welcome to beyond my crisis i'm your co host ron ross nick and i'm vivian caspar and we're here to help people through their personal crisis with experts on the show that will guide you and help you in any situation that could be critical whether it's domestic violence losing a job personal events and tragedies will be with you and help you have a more prosperous comfortable and successful future for the rest of your purpose and easily turning that purpose into a profitable business welcome mary to i shall be on my crisis think you it's great to be here well we're very excited that you're helping people transform their lives because so many people are just stuck not knowing what to do in their careers and when that happens they make a lot less money and inevitably have more crazies were taking care of themselves and their families so tell us a so many people have heard about the crisis it was a well renowned book and program but you're telling us how to go beyond the crisis to realizing prosperity tell us about that please so oftentimes people are in a job or maybe they've just lost their job and i have easy ways for people to lean into starting their own self employment or working in an industry that they're really excited about i look for ways to uncover your passion and what you would like to do for free and then i help you find a way to get paid to do it because when you love what you do everything in your life works better it helps your relationships it helps your day to day working it's better just makes your whole life to slow better and you know what they say about the laws of attraction then you just attract the other pieces of your life to fall into place right right because when you love what you do everything seems to work out better i feel like as i got beyond my crisis and reinvented myself my health got better my marriage got better my parenting got better my money got stronger right so these are obvious gains some people though feel like i'd like that too but i've got to work at my job i've got to make a living i've got all these pressures i can't get out of my own way so what's the very first step someone needs to consider when they're going to make that decision for a transformation life let's say we've uncovered that your favorite favorite thing to do is take beautiful photography i have a client who was a banking manager and they were robbed while she was at the bank and instantly she could think i just want to be home with my children and ultimately she was already my c client what i did was help her uncover the talent she had with taking photographs of her children in such a unique and candid way so ultimately she kept her job for a while at the bank because that was paying the mortgage it was really a requirement to keep that money flowing but she knew she wanted to get out of that and so i asked her to start taking photographs of her friends children on weekends in the evenings just one client at a time and then slowly but surely actually within eighteen months she became so well known with her ability to take these can it be a couple photos of children that she was able to replace her income and quit her job at the bank so much happier with own life that i don't think germany but was this a talent that she knew she had or you helped uncover she thought it was just her little family talent she didn't realize that was something that she could ever make a living out of she like to get the right she never turns to kind of tears and when i am originally suggested it she said well there's already so many photography studio and i said well i saw some gorgeous photos of your children on facebook where they  need i've never seen photos like that and it doesn't matter how many other people are doing the same thing as you in the industry if you stand out with a unique product you are going to be successful and if you create your passion if you're doing what you love you'll be better at it you see you have to be the best in your industry if you want success in your life unique somehow to be the best in your uniqueness yeah i heard you tell us before hand a fantastic story about your own husband so i love when you started at home and now besides making him happier hasn't that also chance for your whole family situation absolutely so i helped him reinvent himself from being an auto mechanic to starting his own business as a general contractor because he was doing some work on our new yard and he created the most amazing art piece out of our yard and i said you've missed your calling this is it and fourteen years later he's had this wonderful successful business so really for this to happen you need someone in your life that has a vision higher than what you as an individual may see and you're that person that can see the shining star in everybody i do i feel like that is a talent of mine is to see possibility in others whether they're able to see it yet or not and bring easy and fun to everything that they do so how do you encourage someone to get into that min space with that could be a that could be their life also just start talking about getting your first client and letting him understand to start a business you don't need to have some big fancy board of directors or a corporation entity if you have a social security number you can start your own sole proprietorship so maybe you started out trying to do this business and you only got one client and then said that's not for me you haven't lost anything in my opinion but if you get a second client and a third client and indeed if you're the best in what it is you do they're going to refer you to other people and you won't even need to advertise none of my clients advertise one of your clients advertise i think  give someone be a couple someone in our audience might think this is something that would really help change our minds well of the a couple of easy steps they should take to make this happen for them i first say start writing a list of talents what is in your talent bank already what you are really good at like the photographer she was able to see that she does have camera she does her father was a photographer so she always thought that's a great hobby but  she was able to uncover all of the different talents she already has she was already a bank manager so she knew that from a business perspective she could handle the financial part of her business so the first thing is writing a list of your tech and creating a talent bank yes ok what will be the next thing to do and then think about what it is you would do off of that list of your talent bank what would you do for free and so in for ta graphy she would take photos of her friends for free of her friends children for free and i just let her understand what a value that is and where the financial well being is from that but then people who want to start their own business have to be sales people and maybe some employees are not don't have that essence in them how do they get their first sale when you are doing what you love there isn't really even a sale in it it's just natural i think that's so important to remind people that everyone says i hate selling but if you're just talking to people you're not really selling but to not under value what you're worth is also important that's the thing that you would help people that you perhaps might guide them with yes some people may not be comfortable asking for what they'd like to get because their self esteem their feeling that they're not really professional yet oh how do you do that transition where you have the confidence to demand what you should receive there such easy ways to research what are other people charging for the service what how are people getting out there and getting more clients they're such a while of information out there to