November 19, 2025 • 47 mins
What if your best career chapter is still ahead of you? In this episode, Mike Dwyer, founder of Emplana, shares how professionals in the “Senior Encore” stage can turn experience into renewed purpose. From navigating a rapidly changing job market to making intentional financial and life choices, Mike offers tools, insights, and real-world strategies to help you stay relevant and fulfilled. Discover how to “harvest your dreams” and redefine success beyond traditional retirement.
Ask Good Questions is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask Good Questions is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
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Ask Good Questions is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask Good Questions is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Ask Good Questions Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ask-good-questions--6441735/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
w fourcy dot com. This week and every week, we
will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,
(00:49):
let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we
start with Asking Good Questions.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hey, hello, and welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast.
We are definitely going to ask some good questions and
have some good answers as well. Today I'm coming at
you from Hawaii, where I'm serving a mission with my
husband and we're here for another six months or so.
But in the meantime, technology does this thing. You can
(01:24):
do this wherever you are in the world. So with that,
I'd like to invite my guest today to the podcast stage.
His name is Mike Dier. Mike is I'm so happy
that you're here.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Mike, Thank you, Barnita.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Okay, So he has had quite an impressive career. He
had actually he and his people had reached out to
me and said that they thought that Mike might be
an interesting choice for the podcast. He's done a lot
of things in the public, in the private and public sectors.
He has he's created something called Implant Career. And he's
(02:08):
actually in Boston, Massachusetts, so we are several time zones apart.
And he has done a lot of things with thinking
about people that are in the fifty sixty seventy age group,
how do they transition to a whole nother segment of life.
(02:29):
And so he's thought about navigating job markets. He's thought
about intentional financial and life choices, which is a lot
of things that while we talk about here, and he
offers tools and insights and real world strategies to help
you stay relevant and fulfilled. And so today we're going
(02:53):
to talk about something he calls harvest your dreams and
redefining success beyond traditional retirement. I mean, I don't I
don't know, Mike, if there isn't even most people, it
seems to be like I'm a good example. I wasn't
ready to just sit and do nothing. I have a
whole lifetime of experience, and so most people I think
(03:18):
are like that. They're healthy for the most part, wanting
to just go out and continue to contribute. So, Mike,
what inspired you to create and plan a and focus
on helping people in there? What you call senior and encore.
I love that senior on court. It's another stage of life.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You're here, and I think the main driver is collaboration.
For some reason, A lot of times I think people
in the back of their mind. In fact, I don't
know if I mentioned this to you when we talked before, Benita.
I once commissioned a small marketing study with some folks
groups and it was really interesting. The takeaway from a
(04:03):
couple of different age cohorts was that if I want
to get in shape, you know how every New Year's
we joined the gym, I'm expecting to hire a trainer.
But when it comes to job and career. You remember
that Marlborough man ad the strong silent type, right, And
(04:24):
you know it turns out that I plant career. If
you're from you are familiar with stuff like this, as
with your financial background. It's a DBA doing business ass
The underlying company is called Career Collaboration LLC. So I
don't think I could say it any stronger. The whole
point is to join together. And you know that in
(04:45):
terms of you mentioned practical tools and stuff. When I'm
working with somebody, I mean right away I'm saying, who's
your peeps? Do you have a personal board? You know,
do you have a mentor? And what would that look like?
And could you do a trial run or a little pilot.
So just to start the conversation here, very much believing
(05:08):
in collaboration and seeing that people don't always know how
to go about collaborating on a job or a job search,
or a job change or a career. And I think
one of the things we do for each other, you know,
let's take this personal board. You probably want someone who
knows you well enough. In fact, I was talking to
(05:28):
someone I respect who said, yeah, if you're going to
have a personal board, at least one of the people
might not even know what you do, but they know you.
They know when you're being timid, they know when you're
being maybe too bold. And so if you can get
a little cohort together, that's checking in with you, making
sure you're thinking a little bit out of the box.
(05:50):
I always think of things in terms of landscapes, a
range of outcomes, and you know, I, you know, I
think that's a very playful Well I've talked for a
few minutes, so surely time to stop for a sec.
But you know, you know, you make.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Me think of well. The reason that this podcast is
called Ask Good Questions is because in my life, when
I go back and look at all the big mistakes
that I've made in my life, it's because I didn't
ask good questions, and I didn't ask about what are
the range of outcomes that could happen. I mean, it's
(06:28):
not even something that entered my mind. So I'm thinking,
you know, it would be interesting would be if people
use the personal board concept. If they were retiring from
a regular from a you know, a job, but they
wanted to start a business. Wouldn't it be interesting to
have a group of people together to brainstorm what that
(06:53):
business might look like.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Absolutely, And you know, when I talk about a range
of outcomes, it could be anything from a dog walking
business because now I can write my novel, it could
be you know, I've come I've been really lately. I'm
a nerd, and I've been really focusing on freelance platforms
and I've got some really some things that I think
(07:15):
are some pretty interesting statistics. Turns out that on Upwork,
nine percent of the talent as boomers. So that's that's right.
I mean that's intriguing to me. It's not a majority,
but you won't be lonely. So when we think about
that landscape, that range of outcomes, you know, we want
to be thinking everything from the dog walking business to
(07:37):
putting you a toe in the water with a service offering,
to a part time job to starting a business. You know,
I was nice enough to be a guest. I mean,
I was lucky enough to be a guest on a
podcast with someone who does franchises. And this person is
so deeply expert at the enormous range and that might
(07:58):
not be for everyone, but you know what, once I
got talking to her, I mean, it goes everything from
vending machines to Orange Theory fitness clubs. So now I'm
gonna I'm going to hit the tennis ball back to you,
Bunny and say, you know, even in these last couple
of minutes, now we're starting to look across a landscape.
We're really thinking about a lot of possibilities, and you
(08:20):
would want your peeps to help you do that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that is so true. I think back
to when I've got three daughters, when when they were teenagers,
we did a vending machine business. And my goal I've
always been kind of this little entrepreneurial center. Again, I've
(08:44):
always been somebody that's done marketing businesses at home on
through the years and a variety of things. But my
goal was to teach them and so in collaboration, you know.
So my approach has always been two, how can I
help somebody else that's in my family. Actually I have
I've got a granddaughter now of one of the you know,
(09:09):
a daughter, the oldest daughter of one of those daughters
that did the vending machine business years ago, who we're
going to do some low content books. She's this artist
that is wonderful, wonderful artist. But I think it does
bring up a whole range of ideas on where could
this go. If I was to think about doing something,
(09:31):
I would like to ask you. You know you you've
you've said in a lot of different ways that the
best career chapter might still be ahead of you, right,
and so what does that mean to you personally? Because
you've done a lot of things in your life? How
did you know? How did that get How did your
thinking happen so that you got to where you are
(09:53):
doing this now?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Well, for me, I never left and that's one of
the reasons I can work with seniors. And you know,
I don't have to claim any special talent showing up
year after year, decade after decade, and keeping up on things.
I mean, right in the last six months, I'm working
on cloud computing, some cybersecurityarty, little bit of AI. So
(10:20):
one of the things, you know, as we think about
these different options and why you want some help, why
you want your people or your board, one of the
things you want to do is a lot of seniors
are afraid of tech. And let's all admit, a thirteen
year old can configure your phone faster than any of us.
I don't care how good you are, right, but on
the other hand, right, that's just how it is. But
(10:42):
you know, one of the things when I see somebody
who's talking about staying in the workforce re entering it.
In today's world, you need to be able to use
what i'll call collaboration technologies. And if you've used I
don't care if it's Google, Suite, Teams, Slack, and you know,
whenever I'll tell you what, whenever I hear someone being
(11:04):
an outsider looking in, I want to turn that around.
So I have under the heading of some networking ideas,
think about this kind of a lab What if a
few friends download a copy of flack and organize a
golf tournament or a birthday party or a trip. So
the purpose of that is that even in play, we
(11:26):
can be going from boy, I don't know what this
stuff is too. You know, here's the part I like,
here's the part I need to learn some more. I
want to change the dialogue so that you're getting this
feeling of jeez. You know, there's a human noise we make.
