Joe Saul-Sehy Interview: "Stacking Benjamins" in his Mom's Basement!
Diana Landau | September 02, 2024
Carl interviews "Stacking Benjamins" host Joe Saul-Sehy. Joe is a former financial advisor and has represented American Express and Ameriprise in media. He was "Money Man" on WXYZ-TV in Detroit and has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit News and more. Joe left his financial advising career at age 40 and never looked back. His award-winning podcast is one of the most listened to in the personal finance sphere. Plus, he's really funny! (Full disclosure: Carl is a total fanboy of the show.)
Joe grew up in Michigan in a hard-working middle-class family. He tells us that whenever his parents would discuss money, as kids they had to leave the room, which was like a lot of families back then. "So I end up going to college with zero understanding of how money worked, how credit cards worked." His financial lesson came when he went to a military college in South Carolina and with no money, no income and no job, he somehow secured a credit card. He bought things, not thinking about how he was going to pay for them. "I burned my credit right out of college."
Joe worked at a call center for a water treatment plant and decided he needed to make a change. He eventually became a financial advisor. He loved helping people, while not taking his own advice. "The lie that I lived, that people still live today, is that if I just make more money, I don't need to budget. All my problems are solved if I just make a little more." Over time he realized that he should start taking the advice he was giving other people and did well in his 16-year career.
AHA moment: At age 40, a fellow employee was leaving the firm, saying he felt like he had "...other mountains to climb." Those words had a huge impact on several people at the office, including Joe. "Why spend your life doing something that's a 6 or 7 outta 10 for you?" he says.
Joe sold his business and pursued one of his dreams--to be a high school teacher and track coach. He figured out quickly that dealing with administration wasn't going to work for him. He said that sometimes, "you just have to go down the path to see what opens you up, what lights you up." Joe pivoted to consulting for financial planners, ghost-writing for them in various media, becoming the Money Man on TV and working as a radio host.
"My favorite radio guest Josh Bannerman (AKA OG) and I decided to start a podcast different from the others, about making personal finance more approachable, interesting and fun. We had no idea how to do it!" Thirteen years later, the Stacking Benjamins podcast is a huge success, one of the top listened-to podcasts in the financial realm. He currently lives with his wife in Texarkana, and when not working on the podcast, one of Joe's other passions is board games.
What's with Joe's Mom's basement? You'll need to listen...
Joe Saul-Sehy's Unretirement advice:
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"Stop spending time online. Go to conferences on whatever interests you. Go and meet people!"
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"If you join and volunteer with local clubs, you actually find your real-life community."
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"It's a truth: You are a product of who you surround yourself with."
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"It ain't about retirement. It's about the journey we're on." 
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
Meet the (Un)Retirement Experts: Paul Long, Gary Sirak and Dr. Ron Kaiser
Diana Landau | August 27, 2024
We're celebrating the end of summer with a special bonus episode, Meet the (Un)Retirement Experts. It's a little different from the typical I Used to be Somebody episode. Instead of just one guest who's had a really interesting second act, we're talking to 3 great minds in the (un)retirement world. A little twist is that they are from 3 different age perspectives too. Paul is in his 60's, Gary is in his 70's and Ron is in his 80's!
Paul Long
As founder-creator of New Way Forward, Paul helps retired people pursue a new life of relevance, impact and income that is aligned with what they truly want. Paul grew up in Dallas, Texas and says he literally grew up in the radio business, going with his dad to work. He had careers as a TV reporter and TV weathercaster.
After 20 years, Paul pivoted to the production side of the business and founded Paul Long Productions, developing Emmy-award-winning content, executing video, live, events, campaigns and more. In his 50's, Paul noticed more and more people were looking to pivot their lives from the default one to a life that was right for them. Now, as an experienced storyteller and journalist, New Way Forward has given Paul his own fulfillment as he helps people transition and realize their best life.
Paul's Tips on Unretirement:
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"Take some time, self-evaluate, look for relevance and purpose."
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"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
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"Ask yourself: What do I want holistically in my life, not just professionally or about earning income?"
Gary Sirak
Gary is an author, speaker and financial advisor from Canton, Ohio. Growing up his parents struggled financially for years until his dad turned his American dream into a reality, becoming very successful in the insurance business. "I got to see both sides, having a little and a lot," Gary tells us. After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, Gary worked so hard that he realized he was at the peak of his career and he wasn't happy. A friend told him to look back to where he came from. Gary says he had been pushing so hard he never took the time to celebrate his successes. "That really opened up a light I hadn't seen."
He lost some friends almost right after retirement and Gary felt there must be a better way. He wrote the successful book, How to Retire and Not Die, to help others have a better life in retirement. When not consulting, writing or speaking, Gary also enjoys mentoring and writing songs--he's written 35 so far. Gary says, "If I can impact people in a positive way, how important is that!"
