Behind the 200! Stories, the Journey and your questions answered

Well,

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hello and welcome to Boomer

Banter, the podcast where we

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have real talk about aging well.

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My name is Wendy Green and I am your host.

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And with many years of aging well

experience and many more to come, I am

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here to tackle all the uncomfortable,

unexpected, and hopefully life affirming

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questions that you have been pondering

to help make the journey of aging well

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a little less rocky and a lot more fun.

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So if you want to age well,

you are in the right place.

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. Speaker: And today is episode 200.

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Oh my gosh!

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Four and a half years ago I started this

show and here we are at the 200th episode.

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So I have a question for you.

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Wendy Green: Do you like

roller coaster rides?

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You know, the anticipation as the

car is moving up the incline, the

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anxiety and the excitement lodged in

the back of your throat, and suddenly

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you're looking over the edge, holding

on tight as the car goes careening

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down and whipping around the curves.

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Speaker: Until you start to climb again.

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What if you experience this

feeling month after month, quarter

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after quarter, year after year?

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It would be exhausting and

exciting and motivating and scary

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and creative and stimulating.

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Wendy Green: And this has been

my life as a podcast host, coach,

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and community builder for the

past four and a half years.

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Speaker: And I love it.

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Here we are at episode 200,

and what a journey it has been.

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I have been reviewing journals

from the past four years to review

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the history of Boomer banter.

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And I am excited to start this history

lesson with you, and to start with you.

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The first roller coaster climb.

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So let me take you back

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It was a week after the company

I was working for shut down

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because of the pandemic.

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The idea of Hey Boomer, which was

the original name of the podcast

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first came to me on March 20th.

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You know that saying, when one

door closes, another door opens,

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Well, that really has always

been what I have experienced.

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And so when the door got shut

because of the pandemic, I

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started to think, what could I do?

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I have always been a person that

teaches and inspires, that encourages.

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Wendy Green: I've always been somebody

that needs to feel a sense of purpose

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to feel fulfilled, but I didn't

know how I was going to do that.

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in isolation and I sure did

not know about podcasts.

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Speaker: So I started to think, well,

maybe I could do something like an

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online magazine that we could include

written content and video because I

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knew from my past coaching experience,

I knew that finding a job after 50

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is not an easy thing and that so many

of us We're going to be negatively

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impacted by this pandemic, shutting

everything down, that I wanted to

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find a way to reach out to people and

encourage them that we still matter.

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We're still engaged.

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We still have so much left to give.

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So that was my thinking in March.

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Of course, when you're

coming up with something new.

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That can be exciting.

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There's also all of those fears that start

talking to you, like fear of failure.

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What if nobody was really interested

in what I wanted to talk about?

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What if I couldn't even figure out

what I was going to talk about?

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All kinds of self doubt

started coming into my mind.

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But then I wrote in my journal,

and I was so happy to see this,

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I wrote in my journal, and I But

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Wendy Green: the biggest failure

would come from not trying.

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the very first show of what was then

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called Hey Boomer as a Facebook live.

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Speaker: And that's where I introduced

my thoughts of what I was going to

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talk about What my goals were for

this, this show I was putting on.

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Now the roller coaster is

starting to gain momentum.

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So June 8th, two months in,

and I love doing the show.

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And it brings me great fulfillment

and meaning in my life.

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I feel creative.

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I feel encouraged by the

support of friends and guests.

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Two months in, maybe it's time to

think about monetizing the show.

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Okay.

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That was probably not very realistic at

the time, but you know, what did I know?

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I didn't know anything about these

shows and what I was putting together.

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So I thought, well, okay,

how am I going to do this?

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I had heard about the buy me a coffee.

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website where people could make

a contribution to the creative

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work that you were doing.

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Maybe I'll try that.

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I thought about, maybe

I should write a book.

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Wasn't exactly sure what I

was going to write the book

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about, but it was a thought.

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I thought, Oh, maybe I should pitch

the show to NPR or iHeartRadio.

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Okay.

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So here we are four years later, and I'm

starting to think about that idea again.

