Third Act Podcast

Your first act is school, your second act is work, but have you thought about what you’re going to do in your third act? Join host Liz Tinkham, a former Accenture Senior Managing Director, as she talks to guests who are happily “pretired” – enjoying their time, treasure, and talent to pursue their purpose and passion in the third act of their life.

Share this episode

Inspire others to get more and to do more later in life.

Elevate your executive learning

Athena helps women achieve executive-level leadership expertise, polish their boardroom and executive knowledge, get closer to board seats, and make leaps in their careers.

The Consummate Writer with Kerry Hannon

technology

Today Liz talks with Kerry Hannon – the Consummate Writer. Kerry’s a longtime journalist and author, having written for Forbes, Money, US News and World Report and USA Today, and having published more than seven books. Most interesting for this show, though, is that Kerry began writing about second acts in the early naughts long before any other publications. She’s an expert in issues related to the future of the workplace, particularly for our ageing population. On today’s show, she talks about where the workplace is headed, her new book In Control at 50+ How to Succeed in the New World of Work, and why dogs are very good teachers.

2:00 Why dogs are very good teachers
2:50 Writing her first book at age 11
4:40 Learning what she didn’t like about work
8:04 Meeting Mary, the Navajo weaver
11:43 Starting the Second Acts column
14:16 What is a workplace futurist?
15:07 Trends for the future workplace
21:56 Womens starting their own businesses coming out of the pandemic
25:31 “Everyone has a mission statement”
28:06 Writing for Yahoo Finance

You can find out more about Kerry Hannon on her website, on LinkedIn, or on Twitter at @KerryHannon. Her new book, In Control at 50+:How to Succeed in the New World of Work, publishes Apr 26, 2022. You can buy it on Amazon here.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and share a review. Engage with more stories of those finding fulfillment in the third act of their lives on Liz Tinkham’s Third Act podcast at thirdactpodcast.com.

Liz Tinkham (00:06):
Hi, this is Liz Tinkham and welcome to Third Act, a podcast about people embracing the third act of their lives with a new sense of purpose and direction. The third act begins when your script ends, but your show’s not finished.
Hi everyone, and welcome to Third Act. So, did anybody notice that we changed our theme music a couple weeks ago? I kind of like the new, upbeat instrumentals. And that little ding at the end adds a little bit of spice to the opening. A shout out to my audio editor, Andrew Lin for developing the track. So, onto the show.
Today, I talk with Kerry Hannon, the Consummate Writer. Kerry’s a long time journalist and author, having written for Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report, and USA Today. And she’s authored more than seven books. Most interesting for this show though, is that Kerry began writing about second acts in the early naughts long before any other publications, or, certainly, before I started thinking about it. She’s an expert in issues related to the future of the workplace, particularly for our aging population, which we’ve talked a lot about on this show.
On today’s show, she talks about where the workplace is headed, her new book: In Control of 50+ How to Succeed in the New World of Work, and why dogs are very good teachers. Enjoy the show.
Kerry, welcome so much to Third Act. Where do we find you today?

Kerry Hannon (01:27):
Oh, I am in Washington DC. And it is terrific to be with you. Thanks for inviting me to be on.

Liz Tinkham (01:33):
Well, as I mentioned in the intro, you’re a prolific writer and a long time journalist. But you’re also a big horse and dog fan. And you told me something interesting when we first met. You said that everything you know about loving your work, you learned from your dog. So you must have a very fun loving dog.

Kerry Hannon (01:48):
Well, I’ve got a Labrador retriever and that is probably the world’s most fun loving dog. And she’s got it down to a science.

Liz Tinkham (01:57):
When did your dog teach you about work?

Kerry Hannon (02:00):
Oh, so many, so many things. First of all, it’s all about networking. It’s getting out there, socializing with other dogs, getting ideas of what fun things you can get into. Number two, it’s curiosity. It’s always looking at, what’s going on? Oh, what’s going on? Always being open to new adventures, new stimuli. She always wants to jump in the car and go someplace. So get out, go do things, push yourself out of your comfort zone.
And oh gosh, there’s so many other things. When she’s focused on something, like catching the ball, trust me, this is full focus. And so, we could all learn to be a little more focused on our work projects, and not get distracted.

