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

Award-winning speechwriter and business storyteller Elaine Bennett says her favorite clients are smart enough to know good writing when they read it, but too busy to do it themselves.

She’s worked with leading executives in a range of industries from financial and professional services to nonprofits and politics.

Warren Buffett, impressed with how Elaine captured his voice when they worked together at Salomon Brothers, wrote:

“You have a terrific ear and you turn straight thinking into straight writing.”

Driven to improve the quality of business writing in the world (after all, she has to read it too), Elaine creates and leads webinars to help professionals discover and hone their own talents. She blogs about writing daily on her website, BennettInk.com, where you’ll find her concise mission statement: “Write. More.”

Elaine may be #1 in the hearts of her clients, but she has resigned herself to being the #2 Elaine Bennett in Google's search results! Who gets the top spot? See for yourself.

Jane Pollak is one of the Northeast's foremost coaches of entrepreneurial women and a living example of how to turn a passion into a thriving business.

A successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author and business coach, Jane launched her professional career in an unlikely field – egg decoration.

After earning a Masters from Columbia Teachers College, Jane taught high school early on in her career. What began as a class project became a passion for pysanky – the Ukranian word for “eggs which have been written on.” Jane’s artistic talents and keen attention to the smallest detail were ideally suited for this precise, highly creative art form.

Even so, there were times when the challenges of part-time entrepreneurship and motherhood– Jane was raising three children in suburban Connecticut – required real tenacity and perseverance.

Jane’s story is an odyssey that led her from remote craft fairs and customer rejections to an invitation to the White House and appearances on NBC’s Today Show. National publications featured Jane’s artwork as early as 1985, when her patchwork quilt eggs were showcased in Country Living Magazine. Since then, her work has appeared in The New York Times and other prominent publications.

As her youngest child headed off to school, Jane focused on further developing her business. A lifelong learner, she sought advice and wisdom in audio books by motivational and business gurus, such as Roger Dawson, Wayne Dyer and Brian Tracy. And something sparked.

Jane found herself wanting to inspire and guide other creative professionals to achieve greater success. Her unique experience as an accomplished entrepreneur and training as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach resulted in a powerful, effective new business direction. Since then, Jane has helped thousands of entrepreneurial women — at all stages of their careers – achieve uncommon success.

The lessons Jane learned along the way led her to share her story and give advice to struggling entrepreneurs, traveling the country and beyond. Jane joined the National Speakers Association in 1997, and published her book, Soul Proprietor: 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entrepreneur in 2001. The Small Business Administration named Jane the 2002 Home-Based Business Advocate for the entire New England region.

Jane continues to share inspirational, yet practical lessons with creative professionals.

In addition to coaching, speaking nationally and blogging, she hosts Remarkable Women networking events and seasonal retreats. Ever-current with today’s business challenges, she recently re-released Soul Proprietor, complete with updated, timely lessons on pursuing your dreams during an economic downturn and leveraging new technology to authentically promote your business.

Aaron Walker is without question a veteran entrepreneur.

He started his first business at 18 and sold it to a Fortune 500 company nine short years later, demonstrating his passion to succeed. Unwilling to rest on past success, however, Aaron has founded and sold eight successful companies over the past 37 years.

A strong desire for personal development has kept Aaron in a weekly mastermind group with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham and seven other notable Nashvillians for more than a decade.

Aaron enjoys a 36-year marriage with his beautiful wife, Robin.

Today Aaron spends the majority of his time helping men grow in success and significance as President and Founder of View from the Top, a premier life and business coaching resource.

Aaron's book, View From The Top: Living a Life of Significance is guaranteed to motivate and inspire you to live a successful and significant life!

You probably judge yourself constantly every time you look in the mirror, right?  But here’s the good news: you are your own biggest critic.

