The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

The Ripple Effects of Giving Back

Giving back is admirable. But in the midst of a busy and successful career, it's can be easy to put off giving back to the community. Donating financially is impactful, especially now, but many people feel a tug that they want to do more. The freedom to retire offers opportunities to do just that. Our guest today, Barbara Greenspan Shaiman, encourages people to think about the impact on future generations. She urges people to get involved and to live your legacy now.

Barbara and I discuss:

What inspired her to become involved in social activism

Why she created a not-for-profit Champions of Caring

What drives her to do what she does

What it means to Live One’s Legacy

What she sees inspires people to give back in retirement

Why people put off living their legacy and what often gets in the way

Her advice for someone who wants to Live Their Legacy - Now

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Bio

A noted educator, businesswoman, and social entrepreneur, Barbara Shaiman has used her skills and ability to empower others to create social change. She began her career as a teacher, developing curriculum for at-risk youth, and later directed Eisenbud & Associates, an executive search firm that specialized in recruiting physicians and healthcare executives nationally. As a leader in this field, she presented frequently on human resources issues at conferences.

In 1995, she founded Champions of Caring, a non-profit organization that has empowered more than 10,000 youth in Philadelphia and South Africa to become leaders in service and active, engaged citizens.

The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Barbara’s mother was incarcerated in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and is the sole survivor of a family of 65 people. Her father worked for Oskar Schindler, on whose story Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List was based. This family legacy, coupled with her professional experience and work with Champions of Caring, has motivated Barbara to help others to live their legacies.

For 20 years, Barbara has created programs that have inspired and empowered youth with the skills to create service projects to address local and global issues and create cultures of caring within their schools and communities.

With her strong background in human resources, entrepreneurial spirit, and 30+ years speaking publicly, Barbara created Embrace Your Legacy to share her message and encourage youth and adults of all backgrounds, locally and internationally, to embrace and live their legacies.

Barbara often is called upon to share her message at community events, conferences, and workshops. Her audiences include corporations, financial advisors, universities, educators, faith-based communities, women’s groups, service organizations, trade associations, and professional groups.

Through speeches, workshops, and consulting, she shares her highly effective and replicable 10-step approach to provide participants with the necessary tools to create social change in an informed and creative way.

Barbara earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and education from Hunter College in New York City, and a master’s degree in education from North Adams State College in Massachusetts.

Barbara has served on the boards of numerous community organizations, including the Greater Philadelphia Consortium of Holocaust Educators, The Transition Network, Chemical People Project, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She founded the Philadelphia chapter of Life Planning Network and has served as board chair of the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and the ...

At some point, you'll become eligible for Medicare. And you'll be faced with a number of options. But how do you know which choices are the right ones for you? There are a number of misconceptions about how Medicare works, so it's important to do your homework.

Today we talk with Dan Petkevich about Medicare 101 and discuss:

What makes Medicare complicated

What people are most surprised by when they begin to look into Medicare

Common mistakes to avoid

How far in advance people should begin to look into Medicare

Options for people who work for a corporate employer, and will be eligible for Medicare, but have a spouse who’s younger than 65

Dan's advice for listeners who want to get their Medicare options right

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Bio

Dan Petkevich is the CEO of Fair Square Medicare, a company he started when he saw his own parents struggle to understand their health care insurance options when they turned 65. Prior to founding Fair Square Medicare, Dan founded Trim, a financial health company that’s generated over 40 million in cost savings for its customers. Previously, Daniel co-founded Octane Lending, a venture-backed financial technology company. He graduated from Yale with a degree in Physics.