It goes like huh, and it says that's kind of
(11:47):
interesting and it's intriguing and maybe even possible. And I
think when you're working, when you surround yourself with people.
And I mean, one of the things I can always
reassure the podcast host is there's no heavy sales or
arm twisting. I have a day job consulting practice. Somebody
wants to leave a note on the implant A website
(12:08):
and you see, if you get together, great. But I
actually pretty happy if if someone ever sent along something
that said I was listening to this podcast. I asked
some good questions. I put a few people together and
they help me think about something that I'm still doing
and it worked out. Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah? Well, okay, so let me ask it a little
bit a little bit different. How can someone Okay, so
let's say, okay, Mike, you sold me. I'm going to
get together on that board and I'm going to think
about this. How can somebody identify what their next chapter
(12:47):
is going to look like after decades in a traditional career.
What would be the things that they would do to
identify with that? Maybe they're kind of unclear.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Well, you know, the first thing I think you want
to do is, I see two dynamics. One is retrospective
and one is prospective. One is reflective. So you know,
onny to neither one of us is twenty years old.
And if we were to look through our LinkedIn our resume,
if we look through some old project files, I really
(13:19):
do encourage people to take a timebox. No down the
rabbit holes, no looking on you know, social media forever,
but a really purposive look. And the kind of things
I'm looking for is, you know, people will tell me
when they get thinking and looking back, you know I
(13:39):
actually did facilitate meetings or I've written a ton of
request proposals and as soon as you can start. Because
one of the things about today's world, and about what
you just said, the person who's got decades, one of
the things we want to be a little bit playful
about is you can think of a job as a
monolith or molecule, a couple of different models, and in
(14:03):
that job are atoms, are things you can break off.
And you know, today right now, this very minute job
markets bleak. I mean, his headlines all over the place.
So longer you know, there's bots dis guarding resumes, so
you know, you don't want to just waste your time.
But if you're looking back and realizing that, you know,
(14:24):
there's some people I've been meaning to get in touch
with or that little company I wonder if it's still around.
Those are really good dynamics. So that's the retrospective part,
is using your biography to get some nuggets. And one
of the things I really encourage people to do is
to value their musings and thoughts. Once every couple of months,
(14:48):
I give somebody a thirty dollar Moleskin notebook. And this
is because I've heard them say some things that were
valuable and just went into the air and I won't
have it. And what happens is when I don't care
if you use notepad, dictaphone, for God's sakes, if you
want to show our age or this little bullskin notebook.
(15:09):
What happens is when you record your thoughts, when you
think and remember about stuff I've done. When you come
back and look at that, there's a wonderful ordering that happens.
As you look through that, you go, huh, okay, that
was a nice thought. But then you see some other
things and you say, you know what, that's actually intriguing.
This is worth more so Already I think we're doing
(15:31):
something healthy. We're going from a blank page, an empty slate,
to some retrospective and reflective work that says what did
I find interesting? What did I do that was, you know,
maybe something I could break away or have fun with.
You know, I met somebody who on a podcast who
ran throw birthday party for a little kid's business, and
(15:56):
they had a ball with it for years. There's a
million things. If it's all right, I'll give you one
more example. Yes, So my wife bought me a nice
drone a few years ago and I did a bad thing.
I let a collect us for a couple of years.
An yeah, okay. I looked at this and I said, no,
(16:17):
this isn't right. And so I took a Saturday or
two I did the YouTube's and sure enough, next thing,
you know, I'm taking pictures of the backyard. My son
has a property in the more rural with you know,
maybe eighteen acres. We're taking pictures of the goat pen.
Now where does this go? Well, once you start doing stuff.
(16:38):
I showed a picture of my backyard to a friend
a church and she said, you know, would you take
some pictures of my next social gathering.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I saw that coming and if.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
You can't see it, so then what happened is now
the wife says, okay, I finally woke the nerd up.
He's underway. So for the next birthday, I get two books,
two nice little paperbacks in color. The first one is
how to be a better drone photographer and make sure
you put a street sign or a person or something
that shows scale and all this good advice. But then
the second one, you know, drones can help the town
(17:14):
figure out if the yellow lines in the parking lot
were in fact down straight and you should pay the vendor.
I mean, there's a million things you can do. So
I hope you're getting a flavor now. I'm sitting in
a co working space that has three hundred companies, from
(17:34):
startups to nonprofits, to insurance tech platforms with seventy staff
that have been going for years, to an AI startup
that manages utility grids. So I mean, I hope that
you're seeing what can happen when people start talking and
exploring and brainstorming.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, what do you think are the mind shifts that
are most important for redefining what this would look like
for somebody?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Well, you know what, I think the first thing you
have to do is let go of some things. You know,
the person who introduced us, Steve Dubin, he's really been
around the block. He's run commercial networking. He's just a
marketing savvy guy. I mean, I think you too would
have a lot of fun by the way, but that
ever develops. But you know what we were talking sometimes
(18:26):
about sometimes you might have to get used to having
a much younger boss, and what's wrong with that? You know.
I was at something recently where there was a very
polished thirty year old was leading a seminar on process
of improvement in the public sector. And there was probably
(18:49):
twenty five people who've gone through the course and they
at the end of the graduation, the bosses and colleagues
had been invited and it was a bit of a
good do And I remember asking this thirty year old
whether she had an MPP Master of Public Policy or
an MPa Master of Public Administration. She said both. So
(19:10):
I think what the point of that story is and
what Steve and I kick around is he'd put it
one time, even if the person doesn't look old enough
to shave, don't assume they don't know what they're doing.
And you know, and I'll tell you one another thing.
When you work with somebody, Let's take someone who's been
in middle management and banking. This is an actual story
(19:31):
I'm familiar with, and I remember talking to that person
and saying, you know, we're going to have some fun
today because we're gonna tickle your fancy a little bit.
Should you stretch one last time for a more executive
job or should you consolidate around being a line professional
(19:52):
because you would be just so you would be like
the model of it. And I think those are fun
concept that were imagining, and they're very much let go
concepts because you know what, what you're in that conversation.
You're not saying I'm doing what I did before at
the same level, you know, with yeah, I got three
(20:12):
more reports or something. So I just will throw all
that to you that you'd want to be in this conversation.
You'd want to let go and let your your mind go.
And because you've got such financial background, and there's somewhere
in this earlier you were mentioning something about I don't
think you use the word grounded, but maybe practical or something.
(20:35):
You know, I mentioned these freelance platforms because you don't
have to go raise three million dollars and buy a
building or patent something in biotech. I mean you can
do a little tiny offering for ten hours a week
without stopping what you're doing now, whether that's being retired
(20:57):
or working full time. You see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, well, now, so let's move into You've talked a
little bit about and mentioned it a couple of times. Technology.
So a lot of people in this stage of life
feel like they're getting left behind by technology because they
didn't really grow up with it. So what are some
(21:21):
practical steps that you can think of to bridge that gap.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, let's take artificial intelligence, which I'm.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Taking course right now. I'm in the middle of a course.
I'm in the middle of a course to learn how
to create my own clone and to make and ask it.
I'm the biggest thing that I'm doing is and so
I'm in the middle of learning and figuring out how
(21:52):
to give artificial intelligence better prompts.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So anyway, no, no, that is not such a relevant thing.
That is that I couldn't have asked for a better example.
So what I did you know, NERD that I am
and being in Boston in twenty nineteen, I signed up
for it cost me three thousand bucks, but I got
a short course out of MIT Sloan that was what's
the business implications of AI. Probably thirty percent of the
(22:18):
content was was done by Daniel Russ, who's the head
of the c sale Computer Science and AI labb Att MIT.
So like, if you think about it, that's a bit
of a big step, but it's by no means to
sell the house step. It's not incredibly risky. It cost
a future. It was incredible and I have been building
(22:39):
on what I learned in that for the last six years.
So let's take the cohort. Let's take our cohort. I
started to mention, I've actually told the story a couple
of times, many Friday nights ago, maybe three four years ago.
We're out at one of those pop up craft brew
places that are all there, and I'm with a few
(23:01):
very close friends that I've known for years, and the
talk turns to AI. And here's what they say. One
of them says, yeah, I talked to the IT guy.
