Over-50

Side Hustles - You Bet, They Prevent Winding Up Financially/Professionally Stranded

Smart.

That's what thought.

For about six months I had been strategically planning and creating promotional content for a one-player IT fixit service. It was only by accident that I discovered that particular entrepreneur also was operating another line of business: music production.

Side hustles or setting up multiple sources of income have become downright required in the current volatile economy.

More professionals, even the buttoned-down rigid professional-services types, are learning that.

Unfortunately, for some it had been too late.

For example, early adopters of blogging played only in that box. When BigMedia moved in, their source of income imploded. Had they other hustles going they wouldn't have wound up financially and professionally stranded.

However, what remains the branding must is: Don't confuse clients and customers with a multiple identity. Make it your business to keep the enterprises separate. Here is the article I published on that.

Usually, that's possible.

From the get-go, a new client and I are focused on segregating his academic communications niche enterprise from his long-term memoir-writing specialization. That entails making decisions not only about "owned" marketing communications material such as his own websites, blogs, emails, podcasts, and in-person presentations.

Also, he has to figure out how to position and package himself on social networks. What should his LinkedIn Profile capture? That's where tough marketing work is required. Social networks must operate on the macro level to create an inclusive enough identity to cover most hustles. What he is moving toward is an identity as a communications strategist. 

All this isn't new, of course. It goes all the way back to the early days of mass entrepreneurship in the U.S.

During that Stalin-like purge of middle-aged middle managers in corporate America, we exiles had to determine what we could sell as small businesspeople and how. That took time - and guidance from branding experts. Probably that was the beginning of the growth of the executive coach. 

For instance, a first step was to put myself out there as a generalist in public relations writing, not a specialist in thought leadership ghostwriting. The latter was too narrow. Of course, though, I developed customized snail-mail promotions focused on niches. Typical was pitching financial institutions such as American Express on my track record in credit cards. The folks at American Express only knew me as that.

Branding exists to simplify purchasing decisions. That means job number-one for those with multiple sources of income is to do the initial positioning and packaging so that clients and customers have an unambiguous snapshot of what you are selling, what are the unique benefits, and the advantages to them of the pricing.

Yes, sometimes the brands can be fused. The synergy will bring in unexpected business.

There has been my  coaching those over-5o enterprise Download BACKGROUNDERJaneGenovaCoachingOver-50. It seeped into my more general marketing communications line of work. Currently, more revenue comes from the latter than the former. Large and medium-sized career transition firms wanted me to prepare promotional material for them, not coach their clients. 

Obviously, creating side hustles as earning hedges is a complex branding mission.

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. 

Retirement: (Mostly) Unafforable in Any State in US

Retirement has passed the threshold of affordability.

That's even in low-cost cities such as Cleveland, Ohio. According to GoBankingRates.com, there, over-65 households need $38,147 annually to just make it.

And retiring has become nearly impossible for households over-65 in locations such as New York City, where they need about $100k a year.

Here are more details in MarketWatch. 

The conclusion: Maybe retiring shouldn't be on a bucket list. Instead of envisioning total freedom from work during The New Aging, it might be more realistic financial planning to just save for some fun travel on vacations from work or between gig contracts.

More and more of the assignments for my two communications businesses are associated with preparing work-search materials for those who assumed they were retired.

Here is my guide, free to download, on how to navigate that shift.

And, here, also free to download, is my book on how to get, hold, and move on to better work, no matter one's age Download Outwitting ageism.

One day those who have retired wake up and have that brutal moment of clarity: They are sliding into debt. To pay off that debt and prevent its return in the future, they need more funds coming in.

Yesterday, a 67-year-old currently unmarried male came to my office. During the past week we had discussed options for marketing services he could provide. The best shot was a niche within higher education.

For several hours we knocked out the must-needed promotional material, then moved on to retrofitting his social networks. The next step would be to set up a website, along with a blog. This weekend in the loop will parachute a friend of his to produce podcasts for the enterprise. 