Liz Tinkham (02:43):
And my dog is exactly the same way. But backing up a bit, did you always know you wanted to be a writer? And how did you get started?

Kerry Hannon (02:50):
It’s a bit unusual but, honestly, from the minute I can remember having the thoughts about what I might want to do, it was always that I wanted to be a writer. It was always. I mean, I wrote my first book, I think when I was 11 years old or 12 years old on a spiral notebook. And I still have it, it has yet to be published but, trust me, one day…I have clung to it all these years. And guess what? It’s about horses, and dogs, and a big family, and all kinds of summer adventures is what that book was about.
And I guess my whole life, I thought maybe I would get back to writing about horses, and animals, and dogs, and write fiction. And that’s what that was, fiction. But guess what? I write nonfiction, that’s what I do. So I always wanted to be a writer. Just, as I got older, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I was like, “Okay, how can I make money as a writer? You have to find a job.

Liz Tinkham (03:53):
Right. But you went on to write for so many notable publications, Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report. And you told me, eventually, you got your dream job as a columnist at USA Today, but you said you hated it, why? Tell us the story.

Kerry Hannon (04:06):
Well first, I will say that’s why I got into journalism because I finally figured out that one way I could make money as a writer was to be a journalist. And where I went to college, to Duke University, they did not at the time have a journalism program. And what I would do is I would go and interview… I love horses, as you mentioned at the top. And so, I would go when I was competing on my horse at horse shows, and interview professional horse people, and write up their profile about their work, and what they loved about it. And I’d get those published in horse magazines. So, that kind of started my path.

Liz Tinkham (04:39):
Was this when you were in college?

Kerry Hannon (04:40):
Yeah. Oh, well before college, like just end of high school, beginning of college. And the reason I got to Forbes Magazine is because my dad got Forbes Magazine at home. And my dad was a small businessman and he loved Forbes Magazine. It made business fun and every story was, “Oh, the pity of it,” or, “Oh, the wonder of it.” And so, I just set a little mind that I was going to get a job at Forbes Magazine. So I got there.
But what happened by the time I got to USA Today and truly, I mean there are great people there. I had a fabulous editor, really, really great stuff. And I had that opportunity to do the column with my little picture on it. And it was about taxes and retirement, it was called Your Money. But what was hard for me, Liz, is that here I was, I’d always been a magazine… This took me years to figure out, but I had always been a magazine writer. And so, more time, featurey, you didn’t write on a deadline, like in an hour kind of work. And I also had my own office, and always had my own office.
And here I was, working with my editor was quite really right at my shoulder. And my colleagues were within arm’s stretch of me. And it was this huge newsroom, and loud, and noisy. And you couldn’t leave the news room, really. I mean, it was like a biosphere. If you wanted to go over to Georgetown for lunch, at that time they were in Rosslyn, Virginia, and you had to cross the Potomac River, you had to ask permission. And I was in my 40s by then. And I thought, “I’ve been doing this for 20 years.” I thought, “My goodness.” So it was overwhelming for me. And I didn’t know it. I just knew I was miserable.
And I went to visit my parents. And my dad’s like, “How’s your job?” And I’m like, “I’m really unhappy.” And he said, “Well, quit.” And so, I went back and I did quit right then that week. But I’ll tell you the truth, it took me years of self-analysis. Nobody told this to me except myself. When I realized, you know what? It was the anxiety of being in this big newsroom. It just created a work environment that didn’t work for me personally. It was fabulous, the people were great, but emotionally it was really hard for me.
And so, luckily, I pulled the plug, I got out of there. But I didn’t burn the bridge. I continued to write for them as a contractor. I launched my own media business then. And I’d already written two books at that point, but I pushed forward doing more books. And everybody I’d ever worked for, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, USA Today, they became my clients. And so, I had this built-in group of wonderful publications to write for.

