Over-50

We Baby Boomers Have Been Through This Before

The Internet has failed to live up to the early promise that it would create a level playing field in just about everything.

Instead, the Barbarians are at gate.

That everything the internet was suppose to usher in ranged from universal access to media attention to being able to succeed in business without a huge budget or even a gold-plated network. 

Like the leaders of the emerging counterculture in the late 1960s, the front lines of the internet - the Netizens - were positioned and packaged as spiritually, socially, and intellectually evolved. 

And, the obstacles of class, gender, language, and geography in connecting with other human beings would no longer exist. 

Little of that has come to pass.

In Vanity Fair, Maya Kosoff documents the failure.

Sure, all voices can be heard. But the loudest ones on the internet tend to promote hate or seek to confuse.

Businesses using supposedly low-cost Facebook advertising are now suing Facebook for allegedly inflating, up to 900%, the user metrics associated with video. The higher the metrics, the more Facebook billed. And, how many lawyers have been badly burned by web con artists? 

As in Orwell's  "Animal Farm," many of the Netizens considered themselves more equal that other Netizens.

Some of those more equal than others seem to have the darkness and myopia of human nature of William Shakespeare's classic characters like King Lear. 

Yeah, as the counterculture movement hardened it seemed to mutate into propaganda endorsing sex-on-demand, drug-taking, cult thinking, violence, and throwing away a career. 

The impediments to connecting seem to be increasing, not melting away like the Wicked Witch in "The Wizard of Oz."

Who hasn't been flamed on the internet because they were different from those who had figured out how to attract, hold, and grow followers?

The gang of earnest freelancers at Mediabistro.com put me under attack for two days.

The fans of Gawker explicitly tormented me for about four years. Included were weekly executions in which the decision would be made if I would be granted clemency. 

Unfortunately, being on the internet, both web and mobile, is a necessary evil. The snail mail mode of developing business is dead. Attending conferences in-person to network and job hunt has become too expensive at this time of stagnant wages and fees.

Yes, google has become the resume for individuals. That's what Richard Bolles hammers in the 2019 edition of "What Color Is Your Parachute?"

Google also has become the homepage for businesses. It overrides websites. And in his book "The Four," Scott Galloway predicts it will eliminate the concept of branding. Instead of sticking with brand choice Planet Fitness when we move to Ohio, we know to key in on google "fitness centers - Eastern OH." A lower-cost fit might pop up on the first page of google. 

Here's an analogy to the wonderous potential of the internet: baby boomers' access to a college education.

That seemed like the exit from being regulated to low-status, low-earning work.

Then, soon enough, it became obvious that not all school credentials were equal. That is exactly what the current trial "Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard" is about.

The stink that stuck on our realization that the game was still rigged hasn't diminished. But, we tell our grandchildren that they must go to college - and beyond in higher education. 

Likewise, we are locked into the internet. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Working - We Are Back to a Hunter Society

Since the 1970s, the "What Color Is Your Parachute?" job-search guide has been a must, for all phases of a career.

Overseen by Richard N. Bolles, it documents that the job offer frequently goes to those best at pitching themselves, not necessarily the most qualified.

In addition, the good jobs usually aren't advertised. You find them through networking, the right kind of cold-calling, and being at the right place at the right time. 

All that hasn't changed. Bolles labels those who open doors to the hidden marketplace "bridge people."

The way we build relationships with them is the "Parachute Way." Among the ways to reach out to them is through the LinkedIn professional network. Also, your presence on social media is your business card. As Bolles puts it, Google is your new resume. 

Because the formula remains the same, no surprise, the 2019 edition ranks 1,253 on Amazon. Here you can order it. 

What has changed is that Bolles is emphasizing the importance of knowing who you are. To find that out, he even provides a mini workbook in the front section of the guide. 

Self-knowledge, according to Bolles, is essential in navigating a labor market which keeps changing, where positions have shorter shelf lives, and that it takes longer to find a job or contract assignment. Knowing who we are gives us direction in what we go after. And prevents our getting worn out or embittered chasing after what's not the right fit.

Obviously, that chase probably won't result in paid work. Also, because we don't fit, we likely won't last long. And, that horrific ordeal could burn us out or even kill us. 

What used to thought of as a "career" has mutated into a continual search for paid work. Nobody should ever ditch the job-search mindset, even when enjoying a great job with great benefits. Soon enough the hunt could be back on.

