Over-50

Era of the "Marys" - Probably Will Never Return

Emily, Madison, Emma, Hannah, and Olivia. Right now, those are the top names for baby girls. 

Likely, with the growing global clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church the name "Mary" is finished. For good. 

For those not familiar with the ideology (or mythology) of Roman Catholicism, Mary had been the virgin who gave birth to Jesus Christ.

Since the Roman Catholic Church was the major (and perhaps only) friend to the waves of immigrants coming to America, so many baby girls were named some version of "Mary." Usually it was a double name such as "Mary Beth," "Mary Catherine," or "Mary Pat." 

My immigrant family in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey baptized me "Mary Jane."

Not only was I burdened for years with that Roman Catholic identity (in an Ivy graduate school program and in the WASPY corporations that was not a plus). Also, there were the jokes about Mary Jane shoes, Mary Jane candy bars, and eventually Mary Jane blunts.

When the economy turned sour post-9/11, I had that moment of professional clarity: The Mary had to go. It was too Catholic. Too ethnic. And way too cute.

I consulted with the late Jack O'Dwyer, who had created the bible of public relations Odwyperpr.com. He nixed:

M. Jane

M.J.

J.

And, the radical (which would require going to court) Ariel Cabot (nice WASPY pedigree).

We decided on plain "Jane."

So, yes, I was ahead of my time. Somewhere in cohesive immigrant neighborhoods, female babies probably were still being named some combination which included "Mary."

However, the solution to my professional challenges was short-lived. With all the new names becoming popular, Jane dates me. Face it, it's an old-line name. I have a hunch that if I applied for gigs under the name Madison, instead of Jane, my application would be pulled to the head of the line. Age bias is very real.

That's the professional part.

Socially, since we can choose our nicknames, there is no problem. Despite the fact that O'Dwyer had rolled his eyes at "Ariel," Ariel it has been in my three years in Eastern Ohio. The opportunity relocation provides is taking on a fresh social persona. 

Ariel is more extroverted than Jane and much more so than Mary Jane. She listens. She edits what she says. And since she isn't Jane there is no need to be wound up so tight about work like Jane. Ariel is thriving socially. Jane, not so much.

In August, to expand my inroads into the Mexican market, I plan to relocate to a small U.S. town near the border. As here, I will tell folks Jane is my professional name. However, I am unsure if I will blow into town as Ariel. Hannah is such a beautiful name. Hannah it could be. I have high hopes for her social life, on both sides of the border. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

"They" Told Us to Go to College - What Happened?

Did the GI bill of 1944 kick off the current obsession with "getting into college?"

That well-intentioned federal initiative made it possible for ordinary people in America to obtain degrees in higher education. Before that, such preparation for the life of the educated person (now called the "global citizen") and a supposed edge in making a living usually were limited to the upper middle class. 

Soon enough in the land of opportunity America had been in those days there was that ah-ha moment: Hey, I can go to college too. 

Soon enough that mutated into: Hey, I have to go to college. 

The higher education industry overbuilt and now, as Boston Magazine reports, it's downsizing. College after college had been closing down, merging, or radically restructuring. My dark humor is that the dorms will be retrofitted into assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

The meme in my Jersey City, New Jersey inner city high school in 1959 was: preparing for college. We were mandated to do this (take typing for doing term papers in college) and don't do that (get in trouble in class which would go on our permanent record) in order to get into college. The kids in shop - that is, the non-college preparation track - were a lower caste. 

En masse, we went to college.

Since higher education became a high status pursuit, the game became the more education the better. My race away from my blue-collar background included doctoral studies at the University of Michigan and admission to Harvard Law School. 

And here we are The Educated Generations.

What happened to us?

The main development is that education didn't insulate us from the machinations of The Invisible Hand.

During the 1980s, when business globalized, there had been that Stalin-like purge of middle managers in corporate.

Most of us were middle aged.

Those who couldn't figure out how to be entrepreneurs and shop for office supplies at Staples essentially had to retire early.

Meanwhile those who had gone the trade-school route didn't skip a beat.

The global crash of 2008 sucked away jobs and nest eggs. Currently, raw age bias is forcing white collars out before they are financially and emotionally ready to stop working. 

Meanwhile, those kids in shop who made it their business to be trained in a trade had a better track record for remaining employed.

On the elite Gold Coast of Connecticut, the plumbers, electricians, trash collectors, and long-distance drivers had plenty of work in 2008. Simultaneously, the college-educated were dropping like flies. Some haven't made it back yet.

