What I am thinking about - Labor Day edition

and welcome to the Hey Boomer Show. I'm happy Labor Day.

Today, as you all know, is Labor Day. And there's a lot of interesting history around Labor Day. some of you probably know some of it, but, It's a day that we can recognize the workers. You know, the folks that now are keeping our grocery stores running and laying down roads and building houses and putting roofs on houses. And most of us in our working lives worked like a 9 to 5 type of a job. but it used to be terrible. Terrible working conditions for people during the early part of the industrial revolution, and that is part of what Labor Day was started for to recognize the work and to democratize, let's say, the work of the workers. So, be sure to take a moment today. If you see somebody out working on Labor Day, thank them for what they are doing. So I wanted to talk to you today because it feels like forever, since we had a chance to talk. And, you know, it's like with anything, like with friends, friendship, we just wanna take some time to visit with our friends. And when it's been so long, to, since we last talked, I feel like there's so much that has happened and so much that I wanna share with you. So thank you all. for being my friends, for being part of the hateboomer community, and for letting me come into your life today and just share a little bit about what has been going on. So, obviously, I wanna talk to you about what I learned at podcast Movement Convention I wanna talk to you about the listener survey and some of the responses that I got from there. I wanna share just a little bit about Aspen and the beauty of Aspen. And I wanna talk a little bit about gun violence because, man, we have had a lot of that over the past weeks or so. So that's sort of my agenda. I have made some notes. It's it probably will be a little bit freewheeling today, but I did make some notes so that I don't, you know, just rattle on forever. But if you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you, those of you who are listening live, please put them in the chat, and let's just chat. So podcast movement convention, I learned that it is the largest podcast convention in the United States, and I think they said in the world, but I'm not gonna swear to that, so I will say at least in the United States, there were thousands of people there. And when I left Greenville at 3 o'clock in the morning, a week. It was just a week ago, Monday. 2 weeks ago, Monday. It it was just a it was a long flight. I went from here to Atlanta to Denver, very close connection in Atlanta, so my bag did not make the connection. I got to the airport and they said it would be on the next flight. And I thought, what the heck? I'm just gonna wait for it. it was only another 30 minutes, and I was tired. It was like, reasonable to wait for it. So the bag came and then found my way to the train that then took us to where the shuttle for the hotel would pick us up. And by the time I got to the hotel, First of all, I was exhausted, but second of all, there were thousands of people milling around, and this hotel was enormous. and kind of in the middle of nowhere, you were you were pretty much trapped in the hotel. There was no, you know, chilies or applebee's or anything close by that you could walk to to get a meal outside of the hotel. You were in the hotel. Anyway, I got up to my room and I said, okay. I'm just gonna lie down for a little while. I really don't wanna go down and face this crowd. I was feeling nervous.

I was my mind was going around and around going Wendy. You're crazy to be here. You're gonna be the oldest one here. You're not gonna find anybody to relate to. This is gonna be an expensive boondoggle. Why did you come in? My mind was really doing a number on me.

So I laid down and took a little rest and then, decided Okay. I I mean, I'm here. I gotta go check this out. So I took a shower so that I would feel a little more refreshed, took a big breath, kicked myself in a button said, get out of your room. Go downstairs. So I'm I'm you this story because I think a

lot of people look at me and go, oh, Wendy, she's so brave. You know, she she just, like, moves forward. No.

Sometimes I have to kick myself in the ass to move forward. I get scared of things too. So I did go downstairs. And I went to the convention floor where they were busy setting up all the vendor booths, and they were a couple walking around there.

She was maybe 5 feet tall, and he was probably six foot

something. and we just chatted a little bit. She introduced herself. Her name was Lisa, and then she introduced him as her husband. His name was Beowulf.

Yes. Beowulf. and

they were podcast producers. They did editing and, you know, helped people put together their shows.