Liz Tinkham (07:24):
You kind of changed it up. It’s interesting ’cause a lot of times I give advice to younger people about their career and things. And I always say to them, “If you don’t know what you want to do, like you don’t definitively want to be a consultant, or a nurse, or a lawyer, or whatever, just figure what you don’t like about sort of. Or what you don’t like about what you’re doing.” And I mean, that’s a classic example. You didn’t like the fishbowl environment. And I can understand that. I mean it’s not for everybody, but good to know you were able to keep your clients going.
So, at that point, you took sort of a diversion when you quit. And a big one, which is you went to write about Navajo weaving, which is really different. So, what happened there? Tell us more about that.

Kerry Hannon (08:04):
Yeah, that was kind of my off ramp to USA Today because just as I was getting ready to put in my resignation, one of my dearest friends, a fabulous photographer was doing a coffee table book about Navajo weavers because it was a dying art as the young people were moving off the reservation, the mothers weren’t handing the tools down to continue this craft. And the writer who was supposed to write the profiles of these weavers kind of threw their hands up, and walked away from the project. So they’re like, “Who are we going to get to write this?” And Marcy was already going, Marcy Hokus was her name, was already going to do the photography, which was magnificent. And she said, “Oh my friend, Kerry can do this,” because she knew I absolutely loved to write people’s stories.
And so, I had that book in my pocket and off I went right away to the Four Corners where, what is it? Utah, and Colorado, and New Mexico, and Arizona all come together to the Navajo reservation and Teec Nos Pos was the trading post there. And Marcy and I spent some time. And she did her work and I interviewed some of these weavers. And a couple of them didn’t speak English, and I had to have a translator, they spoke Navajo.
And one in particular stands out in my mind and she was in her 80s then, and her name was Mary. And she wove monumental rugs, Liz. I mean they were monumental. They were huge, and they were magnificent, and beautiful. And she lived 45 minutes down a dirt road from a paved road in a hogan that was quite small with no running water, and no electricity. And she had raised eight children there. And her loom took up practically the whole thing. And I thought to myself with my East Coast sensibilities, “What? This is America,” and I just had never seen anything like this. But you know what? Mary was pure joy. I mean, her work was beautiful, and she just bubbled. Her heart was so great and it was in her work. It was so clear she just loved what she did so much.
So, through the translator, I was asking her questions and at one point she said, “You ask questions nobody thinks about.” And she was right. And I went outside and I looked at where she lived, and I thought, “This is really, really special.” And it hit me so hard, that whole thing that what it is that motivates us, what it is like to do work that you truly love, what really matters in life. And I came away from that trip changed forever. And I really reevaluated my own priorities, my own work, what mattered to me. And I always think of Mary because here was a woman who just had had challenges perhaps. But, for her, life was not as challenging. She found beauty. And there’s a Navajo saying, may you walk in beauty. And that’s, certainly, what she did.

Liz Tinkham (11:03):
May you walk in beauty, I have to remember that. It sounds like a much easier life than a lot of us lead in spite of only living in a hogan, correct?

Kerry Hannon (11:12):
Yeah. And with no electricity and running water, I mean seriously. So, at any rate, Mary was quite special, but they all were. And I learned so much, and it was just a wonderful way to pivot myself from working in the environment I had been working in, and kind of on that path of writing about personal finance, and retirement, and taxes, and all that. And I suddenly just opened this door to writing about working jobs, and careers, and what we do every day, what we do to sustain us.

Liz Tinkham (11:40):
And what’d you do when you came back then, after writing the Navajo book?

Kerry Hannon (11:43):
So I wrote the book. And then I started writing for U.S. News & World Report, who was my employer immediately before USA Today. They were just starting the Second Acts column.

Liz Tinkham (11:53):
And what year was this?