At the top of the list are the almost 20,000 lawyers who lost their jobs and then were labeled "damaged goods." They weren't hired for comparable jobs.

In the coming recession, there's a projection that more than 10,000 will be put on the street, glutted with highly educated talent. 

A large number of those shop kids also have a more financially secure retirement. A neighbor, a retired long-haul driver, has his Teamsters pension, Social Security, and plenty more socked away. He had only been laid off once in his career.

During high school, sure, they hammered him about applying to college. Instead he went into military service. After that he worked three days in a production facility, then found out how to drive those big rigs. Currently, according to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for long-distance driving is $70,727.

What would I have done for a living had I not fell in line and attended college?

Likely, I would have knocked on the doors of The Jersey Journal, Hudson County, NJ's powerful newspaper. I would have offered to work free learning how to cover news, lived in the ghetto with my family, and continued to be a part-time long distance operator at the then New Jersey Bell. In those days, putting together a career path in that way was possible. Only we were not encouraged to take the non-linear path.

It wasn't until I was 30 that I began writing professionally. Right now, my field is glutted as The Invisible Hand wipes out jobs in journalism, traditional stand-alone public relations, and, as a result of the college admissions scandal, ghostwriting personal essays and term papers for those in the academic loop. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Best Recession Hedge Are Side Hustles

Can a bunch of side hustles equal what used to be a good job?

Many could find that out if global corporate leaders are on the money and a recession is already kicking in.

In studying Q4 2018 financial results and earnings calls with analysts, Gartner concluded that around the world corporations have switched over to how businesses operate during downturns. Also, the Federal Reserve noticed a slowdown. Here are more details from MarketWatch.

Obviously, jobs will be cut. Labor is one of the most expensive items. 

For those laid off, sure, there can be severance. There are wonderful outplacement services. There is generous unemployment. But, it's unlikely they will find jobs as well-paying. That's just the way it is. 

What helps with the gap in income are side hustles. They can be of all kinds. They don't have to be related to one another. And they can be tried out now, before the reduction-in-force.

Currently Kevin Ha works as a full-time lawyer. Simultaneously, he operates 12 side hustles. They range from delivering food on his bike (great idea since there is no wear and tear on his car) to walking dogs. Here are more details from MarketWatch. He is a smart dude. During a recession, one forecast is that more than 10,000 lawyers could lose their jobs. Here is the analysis in Law.com.

In Arizona, a location where there is less age bias, I had 3 side hustles. My core income was coming from my communications and coaching business. I evaluated ACT essays, took incoming customer service calls, and sold in a store within a store a brand of consumer electronics.

That additional income lessened my financial angst. It was then no surprise that I pitched more confidently and more business came in more easily. 

Will my business take a hit during a downturn? That depends on the severity.

But I am preparing for that by ramping up my training in the tools used in psychic readings. Several months ago two services specializing in clairvoyance offered me side gigs. At the time I was preoccupied with my core business.

That was a mistake. Never close the door on a side hustle. It could become the main source of income. 

Here is the article I published in Odwyerpr.com on how to position and package side hustles. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Good News: We're Prepared for Death, Bad News: We Don't Have Enough of Reserve Fund

About 80% of us get it that we're going to die. We have done our will and other tasks such as end of life medical directives.

That's what the recent study by Bankers Life Center for Secure Retirement found.

Where we're dropping the ball is on financing our day to day lives.

For instance, the majority don't have a reserve fund for emergencies. The car requires a major repair. Our total financial situation can't absorb that expense. We are thrown into the scary darkness of debt. Or, there's a medical crisis or need for long-term care not covered by all our insurances. That could add up to six-figure bill.

That's why it make sense to continue to remain in the labor force, at least part-time, or to hold onto operating our own businesses. The income can be funneled into a reserve. According to the feds, one-third of those who retired have bounced back into the labor force. 

Some of them found that they just can't make ends meet. Yes, inflation is low, but it's still going on. When I relocated to the Youngstown, Ohio Metro area in September 2016, ready-bagged iceberg lettuce sold at WalMart for $1.99. Now, it's $2.49. That's slo-mo inflation. 

In addition, there are other ways to create a reserve fund.

One that those in Retirement Paradise Oro Valley, Arizona have been embracing is lowering their energy bills. A common tactic is switching to solar, which is easy in that sun-drenched part of the U.S. 