Like so many retired he had come to the fork in the road: Return to working, even full time or research relocating to overseas locations such as Ecuador or Mexico.

Regarding the latter, the International Living folks are operating a very successful line of business. The chatter on social networks among my age peers is increasingly about permanently settling near a beach outside the US. Some of those are also looking into launching online businesses in their Expat Paradises.

Meanwhile, some over-65 could wind up to be in the front lines of what could be a new trend: Nomading.

They bite the bullet and relocate from, say, ABC to X or Y. But that first plan doesn't pan out. They can't take the heat. They miss the familiar lifestyle. They are unable to develop new friendships. The rentals surge in price. They want to be closer to the grandchildren.

So, they move yet again.

The typical example is the couple who left Pennsylvania for Louisiana. The wife still picks up personal-care gigs. To make ends meet more easily, they recently sold their motor home. Now they are in Ohio. Will you settle in here? That's what I asked them. Their response is becoming typical. It's: We don't know. 

In 2014, I pulled up roots in the New York Metro area and assumed I was going to make my new life in Tucson, Arizona. That got pricey and too careerist. In 2016, I drove four days to Northeastern OH. Here I earned enough from my businesses and invested enough to afford to try again at finding Paradise. That will be at the end of August. If that disappoints, the next stop will be outside the U.S. 

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. 

No, You Don't Have to Podcast, But You Should at Least Try It

Voice has been enjoying a roaring comeback.

That probably kicked off with Alexa.

Then, podcasting became so popular. And, yes, podcasting can be monetized. 

Now you can use your voice, even on a laptop, to give commands to the Google search engine and you can get what you need. In the box on Google in which you key in your search term there is now a microphone.

You can click it on and tell Google, "Give me the weather in Youngstown, Ohio" or "How many miles between Austin, Texas and Sierra Vista, Arizona." 

Your voice can be the most powerful one on the internet. It can facilitate your control over your universe. 

However, clients and communications students ask me all the time: Do I have to do it all - text, like, share, comment, post original content on social media, and now podcast?

The answer, as with most things, is: That depends.

When what you are doing is yielding diminishing returns, it's imperative to review what is panning out, what isn't, and what should be tried.

You can try out podcasting free on Zoom. Next, research what host to use. Many are free.

Stay at it for a while You may or may not be a voice person. However, give yourself time to uncover any public speaking talent.

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. 

Not Retired? You Have No Choice, You Have to Keep Doing Social Media

Just last night I was reflecting: Can I relocate to a small U.S. town near Mexico, semi-retire, and finally quit all social media?

The communications assignments will have to come from responding to help wanted, referrals from those who already know me, and word of mouth in the new location. Right now, relationships developed through social media and via those reading my three syndicated blogs do bring in new business. 

Connecting with old friends would have to shift from Facebook to email, texting, and phone. Not likely. When I sent them emails those weren't even clicked open. I am not crazy about texting. And most of my friends have veered away from voice except for business. If I want to hold on to those relationships I better remain on Facebook.

It turns out that I am not alone is wishful thinking about bolting out of all social media. In Entrepreneur, Tobin Brogunier explains how that yearning is commonplace, why, and that it's probably impossible to pull the plug on social media. 

Increasingly, folks are discovering that the initial professional usefulness and sense of connection that social media brought have turned to a burden and a source of emotional distress.

If you check the help wanted ads posted on Craigslist you will see how many organizations and even individuals need to hire part-time and even full-time workers to keep up with all the posting that's needed for social media. Also, you have to wonder about the ROI on all that. 

Another piece of the burden is doing all those likes, shares, and comments for the postings by those associated with us professionally. It's a have-to. Yes, you better be following what your client is putting out there on LinkedIn Updates. Then you will do a like and construct a thoughtful comment. Wasn't it a hell of lot easier to send them a note of congratulations when their bylined article had been published in The Wall Street Journal?