Kerry Hannon (11:54):
I think it’s around 2006, 2007. And Tim Smart, who was the editor there, the business editor, he had asked around his in-house staff, and nobody seemed to want to do it. And what it was, you had to write profiles of people who had done something for 20 or 30 years, and made a big 360 turn to do something completely different. So, it was aimed at baby boomers at that time who were making these big life shifts. But honestly, Liz, nobody was writing about this. This was like just starting to percolate in people’s brains that this was something that was going to be a trend moving forward. And you had to find these people, then you had to write their story. And I think a lot of journalists, at the time, it’s hard to find people to illustrate stories who actually want to share all of this personal information with you.
So I said, “Yeah, Tim.” I raised my hand as a contractor. I was like, “Fantastic. I’d love to do this.” And coming from writing those stories of those weavers, I knew I just loved writing about people. So, I just put out my contacts with my network and I just mined the territory. And I spent three and a half years traveling around the United States, meeting people who had done this very thing. And I tell you, it was just so fantastic. And it wasn’t like I wanted to be these people, or do their jobs, but I was so inspired by them. I wanted to take their magic with me. Every time I left one I thought, “Oh, I want to be more, I want to be more like that, more willing to take these kind of risks, and really believing in myself.”
And so, these were amazing stories. People who went from Microsoft to starting a water company, or someone started a coffee business. Someone ran away with the circus. Someone started a chocolate business. Someone became a Nashville music agent, and she had been a cop in California. So, these big career shifts and I just loved it. So, it was a lot of fun. And I turned that into my book, What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find a Dream Job.

Liz Tinkham (13:58):
When you were writing those stories, was it equally men and women in terms of the sort of second act stories that you found?

Kerry Hannon (14:04):
Yeah. So, I did try to keep it even that way. So, yeah.

Liz Tinkham (14:16):
In addition to your writing, and the things that you do, you’re also a workplace futurist. What does that mean?

Kerry Hannon (14:21):
My new book that’s coming out is In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work. And I’ve spent so much time in my career really trying to tease out, what are the trends? Where are we going? I write a lot about news you can use, so service journalism, things that I can give people advice to take with them that can help them move their career forward, or their personal finance life, make it stronger.
And so, by workplace futurist, I’m really just putting a title on the research I’ve done to really try to look ahead, and give people that kind of be their Sherpa along the way to say, this is what’s coming up. And these are the trends I see happening, and how you can best prepare yourself for that.

Liz Tinkham (15:07):
So tell us a little bit about some of the trends that you see happening.