Bolles doesn't use this analogy but we really are back to a hunter society. 

According the Parachute Way, hunters must know their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Given those, they must then find out the best kinds of work situations for themselves and where.

In a sense, the Parachute Way puts those looking for work in a position of strength. Yes, we may always be hunting but the process can seem "normal," rather than a "punishment" for not doing a job right. 

The new edition has a section for the self-employed. Gig economy players should think of themselves as self-employed. 

Full Disclosure: During the late 1970s, I read in "What Color Is Your Parachute?" how requesting "informational interviews" can lead to job offers. I was struggling to make ends meet working for a non-profit.

I got up the courage to compose snail mail asking those in communications at local corporations for 10 minutes of their time for career guidance. Within three weeks, I had an offer from a global energy company. My annual salary more than doubled. Even better jobs in Corporate American opened to me. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

PR Agencies - Are the Digital Natives Stealing Your Business? - Push Back on Halloween

One of the time/interactional burdens of being in professional services, such as public relations, is the requirement to attend or host so many client events.

Yet, it's at those in which new business is developed, client churn is prevented, and fresh strategies are floated for feedback - and acceptance.

That's why what costumes public relations players put together for their clients' (probably multiple) parties are critical to the agency's survival and scaling.

According the Holmes Report, in the U.S., the public relations industry only grew 2.6% in 2017 versus 4.6% in 2016.

Right now, the game is mutating into a zero-sum one. 

Competition is coming not from only other established agencies.

Digital natives graduating from the Ivies with degrees in communications are hanging out shingles. With their influencer sites and social media fast talk, they are dazzling clients. That's pulling market share from traditional firms. 

Halloween parties demand the performance of a lifetime.

Here are the 5 coolest costumes. They align with the key flashpoints in the public relations industry.

The Ghost of Branding Past. Should a client invest so much in building a brand?

After all, the current loudest voice in communications is Scott Galloway, author of "The Four."  Search engines and Alexa, Galloway hammers, have killed branding. The best at search engine optimization (SEO) and who's embedded in the Amazon empire get the business, influence, and power, not the biggest brandname. So goes the gospel according to Galloway.

The public relations representative's elevator speech at the party must contain statistics. They must deal with both the positive outcomes from branding and the results achieved through the great SEO firm the agency partners with. 

Robot-Like Figure. As the current cliché goes, today Don Draper from "Mad Men" would be a data guy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a must-have. Both for predicting how and when clients could get into trouble and for identifying opportunities for influence and sales. 

In addition, it's imperative that a public relations agency indicates it knows its way around this tool.  

That demonstration entails chatting up at the Halloween party both the pros and the limitations of AI.

Hype scares. Overselling, forget it. The most effective approach is starting the conversation with the question: Have you been wondering if your competitors are using AI?

Logo of Digital Media. There is plenty of confusion about earned media vs. paid media (including sponsored content), old-line news centers such as The New York Times vs. digital hotties such as Axios, and focusing on media vs. just turning whatever over to influencers. 

Being dressed with the Axios logo opens up the issue of emerging realities in influence and marketing. No one wants to be sold to. After all, trust is so 20th century.

Therefore, the discussion dances around concrete examples of outcomes. That provides an opening for prospects or clients to confide their own angst. Have prepared a loosely constructed proposal. Keep stopping for yes-buts.

Symbol for Frugality. That could be coming to the party dressed as Ebenezer Scrooge before he had been born again Christmas eve. Or it could be as a budget graphic.

A dog fight is going on over pricing. A few agencies at the top of the food chain can still bill like everyone did pre-crash. But even that comfort zone can be blown into a million pieces by upstarts leveraging low-cost digital tactics and bypassing expensive traditional media strategies. Their signature is that they are the go-to people for over-performing and under-billing. 

More requests for proposals are stating: Individuals only, no agencies. 

Crisis Shaman. The costume will require some imagination. The challenge is to be able to communicate instantly that the public relations representative can cast spells on all those bearing down on the client. Yes, the game is the art of voodoo and the science of perception management.

One outfit could simply consist of a Gene Grabowski mask. A partner at kglobal, he has established the aura of being able to transform an organization's problems into opportunity.

That's not new, of course. Turbulence as platform for scaling dates back to management consultant Peter Drucker in the 1980s.  

