The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Is it time to move on? Quitting is an emotionally charged word. In contrast, words like perseverance and grit are revered. They collide when it’s time to pivot, move on or change direction. Pulitzer Prize winning author Julia Keller makes the case for strategic quitting and why it can be a courageous act of love to make a course correction versus sticking it out. In her new book, Quitting: A Life Strategy, she explores the neuroscience behind quitting and recounts the experiences of people from various walks of life for whom quitting was the right play. If you’re contemplating retirement or a pivot to a second act, you’ll find this conversation and Julia Keller’s new book to be timely, insightful and thought-provoking.

_________________________

Julia Keller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and former cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune, is the author of many books for adults and young readers, including A Killing in the Hills, the first book in the Bell Elkins series and winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel (2013); Back Home; and The Dark Intercept. Keller has a Ph.D. in English literature from Ohio State and was awarded Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship. She was born in West Virginia and lives in Ohio.

Julia Keller’s new book is Quitting: A Life Strategy: The Myth of Perseverance―and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free.

_________________________

For More on Julia Keller

Quitting: A Life Strategy: The Myth of Perseverance―and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free

Website

________________________

Don’t Miss an Episode – Follow on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Thinking Better to Live Better – Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn

The Unretirement Life – Richard Eisenberg

The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman

Independence Day – Steve Lopez

________________________

Wise Quotes

On Grit & Perseverance

“I think we are all very much under the sway of this idea of grit, this idea of being gritty and persevering as an unalloyed good. Now, there’s no question that sometimes it’s great and sometimes it works out, but not always. I like to say it’s a good servant, but a bad master. You don’t want to always have grit and perseverance to be the only tool in your toolbox. There are other ways to approach life and to get to where you want to go. But that’s very much against the common thinking that grit is always celebrated and always generative.”

On the Courage to Quit

“There are times when a pause and a pivot is the best strategy, that not being gritty and not sticking with it is absolutely the best thing you can do. But in order to do that, as we’ll talk about in a bit, you have to overcome a lot of cultural messaging. I call it cultural baggage that we live with all of our lives where we have to move through that somehow. And it takes a great deal of courage. Quitting takes courage. And that’s something I always say to people. I don’t want anybody to be under any illusions. Anybody past the age of 12 knows this already. Quitting something is very, very, very difficult. And it does take a lot of personal courage and a lot of intellectual courage as well.”

On Neuroscience & Quitting

“In my conversations with many neuroscientists I spoke with, and scientists and evolutionary biologists, they all make one salient point about our brains. Our brains like to be active. Our brains like to stay in motion. The worst thing you can do for a brain, any brain, ours or anybody else’s, is to have it just be sitting there not doing anything. Our brains like to be in motion. So I call quitting aerobics for your brain. It’s a way of keeping your brain active when you change course. When you look at the path you’re on and say, I don’t know. I think maybe I can do better. When you change course like that, you are forcing your brain to be engaged and your whole brain is engaged with even the smallest decision. We know that now it’s a whole brain activity, even the smallest thing that you do. And that keeps our brains engaged and that in turn keeps our brains active and healthy because an active brain is a happy brain. An active brain is a healthy brain.”

________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life process can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

___________________________

What Will Your “Retirement” Story Be? Stay in touch with our free monthly newsletter: Wisdom Notes. It’ll keep ideas and inspiring stories coming your way once a month as you create your own.

__________________________

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

You’re more than the title on your business card. Have you ever considered creating a second act career in your semi-retirement?Ross Hewitt is a semi-retired physician who’s doing just that.

_________________________

Ross Hewitt is an actor, playwright, director, producer, and retired physician who received many awards for his work with the HIV and AIDS communities. He is an associate member of the American Dramatists Guild and a past member of the Village Playwrights. His produced full-length plays include When October Goes Rainbows & Ribbons), and Echoes in the Garden). Ross directed the world premiere of Shawn The Trophy Wife ,An Evening of Sonnets, and A Supportive Wife His first foray into film is as the screenwriter and producer of the award-winning children’s animated short film, Kris the Cat.

