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

David C. Baker is a business consultant who has written 5 books, advised 900+ firms, and keynoted conferences in 30+ countries. His work has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and Inc. Magazine.

David lives in Nashville, TN, but grew up in Guatemala, where his parents did medical and literacy work. His family lived with the K'anjobal, a tribe of Mayans in San Miguel Acatán, Huehuetanango.

David helps entrepreneurial creatives make better business decisions about their positioning, their marketing, how they structure their roles in the firm, and how to benchmark their financial performance. His most recent book is called The Business of Expertise: How Entrepreneurial Experts Convert Insight to Impact + Wealth.

He also produces a podcast with Blair Enns at 2bobs.com.

Rocky Romanella is founder and senior partner of 3SIXTY Management Services, a management consulting firm specializing in executive speaking and leadership development. Rocky has the rare ability to see a clear vision of the changing business landscape combined with the passion to develop strategies, tactics and metrics to drive desired results.

In a corporate career that spanned almost 40 years, Rocky served as CEO for UniTek Global Services, a mid-cap telecommunications solutions company, and in several senior leadership roles at UPS, including President, Residential and Retail Operations.

At UPS for 36 years, Rocky successfully launched one of the largest re-branding initiatives in franchising history: The UPS Store, which revolutionized the $9 billion retail shipping and business services market. In addition to leading the global strategy of all U.S. and international retail channels, Rocky played a critical role in the integration of more than 20 acquisitions that became UPS Supply Chain Solutions to improve the company's financial performance, capabilities and global network footprint. With responsibilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America and South America, Rocky also led UPS’s entry into the healthcare industry as part of their supply chain logistics strategy.

Rocky serves on the board of Goodman Networks, a leading provider of end-to-end network infrastructure, field and professional services to the wireless telecommunications and satellite television industries.

He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Management from St. John’s University.

Sharon Sultan Cutler has been founding and running businesses for over 30 years.

While parenting, Sharon started down a new career path when she launched a nanny agency, based in Long-Island, New York. (This also provided her with excellent nannies for her two active sons!) She was featured in a five-page Newsday article for traveling around the USA and hosting Nanny Job Fairs to personally meet qualified caregivers. Eventually, the agency expanded to include a Nurse's Registry and Home Health Care.

Then, Sharon decided that people 50-plus needed reliable resources, products and services.  She began Mature Resources Network, similar to today's Angie's List and Home Adviser. Taking that to the next level, she created Long Island's first 50-Plus Expos, with over 100 exhibitors and thousands of guests. She was featured in many media articles including a May 14, 1995 Q & A feature in The New York Times titled Riding A Demographic Wave, Marketing to the Over 50's. Yes, she was one of the first in this field.

At 70, Sharon created and co-authored Bandstand Diaries, a book about the early days of American Bandstand published in November, 2016. Striking a nostalgic chord for people 65-plus, the book enjoys a cult following of baby boomers and seniors who remember running home from school to watch Dick Clark's daily dance program in glorious black-and-white television!

Currently, Sharon is writing Your NEW YOU After 65, a self-help and motivational book to be published in 2018. She styles herself "The Positive Aging Activist" as she enjoys her life's third chapter each and every day.

Steve Wilson is a 30-year veteran of the technology industry. He has held roles in digital strategy, web communications, product marketing, business development, and product-line management for international brands such as Walmart Inc., McDonald's Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and Oracle Corporation.

Steve and his wife Rebecca, co-founder of Your Bag Tag, first met when they worked together at Oracle.

Steve and Rebecca started Your Bag Tag in 2006 after a friend came to Rebecca with an existing luggage tag and asked if she could develop a better one. From that first prototype, Steve believed the couple could market Rebecca's tags on the Internet. He developed a simple website and sales took off immediately.

YourBagTag.com was born.

Since their humble beginnings, the Wilsons have added an entire line of scuba and active water sports products. Dive product ideas came from Steve, who is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor emeritus with over 2,000 dives behind him. Twelve hundred of those dives took place in the cold waters of Monterey Bay, California where he taught. The other 800+ dives occurred in many of the beautiful dive locations around the world.

The Wilsons provide custom tag solutions for dive shops, resorts, private and commercial aviation companies, and a broad range of other industries.

Suzanne Noble is a serial entrepreneur who started her first business - a series for England's Channel 4 television about astrology - at the age of 27. Stretching from Warner Bros to Universal via Sony and LazyTown Entertainment, Suzanne's PR career includes a collaboration with the White House, where she masterminded a partnership between LazyTown and Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' campaign for children.

