Third Act with Liz Tinkham

Thank you for following Third Act this season. We're taking a break for the summer, and will return this Fall with a new roster of inspiring guests pursuing passion and purpose in their third acts.

On today's show, Liz talks with Shari Greco Reiches – The Life Maximizer. Shari's adoptive father gave her a great piece of advice early in her life: “You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything you want.”  Shari has taken that advice and used it as the foundation for how she advises her clients as the founder of Rappaport Reiches Capital Management. Her firm's motto: “How can we help you maximize your return on life?”, builds on that early advice by helping clients figure out their core values and then balancing their wants against those values and their financial portfolio.  While Shari is still actively involved in running her firm, she is creating her own third act within the firm, distilling all the valuable lessons she's learned and giving them back through a blog, book, and podcast.

Introducing Voices of Athena, a new podcast on Athena Radio. Priscilla Brenenstuhl interviews Athena members on how they achieved their professional success. Today, she interviews Liz's friend and Puppet CEO Yvonne Wassenaar on her interesting journey through birth, death, and the things that happen in between.

At the end of his first act, Jerry Palmer found himself out of shape, divorced, and without friends. Deciding to regain his lifelong connection to athletics was the turning point as he began training for an Ironman. After solidifying extreme sports as his passion, Jerry set his sights towards his most ambitious feat yet: crossing the entirety of the United States on foot.  Follow along as Jerry shares his life lessons, from a career of consulting with Accenture to the innate kindness of approaching a stranger. Traversing on foot gave him front-row seats to the turmoil of the country as he witnessed the prevalent inequalities still plaguing our society. Through it all, Jerry's admirable mental fortitude encouraged him to persist, despite the challenges in his way.

On today's show, Liz talks with David Harry Stewart — The Super Ageist. David is the founder and face of Ageist, a new media company and agency that champions the vitality and influence of the modern 50-plus. David's second act was as a professional photographer, but he eventually realized that there was something just not right in photographing 20- and 30-year-olds for products targeting people over 50. So he and a friend launched media agency Ageist to represent the mindset and aspirations that drive this influential demographic. Today, he is a passionate champion and leading authority for those in the modern 50-plus age group.

In part two of a two-part series, Erica Duignan Minnihan—founder of 1000 Angels—continues her master class on the fundamentals of Venture Investing. In this podcast, she talks about the different stages of venture investing and how to think about the investment amounts and vehicles, term sheets, valuations, due diligence, and returns needed at each stage. Whether you're a founder seeking funding or an investor who wants to add early-stage private equity to her portfolio, this informative podcast will get you up to speed on understanding the exciting opportunities in startup investing and how it can launch your own third act.

In this encore episode, we revisit our conversation with Jack Henneman, whose love of history began with his father—a medieval French history professor at the University of Iowa. With a firm belief that history needs to be accessible and interesting, Jack aims to depoliticize American history through his podcast, “The History of Americans”. In this episode, Jack shares why private school was harder than Princeton and why history should not be cast onto the stage of good vs. evil. Most significantly, Jack highlights the importance of making history fun!

Today's guest, Cheryle Jackson, describes her life as a series of ‘firsts' — as the only woman and woman of color in corporate hallways and boardrooms. As the first female president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League, she led the 100+-year-old organization through transformational change.  As the first woman and African American to serve in the role of communications director for the Governor of Illinois, she survived the tumultuous administration of Rod Blagojevich, and was asked by Barack Obama to run for his Senate seat. She's gone onto several C-suite and Board positions, but the double whammy of divorce and breast cancer in 2012 caused her to step back and allow herself to think about herself.  In 2018, she founded Grit and Grace, The Movement, a women's empowerment organization to help advance the ambition of women through coaching, conferences, community, and content designed to inspire and empower. Join Liz for her conversation with the extraordinary Cheryle Jackson.

