1896 – Maturepreneurship with Jannette Anderson

Josh (00:00:04) - Hey there, thoughtful listener. Would you like consistent and predictable sales activity with no spam and no ads? I'll teach you step by step how to do this, particularly if you're an agency owner, consultant, coach, or B2B service provider. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create more than $10 million in revenue. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you. With us right now is Jannette Anderson. Jannette, you are known as the Maturepreneur Maverick. Your website is maturePreneur world. Jannette. Thank you so much for joining us.

Jannette (00:01:13) - Hi, Josh, I'm so happy to be here. Well, I just brighten up the whole screen in the room, so, like, you're already made my day.

Jannette (00:01:21) - Well.

Josh (00:01:21) - Thank you. Well, listen, I am really grateful for the message that you share, because I believe that there is a very devoted audience that finds themselves in Will. And I'll tell you what, we'll even include the the young, sprightly, 50, 60, 70 year olds. How is that.

Jannette (00:01:38) - Exactly? And they are. So yeah, that's there's this whole new world coming and surprisingly, no one's paying attention. And so I am the, you know, on my soapbox about that. So people don't miss this incredible opportunity.

Josh (00:01:55) - Yeah. Well, I believe it has never been easier to for someone who has gained a lot of professional experience. You know, they've had a very, maybe successful career corporate run, and maybe they've developed enough skills and or, you know, they they're at the stage, maybe they've got some savings now they want to decide, you know what? I don't want to have to wait until I'm 70 years old to retire. Like I want to start easing into that life and maybe work less or work on my own terms, or travel and work.

Josh (00:02:26) - And in my current corporate job, I don't get that. And I believe that there's maybe some sort of happy medium right where I don't have to cut the umbilical cord and just, you know, sit around all day and putter. I actually am very good at what I do. I love doing what I do and now I want to do more of it. But Jannette, they want to do it on their own terms. Help us out.

Jannette (00:02:48) - Well, you know what I call it? The rise of the mature preneur. And what's happening is literally millions and millions and millions of baby boomers and late Gen Xers are coming into the entrepreneurial marketplace. And like I said, no one's actually paying attention because this demographic is largely invisible, undervalued and completely underserved. So like you said, in many ways it's never been easier. But for that demographic, it's actually quite hard because especially as women, we have to fight the invisibility factor. Literally. I have experienced this Josh of and I'm not a very invisible person.

Jannette (00:03:28) - I have blue hair and polka dot glasses and, you know, I tend to be pretty visible in the world. And I've been in business situations where I literally was invisible and completely ignored. And I was shocked by that when it first happened, and impinged on me four years ago, I was kind of like, okay, ageism is not just a notional thing. It's a real live thing where literally people were talking to me, ask me what I did, I'm mid-sentence answering them, and they turn and start talking to someone else. And that happened not once, but twice in a row.

Josh (00:04:03) - It doesn't feel.

Jannette (00:04:03) - Good. Yeah. No kidding. And I was just not used to that. You know, at first I thought it was just that guy being rude. And then when it happened the second time, I was like, okay, they can't all be dead. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm not showing up. And no, I was actually showing up very present and started to watch. And every woman over 60 was literally completely ignored.

Jannette (00:04:23) - And and so that got me curious. Okay, what's really going on here? The more I investigated, the more I really started to understand that there's a lot of misconceptions. Like you said, perhaps they have some savings, some do. But our society is trained that we retire at 65, and typically we used to die at 70 or 75, so we weren't around a long time. So most people do not have the income and or retirement savings they need to live 20, 30, 40 more years. Nor do they want to golf and knit for 20, 30 or 40 more years. Like you said, they've still got lots of contribution left in them. So my hashtag and mission and and tagline is hashtag not done by a long shot because these people are not done.

Josh (00:05:14) - No. My goodness. And let's talk about, you know, let's say that there's a leader listening, and they have a few people on the team that, let's say, exceed them, you know, age wise, and talk about for a moment maybe some of the how leaders can kind of reach that what maybe un or under tapped or underutilized talent and or wisdom and experience.

Josh (00:05:40) - I mean, I know even in, in my youthful age, you know, still as many decades as I've worked professionally and worked with people like I am just not the same person I was in my 20s and 30s. Now, that's not to say that. There were maybe some advantages that I might bring to the table. As a 20 something year old, I would still in terms of like me, let me just say, I tell you, I am grateful for who I am today. Yeah. When when I realize, both. How much wisdom or how much I do know. But also, I would say, you know, how much I realized, I don't know. And that that humility that is actually, grown with me as well.

