Martinus Evans Interview: Founder of Slow AF Run Club
Diana Landau | May 13, 2024
Carl interviews the remarkable Martinus Evans this week. Martinus is an 8-time marathon runner, author and award-winning speaker who has empowered thousands of people to embrace the body they have right now, lace up their shoes and MOVE. His passion and his own personal journey inspired him to become the founder of the Slow AF Run Club, a global community who is challenging the preconceived notions of what a runner should look like. His mission is to inspire one million people of all backgrounds, shapes, sizes, colors and creeds to start running. Martinus and his powerful story have been featured in the New York Times, LADBible, The New York Post, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and more.
Martinus learned how to face and overcome challenges in his youth. He grew up in a blue-collar family on the Eastside of Detroit, He witnessed shootouts and drug deals from his bedroom window. Carl asks him what he was like as a kid. "I was short, fat and somewhat active. In dealing with certain situations, I was also a chameleon!" As an adult he worked as a suit salesman, working 10 hours days and his hip began to hurt. His doctor said, "Your hip hurts because you're too fat. You should walk to lose weight." Martinus was shocked by his doctor's words but turned that into a goal to someday run a marathon.
With sheer determination, courage and a trip to a running shoe store on the way home from the appointment, Martinus embarked on a journey to become a runner. Eighteen months later, he ran his first marathon. Once while running on a bridge during a race, a man taunted him for running as "slow as f%*k." He decided then and there to inspire others to keep going no matter what and decided to wear "Slow AF" proudly when he ran.
Martinus has served as a global ambassador for Adidas and partnered with many brands and has earned a BS in Exercise Science from Central Michigan University, an MS in Health Promotion Sciences and an MA in Digital Media and Design from the University of Connecticut.
Now Martinus has 30+ thousand members to his Slow AF club, an app, a new book. The Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run and just finished a 41-stop book tour. He just launched a non-profit, and he's looking forward to building that up. When not running races, Martinus lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Char, and enjoys playing fetch with his dog Mabel.
Martinus Evan's life advice:
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Stick with it. "It's been ten years and I still want to quit! You have to outlast the newness of doing something to keep going."
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Having a routine: "Having a routine goes hand-in-hand with 'keep moving'. You need a routine so you CAN keep moving."
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Try new things. "Try new things you didn't think you could ever do in your younger years."
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Have a delusional belief in yourself. "You have to believe in yourself when no one else will."
• (Un)Retirement Travel with the Pro Allan Wright, Zephyr Adventures
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog.
Jeannine Barr Interview: Here comes the Judge — Now Singer / Songwriter!
Diana Landau | April 05, 2024
A criminal district court judge takes up the guitar and never looks back. Carl interviews Jeannine Barr, who says a dream one night "really spoke to her" and she knew she wanted to become a musician. And unlike most people, she left her big career to follow her big dreams and actually took the leap.
Jeannine was born in Baton Rouge, LA as the youngest of three girls. Her father was an electrician and her mother was a nurse. "There were lots of rules in our house," she tells us.
As a student she was very competitive in academics, sports, cheerleading and more.
After college and teaching high school English briefly, she went to LSU law school and eventually became an assistant district attorney for nine years.
Unafraid to take chances, (as you will learn in this episode), Jeannine threw her hat in the political ring in 1994 and was elected as a judge. She moved up to overseeing felony and death penalty cases. She went on to be re-elected five more times, serving 24 years on the bench and retired in 2018.
In 2015, Jeannine said having to run for re-election every four years, plus the uncertainty of it was frustrating. One night she had a vivid dream that she had died creatively and that she was supposed to play the guitar. She announced to her husband the next day that she made a decision to learn to play the guitar at age 54 and he said, "Don't buy anything too expensive!"
After connecting with an encouraging teacher, Jeannine kept learning and challenging herself. She initially thought she'd learn some Christmas songs to play for family. Her teacher suggested she try to write songs and keep on doing it. "Suddenly I was a student and a virtual nobody in the music scene," she adds. She kept playing and writing. In 2018 her teacher introduced to Grammy-winning producer Billy Dorsey. That led to her first recorded song, "The Color Red," and eventually she released a 7-song EP titled, "Late to the Party."
