Episode 141

full
Published on:

8th May 2023

Starting a Business is Hard, Leaving it is Harder - with Julie Noonan

As baby boomers age and face retirement, many feel uncertain and afraid of becoming obsolete in the ever-changing workforce. In this fascinating discussion, expert coach Julie Noonan tackles the challenges of aging and ageism, offering wisdom and strategies for those seeking to find their next passion and purpose.

In this episode, you will be able to:

  • Embrace the challenges and rewards of navigating a mid-to-late career transition or retirement.
  • Skillfully manage the emotional and pragmatic elements of career transitions at any stage of life.
  • Engineer an inspiring and purposeful retirement plan that sparks excitement for the future.
  • Appreciate the importance of legacy, confronting ageism and remaining curious to stay relevant in today's competitive workforce.
  • Celebrate the unique talents and perspectives of older employees while nurturing sincere bonds within the workplace.

My special guest is Julie Noonan

Julie Noonan is a seasoned executive coach with a passion for helping mid to late-career professionals stay relevant and leave a powerful legacy. Drawing on her 30+ years of experience in organizational change and executive coaching, Julie has coached leaders across various industries as they face changes, including ageism and navigating evolving technology.

Championing authenticity, candor, and a touch of humor, Julie's insights will inspire professionals to embrace new opportunities and continue making meaningful contributions.

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Email me with questions or comments at wendy@heyboomer.biz

Email me to join the Boomer Banter

–

Wendy Green is a Certified Life Coach, working with people going through the sometimes uncomfortable life transition from full-time work to “what’s next.”

Find out more about Wendy’s 6-week “What’s Next Transition” Coaching workshop

–

You can find Julie at julie@jnoonanconsulting.com

or on her website at https://www.jnoonanconsulting.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcript

Wendy Green:

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And hello, welcome to Hey Boomer.

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The show for those of us who believe that we are never too old to set a new goal or dream

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a new dream. My name is Wendy Green and I am your host for Hey, Boomer.

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And today we're going to talk about the idea that building a business is hard, but leaving

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a business is harder.

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And I wanted to tell you a little bit about the business I had before I moved here to

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South Carolina, and the business was called KidzArt.

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It was a franchise and it was an amazing business for the kids.

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They loved it and we taught them to use art materials that in elementary school that they

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would never have seen until they got to high school.

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We taught them that there are no mistakes, that they can correct things that they think

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they did wrong.

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So it was a real confidence building program and the kids loved it and the parents loved

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it and the teachers loved it and I loved it.

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In fact, we even won Franchisee of the Year award in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 2009.

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The problem was.

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The business would not make a profit.

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I talked to my bankers, I talked to the accountants, I talked to the franchise.

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And just the pieces were not working together to turn a profit.

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And finally I decided I was going to have to sell the business.

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I had to sell it for a loss.

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It wasn't making a profit.

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And there was a huge sense of disappointment.

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Because I loved it and the kids loved it.

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And I was like, the KidzArt lady.

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So there was a loss of recognition.

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There was a loss of who am I now?

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What am I going to do?

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You know, I didn't want to have to go back into corporate, although I did for a while.

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And that is also when I got certified to be a life coach.

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So that I didn't have to stay in corporate.

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But but leaving a business behind that you you know, that you've put your heart and soul

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into is really hard.

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And so I started to talk to some other friends of mine who have been business owners

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to find out what their feelings were about leaving or selling their business.

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And my former boss, his biggest disappointment was when he had to sell his

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last business to a venture capital company.

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Because he said the decision the board made was about the money and not about the people

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and the culture we had built.

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So that was a real disappointment to him.

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But he also said as a small business owner, the relationships he built were important to

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him and so many of them he has managed to maintain over the years.

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Like, I still have a relationship with him.

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He still has relationships with many of the people, both professional and personal,

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because that was a big part of who he was when he built his business.

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I also have friends that thought they were going to leave their business.

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They were ready to retire.

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But then when the, you know, rubber hit the road, as they say, they were like, whoa, I

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don't know that I'm really, really ready.

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And so there was this pull back, Well, I'll just do this part of my business now.

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So I think all of those things are things that we can talk about with my guest this

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week, Julie Noonan, and I will bring her on shortly.

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But I just want to remind you of a couple of things.

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First of all, next Tuesday, May the 16th is the next boomer Banter.

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That will be our fifth Boomer Banter.

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And that is where we get together as a virtual community and we have fun and we

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share stories and we connect.

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Have a glass of wine together and and share and learn from each other.