And another one says, I write an article. And I
actually got mad at my friends. Stop it, download play,
go into chat GPT and ask it to help you
(23:22):
write something or And I have a very astute, very
successful in a student financial contact that I know of
a bit of a friend, and we're talking about somebody
who is using AI tools but it is still somehow
apprehensive that they're being left behind. And my financial friend said, no,
(23:46):
she's at the table, she's part of the experiment. So
you know, Bunny, to whether you're saying I want to
set up a clone teach it to prompt. You know,
I use chat GPT. There is no way I'm writing
a request for quote what a program management office staffing
pictures should look like. I want to be editing within
(24:09):
I want to be editing three to five pages within
three minutes. That's how I roll. And so you know,
whether you're you, you apologize for bringing up what I
thought was the perfect example. Get out there and try something.
Take a course at the library. I mean, really, they
(24:30):
make it so easy now, co pilot, Claude, Chat GPT.
I mean I get the paid version of the of
a couple of them, but you can get the free
And so when a person says I downloaded a collaboration
tool like Slack or a buddy and I use teams
to plan some little getaway or something, just so we
(24:52):
could give it a try, you know, it doesn't take
too many turns on the board. If you're doing a
little of that. You using chat GPT to help produce something.
All of a sudden, you've gone from outside looking into inside.
As my friend put it, part of the experiment.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Do you know what I did yesterday? I had chat
my chat GPT clone helped me create a real personalized menu.
I mean, so I'm learning about ways that you can
use artificial intelligence just in everyday life, which is which
(25:33):
I find super cool.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I couldn't be happier because you know, I'm sure you'd
be polite and listen. But the fact that you're saying,
oh no, that's I'm doing something similar. You know, if
we had that apprehensive person, the third person here that
we're trying to help, if they wouldn't get a little confidence.
I mean, if I have to grab their fingers and
(25:56):
put it on a mouse and show them where to click.
But I mean, you know, this conversation is good because
you're showing what you're doing with it, what I'm doing
with it, and you know that moves you into the
conversation because then when you hear about you know, I
just read an article at Wall Street Journal about employees,
(26:20):
so you know, everybody needs their own brand today and
a lot of things we didn't have to worry about
coming up. One of the things you can adopt in
an organization, especially a company corporation, is that you can
be somebody who can help the people around you use
these tools do their jobs better. You get a few
laps around the track on that, and you've got a story,
(26:44):
you know what I mean. But welcome to the cohort.
Go ahead, Sorry, let's tivot.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
A little bit because I've watched the time and good
these conversations just go so fast. So you have worked
extensively in cybersecurity, right, So what are some online common
online risks that you see older professionals or just anybody
(27:11):
at the stage of life running into and watching out for.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Well, you know what, you really got to know what
you're clicking on now, mind you. The cyber security I've
done has been more corporate and public sector agency, where
you know, I've been a point person on I've done
you know what. By the way, though, how can you
get into something? It turns out that even a robotics
(27:37):
company needs procurement, And the way I got started into
cybersecurity was no more than offering to help do some scheduling,
some procurement score and RFP you see what I mean.
But I'm more on that end. But I think the
number one thing, whether you're a user and a corporation,
whether you're a private individual, if you go to click
(28:00):
on something and it is not one solid it needs
to look like it did yesterday. It needs to say
acme dot com or Amazon dot com, not some strange
amalgamation of or misspellings. And the other thing too about
clicking is if it says you must it's urgent and
(28:22):
there's a threat, Let's let's be honest. The registery of
mode of vehicles can be heavy handed or whatever you
call them and wherever you are, but but they're not
going to call you up and say, if you don't
click on this, we're going to do something dastardly to you.
And and so you really want to be getting this
(28:43):
mindset that says, you know, if it's a if it's
a excessively urgent and and you're being asked to share
things or give money, and then right away a full stop.
One of the and you've you've had some training and
done some work here too. One of the things you
can always do is take a look at the URL
(29:06):
and paste it into a notepad or something and really see,
you know, and if it turns out it's a bunch
of strange misspellings and xyz wherever type thing, then you know,
full stop. But really, the most important thing I think
to say is to make sure that as soon as
you see pressure, urgency, a request to share money or information,
(29:30):
then you've got to just train yourself to come to
a stop and really go slow. How does that sound?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That sounds great? And I'm also going to say, like, so, Mike,
we're sitting here having a conversation about all of this,
what are maybe three different things that you do personally
to protect yourself against cybersecurity risks that are out there?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Well, what are some what are some.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Habits that you that are like simple ongoing habits that
you have.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Do you know it's really hard to make me click now.
I mean I really I'm pretty good. You know you've
got some background, but I remember getting a message on
my telephone that looks like it was from an official
(30:23):
public sector sector agency that I do things with. And basically,
you shouldn't be clicking on stuff. It's just not how
it works. You don't need to hit a button the
normal discourse is to get an email that asks for something.
You can respond by email, and if you don't like
the smell of it, you make a phone call until
you hear a counterparty.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I know some of the investment people, you know, I
do a lot of public sector and I remember being
on a call with Treasury of the Treasury Department. It's
all Boston, and that's what they do when they get
a request for an investment call or one of the
other things they want. They call until they hear what
they call a known voice.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yes, absolutely, yeah, because banks and stuff, they're not going
to be sending you a text message. You call the
bank and say, hey, is my account really going to
be shut down? In almost percent of the cases they're.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Not, that's right. And you know there is like, for instance,
I had my church actually had a small account that
we all forgot about, and we get a letter of dormancy.
But that came in the mail, and you know you
and you could call and sure enough it was on
bank letterhead and you called and the receptionist said, you
(31:43):
know bank ABC. So I think you know you asked
me a few things like that. I think the first
is really train yourself not to just click on the
button or the link it, you know, really stop and go.
I think to this business of you know, watching out
for urgency, But I also do I don't know if
(32:05):
it's the best thing that's out there, but I do
have a LifeLock subscription. I do think that too. I
think some of that stuff makes sense. You know, for
twenty five bucks a month or whatever it is, you're
really getting quite a level of insurance. Well, you know what,
given your back again, I know you've got just a
(32:27):
ton of finance background. The fact that you've got LifeLock
makes me feel good too.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Okay, Well, so yeah, and anybody who's listening, this is
not this just came up organically. They're not.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
We're not involved with them, right, there's no sales commission.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
No. So let's talk a little bit about community and connection.
So you've talked about the power of community and how
does stay in socially and professionally connected think how do
you think that affects your sense of fulfillment because I
think in a lot of cases, when people are making
a big transition at this point in life, they're a
(33:11):
little bit lost. So how do you how would you
say what comes to mind if you think how am
I going to stay socially and professionally connected so that
I have a sense of fulfillment.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Well, I thank you such a great question. I'm going
to start by just focusing on professional networking and what
I like to do for people. I actually have a
little booklet about this. I have a course that's registered
with their Commonwealth here that's you can actually get reimbursed.
And again I'm not plugging, I'm just saying we've done
some work on this, you know what I mean, And
(33:45):
I've been able to get some grad students to help me,
you know, so let's have some fun for me. Some
people are just so comfortable they can go into that big,
noisy room with you know, everybody caffeinated and they're good
to go. But what if you're not. Well, there's a
woman whose books I buy called Karen Wickery, and she
(34:06):
was positioned. I met her at you know, the Wired magazine.
It's about as hip and attecht as you can be.
She did a I went to a Wired conference a
number of years ago, and she was a speaker, and
she's just a gas and she's got books on networking
and one of the things she says, Now we're going
to do is talk about this cohort, and we're not
going to worry about the people who are just fine
(34:27):
with three hundred people at the Chamber of Commerce. They
can take care of themselves. But what about the introvert,
What about the person who hasn't done much of this? Well,
let's let's work on that for a minute. Her One
of her subtitles, or her early versions of the book was
something to the effect of the secret power of introverts.
They love to listen, and that's a very disarming someone
(34:50):
who's genuinely interested. That is a very powerful dynamic. So
here's you know, you mentioned about practical tips and stuff.