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Wise Quotes

On Why Medicare Can Be Complicated

"I think it's why the system is the way it is, I would say, is probably this dynamic between public and private partnership. Where you have Medicare Parts A and B, which are provided directly from the government from Medicare - and Medicare is the payer there. And that' what a consumer needs to figure out when you enroll in Parts A and B what do they cover? And then there are all the supplement plans. So that's hard for the consumer because they need to choose one out of maybe 37 plans available to them. And when I say supplement, I mean that in the generic terms, meaning  Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans. But I think like there's complexity from that because all those plans are actually provided by private carriers. And so there's just like a lot of complexity derived from the interaction between the public part of Medicare, which is Parts A and B and the private part, which is a Medigap or a Medicare Advantage plan."

On a Common Mistake to Avoid

"Many people will sign up for a plan with a low sticker price. And then it turns out that plan doesn't cover their Doctors, which is obviously no good - or it's a PPO. And there's some Doctor you need to see and he or she is out of network, and now you have to pay an exorbitant price to see him or her."

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Related Retirement Podcast Episodes You May Like

Are You Ready For The New Retirement? – Stephen Chen

How Can You Be Better with Age? – Alan Castel

Are You Ready to Follow Your Own Path in Retirement? – Bob Lowry

The Mind-Body Connection and The Rabbit Effect – Kelli Harding

How to Build a Non-Profit Encore Career – Betsy Werley

The Joy of Movement - Kelly McGonigal

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Related Blog Posts 

Medicare 101

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About Retirement Wisdom

We help people who are retiring from their primary career – and aren’t done yet – discover what’s next. A long retirement is a terrible thing to waste. And a meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how we can help you make yours great.

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Retire smarter. Explore retirementwisdom.com

 

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The New Retirement is Here - and It Keeps Evolving

Planning for retirement is not the type of thing you set and forget. Retirement continues to evolve. And in times like these, you want to make sure that your retirement plan is current and up to speed for a changing landscape. Our guest, Stephen Chen, has his finger on the pulse of retirement today. His company, New Retirement, is an online retirement planning service, with one of the top-rated retirement planning calculators, along with other robust tools and advisory services.

Steve offers his perspective and opinions on:

The story of his company: New Retirement

How retiring is different today

The building blocks of a sound retirement plan

The expenses people aren't adequately accounting for - but should be

How the pandemic is changing retirement planning

How COVID-19 is affecting the FIRE Movement

What people should be aware of if they want to start a business

How people who've put it off can get started on preparing for their retirement

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Bio

Stephen Chen is the founder and CEO of NewRetirement, an online retirement planning service focused on helping people prepare for and make the most of their resources in retirement.

He focuses on product management and business development at NewRetirement.

His experience spans financial services, education, investing, and retirement planning across firms that include Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Embark, SEC Ventures, and Dimensional Fund Advisors.

Chen has worked in Fortune 500 firms and has also started venture-backed firms that have raised $40 million in capital. He is an honors graduate from Boston University with a bachelor of science in systems engineering.

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Wise Quotes

On The Importance of Planning

"First, it's just having a plan. Right. So getting organized and kind of seeing what's possible. For many folks, healthcare is the number one thing they're thinking about when they're looking at the transition to retirement. So, there are three parts. There's the healthcare you get while you're working, which people take for granted. Then there's usually a gap between when you're working and before Medicare. And then there's your plan for Medicare, but then there's thinking about your healthcare. There's thinking about your income, right? So how do you claim social security? How do you draw your assets tax efficiently? How do you manage risk in your portfolio and in your own situation? So there are different ways that you can hedge risk in your portfolio and there are ways you can use other resources".

On Purpose in Retirement

"We're definitely seeing people ask in our community for ideas on how to spend their time, if it's volunteering or if it's work or starting companies. Being thoughtful about purpose -  it's worth it to take some time and think about how you're going to spend your own time, where you want to see that invested in and what you want to see the result of that time."

On The Impact of COVID-19 on Retirement Planning

"I think another thing that's happened is like the people are getting a preview of what retirement could be if they are not too thoughtful about it. It's like Groundhog day, right? It's like the same day over and over - What are we doing today? We're going to go for a hike. What's for dinner? That's anybody watched the movie Groundhog day again. Doesn't look like a lot of fun. Let's be thoughtful about how we're going to spend our time.