Kerry Hannon (15:10):
Yeah, so coming out of the pandemic, it’s just been quite interesting to look at for my peeps, as I call them, my 50 plus crowd there’s a lot of things that are major trends. And, frankly, a lot of this, Liz, started before we all went into lockdown, this sort of isolation mode in 2020. But the major trends I see coming out in this as the workplace has shifted, of course, you’ve interviewed a colleague of mine, Bradley Sherman, who has written about the big population switches. So, we see we have this aging population, so the labor force is quite tight, the job market is tight right now. And employers are needing to turn and pay attention to the older workforce in a way that maybe they haven’t in years.
But the big trends are one, this is no surprise. The first one is: remote work is here to stay. The genie’s out of the bottle, it had started beforehand mostly, to tell you the truth, younger workers who are digital nomads had said, “You know what? I don’t have to work in an office. I can work wherever I am.” And they had started negotiating for this with employers. And there were some employers who were ahead of the curve on this, had already started to be more accepting of having a remote workforce. But, for many of us, it wasn’t an easy skate. You had to really negotiate that. And it was a perk.
Coming out of the pandemic, now everyone’s done it. They’ve learned that the workforce can be productive, and performance is high. And so, the things that used to be considered drawbacks really seems like not so much. And, for employers, they learned it was a cost saver in many ways.
So the remote work and why it is so fabulous for older workers there’s two reasons. One, I think it goes a long way to fighting ageism. If you’re not sitting side by side with somebody who’s 20, 30 years younger than you it’s subliminal, in a way. But your manager or those around you don’t necessarily see you as an older worker. You’re being judged on your work, by your performance. And now yes, you have to do all those things. You have to communicate, you have to make sure you’re really, really good with the technology, and understand how remote work operates. But this is not a problem. This is not something that any of us had trouble with. And if we did, we know how to do it now. So, it’s good because it fights ageism because you’re not judged like a book on its cover.
Secondly, if you have any health issues, or mobility issues, which maybe a lot of people over the years, you’ll look at, they’ll say, “Oh, I’m going to retire. I’m going to push my retirement date to later.” But, in fact, they end up retiring sooner than they thought they would. And it’s usually because of a health issue. And so, in that case, if it’s a mobility thing that makes the commute difficult, or the office isn’t set up to accommodate you, oh my gosh, this is fantastic. You can work from anywhere now because of remote work. You’re not as sort of set in the kind of jobs you can take. So, I think it’s opened that up. So, I love remote work.
A piece that’s come out of it that’s not so great about the remote work is contract work. So, more employers have also moved to you’ll look at job listings and they’re like, oh, that’s remote, but they’re also a real surge in contract, or temporary kind of positions, short-term projects. So let’s call it self-employed. Why this is good on one level is for an older worker who wants to just extend their working life and work on a different kind of more flexible schedule for workers. And that might be somebody 60 to 70 or so.
But if you’re 50 to 60 and you still need your benefits, this is not a great trend because by contract work, it’s much less expensive for an employer because they’re not paying your benefits. For you, if you need health insurance employer provided it’s helpful to have an employer-provided retirement plan, which you can contribute to, this is a real stumbling block. So, I caution people about that.
The other things I see coming out is entrepreneurship is hot. It had started prior to the pandemic. I, in fact, wrote a book about Never Too Old to Get Rich for midlife entrepreneurs. So, the Kaufman Foundation had been seeing these numbers of people over 45, and over 50 starting businesses.

Liz Tinkham (19:38):
And we’ve seen that trend on this podcast, yeah.

Kerry Hannon (19:40):
Pedal to the metal, now. Because particularly as older workers and others reevaluated their priorities, and what their work meant to them, and maybe they were laid off, or maybe they took an early retirement package and they said, “You know what? I don’t want to deal with the slog of job seeking again and trying to get through the computerized resume systems, the AI screening you out, and all of these things that make it harder to find a job when you’re over a certain age. I’m just going to do my own thing. This is what I’ve always wanted to do.” And so, they’re giving it a shot. So, I see a real uptick in entrepreneurship.
And I also see an uptick in learning, which is really special because if we are going to, and as Bradley Sherman and you talked about in his Super Age book, extend our working lives to fit our longer lives, productive lives you need to constantly be learning. And it’s like, if you’re not learning, you’re not earning, kind of thing. So, during the pandemic, what we saw is this surge of online educational opportunities where you can get certificates, just ramp up a certain skill. All kinds of new things came up that you don’t have to get a master’s degree, or be in-person. Many great higher education institutions had offerings online, and continue to. So I just think there’s this explosion of online education that make it possible for people to really stay relevant in their jobs, and also push forward into new jobs.
And the final thing coming out of the pandemic is career transitions. And so, again as I said, I wrote about what’s next. This has been happening for a while, but during this two year period we’ve seen, as people are getting back to work, an enormous amount of career transition. People, again, reevaluating, what is it I really want to be doing? And it’s not reinventing themselves. A lot of it is redeploying their current skill sets, adding new ones into their quiver as needed. But it’s definitely been a repositioning and to pursue new fields.

Liz Tinkham (21:49):
And have you seen much difference between what men and women are doing as they reposition, or come up with new arrows in their quiver?