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But back then, two months in, Um,

probably not very realistic, but hey,

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I give myself credit for dreaming

and thinking about what was possible.

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Here we are at the end of June

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build a community around this whole

idea of Boomer staying engaged.

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And I wrote,

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Wendy Green: being part of the Hey Boomer

community means that you see yourself

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as relevant As involved, as curious,

and interested in life and other people.

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The idea of community is

about belonging to something.

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Speaker: Fellowship, caring, and sharing.

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Oh yes, we're definitely

going to build a community.

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Okay, so let's move along.

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We're still climbing the hill

of this roller coaster, and

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now we're four months in.

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It's August 7th.

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And I woke up with the word

purposeful in my thoughts.

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Hmm, must be time to define

my purpose with this Boomer

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community that I'm creating.

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You know, like when you start a new

business, you're supposed to have

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a mission and vision statement.

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So I needed a purpose statement.

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So I wrote, my purpose with Hey Boomer is

to bring stories of relevance, importance,

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and inspiration to my community.

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My purpose with myself, to myself with

Hey Boomer, is to learn to grow and

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provide myself with an income while

also being fulfilled by the work I'm

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doing and the people I am meeting.

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If I look at that purpose statement

today, I think we still do a lot of that.

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We build, we bring stories

of relevance, importance, and

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inspiration to this community.

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And it brings me a lot.

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of fulfillment and I am meeting the most

incredible people and now four and a half

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years in we're starting to see a little

bit of income come in so we're on the way

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but now it's early September five months

in the roller coaster of podcasting

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is now starting to reach that point

on the ride where you wonder if it was

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really a good idea to get on the ride

there's lots more work than anticipated.

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At this point, five months in,

there's still no money coming in.

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Growth seems kind of slow.

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How come I don't already

have 10, 000 listeners?

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Well, this, I have learned, is the

point where many podcasters quit.

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In fact, a majority of shows that get

started Quit after 10 episodes because

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they are not seeing the growth and the

monetization that they originally thought

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they would but I really did love what

I was doing and what I was learning

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some of the things I was learning was I

had gone from the first couple of shows.

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as just a Facebook live to

streaming live on Facebook and

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YouTube and now also on LinkedIn.

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In five months, I had learned about sound

and I got a professional microphone.

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I'd learned about lighting and setup.

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I developed a process.

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Processes, let's say for scheduling

guests, finding guests for writing

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the, the script and the show notes

for promoting the show to do a tech

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check before every show to make

sure that my guests can log on and

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everything looks good to downloading the

recordings to editing to distributing.

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There were so many pieces to this.

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And I developed a process and I learned

that I had to increase my internet

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speed to handle live streaming.

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Wendy Green: Ready to careen

down the roller coaster hill

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and whip around some curves?

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Now we're picking up

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Speaker: The pandemic is still raging.

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I was feeling the pain of isolation and

wanted to find a way to be more engaged.

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And I still, even to this

day, want to grow the show.

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So I signed up for coaching through

the Podcast Marketing Academy.

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I am still a member of that organization

and I learn something from them every day.

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Wendy Green: There is more to

learn about podcasting than I will

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probably master in a lifetime.

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Speaker: I also started to host

events, and these allowed us to

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be outside and socially distanced.

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The first event that we did was

a forest bathing event, and this

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was because of a guest that I had.

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And what we learned in forest

bathing was how to be present.

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as you're walking in

the woods or the forest.

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You experience everything with all of

your senses, your sights, the sound,

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the smells, the, the touch of the

different textures in the forest.

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It's an amazing experience.

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to take your time to

walk through the forest.

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Another event that we did was

we went to see the organic

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garden at Furman University.

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One of our guests talked about

sustainable housing and sustainable

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gardening and at Furman they had a

southern living home that had been

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built as a home and their garden.

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So that was a tour that we took.

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We also had a guest who

produces some organic liqueurs.

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And so I took a group of people to

visit their farm and we got to see

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all of the different herbs that they

were growing to make the liqueurs.

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They took us through the process of

distilling the herbs into the final

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liqueurs and the packaging of it.