__________________________

For More on Ross Hewitt

Kris the Cat

__________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast – On Second Acts

Take the Detour – Melissa Davey

A Second Act as a Writer – Bill Thompson

From Finance to Becoming an Author – James Hockenberry

__________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

__________________________

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Don’t Miss an Episode – Follow on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Some people believe that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Steven Kotler has been studying human performance for thirty years, and has taught hundreds of thousands of people at all skill levels, age groups, and from walks of life, how to achieve peak performance. Discoveries in cognition, flow science, and neuroscience have revolutionized how we think about peak performance aging. To see if theory worked in practice, Kotler conducted his own experiment in applied neuroscience and later-in-life skill acquisition. He set out to try and teach an old dog some new tricks – himself – by taking up a sport deemed impossible to learn at his age. His new book Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad tells the story of his experiment and the cutting-edge research on peak performance aging that he put to the test. His story will change how you think about aging and open to your eyes to why you’ll want to jump in and double down on flow activities and lifelong learning.

Steven Kotler joins us from New Mexico.

_________________________

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of 11 bestsellers (out of fourteen books), including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 50 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review.

A lifelong environmentalist and animal rights advocate, Steven is the cofounder of Planet Home, a conference/concert/innovation accelerator focused on solving critical environmental challenges, the cofounder of The Forest + Fire Collective, a network of individuals, organizations and institutions dedicated to ending catastrophic wildfire and restoring forest health to the American West. Alongside his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is also the co-founder of Rancho de Chihuahua, a hospice care and special needs dog sanctuary.

PS: Steven once flew a MIG-17 Russian fighter jet—but that’s a different story.

For More on Steven Kotler

Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad

Website

Flow Research Collective

On the Power of Mindset

“One of the deepest findings if you get into research on aging right now, is that the mind-body connection is so unbelievably tight. All the major levers, all the biggest things we could reach for are actually psychological tools. They’ve got neurobiology underneath them, which is why they work. But those are the huge interventions. And nowhere is this clear than in the work on mindset. Now, this is very old research. It dates back to Ellen Langer at Harvard in the seventies and goes all the way through today to Becca Levy her student, now at Yale. She’s brilliant and she has carried a lot of that forward. So, what do we know? A positive mindset towards aging meaning my best days are ahead of me. I think the second half of my life is going to be filled with thrilling, wonderful, exciting possibility. That’s all we’re talking about, right? It translates to an extra eight years of healthy longevity. This means if you’re morbidly obese and have a [lousy] mindset towards aging and you want to change, if you can only change one thing, change your mindset. It’s gonna have a bigger impact. It has more or as much of an impact as quitting smoking if you’re a chronic, an over a pack a day smoker. These are big, big impacts. And here’s the flip side. We also know you grew up suffering ageism – the most acceptable stereotype in the world.  Becca Levy’s work at Yale tells us by the time you’re 60 years old, if you were exposed to ageism or you have a bad mindset towards aging, you have a 30% greater memory decline after 60. That’s shocking, right? That’s insane. And you don’t want to mess with those odds. Now there is a deeper question about how do you shift a mindset? Mindset and robust social connections are probably the first two things you want to reach for if you’re interested in peak performance aging.”