As for what you post, you know, as Brogunier hammers, you better ramp up the tone and content to sensationalistic. Otherwise it will not get any page views, likes, shares, or comments. You bet, that lack constitutes the new form of professional shaming. 

The emotional distress is palpable. A colleague has become a like magnet. Despite what we try out, we can't exit the ignore box. 

In addition, there is the intrusiveness. The unsolicited advice can trigger PTSD. Here is my experience with that. The trauma was so brutal that, at the time, I took down my Facebook page. Of course, it quickly became obvious that I had to create a new one. That's just the way it was and is.

Optimists predict that social media will evolve into a less oppressive force. Maybe.

Meanwhile, a new anti-hero is Christopher Knight.

For 27 years he pulled off living in the woods of Main without communicating - not digitally, not in-person - and without a job. In the bestseller "The Stranger in the Woods," Michael Finkel tells Knight's story.

Even my most successful clients will default into the fantasy of a cottage off the grid - for the rest of their lives. Not just for vacations.

If they need to access the internet they have it planned out that they will search for a hotspot. 

My version of that takes place in the desert. 

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. 

 

Nice - That Puts You on the Defense

Creative genius, yes.

Unique sense of style.

The right timing, of course.

But, the edge Karl Lagerfeld created for himself was what the Daily Mail refers to as his "acid tongue." An example: He referred to singer Adele as "fat."

That's a tactical device Lagerfeld, who died at age 85, had in common with lawyers, of course.

The most successful lawyers understand how to choose just the right phrase to disarm with bluntness - and get away with it, in the courts of law and public opinion and at the negotiating table. The game doesn't happen on the playing field of nice.

In the classic television series "Law & Order" prosecutor Jack McCoy used searing plain-speak. In "Boston Legal," Danny Crane was able to stop short, in rhetorical courtroom theatrics, of being hauled in for contempt of court. And, Judge Judy regularly delivers tongue-lashings. 

In addition, businesspeople who get to the top, mostly by starting their own firms, also leverage what could be called "Heavy Blunt." Amazon head Jeff Bezos is said to use the phrase, "What do you think, I took a stupid pill?" when subordinates give the wrong answer. Apple's Steve Jobs was a verbal trickmeister. 

Those realities are now everywhere.  The Great Recession changed the language of business.  Social media accelerated the shift. Polite is interpreted as insecurity. That invites the sharks in.

Yet, there are those who have made old-line "civility" as their signature. Among them is public affairs player Bob Dilenschneider. Here is his manifesto. Dilenschneider also co-sponsored a series on civility in Stamford, Connecticut. 

In an economy continually disrupted by globalization and digital technology there is no patience with anything but straight-talk. If it violates the 20th-century laws of civil discourse, all the better. How many of us chose to conduct business with vendor X versus vendor Y because he or she seemed "straight" with us? 

Blunt is the power tool of the second decade of the 21st century.

Sure, it can be misused. Some contend that the current U.S. president Donald Trump leverages that power in an abusive way.

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/Budget Challenged in Youngstown, OH Metro Area? - Ian Billen Will Surprise You

Does this {my HP PC} have an internal microphone?

That's what I had to find out for the first step on the learning curve to doing podcasts.

If Ana Marie Cox were just starting out today in digital she would be podcasting up a storm.

The blogging medium, now mature, is hardly dead. After all, engineer Susan Fowler leveraged hers to dethrone the high and mighty at Uber.

But, blog followers expect a link to a podcast now and then.

More and more help-wanted demand that skill and the links to showcase it. 

Okay, I put the question out there. To me that was scary. Since I am not a digital native, most of what's associated with online is scary. For the first 24 minutes.

Within 90 seconds IT genius Ian Billen, based in the Youngstown, Ohio metro area, clicked around my laptop.

He located the internal mic and showed me that the sound was operational but the mike wasn't.

In addition, he confirmed that there was an audio card in the computer.

All those 90 seconds he talked HumanSpeak. I not only got what he said. I didn't feel less-than.

Immediately, Billen outlined several low-cost options for getting the mic working. The choice was mine. No high-pressure sales.