Today Jeannine continues to record new songs and has been featured on the "Women of Substance" podcast. She loves to bowl with a league every week and lives with her husband, cats, (and guitars) in Houston, TX. She says, "At the end of the day, we're going to regret what we didn't try."
Jeannine Barr's (un)retirement tips:
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"Going to my first guitar lesson was incredibly humbling. I found it very difficult. The beauty of it was that I was vulnerable and it would be ok."
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"I went from directing bailiffs to having zero idea of what to do. It was a total role-reversal for me. Yet also---- a whole new gig!"
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"Just try it. Follow the dream. Try not to be too impatient with yourself."
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Jeannine was so inspired by being interviewed that she wrote Carl a song "I Used to be Somebody". Listen here! 
• (Un)Retirement Travel with the Pro Allan Wright Zephyr Adventures
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog.
Sky Bergman Interview: Professor Turns Filmmaker
Diana Landau | February 29, 2024
Carl interviews filmmaker Sky Bergman. Sky's directorial debut, "Lives Well Lived" is currently airing on PBS, Amazon, iTunes and Kanopy. The documentary is a collection of fascinating interviews with about a dozen older adults sharing historical perspectives, their advice for future generations ad reflections on living a life well lived. Making documentaries is her second act as she is also an accomplished, award-winning photographer and still teaches photography at Cal Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Sky's parents were divorced so she grew up in Philadelphia, Florida and spent summers in upstate New York. She says she had the good fortune of living in a four-generational household. Her father was a geriatric physician. "He would come home and tell me these amazing stories about his patients. I know that colored my consciousness to want to be part of older people's lives and tell their stories."
In school, she was a bit of an introvert and a band geek. She found her passion for photography at an early age. "I fell in love with the dark room!" she says. After college she traveled the world as a professional photographer. Her artwork is included in permanent collections at the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Seattle Art Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, among others. Her commercial work has appeared on book covers for Random House and Farrar. She says a highlight of her photography career has been the cover of the Smithsonian Magazine in 2001. "I loved traveling and photography so I could follow both passions at the same time."
After teaching for many years, Sky (un)retired at age 56. "I wanted to make a movie about older generations and share their stories with the world." She put together a list of interesting people and a list of 20 questions for them. Carl asks her how she was able to fund the movie. "I have never let money stand in the way of what I want to do," she tells us. Sky decided the grant submission process was too lengthy for her, so she came up with a revenue-generating plan by renting out rooms in her home. She tells her visitors they are helping to fund her movie and they end up excited supporters as well. "A crazy, wonderful way to fund a film!" she acknowledges.
"Lives Well Lived" debuted to a sold-out audience of 850 with her grandmother and many of the film's subjects in attendance. It was a true highlight for Sky. She is now working on two new projects, "What is Mochitsuki?" a film celebrating family, tradition and mochi, and a documentary about the "Prime Time Band", a band of musicians aged 40 to 90 who are reigniting old passions. Sky says, "The only way to combat ageism is to make generational connections!"
Sky Bergman's (un)retirement advice:
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"Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone makes for a more interesting life."
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"Develop a new sense of purpose after you retire. Who are you now and what do you still want to do? Whatever it is, you have to plan and think about your future. Remember, finding your sense of purpose is life-long, and can change over time."
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"Have a good support system--not just family but also friends."
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"Attitude and resilience go hand-in-hand. There are so many times in our lives when we cannot control what's happening around us. But we can control our attitude about it."
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog.
Adam Bryant Interview: NYT "Corner Office" Columnist moves to his own C-Suite
Diana Landau | February 13, 2024
Carl interviews Adam Bryant this week. Adam is an award-winning (Including editing a Pulitzer story) journalist and had a weekly feature in the New York Times called Corner Office, where he interviewed business leaders across the globe. He was also Director of NYT Live, a global conference enterprise. He's had many different roles at the Times, including deputy editor in the Science department, deputy national editor and business editor at Newsweek Magazine. Adam says his 55th birthday gave him pause. "I thought if I wanted to do something else, I better get going." So he turned his side job into a new day job, writing books and coaching C-level execs.