If you're in a i'm not sure or where to
place yourself, if you feel like, okay, I'm in the
privacy of your living room or home office, you're saying,
actually I'm scared. Here's what you do. You can pick
(35:10):
a scripted format. So instead of going to that Chamber
of Commerce with three hundred people trying to talk over
each other, go to some place where there's a lecture
you're interested, with a Q and A afterwards. Now that
is what I call a scripted format. You're seated, you
get some information and so what you're going to talk
about in the Q and A requires no creativity or
(35:34):
effort on your part. And you know, I think what
you want to do. One of the words I use
in all this is intentional. Obviously I use the word collaborative,
but I think you really want to be intentional. And
it's perfectly okay to say, wow, I'm not I have
never really been good at this. I mean, yeah, I
go out for a drink afterwards or something. But putting
(35:55):
yourself in a position where you can start some professional networking,
but doing in a way like I described, it's a
low key kind of scripted leads to a Q and
A or something like that. You do a couple of those,
and you know, all of a sudden, you're not a
newbie anymore, and then you can maybe up the game
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well, you've talked about coworking spaces. I've also done that
in the past, with you know, having one of those
little a little place where I have access to a
bunch of different things, and then being able to talk
to all those fascinating people that are you know also
there at that co working space. But the one that's
relevant to me, And this question is volunteer groups. I'm
(36:40):
because of doing a senior mission here and we're going
to be here for like another six months. We have
met all these fantastic people because of the volunteer groups.
The Hawaii Food Bank, Oh my goodness, I've got some
great friends there now that are all people from all
kinds of diverse backgrounds. But the question that I'm trying
to get at because I'm thinking about how are things,
(37:03):
you know, how are things relating to me now at
this stage of my life. I'm thinking about, you know,
how can coworking spaces, mentorship circles, or volunteer groups play
a role in this new chapter.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Well, the first thing, all is the philosophers say no thyself.
If you are somebody who's bursting with ideas and confidence,
well go straight, you know, skip, go and go find
the personal board and start testing those ideas. But if
that's not you, the idea that you can use some
(37:39):
purposive networking. I always say that I love your examples, Banita.
I'll tell you what I stumbled on something maybe ten
years ago that next time would be intentional, and I'm
trying to help people. So I decided My town has
a former government, you know, town meeting that's a legislative body.
(37:59):
And I went for years and years and they kept
saying you should vlunteer for something. And finally I said,
you know, I really should volunteer for something. So I
put down in the talent blank. You know, I got
a master's in management. I'm comfortable with money, whatever it is.
And I ended up being the chair of the audit committee. Now,
aside from meeting some really cool business people, let me
tell you what else happened that next time would be intentional.
(38:21):
So it turns out I work in public sector in
retirement and pension, and as the audit committee, we were
on the receiving end of all the actual elect valuations
accounting statements for the town to the retirement board. And
so you want to talk about a different perspective, I
(38:42):
would have paid for that. And so you when I'm
so glad you brought up volunteer, because do some volunteering
simply because you're being generous a soul and you don't
know who you're going to meet. But you also can
do some volunteering because you think way I could actually
pick up some skills or talk to people who are
(39:05):
in a sector I'm interested in. I mean, and you know,
if you're willing to volunteer in the I come out
of Ernst and Young and Deloitte, if you're a newbie
at a big consulting firm, if you're willing to volunteer
to help write proposals, You're going to meet people at
all levels of the organization. You're going to lose a
few weekends, it's going to be some hard, long hours,
but in a few months, a couple of proposals and
(39:27):
suddenly you know people. So I'm picking up on your
idea and really trying to grow it.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Well, I I am such an after I mean, we've
been here for six months and just the width and
breadth of experiences we've had because of volunteering and serving
in a lot of different capacities. I got to tell you.
I have to tell you about one that happened two
weeks ago. I got to volunteer with Travel Visions Aloha,
(39:59):
which is a nonprofit for blind people. Guess what I
got to do. I got to go and be in
a lagoon with dolphins and take this little blind gal
in and meet a dolphin in a lagoon, and that
(40:20):
was such a special experience because again, it's a whole
another group of people. I've never met. The blind people
that were participating. They're all people that have lost their
sight for one reason or another. But they're all people
that have different life backgrounds. And then of course the volunteers,
and you know, it's just gives you a I think
(40:43):
that volunteering and serving gives you a whole different perspective
on life.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
So we are, Oh, Mike, I can't believe it. We're
running out of time. How to finances and purpose. We've
talked about, you know, finding purpose in a lot of
different way. How do you think finances and purpose kind
of intersect during this transition.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Well, I'll tell you what. The words I've been using
lately are in intentional, collaborative, realistic, and nimble. And I
think when you come around finance, you definitely want to
be realistic and if you need to get some of
the peeps around you to help you, you know, you
really want to know the difference between I'm going to
get a second mortgage and do something that's high risk
(41:29):
versus I'm going to put my toe in the water
on one of these freelance platforms, and so I think
some you know, some financial discipline and uh and and
some honest and some realistic look at your at your
risk appetite and your context is probably a smart thing
to do.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Yeah, well, what do you think are some I'm going
to start wrapping up with. I like to give people
some actionable steps, something that they can take away and do.
What would you say would be some small confidence building
wins that help people regain momentum when they're starting something new.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Well, I think the first thing they can do is
pick up in this networking concept. And you know, I
literally have a table in a little booklet that has
three or four columns that goes from utterly safe to okay,
you'll have to do a little bit of conversational initiative
to you know, the highly caffeinated three hundred person mix.
(42:32):
I can't think of anything more important. I have this
new thing I've been working on. So it's not like
it's anything fancy, but I call it topical networking, and
that's I'm interested in a subject. And I could take
the course on LinkedIn, but maybe I can go to
a lecture, a meet up at the library a local
university and that topical networking when you show up with
(42:55):
a genuine interest and find some people who know something
that that could help create some momentum.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Well, well, part of our little title that we had
for this podcast episode whatever was your dreams. So if
somebody's listening today, one of our listeners is wants to,
like you say, harvest your dreams. What's one step that
they could take this week to begin?
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I would offer to two steps. One is do some
kind of networking. Start thinking about what your comfort zone,
go find something, yeah, And the other one is begin
that capture. Start looking back through old email systems, notes,
clean up a file drawer of old projects. And what
(43:48):
you're looking for are when you did something was actually
cool and maybe it wasn't a primary job activity, but
you enjoyed it. And you know, so if you were
getting out there and meeting some new people once or
twice a month, and you were starting a harvest. And
I like the word harvest because in order to be prospective,
(44:11):
I think it's healthy to do a little reflection and retrospective.
If you.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Watch your planting scenes.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
That's right, So I think you know to to I
know you've been watching time. I know you're good at that.
So I would say that if the person again, I
don't care if it's in a notepad on a computer,
if it's in a moleskin book or a rolled up
piece of paper, start capturing some things that intrigue you
and organize them and go through them. And then at
(44:40):
the same time get yourself out there. And Steve Dubin,
the person who introduces he and I have this wonderful debate.
He said, oh, you got to do something every week.
I will actually be the other end of it. If
you did six or eight events a year, at the
end of two years, you've done a ton of stuff
and you're not afraid anymore. You got contacts, and so
(45:02):
you know, let's let your listener season to taste. But
I think those two things starting to look back and
in a way of harvesting what you've had so you
can turn it into your dream and getting out there
with some professional networking and some weather volunteering. However, just
getting out there you get those two things going. I
(45:23):
think you're getting underway.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Yeah, absolutely well so, And I just just a reminder
to everyone. On my website is a place where I
have what I call bonus downloads Mike's information will be there.
They'll be like a little flyer with all of his
information if you want to get in touch with him
about any of this. And so with that, our time
is gone, Mike.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
And so.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, I just appreciate you being here with me, and
I really feel like we've given some good value and
the people have some actionable steps that they can take
to get out there and do something like this and
get going on a whole nother adventure.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Well, thank you for being such a participant, not just
a host.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Well it's more fun that way. Great, all right, And
with that, thank you so much for joining the Ask
Good Questions Podcast and we will see you next time.