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We've talked about things like fear versus bravery.

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We've talked about friendship.

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We've talked about humor.

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We've talked about celebration.

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This next Tuesday, we'll be talking about lifelong learning, but

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really more in the respect of what are we still learning about ourselves as we're

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aging? You know, are we learning new things about ourselves and new ideas and things that

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we want to try?

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If you'd like to sign up for the Banter, you can either go to the website, HeyBoomer.biz,

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or you can drop me an email and I will send you the link so that you can try it out

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before you decide if this is something you really want to commit to.

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So you can email me at Wendy@heyboomer.biz.

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I also want to remind you that the Hey Boomer podcast is brought to you with such

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love and compassion and energy, and it really does take a lot to get the great

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guests that we have and to put together the shows.

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To run the banter, to write the blogs, to put them all out, to podcast, all of that.

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So now you have a part in helping me grow this, and that is, I want you to share this

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episode with a friend that you think would love the show or and would benefit from the

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show. If you're listening live, you can just tag them in the comments and that will share

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to them right away if you are listening on a podcast.

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Please go in and review.

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Put a five star review would be great and then share it to your friends.

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So those of you on the call live now, please go do that.

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Now before you forget, share this tag.

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Somebody share it with a friend.

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Thank you so much.

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Let me bring Julie on and do a brief introduction.

Wendy Green:

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Hello, Julie.

Julie Noonan:

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Hi, Wendy. Thank you so much for having me.

Julie Noonan:

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I really am excited about this discussion we're going to have.

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I'm excited, too.

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And I'm excited also because Julie is also a coach and went through the same program I

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went through. So. Yes, I know.

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So. So Julie has spent most of her professional career leading executives and

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organizations through change initiatives.

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She has years of executive level experience and consulting in both public and private

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sector, as well as experience as a corporate employee.

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She has spent her career coaching leaders at all levels in many industries through many

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challenges, both professional and personal.

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Julie used the failures and successes of more than 30 years of change implementations,

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and from watching her clients struggle through COVID, deal with multigenerational

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values, clashes and be overwhelmed by technology to develop a coaching method she

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calls RIDE the Ride method helps mid and late career leaders who want to remain

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relevant in this ever changing business climate.

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Julie believes in unapologetic authenticity, candor, integrity and humor.

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She will tell you the truth, even if it stings.

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Ouch. That's what a good coach does.

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Well, welcome to the show, Julie, and we so appreciate the insights you're going to give

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us on this topic.

Julie Noonan:

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Thanks, Wendy.

Wendy Green:

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Before we get started, though, just give me a brief background of of your history and how

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you went from organizational change into coaching executives.

Julie Noonan:

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Excellent. Well, thank you.

Julie Noonan:

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Um, actually, I started out as an English major, which was is kind of an interesting,

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uh, interesting view of the world.

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What I figured out early on is why I loved English literature so much is because the

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stories that I loved so much is really just watching people deal with changes, deal with,

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you know, the plot twists in their lives.

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And when I got to corporate America, what I figured out was I really loved watching

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people do the same exact things in real life that they did in my stories.

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And I loved being able to help them through some of those changes and help them through

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the hard things that they had to go through.

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I loved watching the politics play out.

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I loved watching the interactions that they had with each other.

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I loved watching leaders both fail and succeed and helping helping them help their

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people. And so when I got on to some of these large change projects, I found myself

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as part of becoming change management certified, being expected to coach these

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sponsors of these big change projects.

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And they were very uncomfortable, you know, sponsoring these big changes that were going

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to be, in some cases very unpopular is not something that that a lot of people, you

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know, get get up in the morning and say, oh, let me go in and rock somebody's world.

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You know, let me go in and tell them they're going to have to do something different and

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they're not going to like it.

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Most people don't get up in the morning and really want to go do that.

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And so my job a lot of times was really not necessarily about the people that were being

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impacted as much as it was about coaching the people who who sometimes had not made

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that decision but had to stand behind that decision.

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And help their people.

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First help themselves and then help their people through those decisions.

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So the longer I did that, the more I figured I really enjoyed that part of it.

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Um, I enjoyed helping those leaders dig down deep into themselves and discover new

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things about themselves, discover new ways to look at themselves.

Julie Noonan:

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And that led then into the coaching and and becoming certified as an executive coach.

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So, so many of the people that are topics we're going to talk about today are focused

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on endings. Right.

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The ending of a career, whether it's through retirement or sales.

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And there's a lot of emotions that come out in that.

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In fact, you talked to me about emotional fallout.