Another is co-living. That has myriad versions. You can sell your house or stop renting your apartment. Instead move in with those in a house with private bedrooms but shared common facilities and areas. Or you can hold onto your house and rent out rooms to those whose skills can lower maintenance costs. You have a handyman move in and a woman who is an expert in landscaping.

A third is to relocate where there is plentiful public transportation. That facilitates ditching the financial burden of your own car. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has a wonderful system. So does Tucson, AZ. 

The tough part about aging is the uncertainty. None of us knows what kind of change we will be wake up to. For instance, the results of the 2016 presidential campaign brought new threats to our entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. That is part of what makes living more of a challenge than owning up to death.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

It's Okay We Didn't Get Very Rich

A sign of these rage-filled times, a San Francisco Bay area parent - Jennifer Kay Toy - has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court.

It is against the 33 parents allegedly involved in the elite college admissions scam.

The defendant list also includes the athletic officials at the universities who allegedly participated and Harvard graduate genius Mark Riddell who allegedly took tests for the students.

The lawsuit, in which Toy's son Joshua also is listed as a plaintiff, is for $500 billion. Here are more details from ABC.

That's the latest in the court of law. Previously, students who had been denied admission to universities such as Yale filed a class action lawsuit. In it they also contended the value of their current degree at Stanford could have lost value because of the alleged scam. 

In the court of public opinion the national mood is turning ugly against the 1%. One wonders if that could affect juries who will sit in judgment of some of these cases. Members of juries are human. They might lack compassion for the myopia of the wealthy in the choices they made.

In addition, there could be theatre in the streets, similar to how the counterculture in the late 1960s took on the establishment. When someone from the 1% enters public space they can be caricatured. There are no limits to the imagination of an enraged 99%.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Remembering the Counterculture - The Barbarians Did Get in the Gate

The plaintiff class includes those rejected in their applications for admission to elite universities and/or who contend the value of their current or coming degree could erode because of this scandal.

The lawyer filing this class action lawsuit is John Medler Jr. of Irvine, California. Here is a copy of the 30-page complaint.

That represents the first bit of litigation filed after the outing of what could be labeled "EliteAdmissionsGate."

The defendants include 7 universities, ranging from Sanford to Yale, mastermind of the scam Rick Singer, and the companies he had been associated with. Here are more details from Courthouse News. 

A reality in this injustice is that applicants, many middle class or lower income, have to pony up about 80 bucks to fill out an application for Yale. Then, as plaintiff Erica Olsen laments, she was turned down. A less qualified applicant could have been admitted based on fraudulent credentials.

Many more lawsuits could be filed.

This scandal could be the tipping point in the rage against the Gilded Age players and perceived inequality.

Could there be an analogue of the feelings associated with the Russian Revolution? Will those who view themselves as "screwed" in a rigged economic system occupy the mansions of the entitled in Greenwich, Connecticut?

I had published a comic novel "The Guy From Greenwich." Now out of print, it had been #60 on Amazon in 2009. 

An economic slowdown, with declining employment opportunities, could increase that rage, becoming a solid platform for filing lawsuits.

Today The Wall Street Journal reports that economic experts are cutting their projections for GDP growth and job creation for Q1 2019. Already I have felt that in my business. There is an upsurge in the demand for marketing content, which is standard at the beginning of a recession. Also, in my specialized niche of career-transition content there is an uptick in orders. 

Should graduates of low-ranked universities and colleges not be able to land jobs they could easily be recruited for class actions in litigation as well as days of rage. The last time the latter broke out en masse had been during the counterculture. No aspect of the establishment was safe from the reformers. The mantra was: Power to the People. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Someone Else's (unwelcome) Family Feeling

Most families are dysfunctional.

That's the insight a primary care physician passed on to me in Tucson, Arizona. Hmmmm, I thought, that's good news: I have a lot of company in the compulsion to steer clear of that toxic group of people linked to me by accidents of reproduction. 

And, I figured that was that. I had resolved the inner turmoil I had experienced since age 11. That's when I looked up from my life, looked at the people in the house, and made a plan to leverage my brain for a ticket to an out-of-state college.

Then, twice I got that contact message.

One was from California.

Another was from Maryland.

Those wanted to be family. They had big plans about getting together. 

That, I made sure, wasn't going to happen.

For the rest of you who also find yourself in that potential emotional catastrophe what is effective in keeping the barbarians from getting over the gate is this: Be a total capitalist.

Insist that "at your age" it's hard enough to keep up in work. No, it's impossible to be distracted by company. So sorry, though.

