Small business owners, entrepreneurs, medium startups, and VCs. This one's for you. Welcome to beyond the bottom line, balancing evolution with execution hosted by elevate talent solutions, founder and CEO, Ron Miller. Through Ron's own hard one wisdom, as well as that of an array of luminaries across the entrepreneurial ecosystem, you'll glean priceless wisdom that will help you see past the day to day grind. And into the future where you can check off today's to do list and achieve innovation and elevation to ensure your business is future proofed, fulfilling, and profitable. It's time for beyond the bottom line, balancing evolution with execution. Take it away, Ron. Welcome everybody to today's episode of Beyond the Bottom Line. We bring you real talk for small businesses and community and connecting you with resources and opinion where we cut out the BS and we get down to what the reality is. I am super excited to have these two guests on today. They are two good friends of mine. I think you'll hear me talk about the power of community when you're building small business. And I met today's guests, Nicole Gray and Anne Marie Hankey through a collective that we both joined, connecting fractional entrepreneurs, the business resources, and they were just somebody that I found very interesting and I reached out to for some help. And now they become like confidants and elevate talent solutions. And really, I probably should cut them in as partners at this point, but. Uh, but they, there are more than helpers. They are also the host of a great podcast. If you have not listened to it is called what's next Gen X. And they cover a great variety of topics for Gen Xers. And I'd like to kick it over to the both of you and have you introduced yourself because besides being great people and podcast hosts, you have other things that you do as well. So Nicole, I'll let you go first. All right. Well, first of all, Ron, thank you so much for the invite. This is awesome. So thank you. But yeah. Hey everybody. My name is Nicole Gray. And like Ryan was saying, I co host What's Next Gen X, and I'm also a coach, I consider myself an empowerment coach, and I also have a company called Renewed Impact, so I am just thrilled to be here. Thanks again, Ryan. No, thank you, Nicole. I appreciate it. Anne Marie. Yeah, absolutely. So, hey, I'm Anne Marie Inkey, and I am the founder of What's Next Gen X, one of my crazy ideas. And I, so my passion, absolute passion, is trying to find a way for Gen X to figure out their what's next. And whether that is as wrong as you alluded to, I'm sure we'll get into later, fractional work, or if it is Working with someone amazing like Nicole and trying to find a way to renew their impact at their day job. It is all about trying to help them find a path forward instead of just being forgotten, especially. After doing what you thought was the right thing for years and years and years Before I kick the floor over i'll just call this out is you have this what's next gen x podcast And and for those of you watching the video version I'm, the only one on here right now that looks like they are gen x and Being totally colorblind, like the gray shirt out of my bland wardrobe probably was not the right fix today. Like, Hey, Brian, can I tell you something? So when we introduced this podcast, I had people reach out through there, like. They thought it was a fraud. They're like, we thought you were a millennial. It's and I'm like, well, thank you. I'll take it. Trust me. I see the wrinkles every day. Trust me. That's why I sit so far back from the camera for the video version of this. You start to see him. 4k. Yeah. And they, they tell them what the intelligence lines, right. As you get older, the more wrinkles, the smarter you are. And except, yeah, for me, that doesn't apply really well, but I have some wrinkles. So, yeah, but no, I, I love the podcast. I had the honor of being a guest on it and I'd love for you to just start out talking a little bit about, you know, how you two came together and what were you looking to achieve in creating that? Yeah. So I'll start and then of course I'll kick it off to Anne Marie and you'll kind of see this, this rhythm that we did. We kind of do this dance. I have been in corporate America, started out in SAS, and then in the tech world for 20 plus years, we met at a huge, uh, tech company. Um, I'm not going to call it out by name, but I'll just say, if you ever sat in a Brady Bunch box, that's the company. Okay. And Ann Marie, she was a kick ass person in sales. I was in, uh, I was managing a team and customer success before I moved over to social impact. So we'd always had worked together at a great working relationship. I mean, we were like doing our thing. Emery decided to leave and I got laid off and it was, it floored me. It was one of those things where it's like, um, somebody that you thought you were going to break up with first and they kind of beat you to the punch. So it floored me. Anna was pissed at the same time. Um, but it's just what I needed because I had already been in a place and Anne Marie, it's funny, we were talking about this recently. She was like, I could tell you weren't happy. I could tell like the end was near, but I kept saying they're gonna have to force me out and they did, but that was the best thing ever happened. Getting pushed off the ledge. I tell everybody it was a blessing and