Posted by Beverly on
February 2, 2011
Top Boomer Men Named by Boomer Diva Nation
Feb 02, 2011 – Baby Boomer men who are making a difference will be honored throughout 2011 by the women of Boomer Diva Nation, LLC. The men selected were nominated by family, friends and people they’ve connected with via social media, according to Boomer Diva Nation President and Founder, Beverly Mahone. “We were looking for baby boomer hunks,” says Mahone. H.U.N.K. stands for: H-helpful, U-understanding, N-noble, K-kind and S-sincere. She adds, “We were looking for men of distinction who possess outstanding character and integrity.”
This is the second year in a row that Boomer Diva Nation is recognizing the contributions of baby boomer men. Anyone could submit a nominee to Boomer Diva Nation, LLC, along with an explanation of why they felt their selection deserved to be honored. ”This year most of our honorees are from North Carolina,” explains Mahone.
The Top Baby Boomer men for 2011 are:
Martin Brossman— Success Coach, Speaker, Trainer, and Author from North Carolina
Dave Carpenter— Author, well-known consultant and recognized humanitarian from Massachusetts
Roger Madison—Entrepreneur from Ohio
Roy Montero—Search Engine Optimization Expert from California
Diogenes Ruiz—Composer and Musician from North Carolina
Dan Scala—Entrepreneur from North Carolina
Marlon West—Professional Musician and Arranger from North Carolina
Jim Vogel—Businessman from North Carolina
Mahone says, “These are boomer men who deserve to be admired for being all-around decent guys and Boomer Diva Nation, LLC wants to honor them and let the rest of the world know how much we respect and appreciate them for who they are and what they offer to the world.”
To learn more about each man, visit:
http://www.boomerdivanation.org/top-baby-boomer-men-2011/
Posted by Beverly on
February 27, 2009
How to Tackle Twitter as a Baby Boomer
No doubt about it, Twitter has become all the rave in social media. It’s even popular among baby boomers. That’s right. Despite the fact that some of the research says about baby boomers are shying away from social networking, you’ll find plenty of blooming boomers “tweeting” up a storm on Twitter. Here are a few of the better known baby boomers on Twitter:
Entertainer Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller)
If you’re a baby boomer still trying to figure out how to tackle Twitter, here are some suggestions:
Be a Lurker: A lurker is someone who is logged onto a particular site and reads the discussions but rarely participates. I’m saying be a lurker to follow the flow of conversations—then when you feel comfortable, jump in with both feet and start tweeting away.
Don’t worry about trying to follow everybody who follows you. Only connect with people you are genuinely interested in learning more about or from someone who may be have an expertise in an area of your interest. Keep in mind, all baby boomers are not alike and you just may not have anything in common with some of them, so why follow?
Check out your follower’s profile. After you receive notification that someone is following you, click on their profile and read about them. Also go to their website. Normally, if they don’t have a website, I won’t follow them but if their profile is really interesting, I make an exception.
Be engaging. This is one of the biggest mistakes many people on Twitter make. They come onto the site and immediately start chatting about what they want you to do for them: “Please read my blog and leave a comment.” “Download my free ebook” (with a twist to purchase something). “Buy my book,” “Enter my contest,” etc. I use a different approach. Once I log on to Twitter, I see who’s made the latest posts and I greet them to let them know I acknowledge their presence. Then I start my sales pitch.
Respond: If a follower greets you, asks you a question or makes a comment directed towards you, give them the courtesy of a response. Because of twitter’s fast pace, you may miss a comment here and there but if you do see one directed specifically at you, you owe it to them to reply.
Don’t Be Afraid to Self-Promote: If one of your purposes for being on Twitter is to promote your business or product, then go for it. Don’t just tell people to go to your website to learn more about you. Tell them what you have to offer. Now there is such a thing as OVERKILL but if you do it subtly while building relationships, you will find people will be more accepting rather than clicking the unfollow button.
Re-Tweet: One of the nicest compliments you can give a follower is to “re-tweet” one (or more) of their messages. If you read something you think would be of interest to your own followers, cut and paste the message and send it out. It would look something like this:
RT (or Re-Tweet) @babyboomerbev “When the window of opportunity opens, don’t pull down the shade.”
You can also ask your followers to re-tweet something from you and be sure to thank them for doing so.
Join a Baby Boomer Tweet Chat. The best one occurs on Thursday nights at 10pm EST. You just go to: www.tweetchat.com and type in #AgeOp. The discussions are lively and even though the majority of participants are baby boomers, there are also some younger Twitter members who participate.