On the technology front, Suzanne launched Frugl, a successful events discovery app for Londoners on a budget.

Most recently, Suzanne co-founded the online magazine, The Advantages of Age, to challenge the media narrative around ageing.

Suzanne has worked in PR for over 20 years, in entertainment, music and technology. She has amassed a fat address book of contacts, she has forged relationships with key influencers, and she has gained extensive experience in:

• Creating and developing strategic partnerships
• Leveraging PR to drive awareness and build businesses, and
• Managing multi-channel brand communication.

One of her goals is to join a board of directors (whether corporate or non-profit) with which she can share her knowledge and experience.

Suzanne has lived most of her life in the UK and, as a result, has developed a deep understanding of the UK market. This has contributed to the success of both her client's success and her own start-ups.

Doug Sandler is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer and podcaster who has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, business owner, and leader. His book, Nice Guys Finish First, is a #1 ranked Amazon Best Seller. One leading social media marketing company ranks Doug among the top “100 of Social Media Thought Influencers to Follow.”

Doug specializes in making connections, building relationships and strengthening bonds both inside and outside organizations.  His speaking and consulting business is geared towards improving relationships and winning business through his time-tested sales, service and relationship building system.

Doug co-hosts a podcast with Strickland Bonner, The Nice Guys on Business.  The show has over 500 episodes and more than one million downloads.

As a maturepreneur, Doug is using his extensive experience to help businesses and brands grow their audiences with TurnKey Podcasting.  The concept-to-launch podcast production service is 100% customer-centric and specializes in over-the-top exemplary service with a high touch emphasis in this high tech space.

Olga Szakal, Founder of The Ageless Generation™, is an innovative women’s leader committed to helping Gen X women overcome their mid-life crises and leap into the success they deserve. Based on personal experience, Olga has created a blueprint for turning a mid-life crisis into a period of self-discovery. She teaches women how to design their best life so they can reclaim their voice, build their legacy and make a difference in the world.

Olga was born in Siberia, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English, history and social studies. With $400 in her pocket and a scholarship, she moved to the state of Washington in 1995, where she studied business and marketing.

After 17 years working in pharmaceutical sales and real estate and then going through a  divorce, Olga needed to start a new business and a new life for herself and her four children. As the lucky winner at Valuetainment, Olga was blessed to experience the invaluable mentorship of none other than Patrick Bet-David. She soon found herself putting the divorce behind her and focusing on her children and growing her business.

Olga knows from personal experience what midlife crisis is. She's lived it. She knows the effort it takes. And she's found a path to creating a life of appreciation, freedom, and fulfillment. Today, her mission is to share with others like her, the journey, the steps, the pitfalls and the exhilaration of succeeding. Every woman can do it!

Robyn Vogel, MA, LMHC is a psychotherapist, certified sex coach sex educator, and creator of Come Back To Love, Inc®. She helps couples and individuals find love again by teaching them how to master the skills of intimacy and the art of living a life filled with love, no matter what.

In her practice, Robyn marries traditional psychological principles with spiritual tantric philosophy and practice. She teaches couples and individuals how to master the skills of intimacy and come back to love. Those that are struggling in relationship, feeling lost around love, and deeply craving purposeful and passionate connection gain much insight and healing in their work with Robyn.

For 15 years Robyn has been teaching and practicing tantra as a foundational meditation practice that grounds her clients from within, removes obstacles to loving deeply and teaches all aspects of healthy sustainable relationship.

Robyn facilitates a bi-monthly tantra workshop in the Boston area, leads weekend retreats and tantra vacations in tropical places. In 2015, she co-led a clinical course for therapists with Charlie Verge called Helping Couples Connect.

Robyn has recently been recognized by the Boston Globe as an expert in her field. She is author of the upcoming book, The Power of Puja: An Intimate Journey to the Heart.

Cathi Nelson fell in love with photography as the photo editor of her high school yearbook. She soon found herself working two jobs to save enough money to buy her first professional camera. From the day of that first purchase, Cathi became the photo historian of her family and friends.

Years later, after her adopted son was placed in her arms, Cathi developed a passion for creating life book photo albums that she used to tell his personal story and how he came to be part of their family. She soon found herself sharing this passion with others and ultimately she built a profitable business out of teaching others to create life book photo albums of their own.

