Robin Storey's Blog, page 10

Baby Boomer Wendy MacManus – From Accounting To Shoes

 

Wendy MacManus

I've interviewed people all over the world in my Baby Boomers Making A Fresh Start series, but I was extra excited to meet Wendy MacManus, as she lives just down the road from me. Relatively speaking, that is - just a mere 40 kilometres away at Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Wendy worked in accounting  for many years, but was feeling stifled and unfulfilled when at the age of 54, she decided to quit her job and pursue a lifelong passion for shoes.  After a lot of hard work and research which included trips to Bali and China, she launched her business Wendy & Holly Australia in 2011. She now has over 160 stockists in Australia and New Zealand and is expanding into the international market.

My jelly shoes

Unfortunately we couldn't get the technology working to do a Google Hangout video interview, so Wendy answered my questions by email. However, I did make a visit to her showroom in Noosa and treated myself to three pairs of her signature jelly shoes - photo at right. They're comfortable, stylish and very reasonably priced.

Lights, camera, action......

Can you tell me a bit about your previous career in accounting?

I don’t have a degree in accounting. I worked in a couple of accountants’ offices as a computer manager in my early to late twenties. I was offered by one company to go to part-time university and complete a degree to become an accountant, but my family came first and I didn’t have the time to accept the offer. Working in an accountant’s office, I learnt my skills to become a financial controller and this is what I did until I was 54.

  What was the thing that spurred you on to quit your job and how long did it take you to make the decision?

Basically I lost my sparkle for life doing the same old thing. The company I worked for in Noosa was sold and it was the perfect time to quit. I actually worked as an accounts person at a resort for 6 months before I finally said enough was enough. My husband was in Sumatra on a surfing trip and I rang him and said, ‘I’ve decided to sell shoes,’ and I quit my job.

  What was the attitude of your friends and family to your decision?

My family and friends have been so supportive and encouraged me from the beginning. There are always the knockers. When I bought my warehouse and showroom a year ago, one of my acquaintances said, ‘Oh, so the shoes are going well then?’

  Why shoes?

I had often said to my husband and son that I was going to sell shoes. Shoes have been a passion of mine forever. My first pay cheque in 1972 was spent on shoes and a handbag to match. I wanted a niche market and I remembered wearing jelly shoes in 1965 and how much I loved them, so jelly shoes it was.

  How much preparation and research did you do before you launched your business?

I worked 24/7 for about a year, researching all aspects of the jelly shoe industry and working on a business strategy. Interestingly, jelly shoes were first produced in 1946 by a Frenchman, due to the shortage of leather after WW Two.

  What challenges have you come across and how are you addressing them?

In these economic times business is a challenge on a daily basis. I have had so many curveballs thrown at me over the last 4 years. I don’t know what I would have done without the help and support from my husband and son. They both have helped me out in very trying circumstances with their areas of expertise.

I think the biggest challenge happened at the beginning of the business when a shipment of shoes arrived squashed. Tears running down my face, I said to my husband Jim, ‘How can I sell these shoes like this?’ Jim put his arm around me and said, ‘Plastic always remembers its shape, so all we have to do is cook the shoes.’ And that’s exactly what we did.

  What benefits do you see in changing direction at this stage of your life?

I was lucky enough to have a very understanding husband when I decided to change direction and enough money to do so. The benefit for me is that I’m doing something I love and I feel alive every day. I’ve learnt so much in my journey and I’m sure I’ll continue to do so.

  What advice would you give to others your age who are thinking of changing careers?

You can always change if you put your mind to it, but make sure you do due diligence.

* * *

Even though accounting and shoes seem worlds apart, it was obvious from talking to Wendy that her previous experience in the world of finance has set her in good stead for running her own business.

I'd love to read your comments - could you see yourself starting a new business at 54?

 

Baby Boomer Sarah Tuakli Cooper – From Music to Marketing

In this interview for baby boomers making a fresh start, I chat to Sarah Tuakli Cooper. Sarah, a UK citizen, is now resident in the U.S. in San Diego. She was educated in music and theatre to a degree level and spent 20 years teaching music and digital technologies. In 2013, at the age of 52, she decided to start her own marketing company, Saute Creative. She describes her passion for her new career as 'scary.'

Watch the interview to hear what inspired her decision, the challenges and rewards she's experienced and why she owns over 30 musical instruments.