On today's show, Liz talks to Geraldine Keogh, the Bien Lady. Geraldine is in the chocolate business, but she didn't start in that business—nor in food at all. As a young mom, Geraldine ran a preschool primarily so she had a place for her own kids. After she grew and sold that business, she teamed up with local friends as part of a dessert catering business. Within a year, she was running the business with her daughter and looking for ways to expand. They started to produce chocolate truffle centerpieces referred to as Biens Chocolate Centerpieces—a big hit among her local customers. But, as Geraldine describes it, both she and her daughter have ADD and the ideas on what to do with Biens just kept growing. Today, Geraldine and her daughter have built a national dropship business for Biens, as well as continuing their local work with the Dessert Ladies. And she's not done yet with her expansion plans. If you've ever thought about running your own business, you will love Geraldine's story of determination and ambition.

On today's show, Liz talks with Laura Stachel—the light of maternal health. What do you do when you're born with an abundance of intellectual curiosity? If you're Liz's guest Laura Stachel, you become a pianist, OB/GYN, and doctorate in public health. She also founded of a non-profit that provides critical light to African hospitals and clinics so women can safely deliver babies.  And, Laura's not done yet. Her nonprofit, We Care Solar, is working to light every birth in 5 countries in Africa with clean solar power. That's in addition to the over 9 million mothers and newborns they've already served with their solar suitcases. Impressed? Keep listening for this extraordinary interview with Laura Stachel.

On today's show, Liz talks with Mike Harmon — the distressed lecturer. Mike graduated from college with dreams of going to Wall Street, but it was 1991 and a recession caused brought the party to an abrupt halt. He landed at a bank working on distressed loans, finding his calling in the distressed asset business.  But after 20+ years in the business, his “turkey thermometer popped” (as he puts it) – he was burned out, not seeing his family, and needed to move on. Sound familiar?  Luckily, a happiness lecture on the Okinawans at his Harvard Business School reunion prompted him to find his “ikigai” — or reason for waking up in the morning. He discovered a passion for public radio and teaching in that search. Today, he is a happy part-time lecturer at Stanford Business School. Join Liz as she talks to Mike about how he made the journey to his third act.

Today Liz talks with Kerry Hannon – the Consummate Writer. Kerry's a longtime journalist and author, having written for Forbes, Money, US News and World Report, and USA Today, and having published more than seven books. Most interesting for this show, though, is that Kerry began writing about second acts in the early naughts long before any other publications. She's an expert in issues related to the future of the workplace, particularly for our aging population. On today's show, she talks about where the workplace is headed, her new book In Control at 50+ How to Succeed in the New World of Work, and why dogs are very good teachers.

On this week's episode, Liz talks with Susan Lyne – The Career Legend. Susan's resume reads like the magazine cover story of someone who you want to be…. from her early days dropping out of UC Berkeley, to her work on a magazine with Francis Ford Coppola, to greenlighting Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives while at ABC, to being the CEO at Gilt Group (one of the first online shopping and lifestyle websites featuring designer clothing).  But, she says the legacy she leaves for her daughters will be what she's doing today… founding and running Built By Girls Ventures, an early-stage fund backing female founders. And, to top all that off, she's a Forbes 50 over 50 Impact winner! Join Liz for this discussion with the fabulous Susan Lyne.

Third Act crossed a big milestone — 60 episodes and still going strong with fabulous guests! On today's show, Liz talks with Third Act producers Lexie Banks and Evelyn Wong about what they've learned from the show's guests, their favorite episodes and who their dream third act guest would be. Liz also talks about what she's learned from guests Bradley Schurmann, Michael Clinton, Lori Trawinski, Stela Lupushor, Chip Conley, and Paolo Gaudiano about aging and, of course, what's happening with her third act!