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Would you say more about that?

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Well, anytime there's an ending, what I like to do is also look at it as a beginning.

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I think, you know.

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Our whole definition of retirement, particularly in the last 3 or 4 years with

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COVID and the increase in the speed of technology.

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Our whole definition of retirement has changed.

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Um, for numerous reasons.

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One reason is I don't know about your retirement accounts, but, you know, even last

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week when the banks, you know, here we go again, the banks crashed.

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Um, you know, I'm looking at my retirement account, and I don't know about you, but.

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Dang.

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Not where it was, is it?

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You know.

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I'm not looking forward to trying to live off of that and Social Security.

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But a lot of folks are not looking forward to a typical retirement either because they

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can't really afford it or they don't want to play golf 24 by seven or whatever the case

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may be. Or they're very much more interested in continuing to grow, continuing to learn to

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continuing to contribute.

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And we're living a lot longer than we did even 20, 30 years ago.

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People are just not done in their mid 60s anymore.

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They're just not.

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They have a lot more energy.

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They want to continue to to contribute.

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And so this this expectation ocean that you're ready to leave the workforce or you're

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ready to be quote unquote done right out to pasture, take your gold watch and and head

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out. That expectation is not there anymore.

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And so particularly if you have birthed a business, you know.

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Your your identity sometimes gets wrapped up in your career or in that business that

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you've birthed.

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And many times.

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You aren't really ready to let it go?

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Yeah, I think I think on some levels the expectation by society is still there.

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Right? You're 65.

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When are you retiring?

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Come on. Already. You know, retire.

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Right. Which I think hits a lot of owners hard and a lot of executives hard because

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they're like, but I'm not ready.

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I still have my best work to do or, you know, or I'm going to feel irrelevant.

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No one's going to need me anymore.

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I mean, how do you deal with that when society is saying, do it and you're saying, I

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don't want to do it?

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Well.

Julie Noonan:

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Yes, exactly.

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I'm finding when I'm talking with a lot of my clients, they're feeling they will never

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say this out loud.

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That's the number one thing.

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But they're feeling terrified of becoming obsolete because things are changing so

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fast. Um, the language has changed almost around them.

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And they have forgotten that they don't need to know everything.

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They have, you know, they see the Wall Street Journal articles coming out and all of

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a sudden they're not understanding the language.

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You know, the, the all of the new marketing metrics that are coming out, social media

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influencers, yada, yada, yada, yada, how to, how to engage with a particular demographic.

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They don't really understand that anymore.

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And even one of my clients actually said, you know, when I started 40 years ago

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I engineered my product.

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I touched my product.

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I was fully 100,000,000% in charge of the quality of my product.

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Now, I don't even see my product.

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Not only that.

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I can't look at the metrics of my sales and even know if I'm doing a good job because

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it's all sold on the Internet.

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Oh, it's all Sold with influencers.

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Who are these people?

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You know, My Successors are the ones that are gathered around the table looking at who

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should we who should we engage that will speak to this new demographic that we're

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selling to?

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He said, I don't know who these people are.

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I have I have my Rolodex and my, you know, my network that used to be the successors

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that I played golf with and that I met at the trade shows in person.

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Now, there's a whole a whole nother generation that they have never met, but they

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know. Who are, you know, the influencers on the Internet.

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So that is a whole Other Issue of how do you get the the senior leaders to

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learn how to play with the up and coming leaders.

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Yes. So that it's a win win all the way around.

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How do you do that?

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Well, one of the things that I do is sometimes I will set up one on one reverse

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mentoring situations where we actually start with let's talk about our our mutual values

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to start with.

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Because sometimes what I find is that generalizations get in the way, like the

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younger generations will generalize that the older generations are the older generations

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are stuck in their old ways of doing things that they can't change, that, you know,

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they're inflexible, that they'll never give up power.

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Okay. Some of that might be true, right?

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The older generation generations will turn around and say, well, the younger generations

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don't want to work.

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They're lazy.

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They don't value, you know, the hard work.

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They they won't give over and above.

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They won't quit.

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They whatever, whatever, whatever.

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Well, some of that might be true.

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Right. But the vast majority, if you if you actually do a Barrett values assessment and

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put have both of them take the same exact assessment, what you'll find is nine times

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out of ten, they have more in common at the baseline values level that they can build

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upon than they have separate that they have different than each other.

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What you'll find at the very bottom is they.

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Typically will have some values around quality of life, work life balance, some

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level of need for power and recognition.

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Who doesn't want that?