Always Sign-Off: This is a courtesy to your followers. If you are leaving the site, let them know instead of just shutting down. Why? Because you may have said something and someone comments back. If you leave the site without saying anything, that follower may feel they were being ignored.
Yes, Twitter is fast-paced and sometimes it can be hard trying to keep up with all of the conversations. If you start out slowly until you get the hang of it, you’ll be tackling Twitter in no time.
Posted by Beverly on
November 29, 2008
Who are you Blogging for?
First of all let me say, if you’re a woman in business and you’re NOT blogging, you ought to be. Blogging is a powerful tool in getting your message out there and, best of all, it’s free.
I not only like to write blogs—I also love reading them. I read for personal entertainment, spiritual fulfillment and to gain business knowledge. I have favorite bloggers and I am always looking to add others to my “faves blogroll.”
But what I have discovered as I venture further and further into cyberspace is there are a lot of blogs out there that are much ado about nothing. Many blogs are unfocused with no clear direction. One day the writer may talk about her business—the next she may talk about her family, etc. For some readers that may be OK but for others your blog would be nothing more than a hodge podge of garbledy goo.
So how do you create a blog that will command a faithful following? Here are some of my tips:
1. Determine your purpose: Ask yourself why are you blogging? Knowing what you hope to accomplish will allow you to begin in a more focused way.
2. Know your intended audience. If your blog is about your business, stick to the subject. The same idea also applies if you are writing about your personal musings.
3. Establish your credibility: If you are knowledgeable in a certain area, write about it. This is an opportunity to educate your readers and set yourself in a position to be a go to person when someone has a question about your field of expertise. This ultimately can lead to sales for your business.
4. Have more than one blog: There’s nothing wrong with having more than one blog to address different subjects. I would also recommend using blog titles to reflect what your blog is about.
I have four different blogs:
BoomerDivaNation: Information of interest to Boomer Business Women.
BoomerWorld: Issues involving baby boomers
Babyboomerbev: Personal
Talk2Bev: Media Business
5. Update frequently. Interested readers will return to your site if there is likely to be something new. You should try to post at least three times a week.
One final thing: Engage your readers. Give them the opportunity to respond to your posts by asking questions or conducting surveys.
Ultimately, the more you post the more exposure you’re bound to get and find yourself connected with other credible blogs.
Posted by Beverly on
August 24, 2008
Your Career Choices at Midlife
Baby boomers are a different breed from previous generations, and we demand different choices for retirement. Forty years and a gold watch wasn’t going to do it for me so after 25 years I made the choice to leave Corporate America and pursue my passion to “do it my way.”
So what choices are you facing as a baby boomer?
Previous generations retired after working for one company for 25-30 years, and after that stint, they got a pension plan. Retirees had a small house paid for, a nice Social Security check and a pension. Add to that a life expectancy of around 70 years, and you’ll have a perfect retirement plan. (Unfortunately, my dad didn’t get to enjoy his retirement because he passed away at age 52.)
Nowadays it’s a different reality for sure. Life expectancies are creeping up past 80, pension plans are quickly disappearing, and full retirement is no longer at age 65, but rather 66, plus we can expect that to change even more in the future. The fact that so many of us baby boomers are poorly prepared financially doesn’t help the future outlook.
So, more and more, boomers, like myself, are seeking entrepreneurial opportunities to help shore up their inadequate retirement savings.
But businesses can and do fail, often.
Think about the math of failure and recovery. If you start a business when you’re around 50 years old, and it takes about four years to fail, how able will you be to start yet another venture when you’re closer to retirement age?
Networking is hard both off and online. Handshaking and backslapping takes a lot of effort for offline promoters, and web cash flow takes entirely new techniques.
Being on your own means you set your own procedures and policies, serve as your own human resources, sales, marketing, payroll, tax and accounting departments, plus fax and phone answerer – the list goes on and on.
Regardless of how you envision your golden years, you still have to plan for some type of retirement; whether it is off to the Caribbean or possibility in an assisted living facility. How you choose to live in the future will be determined by you choose to live RIGHT NOW.
Posted by Beverly on
August 5, 2008
What Type of Baby Boomer Are You?
The Easy Glider takes each day as it comes. These are the boomers who just bought a condo near the beach, for example, and are happy to relax there with their spouse, take walks in the morning and cook dinners together. They enjoy every day and have no interest in going back to work. Easy gliders are usually financially secure and do not have to worry about long-term retirement costs.
