Maturepreneurial Podcast: Interviews with Older Entrepreneurs | Online Business Tips | Learn From Those Who Have Succeeded

Matt Miller spent the first nine years of his career as an Air Force pilot before entering the private sector to work in both the medical device and advertising industries. Although he was a top performer in the corporate world, his long-term desire was to be his own boss.  A good friend one day mentioned the gumball machines he and his young daughters owned and that conversation began a 10-year business quest that has brought Matt's company, School Spirit Vending, to the cutting edge of both the vending and school fundraising industries.

Today, School Spirit Vending’s franchising program provides a proven and profitable business system for busy professionals and their families looking to develop secondary income streams, while raising millions of dollars for education at the same time.

In addition to running School Spirit Vending, Matt is devoted to sharing his expertise with others. Through many different venues, including podcasts and public speaking, Matt seeks to enable other entrepreneurs to chase their dreams as well.

Anna literally wrote the book on change. She is the author of Igniting Change: From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Her life has been a series of fascinating leaps off the proverbial cliff.

Anna grew up in the Midwest, left college and moved to California to work in the entertainment industry. Several years later, she left her job at The Walt Disney Company - where she coordinated a year-long, international promotion celebrating Mickey Mouse’s birthday - to go in search of meaning.

What Anna thought would be a three-month adventure, turned into 11 years of living in-residence studying and eventually teaching consciousness. Anna has combined all or her experience to create a 90-day group coaching program called The Shift System that provides structure, guidance, shortcuts and support for transformational change.

Michele Williams began her entrepreneurial journey in sixth grade, hawking fireballs in the back of the school bus. Over the last 20 years that journey has included a bed and breakfast in Charleston, SC and a high-tech executive recruitment firm.

Although wildly different, each of Michele's ventures and ‘big ideas’ has been unified by a single passion: to facilitate meaningful transformations through innovation, curiosity, connections, encouragement and mindset….. not to mention a truckload of grit and humor!

Today, Michele continues as a strategic growth consultant to small-midsize organizations and professionals under her boutique, executive recruiting firm, Ellington Growth Partners; she co-launched a local networking community for female entrepreneurs; and she is the founder of the BVU Mastermind for women.

Michele has guided hundreds of women, professionals and small organizations through meaningful transformations to become the best versions of themselves for those they employ, serve and love. You can reach Michele at [email protected]or www.bvumastermind.com.

In her corporate career, Judi Schindler was a marketing executive. She is a founding member and past president of the Chicago Area Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She is a member of the Leadership Team of Engaging Speakers and the Advisory Board of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She’s listed in “Who’s Who in America,” “Who’s Who in American Women” and “Who’s Who in the Midwest.”

Her book Husbands: An Owner’s Manualoffers witty, candid advice for women who want to stay married for the rest of their lives. Judi claims, "The secret to my marriage is that in all these years my husband and I have never had a single meaningful conversation."

Judi is also an actor, who has been entertaining women's groups with her multi-media show on marriage for the past five years. She wrote her book in direct response to the many requests she's had over the years for a printed version of the program.

"While the book is meant to be entertaining," says Schindler, "I hope readers also learn some useful strategies on how to stay married for life. Slammed doors aside, there's enormous gratification that comes with creating a family and growing old with the same person."

The book is suitable for new brides, husband-seekers of any age and anyone who understands that a sense of humor is essential to a long-term marriage.

• She became a skier at 50, an actor at 64 and an author at 75.
• She has one child, a son, who has produced six children of his own, which, she says, is "a pretty good return on investment."
• Her parents, both entrepreneurs, sold their businesses in the 60s, bought a Volkswagen camper and went on the road with no destination in mind.
• She used to create hand-sewn quilts.
• She majored in journalism because she wanted to be a police reporter, "like my two role models, Brenda Starr and Lois Lane."
• She can do a two-minute plank.
• She was in the same high school class as Ann-Margaret.
• She has been a member of Weight Watchers since 2001 and still goes to weekly meetings.
• She collects birdhouses.
• She survived a heart attack at 39, breast cancer, bladder cancer and two bouts of lung cancer. (Not fun, but worth noting.)