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For More Information on Stephen Chen 

NewRetirement.com

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Related Podcast Episodes You May Like

What's a business owner's retirement plan? It's often based on the business itself. And to retire smarter, that means you need a sound exit strategy.

Don't Put Off Your Exit Strategy

An exit strategy is easy to put off. But it's a crucial component of retirement planning for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Putting it off can create unnecessary risk and uncertainty. In fact, a surprisingly high percentage of business owners do not know the valuation of their business. And that leads to the possibility that you won't be able to retire on your own terms when you're ready.

Our guest today is Ashley Micciche, QPFC®, CRPC®, who specializes in qualified retirement plans like 401(k)s, Profit Sharing Plans, and Cash Balance Plans. Ashley shares her wisdom on developing an exit strategy and what she sees with business owners planning for retirement.

We discuss with Ashley:

How she became involved with exit planning

What she thinks are the essential components of a good exit strategy

What gets in the way of having a sound exit strategy in place

How far in advance of retirement should business owners develop an exit strategy

The unique things business owners need to think about with retirement planning

What she hears from business owners these days on planning for retirement

Ashley joins us today from Portland, Oregon.

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Wise Quotes

"What I found was a lot of these business owners I have been working with and was working with at the time; a lot of them were close to retirement. A lot of them had pretty much everything tied up in their business. And when you're a business owner, the decision to retire is much more complicated because not only do you have to figure out what you're going to do about when you retire. [There's ]Social Security and do I have enough to retire? All those things. But then you have this big elephant in the room, which is the business."

"And so that led me down this path to focusing more on, 'Okay, how is your business a component of your retirement?' It's usually a pretty big component. And so I started talking with my business owner clients more and more about that. And then about eight years ago, one of my business owner clients died very suddenly of a heart attack. And he had done no planning or anything. And I watched from the sidelines as his business crumbled, his long-term employees were very quickly let go and laid off. The company was sold for pennies on the dollar to an East Coast competitor. We're on the West Coast here. And just everything that could have gone wrong after he died did go wrong. And it was very hard to watch. And I thought, I need to go deeper into this with clients; talking to them and helping them and carving out a plan for exit. And along with that, what happens to your business? How can we protect your business and protect your family, if things don't go as planned."

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Bio

Ashley Micciche specializes in qualified retirement plans like 401(k)s, Profit Sharing Plans, and Cash Balance Plans, and has earned both the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® and the Qualified Plan Financial Consultant® designations.

Ashley works with her business owner clients to help build and maintain successful retirement plans that recruit, reward, and retain good employees while controlling costs. Most importantly, her goal is to help maximize the number of employees who retire with adequate savings.

Ashley started her career as a financial advisor in 2007 after graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Finance from Portland State University.

When Ashley joined David as a financial advisor in 2007, she jumped in with both feet. “My dad threw me to the wolves,” she laughs,

Making a career change at 50 isn't something you should do on a whim. It takes planning and savvy networking to create the right encore career in the non-profit sector. Our guest on this podcast, Betsy Werley, of Encore.org, made such a transition to an encore career to the not-for-profit world herself after a successful business career. And she's helped many people make smart transitions to second careers.

We discuss with Betsy:

What led her to pursue an encore career in the non-profit sector

Why the missions of The Transition Network and Encore.org attracted her

What the transition was like coming from the corporate arena into the non-profit world

The benefits - and challenges  - of  second act careers

How volunteering helps pave the way

The biggest obstacle many people face in landing the right non-profit role

Her advice for people considering a move into a non-profit encore career

What resources people should tap into when considering a career in the non-profit sector

Betsy joins us from New York City.

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Bio

Betsy Werley is Encore.org’s Director, Network Expansion. She has dedicated this phase of her career to building the encore movement and making later life a time of opportunity and contribution.