So I was like, okay. Well, there you go. I've met somebody now. And

and I had time to kill. But I had done something brave that also had me shaking in my boots, and that was that I had set up An unofficial meetup for people over

55

who are podcasters, and we were going to meet by this coffee shop. and I put it out, you know, on their big on their big website of all the things that were going on. And Golly?

The self talk was kicking in again, going, why did you do this? You're gonna be the only one sitting there. Nobody's gonna show up. So

I was wrong. We had about ten people who were over 55 podcasters show up and sat in this big circle and we all were, like, just so thrilled to meet each other and to talk about what we were doing as podcasters and to to know that there were others like us out there and not only were we so happy to meet, but Somebody else in the group decided to set up another meetup for the next day, and we have now all decided that we are going to have a group that meets monthly to, hold each other accountable and to learn from each other and to help promote each other's shows because we are all covering a whole lot of different stuff. So so for instance, some of the people that I met and some of the shows they have I met a man named Hoyt Presock, and Hoyt has a show called Behind the Swipe. there's bumble, I think it is for dating, and you swipe left or you swipe right. And So Hoyt's show is to talk about dating again in your 40s, fifties, sixties, and beyond. I met Denise Gleewa, and Denise has a show called bite your tongue, and that is about adult and adult children and parent relationships and and some of the strategies for making those as smooth as possible as some of the pitfalls that we all step into at times because we love our kids, but sometimes We say the wrong thing because their reality is very different than what our reality was when we were being young parents. I met somebody else named HEika Yates. HEika is from Germany and her podcast is called pursue your spark, and she specializes in is sorry. She specializes in helping women over 50 Ignite their spark to get active, eat better, and have more energy daily. There were a couple of people there as cohosts, One of them was Jill McCoslyn and Chris Brown, and they have a show called Fit Strong Women Over Fifty. And I'm actually gonna be on their show, in a few weeks. And, Jill and Chris met through work when both of them had turned 50 and said, you know what? I need to start getting into shape. And so they've been doing their podcast for quite a while now. I don't remember exactly how long, but they talk a lot about exercising and eating, right, and you know, the positive mindset and the the benefits of of living a healthy lifestyle. There was Betsy Weersma. Betsy has a podcast called Underwired with 3 other cohosts and their description says join Lindsey, Sunny, Betsy, and Shea as they share personal life moments that uplift and support women all over the world. Yes. Underwired as in your under wire bra. They are a fun group of people. another co cohosts were Becky and Bill, and they have a show called catching up to 5. And that is for people who reach 50 and they said, like, oh, oh, darn or maybe more than that. because they suddenly realized I haven't saved enough to retire. And what am I gonna do now? And so Becky and Bill Address that. They have a very large Facebook group too that has helped them grow their podcast. just two more. There's one called the Dwonderful Real Estate podcast, and it's called Dwonderful because the host is Dwan Benttwiford, and she talks about real estate investing with kind of a funny twist. And then the last one is a woman named Therese. She also has 2 other co hosts. Her show is called boomer meets world and they talk about well, the the co host let's see. Therese is the boomer and the then there's a millennial and there's a gen z, and they talk about the difference is in the different generations and the different outlook and try to build bridges of communication. So as you can see, we all talk about lots of different things, and it was just so exciting to meet other people in this space as well as not just podcasters, but researchers and audio companies and podcast editors and people that promote, there was a lot of people that, you know, looked like us, looked like us boomers, there at podcast movements, so that felt good. I also learned that YouTube surprisingly is now the leading place people go to listen to podcasts. So some people still just put audio out there. And and I don't know if you know this, but YouTube just recently started their podcast channel, like, within this year, and it now exceeds Apple and Spotify for the number of podcast listeners and watchers. So it tells me that people like the audio. So we have been Hey Boomer has been streaming to YouTube for gosh, 2 or 3 years now. but it's just been going to YouTube and only recently did I identify our our streams our recordings there as podcasts as well, although there is more to learn about how to make them stand out as podcasts. So that is one of my takeaways to learn from podcast movement.