On Finding Flow

“So in flow science, there’s something called your Primary Flow Activity. This is really whatever you’ve done most of your life that drops you into flow. For me it’s skiing. For my wife, it’s hiking the dogs in the background. For my best friend it’s playing guitar. For other people, it’s learning how to samba or salsa or take your pick: write code for computers, read books, ride horses, whatever that thing is for you. Research shows that you want to double down on it. What does that really mean? If you can engage in your primary flow activity about four hours a week, two 2-hour sessions or one four hour block – it makes a huge difference. Let me give you a four reasons. We talked about the the anti-stress stuff. So you’re resetting your nervous system every week that has huge anti-aging benefits, right? Huge, huge quality of life and mood benefits. So those further cascade into lower stress better, et cetera. So the more flow you get, the more flow you get. And here’s the cool thing that heightened creativity and heightened productivity that tends to outlast the flow state. Work out of Harvard says the heightened creativity can outlast the flow state by a day, maybe two. And there’s ways to work with it to really ensure that this happens in a better way. But my point is, I go skiing on a Saturday. It means that I show up and work on Monday and I’m more productive and I’m more creative – it’s like a bonus, right? So there’s a lot of reasons to double down your primary flow activity, but the, the most importantly is it brings back that fire in the belly. It brings back that joy, that passion, that it revitalizes, it wakes us up again. It makes us feel young in a lot of real ways. And it’s so, so, so important if you can figure out what drives you into flow. By the way, challenge is a flow trigger. Creativity is a flow trigger. Proper social activity is a flow trigger, group flow. A lot of that novelty is a flow trigger. But the simplest way to start is just double down your primary flow activity. And the problem with this it is exactly what we stop doing as we age, right? We set down childish things. The skateboard gets put away, the surfboard gets put away and I got to work all the time and provide for my family. And this is the stuff you stop doing and it’s literally killing you.”

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

__________________________

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Don’t Miss an Episode – Follow on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Retirement brings both challenges and opportunities. Our guests on this retirement podcast this year have shared their insights on many of them including:

Listen into these samples of the best conversations from the first third of 2023.

Links to the full conversations are below if you’d like to learn more:

Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller

The Joy of Saying No – Natalie Lue

Self Compassion- Kristin Neff

Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini

The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman

Design the Long Life You’ll Love – Ayse Birsel

The Long Distance  Grandparent– Kerry Byrne

__________________________

About Retirement Wisdom 

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

__________________________

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Don’t Miss an Episode – Follow on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Some things are not as easy as you may think. And discerning the right Medicare choices for you is one of those things. When preparing to enroll in Medicare, or evaluating your coverage, it pays to look past the commercials, do your homework – and to read the fine print. When I researched Medicare in 2022, I engaged Diane Omdahl and her service 65 Incorporated. She’s written a new book Medicare for You: A Smart Person’s Guide and joins us today to discuss some key things you need to know.

Diane Omdahl joins us from Wisconsin

__________________________

The author of Medicare for You: A Smart Person’s Guide, Diane Omdahl, RN, MS., is a nationally recognized Medicare expert and the author of Medicare and You: A Smart Person’s Guide.

In 2012, she co-founded 65 Incorporated, a company that provides one-on-one consultations to individuals dealing with Medicare. Her first company, Beacon Health, provided homecare agencies with Medicare compliance guidance from 1987 until she sold it in 2008. Diane has served as a technical expert for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the organization that runs the Medicare program) and is a frequent speaker on Medicare-related issues. In addition to being a registered nurse, Diane holds a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration. Diane is a Forbes.com contributor on the topic of Medicare and has been featured in many national publications including the Washington Post, CBS MoneyWatch, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal Market Watch, Kiplinger, and many others. You can learn more about Diane at www.65incorporated.com and www.dianeomdahl.com.

___________________________

For More on Diane Omdahl

Medicare for You: A Smart Person’s Guide

65 Incorporated

i65 (Fiduciary Medicare Software & Consulting)

____________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Where to Retire – Silvia Ascarelli

An Economist’s Take on Retirement Planning – Larry Kotlikoff

Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy

The Unretirement Life – Richard Eisenberg

____________________________

Wise Quotes

On Setting Up Your My Social Security Account

“.. a very important step that they can do at any time in their life is to set up a My Social Security Account. That is the way that they will enroll in Medicare when it’s time. And we have run into people trying to enroll in Medicare who did not have an account. And it’s not always easy to set up. And people who have an account haven’t kept it up to date, they haven’t informed Social Security of their address change. And after a divorce, women with a name change, that’s quite involved. And with the Social Security offices just coming back out from Covid, many of them are still not open completely. If you have to submit documents, you don’t want to send originals in the mail. And so that’s what we say, keep it up to date. Then when you’re actually approaching 65, you can’t do anything until your initial enrollment period, which is three months before your birthday, unless it’s on the first of the month and it’s four months. But people like to start about six months in advance. Given they’re getting all of the advertising even earlier than that, we tell them that’s when you should start thinking about it. And one of our best pieces of advice is that they can  toss out that stuff they get prior to age 65 because as they get closer and know what they need, then they can look for the specific information that will work for them.”