Betsy moved to the nonprofit sector in 2005, as The Transition Network’s first Executive Director. She led that organization through a growth phase from one chapter to 12. Her encore transition was profiled in Marc Freedman’s The Big Shift and Kerry Hannon’s What’s Next?

 In her Transition Network role, she was a founding member of Coming of Age New York City and the Encore Network Steering Committee. Betsy joined Encore.org in 2013 as an Innovation Fellow, expanding connections between Encore.org and on-the-ground programs in the US and around the world.

Betsy spent the first 26 years of her career as a corporate lawyer and a business executive at JPMorgan Chase. She served as a long-time board member and President of the Financial Women’s Association, and in 2002, launched a mentoring program for Baruch College undergraduate women business majors.

In 2017 she received Baruch’s Community Partner Award for her leadership of that program. Betsy has also been honored as the 2019 recipient of the PSS Impact Award for Leadership in Positive Aging.  Betsy is frequently quoted by the media and invited to speak on issues related to older adults as assets in society.

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Wise Quotes

 

On Networking

"I think people should always be aware - and people should always think life is long and thee people around me now are people with whom I want to maintain a positive relationship with. And to know that at some point they would think of you if they are looking for something - and you would think of them. And sometimes, I think people don't realize how big a network they have already. So your dentist is in your network. Your doorman is in your network. That guy who sells you your car is in your network. So with that specific message of 'Here's what I'm looking for', those are all networks that you can tap. So I think one challenge for a lot of people is that they are shy about leveraging their networks and saying to people, just for the heck of it,'I hear something, I wonder if you have any advice for me. So really talking to people and learning how to leverage the networks that they actually have. It's pretty diverse."

 

On Volunteering

"You can certainly start out getting involved in volunteering in Board work while you are continuing to do your day job. In fact, I strongly recommend that to anyone I talk to as they're looking ahead at a ...

The best midlife transitions are not linear or predictable. You find your calling or life's mission in different ways. The paths are winding. Unexpected events serve as catalysts to redirect you in ways you could not have imagined earlier in life.

The story of Steve Javie's journey to find his life's mission is remarkable.  And while his particular path or religion may not be relevant to you, his lessons learned just might be helpful in your unique midlife transition.

Bio 

A highly regarded referee in the National Basketball Association for 25 years, Steve Javie officiated 1,514 regular-season games, 243 playoff games, and 23 NBA Finals games, from the 1986-87 season to the 2010-11 season. Highly respected for his game management skills, Javie was also a Crew Chief for 22 years. During his career, he was a board member of the National Basketball Referees Association and a key contract negotiator.

Steve retired from the NBA in 2011 - and in 2012 began a seven-year course of study --- in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to become a Deacon in the Catholic Church. He was ordained on June 8th, 2019, and serves as an ordained Deacon at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Newtown, Pennsylvania. In addition, Steve Javie works with ABC & ESPN as a basketball analyst where you’ll see him in the weeks ahead as the NBA season resumes.

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Wise Quotes

 

On Taking Time With Transitions

"The advice I would give somebody who is retiring is it takes some time, some quiet time. First of all, number one, since you've probably been working for a number of years, don't jump into something right away too quickly. Take that quiet time. Get that adjustment period to get to know your wife again, your family again, if you have any children at home. If not, maybe get to know that person who's put up with us all these years and are [also] working. And don't jump right into another phone call because your ego says, 'Hey, you know,  this company wants me or that company wants me to be a consultant or they're going to pay me this' I think we deserve it to just sit back and relax. And I think within six months to a year or whatever it may be, I think then you can say, you know what, I'm ready to maybe do something."