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That's a human need, some level of need for security.

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Some level of need for doing a good job.

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Et cetera.

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And you can build on that.

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And then you open it up to, Hey.

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Younger generation person.

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What what is it that you would like to do next in your career?

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Okay. Older generation person.

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What would you like to leave as your legacy?

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Because it's not going to be what you already built.

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It's going to be something better.

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It's going to be, What is your contribution to what this younger generation is building

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now? You already did your thing.

Julie Noonan:

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How are you going to contribute to what they're doing now?

Wendy Green:

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Because that's that's where it gets tough, though, Julie.

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The legacy because.

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You built it, right?

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You built it.

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You have your heart and soul in it, and they're changing it, right?

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And you're like, wait a minute.

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And then, you know, if you're if you're aware enough, you're looking around and

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going, yeah, well, you know, here are all the companies on the garbage heap.

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That didn't change.

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So. Exactly.

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Does have to change.

Wendy Green:

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But wow, it's so hard to see it changing before your eyes.

Julie Noonan:

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Well, you know Bottom line is, do you want to have a ghost town or do you want to have a

Julie Noonan:

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metropolis?

Wendy Green:

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Yeah, right.

Julie Noonan:

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So if you built it and you don't allow, don't allow the next generation to to move in and

Julie Noonan:

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continue to grow, you're going to wind up with a ghost town.

Wendy Green:

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Mhm. Or they're not going to speak to you and then you will be irrelevant.

Julie Noonan:

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Exactly. Exactly.

Wendy Green:

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Yeah. So how do you know when it's time to say, okay, I'm ready, my successor.

Wendy Green:

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I'm ready for you to move in or I'm ready to back off.

Wendy Green:

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How do you know?

Julie Noonan:

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I think every Single person that I could ask, every single one of my clients who have, you

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know, who have relinquished and moved on to their next thing and each one would tell you

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a different a different trigger.

Julie Noonan:

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If I Were to generalize across them, the number one thing that I would say is they had

Julie Noonan:

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something to go to.

Wendy Green:

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Oh, really?

Julie Noonan:

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Yes, they Had. They had found their next passion.

Julie Noonan:

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They had found their next purpose.

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They had found their next step.

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And that's one of the things that I work on with people when they come to me with this

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dilemma. There is there comes a time when there is a tug.

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There's a tug.

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Whether it's, um, I feel like that I want to walk away.

Julie Noonan:

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I'm tired or I feel like I'm ready for something new.

Julie Noonan:

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There's some sort of tug that's coming from within them.

Julie Noonan:

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Not that they're being forced.

Julie Noonan:

:

As soon as someone is being forced, then they're going to fight it no matter what.

Julie Noonan:

:

Right now, do I have clients That are being forced out?

Julie Noonan:

:

Yes. That's a whole different that's a whole different discussion.

Julie Noonan:

:

And I do have some of those.

Julie Noonan:

:

That's when I will step in and we'll discuss what is the next most right step for them.

Julie Noonan:

:

But it's a different discussion than the ones where people are making that choice

Julie Noonan:

:

themselves based on they're feeling the tug from within themselves.

Julie Noonan:

:

When they do feel the tug from within themselves, we explore.

Julie Noonan:

:

The sky's the limit.

Julie Noonan:

:

Let's just. Let's just blue sky it.

Julie Noonan:

:

Let's just talk about.

Julie Noonan:

:

If the sky was the limit.

Julie Noonan:

:

What do you want to do?

Julie Noonan:

:

A lot of people start out by saying, I have no idea.

Julie Noonan:

:

I can tell you what I don't want to do.

Julie Noonan:

:

So we start there.

Julie Noonan:

:

I had one client who said, I know what I don't want to do.

Julie Noonan:

:

I don't want to follow her around all the time, meaning his spouse, because she she has

Julie Noonan:

:

a lot of interests, a lot of hobbies.

Julie Noonan:

:

And he his worst nightmare and this is nothing about her, but his worst nightmare

Julie Noonan:

:

was having her eat up his his life.

Julie Noonan:

:

Right. And so he wanted to have something that was also his that she could participate

Julie Noonan:

:

in as opposed to him always Participating in her life.

Julie Noonan:

:

So, you know.

Julie Noonan:

:

Yeah. So they could share equally.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah. Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

I know when I'm coaching people that are moving into retirement, I take them through

Wendy Green:

:

this thing and in the middle is the neutral zone.

Wendy Green:

:

And that's kind of your blue sky.

Wendy Green:

:

Like, you know, like you don't really know.