I also learned that There was a

big analysis done of people who listened to podcasts and no surprise that it's it leans younger. Right? So the eighteen to thirty five forty year old group of people are the largest group of podcast listeners. and and they listen when they walk and they listen in their car and they listen when they do dishes and they listen, you know, when they're cleaning house, they they have it on a lot. for the over 55 group of people, the research found that only 13% of people over 55 listen to podcasts. So at first, you know, I'm like, oh, that's a really low number. but then

I went and looked at the

census, and the census reports on people 65 and over. They don't group us as 55 and over, but there were

55,800,000

people, 65 and older. And so if you take 13 percent of

55,800,000,

you get

7,200,000 people who could be listening to podcasts. So that's a pretty big number. So I -- with

What else did I learn? I learned that Giving posting on social media, and this one kinda shook me up a little bit.

It says posting on social media is not going to grow your show quickly. It will help. It will help it grow because, of course, the more It's like with any kind of advertising. Right? The more people see you, the more it becomes familiar, the more they start to trust you, and and it grows that way. but it it's not the first way. The first way and the best way from all the experts that were there is through referrals. So if you like what you're hearing on the show and you tell your friends about it and encourage them to sign up, That is the first way to grow a podcast. And, you know, it's it's not so much because I need to grow it for, you know, my personal ego feelings or anything. It's because I feel like what we are talking about on Hey Boomer is so useful and so relevant to so many people. I mean, there was an article this week by David Brooks. I don't know if y'all saw it about how much difficulty people are having moving into this next stage of life so much so that schools like Harvard Stanford And Notre Dame are offering year long programs. to help people move into this next stage. I was a speaker at the University of Colorado at Denver, They have a 14 week program called change makers to help people move into this next stage. I would really like to put something like that together. here in Greenville. We have several universities here. If anybody wants to help me with that, I think it is so useful. and so important to help people have that healthy transition into what's next. So the number one is referral. So tell your friends. The number 2 is guesting on other podcasts, and that is something that I have done. We'll be doing more of. That will be part of the strategy going forward and, of course, co promoting each other's shows. So, you know, as I'm on other people's shows or if something that we're talking about on our show that relates to another show, certainly giving them a shout out is a good thing. And then finally, listener reviews and comments on Apple and Spotify. On Spotify, you can do a review, like, a a rating. You can do 5 star rating. But on Apple, you can also put a pod, a comment And I was checking this morning, and there was this lovely comment from Chris Brown. And she says, thanks for the inspiration and fun. keep these episodes coming. I'm going to keep remembering that we're never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. Thanks, Wendy. and I say, thank you, Chris. So if you have a chance, go out to Apple or Spotify and give me a rating and leave a comment. I always love to see your comments. But now I wanna talk to you about the listener survey. And, hopefully, you all took part in that. It really was amazing. I posted it a few weeks ago to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. And as part of the post, I offered a $50 Amazon gift card to one person. I was gonna draw one name. And I I signed up for this, app called type form, figuring, you know, a 100. I'd get a

100.

And then I woke up morning or 2 after I posted it, and there were, like, a series of emails you're about to reach your limit. Oh, we're upping your limit. and then, oh, you're about to meet your limit. We're up in your limit. We got

615

responses to that survey. amazing. And not everybody included their email address, but I was able to add close to 600 email addresses to the mailing list. Another amazing thing. Now, Some of the submissions were bogus, and that's okay. You know, people were just submitting to, I don't know why. They just wanted to submit. because with a bad email address, they weren't gonna get a Amazon gift card anyway. But as far as I can tell,