On The Importance of Mentors ... and Learning from Mistakes

"I really believe that having great mentors is what it takes to be a successful official. One of the reasons ...I learned this at an early age and I preached this a lot when I speak to younger officials at the high school level, you really have to be objective with yourself. You really have to be able to look at these game films...and be objective. "I missed this call" - it's the hardest thing in the world to do for humans. You really have to admit your mistakes to be able to do that. Because I think, once you make your mistake, then you find out the big question you always say, when you make a mistake, (when watching video) is, 'Why, why did I make that mistake? Why did I blow the whistle? Or why didn't I blow the whistle? And I think if you can get to that point of admitting your mistake, swallowing your pride and saying, Okay, why did I do this wrong? Well, how can I improve? Was my positioning this way? Did I guess, did I have an open look on the play? There are so many questions you have to ask yourself. As I tell every young referee, be objective, admit your mistakes...But I can just relate it to everyday life too. I think it's really kind of cool that we can, as human beings, at times admit our mistakes. And it makes things a lot easier."

On Faith

"I just tell everybody, just to challenge yourself, to go outside your comfort zone and go a littl...

Can seniors save the world through social activism in their life after retirement? Dr. Thelma Reese thinks so. And, she knows so, too. She's the co-author of the new book How Seniors Are Saving The World: Retirement Activism to the Rescue! with BJ Kittredge. While we often see examples of senior volunteering, this book highlights seniors who are activists in various ways on a range of issues.

Seniors Helping Others in Retirement

The book tells the stories of seniors from various walks of life, ages, and backgrounds who are doing just that. They are investing their time, energy, and passion into causes that matter— and they’re making a difference. Whether it's volunteering or activism that's a fit for you, you'll find these stories inspiring ways to get involved - in ways big and small.

We discuss:

Why she wrote this new book

What the diverse group of 24 seniors profiled in the book has in common

Some of the stories and causes detailed in the book of seniors changing the world

What she thinks we can learn from the pandemic

How her thinking has evolved during the pandemic on topics like ageism

Why intergenerational relationships are so important

The story of a new intergenerational course she's creating with a group at Temple University and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Philadelphia

Her advice for seniors who want to get engaged in saving the world

Dr. Reese joins us today from Center City Philadelphia.

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Bio

Thelma Reese, B.S., M.Ed., Ed.D., all from Temple University, began teaching third grade in 1954.  When her two daughters were in school, she began her graduate studies in Educational Psychology, was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship, and was active first in the field of Reading Psychology and Education.  She taught as an adjunct professor at Temple University and Arcadia University. When her children were grown, she became a professor of English and director of special programs at Community College of Philadelphia.

After early retirement at CCP, she created the Advisory Council for Hooked on Phonics and was its spokesperson in the '90's. In that role, and as director of the Mayor's Commission on Literacy for the City of Philadelphia, she appeared frequently on television and hosted a cable show in Philadelphia. She was a founder of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, chaired the Board of Children’s Literacy Initiative, and organized the World Symposium on Family Literacy at UNESCO in Paris in 1994.

She is co-author, with Barbara M. Fleisher, of The New Senior Woman: Reinventing the Years Beyond Mid-Life (Rowman & Littlefield).  Their second book, The New Senior Man:  Exploring New Horizons, New Opportunities was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2017.  Her latest book is How Seniors Are Saving the World:  Retirement Activists to the Rescue!, co-authored by BJ Kittredge, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2020.

Reese and Fleisher created the blog www.ElderChicks.com in 2012, which is ongoing since the passing of Dr. Fleisher in October of 2016.

She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Harvey Reese, who is an artist and the author of several books, including How to License Your Million Dollar Idea (John Wiley, publisher).

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Wise Quotes

 On Activism vs. 'Clicktivism'

"I think activism really is just doing something that goes beyond thinking about it. I love the word that I found somewhere clicktivism, where we just click on or like something on Facebook. It goes another step. In some ways, I think we just redefined activism tremendously with the pandemic. I think seniors just by staying in, have been activists - just by not making things more dangerous for themselves and others.

What Will Your Life in Retirement Be Like After a Highly Successful Career?

Some people can't wait to enjoy the freedom to retire. But for many of us, it's just the beginning of the next chapter. What is it like to change lanes and perhaps never retire?