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
For now, today's episode is over. But we did Ask
Good Questions again, didn't We don't miss out as we
broadcast live every Wednesday, six pm Eastern Time on W
FOURCY Radio at w fourcy dot com. Joined Banina Bell
Anderson next week for more conversations with experts on finances, retirement,
(46:54):
behavioral finance issues, health and wellness and more. Until then,
remember to ask Good Questions.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
M
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
w fourcy dot com. This week and every week, we
will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
as well as a focus on health and wellness. Now,
(00:49):
let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson, as together we
start with Asking Good Questions.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hey, hello, and welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast.
We are definitely going to ask some good questions and
have some good answers as well. Today I'm coming at
you from Hawaii, where I'm serving a mission with my
husband and we're here for another six months or so.
But in the meantime, technology does this thing. You can
(01:24):
do this wherever you are in the world. So with that,
I'd like to invite my guest today to the podcast stage.
His name is Mike Dier. Mike is I'm so happy
that you're here.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Mike, Thank you, Barnita.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Okay, So he has had quite an impressive career. He
had actually he and his people had reached out to
me and said that they thought that Mike might be
an interesting choice for the podcast. He's done a lot
of things in the public, in the private and public sectors.
He has he's created something called Implant Career. And he's
(02:08):
actually in Boston, Massachusetts, so we are several time zones apart.
And he has done a lot of things with thinking
about people that are in the fifty sixty seventy age group,
how do they transition to a whole nother segment of life.
(02:29):
And so he's thought about navigating job markets. He's thought
about intentional financial and life choices, which is a lot
of things that while we talk about here, and he
offers tools and insights and real world strategies to help
you stay relevant and fulfilled. And so today we're going
(02:53):
to talk about something he calls harvest your dreams and
redefining success beyond traditional retirement. I mean, I don't I
don't know, Mike, if there isn't even most people, it
seems to be like I'm a good example. I wasn't
ready to just sit and do nothing. I have a
whole lifetime of experience, and so most people I think
(03:18):
are like that. They're healthy for the most part, wanting
to just go out and continue to contribute. So, Mike,
what inspired you to create and plan a and focus
on helping people in there? What you call senior and encore.
I love that senior on court. It's another stage of life.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You're here, and I think the main driver is collaboration.
For some reason, A lot of times I think people
in the back of their mind. In fact, I don't
know if I mentioned this to you when we talked before, Benita.
I once commissioned a small marketing study with some folks
groups and it was really interesting. The takeaway from a
(04:03):
couple of different age cohorts was that if I want
to get in shape, you know how every New Year's
we joined the gym, I'm expecting to hire a trainer.
But when it comes to job and career. You remember
that Marlborough man ad the strong silent type, right, And
(04:24):
you know it turns out that I plant career. If
you're from you are familiar with stuff like this, as
with your financial background. It's a DBA doing business ass
The underlying company is called Career Collaboration LLC. So I
don't think I could say it any stronger. The whole
point is to join together. And you know that in
(04:45):
terms of you mentioned practical tools and stuff. When I'm
working with somebody, I mean right away I'm saying, who's
your peeps? Do you have a personal board? You know,
do you have a mentor? And what would that look like?
And could you do a trial run or a little pilot.
So just to start the conversation here, very much believing
(05:08):
in collaboration and seeing that people don't always know how
to go about collaborating on a job or a job search,
or a job change or a career. And I think
one of the things we do for each other, you know,
let's take this personal board. You probably want someone who
knows you well enough. In fact, I was talking to
(05:28):
someone I respect who said, yeah, if you're going to
have a personal board, at least one of the people
might not even know what you do, but they know you.
They know when you're being timid, they know when you're
being maybe too bold. And so if you can get
a little cohort together, that's checking in with you, making
sure you're thinking a little bit out of the box.
(05:50):
I always think of things in terms of landscapes, a
range of outcomes, and you know, I, you know, I
think that's a very playful Well I've talked for a
few minutes, so surely time to stop for a sec.
But you know, you know, you make.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Me think of well. The reason that this podcast is
called Ask Good Questions is because in my life, when
I go back and look at all the big mistakes
that I've made in my life, it's because I didn't
ask good questions, and I didn't ask about what are
the range of outcomes that could happen. I mean, it's
(06:28):
not even something that entered my mind. So I'm thinking,
you know, it would be interesting would be if people
use the personal board concept. If they were retiring from
a regular from a you know, a job, but they
wanted to start a business. Wouldn't it be interesting to
have a group of people together to brainstorm what that
(06:53):
business might look like.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Absolutely, And you know, when I talk about a range
of outcomes, it could be anything from a dog walking
business because now I can write my novel, it could
be you know, I've come I've been really lately. I'm
a nerd, and I've been really focusing on freelance platforms
and I've got some really some things that I think
(07:15):
are some pretty interesting statistics. Turns out that on Upwork,
nine percent of the talent as boomers. So that's that's right.
I mean that's intriguing to me. It's not a majority,
but you won't be lonely. So when we think about
that landscape, that range of outcomes, you know, we want
to be thinking everything from the dog walking business to
(07:37):
putting you a toe in the water with a service offering,
to a part time job to starting a business. You know,
I was nice enough to be a guest. I mean,
I was lucky enough to be a guest on a
podcast with someone who does franchises. And this person is
so deeply expert at the enormous range and that might
(07:58):
not be for everyone, but you know what, once I
got talking to her, I mean, it goes everything from
vending machines to Orange Theory fitness clubs. So now I'm
gonna I'm going to hit the tennis ball back to you,
Bunny and say, you know, even in these last couple
of minutes, now we're starting to look across a landscape.
We're really thinking about a lot of possibilities, and you
(08:20):
would want your peeps to help you do that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that is so true. I think back
to when I've got three daughters, when when they were teenagers,
we did a vending machine business. And my goal I've
always been kind of this little entrepreneurial center. Again, I've
(08:44):
always been somebody that's done marketing businesses at home on
through the years and a variety of things. But my
goal was to teach them and so in collaboration, you know.
So my approach has always been two, how can I
help somebody else that's in my family. Actually I have
I've got a granddaughter now of one of the you know,
(09:09):
a daughter, the oldest daughter of one of those daughters
that did the vending machine business years ago, who we're
going to do some low content books. She's this artist
that is wonderful, wonderful artist. But I think it does
bring up a whole range of ideas on where could
this go. If I was to think about doing something,
(09:31):
I would like to ask you. You know you you've
you've said in a lot of different ways that the
best career chapter might still be ahead of you, right,
and so what does that mean to you personally? Because
you've done a lot of things in your life? How
did you know? How did that get How did your
thinking happen so that you got to where you are
(09:53):
doing this now?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Well, for me, I never left and that's one of
the reasons I can work with seniors. And you know,
I don't have to claim any special talent showing up
year after year, decade after decade, and keeping up on things.
I mean, right in the last six months, I'm working
on cloud computing, some cybersecurityarty, little bit of AI. So
(10:20):
one of the things, you know, as we think about
these different options and why you want some help, why
you want your people or your board, one of the
things you want to do is a lot of seniors
are afraid of tech. And let's all admit, a thirteen
year old can configure your phone faster than any of us.
I don't care how good you are, right, but on
the other hand, right, that's just how it is. But
(10:42):
you know, one of the things when I see somebody
who's talking about staying in the workforce re entering it.
In today's world, you need to be able to use
what i'll call collaboration technologies. And if you've used I
don't care if it's Google, Suite, Teams, Slack, and you know,
whenever I'll tell you what, whenever I hear someone being
(11:04):
an outsider looking in, I want to turn that around.
So I have under the heading of some networking ideas,
think about this kind of a lab What if a
few friends download a copy of flack and organize a
golf tournament or a birthday party or a trip. So
the purpose of that is that even in play, we
(11:26):
can be going from boy, I don't know what this
stuff is too. You know, here's the part I like,
here's the part I need to learn some more. I
want to change the dialogue so that you're getting this
feeling of jeez. You know, there's a human noise we make.
It goes like huh, and it says that's kind of
(11:47):
interesting and it's intriguing and maybe even possible. And I
think when you're working, when you surround yourself with people.