Wendy Green:

:

It's. It's a time to be okay with not knowing.

Wendy Green:

:

Be okay in that discomfort.

Wendy Green:

:

Sure. Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

So you you play with that with your clients, too.

Julie Noonan:

:

Absolutely. And and the other thing, too, is exploring if they're feeling some sort of

Julie Noonan:

:

pressure, where is that coming from?

Julie Noonan:

:

Because sometimes just knowing where that pressure is coming from.

Julie Noonan:

:

Tells them a lot about themselves especially if it's coming from within themselves.

Julie Noonan:

:

If they are a lot of times, if they are a hard driving A-type personality and they have

Julie Noonan:

:

run their lives, you know, from the womb, everything has been scheduled and planned.

Julie Noonan:

:

And, you know.

Julie Noonan:

:

And they're not used to not knowing what the next step is.

Julie Noonan:

:

Giving them permission to not know.

Julie Noonan:

:

As you just mentioned, sometimes.

Julie Noonan:

:

That's the best thing that we can do.

Julie Noonan:

:

Allow them to be uncomfortable, as a matter of Fact, almost.

Julie Noonan:

:

Force them to be uncomfortable.

Wendy Green:

:

Something to that, I think.

Wendy Green:

:

Yes. And that's where they start to, you know, put their toe in the water and try

Wendy Green:

:

different things. And that water is too cold.

Wendy Green:

:

I don't like that. Right.

Julie Noonan:

:

Because growth requires.

Julie Noonan:

:

Discomfort.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah. So a lot of people, I think, also are afraid of retiring or closing a business

Wendy Green:

:

because of.

Wendy Green:

:

I'm too old.

Wendy Green:

:

I'm too old to do anything else.

Wendy Green:

:

And society is also saying you're too old.

Wendy Green:

:

You know, this whole ageism bias that's around.

Wendy Green:

:

So how do you address that?

Julie Noonan:

:

Boy, Um.

Julie Noonan:

:

I talk a lot about ageism because of my own personal situation I experienced.

Julie Noonan:

:

I've experienced it a lot.

Julie Noonan:

:

I was laid off at 55 and then again at 57.

Julie Noonan:

:

So I talk a lot about ageism and it is very real.

Julie Noonan:

:

Very, very real.

Julie Noonan:

:

The how I personally deal with ageism with folks is basically to say it.

Julie Noonan:

:

If you believe it, they will see it.

Julie Noonan:

:

If you believe it, they will see it.

Julie Noonan:

:

It's just like if you come across as timid, they will see timid.

Julie Noonan:

:

If you come across as weak, they will see weak.

Julie Noonan:

:

There is an excuse me.

Julie Noonan:

:

There is nothing that you can do.

Julie Noonan:

:

Personally to change someone else's ageism opinion.

Julie Noonan:

:

You can only control what what you put out there.

Julie Noonan:

:

To combat ageism in your own self.

Julie Noonan:

:

Continue to learn.

Julie Noonan:

:

Do not panic.

Julie Noonan:

:

Continue to remain agile and open.

Julie Noonan:

:

As soon as you close yourself off from learning, as soon as you close yourself off

Julie Noonan:

:

from new ideas.

Julie Noonan:

:

That is when I believe you live up to the stereotypes of ageism.

Julie Noonan:

:

Because as soon as you become the stereotype, you give them the ammunition that they need

Julie Noonan:

:

to, um to shoot with with.

Julie Noonan:

:

The ageism argument.

Julie Noonan:

:

I don't believe in ageism.

Julie Noonan:

:

As. A discriminatory factor.

Julie Noonan:

:

I think that organizations.

Julie Noonan:

:

Who overlook the value that people over 55 bring, particularly since there are

Julie Noonan:

:

not enough.

Julie Noonan:

:

In the population.

Julie Noonan:

:

Proven there are not.

Julie Noonan:

:

Enough in the population to make up for the numbers of people who have left and are

Julie Noonan:

:

continuing to leave the.

Julie Noonan:

:

The working force.

Julie Noonan:

:

Demographically, there are not enough people to take the number of jobs that we will have

Julie Noonan:

:

available over the next several years if they're not taking advantage of the wisdom of

Julie Noonan:

:

the experience that we bring.

Julie Noonan:

:

They're overlooking a boon.

Julie Noonan:

:

They're really a boon.

Julie Noonan:

:

Well, of.

Wendy Green:

:

Of Course, I of course I agree with that.

Wendy Green:

:

And I think that, you know, sometimes we see what we're looking for.

