy at that all right so true you know you have you I asked you to give me one tip that you wanted
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to share and I just absolutely love this I have it on the screen stop chasing job openings and start chasing professional
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relationships don't agree relationships are king or queen in my case but tell me
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about that well it's all it's all about the network it's always been about the network 85% of jobs are filled through
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referrals not through resume submissions this is even I think more true for older
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people because you know we're intimidating right you know some younger
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recruiter is going to look at us and go and I've I'm not my god I've heard these
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stories you know you go in for the for the meeting for the interview interview goes great they're like amazed that who
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you are you think I got you all right you've actually intimidated them right and it's crickets you don't hear from
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them again it's like they admire you so much actually it's not that they they
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they demean you denigrate you disrespect you they actually they genuinely don't
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know containing all of your brilliance into the right position so what you have
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to do then so what you have to do is figure out what is that that value proposition
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what is that brilliance this is kind of the equation which is that you've got to
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figure out what that value proposition is what message is around that and you
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have to take that out and find the landing pad for that
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it's not about fitting yourself into a job because you're so fantastic it's about what is the problem that I love to
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solve that I'm the best at solving well they're the one single service and it's
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got to be niche you've got to start very very now people say well I can do anything it's like yeah but you
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shouldn't write you should find the one problem that really needs solving that you solve
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better than anyone else and start there and that's your mantra that's your
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elevator pitch and that's where you up relationships because someone knows
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exactly what it is I do and then they can say hey you're looking for this I've
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got the guy or the gal for you I love that that to me is a super boomer moment right there that is it find the problem
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that you can solve what is the value proposition guys that is the super boomer moment I normally do it at the
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end but that was awesome and I wanted to make sure that we have that Susan Jacob says do you feel that men have more
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difficulty with this than women well I yes and no I think men have
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initially a harder time wrapping their heads around the transition process
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mm-hmm once they have accepted that they
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are going to go through it need to go through it then there's no difference right right statistically there on the
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other hand women statistically are having a harder time prolonging their
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careers than men although I find that women tend to be more resourceful I was
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just and imaginative right they make their own jobs they create their own
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jobs I have somebody Candace just said I was a massage therapist in my 50s and took the risk of starting my own dog
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walking and pet sitting business by the way when I was in Napa she was our dog walker amazing amazing woman I adore you
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Candace thank you for joining the show and she said I solved a problem and many others problems so she took something as
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a massage therapist I know she had some physical issues going on and she now does dog walking she found the problem
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and she did it she know exactly what you're saying how cool is that you know it really it really does work guys I
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guess it's time and time again and the problem is and this is back to identity
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the bigger problem is this sense of oh my god I've gotten to the end of my
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runway and there's nothing there and no you know no is plenty there it's just you need to
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refocus reframe look in a different direction usually inward and then when I see so
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often with clients is that after these initial few sessions of the anxiety
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around this it's like okay Here I am and it's an my life is over once they start to get a sense of what they could do
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then there's no shutting them up and I know that I've experienced so we talked
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about before the show started about staying and in focus that that really is one of the the major foundational things
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that if we can figure out how to do that a lot of things fall into place so what do you do to stay focused
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well the issue really here is that is that we are one way or another for
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better or worse all destined to be entrepreneurs as we get older and yes
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you may get yourself a salaried position but it may not be forever you know you
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may have a particular passion that you are continuing to refine and find clients for but ultimately for a lot of
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reasons I think we are all this to be more entrepreneurs also because the lifestyle is better frankly to be more
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of a life of a lifestyle entrepreneur in your 50s and 60s and more because you
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got other stuff you want to do in the day right to spend you want to spend time with your grandkids if you've got
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grandkids you want to spend time with passions that you are into whether it's out reaping whether you know you want to
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be mindful of your physical condition and your nutrition so I just cooked
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myself a really wonderful lunch before this this session here and I wouldn't
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get to do that if I were working in an office 9:00 to 5:00 right and I enjoy so I think part of the lifestyle is about
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taking back control of all of those things that enrich you as a human being
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and provide you with outlet for that single focus that you have that single
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value proposition so the challenge is being an entrepreneur is if you don't have a
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clock to punch yeah you know how do you stay on top of it and this has been a real challenge for me over the last ten
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years that I have been out of the corporate world mm-hmm I'm a bit of a kind of a Productivity