The Adventurer makes daring changes with his or her life. They may have retired from one career, then gone back to school and started another career. The longtime teacher who becomes a massage therapist is a good example, or the accountant who earns a culinary arts degree and begins catering parties. Adventurers may be motivated by financial needs. If they have not saved enough for retirement, they need to figure out another source of income.
Adventurers also love to travel. Grandma is no longer knitting in a rocking chair. She’s off on a week long cruise with her girlfriends. Grandpa, meanwhile, is taking a cross-country trip on his Harley-Davidson.
The Continuer continues to use existing skills, interests and activities but modifies them to fit retirement. The math professor who retires from the university but continues to tutor students in math, for example, or the realtor who sells her busy and demanding practice but continues to occasionally list houses for friends or relatives. A continuer could be someone who worked as a preschool teacher who now baby sits young children.
The Searcher tries out different careers or hobbies to find something that will bring him or her happiness. Perhaps they’ve started making pottery through a ceramics class, but then find themselves drawn to a class about writing mystery novels. Maybe they’re taking up fishing again, or some other activity they haven’t had time for in years.
This searching also occurs on a spiritual level. Retreats involving prayer, meditation and a deepening of faith appeal to searchers, who are reflecting on what they have learned in their lives, and how they want to spend their remaining years. Most boomers will have a “searching” phase during or after retirement.
The Involved Spectator cares deeply about the world. They love their family members, feel connected to their faith and care about their community. However, because of illness or other circumstances, they are not as involved as they used to be. Someone who has been very involved in her church for many years, but now can only manage spending a few hours a week helping on Sunday mornings, is one example. Another is a grandfather who was always very involved with his grandchildren’s lives, but who sees them less now because of his health concerns.
The Retreater is the boomer who is confused and upset about retirement. The change may have been traumatic for them. They miss their former coworkers and have not been able to make new friends. Instead, they have retreated to their home to watch TV, withdrawing from friends and family. Although a person might be in the “retreat” category for a while, he or she can also transition from this into a more positive stage and become a “searcher.”
So which type of boomer are you?
Posted by Beverly on
July 21, 2008
Tattoos: A BOOM-ing Business
An 86-year-old woman wanted a tattoo before she died. Her daughter got permission from the doctor, checked her out of the nursing home, and took her to Yankee Tattoo in Burlington, VT. When the tattoo artist asked why she hadn’t done it earlier, she replied, “Honey, Southern ladies didn’t get tattoos in my day.”
As the needles buzzed over her shoulder, the elderly woman explained that for her, tattoos at this stage of life are about not caring what other people think; they’re just for you.
Susan B. agrees. She is turning 65 and is getting her first – an angel on her shoulder. When asked why she wanted a tattoo, she said, “It’s another way of expressing myself in an artistic and individual manner.”
More and more baby boomers are trying to think young again according to one tattoo artist. They’re taking a needle in the arm or on the buttocks all for the sake of expressing themselves.
Why not just write a book instead?
Posted by Beverly on
July 10, 2008
Age Discrimnation in the Workplace
Age may be nothing but a number, but try being over 50 in the workplace.
Despite how far businesses have come in creating a fair and diversified workplace, there is still age discrimination. This is especially true of individuals trying to start a second career or making a career change later in life. How you look can be a factor, though an unspoken one, in whether you are hired or not.
Unfortunately, economic necessity will keep aging baby boomers working longer largely because of longer life expectancy, more limited private pension benefits and anxiety over potential changes in Social Security. These long-term workers sometimes will also be the first to be discarded in favor of younger workers with less pay requirements.
Since age discrimination seems to be increasing, so has the number of age discrimination lawsuits. With many companies downsizing or going bankrupt in today’s economy, the number of older displaced workers has also increased. In 2004, the average payout on a age discrimination lawsuit that went to trial was $219,000.
Posted by Beverly on
July 8, 2008
Baby Boomers Going Back to School
As many high school graduates prepare for their transition into college life, so too do their parents. In response to the current state of the job market, baby boomers are once again filling the halls of colleges and universities nationwide, making them the new kids on campus.
With the desire to address the burgeoning demands of students in midlife, colleges and universities have begun developing and maintaining programs for boomers in order to help them launch into the next phase of their working lives. It is not just going to back to school, it’s using school to move forward. Education researchers refer to it as “higher education.”
According to the University Continuing Education Association, non-traditional students, those outside of the typical college age or structure, comprise nearly 60 percent of all students at 4-year public institutions and 50 percent at private colleges. In California alone, the number of college students between the ages of 50 and 64 rose 61 percent between 1986 and 2006.