What Scarlett de Bease loves to do is help women feel absolutely amazing about how they look. When you can show up authentically and feel confident enough to really stand out, it’s a total game changer. Scarlett is an image consultant. She helps women elevate their personal brands by showing them how to dress in a way that is authentic to them and flatters their unique bodies. She specializes in working with women who are tired of stressing about dressing; who want to be sure to make that all important first impression a great one.

Scarlett began her career in cosmetics. She quickly moved up the ranks to become an account executive with a company car. But after her boss and mentor, who was over 50, was fired and 23 year old Scarlett was promoted to replace her, she became disillusioned with the industry and chose to move on. She went to work in the garment industry for several years before she took time off to start a family. After her second child was born, she decided to get back into cosmetics as a freelancer. She started doing women’s make up for special occasions, such as weddings and bat mitzvahs.

However, her whole perspective changed when a friend, who didn’t want to go alone, dragged Scarlett along to see an image consultant with her. The experience was transformational. The consultant was able to explain what clothing worked for Scarlett and why. It opened a whole new world to her.  Later, when a colleague asked Scarlett to run her image consulting business while she was out of the country, Scarlett eventually came to realize that she could run a business of her own.

She was in her late 40s.

In 2012, Westchester NY Magazine named Scarlett the “Red Hot Image Maker.” She is known as the Wardrobe Stylist who gives women the ability to look and feel confident.

Scarlett is not a fashionista or trend fanatic. But she does get excited about turning boring outfits into “Oh hell yeah, look at me!” outfits, while making her clients feel great about themselves.

Scarlett knows that when you have a personal style that suits you and makes you feel amazing about how you look, you’ll be confident in putting yourself forward to be noticed. It changes the game in your business and personal life.

Dr. Phillip Carson is a registered pharmacist who enjoys sharing the story of how alternative therapies changed his own health and promoting natural alternatives and integrative nutritional solutions to health problems. Passionate about teaching and encouraging people how to live more balanced, healthier and vibrant lives, Dr. Phil believes in equipping people with the knowledge to make the right choices for optimal health.

Background

When Dr. Carson graduated pharmacy school in 1985, he was already working in a job he loved for a national chain with a pharmacy in his hometown. One year later, he was promoted to store manager. Feeling unprepared for the responsibility, he experienced so much stress in his new role that he developed ulcers. He decided to leave that job to take a position with a mom-and-pop pharmacy, where he felt much more at home. He was there for over ten years.

Journey to Natural Health

During that time, Dr. Phil encountered many patients seeking answers when their needs were not met by traditional medicine. He came to realize that the medications he was paid to dispense often offered only temporary symptom relief and left people still suffering. Patients were asking him questions about natural alternatives. But while he was trained in the background and history of natural medicine, he knew nothing about its practical application. To help himself and his patients, he began attending seminars and meetings to learn as much as he could. The more he learned, the more excited and passionate he became about natural remedies. In fact, he was inspired to start his own business.

Business Success and Failure

In 1999, Dr. Phil opened his first store, Smithville pharmacy. It did so well that a few years later, in 2006, he opened a second store, designed to sell only natural products and natural medicine; the Carson Natural Health & Wellness Center. Both businesses were thriving when the financial crisis of 2008 struck. By the end of 2009, Dr. Phil had closed both of his stores and lost everything except his house. He also was half a million dollars in debt.

This began a difficult time of deep personal struggle. Each night Dr. Phil would walk along a country road near his home, praying and meditating to find relief. One evening, an affirmation came to him: “I am happy, I am healthy, I am whole.” He repeated it over and over, even though he felt as far from happy, healthy and whole as he could be at that time. Gradually, his outlook improved. He was inspired with new ideas. And he took a job as a pharmacist.

Turnaround

In 2012, a friend came to Dr. Phil and told him he wanted to open his own store. He needed a pharmacist and he asked Dr. Phil to partner with him. Although Dr. Phil had no money to invest in the venture and felt wary of the risk, he and his wife decided to go for it. In lieu of investing cash, Dr. Phil contributed equipment and worked six months without compensation. The business took off and a year later Dr. Phil had to quit his other job to devote himself full time to the successful new business, of which he owned 25 percent.