On The Two Medicare Paths

“The two Medicare paths is how Medicare is structured for most people over 65. It is probably the most important decision people will make going forward, yet people give it the short shrift. I read that on average people spend 14 hours shopping for a new car. What do they do when it comes to Medicare? They go with what their spouse has, or what works for a friend, or what’s in the commercials. With a car there are lemon laws, and in the worst case scenario, you’d lose your money and start over. With Medicare, in most states, you won’t be able to start over. So this decision is very important.”

On Researching Medicare Advantage 

____________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

There’s more to life besides work people tell me. Cultivating outside interests and hobbies can enhance your satisfaction and prepare you for a satisfying life in retirement. Our guest today is a semi-retired attorney whose hobbies prepared him for a second act as an author. You don’t need to be an attorney or aspire to be a novelist to heed his advice on exploring hobbies that may be just right for you.

_________________________

J.P. (Paul) Rieger, is a semi-retired real estate attorney whose encounters with the law loosely inspired his new novel Clonk! – a hilarious whodunnit set in the world of seedy lawyers and misfit detectives. An amateur guitarist, Paul played with the neo- psychedelic pop group United States of Existence in the 1980s. The band released a couple of 45s and an LP. Paul’s first novel, The Case Files of Roderick Misely, Consultant, was published in 2013. A Baltimore native, he lives in Towson, Maryland.

_________________________

For More on Paul Rieger

Clonk!

__________________________

Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

List of Hobbies from The Serious Leisure Perspective (Robert Stebbins)

________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Third Act – Josh Sapan

The Fun Habit – Mike Rucker, PhD

The Power of Fun – Catherine Price

A Second Act after The Law – Mark Shaiken

__________________________

Wise Quotes

On Semi-Retirement

“I think that if you happen to have a career as a professional, you’ll probably never leave it fully because it’s part of who you are. And …there’s so many things you can do as a semi-retired professional – you can actually still work. And I have many of my attorney friends who are my age and older who got out of their bigger practice that now are just doing the things they want to. A lot of folks pro bono, volunteer work. There’s so many things you can do.”

On Hobbies

“I think having hobbies is absolutely crucial, and I want your listeners to know that it’s never too late to start a hobby. We become part of our careers where we start loving it so much, but we might become a little bit of a hostage to it. But you have to, I think, break away from that somewhat and think about things that you’re like doing and, and these would be your hobbies if you have them. And  if not, it’s not too late to, to get them. There’s the Chinese  proverb when’s the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When’s the second best time? Right now.  So I think hobbies are the same way. If you haven’t really developed hobbies, I would not worry, chill out. It’s never too late.”

___________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

__________________________

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Watching my favorite NBA team in playoff games in two different cities last week demonstrated that the second half is often quite different than the first half. The same applies to life. Your perspective, priorities and needs are likely to be different in your second half. Our guest today, James Hazelwood, offers a point of view on the second half of life and the role of wisdom.

__________________________

James Hazelwood currently serves as Bishop of the New England Synod of the Lutheran Church (ELCA). His varied life experience as a pastor in congregations, a professional photographer, environmental education instructor, a disc jockey and ice cream scooper are all part of the mix that informs his work. He is the author of Weird Wisdom for the Second Half of Life, and Everyday Spirituality. He writes regularly at www.jameshazelwood.net

__________________________

For More on James Hazelwood

Website 

Weird Wisdom for the Second Half of Life

_________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet

From Role to Soul – Connie Zweig

Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller

From the NBA Hardwood to the Altar – Steve Javie

________________________

Wise Quotes

On The Shift

“But something shifts at the midpoint. It’s typically in our forties, sometimes in our fifties. We just start to ask different questions.What’s all this that I’ve achieved for? What does it mean? One author (Wayne Dyer – The Shift:Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning) talked about it as the shift from success to significance. So the second half of life is really a turn inward. That doesn’t mean we stop working or raising a family. It just means that our priorities shift. Now, most everyone thinking about retirement is well into this second phase, and we’re just wondering about meaning and purpose. So for me, the second half of life is really defined by the search for soul.”