Interview with Sarah Tuakli Cooper

 

As Sarah explains in the interview, she'd already had some experience in marketing in her previous careers, whereas in a couple of my previous interviews, with Bob and Anita Gardyne and Becca King Reed, their new careers were completely different from their previous occupations.

Just my luck that when I'm interviewing an expert in digital technology we get a technical glitch! Fortunately it happened at the end when I was just about to wrap it up.

Did you enjoy Sarah's interview or feel inspired by it? I'd love to hear your comments.

Baby Boomer David Ovens – A New Career At 59

David Ovens - starting a new career at 59.

In this blog post I interview David Ovens from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. David was made redundant at the age of 59 and faced the many challenges experienced by mature age workers trying to find employment. He then decided to take the plunge and buy into a mobile coffee franchise, Cafe2U, and hasn’t looked back since.

Take it away, David!

1. You’ve been made redundant twice in your career – the first time from Unilever, for whom you’d worked for 30 years, and the second time from Woolworths, for whom you’d worked for 4 years. How did those affect you?

 I’ve actually had 3 jobs disappear. The second one was from Golden Circle. I was working for them at the Woolworths State Office planning orders nationally. Woolworths decided that the person doing that job should be based in Sydney. I applied and was accepted for a position with Woolworths.  With the Unilever position it was my decision to accept a redundancy; the writing was on the wall that their store work would be going to a brokerage so it was time to go. It took another 10 years before they went to a broker – didn’t think it would have taken so long. However, no regrets.  The other 2 positions were just the nature of the industry – I did not take it personally.  You simply accept it and get on with life.

2. Can you tell us about some of your experiences trying to find employment at the age of 59?

Found that I was over-qualified and under-educated – if I went for a management position I was told that were they looking for someone with a degree, if I applied for a sales rep position it was assumed that I would get bored.    Applying for positions takes a great deal of time and effort to address the criteria listed in ads, most places do not acknowledge receipt of the application or advise that the position has been filled.  Dealing with HR was difficult as the person you were talking to often had little first-hand knowledge of the position available, so could not talk specifics. I wanted to find out as much as possible about the position, the company, the culture  etc.

3. What made you decide to buy into the Cafe2U franchise?

 I had a look at numerous franchises. Cafe2u’s offer suited my requirements – they were very professional and very honest in their dealings with me.

4. What are the challenges you’ve faced, or are still facing, starting a new career at 59?

Nothing major, I’ve loved every minute of it.

5. What do you think are the advantages of starting a new business at this stage of your life?

 I enjoy the work, customers are great and are glad to see you, the day passes very quickly.

In this business there is plenty of weekend work if you want it. You meet people from all walks of life and attend events that you wouldn’t normally consider going to.

No chance of the position being made redundant.

My choice how many hours I work.

You are able to measure your performance daily – high level of job satisfaction.

6. What was the reaction of your family and friends to your decision to buy into Cafe2U?

Very supportive.

7. What plans do you have for the future?

The contract with Cafe2u has 3 years to run. If my health is okay I will probably renew the contract.

Then retirement, a little travel, spoil the grandkids and be involved in community work.

8. What advice would you give other people your age who are thinking of starting a new career?

Research thoroughly, get professional advice. If everything measures up, go for it.

 

I found it interesting that unlike two of the previous baby boomers I've interviewed, Becca Reed and Peter Busch, who forged new careers from their passions, David happened upon his new job as a result of being retrenched, and would probably never have considered running a mobile coffee franchise if that hadn't happened.

Have you had a similar experience to David's  - where you've been retrenched or forced to change occupations and ended up doing something you never would have dreamed of doing before?

Please share it with us below.

Baby Boomers Bob and Anita Gardyne – Living Their Dream After Fifty

In the third of my video interviews on baby boomers making a fresh start, I chat to Bob and Anita Gardyne, from Oakland, California, with their young daughter Anne Elizabeth, overseeing in the background. They talk about how and why they became co-founding entrepreneurs of a Silicon Valley technology start-up, SafetySitters, in their early fifties. SafetySitters is a company that offers babysitting, special needs care and elder care to people in their own homes.

Watch the interview below to hear about the events that led them to this exciting new stage of their lives.

Interview with Bob and Anita Gardyne.