What is new is being totally present in the moment. That's what establishes the platform for how organizations can emerge more than whole from the crisis. So, forget templates from a less volatile era, as Grabowski explains here in PR Week.  

Another outfit could be George Bailey's guardian angel Clarence Odbody from "It's a Wonderful Life."

That's a wrap on costumes. And, no, you can't wear the same costume to multiple parties. 

Along those lines of opportunity, focused public relations professionals can extract seminal case studies from the Halloween parties as how-tos for orchestrating special events. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

We're Going to Be Saying Good-Bye to So Much ...

The big media story is the brandname institution which is collapsing. The includes the Nixon Administration, the Trump Empire, and now the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).

In a very short time, RCC went from a distressed organization to one which probably won't be able to find its way back.

The tipping point has been Archbishop Carlo Vigano's contention that Pope Francis knew of the sexual abuse issues surrounding Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and did nothing. 

These dog days of August have been pumped full of breaking news uppers. And, few in media are leaving their workstations. At any time, the Vatican could announce that Francis is stepping down. For a while now the RCC scandal has been the gift that keeps giving. 

Soon enough there will a replacement who supposedly will be healer. But likely neither the media nor the public will buy that. 

Donations to the RCC are already drying up. Without funding, that's the end. 

All those RRC buildings such as schools can be converted into nursing homes or WeWork space. 

Now and then a member of the media who majored in history in college will reflect on the wealth, influence, and power RCC once had.

But essentially the media will move on to the next gift that keeps giving.

It could be decline of blind faith in higher education.

Already, Google, Apple, and IBM no longer require a college degree to applying for jobs.

In addition, the lawsuit "Reitman v. Ronell/N.Y.U." is raising major questions about the nature and abuse of power in the university system in the U.S.

Student loan debt is putting a chokehold on GDP growth. Those saddled with it can't buy the houses, nice cars, and good vacations. 

It's no longer unthinkable that law schools will be replaced by the return of the apprentice system of training to become a lawyer. In itself, that might improve the quality of lawyering.

Meanwhile those sex abuse exposes at upscale prep schools are providing sturdy platforms from which to analyze what education has become in the U.S. Has way too much value been put on it? And has it imposed mindset categories that are limiting? 

Communications Strategy/Services and Career Coaching. Special areas of expertise include professionals over-50 and students applying to degree programs in higher education.

 

Complimentary initial consultation. Sliding scale fees. Contact Jane Genova for an appointment janegenova374@gmail.com.

Getting Out of Glut Professional Hell

Glut makes the marketplace goofy.

Here on Craigslist is a verbose help-wanted ad offering $5.50 for a blog. The most goofy part of all is that the poster seems to expect plenty for peanuts. 

Takeaway: If you are in a glutted niche, figure out how you can leverage your skills and contacts to pivot to more marketable territory. Here is my book, free to download, on that journey out of professional hell.

Communications Strategy/Services and Career Coaching. Special areas of expertise include professionals over-50 and students applying to degree programs in higher education.

 

Complimentary initial consultation. Sliding scale fees. Contact Jane Genova for an appointment janegenova374@gmail.com.

Ditch Dream of Writing THAT Book - Let's Talk about a Video

Retirement. Or, semi-retirement.

What an opportunity to finally write that book on sales or leadership or using spirituality to overcome adversity. That's what you may be thinking.

Probably, though, that's not what your Next should be. 

Weekly, as both a ghostwriter and a coach for the over-50, I receive calls from those nearing retirement. They are excited about a book idea. I listen. Then I share the realities of the current book market.

Yes, big brandnames like Michael Wolff ("Fire and Fury") do have success selling their books.

Also, those with a big budget for a publicist specializing in books also can do well.

In addition, some niche books such as on a legal point or a new diet are on the money.

Overall, however, the era of The Book is over. Also, this is the age of Amazon rankings. If your book doesn't sell and sinks into the seventh layer of Amazon ratings hell, you will be humiliated. Your enemies will rejoice at the failure.

Instead of a book, scout up the resources to make your mark on video. That could cover the 7 secrets of sales or the 4 steps back to a connection with a higher power.

All your need are two resources:

• A video expert. Just put an ad on Craigslist or Mediabistro for a design student to apply. Require links to their former work and their hourly or project rate. Contact their references about how they work with newbies like yourself.
• A video scripter. I can parachute into that role. That would include planning the content and flow.