Jannette (00:06:26) - Absolutely. So there's a bunch of things you mentioned that I want to comment on. One of the things is, that that yes, we do get more. Not everyone, but we generally get more emotional intelligence as we age. And that plus experience is what wisdom ends up being.

Jannette (00:06:43) - Is that ability to, correlate our inner game or our inner grounding with that external experience and expertise. And that creates wisdom, which is and again, not every old person, older person is wise and not every young person is not wise. Right. So I don't want to be making ages generalizations. But in corporate America, good luck going back into the workforce if you're 68 or 75, right? Because even though you have the ability and even though really statistically you will likely be there longer than any millennial or Gen Z that they hire, the reality is those people tend to change jobs every two years, two and a half at most. And, Boomer and Gen Xer are typically way more loyal. They will be with you ten or more years, even if they are older, because that's their their culture that they grew up with. And in terms of corporate speaking of culture, one of the great benefits of hiring someone in the workplace that is older is that they do bring tremendous emotional intelligence. That's been shown, statistically, that the culture of an organization shifts to a much happier, more grounded, healthy workplace when there are older people employed there because they raise the level of emotional intelligence.

Jannette (00:08:06) - So if your culture is suffering, which many companies are post-Covid because of all the rampant changes and losses of people and so forth and so on, hiring older people will actually help you get back on track faster, than than if you were hiring younger people for so many reasons. So that's the workplace. And it's a challenge to get back in because let's face it, that younger person is going to get paid less, but they don't bring the wisdom and therefore the productivity. So it's a real trade off that that leaders need to think about more deeply. we're used to dismissing people who are 65 plus or even 50 plus and, and thinking they're done and they're not reliable and, and so forth. The opposite is actually the truth. And in terms of the entrepreneurial market, yeah, there's lots of opportunities like there is for everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur. But good luck getting alone if you're 72, good luck man. Insurance or any kind of business insurance. If you're 68. Good luck getting any VC capital or funding.

Jannette (00:09:09) - If you're 60 or 85. There's a lady in Calgary who just won an award, for the top eight over 84 and her her app that she developed in the new technology company that she started won a global award for best app. And she's 86. She could not get funding for her startup for love nor money, but she's got an award winning app and a multi-million dollar company now that she started at 82. So VCs and funders and banks and insurance companies overlook this demographic at their peril. Frankly, I wish they'd stopped doing that.

Josh (00:09:47) - Yeah. So what you're saying makes sense to me, right? Because obviously I think it would be immoral and certainly wildly inappropriate to say, okay, well, that person is of a particular race. So therefore I am going to discount what they have to say. Right. Or they've got, you know, some sort of a physical handicap. So therefore I'm going to discount what they have to say. And I think a, a really good leader recognizes and looks for the strengths that diversity brings to the table.

Josh (00:10:19) - And I think any leader who doesn't seek for that, and then they just try to put all the square pegs into round holes and everybody needs to be the same. That's not what a great team is comprised of in my opinion. You want people that bring in, you know, here's our person who's got really strong emotional intelligence, here's someone who has four decades of experience in this field and is kind of seen and where they might, you know, again, not to stereotype, let's say maybe, you know, they it's just someone who doesn't keep up on the latest trends. Right? But they know the principles so well. That it's almost like the soft skills can apply to about anything that comes through the door. It's kind of like, you know, leading on values like, well, if we know what our values are, then decisions are quite easy, no matter what the vehicle or the technology is that we're looking at. again, it's it's a good I getting back to my point, I think a great leader recognizes strengths, weaknesses and opportunities there.

Josh (00:11:22) - And they, you know, they want to utilize that really, really well. and, Jannette, one question I wanted to ask you, and you're welcome to address that if you like. But, you know, I think about as well, let's say consultants, coaches, service providers, agency owners that are independent, right. And as business owners, we may need professional services. And I got to tell you, this is my own bias, but I generally prefer, hiring someone that's got some years of experience behind them. and I'm not saying that that necessarily means that they have to be in their 50s, 60s, but I prefer someone that's been in the industry for a little bit that to me, like when I'm hiring a contractor or an agency like that, you know, I'd rather have tried and true, rather than flash bang whiz, you know, you know, magic in a bottle, promise. You know, over promises and maybe not enough experience to back it up again. I'm probably muddling too many metaphors in there, but, do you get what I'm saying?

Jannette (00:12:22) - Yeah, absolutely.