On Getting Unstuck

“I hear the word stuck from a lot of people in this phase. And what I say to them, That’s okay, now you’re ready to learn. So once you face your stuckness, it means it’s time to ask a new set of questions. Is my life connected to something larger than the day-to-day? Or Have I remembered to love and serve those around me? Or, There’s a lot of suffering, but how is my suffering a doorway into meaning? It’s these big deeper questions in the second half of life that we face. And so I’m just suggesting that we be intentional about looking at these questions, and I think if we do, we will find out that the second half of life is really the best half.”

_________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

__________________________

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

The population of Americans age 65 and older is on track to double between 2010 and 2040. And that’s leading to increased investments in innovative solutions to serve the needs of older adults, in areas including healthcare and wellness, financial services, senior housing, social connectivity and caregiving. Abby Miller Levy, of Primetime Partners, joins us to discuss what she sees happening in the rapidly growing longevity economy.

Abby Miller Levy joins us from New York.

________________________

Bio

Abby Miller Levy is the managing Partner & Co-Founder of Primetime Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in, and builds from the ground up, companies that can transform the quality of living for older adults. She has spent her career helping businesses and consumer brands grow as an operator, entrepreneur and advisor, most notably in the wellness sector. Prior to Primetime Partners, Abby was an executive at SoulCycle, where she oversaw business development and revenue growth outside the consumer studio business, with an emphasis on building new digital products as the Senior Vice President of Strategy & Growth. Abby has also been a Founder herself, teaming with Arianna Huffington to launch Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company focused on employee productivity and wellness. Abby served as President of Thrive Global and remains on the Thrive Board. Abby began her career at McKinsey & Company then led product development at OXO International. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

________________________

For More on Abby Miller Levy and Primetime Partners

Primetime Partners

_______________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Age Tech Revolution – Keren Etkin

Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy

Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott

Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini

______________________

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

MIT Age Lab – Blog

MIT Media Lab

Stanford Center on Longevity  – Longevity Briefing newslettter

Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC – Vitality Magazine

AARP Research

______________________

Wise Quotes

On Primetime Partners

“And so that’s really the genesis for me of starting Primetime was really on trying to solve this issue for my parents, recognizing that there were a lot of businesses to be built. And so instead of building one individual idea or concept into a business, I thought, well, maybe I would build an investment platform to fund dozens and hopefully hundreds of other entrepreneurs to solve or build things in this white space. And then I, and my partner Alan Patricof – he has been an investor for the past 50 years, starting a large private equity firm called Apax Partners, and then Greycroft, which is a multi-billion dollar venture firm – was also in intrigued by this issue of how do we get older Americans starting businesses, people with expertise and wisdom and network and skills. And so we came together to start the fund in the Spring of 2020.”

On Innovation in the Longevity Economy

“But what we’re more interested at Primetime, because we’re an early stage investment fund is the amount of innovation going on in the space. And so just to put a bookmark in there, since we launched in summer of 2020, so almost three years ago, we’ve looked at 1,300 startups that would be included in the longevity economy. This includes healthcare businesses, financial service businesses, consumer and media businesses. There is a lot of new ideas bubbling up because entrepreneurs have recognized, and  all the incumbents of this ecosystem have recognized we need to move faster to build the infrastructure we need to serve an older population.”