research from and there but they probably need a guide that can kind of and numerate all this and you help people figure all this out yeah i help bring the eves into it in the fun and i my it my story is i put the dance in a bun dance you about your story you've got a big story you have the your book yes i want to and that's my new book the easy guide to reinventing you and i really love that you're here because i think so many people there lower self esteem because someone happy with what they do and or what they're earning it really affects their whole families i mean think about not just single parents but even if you're in a team  there's so many obstacles in the way that they can now take care of their families which leads to other crises and it can also cost the family harmony or much much worse so i really think this is a valuable service you're providing thank you so much i really say that when you're doing what you love the health wealth and happiness follow with ease i've seen it again and again i've helped thousands of people reinvent themselves some people are born with their job but theirs they are so committed to the secure income but they don't know how to even start getting out of there some people are raising their children and they know eventually they want to start bringing in income so i just help people slowly lean into this idea of reinventing themselves into something they love and bringing in the income right so that seed planted in their head has to keep growing has to be nourished you can't wither away got to keep that action in your mind in focus right in my book the subtitle is the fun pathway to your dream career in eleven simple steps and i'm really emphasize throughout the book simplicity and fun if you're having fun it feels amazing that you get paid for it right i think people really need to hold on to that mary thank you so much for coming on and i for one think that you're doing a great service and i have fun and i thought i had fun with these thank you so  welcome back to beyond my crisis i'm your co host roger austin and i'm vivian gaspar we're here today to help everyone who has been very unhappy with what they've done up until now are you in your thirty's forty's or perhaps even  and you've made the decision you just don't want to live this way with this career for the rest of your life here with us today we're very fortunate to have dr stacy plinked who is a cooney college professor of public health and she's here to explain how does someone go about changing their careers or relationship with their college education midlife when they're no longer in their teens or twenty's welcome to the show dr and please let us know how do so about doing this really massive change their life ok thank you for having me and the answer is you go about doing the change slowly that it's really important to ease back into school if you haven't been there for a while the first thing to remember is that you're not alone there are over eight million students each thirty five or older going back to college each year that's about twenty percent of the college population that we are if you don't know when you're on campus and she said he or she was a doctor soon he was a doctoral student he is a lifelong learner one of the many reasons to go back to school you know obviously you can improve yourself intellectually you can advance in your career it's a great way to change careers but it also keeps you interested in the world and it makes you more interesting and that learning learning in life is a great asset and they say something about the difference between wealthy people people who have money and people who don't is education that's very true the amount of money that you can make on average rises dramatically with education and it's pretty much  so for example somebody without a high school education is going to make significantly less than somebody with a high school education getting an associate's move up the economic ladder get a bachelor's and you'll make about twenty two thousand dollars a year more than someone with just a high school degree and so on a master's will further that or doctorate further that even more and these are averages they're not just w two full time income earners these are people that could have their own businesses it's a statistic throughout the entire country and the  workplace is a statistic relating to educational level across all job types all job types what happens if someone's and their profession and they think that oh is it true that by moving up the next step let's say for example getting your doctorate or even a master's then you're saying even if you stay in your same profession that will still increase your salary absolutely every bit of education you have opens another door every degree opens another door so if someone is in lower level management for example in city government and they get that next to career they go from an associates to a bachelor's they may be eligible for higher level management if they want to be a deputy director or a director of an agency they may need a masters for that so every degree every bit of education opens another door and allows people to move forward what do you find having taught so many people in non teens or twenty's in the beginning stages is usually someone's obstacle do they ever come to you with what their challenges are when they're your students absolutely and there are several obstacles on the mainland this time the majority of my students are working full time most of them have families many are responsible for either young children older parents or both so they're trying to fit in their schooling they're working full time they're rushing home to get some supper on the table then they're rushing to my class is this something that they should know to manage that like childcare aftercare colleges sometimes do that what can they do to help them with their time on a few things they can do in the biggest things to build a support network and the other challenge is fear and a support network can help with both so enlisting the family to help some of my students made homework a family affair so after dinner clear the kitchen table the kids were doing their homework and my students were doing their own homework and it was really good for their children to see their moms and dads also learning also studying and also struggling a little right it's great to lead by example  did the other thing is to build support within other students so to not be shy about contacting other students in your class get to study body so if you have to miss a class because a child is sick or because you have to take care of your mom can get the notes from them and offer to do the same for them so you're saying that you're not too old to be in a study group just because you're in your thirty's or forty's or someone you never too old in fact you might be really valuable to the other students a lot of people when they go back to school they forget they're coming with a lot of strengths they forget that their cure coming if you're coming back to school you're coming with all the skills from your career with everything you've learned across your life and it's important for you to think about how i apply the skills to know what i'm doing now some people older people i even think about this i'm a little intimidated to go back to school because you know kids have their brain set for doing college work you know the school last thing it's a different thought process how do adults adapt to the thought process of the college learning mode there's a few things it's always a little hard at the start so i would tell people not to be discouraged but ultimate dolts are also more patient they have they understand that you don't get the reward right away that