On this episode, Liz talks with Marcella Johnson – Founder of the Comfort Cub. Marcella's story is a bit different than the show's usual guests in that Marcella didn't follow the path of school, big career, and then pretiring into her passion project. Her third act was literally born the day her fourth child, George, was born in 1999. George was born with a rare disease and died the day he was born. Marcella left the hospital the next day without a baby in her arms, and over the course of the next few weeks developed symptoms similar to a heart attack – achy arms and heart, but nothing a doctor could diagnose. A few weeks after George's death, she picked up a planter and instantly felt better having the weight in her arms. She went on to learn that moms all over the world who had lost children were substituting weighted objects to ease the ache created by the lack of a baby. With this insight, she created a teddy bear — now known as the Comfort Cub — which she began to distribute to hospice centers and hospitals throughout her hometown of San Diego. Today, The Comfort Cub is a non-profit organization that donates thousands of Comfort Cubs to moms all over as well as to anyone seeking therapeutic comfort. Join Liz for this very special episode as she talks to Marcella about her third and likely forever act to honor the legacy of her son, George.

Today Liz talks with Paolo Gaudiano -   The DEI Data Scientist.   How does a guy who studied Aerospace Engineering connect the dots to lead the field of simulation modeling to determine Inclusion? As a college student, Paolo Gaudiano took a class on the cognitive functions of the brain which led to a lifelong academic and professional interest in neural networks, AI and statistical modeling.  While working for Icosystems doing simulation modeling, Paolo had the opportunity to look at why inner city kids in Baltimore dropped out of high school.  The experience of working with these kids made Paolo realize how privileged he was as a white, cisgender male.  He subsequently devoted his life's work to DEI, specifically looking at the issues of inclusion, which he believes most companies don't understand.  Today he combines academic research, with both a nonprofit and for profit company to advance the mission of improving DEI in companies.

In part one of a two-part series, Erica Duignan Minnihan—founder of 1000 Angels—begins her master class on the fundamentals of Venture Investing. This series covers the basics you need to know to build a solid portfolio as an angel investor.   Dive into this primer on startup valuations, and what to look for in due diligence materials like investor decks, financial models, and the company's cap table. Whether you're a founder seeking funding or an investor who wants to add early-stage private equity to her portfolio, this informative podcast will get you up to speed on understanding the exciting opportunities in startup investing and how it can launch your own third act.

In this episode, Liz talks with Frances West - The Wisdom Whisperer. Frances left Taiwan to go to college in the United States and was fortunate to land a job with IBM after graduation. She quickly moved up the ranks, working in both the US and China. Wanting a change, she applied for a job at IBM Research thinking she would be working in their Availability Center—before finding out that it was actually in their Accessibility Center. In her role, she helped IBM lead the transformation of products and services to be accessible to all types of people.  In her third act, Frances continues to advance her knowledge and interest in accessibility by advising and investing in startups focused on accessibility technologies. She's also the author of a book, Authentic Inclusion, where she talks about how diversity is at the core of disruptive innovation. 

In this episode, Liz talks with Shelli Brunswick – The Space Advocate. Shelli Brunswick spent 29 years in the Air Force focusing on what she calls the “on Earth” jobs for the space program. She wasn't quite sure what she would do when she retired, but her vast network paid off: she founded the Space Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization offering a gateway to education, information, and collaboration for space exploration and space-inspired industries that define the global space ecosystem, where she is now COO.  On today's show, Shelli shares her infectious enthusiasm for the booming career opportunities in space as well as why 2022 is going to be the best year yet for space exploration.

On this episode of Third Act, Liz talks with Stela Lupushor — The Work Reframer. Stela is a career HR professional who interestingly got her start in the field by implementing SAP HR because, as she says, “she was the girl on the project”. She parlayed those HR skills into bigger jobs across PwC, IBM, TIAA-Creff, and finally retiring from Fidelity in 2016. But it was a NY Times article on the unemployment of women ages 50-65 that launched her into her third act. As an HR professional, she saw how the systems and processes were unintentionally designed to prevent these women from getting jobs. So she decided to do something about it.  Today, she is what she calls the Chief Reframer in several roles — first as the head of a nonprofit (Amazing Community) that helps women get back to work, second as a lecturer on this topic at NYU, and third as the head of her own consulting company that helps companies design age-friendly workplaces. Join Liz's lively conversation with Stela as she offers great advice on how to work through ageism in the workplace, whether you are an employer or woman seeking work.