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geek so I've always been studying this I'm a big fan of the David Allen getting
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things done and I try to live by that and I'm think I found a piece of
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software that actually works for me finally coming back to it a second time but I'm always trying to figure out
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what's the best way of doing this so it's an example of this it's like I'm trying to organize all of the self
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development education stuff tell you the podcasts the videos you know what am I gonna have time to do this so I run
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around the live in near Pasadena so I run to three times a week around the Rose Bowl which is three miles and it's
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about a 30 40 minute run it's a perfect perfect opportunity for podcasts so I
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have a queue of podcasts ready to go go and I just hit the track and it's like
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okay we'll scroll down haven't heard that one I'll go for it but I try and find myself ways to continually position
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opportunities for more productivity calendar blocking is really important
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like make appointments with yourself yeah a calendar for what it is that you have to do don't don't say like well
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it's Tuesday I'm supposed to do this or this or this and you're gonna get to say yeah identify in your calendar that is
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great yeah so definitely get it act like your own boss and and think about doing
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this as a important facet of your entrepreneurial lifestyle and that way
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you start to open up opportunities for more things to start coming your way
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because if you're if you're working on your network you're constantly meeting new people engaging with people you're
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informing yourself you're sharing information with others you're learning new stuff you know you're open to more
26:32
and more things it becomes a virtuous cycle find yourself
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I mean I'm busier at 67 then I've been you know probably since I was running
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around in my 20s and you're having the best time of your life too because I know that you're saying everything that you're doing right now so guys if you're
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wondering how to get the boomer reinvention you can pick it up at the super boomer lifestyle it is right there
26:57
in the store make sure you go pick it up but I want to ask you something because we are talking about FOMO the fear of
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missing out and you came up with another acronym which I love and it's just a
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fear right so fear of missing out is the kind of distraction killer right it's
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like oh if I don't if I don't check in with so-and-so and I find out check
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Facebook three times a day or if I don't check email every five minutes right I'm
27:26
gonna miss something we're always in this 24/7 connected world we're afraid that we're gonna miss something
27:31
important that's timely I'm guilty we're all guilty we're finding this
27:36
distraction all the time right and so that's the fear of missing out but I think when you get to the other side of
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it where you're able to put the distractions in their place and only
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check email three times a day four times a day you know or you could do it every
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hour after you've accomplished a milestone right right your task you check the task off okay now I can check
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email what a calendar it's the same thing that's for joy is missing out so mo right because it gives you so much
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more time to discover stuff that's for you right more intentional for you and
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and it just pulls you away from this slavery that we have towards being
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connected for the sake of being connected because we might miss something something no world enough
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remember when we didn't have this and what did we do what I don't know I I'm always looking
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around people on their phones in restaurants at the carwash everywhere
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what did we do before we didn't before we had the phones we life John we had an audience we have
28:49
news we we tweet it to one another we did it so I'm sure that those who are
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listening live and on replay you're wondering okay this guy is awesome because you are how do we get in touch
29:02
with John because if you are over 50 or around there or older you you may be in
29:07
this place right now of wanting to read this kind of you are gonna be lost your
29:13
job so reach out to John I'll go out and his website or if you want just go pick
29:19
up his book which I suggest you do anyways pick up his book because it is awesome and then finally if you want to
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follow him on Twitter you can go to Twitter at John Tarnoff you can go to
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Facebook and follow him at John Tarnoff coach and finally and I don't have I'm
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gonna write this down on LinkedIn it is also just gonna catch John turnoff I'm
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just gonna go ahead and put this in here linked and slash on turnoff yeah John
29:46
turnoff we were laughing how original is that you've got a great brand alright
29:51
any last-minute thoughts that you'd like to share with our guests the time just went by so fast and I know there's so
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many questions coming in but any last-minute thought you'd like to share no just that again you know the career
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you want is in it's inside you it's already there and you know be think of
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yourself as a not as a seeker at this point but as a finder you know you've
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lived all this time seeking the achievement seeking the position seeking
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the life whatever it is that you've been seeking but now you've found it you know where
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you are is is is a great place and it's just gonna get better I love it John
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thank you so much for joining us again I'm gonna drop you into the green room as I finish up the show but again thank
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you because I know your place it's always fun talking with you and it's great always fun
30:45
tuck you soon so how cool is John all I
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can say is he's amazing and I just want to go back to the super boomer moment when we were talking about you know what
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is the value proposition that you bring to the table and what is the problem that you saw and what a great way to kind of in now
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analyze and and and think about these things with yourself to see what can you
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do in your next next as you reinvent yourself as a super boomer so I want to
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thank you guys for joining us we know that you have so many things to do I I know you do we all know you do and we
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want to thank you for taking the time out of your day to share it with us today we thank you we want you to go out
31:28
and give somebody else an awesome day and we'll see you next time on the next episode of the super boomer lifestyle