you know reading a chapter and having to read something several times might be less frustrating to someone who's older because they've got life experience and they know that some things take hard work that something younger people are learning the other things someone can do if they're worried about going back if you start slow take one class at night and pick something that an area that you're comfortable with so that the class itself won't be so hard for you because still paying off student debt from their first time going to college maybe up into their bachelor's degree is it challenging to qualify for additional student loans or another way to get that money perhaps it might be paid by their they're currently employed there are a lot of creative ways that you can help to pay for school the first way is to pick an affordable school so your best bet is a community college or a public for your school depending on what degree you're going for the tuition levels particularly for community college a much more affordable what about online i see a lot of coursework online that was going to my ok a private for profit college the two very different animals how do you find out which is which when you see commercials you do have traditional colleges who have commercials on t v and then you have the other how do you  about getting a degree and it's going to be cheap should we be wary of that's kind of so i'm going to take a minute here if i can to talk about why the for profit colleges are not your best option how to tell their for profit they have to tell you you can look on their website for profit colleges are run by business education of businesses whose goal is to make money they make most of their money from student loans and they're really really good at it meeting students the really really good at getting helping students to get those loans what they're not so good at is graduating students helping students get jobs after and it's just they're also really expensive because remember you're the student you're taking out that student loan you're going to have to pay that back whether or not you finish whether or not you graduate a much better option is that they set a public school so community colleges if it's a brick and mortar school it's likely to be a public school so commu back to college i don't have to leave my home if i don't want to i could do all of my coursework online absolutely there are online programs offered by reputable public institutions so every community college at this point offers distance education every four year public college offers it i do recommend that for your very first course if you haven't been in school for ten years or twenty years it's easier to go back to school in a regular course and there are number of advantages to at least  your first course starting that way with other people if you have the ability to yes can integrate with people because that will what help motivate you to help make that on the campus connection yes all of that so what what happens when you're on campus  build a stronger connection to your education institution i'm not saying to never take an online course i'm not even saying to not do most of your work on mine but to start you know most of most community colleges actually all of them and almost all public  four year institutions offer a night programs where you go once a week or once on the weekends to find a couple of hours once a week is there a website that you can do a search and figure out what kind of college is best for you there are a number of them for example us world news report has a great website the best way to do it though is to if you know that your place than in other words let's say you're working full time and as much as you'd love to go to that great college across the state that is not going to be reality right away start with your local community college just about every county will have one and they'll be within a reasonable driving distance and you don't have to worry about admissions right away into the business community college is never going to not a what i would love to know is we're talking about people who aren't teenagers or young twenty's any longer i've always heard about getting credit college credit for life experience could you please let us know what  assessment so the plan of learning assessment allows you to get college credit for your work in life experience typically you either take a set of tests or you prepare a portfolio that demonstrates your knowledge now you're still going to have to pay for the college credits but you won't have to take a course as allow you to get college credits toward your degree and get that degree a little faster while maybe i can get my ph d i just submit all my past experience one thing that's common you know people midlife when they're changing careers follow their passions so somebody might have wound up in sales where they really wanted to be an elementary school teacher and then it made like they may come to the point where they say hey i can do this you know or i want to do this or they may have gone into teaching and really want to be in the medical field want to be a nurse want to be an ultrasound tac so if there's no one thing it's about following your passion about doing the work that you find meaningful you know just to say i'm going for that i actually we actually have a friend who was started and how old was mary was she got her teaching degree i believe there is in her upper forty's or mid forty's and she went back to tell everyone he was a nurse and she went back to school and got her mass and went into teaching and has been very happily teaching now for about ten years but it's something was definitely change of life situation for going back to school to be a teacher and that's fantastic and that's what going back to school is all about it's about being more interested in the world follow in the things you're passionate about it's really good for your brain too and it's like starting another life you know you could have two lives in your one lifetime two careers absolutely can have two or three in people typically have more than one career now you know we think every time in a sixty five but when the average life expectancy is seventy nine or eighty that's an awful lot of time that people have that they can do something interesting with a lot of people don't want to stop working at sixty five they're still vibrant they still want to be working and contributing to society in that way speaking of getting older and i actually read several different places that when you challenge your brain such as going back to college and a little later in life you have she could prevent alzheimer's from developing because of how you're using your brain is that true do you think that there's a lot of evidence you can't we can't say so definitively  professor you may have heard about this yet there's a lot of research out there that strongly suggests that continuing to learn through college courses through art through many different ways continuing to challenge yoursel fantastic i'm taking noncredit courses and one thing you can do if you're scared to go back full time and you're thinking i'm not sure if i'm ready for a college course for credit every community college has not cr the continuing education courses are a credit bearing they don't have grade you don't have to worry about someone marking you but they're a great way to learn they're typically very affordable many of them under one hundred dollars they last for maybe three to ten sessions so they're not as long term as a full semester but they'll give someone a taste of what it's like to go back to school and to learn and that's a great way to get started it's also a great way to get comfortable on the college campus and i think