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And then we got And

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of what I called walkabouts where

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I would meet once a month or once

a week with a follower of the show.

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And we would go on a walk and it

was an opportunity for them to learn

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about me, for me to learn about them.

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And then I would write a blog about it.

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Most of them were local.

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A couple of them were not local.

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And we actually, Walked in different

locations, but talked over the phone.

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I enjoyed it a lot.

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Um, just, you know, it

kind of burned itself out.

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And so that was another attempt.

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And you know, like with any new

business, new endeavor, you're always

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trying new things to see what works,

what is engaging and what doesn't

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work that you need to let go of.

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I also began the tradition

of taking July off.

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To regroup, refresh, and recharge.

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definitely something that I needed to do.

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sponsor and offered me the opportunity

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to host a Road Scholar trip.

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That was an amazing and exciting

opportunity, and I was able to take

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10 people with me to Costa Rica.

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Hopefully we will do

another trip like that soon.

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I also began coaching.

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I had written a program for a six week

program, taking people through the

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transition from leaving their current

state of employment to what are they

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going to do next when they retire?

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So much better to kind of have

a plan before you get there.

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And so I took on some coaching groups

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And then in March, again, the

questions start coming up.

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It's the work I'm doing.

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Does it matter to anyone?

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I don't see you.

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I'm behind the microphone.

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Who's listening?

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This is a common dilemma for podcasters.

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I hear it a lot in the groups that I'm in.

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Most people listen to podcasts

while they're driving or walking or

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exercising or doing something else.

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Stopping to leave a comment, Or a

review is not always convenient.

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Wendy Green: One of the joys of having

a live version of the show is when my

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viewers leave comments, even if it's

just to say, hello, I love knowing that

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what I am sharing is interesting enough

to bring you back time after time.

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Speaker: And I thank you for that.

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So some of my, Oh, no moments

from the past four years.

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There was the interview where I was

talking to a gentleman and it was, well,

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I was really kind of struggling with

this interview, pulling things out of

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him when all of a sudden he said to me,

well, I got to go, and he disconnected.

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We were about 20 minutes into the show.

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That was a total surprise.

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I had one guest from California.

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And, and for those of you who watch

live, you know that I do this live at one

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o'clock, every Monday at Eastern time.

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And I always get on a little early

so that I can get my guest on and we

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chat a little bit and get comfortable.

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Well, she wasn't there

and she wasn't there.

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And about four, I think it was about four

minutes before the show, I called her.

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I said, where are you?

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And she said, well, the show's at one.

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I said, one Eastern.

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So she hurried to put some

makeup on and get ready.

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I started the show before she

joined and trying to stretch

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out my intro a little bit.

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And she finally got on

and we had a great show.

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There was a time I lost my voice.

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Oof.

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That was a tough one.

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But I asked a former guest, I said,

look, I write all my questions out.

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I don't always follow

them, but I write them out.

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You know, could you do this for me?

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I'll do the intro,

scratchy throat and all.

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So we started and then my internet

went down and, and I knew he

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was just asking questions.

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He wasn't doing any follow on or anything.

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So I quickly picked up my

phone, got on the text.

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I'm saying, I'm trying to

get on, you know, keep going.

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Ask a follow up, ask this, ask this.

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Fortunately, finally my

internet came back on and.

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We managed to get going again.

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So that was, whew, that was

a tough live experience.

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I did have one show

where I couldn't go live.

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That was my guest from Australia.

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The time difference was just too great.

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So we ended up recording that show.

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I did start it out live, played the

recording and ended it out live.

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But, um, Yeah, we couldn't find a

time for Australia to do a live show

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some of the great highlights.

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Okay, so when I started this show,

I put a flip chart on the wall

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where I listed out some of my goals.

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I do this every year, but that very first

year, one of the things on my flip chart

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said one of these days, somebody is going

to reach out to me and ask to be on my

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show instead of me always having to try

and find somebody to be on the show.

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And it happened.

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It happened towards the

end of that first year.

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I was ecstatic.

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It was like, Oh my gosh, somebody found,

I was, I just can't even tell you.