And I mean, one of the things I can always
reassure the podcast host is there's no heavy sales or
arm twisting. I have a day job consulting practice. Somebody
wants to leave a note on the implant A website
(12:08):
and you see, if you get together, great. But I
actually pretty happy if if someone ever sent along something
that said I was listening to this podcast. I asked
some good questions. I put a few people together and
they help me think about something that I'm still doing
and it worked out. Wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah? Well, okay, so let me ask it a little
bit a little bit different. How can someone Okay, so
let's say, okay, Mike, you sold me. I'm going to
get together on that board and I'm going to think
about this. How can somebody identify what their next chapter
(12:47):
is going to look like after decades in a traditional career.
What would be the things that they would do to
identify with that? Maybe they're kind of unclear.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Well, you know, the first thing I think you want
to do is, I see two dynamics. One is retrospective
and one is prospective. One is reflective. So you know,
onny to neither one of us is twenty years old.
And if we were to look through our LinkedIn our resume,
if we look through some old project files, I really
(13:19):
do encourage people to take a timebox. No down the
rabbit holes, no looking on you know, social media forever,
but a really purposive look. And the kind of things
I'm looking for is, you know, people will tell me
when they get thinking and looking back, you know I
(13:39):
actually did facilitate meetings or I've written a ton of
request proposals and as soon as you can start. Because
one of the things about today's world, and about what
you just said, the person who's got decades, one of
the things we want to be a little bit playful
about is you can think of a job as a
monolith or molecule, a couple of different models, and in
(14:03):
that job are atoms, are things you can break off.
And you know, today right now, this very minute job
markets bleak. I mean, his headlines all over the place.
So longer you know, there's bots dis guarding resumes, so
you know, you don't want to just waste your time.
But if you're looking back and realizing that, you know,
(14:24):
there's some people I've been meaning to get in touch
with or that little company I wonder if it's still around.
Those are really good dynamics. So that's the retrospective part,
is using your biography to get some nuggets. And one
of the things I really encourage people to do is
to value their musings and thoughts. Once every couple of months,
(14:48):
I give somebody a thirty dollar Moleskin notebook. And this
is because I've heard them say some things that were
valuable and just went into the air and I won't
have it. And what happens is when I don't care
if you use notepad, dictaphone, for God's sakes, if you
want to show our age or this little bullskin notebook.
(15:09):
What happens is when you record your thoughts, when you
think and remember about stuff I've done. When you come
back and look at that, there's a wonderful ordering that happens.
As you look through that, you go, huh, okay, that
was a nice thought. But then you see some other
things and you say, you know what, that's actually intriguing.
This is worth more so Already I think we're doing
(15:31):
something healthy. We're going from a blank page, an empty slate,
to some retrospective and reflective work that says what did
I find interesting? What did I do that was, you know,
maybe something I could break away or have fun with.
You know, I met somebody who on a podcast who
ran throw birthday party for a little kid's business, and
(15:56):
they had a ball with it for years. There's a
million things. If it's all right, I'll give you one
more example. Yes, So my wife bought me a nice
drone a few years ago and I did a bad thing.
I let a collect us for a couple of years.
An yeah, okay. I looked at this and I said, no,
(16:17):
this isn't right. And so I took a Saturday or
two I did the YouTube's and sure enough, next thing,
you know, I'm taking pictures of the backyard. My son
has a property in the more rural with you know,
maybe eighteen acres. We're taking pictures of the goat pen.
Now where does this go? Well, once you start doing stuff.
(16:38):
I showed a picture of my backyard to a friend
a church and she said, you know, would you take
some pictures of my next social gathering.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I saw that coming and if.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
You can't see it, so then what happened is now
the wife says, okay, I finally woke the nerd up.
He's underway. So for the next birthday, I get two books,
two nice little paperbacks in color. The first one is
how to be a better drone photographer and make sure
you put a street sign or a person or something
that shows scale and all this good advice. But then
the second one, you know, drones can help the town
(17:14):
figure out if the yellow lines in the parking lot
were in fact down straight and you should pay the vendor.
I mean, there's a million things you can do. So
I hope you're getting a flavor now. I'm sitting in
a co working space that has three hundred companies, from
(17:34):
startups to nonprofits, to insurance tech platforms with seventy staff
that have been going for years, to an AI startup
that manages utility grids. So I mean, I hope that
you're seeing what can happen when people start talking and
exploring and brainstorming.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, what do you think are the mind shifts that
are most important for redefining what this would look like
for somebody?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Well, you know what, I think the first thing you
have to do is let go of some things. You know,
the person who introduced us, Steve Dubin, he's really been
around the block. He's run commercial networking. He's just a
marketing savvy guy. I mean, I think you too would
have a lot of fun by the way, but that
ever develops. But you know what we were talking sometimes
(18:26):
about sometimes you might have to get used to having
a much younger boss, and what's wrong with that? You know.
I was at something recently where there was a very
polished thirty year old was leading a seminar on process
of improvement in the public sector. And there was probably
(18:49):
twenty five people who've gone through the course and they
at the end of the graduation, the bosses and colleagues
had been invited and it was a bit of a
good do And I remember asking this thirty year old
whether she had an MPP Master of Public Policy or
an MPa Master of Public Administration. She said both. So
(19:10):
I think what the point of that story is and
what Steve and I kick around is he'd put it
one time, even if the person doesn't look old enough
to shave, don't assume they don't know what they're doing.
And you know, and I'll tell you one another thing.
When you work with somebody, Let's take someone who's been
in middle management and banking. This is an actual story
(19:31):
I'm familiar with, and I remember talking to that person
and saying, you know, we're going to have some fun
today because we're gonna tickle your fancy a little bit.
Should you stretch one last time for a more executive
job or should you consolidate around being a line professional
(19:52):
because you would be just so you would be like
the model of it. And I think those are fun
concept that were imagining, and they're very much let go
concepts because you know what, what you're in that conversation.
You're not saying I'm doing what I did before at
the same level, you know, with yeah, I got three
(20:12):
more reports or something. So I just will throw all
that to you that you'd want to be in this conversation.
You'd want to let go and let your your mind go.
And because you've got such financial background, and there's somewhere
in this earlier you were mentioning something about I don't
think you use the word grounded, but maybe practical or something.
(20:35):
You know, I mentioned these freelance platforms because you don't
have to go raise three million dollars and buy a
building or patent something in biotech. I mean you can
do a little tiny offering for ten hours a week
without stopping what you're doing now, whether that's being retired
(20:57):
or working full time. You see what I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, well, now, so let's move into You've talked a
little bit about and mentioned it a couple of times. Technology.
So a lot of people in this stage of life
feel like they're getting left behind by technology because they
didn't really grow up with it. So what are some
(21:21):
practical steps that you can think of to bridge that gap.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, let's take artificial intelligence, which I'm.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Taking course right now. I'm in the middle of a course.
I'm in the middle of a course to learn how
to create my own clone and to make and ask it.
I'm the biggest thing that I'm doing is and so
I'm in the middle of learning and figuring out how
(21:52):
to give artificial intelligence better prompts.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
So anyway, no, no, that is not such a relevant thing.
That is that I couldn't have asked for a better example.
So what I did you know, NERD that I am
and being in Boston in twenty nineteen, I signed up
for it cost me three thousand bucks, but I got
a short course out of MIT Sloan that was what's
the business implications of AI. Probably thirty percent of the
(22:18):
content was was done by Daniel Russ, who's the head
of the c sale Computer Science and AI labb Att MIT.
So like, if you think about it, that's a bit
of a big step, but it's by no means to
sell the house step. It's not incredibly risky. It cost
a future. It was incredible and I have been building
(22:39):
on what I learned in that for the last six years.
So let's take the cohort. Let's take our cohort. I
started to mention, I've actually told the story a couple
of times, many Friday nights ago, maybe three four years ago.
We're out at one of those pop up craft brew
places that are all there, and I'm with a few
(23:01):
very close friends that I've known for years, and the
talk turns to AI. And here's what they say. One
of them says, yeah, I talked to the IT guy.