Wendy Green:

:

Right. So as to your point, if we're not looking to be treated as too old, although it

Wendy Green:

:

is out there and it is very real, I mean, like you, you are presenting yourself as a

Wendy Green:

:

consultant with you're not shying away from with 30 years of experience.

Wendy Green:

:

And so people are like, okay, so she's at least 60, you know?

Wendy Green:

:

Um, and are you finding pushback when you do that?

Julie Noonan:

:

When I was looking for a corporate job.

Julie Noonan:

:

Yes. When I started my own business and.

Julie Noonan:

:

was looking for consulting clients and coaching clients.

Julie Noonan:

:

No.

Wendy Green:

:

Isn't that interesting?

Wendy Green:

:

And what do you think is the difference?

Julie Noonan:

:

I think the difference wWas when I started going out On my own.

Julie Noonan:

:

My confidence was higher.

Julie Noonan:

:

I wasn't asking them for a job.

Julie Noonan:

:

I was. I was presenting myself as someone who could who had value.

Julie Noonan:

:

That could solve a problem for them.

Julie Noonan:

:

Yeah, it was totally in the presentation.

Wendy Green:

:

And it was in the way you felt about yourself.

Wendy Green:

:

You were the expert.

Wendy Green:

:

You had the confidence.

Wendy Green:

:

Yes. They didn't have to.

Julie Noonan:

:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Julie Noonan:

:

Another thing I think that, that, um that our generation could do is, and that corporations

Julie Noonan:

:

could consider is that, hey, you know.

Julie Noonan:

:

Maybe I don't want a full time job.

Julie Noonan:

:

You know, that's the other thing.

Julie Noonan:

:

Maybe, you know.

Julie Noonan:

:

I mean, I don't want to deal with the politics or maybe I don't want to go back

Julie Noonan:

:

into corporate America.

Julie Noonan:

:

I don't want to be an SVP or a president or a CEO.

Julie Noonan:

:

Been there, done that, for crying out loud.

Julie Noonan:

:

I don't want to have a staff of 8000 people or what.

Julie Noonan:

:

I've done all of that.

Julie Noonan:

:

But I want to have a hand in.

Julie Noonan:

:

I want to have a foot in.

Julie Noonan:

:

I want to continue to offer my expertise.

Julie Noonan:

:

Well, why can't I be an advisor within a company?

Speaker3:

:

Why can't I have a part time role?

Speaker3:

:

Why can't I do an advisory position, you know, 15, 20 hours a week?

Speaker3:

:

I don't have to have my own company for that.

Wendy Green:

:

These companies like an internal consultant.

Speaker3:

:

Sure, these companies could easily staff.

Julie Noonan:

:

What a game changer.

Julie Noonan:

:

You don't have to offer me benefits even.

Speaker3:

:

Right.

Julie Noonan:

:

So where are.

Speaker3:

:

You? You should know about this.

Julie Noonan:

:

And? And sure, you would.

Julie Noonan:

:

You would have to pay, you know, a definitely have to pay some some nice

Julie Noonan:

:

incentive. But the value that you would get would be phenomenal.

Julie Noonan:

:

You don't have to onboard these people like you would, you know, a less experienced

Julie Noonan:

:

person before you would get value out of these guys and gals.

Wendy Green:

:

And and Anne just reiterated the point that we made in the comments here.

Wendy Green:

:

She says the consultant is valued for their experience and wisdom, whereas an employee

Wendy Green:

:

they, you know, they feel like they have to fit in, they have to make them on board, they

Wendy Green:

:

have to give them the benefits.

Wendy Green:

:

And, and then, you know, a consultant is a short term project driven thing, right?

Wendy Green:

:

And and I've heard a lot of people say, well, you know, if we hire somebody who's 65,

Wendy Green:

:

they're going to leave in a few years anyway.

Wendy Green:

:

Well, so what?

Wendy Green:

:

Right. You get you get the benefit of the time that they're there.

Wendy Green:

:

Plus, if you look at the trends in the Gen Z and Gen X, they leave after a few years also.

Julie Noonan:

:

Right? Guess what?

Julie Noonan:

:

Guess we're thinking we're we're thinking about retention entirely we are so old model

Julie Noonan:

:

with retention these days.

Julie Noonan:

:

What we should be doing is saying, okay.

Julie Noonan:

:

How can we reduce, reduce the cCost of bringing On board finding And onboarding

Julie Noonan:

:

people. We should be looking at how do we reduce that?

Julie Noonan:

:

Not, you know.