The sickness argument won't deter them. My late sister told them she had cancer. They said, fine, they would wait until she was finished with chemo before coming by to become family again.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Unemployed Content-Providers - Plenty of This Kind of Work Available

How sweet it is.

The 1% and the few tiers under it have been ensnared in a massive scandal.

Essentially, it's about exotic forms of cheating to have someone admitted to an elite institution of higher education.

Here is a copy of the indictment.

Here is the media coverage.

The alleged scam could go by the name "AdmissionsGate" or "AthleteGate."

The latter refers to the allegation that former Yale women's soccer coach Rudy Meredith "billed" at about $400k an assignment creating faux credentials for non-athlete applicants to be admitted as athletes. 

Among those accused has been co-chair of law firm Willkie Farr - Gordon Caplan. Allegedly he ponied up $75k to have a professional test-taker sit in for his daughter. Here are more details from Kathryn Rubino at Abovethelaw.com.

About 40 have been swept up into this mess - directly. More will be - indirectly. Likely presidents and deans will have to resign for not ensuring adequate checks and balances in the admissions process.

But, hell, this particular high-end scam is just the tip of the iceberg in college admissions as well as then navigating toward being awarded a degree.

There is a growing global industry which owns the personal essay niche. That statement by an applicant is an important part of the package presented.

Here is the article I published with tips on how applicants can approach this writing task. The article assumes the applicants will accept the ethical responsibility to put together the personal statement themselves.

Across the world, fewer are doing that. Clever firms and individuals in this niche position and package their services as coaching and editing. They mandate the customer put something down on paper. Then they overhaul it way beyond the original content. That's what submitted to the admissions committee.

The less clever simply advertise the service as a form of ghostwriting. They place help-wanted on all sections of the international help-wanted site Craigslist for ghostwriters. Sometimes the ghostwriters, as is traditional in executive communications, will interview the applicant by Skype or in-person. Other times they will work from a data sheet. 

The industry can be lucrative. For those businesses and individuals with a track record for producing the essays which catapult applicants into what are considered the Ivies around the world there's big money. For small fry, the ghostwriting can be billed at about $25 an hour. An outfit in Boston - a city whose major industry is higher education - pays ghostwriters 80 bucks an essay. Peanuts. The trick is to grab assignments for elite school admissions.

Of course. once admitted the cheating can extend as far as the student's budget will go. A growing number of global services and solos will research and ghostwrite term papers. That includes the footnotes. Others will tune in to an online course and fulfill all the requirements. There are also note-takers who attend large lecture classes. 

The noble concept of higher education has become as corrupt as any banana republic.

That wasn't always the situation, of course.

When I was an adjunct professor I detected only one case of cheating. It was plain-vanilla plagiarism. No exotic ghostwriter seemed to be the middleman. Back then, there wasn't the large amount of student loan money floating around. Most of those in college couldn't afford to hire ghostwriters, note-takers, and test-takers. 

Unfortunately, with so many white-collar positions vanishing, there's no shortage of talent willing to get into this line of work.

Recently, a displaced journalist felt "forced" to cross the line. He had read my essay on how to approach the college admission personal statement. He came to me to sort of "apologize" for abandoning his ethics code. I informed him of legit work in researching and creating content for businesses in the career niche. There's plenty of it and there will be plenty more if the recession is severe.

Proposal: Appoint a Sheriff of Academia to set up stings to apprehend both those who are willing to pay for cheaters and those who implement the cheating. Make the sentence mandatory prison for five years. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Your Professional Network - How Outdated Is It?

The signature of ivy educational institutions had been Forever Professional Networks. 

That was then.

The reality is that in this globalized, digitalized economy, we in professional life have to keep changing. So must our networks.

The barbarians are at the gates. Protecting and scaling our business are ongoing musts. Connections from the past - with the past being as recent as two months ago - may be more of a burden than a help.

A sign of that is the sustained brisk sales of the 2011 book "Necessary Endings."

Authored by executive coach Henry Cloud, it ranks on Amazon at 5,055. Here you can order it. Cloud presents example after example of what can happen to a career - and an entire organization - when past connections aren't ditched. 

Not that the decision to assess our network is an easy one. There seems to be a human tendency to create and hang out in comfort zones. They make us feel safe, simplify our daily living, and even seemingly keep us in the not-getting-into-trouble box.  

But they can also create increasing distance from awareness of and access to emerging opportunities.