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I was so excited.

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And now that happens quite a bit,

you know, I'll have people reach out

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that hear about the show or, um, book

publicists will reach out and tell me

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about some new book that's out there.

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So now it happens.

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More often, but, um, there's still a lot

of searching for, for the right guests.

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I've also changed locations several times.

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I've started, um, delivering

the show from my living room.

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Then I moved to my dining room.

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Then I moved to my kitchen.

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And now I'm in my office.

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And I really like Being in my office,

I like the pictures behind me.

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I like the colors on the walls.

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So, another thing is over the

years I added opening music and

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I have changed that a few times.

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And then this past January we

rebranded from Hey Boomer to Boomer

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Banter, real talk about aging well,

and that's been a good change.

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It gives people a better understanding of

what the show's about should they find it.

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on, the podcast apps.

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Before I get to the next section

where I'm going to talk about

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what I've learned about myself.

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I just want to take a little pause here

to talk about our sponsor road scholar.

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, Speaker: let's see things

I've learned about myself.

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Whoa, boy, I'll tell you, there's a

lot of learning about yourself when

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you are putting together a show on

different topics with different guests.

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And one thing I have learned is To be

more accepting of it's good enough.

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It doesn't have to be perfect.

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I spent hours trying to

make everything so perfect.

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And I was, I was burning out.

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I was really, it was stressing me out.

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And so I have learned to put together,

What I think is a really great show with

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great guests and wonderful insights.

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And it's not always perfect,

but it's always good enough.

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I am still learning how to

deal with being overwhelmed.

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Sometimes there is more to do than

I feel like I can possibly get done.

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And that's when I have to.

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Kind of step away for a few minutes,

walk around, walk outside, walk around

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the house, depending on the weather

and cut and reorient my priorities,

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you know, what is going to happen if I

don't get this done or if I don't get

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that done and figure out what's the most

important to do and then be okay with

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that again, doesn't have to be perfect.

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I learned about courage and taking a risk.

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Remember I said the biggest

failure would be not to try.

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I learned and I'm still learning about

technology and tools for podcasting.

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I learned and I'm still learning about

what makes a good podcast opening.

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An opening is You know, when you

listen live, when you listen to a

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podcast and you don't see anybody,

it's got to grab you right away.

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You want to know that it's going

to be worth your time to stay and

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listen to the rest of the show.

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So.

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Tell them a good story about

what you're going to talk

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about right at the beginning.

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And I learned and I'm still

learning about interviewing.

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I am learning about being vulnerable

and sharing some of my fears

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and concerns and excitements and

traumas and all of that stuff.

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And I'm learning to let go

of what I cannot control.

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And some of my guests and followers

sent in I was hoping that I would

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get a bunch of questions , to

answer for you for the show.

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And I did get some.

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And one of these How do I find my guests

when I don't know them personally?

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Courage.

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That's the only thing I can say.

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I go on LinkedIn a lot and I look

for specific topics that might

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have people that are interested.

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professionals around those certain

topics, caregiving or relationships

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or different medical issues.

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And I, I see what they have posted.

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I see who they're connected to and then

I'll just reach out and I'll say, I

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have a show and here's what it's about.

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And I wonder if you'd be a guest.

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And to my wonderful surprise, nine

times out of 10 people have said

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yes, they would love to be a guest.

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So that's been a great learning for

me that, you know, if you just ask

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so many times, people will say yes.

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I had another question from

Janine, who was a former guest.

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Janine has a organization

called changing the narrative.

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And she asked me, how can we organize

podcasters as a force to overcome ageism?

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So I started to think about that.

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I was like, Hmm, let's see, how have

we overcome other things in the past?

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And the thing that came to mind

was smoking, how we have cut

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down smoking in this country.

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And I think the way that has

happened is because we have heard

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over and over so many times.

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about how bad smoking is for us.

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And so I thought, well, if we hear over

and over so many times, About ageism and

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internal ageism and how we can overcome

that the more we become aware of it.

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So what if I got together a group of

other podcasters that talked about

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similar things about aging, well, about

overcoming ageism, about health as we age.