Videos can be distributed through a growing number of channels, ranging from YouTube to your own website or blog. They're a fav on Facebook. And you don't have to ask aka beg others to view your video. Eyeballs are made for video. 

Interestingly the Roman Catholic Church has embraced posting videos on YouTube.

Recently I strategically planned and created the content for the text to accompany a major tutorial for instructors in Roman Catholic Schools. Many of the sources I used were videos created by clergy and clever marketing firms about shifting issues in the Church. For example, the understanding of sin is currently relational, as in how you treat your family even when you're pressured at work. Going is the legalism, such as missing mass on Sunday. 

I am convinced the quality of my content was better since I used YouTube videos for reference than if I had to plow through books and erudite articles.

Meanwhile, during retirement and semi-retirement you might still want to or need to work for income. Here is my most recent e-book (not the old-fashioned print book) free for you to click open and read about how to land, hold, and move on to better work Download Outwitting ageism

According to the Federal Reserve Board, one-third of those who retire return to the work force.

To me, that seems like a low number.

In my coaching experience about one-half of retirees find out that society treats them as invisible without work and they figure out it's smart to find a part-time job or start a business.

In addition, even though this is a time of relatively low inflation, prices are still going up on must-haves such as rent, food, cars, and gasoline. Angst sets in about running out of money before you finish dancing on planet earth.

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Disruption in Marketing - Google Has Become Our Store Front

Traditional large and midsized law firms should join the small ones and solos in feeling threatened by the online, on-demand services of LegalZoom.

It has managed to migrate from B2C to B2B. So far, its target market is small business but that could change.

Today, LegalZoom, reports Zach Warren in Law.com, announced:

" … it has received a $500 million secondary investment led by Francisco Partners and GPI Capital … [which] will also include participation from one or more Franklin Templeton Investments funds and funds managed by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers."

That boosts its valuation to about $2 billion. And the niche it is playing in is a high-growth one.

Yes, LegalZoom is the dominant brand in the online, on-demand category. But some of its competitors are also thriving.

For example, as Warren points out, competitor Avvo has been purchased by Internet Brands. The latter also has an interest in Lawyers.com, All Law and Martindale-Hubbell.

Clearly, when looking for solutions, clients/customers - and not only in legal services - increasingly are making their first stop online. That puts us in direct control, instead of having to  go through a gatekeeper who filters information and insight through the perspective of making a sale.

Today, I made the "mistake" of not first researching online natural remedies for panic attacks. I was in the vicinity of GNC so, I figured (wrongly) why not just go in. The salesperson, of course, was limited to the products on the shelf. The one for which she gave the highest rating cost about $40. The others were not more affordable.

I thanked her and explicitly said I would first have to check several sites on the internet. Of course, if the price is right, I will order directly online. 

It's becoming standard: internet-first.

The corporate general counsel might prefer to shop around for legal services just that way. Can big and midsized law create online introductions to services which mimic how LegalZoom interfaces with those who click it on?

In coaching those over-50, not one bit of my business has come from putting on special events.

Positive results in new business development comes from how I position and package the services online.

Currently I am preparing the new e-book "Outwitting Ageism to Land, Hold, and Move onto Better Work." Google is our storefront and prospects enjoy peeking in and finding e-books to pick up and read, for free. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

“Over-50: Outsmarting Your Comfort Zone” https://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/05/outsmarting-your-comfort-zone-free-book.html

 “Over-50: The Four Monsters in the Mind” https://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/04/ageism-bites-.html

 

Since Google Is Your New Resume ...

That was fast - and typical of the power of investigative journalism.

Over the weekend, directors at CBS discussed if CEO Leslie Moonves should "step aside" while the corporation investigates sexual harassment allegations.

It was the investigative journalism of Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker which triggered this disruption.  And investigative reporting could prove more of a game-changer than anything created in tech. 

It had been the investigative reporting of John Carreyrou at The Wall Street Journal that set in play the beginning of the end of Girl CEO Elizabeth Holmes and the imaginary technology of startup Theranos. Holmes has been indicted for various forms of fraud. If convicted or if she takes a plea, she could wind up in prison. 

And Gabriel Sherman's book "The Loudest Voice in the Room" began throwing shade on the cable television media genius Roger Ailes. The door was opened to look beneath the roly-poly surface.

So scary was Sherman's book to the establishment that Ailes' personal public relations representative Bob Dilenschneider tried to distract from it by the supposed stealth move of paying big bucks to promote a vanity biography of Ailes.