As this week's guest—adventure traveler, marathon runner, author, and former publisher Michael Clinton—says: “It's not our parents' retirement.”  After retiring from a 40+ year career in publishing (ending his corporate career as President & Publishing Director of Hearst Magazines), Michael Clinton went back to school to earn his master's in nonprofit management and philanthropy at Columbia in New York. His new book, Roar Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late), offers a playbook for how and what to do in the second half of your life. In this encore episode, hear Michael's tale—from couchsurfing while looking for his big break in NYC to completing a marathon in Antarctica at age 60. And, get inspired to live big and pursue your dreams in your own third act.  

In this encore episode, we speak to Donna Orender - the game changer. Donna grew up playing stickball in the streets, eventually turning her passion for sports into a career as commissioner of the WNBA. In her third act, Donna is sharing the valuable lessons she learned with girls and women in her Florida hometown through her nonprofit, Generation W, and new book, WOWsdom. Donna believes that when people (especially women) come together, magic happens—and her story is a testament to that magic.

On today's show, Liz talks to Bradley Schurman. His book, The Super Age – Decoding Our Demographic Destiny, published last week and it is a must-read for anyone in or serving the 50 years+ demographic.  In his book, Bradley explores what it can mean for our collective future when there are more people older than 65 than those under the age of 18. And it's not all doom and gloom. The advent of older-majority populations will drive innovation in government, business, housing, mobility, and media that can be positive for all age groups—assuming we act soon. He also tells Liz how the lives of his Depression-era grandparents led him to look more closely at the demographic and societal impacts of aging. Last, he talks about his seminal work on aging while working at AARP and what he plans to do with his consulting agency, also called The Super Age, to help organizations harness the opportunities of an increasingly older and generationally diverse population.

On today's show, Liz talks with Donna Peters – The Career Coach. Donna and Liz are fellow Accenture Managing Directors and have both become podcasters in their Third Acts. But Donna has a big leg up – she started her career in theater, spending ten years as an actor learning a bit more about how to use your voice, before going to business school and becoming a consultant. Interestingly, she and her husband, or “the corporation”, as they fondly refer to themselves, decided early that they wanted to retire at 48, so they created a spreadsheet that governed their big purchase and job decisions. While Donna didn't retire at 48, she came close —retiring at 52, and she knew what she wanted to in her third act.  In this podcast, Donna says that while at Accenture, her phone rang the most from employees and clients seeking her advice in the career development space. Today Donna runs her own career coaching company, where she counsels career-driven, life-minded professionals. She is also the host of the award-winning podcast, The Me-Suite, where she interviews people, including me, on how they cultivated work into their personal lives and made it work.

On today's show, Liz talks with Eva Nahari—The Queen of Garbage Collection. Eva developed her love for computer science after a strange encounter with a creepy guy on a subway platform in her native home of Stockholm, Sweden. She graduated during the post dot-com bubble and had a tough time finding a job, until she described a way to clean up garbage java code to a prospective employer. That first job launched a two-decade career solving difficult problems across a variety of Silicon Valley tech companies as a top Product Manager. But eventually, her career plateaued and she got stuck—unable to figure out how to get to the next level and increasingly angrier with her inability to solve the problem. Fortunately, a good friend introduced her to an older and wiser career coach who taught her how to allow herself to exist in an uncomfortable state with no plan and no immediate problem to solve. She told Eva that this state would allow her to be open to the most possibilities and, lo and behold, it worked. Today, Eva is applying her problem-solving skills as Principal at DNX Ventures, a Tokyo and Silicon Valley VC where she continues her love of software development as an investor in early-stage tech companies. 

