I’m a little shocked when I look in the mirror and see “a couple” of wrinkles. I earned them, but I certainly don’t feel old except when I get out of bed in the morning, with bones creaking a little, usually at 5:30 or 6 AM. But after that . . . watch out!
At 80 years young, I have been described as a force to be reckoned with. But I, too, have a past that has shaped who I am today. I sometimes go back there in my head.
“I heard the basement door slam and heard feet pounding up the stairs. I was 11 years old.
I ran to the bathroom, the only door in the house that locked, with my brother, who was 6, and my sister, who was 3 months old. My heart was racing.
I heard them yelling. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I think it was, “Where is she?!?” My sister started to cry.
My father was a bigger-than-life type of guy. We lived in a big house. He was the Chief Accountant of a big company.
He drove a Jaguar car. He flew his own plane until he got his license taken away because he flew under the telephone wires.
Soon after he bought the Jaguar, he offered a boy in our small town of 3000 people a ride in his new car. He was killed, the boy was killed, and two people in the car he hit were killed.
We were in a state of shock, as were the rest of the people in the town. Then we found out he was a gambler, and we owed everyone in town.
We were the pariahs in the town. Everyone hated us. Including the boys who were pounding through our house as I was huddled in the bathroom.
I was alone in the house at night because my mother had taken a job as a cocktail waitress outside the town to pay his gambling debts. She was 33.
She quit that job after the house raid and started a business using a hearse to pick up women’s store dummies from department store windows for repairing and repainting. She hung the mannequins upside down in our garage, which opened to the street. We had many near-accidents.
Then she started a doll shop and hospital and opened a storefront in the tiny town. People visited from miles around to bring their antique dolls to her to make like new again.
She vowed to pay everyone he owed before we left the town. And she did. Her lesson to me was, “Always be able to support your family.”
With my mother as a role model, I have been a serial entrepreneur for over 40 years. Why did you start your business? Write yourself a journal page on this question!
Pioneering Progress: My Journey as a Female Entrepreneur in the Dawn of the Digital Age
After working in government for 17 years, I founded a company in 1980 when women could not get a credit card in their own name, Apple had barely come out with its first computer, and the internet hadn’t been invented.
I typed my course books and the labels to send out the brochures promoting my seminars. We hand-wrote the name tags.
I bought my first computer in about 1982. It was an Apple IIe, and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven! I was able to print out labels and course material! And that began my love affair with technology.
Even now, I know just enough to be dangerous! I once did a CNTL-ALT-DEL on that Apple IIe and lost about 300 pages of a book I was writing. Back then, it was gone.
The company I started in 1980 now has 10 offices around the country. I am still the Board President of that company.
Golden Opportunities: Inspiring and Empowering Women Over 60 Through Connection and Entrepreneurship
In my sixth company, I started about four years ago, Nan McKay Connects, my focus is on empowering women, especially those over 60.
Most of my interviews are with women over 50 on my podcast, TrailBlazers Impact, or on my two YouTube channels. Many are over 60 and starting their own business! My book, Gold in the Golden Years, available on Amazon, is for women over 50, providing a blueprint and an Action Plan to start and grow a business.
Because many women over 50, and especially over 60, find technology daunting, I have a coaching business to help women with technology by teaching Using ChatGPT to start your business and by building customized digital quiz funnels to build their email lists, target their ideal customers, and lead them to the next offer.
Breaking Boundaries in Retirement: Tackling Staff Turnover and Cultivating Future Leaders
Retirement isn’t a time to slow down; it’s a time for emancipation. If you can still think and get around, go for it! There are no limits and boundaries in “old age” other than those you set for yourself.
Always have a new passion you are cultivating in your back pocket.
My new passion is to crack the code on the staff turnover rate today in the U.S. which is quoted by Zippia at 57.3%. Thirty-three percent of employees quit their job within the first 90 days that they are employed, and 17% quit their job within their first month of employment.
Whose fault is this? Some say, “spoiled brat kids.” I say, “Always look at yourself first.”
Seventy percent of the employees who leave say they do not feel engaged or connected at work. One of the most frequently cited reasons is poor management or a hostile work environment due to management style. Senior management and human resource professionals are usually called out as the problems.
Let’s turn the coin and ask, what at the top reasons companies with a high retention rate are successful?
Six reasons are given: Flexible work environment, adequate compensation, recognition for achievements, useful benefits, opportunities for career growth, and proper work-life balance.
In addition, organizations with a strong onboarding process retain 91% of their first-year workers. Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave. Management is responsible for good marks as well.
With 10,000 baby boomers retiring a day, employers have many jobs to fill, including management positions. The GenX generation is not large enough to fill the positions. That leaves the next generation down, Gen Y, the Millennials.
What’s my solution? I am beginning a new program called the Leader Development Program, a program to cultivate our future leaders. My program provides companies with monthly fully developed train-the-trainer leadership courses which include agendas, learning objectives, videos, scripts, PowerPoints, quizzes, participant workbooks, a Facilitator Guide, and resource material for the topic.
For an introductory offer of $697 a month, businesses can utilize the materials to train up to 50 staff. Once a month, I will meet with the trainers to answer questions on the topic of the month.
Igniting Passions in Later Life: Embracing New Challenges and Living Your Best Life Beyond Retirement
The Leader Development Program is my passion. Today. I’m already thinking about my next passion – to start a group of women entrepreneurs experiencing these challenges.
Dig deep to find that passion – that spark – that excitement for whatever turns you on. Maybe it’s volunteering at an animal shelter. Maybe it’s running for a political office. Maybe it’s starting a school garden where children learn about the environment. Maybe it’s selling something you design on Etsy.
If you are happy playing golf, lunching with friends, or just being social, keep doing it. Whatever makes you happy . . . keep doing it.
Perhaps there is a way you could do a little more. In addition to the social functions, nonprofit agencies could always use your help as a volunteer.
The point is that you have a lot to give. “All you need is within you now,” as Tony Robbins says. Just start.
Once you start living outside yourself, outside your head, outside that iPad or TV program, outside of social media . . . you’ll find your life.
Soaring to New Heights: The Three Keys to Ageless Empowerment and Embracing Life’s Journey
5 Proof Positive Tips for Having a Healthier Lifestyle(Opens in a new browser tab)
I believe there are three keys to ageless empowerment: curiosity, creativity, and a growth mindset. If you think you’re old, you are. If you think you can’t do it, you can’t. We know we can see farther behind than we can ahead, but whatever that magic number is for when we leave, I want to be able to say, “It was an E-Ticket ride!” Life is fascinating. Life is beautiful. You don’t have the responsibilities you once had. You truly are free. Free to soar! Look around you. Perhaps we can open that ceiling just a little bit to see the sky above. Then maybe we let go of that couch or chair we are hanging onto. Now . . . let’s open that ceiling wide and let go of that furniture . . . and FLY!
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