Billen also indicated that I could continue to learn at the Girard Public Library in Girard, OH. 

To break through all the unknowns (and terrors) associated with IT, contact Ian Billen at ianbillen@gmail.com. He listens, he diagnoses, he fixes, he trains. The fee is unusually low. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together digital content? Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence without big public relations firms high rates,  janegenova374@gmail.com. 

Career Transition, No Matter Your Age - Voluntary & Involuntary

After three years at Harvard Law School and two+ years in BigLaw, Elie Mystal had had it with the career path in law. 

But, unlike so many others who know that they're in the wrong box, he did quit his job practicing law. That is, he entered The Great Unknown of Career Transition.

Today he heads up Abovethelaw.com.

In addition, he is a presence in broadcast media and has tons of followers in social media. 

The "journey," as we now refer to non-linear patches in our work, was not easy, though. And it was not an adventure.

On Goli Kalkhoran's podcast focused on quitting the law, Mystal wryly observes that at age 40 he earns less than he did at age 27.

Overall, the experience humbled but didn't destroy him.

It kicked off with about a year vegging on his couch, with only two months of income he earned tutoring LSAT preparation for Kaplan. Here you can listen to the podcast. And here is the intro to it on Abovethelaw.com.

From the get-go, Mystal didn't like law. That included not liking law school. That antipathy is unusual since most enjoy the intellectual stimulation. For Mystal the professors' attempts to make him think differently was annoying. "I liked how my mind worked." He had enrolled to enter politics.

The only one supportive about exiting law was his wife. He family kept wondering what the hell was going on. For his Next he had a vague idea about becoming a writer. Yet, as he calls it his "sunk cost of time" had been training to become a lawyer. Fortunately, a few editors in New York City took him under their wing and showed him the ropes. That time invested, most of it without pay, did pay off. 

He had the know-how of provocative journalism when he competed for the job of blogging for Abovethelaw. The competition took the form of readers voting the applicants "off the island." Mystal's blogs held their attention. David Lat and Kashmir Hill offered him the mission of helping shape what has been a disruptive approach to reporting legal news.

From the podcast should come the assurance to other potential quitters - and not only from law - that they don't have to have a plan. Actually, they probably don't know enough about other fields to even understand what other options exist.

The classic case of that occurred when Nixon Administration lawyer Chuck Colson was packed off to prison. He probably didn't have a check list of what other paths he should train for. Somehow it was in the slammer that he got it that he and spiritual leadership were a match. Eventually he evolved into a revered minister. Those who wrote his obits sung his praises.

All the time, journalists pushed out media jobs, newbie BAs in low-paying jobs, and the over-50 who lost big jobs because of age bias ask me: What now?

The answer: Get out there and experiment. Try something, anything for about six months. Analyze the potential for you in that line of work. Not enough possibility? Move on. 

In 2003, after my industry collapsed. I was over-50.

I worked in loss prevention, hospitality, and customer relations. Then I read in The New York Times about how Ana Marie Cox was shaping the new medium of blogging as the Wonkette as Gawker.

Hell, I can do that. And that I did. My first lucrative assignment was blogging a trial. That litigation was my meal ticket for four years. Eventually, I pivoted to putting together a niche in career issues, with some coaching as a side hustle. That's where the plum assignments are coming from.

All that might sound like fun others stuck practicing law should envy. But, just as Mystal hammers, the ordeal of career transition involves extreme pain. The alternative, though, is also extreme pain. After the career pivot gets traction, the pain ends. Not with being stuck in work one hates.

Here, free to download, is my book on how to exit comfort zones. And, for those of you over-50, here, also free to download, is my guide to land, hold, and move on to better work Download Outwitting ageism.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Your Brand (business or personal) - Is It Playing in Out-of-Date Content Box?

"As traditional content - a.k.a. journalism - is faltering, 'content' [meaning everything from a tweet to a video on YouTube] is thriving." - Jacob Gallagher, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2019.

