Podcast #145 – Marc tells the story of how he came to write Repurpose Your Career, now in its third edition and how it has changed since the beginning.
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When this episode is released, on September 16th, Marc’s book, Repurpose Your Career, A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, Third Edition, co-authored by Susan Lahey, will be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback versions.
In this episode, Marc reveals the process of writing the book, from leaving the corporate world, to branding himself as a career transformation expert, and working with a professional writer to produce a guide for Baby Boomers as they move from a traditional career to creating networks, finding opportunities, and digitally rebranding themselves.
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[4:53] This podcast episode will release on September 16th, when Repurpose Your Career, Third Edition is published in paperback. In this episode, Marc takes you on the journey of how he created this series. Marc started telling the story in CareerPivot.com/episode-25. This time he will go deeper.
[5:14] Kindle and paperback versions have been released. The Audible version will release in January of 2020. A minor update will be published at that time.
[5:26] Marc’s journey to create the Repurpose Your Career series started in 2006. Marc had just come out of a year-and-a-half of teaching and joined Launchpad Job Club.
[5:53] There, he found a room of people that looked like him, in their late 40s and older, many spit out by the tech industry, like IBM, Dell, Freescale (Now NXP Semiconductors), Motorola, and others. Many of them were lost. That’s when Marc came up with the Career Pivot concept and Repurpose Your Career.
[6:23] Marc went to work in the nonprofit sector and that lasted a year. Marc then started working for a tech startup, Lifesize Communications, just before the Great Recession. Marc joined the board at Launchpad in late 2006. By 2009, the Friday meeting attendance at Launchpad was from 300 to 400 people.
[7:04] Launchpad members look like the people who listen to this podcast – older, spit out by their former employer, and needing to go back to work. When Marc quit at Lifesize in January 2011, he started figuring things out. He started the CareerPivot brand in February of 2012. He also met Susan Lahey at that time.
[7:32] Marc and Susan put together a whitepaper, “Don’t Retire… Even if You Can: A Boomer’s Manifesto.” That whitepaper became the seed for the first Repurpose Your Career Book. Marc provided Susan with 15 or 20 blog posts and asked her to take the manifesto and blog posts and turn them into a book. That was enough for a small book.
[8:12] Marc also had a friend Gudjon Bergmann, who had published a book, The Author’s Blueprint: Successfully Write a Non-Fiction Book, Conquer Procrastination and Never Get Writer’s Block Again. Gudjon has published many books. Gudjon told Marc, “When you write, particularly your first book, write a book, not the book.”
[8:44] Marc first put the book out as a PDF to a bunch of friends. They liked the book but their big complaint was that all Marc’s career pivot stories were from his own experience.
[9:01] Gudjon had suggested Marc add action steps at the end of each chapter. Marc also created a resource center of the action steps in Word documents. Marc learned that in order to get a binding, a book needs at least 131 pages. They picked a font style and size that got them to a little more than 131 pages.
[9:44] Marc published the book in early 2013. The goal was to update it about every 18 months to two years. The book sold about 2,000 copies in six years and still sells a copy or two, every few months.
[10:23] Susan went on to other projects and Marc tried working with three different writers, none of which stayed with him. He published his next book, Personal Branding for Baby Boomers: What It Is, How to Manage It, and Why It’s No Longer Optional, as a 60-page ebook. It has only sold a couple of hundred copies.
[10:50] Marc got back with Susan in 2016 and they started working on the Second Edition of Repurpose Your Career. Marc discovered that a lot had changed in the employment world. It was not going to be friendly to Boomers. Marc planned for three new chapters: Career Failures and Recoveries, Make Stuff Up Disorder, and Weak Ties.
[11:52] Weak Ties was accidentally cut from the book and never made it back in. So, Marc made it into a major new chapter in the Third Edition of Repurpose Your Career.
[12:05] For the Second Edition, Marc added a lot of stories, based on the experiences of the many clients he had worked with since the First Edition was written.That was the biggest update to the book. They released the Second Edition in 2017. His time, Marc put the book up for pre-order and bought Amazon ads.
[12:42] Marc paid a narrator for the Audible version of the original book. Working with a narrator was too much work, so Marc read and edited the Audible version of the Second Edition, himself. The Audible version came out later and was more successful. The Second Edition has sold about 2,000 copies in two-and-a-half years.
[13:40] When Marc and Susan started the Third Edition, they found the world had continued to change. Marc also had started the Career Pivot Online Community. Baby Boomers are aging. Gen-Xers are now coming into their early 50s and are running into the same problems.
[14:13] ProPublica ran an article claiming that “If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours,” and 90% will not recover. In the online community, many will work into their 70s and later because they have to but probably not in a traditional full-time job. Older workers don’t want to work for a boss.
[15:09] For the Third Edition, Marc and Susan pulled out some chapters that related to tactical job searching and put them in the Resource Center. They have added chapters on ageism, creative destruction, creating opportunities and stopping reacting, life as a square peg, and planning how you are going to work into your 70s.
[15:53] The last two new chapters are about a playbook for strategic relationships and building weak ties, which was left on the floor for the Second Edition. A lot of the book is devoted to creative destruction and what you need to do to keep yourself viable. The world has changed and how we look at our careers and make money has to change.
[16:23] The book cover changed to an image with women’s shoes. Mrs. Miller suggests putting both men’s and women’s shoes, walking to a sunrise.
[17:11] Much of the material in the book comes from disparate sources, including blog posts. They used a copywriter who used to be an editor at the Austin American-Statesman. For the Third Edition, Marc and Susan pulled together the voice and the strategies into a coherent thought thread. They got most of the way there.
[17:54] Marc will make some minor updates in January, when they release the Audible version. For example, he will point out that the strategies and weak ties that you use for job searching, you can also use for client search in an entrepreneurial realm. This will be a much more aspirational than a tactical book.
[18:39] We all have to get to the place where we are willing to take control. We will not be looking for that job and waiting for that layoff to happen. We will have a mixture of things to earn our income. Marc included stories of people who are doing that — reinventing themselves, creating their businesses; things that don’t look like a job.
[19:21] Russ Eanes is an example, from the episode of two weeks ago, CareerPivot.com/episode-143. Marc will soon have on the podcast his image consultant, Jean LeFebvre, who has started a Fulfillment by Amazon business in her early 70s. Jean’s first Amazon product is a pierced earring back for sagging earlobes.
[20:00] This being Marc’s fourth book, he is getting better at launches. He had a very large review team, for which he is very appreciative. The quality of this book is the best that Marc and Susan have produced, largely because of the review team’s great work.
[20:39] A subset of the review team will be writing reviews on Amazon, by the time this podcast is released. Marc thanks everyone who has pre-ordered the book. That helps tremendously in the Amazon rankings. Marc is also putting a lot more material in the Resource Center.
[21:44] Marc hopes this book will funnel people into the Career Pivot Online Community. Most of us will need help to reinvent ourselves. It is hard to do alone.
[22:08] This is the first time Marc has had a platform behind the book. Marc is really excited about what the online community can do for people. It is a place for you to go and get help. There are links in the book to the community.
[22:39] The idea is to give you the resources such that you know you are not alone.
[22:47] The Third Edition is about 180 pages. Marc and Susan plan to update it in 18 months to two years. It’s an evolving process. Marc hopes you read the book, write an honest review, and let Marc know what you think. Marc is really proud of it and he wants to know how it helps you.