Nadine Artemis’s official biography begins when she first combined flasks of essential oils to recreate Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps for a school science fair. These early botanical-inclinations led her on petal-pathed adventures in creating organic beauty balms, reviving elixirs, healing oral care and perfumed poetry to quench the natural yearnings of many.

Nadine opened North America’s first full concept Aromatherapy store, Osmosis, in 1994. Since that day she has received glowing reviews for her formulations in the Hollywood Reporter, Flare, the New York Times, Vogueand The National Post.

Nadine has addressed gatherings at conferences, appeared on television and radio shows, and she is a frequent commentator on health and beauty topics for national media outlets.

In addition to her innovative product work, Nadine is the author of two books: Renegade Beauty: Reveal and Revive Your Natural Radiance andHolistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums. Her healing creations, along with her concept of “renegade beauty,”encourage effortlessness and inspire people to rethink conventional notions of beauty and wellness.

Celebrity fans include Shailene Woodley, Carrie-Anne Moss and Mandy Moore. Aveda founder, Horst Rechelbacher, calls Nadine “a pure flower of creativity.” Alanis Morissette describes her as “a true sense-visionary."

On January 15, 2009, Dave Sanderson was the last passenger off the plane that crashed into the Hudson River, best known as “The Miracle on the Hudson”.  Dave was largely responsible for the well-being and safety of others that fateful day, risking his own life in frigid water to help other passengers off the plane. Dave emerged from the wreckage determined to encourage others to do the right thing.

Dave's mission is to impact people’s lives by sharing and teaching the strategies he learned and implemented on how to grow from traumatic life experiences that everyone will face one day and that he calls “life’s personal plane crashes”.  Dave shares 12 resources as a faculty member with Dominique Wilkins, Don Barden, Brittany Tucker and Steve Nedvidek at the Leadership Mindset Series, the first and only servant leadership coaching program designed to help business leaders around the world to build a happier, more-productive business with a better bottom line.

In addition to speaking and training, Dave conducts workshops; is a much sought-after podcast celebrity; is the author of the best-selling book, “Moments Matter”; hosts his own radio show on Contact Talk Radio and C-Suite Radio called “Moments Matter with Dave Sanderson”; and hosts a daily flash briefing on Amazon Alexa titled, “Dave Sanderson: DECLASSIFIED.”

Dave, his wife Terri, and their four children reside in Charlotte, NC.

Mark LaMaster's mission is to offer encouragement and inspiration for men to become the fathers they’ve always dreamed of being. He believes that all dads have an incredible, God-given opportunity to make a lasting positive impact on their children, their families, and their earthly homes.

A former nurse, Mark has authored two books:

• Friday Night Lights: For Fathers and Sons, published in December 2015, is a game plan for dads to help develop their sons into the men God intended them to be.
• Friday Night Lights: For Fathers and Daughters, published in May 2018, is a guide to producing ten episodes of your own personal TV series, covering topics from faith and friendships to social media and self-image.

Mark wants to make sure each and every dad out there has access to positive, encouraging, and faith-filled resources about how to be the best parent they can be. He seeks to build a sense of community among like-minded fathers who want to learn from, strengthen, and support one another in a space free of judgment or criticism. Mark creates faith-filled fatherhood resources because the Bible has instructed us (dads) to help one another along on our earthly journey while we look with hope to our ultimate destination: heaven.

Mark lives in Minnesota with his beautiful bride, Jen, and two amazing children, Hannah and Lincoln.

After a very successful, twenty-five plus year career in the manufacturing and service industries, Gregory Gray left the corporate world to pursue his purpose: to develop incredible leaders and dynamic corporate cultures as a leadership and business consultant. He has since rounded out his purpose with the true joy of helping others cast their vision for their life and business and then helping them create plans to fulfill that vision. Gregory is passionate about bringing his clients clarity and focus.