On Digital Therapeutics

On Alternatives to Long-Term Care

“And then the third area is around alternatives to long-term care. 90% of Americans think that in-home care – these are home health aids and folks that come help with your daily activities of living – is covered by Medicare –  and it’s as of today, it’s not. And the average American’s going to have a bill of $50,000 for in-home care. Now this excludes those big outliers of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and things where that home health bill can be millions of dollars. But in this case, most Americans are unprotected for this. And so we’re very interested in products that protect Americans from the outlier healthcare expenses that can frankly bankrupt them.”

______________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see how the Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Is there more to wellness than a healthy diet? Dr. Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman’s new book Wellness to Wonderful is down-to-earth with relatable guidance and practical advice for a healthy and vibrant life. Drs. Pulde and Lederman bring the book’s principles to life in WeHeal, a virtual healthcare model built on their book’s nine fundamental pillars of health: self, nutrition, activity, play, sleep, family & friends, work, spirituality, and the natural world. As evidence of the model’s efficacy, the Florida-based physicians point to results showing reversal of chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, weight loss, and increased overall well-being. With chapters dedicated to each of the model’s core pillars, Wellness To Wonderful aims to guide readers from the stress and chronic illnesses arising from living in survival mode to a dynamic, thriving, and optimized life that is truly Wonderful.

Drs. Pulde and Lederman join us from Florida.

________________________

Alona Pulde, MD & Matthew Lederman, MD

Touted as doctors of the future by Dean Ornish, MD and with their work supported by many experts including Sanjay Gupta, MD, Dr Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman combined conventional Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Lifestyle medicine, Nonviolent Communication, Polyvagal Theory, and Trauma-Informed, Somatic Principles & Pain Reprocessing to create their groundbreaking health paradigm. They have been successful corporate leaders, starred in the life-changing documentary Forks over Knives, lectured for eCornell, served as adjunct medical school professors and corporate medical advisors, and are NY Times bestselling authors.

Together they have co-authored six books, including The New York Times Bestseller Forks Over Knives Plan, Forks Over Knives Family, and Keep It Simple, Keep It Whole. They co-authored The Whole Foods Diet and The Whole Foods Cookbook with John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. Most recently they co-authored, “Wellness to Wonderful,” interweaving medical science, psychology, spirituality, and life wisdom to help people achieve lasting health, vibrancy, peace, and joy. They consult for companies such as Whole Foods Market and serve on advisory boards for various organizations.

Alona Pulde, MD is a board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine & Family Medicine Physician. She is particularly passionate about supporting clients with nutrition and women’s health.

Dr. Matthew Lederman is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician & CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. He is particularly passionate about integrating mind-body health treatment and providing second medical opinions for patients with persistent chronic disease.

After ten years of serving Whole Foods Market as corporate Vice Presidents, helping launch their national comprehensive medical & wellness centers, coaching and retreat programs, and integrated hospital and insurance networks, Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman moved on to co-found their new venture, WeHeal, which is the culmination of decades of learning and practical experience organized into an easily accessible program that does everything just short of guaranteeing lasting health, joy and satisfaction in your life.

________________________

For More On Wellness to Wonderful

WELLNESS TO WONDERFUL: 9 Pillars for Living Healthier, Longer, and with Greater Joy

WeHeal website

________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In

The Power of Fun – Catherine Price

Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff

Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy

How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco

_________________________

Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

Forks Over Knives documentary

_________________________

Wise Quotes

On Wellness to Wonderful

“As a blessing and a curse, Matt and I are always maintaining curiosity around how to optimize our lives. And that’s what led us to nutrition and lifestyle medicine in the first place. Focusing on diet and activity and sleep and a lot of the areas that we generally associate with optimal health. But what we noticed along the road is even in optimizing our diet, even in getting enough sleep, even in being regimented about activity, we still weren’t feeling optimized. We were – well maybe – but we wanted our life to be wonderful. And you know, we say that in the book and it really resonates with us. But in a world of infinite possibilities, why can’t our life be wonderful? And so that kind of sparked the journey to what would make it wonderful. And we came upon the nine different pillars that we share in the book. And we feel like each one of those is a key element in taking your life from chronic disease to wellness and way up to wonderful.”