In 2016, he sold most of his shares for a return that was large enough to re-establish Carson Natural online, where it is thriving today. It also enabled Dr. Phil to partner with a local medical doctor to co-found the Life Transformation Medical Center, a provider of primary medical care, integrative medical care and wellness programs that opened its doors in March of 2017.

New Success

Today, in addition to owning two successful wellness practices, Dr. Phil is a speaker, coach, author, and podcaster. His mission is to help patients address their health problems with the best natural solutions possible. He works with people to get the most out of their lives by uncovering the root cause of their health issues. Patients come to him with problems and leave with renewed hope that they can be healthy again. He has not only consistently improved the quality of life for many of his patients, but he has also literally saved a few of them.

Dr. Phil discovered that true health and happiness comes from finding balance in seven key areas, so he developed a simple plan anyone can use. In his new book, How to Live Until You Die, he makes it simpler than ever to unlock a healthier, happier, and more whole you, so today can mark a new beginning of total health.

Liz LaForte is Founder and President of LaForte Consulting, where she brings over 20 years of diverse human resources experience from specialized industries to her role.

Liz began her career as a financial recruiter with a Manhattan-based headhunting firm and went on to become the human resources manager for the international advertising agency, Foote, Cone and Belding, in New York City.

As the director of human resources for SecurityCoverage, a start-up IT security company, Liz managed all aspects of recruiting, training, benefits, wellness, employee development and employee relations for the company.

After several years at SecurityCoverage, Liz became manager of HR with Genova Technologies, a federal contractor for CMS with offices in Cedar Rapids, IA and Baltimore, MD. At Genova, Liz was responsible for all employee development and training, HR compliance, policy development, policy implementation, onboarding and employee relations.

In 2014, Liz was ready to strike out on her own. She founded LaForte Consulting, a full-service HR Partner that provides organizations the tools necessary to achieve success through building and maintaining dynamic cultures.

Today, Liz specializes in executive coaching services, employee training and development, and interim/virtual HR support to clients. Her mission is to partner with organizations to drive employee satisfaction; improve retention and performance; and to help individuals develop their skills sets, meet goals, and experience success.

A native of Connecticut, Liz received a BA from Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She holds her Professional Human Resource Certification from the HR Certification Institute, as well as her SHRM-CP from the SHRM organization, and is certified as an Executive Coach from the Center for Executive Coaching.

Ruth Ullmann, founder of My Elder Care Journey, is a business consultant and coach who believes that no one should have to choose between the business they've created and the loved ones they care for.

Successful consultant

For more than 20 years, Ruth has helped companies, groups and individuals achieve their business objectives. After earning a B.S. in business and her MBA, Ruth lived on the West Coast where she worked as an internal consultant to large corporations, doing both domestic and international problem solving.

When her parents began to need help, Ruth moved back home to the Midwest, where she spent the next 14 years as a caregiver. She gave up her consulting business but her subsequent experience led her to create a new business that she grew for over ten years; helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and consultants realign their businesses to thrive while caring for aging parents.

Ruth naively believed that her education and experienced had prepared her for managing just about any difficult or complicated situation.

Challenged care giver

Ultimately, Ruth helped her parents successfully achieve their greatest wish: to grow old in the home they built and loved. What she never considered was what it would cost her to achieve this goal. Or that there would even be a cost.

During the last seven years of her parents' lives, their health declined more rapidly and their need for assistance increased. Even with the help of a home care company, Ruth was not able to focus and to deliver high quality dependable results to her clients. Her parents' health was too unpredictable. Her clients couldn't put their businesses on hold and Ruth couldn't ask them to do that. She lost so many clients that her consulting business dried up.

Fallout

On top of this development, the stress, the lack of sleep and the duration of her circumstances seriously impacted Ruth's health. Her income and savings were significantly reduced. Among the many other challenges were making sound decisions with limited time to research options and process information; processing multiple changes in rapid succession; an overwhelming volume of information with little time to filter and vet its accuracy or relevance; juggling care giving, managing a business and managing two households; and understanding and navigating the many companies and government entities that support elder care.