then Anne Marie, I'm going to have you pick it up. Oh, well, real quick. So I got laid off in January, started my company in March. And I've been rocking and rolling ever since. Anne Marie, I'll have you pick it up. Yeah, so I left, so same kind of amazing thing, right? Huge, I followed the path. Let me start there, right? I went to school, you know, which, Ron, you and I happen to go to the same undergrad. Um, but then I, um, big 10 in the house. Yeah. Could work. Great 10. Yeah. Moving on, moving on. But so, right. So, but with all the path, right. With school, got a good job, got another degree, right. Got a good job, got the title, got the VP role, worked for really prestigious institutions, you know, I worked for Harvard business school. I worked for a huge financial investment company. I worked for startups. I worked for farmers. Like I've taken a company public, like all of these things, all of these amazing things. And then I got to a point where I was in a meeting and I'm like, Oh my God, I looked down at my, I have an Apple watch on it, you know, it has a heart monitor. It went off. Now listen, I'm sitting here sitting on a call. I'm not a running a marathon. And it was 127. I'm like, Oh my God, something has to be done. So I made the decision to change, um, I came to a company that had a little bit more of a social impact incentive kind of from the environmental perspective. And then while doing that, I kind of kept exploring and seeing what else is out there. And then at the same time last year, it was a horrible bloodbath of year for layoffs. Every one of those companies that I just mentioned all had huge layoffs, huge layoffs. And the idea is the impacted people were all my friends and colleagues. And these were good people. These are good Gen Xers. And everyone started thinking like, I don't know what to do. I've been laid off. The economy's in the tank. I'm in my fifth decade now. Right? So now, hello, welcome ageism. I'm not ready to retire. I've been investing, but the market's volatile. Like I, this is not the right time to make this decision. I need to keep income coming in. Are we have kids, little kids at home or kids in college? What is next? Then at the same time as all this was going on, sort of as my own just conversation across my network, I was seeing all these memes on, uh, social media, right? And I mean, I love a good meme you'll find you can take, you can't tell by the laughter, like we love a good meme. But it was stuff about like, yes, of course we drank water out of the garden hose. Of course we did this. Of course, you know, we had rubbery phones, BFT, right? Like. Like, it's one of those things I'm like, is that all we're known for is seriously is like the modem sound is literally the sound of our generation and that's it? Like, you gotta be kidding me. And so many people such as Nicole, right. We're doing amazing things. And so I, Nicole and I obviously been connected for years on LinkedIn and I knew what had happened to her at that prior company. And like, I've been watching her and seeing what she was doing. And one day I just randomly reached out to her. I'm like, Hey, I'm starting this whole thing called what's next gen exit. Like, and the idea is not to be the. necessarily the, the beyond and all voice of Gen X. But the problem was there was nowhere for us to go. There's nowhere to hear from other Gen Xers about what are we doing? How are we transforming our lives at this point in our life, right? Do we find another job? And if so, is it at a company that perhaps resonates more with us? Do we find a way to start our own business? Do we start something completely different like Nicole and going into coaching? What can we do? And so, um, unbeknownst to me, even though Nicole and I had known each other, she had actually hosted a podcast for quite a long time, all about sports. And so she's like, Amory, I'm so in it. I'm like, you are in it. You're my girl. Come on in. Come on. Welcome to the what's next Gen X family. And we started the what's next Gen X podcast. It's been great. And so we like to in particular, we have a combination of things on the podcast, which is, uh, usually around 30 minutes to 45 minutes. And we like to in particular speak to our fellow Gen Xers and hear from them and hear what they are doing to transform their lives more so than just preaching from the pulpit. We want to hear real stories about people's journeys through corporate, about what they're doing outside of corporate or even still within corporate, how are they figuring out how to find their life? Then Nicole and I come on as well, and we talk about other areas. So our first year is all about reinventing work. What can we do? Like, how do we rethink work? And the second is let's talk about health and wellness, because there's a whole lot going on right now at this point in your life. Everything from, I mentioned children at home, sometimes boomerang children, whatever it is. To figuring out your finances to aging parents, to, you know, how are we going to retire? Does everybody have to move to Florida? I think what, like, what are the options for us? Like, what do we do? And, and then the third and most important run, this is sort of where you come in is our idea of community. We need to expand our network and expand our community. And know that you're there to support each other. That's that's been huge for me and my journey