And another one says, I write an article. And I
actually got mad at my friends. Stop it, download play,
go into chat GPT and ask it to help you
(23:22):
write something or And I have a very astute, very
successful in a student financial contact that I know of
a bit of a friend, and we're talking about somebody
who is using AI tools but it is still somehow
apprehensive that they're being left behind. And my financial friend said, no,
(23:46):
she's at the table, she's part of the experiment. So
you know, Bunny, to whether you're saying I want to
set up a clone teach it to prompt. You know,
I use chat GPT. There is no way I'm writing
a request for quote what a program management office staffing
pictures should look like. I want to be editing within
(24:09):
I want to be editing three to five pages within
three minutes. That's how I roll. And so you know,
whether you're you, you apologize for bringing up what I
thought was the perfect example. Get out there and try something.
Take a course at the library. I mean, really, they
(24:30):
make it so easy now, co pilot, Claude, Chat GPT.
I mean I get the paid version of the of
a couple of them, but you can get the free
And so when a person says I downloaded a collaboration
tool like Slack or a buddy and I use teams
to plan some little getaway or something, just so we
(24:52):
could give it a try, you know, it doesn't take
too many turns on the board. If you're doing a
little of that. You using chat GPT to help produce something.
All of a sudden, you've gone from outside looking into inside.
As my friend put it, part of the experiment.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Do you know what I did yesterday? I had chat
my chat GPT clone helped me create a real personalized menu.
I mean, so I'm learning about ways that you can
use artificial intelligence just in everyday life, which is which
(25:33):
I find super cool.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I couldn't be happier because you know, I'm sure you'd
be polite and listen. But the fact that you're saying,
oh no, that's I'm doing something similar. You know, if
we had that apprehensive person, the third person here that
we're trying to help, if they wouldn't get a little confidence.
I mean, if I have to grab their fingers and
(25:56):
put it on a mouse and show them where to click.
But I mean, you know, this conversation is good because
you're showing what you're doing with it, what I'm doing
with it, and you know that moves you into the
conversation because then when you hear about you know, I
just read an article at Wall Street Journal about employees,
(26:20):
so you know, everybody needs their own brand today and
a lot of things we didn't have to worry about
coming up. One of the things you can adopt in
an organization, especially a company corporation, is that you can
be somebody who can help the people around you use
these tools do their jobs better. You get a few
laps around the track on that, and you've got a story,
(26:44):
you know what I mean. But welcome to the cohort.
Go ahead, Sorry, let's tivot.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
A little bit because I've watched the time and good
these conversations just go so fast. So you have worked
extensively in cybersecurity, right, So what are some online common
online risks that you see older professionals or just anybody
(27:11):
at the stage of life running into and watching out for.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Well, you know what, you really got to know what
you're clicking on now, mind you. The cyber security I've
done has been more corporate and public sector agency, where
you know, I've been a point person on I've done
you know what. By the way, though, how can you
get into something? It turns out that even a robotics
(27:37):
company needs procurement, And the way I got started into
cybersecurity was no more than offering to help do some scheduling,
some procurement score and RFP you see what I mean.
But I'm more on that end. But I think the
number one thing, whether you're a user and a corporation,
whether you're a private individual, if you go to click
(28:00):
on something and it is not one solid it needs
to look like it did yesterday. It needs to say
acme dot com or Amazon dot com, not some strange
amalgamation of or misspellings. And the other thing too about
clicking is if it says you must it's urgent and
(28:22):
there's a threat, Let's let's be honest. The registery of
mode of vehicles can be heavy handed or whatever you
call them and wherever you are, but but they're not
going to call you up and say, if you don't
click on this, we're going to do something dastardly to you.
And and so you really want to be getting this
(28:43):
mindset that says, you know, if it's a if it's
a excessively urgent and and you're being asked to share
things or give money, and then right away a full stop.
One of the and you've you've had some training and
done some work here too. One of the things you
can always do is take a look at the URL
(29:06):
and paste it into a notepad or something and really see,
you know, and if it turns out it's a bunch
of strange misspellings and xyz wherever type thing, then you know,
full stop. But really, the most important thing I think
to say is to make sure that as soon as
you see pressure, urgency, a request to share money or information,
(29:30):
then you've got to just train yourself to come to
a stop and really go slow. How does that sound?
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That sounds great? And I'm also going to say, like, so, Mike,
we're sitting here having a conversation about all of this,
what are maybe three different things that you do personally
to protect yourself against cybersecurity risks that are out there?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Well, what are some what are some.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Habits that you that are like simple ongoing habits that
you have.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Do you know it's really hard to make me click now.
I mean I really I'm pretty good. You know you've
got some background, but I remember getting a message on
my telephone that looks like it was from an official
(30:23):
public sector sector agency that I do things with. And basically,
you shouldn't be clicking on stuff. It's just not how
it works. You don't need to hit a button the
normal discourse is to get an email that asks for something.
You can respond by email, and if you don't like
the smell of it, you make a phone call until
you hear a counterparty.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I know some of the investment people, you know, I
do a lot of public sector and I remember being
on a call with Treasury of the Treasury Department. It's
all Boston, and that's what they do when they get
a request for an investment call or one of the
other things they want. They call until they hear what
they call a known voice.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Yes, absolutely, yeah, because banks and stuff, they're not going
to be sending you a text message. You call the
bank and say, hey, is my account really going to
be shut down? In almost percent of the cases they're.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Not, that's right. And you know there is like, for instance,
I had my church actually had a small account that
we all forgot about, and we get a letter of dormancy.
But that came in the mail, and you know you
and you could call and sure enough it was on
bank letterhead and you called and the receptionist said, you
(31:43):
know bank ABC. So I think you know you asked
me a few things like that. I think the first
is really train yourself not to just click on the
button or the link it, you know, really stop and go.
I think to this business of you know, watching out
for urgency, But I also do I don't know if
(32:05):
it's the best thing that's out there, but I do
have a LifeLock subscription. I do think that too. I
think some of that stuff makes sense. You know, for
twenty five bucks a month or whatever it is, you're
really getting quite a level of insurance. Well, you know what,
given your back again, I know you've got just a
(32:27):
ton of finance background. The fact that you've got LifeLock
makes me feel good too.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Okay, Well, so yeah, and anybody who's listening, this is
not this just came up organically. They're not.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
We're not involved with them, right, there's no sales commission.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
No. So let's talk a little bit about community and connection.
So you've talked about the power of community and how
does stay in socially and professionally connected think how do
you think that affects your sense of fulfillment because I
think in a lot of cases, when people are making
a big transition at this point in life, they're a
(33:11):
little bit lost. So how do you how would you
say what comes to mind if you think how am
I going to stay socially and professionally connected so that
I have a sense of fulfillment.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Well, I thank you such a great question. I'm going
to start by just focusing on professional networking and what
I like to do for people. I actually have a
little booklet about this. I have a course that's registered
with their Commonwealth here that's you can actually get reimbursed.
And again I'm not plugging, I'm just saying we've done
some work on this, you know what I mean, And
(33:45):
I've been able to get some grad students to help me,
you know, so let's have some fun for me. Some
people are just so comfortable they can go into that big,
noisy room with you know, everybody caffeinated and they're good
to go. But what if you're not. Well, there's a
woman whose books I buy called Karen Wickery, and she
(34:06):
was positioned. I met her at you know, the Wired magazine.
It's about as hip and attecht as you can be.
She did a I went to a Wired conference a
number of years ago, and she was a speaker, and
she's just a gas and she's got books on networking
and one of the things she says, Now we're going
to do is talk about this cohort, and we're not
going to worry about the people who are just fine
(34:27):
with three hundred people at the Chamber of Commerce. They
can take care of themselves. But what about the introvert,
What about the person who hasn't done much of this? Well,
let's let's work on that for a minute. Her One
of her subtitles, or her early versions of the book was
something to the effect of the secret power of introverts.
They love to listen, and that's a very disarming someone
(34:50):
who's genuinely interested. That is a very powerful dynamic. So
here's you know, you mentioned about practical tips and stuff.