Kerry Hannon (21:56):
Well the thing is, I think more women are starting businesses and, again, they had started that trend beforehand. But I definitely have seen an escalation in that, women starting their own businesses. I think one of it is, it’s really been tight… It’s been harder for women of a certain age to get rehired, to find a new job if you’ve been laid off, or taken a package to go in-house again, because not only are you just the older worker and ageism, but it’s also look-ism so how you look often. If they judge you to be looking old that becomes an issue. So, the point is women have lots of things.
But also, this is what I truly think it is, it’s the caregiving. And it’s not just for kids. It’s for caregiving for adults. During the pandemic, my mom was 91, and had dementia, and I cared for her, my sister and I. I’m telling you, I was hanging by a thread trying to get work done. And if I had been in-house at a job, I don’t know if I could have done that. But because I was an independent worker, had my own business, I was able to do that. So, I think, the flexibility of being an entrepreneur really appeals to women at certain ages in their lives, whether they’re a mom, or even a grandma helping out or, mostly, I see it caring for aging relatives, or it could be even an aging spouse.

Liz Tinkham (23:20):
Now, you’d mentioned your book. It’s coming out in April, which is when this podcast will air. In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work. In this, you encapsulate some of these trends. You also give advice to people on how they should react to the trends, and what they should do.

Kerry Hannon (23:35):
Without question. I go deep dive into everything from how to do virtual interviews, how to do your resumes, how to go about finding capital to launch your business, and how to ask yourself those tough questions. Why me? Why now? Why this product, or service? Really getting honest with yourself. I talk a lot about doing that soul searching, and the inner MRI of really taking the time to own yourself, own your skills, own who are today, and where you want to go, and get yourself that firm grounding before you launch forward.
But each of these categories that we just talked about, I have chapters with news you can use, resources, lots of resources to help people move forward into looking at how they really take control of their working life, and approach it like Me Inc, we’ve talked about this for years, I mean. No matter whether you’re working for someone who’s your full-time main employer or not, I’m a big fan of the side hustle. Even when I worked for Forbes and US News and USA today, I was always freelancing on the side because I never wanted to have all my eggs in one basket. And I always liked the idea of writing about lots of different things. So, I do think that we’re going to see a lot more of that. But the book, I hope it’s a real roadmap for people.

Liz Tinkham (25:01):
Yeah. And we’ll publish the link to it in our show notes for this show.
So, in prepping, I was reading your LinkedIn and I love the last line of your About section, which says, “What gets me motivated each day is making a difference in someone’s life by helping them build their network, land a job they love, and sharing a message of practical advice, hope, optimism, value, enthusiasm, and resilience.” So I think, in saying that, you’ve encapsulated what so many of my Third Act guests are doing in the sense of giving back. How do you practice that every day?

Kerry Hannon (25:31):
I tell you, I actually write in the book too, I say, “Everyone has to have a mission statement.” It’s not just a company, or a nonprofit. Have your own darn mission statement so you honestly know why you get up and do what you do. What is it? Because if you’re just doing it for a paycheck, okay. But, truthfully, you’re not going to find a lot of joy in that, I don’t believe, ultimately. And so, for me, I really spent a lot of time figuring out, how do I draw the line? And I think particularly when you run your own business, and you get offers to do lots of different kinds of projects, how do you make that decision about, should I take this project, or not that project?
And if you have that core belief system about what do you want to do? Okay, I know that if I take this assignment, or I take on this project, I can impact somebody in a positive way. That’s a good signal. It’s not that, “Oh, they’re going to pay me all this money.” No, because I’ll be miserable if I do that job, I know I will. But if I do one that I feel like I make a connection, and I tell you the letters, and when you get feedback from people, whether it’s an email, or a letter, or a phone call, or if you’re on talking and you have call-ins to something, or you’re speaking, and someone comes up to you, those are moments that tell us, this is why we do what. I get high. I’m like walking on air after I get these that I know I’ve made… I’m like, “Geez, this is it.”
And so you make that transition so it’s not about you, it’s about them, and it’s about others. And when you give rather than receive, it’s amazing that sort of power that has. And also, I do also get teased all the time, especially by my husband, that I’m like this upbeat kind of gal like in Groundhog Day, I think he teases her about that. And the fact of the matter is I am, but I’m also realistic. I mean, I definitely see the world with half full, and I look forward. But I make note that everything’s not perfect. That we’re all going to have obstacles that we work around. But the point is, I think if you’re optimistic, you see value in what you do, it is truly something that can carry you forward in your work, and the work you do, and it resonates. And you say to yourself, “Yeah, this is why I get up in the morning.”

