NEXT Discovering Your Next Powerful Chapter

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1:03 Okay, welcome to the first show of next the opportunity to think about what it is your next chapter will be like and how you can shape it for yourself. Actually, how I got to this idea is kind of interesting. I was in a bit of a slump, actually, and I went to this program that I go to every two years called Thinkers fifty and it's in London. A lot of my friends go. Everyone there has a pretty I was going to say, extinguished, but distinguished career, and I'm there sort of saying, well, I'm kind of not in that place anymore. And I wasn't sure how I felt about it. In fact, I didn't like it at all.

2:01 And during that program there were a lot of great speakers, very well known people, and actually the audience was quite well known itself, and there were about six hundred people there. I was with three of my girlfriends excuse me, two of which one of which actually was launching her new book, The Seismic Shift in You, and the other one had just recently launched a new book. She and I had co authored a number of books together actually at a previous time. So I started thinking, Linda Gratton, who is a pretty well known professor at the University at London School of Business at the University the London School of Business and a big time author, real nice person. I know you're thinking, they're probably oh, another egghead, But she's not like that at all. In fact, most of the people there are not like that at all. You'd be surprised.

3:10 So Linda gets up to talk and what she says was sort of startling. She talked a little bit about AI who doesn't today that's the new locomotive of the twenty first century. More to come on that on this show. But what Linda said is it used to be that people's life expectancy in a good way if all things were good was probably for US citizens about seventy seven seventy eight said well, okay, and then she said, and this was the startling part, that people today and most people in this room, barring any any other difficulties, are going to live to be one hundred. And her caution was, if you're going to do, if you're going to live to be one hundred, what does that next chapter of yours look like? And how are you going to shape it?

4:23 Well that stopped me in my tracks because I had pretty much said, oh, in the big picture of life for what I wanted to do with my career, I had done most of that. But then I started thinking, there's more that I want to do, there is more that I can do, There's more that I can contribute. And frankly, I don't know about all of you, but I was a little bored with this kind of semi retirement situation that I was in. I wanted more out of my life. I do a lot of traveling, and that I love because I always wanted to travel the world.

5:15 But what was I doing with all of that? So that's where I started to think a lot of people in this room are in their seventies. I know people who I associate with who are in their seventies. Some are just loving golf and taking care of their grandchildren. Others are doing other significant things in their life, carrying on their profession. Some person I worked with that I've known for many years on the West Coast said I'm probably going to work till i'm eighty. I love what I'm doing. So I started thinking about this, and originally I was going to focus this show on people who are seventy and older who have done continued to do significant things in their life. But as I started going around and talking to people, I realized that everybody has an next, and everybody has an next that they can and should seek out. I mentor some students from UNCW, which is University of North Carolina in Wilmington, which is in the area which I live, and every one of those students is spending a lot of time thinking about

6:46 their next, which would make a lot of sense for people at that age starting their career. Then, I know a lot of people in their forties and fifties who are in what they would call their mainstream career. Many of those people are unhappy. They feel they can't change. They feel they can't transform. They don't know how to transition from what they're doing to what might be a more exciting endeavor or career for them. In other words, many of them are stuck, and they get stuck like perhaps I did. They get stuck because they're in a good career, they work for a good company, they are making good to great money, and it's hard to really pursue that next passion and walk forward. I know, it's scary.

7:52 Happened to me. Actually, I was at a great corporate job. I hated my boss. Every day I went to work, I was like, ugh, it was just drudgery to see this person. And finally I just said, I took a sabbatical and it was the smartest thing and the best thing I ever did. And I started my own consulting practice and I loved it. In fact, I had a radio show during that time called future Proof Workplace, and I lead the leadership connection and it was great. I was one of the best professional things I ever did.

8:38 And was it scary? Sure? Was I afraid I wasn't going to make enough money? Sure I was the primary breadwinner. Actually, and lo and behold, I loved it. I was in command of my own schedule. I could take assignments that I want, and I was building a great consulting reputation. Now, needless to say, I had a lot of help along the way. A guy named Marshall Goldsmith, you should look him up, help me a lot. And there are people out there that will give you confidence and will give you support and help you if you ask them for it.

9:26 So I did move into this next career and loved it. And then the pandemic hit and people like me who were consultants and traveled to work with leadership teams and you know, give give keynote speeches all over the world, that kind of dried up. Just wasn't happening anymore. So I said, okay, well maybe this is my signal to sort of hang up my skates, and I kind of did did. But playing golf just it's fun, but it wasn't.

10:07 My raise on Deetra wasn't the reason. And I thought now that the pandemic's over essentially, and I went to this Thinker's fifty, ran into this Linda Gratton who said, what is your next? What are you thinking about next? And I started asking people there that question and It was fascinating because a lot of people had not thought about it, including myself. I didn't really think I'd have an opportunity for a next, but I do, and you are witnessing the launch of my next. I planned to do this every two weeks for a half an hour to forty minutes. I've lined up some great people who have worked on and are working in their next and they see a future and you know what, guess what, we all know this. Intellectually have an exciting purpose is the key to a great life. And your purpose can be lots of things, but it's got to be one that excites you and turns you on. I So the focus of this show is going to be next, what's your future? What are you thinking about? And some examples

11:40 and stories from people who have crafted they're exciting next. And you know what, it's age agnostic. It can be at any age. And if you're fifty and you're bored to death and you're doing the same old thing, think about your next. And I have some steps that you can do and you can take to move yourself through that to your next transformation. And you'll be talking to and hearing from people telling their stories how they found their next and I think this is a great opportunity.

12:23 We'll be doing this show every two weeks with different people from all walks of life who have found an exciting purpose for themselves. You know, do have a story. And I'm not disparaging this at all, but you know, there are a lot of people who end really great careers and what are they doing. They're being greeters in in their local whatever the store may be. And you know what it's such as sod in a way, and they will say this a sad use of their knowledge, their skill and the experience that they have that they can share with other people. If you've got great experience, you've got great knowledge. I want you to share it because it can be wonderful and helpful for everybody out there.

13:28 It doesn't really matter what your next is as long as it's exciting. It's something that makes you happy, and it's something that brings joy to your life. And while this may be a cliche, puts a spring in your step. I think if we're going to live to be one hundred, we need to be thinking about what's our next purpose and what's going to make us exciting and what's going to put that sprig in our step and guess what I think. And there's a lot of research to support this. Actually, it's going to make you more vibrant, it's going to make you more exciting. It's going to make you more excited about yourself and your life. We're also going to be spending a lot of time talking about artificial intelligence.

14:29 This is the new railroad of the twenty first century. Nobody knows where it's going to go and how we're going to use it. And there's a lot of exciting things about it, and there's a lot of scary things about it, and how are we going to make this work for all of us. It's just like before when the machine came into play. It's going to take jobs we won't be able to work. Well that's probably not true. What it will do is it will take certain jobs, and it will bring in new professions and new enhancements to life. No point in burying your head in the sand around this one. It's here that cat is out of the bag and everybody at any age is going to need to learn how to leverage artificial intelligence to our advantage. Well, that's all I have to say today.

15:32 This is my inaugural show. I hope you'll tune in every Tuesday, every other Tuesday, sorry, at nine am and watch and listen on W four CY Radio. And I will be having great speakers that are going to tell their stories. This is not an academic show. This is a show about stories of next and how people have created a great life out of what they have learned and what they can share and what they can do going forward. I hope to see you soon and I hope to see you in two weeks. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.