Professor Meyer Feldberg is the author of No Finish Line: Lessons on Life and Career. He joins us for a conversation about the book, his reflections on different phases of his illustrious career - including his post-retirement career - and his advice on continuing to move on, contribute, and grow throughout life.

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Bio

Meyer Feldberg served as dean and professor at Columbia Business School for over 15 years. He received a BA from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, an MBA for Columbia Business School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town. In 1972 he was appointed dean of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. In 1979 he became director of executive education and associate dean at Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In 1981 he was appointed dean of Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business, and in 1986 returned to Columbia as professor of management and dean of the Business School. In 2003, he was named the Sanford C. Bernstein Professor of Leadership and Ethics and held the chair until 2007, when he became dean emeritus. In 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Professor Feldberg president of New York City Global Partners. Professor Feldberg is currently a senior advisor in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. He and his family have lived in eight cities on three continents.

 

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About the Book

Meyer Feldberg is a storyteller. The source of his stories is his rich and unique life, which took him from South Africa under apartheid to a C-Suite in present-day New York, from the hallowed halls of academia to the frenzy of global investment banking. As with all storytellers, there is a purpose embedded in each of his stories that is specific in its details but universal in its message.

No Finish Line is Meyer Feldberg as his friends and colleagues know him. It is the professor dispensing sage advice. It is the mentor telling a tale about himself that is really about you. In his telling, Feldberg’s story―his successes and his failures―is a lesson plan for how to lead a worthy personal and professional life.

This concise volume reminds the reader of the importance of courage and decency in our relationships. Feldberg shows how values such as self-awareness, personal responsibility, and generosity play out in ways that in retrospect become pivotal. He relates his regrets as well as his triumphs, candidly sharing how our failures to live up to our own expectations can continue to haunt us. Written by a leading fixture of New York’s educational, cultural, and business elite, No Finish Line is an engaging portrait of what matters most in living a good and successful life. - Columbia Business School Publishing

Order No Finish Line: Lessons on Life and Career by Meyer Feldberg

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Wise Quotes

On Mentoring

“It gave me an understanding that there are two kinds of mentoring, mentoring that is destructive and makes life awkward and difficult for you and mentoring that helps you grow - where you admire the individual that's working with you and assisting you and directing you.”

 

On Second Careers

“I don't use the phrase second act or second shot. You’ve got to feel the energy of wanting to move on and move up, move on and move up. And then one day, I assume you say, I'm done. I'm not done. But to me, it's not a second act or a third act or a fourth act.

Maybe you've achieved the freedom to retire or perhaps you're on your way and working from home. In either case, life has changed and will be different for some time. Under these circumstances, what are the best coping strategies for anxiety in uncertain times? And can spending time in nature help us? Can we do our own ecotherapy?

In this special podcast episode, two cooped up guys in New Jersey talk with two guests to get their advice.

Stay tuned for the final segment where we share our personal observations on the lockdown and moving forward.

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Coping Strategies

First up is Nick Wignall. He is a licensed psychologist at The Cognitive Behavioral Institute of Albuquerque where he does psychotherapy with adults of all ages. Board-certified in behavioral and cognitive psychology, he specializes in empirically-supported treatments for anxiety and insomnia, including interoceptive exposure therapy for panic attacks, exposure and response prevention (ERP) for phobias and OCD, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) for sleep difficulties.

Nick is the author of a recent book on therapy and mental health: Find Your Therapy: A Practical Guide to Finding Quality Therapy. It’s a nuts and bolts style guide to learning about the most important factors in choosing a therapist and how to go about finding a good one, either for yourself or someone you love.

Nick did his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, including research in human genetics and psychopharmacology. Prior to that, Nick earned his Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor's in English Literature from the University of Dallas.

Nick lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, his three young daughters, and German Shepherd, Charlie.

We ask Nick for his thoughts on:

How people can maintain their mental health in the pandemic

Coping strategies for anxiety in these times

How to best cope with isolation

How to get sleep patterns back on track

His advice if people need to seek professional help

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Wise Quotes

On Habits & Mental Health

"I really think habits are kind of the soul, the heart and soul of mental health."