 

I thought it interesting that Bob and Anita had tossed around a few ideas for businesses before deciding that SafetySitters was the one to go with. They'd also done a lot of research on the demand for such a service in their area, so the decision was a combination of gut feeling and thorough preparation and planning.

Did you find the interview inspiring? What are your thoughts on starting a new business in your fifties? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please share them below.

Older Is Wiser – Why It’s True

 

'I think I'll call it How I Sleighed Them.'

Having published my first novel in my fifties, I guess you could call me a late bloomer when it comes to novel writing. Or more accurately, novel publishing, as I’ve been writing novels seriously for over ten years.

Writing is something that people often don’t pursue until later in life, for a variety of reasons – work, study, family commitments, travel – just life in general. Some don’t even discover a desire for it until then, while others, like myself, have always had a passion for writing but never had the courage, support or self-belief to pursue it at a younger age.

I’m not sure that I really like the term late bloomer – it makes you sound as if you’re a bit slow, someone that people would cast pitying glances at and whisper, ‘She’s a late bloomer, you know,’ as if it’s some defect that nature has cruelly bestowed upon you, like not growing breasts till you’re seventeen.

But I can cheer myself up with the fact that I’m in good company – many famous writers didn’t publish their first books until they were over 50. Here’s a list of just a few and the age at which they published their first novels.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, 65, the first book in the  Little House on the Prairie series
Richard Adams, 52, Watership Down
Helen Hoover Santmeyer, 88, And Ladies Of The Club
Annie Proulx 57, Postcards
Dorothea Tanning, 93, Chasm: A Week-end
Norman McLean, 74, A River Runs Through It.
Frank McCourt, 66, Angela’s Ashes
Dick King-Smith,56, The Fox Busters (went on to write Babe)
Penelope Fitzgerald, 60, The Golden Child (won Booker prize two years later for Offshore.)

On her blog Later Bloomers (note the subtle but significant difference in meaning between later bloomer and late bloomer) Debra Eve explains that the adage that you get wiser as you get older is true, especially when it comes to intellectual capacity. It all comes down to myelin, the greyish looking matter that insulates and protects the neurons in our brain. When we practise a task, ie when we make mistakes and correct them, we’re teaching our neurons to fire more optimally, which results in more myelin developing to protect them.

Debra also says that according to Dr. George Bartzokis, a UCLA neuropsychiatrist, people grow wiser as they grow older because ‘their circuits are fully insulated and instantly available to them; they can do very complicated processing on many levels, which is really what wisdom is…Complex tasks like ruling countries or writing novels – these are most often better done by people who have built the most myelin.’

So there you have it. I have an excellent excuse if anyone asks me why I didn’t publish my novels earlier. I’ve been building up my myelin.

 

Are you a late bloomer? If so, why?  Please share your story in the comments below.

 

 

 

Baby Boomer Peter Busch – From I.T. To Contract Bridge

 

In the second of my interviews on baby boomers making a fresh start, I talk to Peter Busch from Buderim in Queensland, Australia. Peter, who ran his own I.T. business in software development, successfully transformed his hobby into his vocation in his early fifties, when he began his career as a bridge director and developer of bridge scoring software (now sold internationally) and bridge web sites.

Watch the interview below to hear Peter's account of how his passion for bridge turned into a career.

I found it interesting, that unlike Becca King Reed in my first interview who made a deliberate decision to quit her job and follow her passion, Peter started out with no plan at all to make bridge his career - it just grew naturally a result of his interest in it and his previous experience in the I.T. industry.

As Peter has also emphasized, it's important to remember that just because you're doing something you love, doesn't mean it's going to be all plain sailing. The most rewarding careers are often the most challenging.

As movie star Bette Davis said, "The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead."

Was there anything in my interview with Peter that resonated with you?  I'd love to know, so please leave your comments below. And if you have any ideas for further interviews, please contact me.

Baby Boomer Becca King Reed – From TV Exec To Raw Foods Chef

 

In the first of my interviews with baby boomers making a fresh start, I talk to Becca King Reed in California about her transition in her late fifties from TV executive to raw foods chef and instructor. Quite a lifestyle change!

Becca has always had a special interest in alternative health, and in her early career as a health reporter she came across many examples of people able to cure themselves of illnesses through changes to their diet, particularly raw foods.