A classic example in communications is any rigid bonding with those associated with old-line corporate thought leadership. The very tone of that can alienate target constituencies. Here are some reflections on how the "style guide" is changing.

In order to evaluate what connections continue to be useful and what new ones have to be developed is challenging. There is also no guarantee of making the right moves. That's because it requires figuring out what in our business is working, what isn't, and what needs to be added. Given the massive ambiguity, we can be frozen into sticking with the status quo.

Cloud suggests escape routes from the past. Yes, order the book.

Here, free to download, is my own book on finding the ramp out of what is and developing the courage to follow a fresh route of human connections. It is directed at the over-50 but the fundamentals apply to all generations. My iGen intern thinks it will help her shake off the "college experience" and go after that first real job as a "certified adult," as she puts it.

Another tool could be investing in a seminar custom-made to change behavior. Among them are what tutorials have been developed by Dale Carnegie Systems.

When my niche specialization in traditional executive communications collapsed, I enrolled in a Dale Carnegie hands-on workshop for marketing and sales. Job number-one was determining what we were going to sell.

That, of course, goes back to the Ted Levitt insight about the importance of broadly defining what business we really are in. Had the railroads recognized they were in the transportation one, not the narrow railcar box, they could have continued to scale in the era of airplane travel. 

There is also the advantage of having a one-on-one coach. Unlike therapy, the objective is professional success. The focus is not curing but determining how to bypass what gets in the way.

My communications clients who hired coaches report that the most effective kind of coaching is that which operates narrowly on achieving the objective. That seemed to them far more important than developing a relationship with the coach.

The need to purge the past isn't new. Way back in the 20th century Judith Viorst published what was then groundbreaking. That was the book "Necessary Losses." Essentially it gave us permission to dump those relationships, ranging from graduate school to our first few jobs. No surprise, it still ranks high on Amazon. Here you can order it.

The good news is that technology has provided a convenient (but still brutal) way to signal a good-bye. We can unfriend, remove, and block. Usually, it's a lousy investment in time to "talk it over." That only invites anything from defensiveness to an attack.

Reflection: There is a meme in some self-help programs. That's Drop The Rock. In the 21st century, that rock is usually an outdated network. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

With Some Employers - e.g. The Dilenschneider Group - Being Seasoned Talent Can Be a +

A sale of property in Manhattan uses fills the current renters with terror: The rent is likely to go up. The issue is by how much. Will those leasing be forced to relocate?

As MarketWatch reports, the Chrysler Building has sold for relative peanuts - $150 million.

At first glance that should reduce renters' angst.

But the article goes on to explain that the property beneath the building is owned by Cooper Union. The rent paid to Cooper Union by the current owners is steep. In 2018, it was $32.5 million, up from the previous $7.7 million. By 2028, the new owners will have to pony up $41 million per year.

So, some of us in public relations wonder how much The Dilenschneider Group's rent could go up. That bunch used to be housed in the prestigious MetLife building over Grand Central. Then they packed up their conference room and moved across the street. 

Founded by former personal public relations representative for Roger Ailes - Bob Dilenschneider - the agency tends to represent old-line establishment kinds of accounts. Those are usually deep pockets which can pay Manhattan-like fees.

But, still, Dilenschneider and his long-time administrative assistant Joan Avagliano might be reviewing the client list and checking it twice to speculate who will be nice enough to continue with the revenue stream and who could bolt if there is any uptick in fee structure. Also, despite what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on "60 Minutes," a recession could be coming. There has been an increase in assignments I do for career transition enterprises. Whole industries, such as law, could be decimated. 

Meanwhile, the rank and file in public relations such as myself wonder how secure the jobs are of junior level employees at The Dilenschneider Group. The way that particular public relations agency tilts is toward hiring and retaining older talent. Here is the list. You bet, youth can be vulnerable. 

On Glassdoor, the employee rating for The Dilenschneider Group is "1" out of "5." Here are the employee evaluations.

Why is this story of interest to communications players?

Dilenschneider has been around forever. At some point in that saga, many of us worked for him at his previous job at Hill & Knowlton or the firm he founded. He's an interesting presence to watch. So is his seeming number-two Avagliano.

Not only in the public relations industry and not only in America, we have hardened into a worldwide phenomenon of steely-eyed watchers. Increasingly that is being conducted onscreen.

As more opt into a FIRE (financial independence, retire early) this has become a source of extreme pleasure. The resentments developed over a career that played out in dog years blossom into wild euphoria. Also, though, there is heart-attack-producing envy.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com.