Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, is an award-winning Branding and Marketing Expert, Certified Success Coach, Speaker and Author, who has just released her third book, Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement
Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement” (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, Inc.). The book is now available on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle versions, and the demand for it is rapidly growing due to the fact that almost half of the Baby Boomers do not have enough retirement savings to support themselves.
I sat down with Lisa to discuss her new book, and the importance behind it, and here’s what she had to say:
Q: Lisa, you share some startling statistics in your book regarding Boomer’s retiring. Can you share some of the main ones with us?
A: Absolutely! And they terrified me so I’m sure many of your readers will feel the same way: According to the 2010 report, The EBRI Retirement Readiness RatingTMby EBRI.org: 47.2% of older Boomers (56-62) are at risk of outliving their retirement savings. And 43.7% of younger Boomers (46-55) are at risk of not having enough money for basic monthly expenses when they retire.
That means that almost HALF of the Boomers are facing a less-than-stellar financial situation as they hit retirement age and then when they enter into their future elder years; especially the Boomers who are now 46-55. This is a very serious issue for not only the Boomers, but for our country as well when the financial support for them needs to kick-in. I, personally, find this all to be a really frightening situation on a lot of levels.
Q: Is this what prompted you to write your new book?
A: Yes. Due to those sobering financial facts, we currently have millions of Boomers wondering, “What can I do to generate income, full-time or part-time, or on the side of my current job, that is flexible, interesting, fun, possible to start on a tight budget, and do into my golden years?”
Therefore, I wrote “Boomers into Business” to provide some answers and options to that question.
Q: Your book explains how a Boomer can become a “Topic Expert”. Can you explain what that means and how it can improve a Boomer’s financial future?
A: I believe most everyone knows something, from their career background, life experiences or from a hobby that other people will pay money to learn about. Whether you’ve been an HR professional your whole career, or a construction worker, homemaker, dentist, Life Coach, housepainter, or a lover of growing roses, my book teaches Boomers how to monetize what they know to create a good income, in a wide variety of ways, as a Topic Expert. And, health permitting, it’s something a person can do for years…way past 65…and, as we just discussed, for many Boomers, working past 65 years old is going to be necessary.
Basically, readers of the book learn how to take what they know to develop an “expert” brand platform that can lead to: consulting others; conducting training seminars online and offline; developing many strategies for on-going passive income; creating simple “how to” products to sell; and much more.
And it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been an employee your whole career or whether you are currently self-employed. Nor do a person’s education level, career background, or business experience matter. The book was written to take a lot of guesswork out of the process.
Q: That sounds like something many people would be interested in doing. And I know you have quite a few examples in the book of how other people have turned themselves into a Topic Expert. Can you share one example?
A: Sure! One example I share in the book is about a typical “mow & blow” neighborhood gardener who was struggling financially and the physical nature of his work was affecting him as he got older. But, during his career, he had developed a unique method to bring totally dead lawns back to green, lush lawns. And neighbors of his clients started to ask him for help with their brown lawns, and then he started charging other gardeners to learn his method. This then led to him being an in-demand speaker at local and national Home & Garden Expos and industry tradeshows, as well as conducting his own workshops for homeowners that he charged people to attend.
Needless to say, by branding and marketing himself as a “guru of growing green lawns” he went from an income for years that was in the low 5-figures to one in the 6-figures, and he was able to leave his daily “mow & blow” gardener business behind. Plus, this all happened in his mid-60s and he was able to do it for many years afterwards…thus greatly improving his financial situation and his quality of life.
Q: That’s a great story! But what if someone doesn’t have the desire to travel a lot for speaking engagements, especially as they get older?
A: That’s the beauty of modern technology! I have clients who have NO desire to travel or speak in front of audiences in-person. So they consult with people over the phone, conduct webinars and teleseminars that they charge for, and create products they sell on-line, therefore they never have to leave their homes, but they generate a good income. Or, if they do like to speak in public, but want to avoid travel, they just conduct in-person seminars and workshops in their local area.
The bottom-line is that, whether you’re already self-employed or an employee, you can expand on what you do and offer outside of your actual “job” to increase your income and notoriety. For example, if you’re a CPA, rather than just focus on doing tax planning and tax returns to generate money, you can increase your income by also conducting presentations that you can charge for, or you can develop products that people will buy, or you can do things like create a 2-day “financial success” boot camp with other guest experts/speakers…and you can charge people a lot to attend those.
But, as I mentioned, speaking, consulting and product development are just a few money-making strategies. There are tons of ways to generate more income by sharing your knowledge with people, however I find that MOST people don’t do any of them and then wonder why they’re struggling financially.
Q: What if a Boomer has no Marketing, PR, or Social Media experience to effectively promote themselves?
A: That tends to the challenge for most people! I’d say 99% of the clients who come to me are good at “what they do” but they have no clue about how to market themselves well. So there’s over 20 chapters in the book (some of which were written by other marketing experts on their areas of expertise) JUST on different marketing-focused strategies that are easy, free, or inexpensive, to implement to attract business and generate sales.
Furthermore, we live in a 24/7 media world now, therefore the media is constantly looking for experts to interview on interesting topics so I also included several chapters on basic PR strategies and media outreach.
It’s amazing how quickly someone can land media interviews when the media perceives them as “an expert”. And, obviously, media coverage can quickly help build awareness for you. And THAT can also lead to attracting more revenue-generating opportunities to you.
Boomers just need to start thinking outside the box and start monetizing their years of knowledge & experience!
Q: Agreed! And thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, Lisa. You’re certainly addressing a timely, and very serious issue, and hopefully the options you provide in your book are ones that help many Boomers improve their financial futures. Good luck with it!
A: Thank you! I really enjoyed speaking with you, too, and I appreciate your interest in my book topic!
BIO: Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, is an in-demand Branding & Marketing Expert and Certified Success Coach with over 20-years of experience. Recently she was voted one of the “Top 30 Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World”, and she is also the recipient of over 75 awards for marketing excellence. Lisa’s clients include: Small business owners, coaches, consultants, entertainers, academics, speakers and authors. Plus, she herself is the author of 3 popular business books and a professional speaker. And, based on her expertise, she has been interviewed by countless media, including: ABC, MSNBC, NPR, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Cosmo, China’s HerWorld Magazine, BNET.com, American Express’s OPENForum.com, and WomenEntrepreneur.com. For more info visit: PromoteUGuru.com
Blog owner, Kathleen Gage, is a contributing author to Boomers In Business. Be sure to subscribe to this blog in order to receive regular updates.