With technology at the helm of the ever-changing job market, workers feel the urgency to return to school to succeed in their field. Esteemed universities, such as Academy of Art University, are catering to boomers interested in reinventing themselves in the second half of life with a dynamic education and confidence in their newly gained abilities.
Academy of Art University has already received an influx of baby boomer students in their comprehensive continuing education program in 13 art and design fields. Whether returning to college for career development, career retraining or personal enrichment, the continuing education program is designed to help boomers gain and maintain critical skills necessary for their new life endeavors.
Retirement doesn’t mean taking up golf or moving to the coast anymore. This dynamic generation is motivated to make a difference in the world and leave a lasting creative legacy. Now, with the power of education, they can.
Posted by Beverly on
July 8, 2008
Sex at 70 is G-r-r-reat!
According to an article in the Huffington Post up to 70 percent of single baby boomers said they dated regularly. The findings from an AARP survey also indicate that of those between 40 and 59 years old, 45 percent of men and 38 percent of women have intercourse at least once a week.
Now it seems the older baby boomers get, the more sex they are having.
More 70-year-olds are having good sex more often, according to Swedish researchers.
They found 70-year-olds of both sexes are having more sex than they did 30 years ago, and many more women report being satisfied with their sex lives.
“Attitudes are more open-minded and positive today, at least in the elderly themselves,” said Nils Beckman of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, whose study appears in the British Medical Journal.
Beckman and colleagues interviewed four groups of 70-year-olds in Sweden about their sex lives between 1971 and 2001. They found that 68 percent of married men said they were having sex in 2001, up from 52 percent in the early ’70s.
The number of married women having sex rose to 54 percent in the group interviewed in 2000-2001, up from 30 percent in the early 70s.
And 12 percent of unmarried women interviewed in 2000-2001 said they were having sex, up from less than 1 percent in the early ’70s. The number of women reporting high sexual satisfaction also increased, with more women reporting an orgasm during sex and fewer reporting never having had one.
Hopefully it will inspire elderly people to seek help if having sexual problems, and make doctors and other health professionals aware that even elderly people can be or would like to be sexually active,” Beckman said.
Article courtesy of Reuters News Service
Posted by Beverly on
July 5, 2008
And the Survey Says…
Baby Boomer women over the age of 50 say lust and passion are more important than marriage. Single women over the age of 50 are twice as likely to have sex on the first date in comparison to the under 40 set. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by a British dating company.
Among the women who said they would have sex on the first date, a stunning 76 percent said they expected romance first and for the dinner bill to be fully paid by the man. When it comes to love expectations, lust and passion are tops for Boomers, according to the survey conducted by Facts International for Wanobe.com and its online dating partner, PARSHIP.co.uk
Some other eye-popping facts about sex, lust and passion and the over-50 crowd:
• 84 percent of over-50 singles want a full sexual relationship with the next person they meet.
• 73 percent intend to find a fulfilling sexual relationship in the next year.
• 60 percent said they don’t care what their children think about their dates.
• 41 percent are looking for commitment.
• 32 percent are likely to flirt with a complete stranger.
• 20 percent are seeking just casual fun.
• 19 percent are game for anything.
• 18 percent will happily date someone at least 10 years younger.
“The research proves that men and women over 50 no longer feel that they have to give up on romance and passion and simply dedicate the rest of their lives to gardening, looking after grandchildren, and providing financial support for their offspring” says Dr Victoria Lukats, a psychiatrist and relationship expert for PARSHIP, who lead the research.
Posted by Beverly on
June 17, 2008
Occupations Affected by Boomer Retirement
When the mass exodus of baby boomers leave the workforce, there is real concern as to how the employment gaps will be filled. With public education in a crisis in many urban cities across America, some are questioning if young people will be adequately trained and qualified to pick up the torch and carry it forward.
Here are some of the occupations most affected by baby boomer retirements:
Airline pilots and navigators
Management Analysts
Teachers
Photographers
Teacher Aides
Industrial Engineers
Personnel Managers
As the age of the labor force increases, a greater number of people will leave the labor force due to death, disability, or retirement. Of the 25 million people projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to leave the labor force between 1998 and 2008, 22 million will be aged 45 years or older and thus will be leaving mostly to retire. The total number of people who left the labor force the previous decade was 19 million. Over the 1998–2008 period, the oldest baby boomers will be aged 52 to 62. After 2008, as more and more baby boomers reach retirement age, the impact of their retirements will continue to grow.