Adam grew up in Montreal and Westchester, NY. He had a middle-class suburban childhood and his father was a journalist. (So of course, at first, Adam didn't want to pursue that course.) Adam was busy as a teen playing lots of sports and always having a part-time jobs. In college he worked as a reporter for small newspapers. He started working for the New York Times and his career took off in the 1990's. He had the Corner Office column for years and never missed a week.
After 30 years as a journalist, he realized he was going to leave the NYT at some point and there would be an "emotional blast zone" (as he calls it) of adjustment and the question was when. "I had to do some internal work to figure out what I wanted to do next." He recommends everyone who is contemplating making a leap to do just that. "Once you get out of the job/industry you're in, widen your lens. There's a big wide world out there. Time to experiment."
Over the course of 500+ interviews, Adam saw patterns and themes emerge in the business world and he started writing books about it. When he and his wife moved to New Orleans to be closer to their grown daughters and families, he says his wife gave him the third floor as his "office." You'll have to listen in to hear about the coolest office ever, which includes table tennis, foosball, and more.
Adam is now the Senior Managing Director at the ExCo Group, a company that mentors senior leaders to accelerate business impact. He is the author of four books, including his most recent ones, "The Leap to Leader" and "The CEO Test."
Adam's tips on making the leap to something new:
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OBOB: Optimal Band of Busyness
People should be aware of their optimal OBOB. How busy were you then and what level do you want now? For example, you can't assume if you're a CEO that all of a sudden you're going to be content playing golf twice a week.
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Common Pattern -- Want, Should, Need
We spend a great deal of our lives focusing on "should" and "need." At this stage of life, pause before you do something you "should." Stare down that difficult question of "What do I really want to do?" Give yourself some time.
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog.
Patty Forehand Interview: Elementary School Teacher Becomes Stand-Up Comedian
Diana Landau | January 09, 2024
Carl interviews the inimitable Patty Forehand, who was an elementary school teacher for 32 years before making the transition to a successful, hilarious stand-up comedian. She traded her class of students for the comedy club audience has never looked back. This (un)retired grandmother has no apologies for her raw, unfiltered comedy and she shares with our audience just how she made the transition to a completely different career.
Patty grew up near Macon Georgia with her three much older sisters. "My sisters say I was spoiled and I was." Her father suffered from ailments and multiple surgeries and her mother battled illness. "I learned humor was a salve to make people feel better."
In middle school, Patty says she was a wild child. It wasn't until she started high school and found her people--the drama kids. "Being in drama class felt therapeutic, to be somebody else on stage, or making people laugh," she says. An average student at best, her father bribed her to go to college by buying her a car. "He said Chevette but I thought he said Corvette!"
After a false start in nursing, Patty found she excelled at teaching. "I love the way kids think!" As a struggling student herself, she had empathy for kids who have challenges at home and school. She spent 32 years as a teacher and loved it. "It was very fulfilling. But you can't do it forever." Carl points out that teaching is very much in front of an audience and so is stand-up. They agree both are tough audiences! With six months to go before she retired from teaching, Patty went to an open mike with friends, on a whim. Patty performed a five minute routine and she found her new calling.
She started taking classes and doing more open mics. "I had a lot of encouragement early on. I fell in love with stand-up," she adds. Her big “Aha!" moment came when she was referred to a reporter for the Washington Post who was interviewing people over 50 who were doing something different. Tune in to hear how she had a chance to work with Michelle Pfeiffer once and find out about her weirdest gig ever. Now Patty performs regularly all over the country and has had stints in radio, podcasts, TV and more. She's having a blast!
Patty Forehand's (un)retirement tips:
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Pushing beyond your comfort zone: "I think that's where you grow, especially after 50. We want to work that brain! Do things you don't think you're good at--you might surprise yourself."
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Switching it up: "You end up in a routine and it's good to challenge that. For example, my husband did all the cooking. So now I have learned to cook a few things and he had to let go of it. It has freed him up to pursue other things he enjoys."
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Trying something new: "Take it out of your brain! Stop just thinking about it. You actually have to take a physical step toward your dream."
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media. After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog.
