Mad Men 2.0: Advertising Veteran Helps Launch “Geezer,” New Agency For 50+ Market

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Brent Rivard had a long, successful career in advertising, working for major ad agencies in New York and Toronto. But as he entered his 50s, Brent faced an industry that is focused on youth in both it’s work and it’s staffing. The average age of an individual working in advertising is just 29 years old.

Teamed with two advertising executives also in their early 50s, he is in the process of building a groundbreaking agency called “Geezer.” The new company is different from traditional agencies in two major ways:

  • Geezer is focused on serving the 50+ market (the most lucrative segment of the population);
  • The agency is staffed by seasoned veterans – all with 25+ years of experience in the advertising profession.

According to Brent, “Ageism is a big problem in the advertising agency world and we need to do something about it.”

Click here to learn more about Geezer and their unique approach to advertising.

All Eyes on Justin Farmer: Veteran WSB-TV News Anchor Launches a Second Act in Public

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Justin Farmer is one of the most recognizable people in Atlanta. He spent 17 years as the evening news anchor on WSB-TV, Atlanta’s top-rated news station, and one of the biggest local market news stations in the country. News was a Farmer family business; Justin’s father, Don Farmer, was an ABC news correspondent, a founding CNN anchor, and later the evening news anchor on WSB in Atlanta, a job he held until 1997. Ten years later, Justin landed the same job, at the same station.

But let’s rewind: this all meant that Justin grew up with an inside track to history. While he graduated from Boston College with a degree in political science, his family legacy and several internships at WSB naturally led him to broadcasting. His first TV job was as a sportscaster in Albany, Georgia. But a life in TV news is nomadic, and Justin moved from market to market before eventually landing back home in Atlanta and working for WSB. In 2007, he finally landed at the anchor desk.

Everything was going well until the early 2020s, when in the span of 14 months, Justin lost both his biological parents and his beloved WSB co-anchor, Jovita Moore. This series of traumatic losses caused him to rethink what he wanted from life. He challenged himself to do something different, and his passion for investing and wealth management emerged as his new career goal.

It wasn’t an easy path. Studying for the Series 65 – Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam, is a full-time job itself, but Justin climbed that mountain around his very high-profile full-time job. He passed the first time he took it. Then, on November 26, 2024, he signed off from WSB-TV with three hilarious words and launched Exit Wealth, a private investment firm that works with ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Our interview with Justin happened just weeks after he embarked on his second act. In this episode, Justin shares his history in TV news, some of the fun stories that are always part of live TV, his painful turning point, the thought process behind leaving what appears to be a “cushy” job, and the mountains he had to scale to make his second act a reality.

Learn more about Justin by Googling his name and learn more about Exit Wealth by visiting their website.

Second Act Stories theme music: “Between 1 and 3 am” by Echoes

Sparking Climate Conversations Across the USA: Kathleen Biggins’ Second Act

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Kathleen Biggins is a prime example of an ordinary person doing extraordinary things.

The genesis of Kathleen’s second act began in 2006 when she was asked to attend the Garden Club of America’s National Legislative Conference in Washington on behalf of her local garden club. That’s where her education about climate change began and ultimately led to the formation of C-Change Conversations. The organization is dedicated to helping people across the political spectrum understand the science behind climate change.

Kathleen and her colleagues have made presentations to 21,000+ individuals across 33 states. To learn more about C-Change Conversations, you can visit their website at www.c-changeconversations.org.

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Best of 2024: Leaving Real Estate To Hunt Pythons In The Everglades

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Second Act Stories Annual “Best of” Episode give us an opportunity to re-share a remarkable story from the past year and welcome new listeners by offering a taste of what we do: profile courageous individuals pursuing a more rewarding life in a second act.

In the “Best of 2024” episode Scott interviews Amy Siewe, an amazing woman who left lucrative career as a real estate broker to hunt pythons in the Florida Everglades. Amy proudly shares that she’s 5’ 4”, 120 lbs., and captures pythons as big as 180 lbs. by physically jumping on them and wrestling them into submission.

We hope you enjoy Amy’s incredible profile and tune in for more Second Act Stories in 2025!!!

 

No Joke: Last Comic Standing Winner Alonzo Bodden Used to Be an Aircraft Mechanic

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Alonzo Bodden is one of the hardest-working and funniest working standup comics on the touring circuit today. He won Season 3 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing; he has four standup specials so far; he’s a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!; he’s played a bouncer or a security guard in countless movies and TV shows; and he even voiced monsters on the Power Rangers. He’s been around.

But before he had anything to do with show business, Alonzo was an aircraft mechanic who got a job working for Lockheed Martin on the F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber – one of the most advanced top secret aircraft in the world – when he graduated from Aviation High School in New York. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles, started making a lot of money, found himself in the throes of addiction, and wound up in jail.

The sound of the cell door slamming shut was his turning point.

In this episode, Alonzo shares details about his New York upbringing, his battle with addiction, his path to sobriety (36 years ago!), and how it all led him to find his calling: comedy.

