I talk a lot about the way both Brenda and I flipped hobbies into new, full-time careers. I guess I do that simply because it is not only the truth, but in a way, I’m still a little amazed at how well it has turned out. While I don’t normally think about our third quarter transition in that way, there are many ways that it is brought to my attention while living it in real time.
Typically, while in conversation with someone who has asked the question “So, what are you doing these days?” the response I get while telling our story often acts as a trigger. Sure, I don’t normally get into details about the struggle to decide whether or not to shut down our newspaper business nor do I dwell on the details around the first few, scary months. Guest Speaker At The Local Museum For the fourth year in a row I was approached by the organizers of a local music event to make a presentation during Culture & Heritage Week in mid-August. I wasn’t immediately sure what I wanted to base my PowerPoint event on but since I was asked just prior to the anniversary of the closure of our newspaper business that happened to be fresh on my mind. Once I decided that the topic was going to be “History of A Small Town Newspaper” I started keeping notes of things that popped into my head that would be interesting to cover. I actually focused very little on the actual history and more on the people and hidden extras that the newspaper had in its history. I think it made for an interesting presentation. The A-Ha Moment Somewhere during the evening when either Brenda or I was telling stories related to a PowerPoint slide on display on the screen it dawned on me. We have come a long way in the three short years following our last printed issue of the paper. Like I said before, I know this but don’t always think about it and during that evening it came back to me once more. Blazing Our Own Trail I know our story is somewhat unusual in places simply because of the fact that both Brenda and I were already doing something on the side prior to making our midlife career changes. But the rest of our story can easily be your story as well, if you are seeking a change for the better and happen to be in your 40’s, 50’s or beyond. It is never too late to make that change. You could say that we were blazing our own trail because there really wasn’t a model in mind for what we were doing. There also wasn’t a lot of reference material out there to guide us so we did it our way. To this day we are still fine tuning our new careers but we are at a place now where we enjoy our lives and have some more control within them. Thinking of A Midlife Career Change? It’s not as scary as you may think. To give you some assistance, I have written an eBook on the subject. It is titled “Surviving Midlife Career Changes.” It is available at Amazon by clicking HERE.
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AuthorMy name is George Elliott. I have been in the Media Industry since 1978. I spent 23 years in Broadcasting and worked in a total of six different radio stations located in southern British Columbia Canada during my career. In 2000 I switched gears and moved into the Print Media Industry at a small town, local weekly newspaper. In 2004 I bought the paper and operated it with my wife, Brenda until July 2016 when we closed it. I launched a freelance web content and article writing business from my home in January 2014. Archives
April 2021
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