Julie Noonan:

:

So what if it's a fact that people are going to come in and spend 3 to 5 years with us?

Wendy Green:

:

It's the way it is now.

Wendy Green:

:

That's right. And they don't have pensions, so there's no incentive for them to stay for

Wendy Green:

:

30 years like we used to do.

Julie Noonan:

:

What we should be. What we should really and truly should be focused on is how do we get

Julie Noonan:

:

the bBest out of the workforce that we have in those 3 to 5 years.

Julie Noonan:

:

And the ones that that we absolutely have absolutely got to keep?

Julie Noonan:

:

What do we do to keep them there?

Julie Noonan:

:

What do we do to keep them growing?

Julie Noonan:

:

Quit spreading stuff around like peanut butter.

Julie Noonan:

:

Let's truly identify those ones that we really, really, really want to have and keep

Julie Noonan:

:

them. You know?

Julie Noonan:

:

Yeah, Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

I can hear your passion.

Wendy Green:

:

Wow. I mean.

Julie Noonan:

:

I'm a radical HR person from way back.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah, but your passion is great.

Wendy Green:

:

And you started this whole conversation by telling me, you know, that you love working

Wendy Green:

:

with the leaders and you love the politics and you love that.

Wendy Green:

:

And I'm like, You love the politics.

Julie Noonan:

:

So I love Turning things upside down.

Julie Noonan:

:

I love I'm a red team thinker.

Julie Noonan:

:

I'm a I am a I like to challenge the status quo.

Julie Noonan:

:

I like to. And it's not because I like to be contrarian.

Julie Noonan:

:

I don't like to start fights.

Julie Noonan:

:

But I do like to say, hey, have we turned that upside down and considered it considered

Julie Noonan:

:

it a different way?

Julie Noonan:

:

What is the absolute, very worst thing that could happen now?

Julie Noonan:

:

Let's back up from that.

Julie Noonan:

:

Did anybody die?

Julie Noonan:

:

No, don't ask that in health care.

Julie Noonan:

:

But, you know, did anybody die?

Julie Noonan:

:

Okay. If not, let's back Up from that.

Julie Noonan:

:

Let's back up from that.

Julie Noonan:

:

And it's amazing what people.

Julie Noonan:

:

Can come up with.

Julie Noonan:

:

And we just need to. We need to trust.

Julie Noonan:

:

We need to trust every.

Julie Noonan:

:

Generation and.

Julie Noonan:

:

Every. Perspective.

Julie Noonan:

:

That if we listen to all of them, the best ones will come up.

Julie Noonan:

:

They will. And and if we put them all together.

Julie Noonan:

:

The blended.

Julie Noonan:

:

The blended solution is usually the best one.

Julie Noonan:

:

Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

And it's and it's the most fun.

Wendy Green:

:

At the end of the day, it's the most fun because now everybody is excited about it.

Julie Noonan:

:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Julie Noonan:

:

And it makes change management so much easier.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah, I did that once too.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah. Oh man, no, we had some similar paths.

Wendy Green:

:

So tell me, um, 2 or 3 takeaways that you would leave with people that are either

Wendy Green:

:

getting ready to retire from a long career or that are looking to move out of a business

Wendy Green:

:

that they built.

Wendy Green:

:

What are 2 or 3 things that they need to start thinking about now?

Speaker3:

:

Number one. Get curious.

Speaker3:

:

Just get curious.

Speaker3:

:

This world is so big and there are so many things to learn.

Speaker3:

:

And and experience.

Speaker3:

:

If you think that your business is all there is.

Speaker3:

:

Think about how much else there is in the world.

Speaker3:

:

And the more you learn, the More you can turn around and add to your business that You can

Speaker3:

:

turn around and make a whole new business.

Julie Noonan:

:

Nobody says just because you birthed one business doesn't mean you can't birth another

Julie Noonan:

:

one.

Wendy Green:

:

Oh, true. I've seen lots of people do that.

Speaker3:

:

It's not like you're a Woman.

Speaker3:

:

That, you know, you go through the thing and you can't have another baby.

Julie Noonan:

:

You can have as many companies as you have the energy to build, particularly in this day

Julie Noonan:

:

and age. With the Internet your business creation capability is unlimited.

Julie Noonan:

:

So if that's something that you want to do, stay open to it, get curious about it,

Julie Noonan:

:

partner with a New You know, a new generation.

Julie Noonan:

:

And teach them business while they teach you the new You know, Internet and the new way to

Julie Noonan:

:

reach out to new demographics and social media.