A little over 300

of the responses were useful comments from people who had seen or heard Hey Boomer. So that's a lot of comments to go through. I'm very excited about it and I can give you some high level results because there's gonna be a lot of work digging through all of that. But high level results when we asked How did you hear about the show? 29% said they heard about it on social media. Well, we just said that's not the number one way, but that seem to be the number one way here. 22% said they found it through a podcast app. Like, if you go on Apple and you start searching for Boomer, and it would come up, or they found the YouTube channel. 15% said they found it as a recommendation from a friend or a colleague. So that's a nice number. When I asked what topics they would like to see more in-depth discussions about. And I'm curious if you agree with these topics, they listed things like We want you to talk more about or have guests on to talk about environmental issues, to talk about technology, AI, and cybersecurity. a lot of interest in cultural diversity and intercultural communication. There was interest in family relationships, health and lifestyle, and intergenerational communication and social justice concerns. Those were the top categories that I saw that people were interested in talking about. Of the respondents,

53%

female and 44% were male. And when I asked what platform do you spend the most time on?

39%

are on Facebook,

27%

on LinkedIn, 25% on YouTube, and only 8 a half percent on Instagram. So I will probably stop worrying about Instagram so much. and really focus on Facebook and LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn has a big market for people that are soon to be retired or that have recently retired, but are still, you know, it's a networking platform. So it's still a way to stay connected. if you're looking for say a side gig or you're looking for volunteer opportunities or you're looking for ways to consult with other people. So LinkedIn is still a very viable platform. And, of course, as we know, more Boomers are on Facebook, and that is still my number one platform that I will be posting on, and we have our we have our, hey, Boomer. What's next private group on Facebook, which I also will be working on growing and putting more relevant content on that. So that some of the takeaways from the listener survey Aspen. Okay. So, I mean, you know, this this week has been or this month has been crazy with all of the travel this summer. And so after the podcast Movement convention, I decided to go to Aspen for a couple of days to visit my cousin. And I decided to take the train. I have never taken a train ride before, and it was glorious.

I mean, comfortable seats,

easy on and off, fabulous scenery. Besides the the seats that we had in the regular train car. There's also another car with great big plate glass windows that you just watch the scenery go by and there's, like, a little snack bar there. I didn't go to the dining room, but they also have a dining room. It was glorious. I didn't take it back because one of the challenges with trains is that things happen on the track. And so there was some kind of freight train that got in the way when my train was already all the way in California, and it would have been 4 hours late getting me back to Denver, which would have meant a problem catching my flight. So I didn't take the train back, but It I took it there. In Aspen, if you've never been to that part of Western Colorado, I encourage you to go, to Aspen and, that is what else is out there. I'm trying to think than other names there. I went to the, John Denver Memorial Park. It's it's just everything is gorgeous. and the Aspen trees, the white bark, the little silvery leaves, the way they ripple in the wind. Oh my gosh. It was fantastic and it was a wonderful way to relax. And when I came back, Feeling like I had been all relaxed. I got off the plane, and there was 8 texts on my phone when I landed in Atlanta, and they were texts from my son and daughter about the active shooter at Chapel Hill, where my oldest granddaughter, his freshman, and had been there for

6 days, 2 weeks, maybe.

and she was she was sheltered in place in the library. Unfortunately, she was with a lot of other kids, but I texted him immediately, of course, and my blood pressure went, oh, I was no longer this nice Aspen relaxed person. I just I was like, oh my god. How can this be happening? And I texted Gracen and and she was Okay. And she was with other people, but she still was feeling like they're not giving us information. We don't know what's going on. They were They were sheltered in place for over 3 hours. I think it was probably harder on my daughter. because, you know, she couldn't do anything. She was helpless. But, Grayson, I was so proud of her when she went back to her dorm, and she and her suitemates were all kind of processing what had happened and they saw a text from the young Democrats on campus that said we need responsible gun laws, and she shared that text out. that Instagram posts, that Facebook, whatever it was. And I thought That was such an empowering thing that she could do instead of just feeling afraid. but to feel like, you know, there's still something that can be done. We can work to get responsible gun laws. And and that helped them so much break down the fear but this happened in the same week that that shooting in Jacksonville happened. And Almost daily on my phone. I get text and requests from Sandy Hook Promise, which are heartbreaking. to read and many times I have to admit. I don't read them because they are so heartbreaking. And it's not that I'm opposed to all guns. You know, my my husband was a hunter. He had guns. He had, bows and arrows. and he hunted deer. He hunted turkey. he wanted to hunt elk. He never Got to that. But even he would say, you don't need an AR 15 to shoot a deer or a hurricane or turkey. or even a large game animal. So I don't wanna spend a lot of time on this because There are so many people that are so much more knowledgeable about gun violence and What what can be done? But I wanna encourage you all to do what you can to have your voices heard. for responsible gun reforms. We do not necessarily need to take away all guns. people use guns for sport, but to take away the the machine guns, the AR15s,