Liz Tinkham (27:51):
Yeah, I agree. I’m a glass half full person as well. And it has definitely served me well.
So, I’ve lost track, really, of how many acts you’ve had. So, you’re well past your third act, you just keep going. And my sense is that you’re never going to slow down. So, what’s next for you?

Kerry Hannon (28:06):
I went back in-house, actually, to Yahoo Finance, where I’m a senior columnist. And I also can do my outside work, my books, my speaking, and so forth, the things I negotiated to continue to hold on to my business, so to speak. But they’re my primary client now. And, got to tell you, it is amazing. That platform is like 700 million users on. It’s the largest personal finance platform in the world. And I’m not saying everyone’s going to look at what I write, but the ability to reach more people than any audience I’ve ever had in my life is tremendous. And so, I feel like, wow, like I’m walking the walk for older workers. Who thought that I would actually be… They found me on LinkedIn, which is what I tell everyone. Make sure you-

Liz Tinkham (28:55):
Come on, they found you on LinkedIn?

Kerry Hannon (28:57):
Yeah. A recruiter found me on LinkedIn through there. They had a position open, and they actually kind of developed this position for what I wanted to write about, and what I wanted to do. And it was sort of extraordinary. It was lightning fast from the time the recruiter approached me, and I accepted the job because I thought, “Wow, I’m 61 years old, and they are offering me this amazing platform. And financially rewarding,” and also just it was feeling respected. When you work for yourself, you’re constantly slogging it out. And particularly when you sell words for a living, which is what I do, it’s been fairly devalued in recent years. The value of a word is sort of from when Huffington Post came on and started not paying writers. So, the model really shifted. And so, it’s a struggle to earn a living that way.
And when the pandemic shut down most of my speaking opportunities, which was what was a major part of my platform, this came as just a gift. And I am having a blast. And it’s fully remote. I don’t have to go into an office. I can still work with the flexibility that I enjoy. But I’m having great… And guess what? My editor is 20 years or so younger than me. I mean, it’s all the stuff that I’ve been telling older workers about, and I love it. I just love it. I’m so energized by it. And it’s really been fun.

Liz Tinkham (30:27):
Yeah. And we’ll publish the link to that as well ’cause I was reading some of your articles yesterday. So, I thought about naming this podcast, I’m Not Done Yet. What aren’t you done with yet?

Kerry Hannon (30:36):
Oh, I’ll probably be writing more books because I love to write books. But oh gosh, Liz, maybe I’ll get to write that horse book.

Liz Tinkham (30:43):
So thanks so much for joining me today on Third Act. Where can our listeners find you online?

Kerry Hannon (30:48):
kerryhannon.com. So it’s K-E-R-R-Y H-A-N-N-O-N.com is my website. My Twitter’s @KerryHannon and I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever. But Twitter, and my webpage will take you where you need to go.

Liz Tinkham (31:02):
Great. And we will publish all that in the show notes. Thanks so much. And we look forward to following your 10th, 11th, 12th act as you go forward.

Kerry Hannon (31:10):
Such fun. Thank you so much.

Liz Tinkham (31:14):
Thanks for joining me today to listen to the Third Act podcast. You can find show notes, guest bios, and more at thirdactpodcast.com. If you enjoined our show today, please subscribe, and write a review on your favorite podcast platform. I’m your host, Liz Tinkham, I’ll be back next week with another guest, who’s found new meaning, and fulfillment in the third act of their life.

Get featured on Third Act

Want to share the story of your own Third Act on our podcast? We welcome stories from executives who pivoted their careers to find their passion and purpose later in their lives. Tell us more about yourself to be considered as a guest.