Gregory's business is built around helping people find their purpose and joy in life and in their businesses. Whether they desire freedom of time and money or whether an exit strategy is the best option, he and his team can assist. They offer life and business coaching, along with courses, programs and workshops specifically designed to effect positive transformation so clients can realize their desired vision.

Gregory is the author of the upcoming book, Business Owner Freedom, which will be released late August or early September.

Gregory is the father of two daughters, ages 16 and 14, and has been married for 21 years to his best friend Kim. They live south of Nashville on a farm where they raise grass-fed beef, lamb and goats. The Grays love their lifestyle and are living their vision daily.

Scott Beebe is the founder of My Business On Purpose, a business coaching, training, and strategy group that helps small business owners and organizational leaders transition from working IN their businesses to working ON their businesses. Scott is also the host of the Business On Purpose podcast; a weekly podcast where Scott interviews small business owners who share insights into how they are living their business on purpose.

Scott was born in Washington DC and lived in Charlotte NC, Houston TX, Portland OR, and Greenville SC before graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1997. After college, he moved to Texas with his new bride Ashley, where he attended and graduated Southwestern Theological Seminary, then worked as a legal drug-salesman for Pfizer selling Lipitor, Viagra, and other well-known products.

Among his many roles, Scott has served as Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Euless TX; he founded and served as lead pastor for LifePointe Church in Burleson TX; and he was international administrator for HELP, Inc., where he worked with multi-cultural teams both in the U.S. and Nigeria to build a platform for sustainable partnership with Nigerians through a variety of sectors, including business, finance, and agriculture.

Over the years, Scott's numerous roles have provided him with experience in direct and B2B sales, designing and implementing organizational strategy, training and development, marketing, fundraising, teaching and speaking. The diversity of his roles and locations have shaped his unique view of businesses, churches, and cultures around the world.

From this unique perspective, Scott created the Four Steps To Business Freedom; a six-month, group coaching experience built exclusively for businesses under $25mm and under 25 employees. The program:

• Helps owners and organizational leaders develop and implement a vision, a mission, and a set of values;
• Helps them build systems and processes to liberate them from the chaos of working IN the business;
• Leads weekly, virtual mastermind groups to uncover and implement the things they cannot see.

Scott loves to read and learn. He and his wife Ashley travel whenever possible and make enjoying time with their three children a priority. Scott and his family live in Bluffton, SC (near Hilton Head), where they spend most of their time on the water!

Sonia Lovett was born in August of 1952 in Cape Town South Africa. She is from British and Italian descent and soon after she was born, her family moved to Argentina. Her grandfather had several ranches and had moved from Britain to help run a family business.

Sonia grew up in Buenos Aires, a very cosmopolitan, fashion-conscious city, under the influence of two very fashionable women: her mother and her grandmother. When Sonia and her sister were of age, they were sent to a school in Switzerland to finish their education.

Sonia has lived in many countries in South America. Fluent in both Spanish and English, she thinks in both languages and had a heavy British accent until she came to live in the United States for an extended period of time.

Sonia believes that living and visiting other countries fosters an open mind and greater receptivity to other cultures and ideas. Her love for fashion and travel were nurtured from an early age, when ideas regarding color and style made a notable impression. Her European sensibility, however, has always informed her choices and still do to this day.

Of her fashion tastes, Sonia writes on her website,

"I have noticed that at this time in my life I am embracing more color than I used to. A neutral pallet however is still the chicest thing around. I don’t wear many prints (I get bored easily) so I prefer to have solid colors and accent with accessories; you get so much more wear out of your clothes that way. I believe in family traditions and my sister and I have both saved family heirlooms which we wear to this day. I believe in great bags and shoes, tailoring and following trends in limited doses and only to the extent that they suit you."

Today, Sonia and her husband make their home in Montana. They have a daughter who is a stylist living in LA and who Sonia says "inspires me to stay young and explore new possibilities."