and connecting with the two of you is there is a community, you know, very similarly in my background, same, same timeframe, what did I get for my 50th birthday present last November? I got a position elimination. Happy birthday to me. Right? Yeah. Cancel the party. First time I ever had like a real birthday party plan for turning 50, I had to cancel it. And I'm sitting there and you go through that job search journey and we see so much right now of People putting out, I know I've shared this publicly for a year, you know, of talking about numbers of, I applied to over 1100 positions. I heard back from less than 1%. I got a handful and a half of interviews. Two of those wound up being offers that I didn't want and nothing after it, you know, and you can advise about taking out some of your experience because, you know, showing your age and you're less likely to be hired and you run into that you start to think. What is next? Is this the end? Like, is everything that I did to this point not amount to anything? And you have that internal conversation, that dialogue with yourself of, did I fail? Yeah. And, and, and, and with that, I always say, you know, we're old enough to know better, but too young to retire. Yeah. Like in that sweet spot where, you know, we got some life credit, right? Like we've been in it. We, you know, Gen X has been, life has been life for us, right? But yet we're not trying to sit on the porch and rock the chair because we're not there yet. You know, we're not, you know, some of us, like, I have a son who's in fourth grade. I have friends who have kids in all different ages who've either in college or left or in their twenties and thirties. We're all this different phases to where, and then a lot of us too, we feel like younger and feel better at the age right now. So I'm not ready to, you know, start making quilts and biscuits and cookies and just going off to the side. Like it's gotta be something else. I hate the term midlife because I'm like, if anything. This is where life is like happening. Like we're good. You know, I'm glad I know a lot of stuff. I'm glad we've been through some stuff. So we're all, you know, we're at this interesting time to where we're trying to figure out truly. Okay. So what, what else I'm going to do? Am I going to stay at this company? Am I going to leave this company? Or if I get laid off, should I redo my resume? Which God forbid, you know, for the thought of having to redo a resume or do I go to my own? So I think the conversations that we're having is it's such a great time right now, because. Truly Gen X is trying to figure out. And we're all Swiss army knives, right? Because we all know eight different things or if not 20 different things to do, because that's just how we were as kids. Our parents told us go outside and play and we had to figure it out. That that's the generation we're from. Yeah. And one of our first podcasts was all about the Gen X traits and the idea that we keep consistently saying is this idea of resilience and hard work and we're going to get stuff done and it, you, even when you're feeling down round, right? So one of the companies that I worked for just had a. I'm using air quotes for those that cannot see me right now, voluntary separation, right? Program. Every, I love the air quotes by the way, because if you get that email voluntary, we would strongly. Yes. Do you have a couple of minutes today? And Like you feel, you do, you go through all the, all the actions, right? All the anger, but, and sometimes like you, you do, you have shame and you're like, Oh my gosh, am I like worthless? Like my identity was wrapped up into this job and this company, into everything. And it is like, hi, I'm Anne Marie and I work for so and so. Like that's part of what you do, or at least we did, right? Because of the, the, our work culture. And you have to realize that you are resilient and you can work hard and you know stuff and what you know, people will pay you for, right? You just have to start to rethink about how you're approaching this. Then you did even five years ago in a job search or a job hunt, right? Like, how are you approaching it and what are the options out there? Do you go from taking something where you have effectively one source of income if you're in a corporate job, right? Excluding investments and all that and all that stuff. Um, but you have that one source of income to multistream income, where perhaps you're doing fractional, perhaps you're starting an SMB, perhaps you're starting a franchise, whatever it is, like, how do you look at things a little bit differently to find that inner resilience and to find your next options? Something that you taught me very early on when we connected too is, listen, I was going through all those doubts, right? I got into this, I got into it for the right reasons. I started to focus down. We all hit those bumps in the road as new entrepreneurs. Something you all shared with me on that resilient side was the fact that Gen X, the average age of somebody starting their business today is like 45 to 50. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and that's gen x that's us Absolutely. And yeah, I mean and and that's one thing it's unfortunate people don't talk about that Right, like you have people like beera wayne who did start till the 40s. Uh, martha stewart was older I mean you can go I mean there's there's people in history Uh, Laura Ingalls Wilder, you know, Little House on the Prairie. She didn't start until she was like 60. So this whole idea of that's why I think that midlife, like, uh, it's over. We're actually just getting started because we had to finish that chapter. So now it's like, okay, great. And I got this new exciting chapter. And again, Something else that we don't realize. Think about when we were little and we had family members who were in their forties and fifties. Didn't they seem so old? 50? Yeah. Back in the day was old. Like the Golden Girls. I'm finding out now. Were in their fifties, right? I swear I thought those ladies were 80 or 90. 80 or 90 years old. You know what I mean? They just made 50 look like. Oh yeah. And now you have people who are 50 who are laughing with your producer. Who look 40 and 35. So like we're in a good place, you know what I mean? So we want to make some stuff happen. And I think we're approaching our life differently, right? So Gen X is definitely, and this is sort of why we're not just talking about work. We're talking about everything else is that how do we take care of ourselves? How do we look at healthcare as we get older, right? How do we look at some of those key topics that are challenging us? How do we look at nutrition, right? Whereas. You know, our peer situation perhaps didn't look at it in the same way of exercise and health and what are we doing to take care of ourselves? Are we getting the right supplements? Are we doing those kinds of right things? We're looking at it a completely different way, which is why we really need to take the opportunity to say, time is now. Like if you're thinking about starting something, then even if you have a corporate job, like the time is now, right? At that 45 or plus, you can do this, right? You need to feel empowered to do this. And you can do it on the side. And I'm going to tell you absolutely fundamentally, like 100%, if you start something on the side, you're going to be like, I don't have time for that. Okay. Firstly, BS. Secondly. What that's going to do is actually, yeah, it's going to take some time, some late nights, but it will start to give you the energy that you will actually energize during your day job and during your other activities and doing your other things because you're going to feel a complete renewed sense of purpose by starting something. And then that sense of time too is different and Maria's hitting on something because think about all the hours that we gave someone else, our manager, our old CEOs. You know, sometimes I think about, I almost make myself sick. I'm like, man, the way I used to grind for those other companies and getting other people rich. And again, that was a totally different time. You know, you got to do what you got to do, but now I'm on the other side. It doesn't feel like work. I don't have to work as hard, but if I do, it's for me. And that's the beauty of Gen X. Like we have options. You have choices. You don't have to feel stuck. And let me tell you something. Passion projects. Um, cause Anne Marie will tell you, those are the bomb. If you don't have a passion project right now, you are missing out. So if you'd like to bake cakes, you better do them and sell them. You got something that you'd like to do and love, you can monetize that bad boy and you better be doing it right now. So there's a woman, she's on Instagram and it's under you can do a gardening. And she's amazing. She came out of, I believe it was corporate non profit financing, right? And she loved gardening, just gardening, right? And she believed, and she was up in, she's up in Massachusetts and she believed that everybody can do gardening. And so she started going on Instagram with her little gardening videos like, Oh, the hydrogen needs to be here. It needs to have this pH level to be the right blue and all these kinds of things. And like, Oh, you have too much shade for this lilac or whatever it is. Right. That, by the way, that's about the extent of my gardening. So let's think. And then she started to catch on and she started selling her services and her services were either she would come to your onsite, she would videotape it and put it up and then selling more and more services. So after a year of doing this on the side for gardening, I think about gardening, like she probably did on the weekends because people usually work to write all these kinds of things. So she filled her time with it. She has over a million followers across social media channels. She was able to leave her job. Now listen, you don't have to be an influencer, but don't like that side project can turn into something. And what often happens with both Nicole and I, and sort of a little bit like Ron, this is sort of some of the things we've talked about too, is you start, you go, and I'm going to like, I am a corporate finance person. I'm going to do corporate finance. I'm going to continue this process. And then you'll have this conversation and then there'll be like a little whisper. Oh, but I really like gardening. Oh, but I really like, you know, whatever it is. I like, I like baking or I like working with kids and you're just like, okay, why are you whispering? Like, but it literally comes like, like Gen X. We're almost embarrassed to say that we have things that we like outside, right? Outside of the corporate world. Yeah. And it's like, okay, well, well, listen, like, go ahead. Still continue to pursue your corporate job. Start. This now, because the time is now, we did a pre call for somebody that's coming on our podcast recently and he's like, there is a sense of urgency, like start now, right? Absolutely start. Well, much like corporate. When we live that you get on the other side, you can't get that time back. It's a valuable time and a valuable learning experience, but man, looking back on it and the things that I missed out on. Yeah. That I could have invested otherwise in starting to do something earlier. Oh, I couldn't agree. High side. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would have two Oscars right now. You all have been watching my films. I mean, if I would have worked, I'm sorry. I'd still have her on the podcast. When I'd still be on the podcast, I'd still be on the podcast. I'm going to forget when I was 10, I did Oscar speech and I just knew then I was going to be an actress. I mean, You know, looking back, it's one of those, man, if I could do it all over again, but again, it is such a blessing that I think that we did learn a lot. Our generation work ethic, you know, how to stick to things. And again, I think all of us, a lot of us went into industries where we didn't go to college for. I think we were that generation. You know, I have a lot of friends who were like, I was supposed to be a lawyer, but I ended up this, or I had a lot of friends who had engineering degrees and ended up doing this. So, yeah. I mean, I started out in radio and TV and then I got into tech. I mean, so that's why I call us was army knives. There's so many different things that we can do. We just have to jump in the pool and go for it. Well, I think it was, we really drive like this push now into fractional work, right? Like fractional work, nobody really understood or knew it existed, right? It was like the whole gig economy, like, Oh, well you work for you, you got yourself on Fiverr. No, that, that is not what we do in the Fraxer world. That is fractional, but we're redefining it as Gen Xers, especially cause we're really pushing this. And yeah, we're pushing it and we're somewhat aware of what goes on in these companies. Right. So if you're, if you've worked in any tech or financial services or certain, if you're in pharma. Like there's usually a period of hyper growth and many of us have experienced this during our careers, right? And so what's going on now, especially in small businesses, which I hope you're listening, right? If you're listening for SMBA is the rate of growth in development and in product cycle has decreased dramatically. That's due to AI, um, low code, no code, a lot of other technical things, right? So you, my inner nerds coming out right now, but, and what is happening is that a small business. Generally is, you know, has a limited funds and budget because you're starting up, you're trying to get your sales, you're trying to figure things out. Maybe you're bootstrapping, maybe you're seed funded, venture funded, family funded, whatever it is, but you don't want to start hiring people because hiring people is. An exponential cost is an S and B, right? So, cause not only do you have the cost of the salary, but then you have all the overhead costs, including benefits, including everything. And I'm not trying to dissuade benefits, all of that. Those are important. We have options for that now, but the idea is how can you provide access to talent at a fractional rate where a Gen Xer can come in and leverage their expertise. As a valued full member of the team, but just on a part time basis because they don't need that scale. And the other thing that it can do is it can actually help you scale up into a full time role. So my other half did this at his company startup. He started out as a fractional expert coming in. I think initially it was really small, it's like 10 hours a week and then the next contract was 20 and then they hired him on as a chief product officer. And so you start to see. What that option could be is so that as the company scales, you have established your value and you're able to do this. And you can have multiple clients at once, right? There isn't a conflict of interest. You need to be able to make sure you're covered all that stuff, but it really is the potential is out there to help other small businesses and as a fractional. And if you're a small business, I highly encourage you to look at fractional hiring first, like how to figure out how do you staff with fractional is something that I know, you know, perhaps elevate can help with like there are options around how you leverage this talent pool because it is out there and it is accessible at your budget. I think about the value that we bring as Gen Xers just in the technology realm, right? And, and for those of you that are business owners and you're listening and you're thinking about this thing, just remember we came from a time where we stood at a pay phone and had to put in 10 cents to answer our beeper, right? Cause we all had beepers, uh, you know, I did you, you learn how to send messages with upside down letters on beepers, but right. From that time pre internet, right? Pre interweb, right? But we've grown through all of those technological advances, and we are in this AI world now. But when you are in small business, you can't afford those resources, and you're looking at other options. Gen