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And we form a group where we

co promote each other's show.

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So if you like what you're hearing here,

you might also like this other show.

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And if you start to listen to

that show too, you're hearing a

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different perspective, another way

of thinking about getting older.

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And a positive outlook and it's helping

us overcome our own internal biases

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that stop us that say, Oh, I'm too old.

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I can't learn things as quickly.

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I don't really, I'm afraid to try.

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You know, I can't physically all the

excuses that we make about aging.

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The more that we hear, you

know, things are possible.

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Sometimes we have to adjust.

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We have to learn, but we have so much

wisdom already about how to, how to be

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resilient, how to adjust to changes.

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And so the more we hear it,

maybe the better we'll be at

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stopping our own internal ageism.

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Another question I had was from Josephine

and she said, if you didn't do a

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podcast and you were not on the podcast

platforms, What would you do instead?

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That was an interesting question.

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And I, I really thought about it

because if I look back at my journals

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before I started this, I was not

happy in the work I was doing.

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I was I was not fulfilled.

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I was, uh, I was not in the right

position really for my skills and talents.

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And so as I was getting close to 65,

66, I was thinking, well, you know,

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just be done and, and stop trying to

work so hard in the corporate world.

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What if you do something that's easier?

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And one of the ideas I had was

I'm just going to buy an RV and

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start traveling across the country.

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Another idea I had was,

well, I like gardening.

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Maybe I'll go work at the

garden center at Lowe's.

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Or I think I'll go work

as a barista at Starbucks.

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Would those have fulfilled me?

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Well, I don't know, maybe, but the door

closed on my job due to the pandemic,

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which meant that the door closed on the

retail options I was thinking about.

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And it turns out I was not confident

about RVing as a solo woman, mainly

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because I knew I didn't have the skills

to fix something that might break

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in the RV as I was out on the road.

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You know, no doubt.

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I could have learned a lot of those

skills, but it really wasn't something

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I was ready to take on at the time.

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So my resilience muscle.

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Then DeGearan imagined a community where

we felt engaged and meaningful, and I

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guess boomer banter was meant to be.

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The last two questions were, one

was from Autumn, where she says,

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what have been some of the best aha

moments you have had in interviewing

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this diverse group of guests?

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And the second one was, what have

you learned from your guests, That

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you have implemented in your life.

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So I'm going to answer those two

kind of back to back because I think

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they go together in a lot of ways.

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Aha moments to me mean inspiring

moments, and there have been so many.

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I've had many inspiring guests on my

show, women talking about overcoming

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breast cancer, and then becoming

activists to defeat breast cancer.

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Poets who are able to get to

the essence of our feelings.

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People who had a dream and went for

it regardless of how old they were.

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I learned a lot from all the guests I've

had on that have spoken about Alzheimer's.

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We've talked about it from the

aspect of beautiful questions.

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We went through the book by Dr.

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Carlowish, The Problem of Alzheimer's

about the history of Alzheimer's and

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how we lost research time because

of the loss of some of the Jewish

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doctors who were working on this.

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When Hitler came into power.

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We have talked with the Alzheimer's

Association about their walk to end

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Alzheimer's and we've talked about

Alzheimer's from a caregiver perspective.

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So there have been a lot of ways we've

looked at it and I find all of them

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inspiring and I've learned from them.

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But to follow on what have I

learned from the guests that

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I've implemented into my life?

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I would say forest bathing is

one of the things I used to go

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on a hike to get from A to B.

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Now, I go on a hike to

be present in the woods.

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And to experience all of the sights

and sounds and smells and feelings

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and everything that is around me and

to appreciate it at a much slower

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pace and a much more satisfying pace.

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I also thought back to the episode that

we did on the Mother's Day movement,

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where they say instead of buying

flowers for your mother, if you donate

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to the Mother's Day movement, you are

donating to a specific charity a year

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that is providing care, or education,

or food, or clean water, or whatever.

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To a whole community of mothers

to provide them a better life

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and their Children a better life.

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And that episode was very

meaningful to me and I continue

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to contribute to their efforts.