Eventually her passion for raw foods increased to such an extent that she knew she had to follow it, so she quit her job in TV, enrolled in the Living Light Culinary Institute and is now an accredited raw food chef and instructor.

Watch the interview below to hear Becca's account of how she plucked up the courage to follow her dream and how she's dealing with the challenges along the way.

 

There were two things in my discussion with Becca that really resonated with me. Firstly, it was her passion that was talking to her as she was making her decision to change careers, which is very much an intuitive process. Having a passion for something is like falling in love - it's hard to describe but you know when you have it.

Secondly, Becca believed in herself, that she had the ability to not only become a raw foods chef but also to use her knowledge to help others, to 'do good,' as she puts it.  In my blog post What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self in Three Words? there are also some interesting ideas and discussions on intuition and self-belief.

What did you find interesting and/or inspiring about Becca's journey?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please leave your comments below. And if you have any suggestions for further interviews, I'd love you to contact me.

Happy Birthday, Junior Baby Boomers

Happy 50th Birthday

This year is a milestone for baby boomers (born 1946 – 1964). The youngest of us turns 50. Happy Birthday, baby!

Baby boomers have been described in all sorts of ways – vain, materialistic, greedy, self-centred – and there’ve been some pretty horrible things said about us as well. Some of those descriptions might even be accurate (not for me, of course). But though each generation has its defining characteristics, baby boomers are unique in that we are the first generation who has had to not only cope with huge and rapid technological changes, but also embrace them and incorporate them into our lives – that’s if we wanted to keep our jobs.

The widespread use of computers and the internet has, in the short space of  twenty odd years, revolutionised all facets of our lives – our work, recreation, communication, travel – the list goes on. Although our parents have also witnessed rapid technological change during their lives, by the time the use of computers and the internet had become the norm- round about the early to mid 90s – many of their generation had retired from the workforce, so there was no compulsion or in many cases, desire, to embrace the new changes.

I must hastily add, though, that I’ve encountered quite a few in their seventies and eighties who are embracing technology; emailing, Facebooking and surfing the net on their iPads.  But baby boomers had to keep up, or get left behind. I recall a friend telling me in the late 1980s that her husband had been threatened with the sack from his job as a salesman because he was refusing to use computers.

And due to a combination of social and economic factors, many of us won’t have the option of retiring in our fifties and sixties, as our parents did.  These factors are expounded upon in this excellent article from the Australian newspaper The Age, written in 2011 when the oldest baby boomers, born in 1946, were about to reach the traditional retirement age of 65.

But the sheer fact of the matter is, baby boomers don’t want to retire – and I include myself in this category. To me, retirement sums up an image of lawn bowls and craft groups, slipping inexorably into a twilight of slippers, cardigans and dinner at 5pm.

As social researcher Hugh Mackay puts it in The Age article, 'what they are talking about is not retirement, but in classic boomer style, they are "refocusing." That might mean chopping back a bit at paid work, playing a bit more golf, doing a bit of volunteering, but not absolutely stopping work. That would be a sign that you are old.'

Right on, Hugh! Because there’s one thing we boomers won’t admit to and that is, growing old. We’ve stared mortality in the face and pulled the blind down over it. We’re in denial – we’re popping fish oil pills with addict-like fervour, running marathons, contorting ourselves into yoga poses and drinking a glass of wine daily, whether we like it or not. The only way you’ll get us into a retirement village is by forcibly removing us.  And due to our super strength because of all the weight-lifting we’ve done at the gym, you’ll have your work cut out for you.

So live it up, junior baby boomers. Fifty is the new forty! As stripper Gypsy Rose Lee said,’ I have everything now I had twenty years ago – except now it’s all lower.’

What are your thoughts? Is retirement on the agenda for you?  Or are you refocusing?

 

Stories With A Difference

My lightbulb moment

Welcome to my new blog about baby boomers making a fresh start. The blog itself is not new – it’s still called Storey Lines – but it has an entirely new slant.

Like many blogs, this one has evolved over the years. I started off with a separate blog called All Writers Are Crazy but discontinued it when I decided to make the home page of my website into a blog.

The Storey Lines blog continued as I shared my experiences and knowledge as a creative writer, and when I expanded my freelance writing to include copywriting, I began posting informational articles about writing copy, aimed at business. But much as I enjoy copywriting for my clients, writing blog posts about it didn’t excite me.