Jannette (00:12:23) - I think you're right there. Balance and and on both sides. And really what we need to do is actually just check into that individual skills and abilities because I believe and I think there are some statistics, I know there are some statistics that back this up that this generation is actually and this cohort of entrepreneurs is actually going to create a tremendous amount of innovation. People think of older people as those who are not very current and, you know, on trends or technology etc. and that is true for some. But there are also some. I've got a 76 year old friend who can run circles around almost any tech whiz you give me, and certainly in the realm of video and video production, because she just loves it. And so she's geeked out on it for the past ten years. so we need to stop thinking of people as a people and check in with that person. What are your skills and abilities? I think what what a lot of older people bring to any role, whether it's consultant, workplace, you know, employee or entrepreneur is context.

Jannette (00:13:30) - We've seen a lot of things. Now you can get people who are really stuck in the past, but they can be any age, right? Yeah. And what they bring is context and the ability to look at the big picture more so than those that are in their 20s, 30s and 40s. And again, most of this is not specifically age specific. It's individual specific, but there are trends and themes and so forth that we can look at and point to. There's this thing called the happiness you that they've done a tremendous amount of research on. And basically the bottom line is we are our happiest human beings when we're very young and we're when we're older and when we are the most miserable is when we're in our 30 to 50s because that's when we have the most stress, the most challenges, the most. Yeah, all of that. And so we are happier, more balanced. And I got to tell you, it was my birthday two days ago. I'm 64 and I have never been more grounded, happy about my life, free from a lot of approval issues.

Jannette (00:14:32) - Yeah, you know, energized and juiced about my passion. And that's what you're going to find in a lot of older people now that we didn't have previously. And the reality is, surprisingly and and distressingly, I don't know the statistic for the US, and I don't know where the stat came from. So don't, you know, don't count on it as accurate. But I said that 75% of Canadians retire with less than $25,000. Yeah, about that 75%.

Josh (00:15:03) - I don't even know how you do that.

Jannette (00:15:05) - You don't you can't live. Yeah. Yeah. Here on that. Right. Nodding head.

Josh (00:15:09) - Doesn't go very.

Jannette (00:15:09) - Far. Yeah. And the US is not very different actually. We assume most people have the money to live on and our governments are not you know, they're funding. Well I don't know about the US government, but I assume it's very similar. They are funding the Canadian retirement fund out of deficit. In other words, they are making money in order to be able to pay those people.

Jannette (00:15:31) - And so that's not going to last. It's not sustainable. So they must go into entrepreneurship. But the problem is there's no support for them. There's no platforms, there's no events. There's no that's why I'm creating an event and a podcast and a, membership and all of this stuff. Because there isn't anything for this demographic. There's focus on aging, there's a lot of focus on retirement. But those events are about buying. Getting your will done and buying your place in the seniors home and your burial plot and Viagra and all of that. It's all about retiring. I want to see events and conversations and publications about re firing, because there's a lot of people who are doing that who are retiring rather than retiring.

Josh (00:16:18) - Your website. Jannette is mature Preneur world. You have an event. You have a conference that's coming up. Can you share a little bit more about, those of us who may know someone that would really benefit from association with you.

Jannette (00:16:34) - Yeah, well thank you, I appreciate that.

Jannette (00:16:36) - It's it's coming up in in September 2024, 26th and 27th in Calgary, Alberta. it is a conference. We call it unconventional convention. And really it's speakers and tradeshow and entertainers and activities. Coaches corner podcast alley where we'll be podcasting live. So love to have you come up and be one of the podcasters where people who are 55 plus basically come to find out, how can they continue to contribute and make a meaningful difference and a magnificent living because they are, like I said, to inspired to retire. So that event we're creating because like I said earlier, every event I have found so far is really about how do you go out to pasture, basically how, you know, there might be some travel stuff, there might be lifestyle and wellness. There's a little bit of stuff around, you know, how to stay vibrant. But frankly, the best way to stay vibrant is to stay contributing and to stay relevant. That's how to stay healthy mentally and physically.

Josh (00:17:41) - Oh, you better believe it.

Josh (00:17:42) - Your website, Jannette, is mature Preneur world Jannette Anderson again, you are the mature preneur Maverick Jannette. It's been great having you. Thank you so much for this conversation.

Jannette (00:17:55) - Thank you Josh, and thank you for providing such a great platform for entrepreneurs.

Josh (00:18:05) - Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence comment guest. If you're a listener, I'd love to shout out your business to our whole audience for free. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or join our Listener Facebook group. Just search for the Thoughtful Entrepreneur and Facebook. I'd love, even if you just stop by to say hi, I'd love to meet you. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together we are empowering one another as thoughtful entrepreneurs. Hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning. That's right, seven days a week you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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