Done right, content sells. That's why brands are leveraging it as a major marketing tool. That's also why those likes, shares, and comments matter so much. They signal that brands are on the right track in how they are positioning and packaging content.

Gallagher points out that Nike's Air Vapormax sold out immediately after the company provided a provocative video on YouTube. Here you can view it.

And if done right, there is no such thing as too much content.

Increasingly, the help-wanted ads specify the need for not simply a content creator (or social media expert). Instead there is surging demand for those who can manage all that content, ranging from updating Facebook and Instagram to creating blogs and videos. There is even software for scheduling the content and gaining approval for the plan by the powers that be.

Because of the big payoffs which can come from attention-getting content, what's called "repurposing" is everything. "Repurposing" entails re-posting the link to, for example, a blog post or video on YouTube or podcast on just about every digital platform in existence. 

Meanwhile, of course, traditional journalists have become an endangered species. Conde Nast is a money-loser. Currently The New York Times is enjoying a comeback through investigative reporting during the Trump Bump. But what will happen to it after that and the 2020 election? 

That's why paywalls could turn out to bite the Conde Nasts and The New York Times types in the butt.

Instead of paywalls, journalistic media outlets should rethink how they put content out there. Here is the article on paywalls I published on Odwyerpr.com yesterday.

It's interesting that legal news site Abovethelaw blew up the traditional journalism formats - and it doesn't have a paywall. When its editor in chief Elie Mystal repurposes its posts on Twitter those receive plenty of likes. No surprise, businesses associated with the legal sector are purchasing plenty of space on the Abovethelaw platform.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Real Life - It's Moved Online

Members of Generation Z push back on the notion that they don't interact in real life (IRL) any more.

In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, they explain that the ways in which they connect with each other is seamless.

That is, there is no separation between interacting via technology and in-person.

Yes, all those postings on Instagram (they smirk about Facebook as a social network) represent authentic communication.

But, it isn't only members of Gen Z (those born in or after 1996) who consider connecting via technology as real as going to a bar for drinks or riding bikes together.

Interestingly and of special importance to those striving to make a good living, that seamlessness applies also to professional interactions.

It's been 2014 since I interacted in person with anyone professionally. That was when I took the I-95 ramp out of the New York Metro area and headed west. Since then my business has been a 100% telecommuting one.

In addition, to retain the relationships I treasure back in Connecticut I am downright compulsive about keeping up to date with their postings on, yes, Facebook (where those over-50 hang out).

Incidentally, that seems to be working. During the past six months three mutual friends had died. Collectively we mourned and shared eulogies through technology. I can't speak for others but I experienced meaning in that digital version of the grief process. 

In a sense, all gens are back to being 18 and in the dorm, debating what is real life. Is it what goes on in our heads, in private, or only what happens with others? 

As a former doctoral student and adjunct professor of literature, I had explored the importance of what used to be known as the "inner life." Now that doesn't seem to exist or, at least, isn't valued. That means that those of us who still have a busy inner life aren't encouraged to share it - not through technology and not in person. As soon as we put out there the phrase "I was thinking" folks glaze over.

So, the relevant issue might not be modes of communications but what gens consider worth talking about. Since the inner life doesn't seem to be on the list that could be one source of the loneliness epidemic. 

What goes on inside isn't shareable. Or, to rephrase Rene Descartes: I think, therefore I am an outlier. 

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Jane Genova's Content Selected by LinkedIn Editors

What an honor.

LinkedIn has selected my post on Conde Nast paywalls as an Editors' Choice. Here is that post.

This is the second time my thinking and writing have been recognized by LinkedIn.

The first was my point of view on Les Moonves, former CBS chief executive office. It was about his decision to use arbitration to push back on the board's ruling that he couldn't receive the $120 million severance. Here is LinkedIn's section on the Editors' Choice. 

Thank you, editors at LinkedIn. And thank you readers of my three syndicated blogs. You have kept me doing my best thinking (or so I hope).

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.