Xers have been through so many iterations, the value we could bring in implementing where it could go, how to train. You're not going to find that with other groups, you're just not. And there's another power of our generation and fractional work. Yeah. And it's something where, you know, don't be ageist firstly, don't, like you can't hire based on age, but the value of a Gen Xer that's going to bring is that experience. Thanks. And you need to understand that if you can bring in a Gen Xer at a fractional rate, you're going to have an exponential growth, right? It's not one plus one equals two. It's one plus one equals 10 because of that experience, because of that growth, because of that insight and value that a Gen Xer can bring. And also too, I heard somebody say, um, Annemarie and I were recently at a conference. You're not, you're not burying my time or investing in my time. You're investing in what I know. Right. And that is so, that is so valuable. I mean, if you truly look at the years that the average Gen Xer is probably like spend about 20 years, let's say like 15 to 25 on their career, because, you know, some people might've had to stay home with the kids and gone back to work or things like that. That is time to where you, if you're just, you know, if you're in your twenties and thirties and just starting out. You, you can't go wrong with that. You know what I mean? Like if you're looking for a fractional CFO or fractional CMO or, or just, you know, whatever you, you can't beat that because that person they've earned their stripes, right? So that idea of it, I'm sorry. It just makes me laugh that people are actually. You know, we're, that we're going through pages. It was ridiculous because we still, a lot of us have a good 10, 15, maybe 20 years left of, you know, that we want to work somewhere else. So if you're trying to get rid of Gen Xers, you're really shooting yourself in the foot. And I think a lot of these, especially tech companies, they're going to be feeling it because what they're not telling you is behind the scenes, they're hiring a lot of these people back. They realize, Oh, we did too. We, we've said, we may have laid off too many people. But they, but you're not seeing that other media, but I have a lot of friends who've gone back to sales or going back to that, you know, other job because they're like, Ooh. We laid off way too many folks. We need that knowledge back because guess what? We're the culture creators. I mean, Gen X has created a culture. You wouldn't have grunge and hip hop and rap and, you know, a lot of the music and just what's on TV and commercials and all that. That's us. That's what we grew up with. So you take us out of your business, what do you have left, just a shell? Yeah, kind of expanding upon culture. The other thing that is so important to Gen Xers is corporate culture, right? And even if it's a small business, it is what is the culture. And if you're a small business, I think culture is tantamount because you have a small team and you need to make sure that everyone works well together. And you start to think about Gen Xers and they are so passionate about working with the right people. And Nicole, you and I, and Ron, we talk about this too, work with the people that give you energy. Right. And it doesn't matter what their age is. It's like, who's going to help you to elevate, see how I did that Ron, elevate your small business. And I should ring a bell every time you say elevate. Yeah, ding, right? Like bonus points. Um, but you want to work with those people so that they can bring their ideas and energy and excitement and experience to help you elevate where you're at, especially as a small business, and then be part of that corporate culture, right? Be part of that team. Like we are. You know, again, you don't want to overgeneralize, but we're a team generation. We love being together from the packs of the malls to, you know, this is just all of us connecting now on different digital platforms. Well, and that's also the power of the community of Gen X and engaging in fractional workers is. You know, Hey, you might engage with me to help build your infrastructure and your operations, right. Or train your talent acquisition team. But when it comes to coaching, your executive team might not be what I'm focusing on, but the power of the connection of my community, I know when Nicole and I know an Anne Marie that I can refer you to, and now you have a resource that's trusted, that brings you that different experience level. And what you're looking to accomplish in that realm. And we can help tie you together in how you grow and expand your organization. You know, let me tell you, the power of networking is so big right now. There's actually people out there who are labeling themselves networking experts, and that is huge. I felt like that at my old company, people literally would call me and be like, I need blah, blah, blah. I'd be like, call Mike, call Emory, call Jan. Because just the fact that you know, these people it's huge. So, I mean, just with us, with, you know, our businesses, if we need anything, we're going to call this person. We're going to call that person. Oh, I need some advice. Okay. I need this. I need that. I need a contract. And then that to have that is huge. So if you're this whole idea, like I want to do it by myself or I'm not sure, whatever you need to join a