On today's episode, Liz talks with Rhonda Mims—The Aspiring Documentarian. Rhonda hails from Georgia and South Carolina, receiving her JD from the University of SC and launching her legal career in the Attorney General's office in Charleston. She quickly moved up the ranks and, wanting to get out of SC, landed a job in Washington DC in the National District Attorney's office. In that role, she was tasked with helping Gil Garcetti restructure the Los Angeles DA office after a couple of high-profile losses. And, yes, that was right after the infamous OJ Simpson case—which she talks about on today's show. While the role at the National District Attorney's office was interesting, she eventually decided she needed to make more money, heading to ING to lead their foundation. After 20 years of success in the corporate world, Rhonda has now gone back to an early passion—film—where she's using what she learned as a lawyer and chief diversity officer to drive change through documentaries. On today's show, she talks about Ferguson Rises, a documentary about the inspiring residents of Ferguson, MO. That film, which is Rhonda's first as a producer, just won the audience award at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

Jamie is the Founder of Fast Penny Spirits, an Italian Amaro company based in Seattle. Jamie became a master blender after a long career in digital advertising and marketing. On this encore episode of Third Act, Liz Tinkham talks with Jamie about finding early inspiration from her Sicilian grandparents to enter the spirits business and how she is now spearheading the charge of women leaders in the industry.

Today Liz talks with Anne Sample — The Career Reinventor. What do you do as the head of HR once you've counseled yourself out during a company transition? If you're Anne Sample, you buy into a business that you're already really good at, buying her outplacement firm, Navigate Forward. On today's podcast, Anne talks about her early start as an Ohio plant manager to leading HR for several companies, and how she eventually realized she wanted to run the P/L of a business. Today, she is the happy owner and CEO of — as one of her friends called it — her own ministry at NavigateForward, running a business that provides counsel to those seeking a career reinvention.

On today's show, Liz talks with May Lee – The Accidental Activist, another Forbes 50 over 50 Impact winner. May grew up in Dayton, Ohio. As she tells it, as one of very few Asians in her community, she defied the Asian stereotype by becoming a television journalist rather than a doctor or lawyer. She had a humble start in Redding, California, learning her craft by doing everything—including carrying the 50 lb camera to her stories. Her success there led her to much bigger TV jobs, both in the US and Asia, where she launched The May Lee Show to highlight stories of Asian women.  Today, she continues that show as a vlog on YouTube. However, the show has changed a bit in the last 18 months. As the pandemic started and anti-Asian hate began to rise, May pivoted her show to tell the important stories about issues affecting the AAPI community. May also teaches a journalism course at USC on how Asians are portrayed in journalism.  Join Liz as she talks to May about what needs to change in education, government, and corporations to wake up America on these issues.

Susan Alban tells her career story to date in three chapters: Chapter 1 at McKinsey where she honed core skill sets, Chapter 2 as an operator in multiple Silicon Valley companies, and now in Chapter 3 where she's found a love for HR and all things people as an Operating Partner at Renegade Partners. Today, Susan advises startup founders on how to grow and build the best teams—because she believes that great employment outcomes create great financial returns. Susan is also a thought leader in the field of People, writing frequently on LinkedIn and Twitter as well as for other publications. On today's podcast, she talks about how she's pivoted through her three career chapters and offers terrific advice on how to think about employment trends and retaining people in today's hypercompetitive market. 

How does a Ph.D. in Economics and standup comic become one of the leading thought leaders on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with a focus on ageism? Well after getting booted out of drama while in college, Lori was told to do something technical, so indeed she did—getting a Ph.D. in Economics. But she always had the itch to perform, so mid-career, she went back to performing, becoming a standup comic in LA for 6 years. The Great Recession of 2008-2010, pushed her back to a higher paying job, and after much searching, she landed in finance at AARP's Public Policy Institute. As part of that work, she started researching and writing about the issues of unemployment in older workers. Today, Lori continues in this role as well as teaches a class on DEI at NYU. Listen to today's show as Lori offers advice on what corporations and employees can do to combat ageism in the workplace. 