I changed direction again and wrote for a more general audience – writers and readers. And while that was more my ‘thing’ it still didn’t feel completely right. There was still something missing. What was it?

Then I wrote a blog post about doing an author talk and confronting my fear of public speaking. Buoyed by my success, I decided to take a giant step and do something I’d wanted to do for years – leave a steady job with a reliable income and become a full-time freelance writer.  

Then it happened. The light bulb moment. More like a giant flash of lightning. I’d write about life changes, the whole process behind taking a complete change of direction in life. But not just for anyone – for baby boomers, people in their fifties and sixties. Making changes at that stage of life is vastly different from doing it in your youth. And because, as a baby boomer myself, I’m doing that same thing, I could share my journey with others who are on a similar road, or thinking of it.

And to make the blog sparkle and come alive, I’d include stories – personal interviews on audio and video – from other boomers who’ve made a fresh start.  We all love stories and there are few things more inspiring than hearing how other people have changed their lives.

By now my nerve-ends were pinging with excitement, like my first morning shot of caffeine.  And I realised what my previous blogs had been missing. Passion. This idea felt right, like the perfect dress when you slip it over your head and it flows over your body as if it was made for you.

So if you’re a baby boomer and :

You’re retired or about to retire and don’t know what to do with the rest of your life
You want a career change
Your family has flown the coop and you’re feeling lost
You want to ‘reinvent’ yourself and start a new life, but you don’t know what
You know exactly what you want to do, but you’re too scared to step out of your comfort zone

This blog is for you!  I don’t guarantee any answers to your dilemmas, but you’ll certainly find lots of empathy, laughter and wisdom. Stay tuned, I’ll have my first interview up very soon.

 

P.S. If you know anyone who’d be a good interview subject for this blog – perhaps you, yourself – please drop me a line on the contact form.

Why Writers Should Keep a Journal – And Why I Don’t

 

Dear Diary...

One of the things on my daily to-do list, along with yoga, meditation and becoming independently wealthy, is writing in my journal. Daily journalling is extolled by many famous writers, as in this post on PolicyMic – 6 Brilliant Writers on the Importance of Keeping a Journal.

Creative writing teachers also recommend it, as a way of :

Getting negative feelings off your chest which may be getting in the way of your writing
Warming up your writing muscles, similar to warming up before physical exercise
Forestalling or overcoming writers block – the act of writing, no matter what it is, will get you in the flow
Helping you to come up with inspiration or ideas for stories or novels, which will often occur to you as you’re writing.

So I know the theory, and I’ve even got a journal – an online Penzu journal. But time is the big drawback – I just don’t seem to be able to squeeze an extra twenty minutes into my day to write in it. And every now and then it pops into my inbox with a little message – ‘your  journal awaits you’ – patient and unaccusing, which makes me feel even guiltier for neglecting it.

But if  I thought my journal had any chance of being published and lauded as a literary masterpiece, like Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary, or as a lifelong serial, such as The Diary of Anais Nin Volumes 1 to 7, it would certainly be an incentive to not only increase my input, but improve the quality.

When I do find the time to put in an entry, here’s a sample: ‘I don’t really feel like writing today but I have to so I’m sitting here waiting for inspiration to strike. The ending of my novel is not working and it’s frustrating me – maybe I should take a day off to get some perspective. No, that’s a cop-out. Get on with it.  Is that the postman? Gotta go.’

Hardly the stuff of literary posterity, and in a journal written for my eyes only, I'd find it difficult to come up with erudite observations such as: ‘I shall have to accept the fact, I’m afraid, that her mind is a very thin soil, laid an inch or two deep upon very barren rock.’

Virginia Woolf in her diary, describing fellow author Katherine Mansfield, after reading her novel Bliss. If she read  my scribblings she'd make much of the barren rock, with no mention of thin soil.

Or this from Anais Nin’s dairy 1931 – 34: ‘If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness.  For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience and creation.’

To be fair, I could conceivably have written something similar before my first coffee of the day.

If, like me, you like the idea of keeping a journal but are having a hard time committing to it, here are a couple more posts to motivate you: Why Keeping a Journal is so Important by Bryan Hutchinson and The 7 Benefits of Keeping a Daily Journal by Michael Hyatt.

Okay, Penzu, I’m coming.

Do you keep a journal and does it benefit your writing?  Or do you think it's a pointless exercise?