community. It is. We're at that age where you have to start investing in yourself. You do, you know, we invest in, you know, our hair, nails, massage, you know, we do all that stuff, but then there's another side of it. You got to invest in your company and you are your company. Like Anne Marie says, you're the CEO of yourself. You have to invest in yourself. So get a coach, get, you know, you may have to pay to get in some rooms and be in front of the right people, but you're going to have to pay that money. But in the long run, it's going to help you immensely. And now here's the thing, Nicole, right? Uh, I don't want to date myself at this point, but like, like 15, 20 years ago, if you were thinking about getting your MBA, you paid to get into the right room, to get into the network, right? You need to do that again. And you need to understand that this is just part of what you're doing right now. Listen, you don't need to pay, you know, like, like Ivy league. You're not going, you're not going to buck 50 for two years kind of thing. Don't worry about that. But the idea is you need to start thinking about how do I expand my network thoughtfully, intentionally? And how do I get around people that, again, are giving me energy and giving me insight? And that, Ron, you've seen how that's worked with you and the communities that we've been in. Yeah. Yeah. When to that point, like you all always give me so much energy every time we interact, like sometimes it takes me like a day to catch up to your thought process. Like, sorry, I messaged you the other day. I was like, you know, I know it's 2 a. m. and I'm sitting here. I can't sleep and I'm rereading this and the light bulb finally went off on what you said, because like you were. Three steps. But being around that energy is what propels you forward. And it's so important. Yeah. And it's a good thing that you still don't know everything. I mean, I still learn stuff all the time. I mean, this whole idea, like just cause you're older, you know, everything. No, you don't, you don't know everything. And then sometimes you may have an idea, but it's great. Like I think that the three of us. That I love when we're all together, we're bouncing ideas. We're like, what about this? What about that? And then it's like, Ooh, no, that would work. Okay. What about this? And, and that's just, you, you need that. You need those people to where you could have that fun with, you know what I mean? That's what you need. I'm going to add one more thing as I do is you need those people that you can be a confident with, right. And whether that's a coach and chances are, it's probably somebody not at your day job and it's probably somebody who can look at your spouse. Yeah, like are your partner or whoever you love them, but it's one of those things where sometimes you need to talk to other people within a different space and also somebody who has a unique perspective on things and get to look at it as Switzerland, right? And say, here's where I see this guy. And I did this last week with somebody and Nicole, you did this all the time as well. And, you know, Ron, we're, we're it for you, which is great. But the idea is like you need those perspectives to take a step back out of it because you do, you get blinders on if you're, you know, every day you wake up at five, you do have halo time, you go to work, you do this, right, you get to take kids to school, pick up groceries, like whatever it is, like you're literally just going, going, going and need those moments to stop, get a fresh perspective on things and they hear some digital insight. Yeah, I always like to say as far as with coaching, it's not that I have all the answers, but I do have all the questions. And a lot of time, it's just, you need somebody who's gonna ask you the right questions. I always say with coaching, it's like we're in a dark room, and I'm the light. And I'm trying to get you to turn the light on. You know, however way I'm going to get you to do it, but we're going to turn that light on. But who's that person going to help you bring it out? That's where a coach is so essential. That's where being around like minded people is so essential. Going to network events, joining those community communities, going to those, you know, whatever their month, what's on their monthly calendar, joining that. We got to get back to that. This whole idea that you're just going to sit at home and ding dong, opportunity is going to come or the next job or the next big thing. It's just not going to happen. Let's be honest. The only thing ding donging at your door is the Amazon driver, right? Because it won't be living, right? And I love him to death, but I need more. The insight and the energy you always bring is just, for me, is invaluable, right? As, as a friend and as a business owner and looking for opportunities and building. You know, you guys have been really great and we can sit all here all afternoon because the energy that you always bring, but I want to give you an opportunity just kind of in closing, you know, what's next for what's Gen X. What do you have coming up and what's next for the, each of, for each of you and where can everybody find you? So thank you, Ron. So we have, we have huge plans, but we have lots of inter yeah. Yeah, for those not on video, Ron has given us like a huge high five, like, like fist pumps. Um, and the idea is how can we come in