Later, Ruth learned that the negative impact on a family caregiver's health, finances and savings she experienced is all-too-common. She believed there had to be an easier way for the more than 10 million adult children of aging parents to navigate elder care without recreating the wheel and juggling or damaging businesses, careers, and families.

Ruth's Solution

She began doing research. She started by interviewing all the companies that support elder care to understand how that industry operates. She was overwhelmed by the generosity, candor and advice that she received. She made a leap of faith, narrowed the mountains of information that were available and, from that work, a process emerged that helped Ruth change the way families navigate elder care.

Today, Ruth is dedicated to helping make her clients' elder care journeys easier, less overwhelming, and better informed. She provides people with unbiased, straightforward information to help them make better decisions. She feels honored to help individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs and consultants adjust their businesses to thrive without them for a period of time while they care for aging loved ones.

Ruth has been featured on Fox, CBS, NBC & ABC News.

Nutritionist with a Passion for Fashion

Suzi Grant started her blog Alternative Ageing in late 2014, to write about and share all the things she loves and has experience of: health, nutrition, fashion, style, travel and lifestyle.  Targeting people over 50, Suzi believes in positive aging, not anti aging, and declares, "It's never too early to start!"

Suzi has a penchant for vintage fashion, in particular, and frequently blogs about her many travels, including regular trips to Australia.  She is a talented photographer who takes all her own photos.  She is also an experienced model and has been the subject of many fashion shoots.  She has been featured by Instagram and by The New York Times.

Serious Stuff

For most of her working life, Suzi was a chain smoking, hard drinking reporter/presenter in television and radio. TVam, Sky News, and BBC Radio 4 are just three of the many companies she worked with.  But when her mother died of a heart attack at the age of 63, Suzi took stock of her own health and decided to train as a nutritionist.

Apart from treating hundreds of patients over the last 15 years, Suzi has also written three books, including Alternative Ageing; completed an M.A. Degree in The Body: Eastern/Western Perspectives; and continues to write, broadcast and speak at conferences as an ageing expert.

Not So Serious Stuff

Suzi lives in Brighton by the sea, England with her fur baby, Jack, a naughty poodle/jack russell cross. She love music, festivals, dressing up, shopping, writing, good food, travel, and photography.

She is convinced that her blog, her social media outreach, and all of her activities above will help to prevent her brain from deteriorating.

Suzi used to have bright red/orange hair!  Because it’s become fashionable to be gray and over 60, she has gone back to her roots.  She no longer feel invisible, as she did at 50.

Susan Good, in her early 70’s, is the owner and primary writer for the award-winning HoneyGood.com website, a fashion, food and lifestyle blog she founded in October 2012. She is the wife of real estate auction pioneer, Sheldon F. Good, as well as a mother, daughter, grandmother and great grandmother to 25 "GRANDS" who call her "Honey."  And she is a girlfriend to many.

When Susan's first grandchild was born in 1987, her daughter selected “Honey” as her grandmother name because it so aptly suited her personality and outlook on life.  Today, Susan Good is called Honey by her entire family and the Honey Good staff.

Honey's website is written for vibrant, visible and savvy women over 50. In many ways, Honey's own life mirrors her readers' lives: a mixture of the bitter and the sweet as well as the joys and the sorrows. As she reminds her nearly 150,000 loyal followers in Chicago and around the world: “We have earned our PhDs in Life."

While living in Honolulu with her first husband and their two daughters, she was suddenly widowed in her early 40's when her husband had a massive heart attack. She survived two bouts with cancer and the challenge of blending two large families. “I’ve traveled the world, made lasting friendships, endured my hardships and am grateful every day of my life. Through example, I have shown my family, and now my readers, how to make sweet lemonade out of lemons and to always see the glass half-full.”