Gary's Tips on Unretirement:
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"Look for someone you know who is successfully retired, and take them to lunch, or coffee. I call them 'retirement mentors.' You can learn from them."
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"Have a purpose, a passion, a plan" Stay active, be involved in community service and have financial peace of mind."
Dr. Ron Kaiser, Ph.D.
"Dr. Ron" is 87 and lives in Philadelphia, PA where he is now the Chief Immersion Officer at Better Age. He is a psychologist, coach, author, podcaster, keynote and TEDx speaker. He is author and host of the podcast of REJUVENAGING: The Art and Science of Growing Older with Enthusiasm.
Ron grew up in Minneapolis in a middle-class, close-knit community. He had a successful, decades-long career in psychology, (he's still doing it in addition to everything else), but in his 60's he noticed that some of his peers seemed to thrive after retirement while others thought retirement meant decline. "We've now got the science that people are retiring and living 30 years or more. I felt an obligation to spread the word." He tells us that after he wrote his book, he assumed everything would fall into place, which it did not. "I needed to learn social media, use my voice for good, be more assertive and teach," he says.
Dr. Ron's Unretirement Tips:
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"You have to discipline yourself. When you're retired, you don't have to go somewhere at a certain time, eat at a certain time, etc. But if you want to be productive, the stuff that got you there is the same thing that's going to get you further in life."
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"Age is a number, not an excuse!"
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"If you're looking for purpose, you have to find it within yourself. It's important to set goals through every stage of life."
There's a common thread with these wise guys. They all have a driving force to help people live their best life. How cool is that? 
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.
Edward Hechter Interview: High School Dropout Hits it Big Time as an Entrepreneur and in Pickleball
Diana Landau | August 10, 2024
Meet the remarkable Edward Hechter, who has "unretired" multiple times. He was a highly successful exec in tech, another incarnation as an entrepreneur with his wife, a consultant who helps companies overcome challenges and even the CEO of the giant Pickleball Central. "I tend to stay involved helping people that I adore solving business puzzles."
Edward grew up in Southern California in a typical middle-class family. "People say I was overly verbose and precocious." In high school he became active in debate, skills he would use for the rest of his working life. It was during his junior year of high school that he became one of the best high school debaters in the country. Midway through his senior year, he transferred schools and the new school didn't give him credit for some of his earned coursework. He decided to leave.
Edward began working in 1981 at the age of 17 in a tech consulting firm. He applied for the "girl Friday" position and as the company grew, he advanced. The company built websites for businesses all over the country and when Edward took the helm as the EVP and GM, the company went from $8 million in revenue to $100 million. "I was the right guy in the right chair," he tells us.
In his first unretirement, Edward figured he'd focus on becoming a soccer dad, volunteering and skiing on weekends. But he missed the intellectual side of solving complicated business puzzles. So he and his wife went shopping for a "broken" business to rehabilitate. They found a family-friendly, fixer upper in PartyPail, an online party supplies company. Edward says they went from just two orders a day to exploding in volume in just 5 years with $5 million in revenues.
In his second unretirement, Edward still wanted to help companies so he became a consultant/investor/mentor to help businesses break through whatever was holding them back. He loves helping countless entrepreneurs solve real world puzzles. "My love language is service," he says. "So I have to do good things for others. And if it turns out to be a good thing for myself too, even better." He was asked to come on board as the CEO of burgeoning Pickleball Central in 2015. And eventually helped the founders sell the business. In 2017, Edward created the Hawaii Open Pickleball Championships, the first sanctioned Hawaiian pro pickleball event.
Now in his third unretirement at age 60, (we see a definite pattern here), Edward and his wife live in Hawaii and the state of Washington. Edward still consults as much as he wants to and plays pickleball 3-4x a week. He says he's focusing on pickleball, poke, people and peace.
Edward Hechter's tips on life and work:
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"Know thyself, and what lights your fire."
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"It is often hard to tell what lit your fire until it's gone. Then you recognize you want it back." (Edward's example is his drive to help companies solve problems. He missed that.)
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"Figure out what your love language is. It's about finding the one thing that brings you a feeling of love. Start from a premise of joy and everything is easier."
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"Who do you want to share a foxhole with? That to me is the ultimate test."
• (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
Mary-Lou Nash Interview: Moves to South Africa and becomes a Winemaster!
Diana Landau | July 01, 2024
What a fascinating story about Mary-Lou Nash who arrived in South Africa with just a backpack and eventually becomes a winemaster. Her Black Pearl winery is in the Paarl valley, near Cape Town. Her story is one of curiosity for the world, taking chances, a lot of hard work and dogged perseverance. In 1995 she had been a teacher traveling the world and decided on a whim to take her backpack and meet her dad in South Africa. She had no idea then that choosing to go to South Africa would set her life on a completely new course.