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I did a show with a man named John Weiss.

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He is a former police chief, retired

police chief, who then moved into

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art and writing and cartooning in

the beginning of his retirement.

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And now he is Um, really spending a

lot of time on photography and writing

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very thoughtful, uh, newsletters.

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And so I've been inspired to subscribe

to his newsletter, as well as to several

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other newsletters of guests that I've had.

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I've done a couple of podcast

episodes relating to travel.

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and Road Scholar and single women

traveling and grandparent traveling.

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But for now, my grandchildren have

outgrown the grandparent trip.

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Oh well, that doesn't

mean I've outgrown travel.

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I'm still going to travel and

hopefully with Road Scholar.

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And then I'd have to think

about diet and exercise.

450

So at first I resisted doing episodes

about diet and exercise because I thought

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it was all about advocating programs just

so we could maintain our youthful figures.

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And I never bought into the

idea of wishful thinking

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about various diet programs.

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When I talk about aging well, it

is not only about how we look.

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It is about how healthy we are.

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Once I found people to talk about

diet and exercise from a health

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perspective, I was off and running.

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We have had five guests over the

last year or so that have talked

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to us about health and wellness.

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And then after my last physical,

some of my numbers were

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not what they needed to be.

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My doctor wanted me to go on medication.

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I wanted the chance to work with a

coach on a health and wellness program.

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So I signed up to work with Kim Rahir.

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Kim was the episode where she talked

to us about being diagnosed with MS and

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She started on this diet and exercise

program, and she has since won several

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weightlifting championships in the

European market in her age group.

468

So I'm not going for any championships.

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I just want to bring down my

numbers without medication.

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We've been working together remotely.

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Kim is in Spain for five weeks,

and I have to tell you, I am

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really seeing a difference.

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I'm seeing a difference in how I feel.

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I have lost a few pounds.

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But building strength and it's all about

a new way of eating and not just, uh,

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it's not a diet, you know, it's about

how we eat and how we think about eating.

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So it's been a great experience.

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So to wrap up some of my questions that

I've been asked and what I've learned

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and how I'm implementing it, I take

my time in the woods being more aware.

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I continue to support the

Mother's Day movement.

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I've subscribed to several

newsletters that my guests send out.

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And I look forward to seeing

what they're thinking about.

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I'm continuing to travel

when it is possible.

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And I'm excited to be working

with my health coach, Kim, and

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happy to share her information

with you if you are interested.

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So here we are, episode 200,

and mostly it's about you.

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I am so appreciative.

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that you take the time out of

your busy schedule to listen

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weekly to the Boomer Banter Show.

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Without you, I would just

be talking to myself.

491

You give me meaning and purpose,

and I thank you so much for that.

492

If you would like to reach out to me,

you can email me at wendy at heyboomer.

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biz.

494

You can also go to the website, heyboomer.

495

biz, and click on connect with us,

and then you'll be in the loop.

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Every time there's a new show, a

new thought, a new activity, a new

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blog, um, I encourage you to do that.

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So next week for episode 201, we're

going to explore the management of

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an estate after a loved one dies.

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It is crazy the amount of paperwork

and steps and research and phone

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calls that are required to close

out an estate, even when you think

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you have all the paperwork in order.

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My guest next week is Adam Zuckerman,

and he is the founder of an online

504

platform called buried in work.

505

They specialize in estate planning

and organization, end of life

506

tasks, and estate transitions.

507

And Adam founded this company

because of his experience trying

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to manage his father's estate after

he passed, and they truly thought

509

they had everything in order.

510

So I hope you'll tune in for that.

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Wendy Green: Each episode of Boomer Banter

is an invitation to listen, learn, and

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apply the wisdom gained to your own life.

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I hope tonight, today's episode

has been full of wisdom and insight

514

into the life of a podcaster and

into the history of Boomer Banter.

515

Boomer Banter is a supportive community,

so join us as we age well together.

516

The Boomer Banter podcast is produced

by me, Wendy Green, and the music

517

comes from Purple Planet Music.

518

Thank you all.

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I will see you next

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week.