By 2007, Cathi noticed a change as consumers shifted to digital photography; she found herself helping people not only with their printed photos, but with their growing digital collections as well. Recognizing that this problem was only going to accelerate, she founded the Association of Personal Photo Organizers; a community dedicated to serving the needs of its members through training, support, and collaboration with industry partners.

APPO has also played a key role in establishing a code of ethics that sets high standards for the rapidly growing life photo industry.

In addition to being the CEO of APPO, Cathi is a sought-after speaker and author of Photo Organizing Made Easy. She remains firmly rooted in her vision to empower others to use visual storytelling as a means of preserving and sharing their personal life journeys.

Bridging the gap between science and spirituality, JJ Armstrong, founder of Transform2Alpha, has created a comprehensive life mastery blueprint with a military style edge.

JJ’s career began in the British Army where she was one of the few women who graduated from the Army School of Physical Training to train soldiers. She spent more than eight years in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps training men for combat fitness and performance. Her interest in the mental side of training grew as she progressed in her career. Her self-reliance and the ability to think on her feet led her to spend time serving in Special Forces.

Upon leaving the military, JJ started a fast-growing new trend: “personal training” in health clubs and gyms. The first person to offer this service in the UK, she was told by one of the biggest national health club chains, “It will never work!"

But trusting your instincts pays off! JJ pursued her dream and built a business that quickly grew to a team of personal trainers 64-members strong. Her company trained thousands of clients and members; everyone from celebrities to housewives throughout a number of gyms and health clubs. Many top athletes and professionals benefited from JJ’s unique brand of training.

JJ became interested in personal development from a young age through the Nightingale Conant catalogue of audio courses. She began studying hundreds of experts on everything from personal success to neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, mind control, sales, influence etc., adding to her library of tools. These studies led her to synthesize Pareto’s 80-20 principle, mind mapping, speed reading and advanced memory techniques into a unique brand of mental training. She discovered early on that she had the ability and the obsession to cut all “the fat away” and find the quickest, most efficient way to get the job done (INTJ style).

One of JJ's private clients used her techniques to secure a license to practice as a physician (medical doctor) and the other used them to secure a license to fly planes (pilot).

Always looking to evolve and have new experiences, JJ sold her business in her 30s to become an expat for the first time by studying in the U.S. It's an experience she has now had in three countries.

While in the U.S., JJ proceeded to get the type of perma-tan she’d always dreamed about while studying for her master’s degree at the prestigious United States Sports Academy. She used principles of accelerated learning to earn her degree in half the regular time, with a 4.0 GPA. She will also tell other maturepreneurs out there that it is “never too late” to become a student or expat!

After earning her degree, JJ took a position at the National Personal Training Institute in New York. She led a team of instructors that developed and certified personal trainers. JJ has also had extensive experience teaching new PTs how to train people of all ages to prevent injuries, including special populations with acute and chronic health considerations. JJ enjoyed her time teaching but felt that at her core she was an entrepreneur, not an employee.

Once back in London, JJ formulated her metabolic functional training system into a brand. This brand grew to include a team of trainers in several locations in London – Mill Hill, Camden and Regent‘s Park. The London Women’s Bootcamp became a successful enterprise in a crowded market, due to its personalized service and utmost efficiency. This was a concept that she would later turn into Powerfrau Bootcamp, a German version of the program.

After selling her boot camp training system in 2015, JJ decided to take a two-year break to reflect and spend time working on her ‘flagship’ training. During this time, she has been researching, traveling, and subsequently relocating to yet another city to prepare for the launch of her new project, Transform2Alpha.

Like a cross between a personal development program and military special ops training, Transform2Alpha sends you on a mission to uncover and morph into the idealized version of yourself. The concept stems from JJ's vision of a self-actualized version of you that exists as a guide whom you can communicate with as you apply scientifically based methods to transform your body, mind and life. Transform2Alpha is the culmination of 30+ years of experience and insights and delivered in the most efficient way possible.

Transform2Alpha also offers a “COMBAT AGING” version of the program specifically designed for those in midlife that seek strategies to protect against the accelerated aging effects of hormonal changes (namely, menopause or andropause for males).

JJ currently lives with her partner and their 17-year-old African Gray parrot in Vienna, Austria where she trains clients worldwide via live events and online coaching. Like many maturepreneurs, JJ realizes that we don’t have forever to become our full potential selves. Her full potential self, “Alpha self“, is the one giving others the best and most efficient tools to command their lives!