If you're in a i'm not sure or where to
place yourself, if you feel like, okay, I'm in the
privacy of your living room or home office, you're saying,
actually I'm scared. Here's what you do. You can pick
(35:10):
a scripted format. So instead of going to that Chamber
of Commerce with three hundred people trying to talk over
each other, go to some place where there's a lecture
you're interested, with a Q and A afterwards. Now that
is what I call a scripted format. You're seated, you
get some information and so what you're going to talk
about in the Q and A requires no creativity or
(35:34):
effort on your part. And you know, I think what
you want to do. One of the words I use
in all this is intentional. Obviously I use the word collaborative,
but I think you really want to be intentional. And
it's perfectly okay to say, wow, I'm not I have
never really been good at this. I mean, yeah, I
go out for a drink afterwards or something. But putting
(35:55):
yourself in a position where you can start some professional networking,
but doing in a way like I described, it's a
low key kind of scripted leads to a Q and
A or something like that. You do a couple of those,
and you know, all of a sudden, you're not a
newbie anymore, and then you can maybe up the game
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well, you've talked about coworking spaces. I've also done that
in the past, with you know, having one of those
little a little place where I have access to a
bunch of different things, and then being able to talk
to all those fascinating people that are you know also
there at that co working space. But the one that's
relevant to me, And this question is volunteer groups. I'm
(36:40):
because of doing a senior mission here and we're going
to be here for like another six months. We have
met all these fantastic people because of the volunteer groups.
The Hawaii Food Bank, Oh my goodness, I've got some
great friends there now that are all people from all
kinds of diverse backgrounds. But the question that I'm trying
to get at because I'm thinking about how are things,
(37:03):
you know, how are things relating to me now at
this stage of my life. I'm thinking about, you know,
how can coworking spaces, mentorship circles, or volunteer groups play
a role in this new chapter.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Well, the first thing, all is the philosophers say no thyself.
If you are somebody who's bursting with ideas and confidence,
well go straight, you know, skip, go and go find
the personal board and start testing those ideas. But if
that's not you, the idea that you can use some
(37:39):
purposive networking. I always say that I love your examples, Banita.
I'll tell you what I stumbled on something maybe ten
years ago that next time would be intentional, and I'm
trying to help people. So I decided My town has
a former government, you know, town meeting that's a legislative body.
(37:59):
And I went for years and years and they kept
saying you should vlunteer for something. And finally I said,
you know, I really should volunteer for something. So I
put down in the talent blank. You know, I got
a master's in management. I'm comfortable with money, whatever it is.
And I ended up being the chair of the audit committee. Now,
aside from meeting some really cool business people, let me
tell you what else happened that next time would be intentional.
(38:21):
So it turns out I work in public sector in
retirement and pension, and as the audit committee, we were
on the receiving end of all the actual elect valuations
accounting statements for the town to the retirement board. And
so you want to talk about a different perspective, I
(38:42):
would have paid for that. And so you when I'm
so glad you brought up volunteer, because do some volunteering
simply because you're being generous a soul and you don't
know who you're going to meet. But you also can
do some volunteering because you think way I could actually
pick up some skills or talk to people who are
(39:05):
in a sector I'm interested in. I mean, and you know,
if you're willing to volunteer in the I come out
of Ernst and Young and Deloitte, if you're a newbie
at a big consulting firm, if you're willing to volunteer
to help write proposals, You're going to meet people at
all levels of the organization. You're going to lose a
few weekends, it's going to be some hard, long hours,
but in a few months, a couple of proposals and
(39:27):
suddenly you know people. So I'm picking up on your
idea and really trying to grow it.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Well, I I am such an after I mean, we've
been here for six months and just the width and
breadth of experiences we've had because of volunteering and serving
in a lot of different capacities. I got to tell you.
I have to tell you about one that happened two
weeks ago. I got to volunteer with Travel Visions Aloha,
(39:59):
which is a nonprofit for blind people. Guess what I
got to do. I got to go and be in
a lagoon with dolphins and take this little blind gal
in and meet a dolphin in a lagoon, and that
(40:20):
was such a special experience because again, it's a whole
another group of people. I've never met. The blind people
that were participating. They're all people that have lost their
sight for one reason or another. But they're all people
that have different life backgrounds. And then of course the volunteers,
and you know, it's just gives you a I think
(40:43):
that volunteering and serving gives you a whole different perspective
on life.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
So we are, Oh, Mike, I can't believe it. We're
running out of time. How to finances and purpose. We've
talked about, you know, finding purpose in a lot of
different way. How do you think finances and purpose kind
of intersect during this transition.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Well, I'll tell you what. The words I've been using
lately are in intentional, collaborative, realistic, and nimble. And I
think when you come around finance, you definitely want to
be realistic and if you need to get some of
the peeps around you to help you, you know, you
really want to know the difference between I'm going to
get a second mortgage and do something that's high risk
(41:29):
versus I'm going to put my toe in the water
on one of these freelance platforms, and so I think
some you know, some financial discipline and uh and and
some honest and some realistic look at your at your
risk appetite and your context is probably a smart thing
to do.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Yeah, well, what do you think are some I'm going
to start wrapping up with. I like to give people
some actionable steps, something that they can take away and do.
What would you say would be some small confidence building
wins that help people regain momentum when they're starting something new.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Well, I think the first thing they can do is
pick up in this networking concept. And you know, I
literally have a table in a little booklet that has
three or four columns that goes from utterly safe to okay,
you'll have to do a little bit of conversational initiative
to you know, the highly caffeinated three hundred person mix.
(42:32):
I can't think of anything more important. I have this
new thing I've been working on. So it's not like
it's anything fancy, but I call it topical networking, and
that's I'm interested in a subject. And I could take
the course on LinkedIn, but maybe I can go to
a lecture, a meet up at the library a local
university and that topical networking when you show up with
(42:55):
a genuine interest and find some people who know something
that that could help create some momentum.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Right.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Well, well, part of our little title that we had
for this podcast episode whatever was your dreams. So if
somebody's listening today, one of our listeners is wants to,
like you say, harvest your dreams. What's one step that
they could take this week to begin?
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I would offer to two steps. One is do some
kind of networking. Start thinking about what your comfort zone,
go find something, yeah, And the other one is begin
that capture. Start looking back through old email systems, notes,
clean up a file drawer of old projects. And what
(43:48):
you're looking for are when you did something was actually
cool and maybe it wasn't a primary job activity, but
you enjoyed it. And you know, so if you were
getting out there and meeting some new people once or
twice a month, and you were starting a harvest. And
I like the word harvest because in order to be prospective,
(44:11):
I think it's healthy to do a little reflection and retrospective.
If you.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Watch your planting scenes.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
That's right, So I think you know to to I
know you've been watching time. I know you're good at that.
So I would say that if the person again, I
don't care if it's in a notepad on a computer,
if it's in a moleskin book or a rolled up
piece of paper, start capturing some things that intrigue you
and organize them and go through them. And then at
(44:40):
the same time get yourself out there. And Steve Dubin,
the person who introduces he and I have this wonderful debate.
He said, oh, you got to do something every week.
I will actually be the other end of it. If
you did six or eight events a year, at the
end of two years, you've done a ton of stuff
and you're not afraid anymore. You got contacts, and so
(45:02):
you know, let's let your listener season to taste. But
I think those two things starting to look back and
in a way of harvesting what you've had so you
can turn it into your dream and getting out there
with some professional networking and some weather volunteering. However, just
getting out there you get those two things going. I
(45:23):
think you're getting underway.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Yeah, absolutely well so, And I just just a reminder
to everyone. On my website is a place where I
have what I call bonus downloads Mike's information will be there.
They'll be like a little flyer with all of his
information if you want to get in touch with him
about any of this. And so with that, our time
is gone, Mike.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
And so.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, I just appreciate you being here with me, and
I really feel like we've given some good value and
the people have some actionable steps that they can take
to get out there and do something like this and
get going on a whole nother adventure.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
Well, thank you for being such a participant, not just
a host.
Speaker 3 (46:16):
Well it's more fun that way. Great, all right, And
with that, thank you so much for joining the Ask
Good Questions Podcast and we will see you next time.
Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
For now, today's episode is over. But we did Ask
Good Questions again, didn't We don't miss out as we
broadcast live every Wednesday, six pm Eastern Time on W
FOURCY Radio at w fourcy dot com. Joined Banina Bell
Anderson next week for more conversations with experts on finances, retirement,
(46:54):
behavioral finance issues, health and wellness and more. Until then,
remember to ask Good Questions.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
M
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