Julie Noonan:

:

And Artificial Intelligence.

Julie Noonan:

:

So stay curious.

Julie Noonan:

:

Yeah, that's a big one.

Julie Noonan:

:

Look for.

Julie Noonan:

:

Look for things that you don't understand and find somebody that can explain them to you.

Julie Noonan:

:

And just.

Julie Noonan:

:

See what comes up.

Julie Noonan:

:

That that you can get fun and excited about See what you can get excited about.

Speaker3:

:

Absolutely.

Julie Noonan:

:

Well, then go to the banter.

Julie Noonan:

:

You might hear something you like.

Wendy Green:

:

That's right.

Wendy Green:

:

Join the boomer banter.

Wendy Green:

:

Especially next week.

Julie Noonan:

:

You're doing what? Lifelong learning.

Julie Noonan:

:

There you go.

Wendy Green:

:

I know it's the perfect one to go to.

Wendy Green:

:

Exactly..

Julie Noonan:

:

Of there are tons of opportunities right now to get involved in groups like like, Hey,

Julie Noonan:

:

Boomer, that where you can meet people all over the world.

Julie Noonan:

:

And these are relationships that we in the past would never have had the opportunity to

Julie Noonan:

:

have.So take advantage.

Julie Noonan:

:

Take advantage of those.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah. Relationships, networking, whether we're networking online or not.

Wendy Green:

:

Right. Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

Julie Yeah.

Wendy Green:

:

Thank you. Thank you.

Wendy Green:

:

Thank you. This has been such a fun conversation.

Wendy Green:

:

I'm sorry we have to end.

Julie Noonan:

:

I know I can go on.

Wendy Green:

:

So if you want to reach out to Julie, you can email her at Julie@JNoonan

Wendy Green:

:

consulting.com. Or you can check out her website which is

Wendy Green:

:

JNoonanconsulting.com. And you can learn more about the kinds of things that she does.

Wendy Green:

:

We didn't even talk about RIDE what that was.

Julie Noonan:

:

Oh that's Okay.

Wendy Green:

:

We can do that another time.

Julie Noonan:

:

Sounds good.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah, But thank you so much for for being with us today.

Julie Noonan:

:

Thank you, Wendy. And thanks for thanks for the boomer community.

Julie Noonan:

:

I really appreciate it.

Wendy Green:

:

Yeah, well, it's fun.

Wendy Green:

:

We have fun. We do have fun.

Wendy Green:

:

And and if you want to join the boomer banter, as Julie suggested, you just drop me

Wendy Green:

:

an email, go to Wendy at Hey, Boomer Biz and I will add you to the Zoom link and you can

Wendy Green:

:

pop in and talk about lifelong learning with us.

Wendy Green:

:

So that would be fun.

Wendy Green:

:

Um, okay. And share.

Wendy Green:

:

Share this episode.

Wendy Green:

:

Share it. Share it. Share it.

Wendy Green:

:

So next week my guest is Dr.

Wendy Green:

:

Ellen Albertson, and she calls herself The Midlife Whisperer.

Wendy Green:

:

And I know she has a podcast called Rock Your Midlife.

Wendy Green:

:

So Dr.

Wendy Green:

:

Ellen is a psychologist, a registered dietitian, a board certified health and

Wendy Green:

:

wellness coach, a podcaster, a Reiki master and a self-compassion teacher.

Wendy Green:

:

And we are going to talk about self-compassion as your superpower.

Wendy Green:

:

So which is something that we probably all could be better at.

Wendy Green:

:

So I'd like to leave you with the belief to live with curiosity, as Julie said, live with

Wendy Green:

:

relevance and live with courage.

Wendy Green:

:

And remember that we are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.

Wendy Green:

:

My name is Wendy Green, and this is Ben.

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About the Podcast

Hey, Boomer
Real Talk about Aging Well
Hey, Boomer! goes beyond the surface, exploring the complexities of family relationships, maintaining health, navigating caregiving, coping with divorce or widowhood, financial concerns, housing and technology. It's the podcast that acknowledges the challenges and opportunities that come with aging, with a compassionate and realistic approach.

Join fellow Baby Boomers every week for insightful interviews and genuine discussions on the topics that matter most to help prepare us to age well.

Hosted by Wendy Green, her conversational style ensures every episode feels like a heartfelt chat between friends. Her guests range from experts to everyday individuals, bringing their wisdom and experiences to the table, creating an atmosphere of trust, understanding, and genuine connection.

About your host

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Wendy Green