Describing herself and her mission, she said:

“I am a woman with many titles who wears many hats and loves life to its fullest. I walk on the sunny side of the street. I love to 'shop till I drop' and I own my own style, thanks to my 96-year-old mother, my teacher and my friend. I have plenty to say to the billions of women worldwide, including Baby Boomers who are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day!”

HoneyGood.com is an anthology of thousands of personal stories with insights and advice. Their subjects run the gamut from friendships, grand-parenting, blended families, widowhood, remarriage, family suicide, dating after 50 and cancer survival to advice about why every woman should own that little black dress, buy that properly-fitted shoe and consider growing out her gray hair.

In a weekly piece, Honey offers tips on how to survive every situation from losing one's car keys in the onion bin to packing for that fabulous trip. Topics reflect the trials and tribulations most women face during this challenging yet invigorating passage.

A writer for Michigan Avenue magazine had this to say about Honey Good:

“With a PhD in life thanks to her large and colorful immediate family, poignant personal history and sophisticated lifestyle, Honey Good has a lot to say about everything-- and does so with passion, verve, humor, acumen and wit. She is giving an age-old 'character' – i.e. the proverbial grandmother – a fresh, hip, new-age voice. Her posts are savvy and fun, yet also relevant and substantive. But above all else, her content is authentic at a time when authenticity is king.”

Or queen?

This hip, sophisticated matriarch of a blended family speaks to audiences worldwide. She writes for the Huff Post and regularly contributes to Sixty&Me.com, Medium.com and GRAND magazine. She soon will write lifestyle pieces for the new national Headlines Network powered by Aggrego, a Wrapports company that owns the Chicago Sun Times and is affiliated with nine major publishers around the nation.

Profiled in Michigan Avenue and RM (Rancho Mirage, CA) magazines, Honey Good was recently interviewed by Prevention.com as well as such notable personalities in their own right as Ari Seth Cohen, the documentary producer, photographer and author of Advanced Style.

“Amazing things can happen when you commit yourself,” she added.

She, her husband and their beloved Wheaten Terrier, Orchid, split their time between homes on Chicago's Gold Coast and in Rancho Mirage, CA. They have traveled to 67 countries, including Iran, Syria and Antarctica, and with their pooch Orchid always by their side, they visit their children, grandchildren and great grandchild who live in seven different U.S. cities.

Jim Akers is a former Fortune 50 senior executive turned speaker, author and coach. He helps ambitious people focus their time, talent and resources on success that leads to maximizing their impact and influence on the people they love, the teams they lead and the causes that stir their hearts.

Jim is a graduate of Washington State University. He holds an M.B.A. in organizational leadership from Pepperdine University and an Advanced Management Certificate from Stanford University.

Jim has won sales and achievement awards with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Company, Kirk Paper Company, xpedx and International Paper Company.

At the age of 29, Jim was named V.P. of sales for a $500MM distribution company, the youngest group vice president in the 120 year history of International Paper Company.

As group vice president at xpedx, Jim lead a $1BB distribution business with 21 locations in the Western U.S. and serving customers around the globe with packaging, custom packaging design, facility supplies, and printing papers. If you've ever touched an iPad or iPhone, you've touched work Jim’s team pioneered.

Jim has authored three books: How to Win the Achievement Game; 14 Strategies for Breakthrough Performances; and most recently, Tape Breakers, Maximize Your Impact with People You Love, Teams You Lead and Causes that Stir Your Heart.

Tape Breakers debuted as the #1 New Release on Amazon in March 2016 and was recognized as a 2016 Book of the Year along side the best selling new releases from Adam Grant, Ryan Holiday and Jake Knapp.

Jim’s clients include The PGA of America, Old Castle, Shaw Industries, International Paper, Pearson Smith Reality, TD Realty Group along with a variety of non-profit and faith-based organizations.

Jim met his wife Kristi at Washington State University. They celebrated their 12,776 day anniversary in June and have two adult sons Matthew and Andrew, who no longer require their credit card.