The We Heal Model

“So the essence of WeHeal model is based on these nine fundamental pillars. We call them our pillars of practice. And it really starts with a self in a discernment around what am I needing? What am I feeling? What am I needing? It’s an authentic connection with yourself to even have awareness that things aren’t working the way you’d like them to. And once we have that discernment, that awareness, then we can start tending to these other pillars. Things like activity and nutrition and sleep and play, which is something that is so important and we have completely forgotten about as adults – at least most adults have. Then our connection, not only our connection to family and friends and work and our coworkers, but a connection to spirituality or something bigger than us. We are not alone. And so many of us feel alone and isolated. So just that notion of connection to something greater than us and then to our natural world, to the world around us, to the animals and plants and the environment that we live in on a day-to-day basis. And what’s helpful about the nine pillars is that you don’t have to get ’em all right. You just have to tend to them and care about them and, and use that as a guide. In fact, it’s a lifelong journey.”

On Play

“I think one of the most beautiful gifts that play provides us is presence in that moment. You are so absorbed in something that is bringing joy and that you are having fun doing. And it’s really, it’s almost impossible to be stressed and mobilized and play at the same time. And that’s a huge benefit. You see children and children’s natural desire is to play. They also are naturally inclined to be very present. And that is something that allows us to have that discernment as well. When we are able to look at this moment, we’re so many of us are involved in kind of getting through the day, getting through our lives, and we don’t look back and say, Oh, what did I actually enjoy about today? What didn’t I enjoy about today? What would I like to be different tomorrow? Play gives us that opportunity to practice presence. Which is the definitely one of the keys to experiencing life as wonderful. Being present with what you’re feeling, being present with what you’re needing, being present with your connections, being present with the experience of eating and, it’s just even the activity. When you’re present with it, it’s just a different experience versus checking up the box and worrying about all the stuff you gotta do an hour from now. So if you really want to experience that, play – it’s fun. It also usually brings connection with other people. And that’s really essential also to experiencing a more joyful and satisfying life.”

_________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA. How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need a different portfolio.

I help people create a multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many it includes a new version of work in some form– redefined on your own terms with more flexibility and meaning.

Schedule a call to see if a 1-on-1 program or a small group Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Is there a pivot in your future? Perhaps you’re considering – or going through – retirement, semi-retirement, a second career or a major life transition. All of these entail getting unstuck and skillfully navigating a transition. Joanne Lipman, author of  NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, interviewed people who have successfully steered through these shifts, along with experts who’ve studied them. She found a specific sequence of stages that unfold in these moves to reinvent yourself at different stages of life.

Joanne Lipman joins us from New York.

_______________________

Joanne Lipman is author of the No. 1 bestseller THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID and NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work. An award-winning journalist, she has served as Editor-in-Chief of USA Today, USA Today Network, Conde Nast Portfolio, and The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal, leading those organizations to six Pulitzer Prizes. She is an on-air CNBC contributor and Yale University journalism lecturer.

Lipman began her career as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, ultimately rising to deputy managing editor – the first woman to attain that post – and supervising coverage that won three Pulitzer Prizes. While there she created Weekend Journal and Personal Journal, and oversaw creation of the Saturday edition. She subsequently was founding editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, which won Loeb and National Magazine Awards. Most recently, she served as Chief Content Officer of Gannett, where she was Editor-in-Chief of its USA Today and the USA Today Network, encompassing the flagship publication plus 109 metro newspapers including the Detroit Free Press, the Des Moines Register, and the Arizona Republic. In that role, she oversaw more than 3,000 journalists and led the organization to three Pulitzer prizes.

Lipman’s work has been published in numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Fortune, Newsweek and the Harvard Business Review. She has appeared as a television commentator on ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, among others. She is a frequent public speaker, with engagements including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, the Aspen Ideas Festival, TEDx, the International Lean In conference, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Milken Institute Global conference, and has worked with numerous companies on issues of gender equity, diversity and inclusion. She also is co-author, with Melanie Kupchynsky, of the acclaimed music memoir “Strings Attached.”