He also shares the one hilarious joke he told at the 1997 Montreal Just for Laughs festival that immediately transformed him from a guy who did standup comedy to fully realized comic. You won’t want to miss it.

Wherever you live, Alonzo will be in a town near you sooner or later and seeing him live should be high on your priority list. Find him at www.alonzobodden.com.

Second Act Stories theme music: “Between 1 and 3 am” by Echoes

Toy Story: When A Hobby Becomes A Second Act

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Bruce and Mira Brach opened Toy Utopia, an independent toy store, on May 27, 2022. Based in Red Bank, NJ, their aim was to create a “magical place that sparks interest, curiosity, imagination and creativity in children and adults.”

The business is a leap for both of them. Bruce had managed a landscaping business for over 25 years. Mira was – and still is – a registered nurse.

A lifelong collector of vintage toys, Bruce was ready to exit his company. Mira asked him, “What do your really want to do next?” Bruce’s response…open a toy store. And that’s what they did together.

Click here to learn more about Toy Utopia. And if you find yourself in Red Bank, NJ, we hope you’ll give Bruce and Mira a visit.

TEDx to Triumph: Henry Rock Inspires A New Class of Entrepreneurs

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For most of his adult life, Henry Rock working in advertising sales representing a wide range of black media . His work brought him in direct contact with a number of inspiring, African-American entrepreneurs and that gave him an idea: what if we could inspire young black males in inner cities to explore entreprenurial opportunites?

After relocating to North Carolina, Henry began pursuing this idea with the help of National Urban League and it’s local chapter in Charlotte. His TEDx Talk, Creating A New Class of Entrepreneurs, put the wind in his sails to launch City Startup Labs. Over the past decade, the organization has trained over 220 young men and women to get into the startup game. Recently, City Startup Labs has focused on helping formerly incarcerated individuals pursue their business dreams.

Now 72 years old, Henry reports he’s the happiest he’s ever been. “And I owe it to not taking my hands off the steering wheel but not gripping the steering wheel and trying to steer my life but rather allowing my life to unfold…And it has unfolded in a very beautiful way.” 

 

Bartender to Bestselling Author: The Man Behind “The Gray Man”

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Mark Greaney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His debut thriller, The Gray Man, was published in 2009 and became a national bestseller and Netflix film starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. He wrote twelve subsequent Gray Man novels that have been released to date. He is also the co-author of seven Tom Clancy novels. His latest book, Sentinel, was released on June 25th, 2024. It is his 25th published work.

Before emerging as a top thriller author, Mark spent 20+ years working as a bartender, waiter and midlevel office worker in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. But in his late thirties and after the death of his father, he finally got serious about writing. “I had this amazing epiphany. I was stressed about where I was in life. I didn’t have a good position. And I had a lot of social anxiety. I drove a beat-up car. But it came to me one day that I loved to write and I was doing what I loved. And I realized I was successful even if I never got published…And within two years, I was published. And within four years, I was writing with Tom Clancy. And within twelve years, I had a movie out.”

Mark Greaney wrote his first best-selling novel, The Gray Man, in 2009. The highly-successful series was made into a major motion picture in 2022.
Mark Greaney’s latest novel, Sentinel, follows Josh Duffy, a former close-protection bodyguard and recent lower-leg amputee.

 

A Dream Deferred: Publishing A First Novel At 47

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Dann McDorman always dreamed of writing and publishing a novel. After graduating from Columbia University, he spent a decade pursuing that dream with little impact. “Not only was I never published, I never heard back from a single publisher. I had zero success.”

As he hit his 30s, he found his way to a career in broadcast journalism initially working for Fox News but then climbing the ladder as a producer at MSNBC. Starting a family, his dream of being an author was put on the backburner. Today, Dann is the Executive Producer of “The Beat With Ari Melber” that airs weeknights from 6:00-7:00 pm.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic and without a daily commute to the MSNBC Studios, Dann had some extra time on his hands. He started thinking about writing again. With his wife’s encouragement, he wrote a full length mystery novel called West Heart Kill. And at the age of 47, his book was published by Knopf Publishing.

Dann McDorman’s first book, West Heart Kill, was published in October, 2023. A  second book is in the works.

Dann’s advice to aspiring authors and second act pursuers: “Don’t give up…Stick with it and don’t think it’s too late to be successful.” 

 

PYTHON HUNTRESS! Amy Siewe Left Real Estate to Hunt Pythons in the Everglades

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Amy Siewe is the quintessential embodiment of how passion drives a second act.

She left a safe and lucrative career as a real estate broker to hunt pythons in the Everglades.

She proudly shares that she’s 5’ 4”, 120 lbs., and captures pythons as big as 180 lbs. by physically jumping on them and wrestling them into submission.

This is what pure passion looks like.

In this fascinating episode, Amy shares what motivated her to leave a relatively safe career selling real estate to become The Python Huntress.

In this wild ride, she shares how she became so interested in snakes, unbelievable accounts of actual hunts, how she built a business out of hunting pythons, why her role is necessary, and which of her two careers is more stressful.

Follow Amy Siewe, The Python Huntress, on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Second Act Stories theme music: “Between 1 and 3 am” by Echoes