The caper was detected. Here are the details from ADWeek. Consequently, more attention was created for "The Loudest Voice in the Room." The Ailes' brand became vulnerable.

One takeaway from the recent developments triggered by investigative reporting is that those focused on reform must consider simply digging versus other kinds of tactics such as class action lawsuits and protests. 

The very old adage is really true: The pen is mightier than the sword. Sure, traditional journalism jobs are disappearing. The New York Daily News just sent half the newsroom packing.

However, well-researched articles and books have become weapons of mass destruction. Because of digital technology, they can be distributed without an establishment media outlet. The classic example of that has been Susan Fowler's blog about alleged sexual harassment at Uber that helped end the reign of rogue CEO Travis Kalanick. 

When it comes to the equally important matter of individual careers the pen is also mightier and more affordable than other kinds of promotional outreach.

That's why I recommend to the over-50 I coach to publish their way to a fresh chapter in how they can earn a good living. No, that doesn't have to be a traditional book. The risk there is major. Without top public relations support to promote the book, the publication could receive low rankings on Amazon and become a liability in branding. 

The more likely formats are e-books, blogging, and sustained posting of well-researched thought pieces on social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn Update, and Medium.

All that creates a positive online presence. Google has become the new resume. Iconic career guide "What Color Is Your Parachute? 2018" explains in detail that reality. 

It was my own e-book -  Download Over50OutsmartingYourComfortZone - which brought in new business for my ghostwriting thought leadership content on aging. That profit center has been as much a revenue producer as coaching per se. 

Reflection: The written word stands toe to toe with myriad other forms of power. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Baby Boomers - The Parts of Our Story Younger Generations Don't Know

The youngest of Generation X, Millennials, and iGen probably position and package Baby Boomers as Enemy.

They might perceive us as pigging out on the last of Social Security and Medicare. Clogging the professional pipeline for their upward mobility. And, because of our extensive business experience, making our enterprises way more competitive than what they have started up. 

However, what they are likely unaware of is that we too have suffered. In fact, the pain was so intense, especially on the work front, that those experiences from the past did equip us to cope with the ageism of the now. 

In short, being shut out of jobs and promotions because of our age and being targeted to go during a Reduction-in-Force because of our relatively high compensation isn't our first rodeo. 

When financial reality first bit us in the pocket and ego we, unlike today, were not prepared for it. Not at all.

Post-war, the ethos of America was happy-clappy.

The Disney take on life dominated.

Guidance counselors in high school told us from blue-collar backgrounds that not only could we go to college but there was plenty of scholarship money to help out.

The Pill freed both sexes from the horror of ruining our lives through an unwanted pregnancy.

We bought the heady messaging that we were a new generation, entitled to a life our parents never even dreamed off.

So, no, we didn't think. 

Among the ideologies we bought into, blindly, was: The more education the better.

I and my classmates didn't question that until we were struggling with our dissertations for the Ph.D. in some niche within the Humanities. It turned out that the surge in demand for college teachers in those niches, which the government had predicted, didn't happen. In fact, that market had crashed.

That was our first rodeo.

Employers who did give interviews for non-academic jobs smirked that we would invest some of our best earning years toiling for excellence.

Yes, all that education became a liability. It wasn't until we got worldlywise, finally, and left everything beyond the BA off the resume that we had a shot at making a good living. 

The next rodeo was the severe recession of the 1970s. The generation who had broken away, often with great drama, from parents wondered if we might have to return home. How I escaped that fate was remembering my blue-collar hustle. I did land some kind of job.

The third rodeo was realizing that all those career experts didn't get it right. They told us to do this. They told us to do that.

We did this and we did that until we didn't receive the promotion they indicated would happen. What we then did was simply observe who was getting ahead and follow that example.

Within a few years of Monkey See/Monkey Do, I quadrupled my annual compensation. Eventually I did wind up heading a department of ghostwriters and speechwriters.

The fourth rodeo was the Stalin-like purge of corporate middle managers who were middle-aged.

To my shock, I was among those informed that we were "redundant."

During the process, I developed TMJ. Fortunately I still had excellent medical coverage for seven months after termination and most of the problem got corrected "on the company." 

Then came ageism.

Ageism grabbed me by the throat and threw me onto a Manhattan street soon after my 60th birthday. I remember the day vividly. It was hot and I trotting along in stockings, high heels, and a Coach attache case with my laptop.

