Marc Miller Visits the Second Act Stories [Podcast]

**Podcast #152 – Second Act Stories podcast host Andy Levine interviews Marc on career pivots.**

Description:

This episode is a replay of Marc’s visit to the Second Act Stories podcast. Andy Levine and Marc explore Marc’s many career pivots, and how they led to the publication of the third edition of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life.

Marc tells of the impact of his nearly fatal bicycle accident on his career choices. Marc shares information about the various ventures he runs, from the Career Pivot website, the blog, the podcast, the books, and the online community.

Before the interview, Marc also makes an important announcement. Please listen in for all the details.

Key Takeaways:

[1:09] Marc welcomes you to Episode 152 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast.

[1:21] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your neighbors and colleagues. The more people Marc reaches, the more people he can help.

[1:39] Marc reviews the three-year history of the Repurpose Your Career podcast and announces a big change. The time-stamped show notes with a detailed write-up of the show will be eliminated. Marc will provide dramatically simplified and reduced notes.

[3:10] Marc acknowledges the production work of Podfly Productions, as he transitions the Repurpose Your Career podcast to in-house production. Marc recommends using the Podfly team if you want to start your own podcast! You can find more information about Podfly at Podfly.net.

[3:39] Marc will produce an episode every other week instead of the weekly schedule he has kept for three years. If Marc gets ahead on episodes over the next few months, he may revert to a weekly schedule. In December, Marc will record his audiobook.

[4:00] Marc has a lot of people lined up to interview and is looking to partner with other podcasts, including Second Act Stories with Andy Levine, as featured in this episode.

[4:11] Marc will not publish an episode the week of U.S. Thanksgiving and will only publish one episode in December. On January 6th, 2020 Marc will start the regular biweekly schedule.

[4:28] Marc does not like giving things up or ending relationships. He recommends reading Necessary Endings, by Dr. Henry Cloud. Marc decided to leave his home city of 40 years, Austin, Texas, and move to Ajijic, Mexico after reading this book.

[4:57] If you would like to financially support this show, please go to Glow.fm/repurposeyourcareer/ to give. This link will be at the top of the show notes at CareerPivot.com/episode-152.

[5:13] Next week’s episode is still up in the air. Marc has several interviews scheduled this week that he thinks you will enjoy. Stay tuned!

[5:22] This week’s episode will be a replay of Marc’s interview on the Second Act Stories podcast. The host, Andy Levine, is a great guy with a very big heart. He is a podcaster with whom Marc wants to partner in the coming year. Marc hopes you enjoy this episode.

Now on to the podcast…

[5:48] Andy shares a few moments from the interview when Marc answers the question, “What should you do if you are really unhappy in your current work?”

[6:32] Andy Levine welcomes you to the Second Act Stories podcast and introduces Marc Miller. They are meeting at the Princeton Public Library in New Jersey.

[8:11] Marc is a multipotentialite. He gets bored after three years of doing something. When he worked at IBM, he was happy to change positions often. At the time, IBM wanted to develop generalists. That world has changed. When Marc left IBM in 2000, he started a journey of half-step career changes aided by relationships.

[9:03] Marc explains the term Multipotentialite. There is a TEDx talk on it. Multipotentialites have lots of interests and are not driven by one thing.

[9:30] Marc talks about his head-on bike vs. car accident and how it changed his life’s path. At the time, he was at a fading startup and his job was ranking people to layoff. He began to question his career choice.

[11:15] Most of us act in roles in our careers. Marc wanted to stop playing a role that was not natural for him. While he was on bed-rest, he had a lot of time to ask himself why he was doing what he was doing.

[12:47] Marc shares the beginning and history of Career Pivot, starting with his joining Launchpad Job Club. Marc started at LifeSize Communications as the Great Recession was starting. At that time the meetings “exploded” at Launchpad Job Club up to 400 people every Friday, all older workers.

[13:48] In 2009, Marc asked who was caring about folks of this age who were looking for work? He found the book Don’t Retire, Rewire! by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. The stories featured people who had pensions to cushion their time to return to work.

[14:24] In Mexico, Marc sees a lot of economic refugees, who can’t afford to live in the U.S. Marc wanted to help that class of individual who wants to keep working and make an income, but probably not in a traditional job. That’s a hard mind-shift to make.

[15:01] How is a pivot different than a change? A lawyer won’t go directly to be a pastry chef. What kinds of incremental changes are needed? Think of a basketball pivot.

[16:23] A successful career pivot takes flexibility, openness. Changes never turn out quite the way you expect them. Walk down that path and be willing to be surprised.

[17:01] Marc has a person in his Online Community who started driving for Lyft and through her contacts, got several contract gigs. Marc wrote about it in a blog post, “Synchronicity and Serendipity Can Be Essential in Life”. You have to put yourself out there for good stuff to happen. Find support people to get you outside of your head.

[18:05] We have belief systems that are made up. Get out and talk with people about your plans and get feedback on your idea. Marc tells how he explored the idea of something like Career Pivot with career specialists. Overwhelmingly, they persuaded him not to get a coaching certification.

[19:06] Marc asks people in his career assessment process to consider when they were the most miserable in their career and when they were the most fulfilled in their career. This is to help them understand what makes them happy and what makes them miserable. The environment and the team are more important than the job they do.

[20:09] It is important to know yourself and what you want before a job search. Find a position that doesn’t require you to play a character strange to you. Know how to take care of yourself in a job where you have to act out a role. Marc recommends reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.

[21:22] We’re paid more to be extroverts but half the world are introverts. Marc is a really good public speaker and an introvert. When he’s done, he’s exhausted. Marc doesn’t get energy from speaking. He learned to be a geek than can speak. Susan Cain speaks of restorative niches in her book. Schedule things in your day that restore you.

[22:23] Gallup polls show that a lot of people are unhappy in their jobs. Marc shares his advice to them on the first thing they should do before changing jobs. Marc says don’t run away from your current job, run to what you want to do. Marc shares how he invited Elizabeth Rabaey just to go try different random things before choosing.

[24:31] Marc often asks people what they couldn’t get enough of doing as a kid. Kids don’t have filters. Marc used to love to do jigsaw puzzles. He learned that he is a pattern matcher.

[25:11] Marc has just released the third edition of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life. Marc talks about the evolution of the book from 2011 to 2019. The third edition is more aspirational than tactical. Marc talks about creative destruction. AI and robotics are going to affect you! There is a chapter on ageism.

[26:27] If you want to work into your 70s, you have to plan for it in your 50s. It’s a mindset shift. Many will need to work for the money and it won’t look like a full-time job. One of the common themes of Marc’s online community is that everyone wants freedom to work on what they want when they want, and how hard they want to work.

[27:17] We don’t want to conform anymore. When Marc worked as a teacher, he found that schools don’t want people like Marc, because they don’t do what they’re told.

[27:52] Marc shares his contact information: go to Careerpivot.com, sign up for Marc’s Career Pivot Insights email, check out the CareerPivot.com/Community, find the book, Repurpose Your Career on Amazon and other fine online sellers. Find the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or at Careerpivot.com/podcast. Andy is a big fan of it!

[29:39] Marc hopes you enjoyed that episode. Andy does a great job with the Second Act Stories podcast and Marc highly recommends that you subscribe to it.

[29:50] The career Pivot Membership Community continues to help the approximately 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project to grow and thrive. This is a community where everyone is there to help everyone else. Marc has just brought in a cohort and he is recruiting new members for the next cohort.

[30:12] If you are interested in the Career Pivot Membership Community and would like to be put on a waiting list, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community.

[30:25] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you listen to this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.

[30:42] Please come back next week when Marc will have another great interview!