Mary-Lou was born in England and grew up in Canada and Maine. Both of her parents were doctors and she was one of 4 children. "Everywhere I've lived in my life was in the countryside." As a teen, Mary-Lou says she partied hard, played hard at sports and studied hard. (Even at an early age, her passions were her driving force.) She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.A. in Anthropology, summa cum laude and then taught English in Japan, traveling the world in her spare time.
Her father had remarried, went to South Africa for a honeymoon and then purchased a farm, not realizing it had 40 acres of Chenin Blanc. Mary-Lou visited him there. "I knew nothing about grapes," she tells us. They had no laborers and decided to harvest the grapes themselves. They picked 3 tons on a Friday and with an aching back recruited more workers and finished the harvest. Mary-Lou was hooked. She told her dad she would stay on as the manager. In 1997, they planted grapes for red wines.
Always determined, she is a self-taught winemaker that faced real discrimination in the 1990's male-dominated wine industry. She worked hard and never gave up, always reaching out and befriending other winemakers to continually learn more. She received her Cape Wine Masters degree in 2011 from the University in Stellenbosch. In 2001 she created her first vintage herself. "I had bottled, created a label and had never given a thought to selling it!" Today, Mary-Lou's winery produces 7,300 barrels of red in addition to white wine.
Fun Fact: Mary-Lou met a wine distributor along the way that helped her get her label into Disney. Turns out Jack Sparrow's pirate ship (Pirates of the Caribbean) is also named "Black Pearl." Her Cabernet is the #1-selling South African red in Disney World.
Unfortunately, Mary-Lou was involved in a harrowing experience being robbed at knifepoint in her home at the winery and she decided to move to a home in Stellenbosch recently. "Everything happens for a reason. I was isolated at Black Pearl. Now I have moved into town, I have a whole new group of friends, I can walk everywhere, I take a yoga class on the beach and I've joined a sailing club. I love my life now!"
Mary-Lou's life advice:
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"Don't always take the easy route. Don't be scared of taking chances."
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"Put yourself first and do what makes you happy. We can't waste any time at our age!"
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"Always accept invitations--get out there! You never know who you might meet." (Her dad told her this one but she firmly lives it.)
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"It's all about the F-Word, as in FUN!"
• (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
Stephanie Stuckey Interview: Rebuilding Stuckey's a part of Americana
Diana Landau | June 11, 2024
Carl interviews the unstoppable Stephanie Stuckey, the CEO of Stuckey's. The brand is known by generations as a highway oasis serving up pecan log rolls and kitschy souvenirs. Many Boomers fondly remember family road trips throughout the U.S. when stopping at Stuckey's was a tradition. Reviving her family's company is just the latest in a long list of Stephanie's accomplishments. She's been a Public Defender, a Georgia State Representative, a Director of Sustainability and Resilience for the City of Atlanta and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. Stephanie's story has recently been featured in The New York Times, the TODAY Show and the Washington Post.
Stephanie was born in Easton, Georgia and was surrounded by family. "It was a fun childhood!" Her father was a U.S. Congressman, so the family split their time each year between Washington D.C. and Easton. Going back and forth between two very different homes, Stephanie says, "You grow up very resilient and you have to learn those social skills to survive."
After college and law school, Stephanie spent over 14 years as a Public Defender. She then served for 7 years as an elected Representative for the Georgia State Legislature. in 2012 she left politics and became the Executive Director of GreenLaw, an environmentally focused law resource center in Atlanta. (Another one of her passions.)
Stephanie's grandfather sold Stuckey's way back in 1964 for $16 million (the equivalent price in today's value would be $158 million). She purchased back her family's company in 2019 with no prior entrepreneurial experience. "I didn't even know how to read a balance sheet!" she tells us. Stephanie learned what she had to do--and that didn't include upgrading the actual physical stores, which were on the decline. Only a dozen out of 300+ stores were left. Instead, she realized people still wanted to be able to buy their pecan snacks and candies. Undaunted, she found two partners, (one a pecan farmer and one a marketing exec) and the brand now has an online store, a distribution center and just two years later, the company's sales have gone from $2 million to $14 million.
In addition to running the company and raising a family, Stephanie just wrote her memoir, UnStuck: Rebirth of an American Icon this year. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys traveling by car to explore the backroads of America and pulling over at every boiled peanut stand. She says she follows her grandfather's and father's advice: Work hard, be fair and have fun!"
Stephanie's advice on starting a second (or third) act:
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"You are not alone! I think a lot of times it's very lonely, I know it is, it can be isolating when you're trying to put something out there."
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"Go out there and find your community so you can support each other. Just reach out!"
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"Embrace your weaknesses as opportunities to learn and celebrate your strengths!"
• (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.