 

Habits vs Coping Skills 

"And what I mean by that is coping skills are a bit like your emergency break in your car. They're nice to have, but you really don't want to rely on them. Instead, I think you want to work to cultivate habits that strengthen your mental health and keep you resilient even when things get tough. So, I think this is especially important - when it comes to something like our current situation with COVID- 19 and the lockdowns. Because a lot of us have lost a lot of our normal habits and routines, that whether we knew it or not, we're actually kind of buffering and strengthening our mental health."

 

On Building New Habits

"I think probably the most important thing people can do is to first start to think about what are the habits that support and strengthen my mental health. And then given the unique kind of challenges and constraints of our current situation, how can I get kind of creative about building new or sort of modified habits and routines that will support my mental health."

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For More on Nick Wignall

Nick's Website

Nick's book

Nick's Email: [email protected]

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Spending Time in Nature

Next up is Verla Fortier. With a Master's in Health Science, Verla Fortier is a former Director of Surgery at The...

Resiliency and perseverance are top of mind these days. Today's retirement podcast conversation is an inspiring story of overcoming adversity throughout life and creating a meaningful second act with a higher purpose. COVID-19 has many ripple effects. Forced to stay at home, many people are finding themselves doing more self-reflection about their true priorities. And others still are being forced to think about what's next earlier than they planned. What will you choose to do when your days of full-time work come to a close?

The story of our guest today will fuel your self-reflection. It's the story of an educator who "retired" and then re-fired.

Resiliency and Perseverance Lead to a Great Second Act

We discuss:

Her Amazing Girls Science Program

What inspired her to write her book I'm Not Done Yet...And You Shouldn't Be Either

Her journey to college, beginning with multiple rejections, and culminating in a Doctorate from Columbia University

How dealing with challenges creates greater strength

Why becoming an Empty Nester can be a catalyst

Why creativity and resiliency can be cultivated

How people can recognize a calling

Why some people believe that they can never achieve their dreams yet others do just that

Her advice for anyone who's retiring, but not done yet

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Bio

Dr. Cynthia Barnett is the author of I’m Not Done Yet … and You Shouldn’t Be Either

A research study by the American Association of University Women called “Why so few women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math” prompted Dr. Barnett to join the movement to empower girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) by seeking to ignite their interest and spark their enthusiasm while building core life skills of self-confidence, self-esteem, curiosity, problem-solving and risk-taking.

Dr. Barnett has become a STEAM champion and is passionate about bringing opportunities to young girls to blaze their own path in STEAM fields to get them ready to meet 21st Century challenges in the scientific and technological fields.

Saturday Academy was one of the programs featured on CBS  on their Martin Luther King “Fulfilling the Dream” program focusing on people in the community who give back. The Connecticut Technology Council has honored Dr. Barnett with its Community Innovation & Leadership Award.

Dr. Cynthia won the Inaugural AARP Purpose Prize for her work with igniting the SPARK in girls for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

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Wise Quotes

On Resiliency

"I made a decision that I was going to swim and I was not going to sink. And one of the things I learned from that difficult situation and that really bubbled up in me was my own problem-solving skills. I learned how to figure it out.  I had an inner strength in me that I didn't know existed. I learned how to be independent and how to be confident. And it was a very difficult time, but I made it through."

 

On Self-Reflection

"Sometimes it's difficult. It depends on the mind where one may be thinking they want to lead their life. It's a lot about reflection. And thinking, 'Well now it's time. It's time to do something else. It's time to give back. And it's time to really make a difference.'   

 

On Recognizing a Calling

"That inner calling, it just speaks to us and if people are really willing to think of where they're going next, where they want to spend the next 20 years - because research shows that we are going to live to another 20 or 30 years after we leave the regular workforce. As an example, I left my position as an assistant high school principal 17 years ago,