and get resources for our lives and meet with other Gen Xers within that community. We're calling it the Nexus Collective. Which is a private group coaching, so it's going to be a four month coaching program and we're going to launch that starting in February, so if you wanted additional support, and perhaps you're not ready for one on one coaching, but you want to be able to get into a room, think of it as your small group from your MBA program, like how can we get in the room and really start getting together and putting our minds together and thinking about what is next for each one of you, bouncing ideas off each other, I And then we're continuing the podcast. We have great guests coming up. We're super excited about our guest list, um, that we've been recording. Cause we, we want you to hear those voices of other Gen Xers to begin to believe in yourself again. Yeah. So outside of what's next Gen X for me, I do coaching on the side through renewed impact, you know, I work with career women, professional women, so, you know, it doesn't matter, um, what industry you're in, but I'm just a big belay big believer, excuse me, as far as creating your, we'll see the table. And then we're going to jump on the table and then blow it up. Because we don't need it because you're good, you know what I mean? So that whole idea for years of all of us, you know want to see the table and then you get there and you're like really? So that's why you know, I coach those women and uh, but between this and what's next gen x We're just really excited about 2025. We think that's gonna be the year where we're gonna You know, take off. So Ron, you're lucky because next time we're going to be in today's show and good morning America. I'm just putting that out there. Just remember you saw them here first or 14th. They were here. That's awesome. I'll just say, it'll be like, there's Oprah and Ron are on the line. Okay, put Ron on hold, tell Oprah. No, I'm just kidding. Listen, I do, I, I hope for myself, I get a guest spot, like on the Pat McAfee show or the Doughty Brothers. That would be phenomenal because I got a lot to say about sports. None of it relevant, but I got an opinion about it. So it, you know, it's my new career. I joke, if you didn't know this, I also am a fractional. Assistant coach for the New York Giants. It's a virtual role. I perform it every Sunday from my couch as I sit and scream at Daniel Jones, but I guess it's every Saturday. I'm also on the imaginary sideline for the Michigan Wolverines. I'm doing my own coaching. Fired some people recently, so we're going to have a meeting about that. Um, but yeah, I, I feel you, it's really hard to be a coach right now in the college football. So it's a lot going on. Do you want to invite, um, real quick, everybody to our website? What's next, Jadak. And you can follow us across all social platforms, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. And then reach out to us on LinkedIn as well. So we'd love to hear from you. And then you can also find me at renewed impact. com. Um, but we're out there. We'd love to talk to people. Sign up to get that 25 minute consultation. Yeah. And seriously, sign up for it because we are only opening a few spots. We just can't, our calendars, trying to coordinate all the calendars is pretty much impossible. We're like, we're going to go for it and get, get as many amazing Gen Xers as we can. Well, and get in quick, right? Because as you said, when you guys are on Oprah, you can sit there as the winner of this contest and be like, I remember when they coached me, right? I'm just saying between Ron, between us doing ESPN and Oprah and today's show, it's just, it's going to be a lot going on next year. You're going to roll through a whole bunch of stuff, right? That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, ladies, thank you so much for participating. I always love talking with you. And anytime that I can get with you, it's valuable for learning experience and a personal experience. And, you know, folks, I really hope you enjoyed this episode. We're going to drop all of the links for the what's next Gen X podcast for the social media and for their, both of their personal sites as well for their businesses and their endeavors. And I really hope you enjoy this episode and I hope you tune in next time. Make sure you don't miss an episode of beyond the bottom line by hitting that like, or follow button at the bottom. And, uh, we cannot wait to see you all on the next episode. So have a great rest of your week. Thanks, Ron. Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of beyond the bottom line, balancing evolution with execution hosted by Ron Miller, CEO of elevate talent solutions. You can learn more about him at elevate talent solutions. net. And by following him on LinkedIn, this podcast was developed, edited, and produced in partnership with Courtney Reimer of sounds great creative podcast strategy. If you want to make a podcast or make your existing podcast even better, Courtney is here to help. Find her on LinkedIn. That's Courtney with A-C-R-E-I-M-E-R, or@soundsgreatstrategy.com. Special thanks to Adrian thar for keeping us all in line. Adrian is also the CEO of boutique marketing firm, a CR Ventures. Check her out@acrventures.com. Be sure to hit that follow button. Send us love letters and episode ideas@elevatetalentsolutions.net and tune in next week.