A winner of the Matrix Award for women in communications, Lipman was the 2019-2020 inaugural Distinguished Journalism Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She has served or is currently serving on boards including Yale University Council; the World Editors Forum; the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy; the Yale Daily News; Spirited Media; the Yale Alumni Magazine (where she served as chair); the Knights chamber orchestra, and the advisory boards of Data.world, Breastcancer.org, The Wire China, and the Yale School of Music. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She and her husband live in New York City and are the parents of two adult children.

____________________________

NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work

Website

____________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler

Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff

The Future You – Brian David Johnson

How’s Your Network? – Kelly Hoey

____________________________

Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

New York Times article: Want to Make a Change? Conjure Your ‘Possible Selves’

___________________________

Wise Quotes

On The Stages of Reinvention

“I call it the reinvention roadmap. And the four steps are Search, Struggle, Stop, and Solution. And I’ll go through those real quick and then we can kind of dig in if you would like. The Search, the first step, what’s interesting about this is when you are collecting information, you’re collecting experiences. You are accumulating knowledge. But the really cool thing about this step is you’re you’re sucking in all this information that will ultimately lead to a transition, except very often you’re not aware of it. It’s unintentional, which is so interesting. It’s going to lead you somewhere unexpected. The second stage, is the Struggle. The Struggle is when you start to disconnect from your previous identity, but you have not quite figured out the new identity where you are going to. We don’t like to talk about this stage because it’s really uncomfortable. It’s kind of miserable, honestly. And when we go through it, we tend to think we’re all alone and that we are the only people in the world going through this. Everybody else is on this glide path to success, and only we are struggling. But the key here is to know that when you’re in the midst of this struggle, you’re not alone, because everybody goes through it. And you feel like you’re standing still or you’re stuck, but you’re actually not, you’re actually moving forward. But this stage can last for quite a while for some people, and often it doesn’t end until you reach the third stage, which is the Stop. So the Stop is something that pulls you out of your routine. It could be something that you choose like, I quit my job or I retire.”

On Possible Selves 

“I just wrote a piece in The New York Times about this, about the idea of thinking about your possible selves. Now that’s a psychological term, but essentially what it means is to imagine what you might be, what you could be, and to go beyond the daydream to take some sort of action on possible selves. So that means if, let’s say I’m pivoting in a career, take a course or shadow someone, or do an informational interview. Don’t just like sit with it and cogitate. You’ve got to  get out of your own brain.”

On Expert Companions

“I’ll give you a second one. This one I love and it is called the Expert Companion. You want to find your expert companion and speak to that person. So an Expert Companion, I’m borrowing that phrase actually from trauma psychologists who I interviewed who work with trauma patients, survivors who actually experience what’s called post-traumatic growth. We all know about post-traumatic stress. This is people who actually can grow and find something positive in the wake of a disaster. And these psychologists say that the survivor needs to talk to someone who can help them rethink their narrative. I think we all need an Expert Companion – all of us. And that person is someone who has an objective view of you, who can reflect back to you what your real strengths and talents are. And if you think about it, we all have sort of innate talents that very often we don’t even recognize because they come to us so easily. Or if we do recognize them, we tend to kind of diminish them because it seems like everybody can do that. We don’t recognize how unique it is. So your Expert Companion can reflect back to you where your strengths are, what they see in you. And it very often could be surprising to you – or it can certainly help you focus on where you want to pivot to. And by the way, the Expert Companion can be a coach like you, it could be as well it could be a friend or a family member. But the key is that they’re helping you. They’re not actually telling you what to do, which is really important. They don’t tell you: go do this. What they say is, what I see in you is this. And that helps you in turn, make your own decisions about where you wanna pivot to.”

About Retirement Wisdom

Are you clear on what’s next for you?  Don’t put it off. Get started on designing  your future. Schedule a call to discuss how my one-on-one Designing Your New Life in Retirement, Tiny Habits and Mental Fitness coaching programs can help you defeat uncertainty, gain clarity and direction.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.