I had ponied up the fee for parking near the New Haven, Connecticut railroad station, the expense for the round-trip Metro North commuter ticket to Grand Central, and a hot pretzel from a food cart.

Then when I walked into the conference room to present what I could do in terms of social media for that corporation, jaws dropped. Clearly, they hadn't expected someone my age. One blurted out, "How do you know social media?"

That was then.

Since that wasn't my first rodeo, I was faster in figuring out The Next.

That included relocating from the New York Metro area to where living was lots more affordable. Since I had aged out of the Manhattan market there was no reason to be there.

I shifted my marketing to only assignments which were remote. No more pitching in person. 

I converted a side hustle - coaching the over-50 and ghostwriting about that issue - into a primary profit center.

And, since where I had relocated - southwestern Arizona - had less age bias, I picked up three part-time jobs through which I learned new technologies "on the company."

What I haven't been able to do, though, is accept the breakdown in relationships among generations. Back in the old neighborhood in the 1950s, we all got along.

Those who aren't hostile to Baby Boomers distance themselves. There are Great Divides in society. And, no, other generations are not interested in hearing our story. They assume our careers were all sweetness and light. 

Reflection: Maybe AARP, advocacy organization for the aging, should take on the responsibility to tell the world the work challenges, most unexpected, we got through and are still encountering.

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Less Social

Researchers at the Stanford Center on Longevity confirm what we aging have been living: Becoming less social. Here are more details from The Wall Street Journal.

Back in May 2014, in Tucson, Arizona, I first bumped into that reality. Previously, I had had a reverence for relationships from the past.

Photo of Kathleen Huebner, Class of 1967, Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA

I had relocated to southwestern AZ from the New York Metro area for two reasons.

One was a more affordable lifestyle.

The other was to flee the careerist pressure in order to figure out on my own how to reconfigure my two businesses. Being based in the global headquarters for capitalism had made me a sitting duck for platitudes about how to navigate the new economy. 

The only person I knew when I parachuted into AZ was an acquaintance from college: Kathleen Huebner. I had picked up with her again, as usual, on Facebook. Thrown into a tailspin about aging, I made the mistake of reaching back into the past. On Facebook, before I friended Huebner, had been Lee Harrison and Irene Nunn. 

Once I unpacked in Tucson, I journeyed to a retirement community in Oro Valley, AZ to treat Huebner to lunch. She wanted it to be in the dining room of the retirement community. I would have preferred to sample the local restaurants. I caved. Internally, I rolled my eyes, wondering: Is this what the new aging is all about? In the dining room were the old old surrounded by their loving great grandchildren. I was still a passionate entrepreneur. Duh.

Predictably, the relationship with Huebner went south within weeks. When she emailed me a greeting card for Memorial Day I requested that she refrain from contacting me again. Already, I had terminated the connections with Harrison and Nunn. 

Way back in the 20th century, Judith Viorst warned us of the need to break off with people, places, and ideas which were keeping us stuck in the past. That book was "Necessary Losses." More recently executive coach Henry Cloud hammered the need in fast time to initiate those "Necessary Endings" - the title of his book.

People from the past, I have found, can be the most powerful forces preventing us from leaving our comfort zones and having the guts to embark on new paths. The past, incidentally, can be fairly recent.

In 2004, a bunch of us early adopters of social media, who were over-50, bonded. It was days of relationship heaven. Then that niche became glutted. It was no longer the most lucrative or influential place to be for the aging. Millennials and iGens had the edge.

To figure out how to launch a line of business to replace that I had to unfriend that group on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Once that force field was shut down I was able to focus on strategy. Within seven months my startup was delivering profits. 

Most of us who are aging need to work, for the money and/or for psychological reasons. We cannot afford, literally, to surround ourselves with people who are not aligned with that ongoing hustle.

What puzzles me is that I didn't realize that sooner.

To have the courage to prune our networks, social and professional, we females might have to burn our Girl Scout uniforms.

Our generation, at least, had been socialized in Nice.

Nice doesn't live on planet earth, not any more.

Kind does. And kind is a lot different from nice. I am kind to the three people in my current social network and the 24 in my professional one. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

“Over-50: Outsmarting Your Comfort Zone” https://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/05/outsmarting-your-comfort-zone-free-book.html

 “Over-50: The Four Monsters in the Mind” https://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/04/ageism-bites-.html