nobody needs them unless you're in

the military, in my opinion. And I think in the opinion of many people listening to this show, so write to your congressman, you know, write to a group that you support and let them know that you support responsible gun laws. However, I used to be the director of training at a travel risk management company, and in that role, I would bring trainers in to teach people, our our clients, our travelers, what to do in a kidnap situation because we would send people to not we the companies we work for would send people to dangerous locations. And they also taught about what to do if you find yourself in an active shooter situation. So I truly wish this were not a discussion we were having, but Knowledge is better than ignorance. And so if you ever find yourself in an active shooter situation, This is what you are supposed to do. 1st, run if you can. If you are not in the direct line of fire, get out. Whatever wherever the exits are, leave the building, leave your belongings behind, just get out. If that's not possible, if you find that you are in the line of fire, Then your next best move is to hide to find a place where you can close the door and then move furniture, move Anything that's in that room up against the door to barricade yourself into that room and lock it and block that door. and turn off your cell phones and stay quiet. And finally, Once you get the all clear, and the law enforcement is there, and they're telling you you can come out. come out with your hands up. You do not wanna stop and chat with them. You do not wanna hug them. You just wanna come out with your hands up. and follow their directions and their instructions to get out of the building. They will be continuing to look to see if there are any other active shooters in there. They're just trying to get you out.

So that's the kind of stuff we used to teach.

Sorry that I had to say that, but I felt like that was the responsible thing to do, but I don't wanna leave you in a down note or feeling stressed or anything. So what I decided to do is I'm going to answer one of the questions that came in on the survey because part of my survey was If you could ask me anything, what would you ask me? So so this question came in. It said, Will there be a follow-up plot? I hope I can see the following story.

Not sure that listener actually listened

to the show, but I will answer it this way. The story of Hey Boomer is evolving. We are into year 3 of this story. who knows what year 4, 5, and 6 will bring. I hope it will bring us closer because you Hey, Boomer. Listeners, followers, community are so special to me and so important to me. And you give me my sense of purpose every day, so I'm so glad feel for you. I hope our community of evolving adults keeps growing. And with that, for the month of September, I'm gonna be focusing on the family. Okay. So next week, September 11th, we will be talking to my friend, Nicky Davidson. Nicky is someone who helps you declutter. So something most of us or at least I can use help with. And we will talk about the personal decluttering, but this is also something you wanna do so your children or loved ones will not have to do it after you're gone. There is so much we can learn from Nikki. And then the following Monday, 18th, I'm going to be talking with Barb Claco, Barb is a fellow road scholar traveler and windjammer cruiser. We met on the windjammer cruise, and our grandsons really bonded. and we're gonna talk about the joys and challenges of traveling with grandchildren. And then at the end of September, on 25th, I'll talk to psychologist, Josh Coleman, about family estrangement. This is a tough topic. and it can affect relationships deeply. It can. It does affect relationships deeply. And, unfortunately, It is something that touches many families. So that will be an important conversation. So thank you so much for being part of the Hey Boomer community. And as always, I like to remind you that you are never too old to set another goal or dream a

new dream. My name is Wendy Green, and this has been Hey Boomer.