Coach Chris Petersen's humble philosophy about football, life, and relationships stems from his beginnings as the UC Davis quarterback. At the pinnacle of his career, the Rose Bowl, Coach Petersen found himself yearning for wins beyond the field, stepping away from the game at the end of the 2019/2020 season to focus on what he calls his personal scoreboard, family, relationships, values, and friends. “Be here, now” is Chris' philosophy heading into his Third Act. Hear more in this encore episode of Third Act.

In this encore episode, Kate tells Liz when she realized what her Third Act would be and how her inspiration for it stemmed from the power of celebrating International Women's Day while working in Europe. Upon her return to the US, Kate quickly launched her own celebration, tying it to the need to advance gender parity. Launching the event sparked her passion to drive gender parity through a more coordinated effort, launching her startup Be Bold Now and her women's ecommerce site, The WMarketplace.

After a successful career as a lawyer, Heather slowed down somewhat, played more tennis, and began thinking she was a bit over the hill. Until one day her teenage daughter asked her what all the other moms really do, and she realized she wasn't done yet. Heather came back to work stronger, with more purpose, and with a dual goal to build community in Seattle and to garner more respect for women in tech. Today, Heather is the Founder and General Partner of the Flying Fish Ventures Fund in Seattle. Hear more in this encore episode of Third Act.

Michele is the Executive Chairperson of Corelight, Inc., an emerging leader in the network detection and response market. She's also a published musician, her music is featured in short snippets throughout this podcast. Michele served as the CEO and chairperson of several other Silicon Valley firms, but as “AB”—Anthony Bettencourt. After changing genders in 2017, Michele started the third act of her life as a woman. Hear more in this encore episode of Third Act.

How does a bored housewife from Maine go onto empowering 6000 African women to light up 2M households? Katherine Lucey was a Wall Street banker who took a few years off to be with her kids. At one point, they told her she didn't have enough to do—so she founded an organization in Uganda that combined her knowledge of microfinance and energy with a passion for empowering women. Solar Sister, a social benefit company, trains women to sell small, energy-efficient, inexpensive solar-powered lanterns throughout their rural villages. Ten years and 2 million lights later, Katherine was recently recognized for her impact by Fortune, becoming part of the Fortune 50 over 50 Impact list. But with over 600M households still needing light, Katherine has lots more to do. Join Liz for this inspiring conversation with Katherine Lucey.

This week's episode follows up on our popular Women & Wealth Salon hosted by Coco Brown, CEO of Athena Alliance. The Salon features Tama Smith, a financial planning advisor with Brighton Jones and founder of their Women Living a Richer Life division, and Manisha Thakor, author of Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money with Your Honey. This episode explores tips to ensure you're exercising financial stewardship with your children, parents, and community. Learn how to ensure your kids don't boomerang back, your parents don't get swindled, and how to look at the financial efficiency of the nonprofits you intend to give to. Plus, learn what resources are available to help you figure out how to best steward your money through kids, parents, and charitable giving.

On this episode of Third Act, Liz talks with Michael Rugen — The Friend of the Children. Michael grew up a jock, telling Liz that he was into girls and sports as a young man. But his Dad sparked an early realization of the inequity in the US when someone came to the door asking him to sign a petition to prevent blacks from buying the homes in their suburban neighborhood. He went on to become a lawyer, but made sure that he had time and space for plenty of pro bono work, focusing on children and racial injustice. He started looking for an organization where he could further that work. He found Friends of the Children, an organization that pairs mentors with at-risk children from kindergarten through high school graduation. Today he is the Founder and Executive Director of the SF chapter, serving 110 children and growing. Michael is the perfect embodiment of what Liz was looking to highlight in this podcast; he had a passion for kids and racial injustice that he is now fulfilling full time in his third act.

On this episode of Third Act, Liz talks with Stela Lupushor — The Work Reframer. Stela is a career HR professional who interestingly got her start in the field by implementing SAP HR because, as she says, “she was the girl on the project”. She parlayed those HR skills into bigger jobs across PwC, IBM, TIAA-Creff, and finally retiring from Fidelity in 2016. But it was a NY Times article on the unemployment of women ages 50-65 that launched her into her third act. As an HR professional, she saw how the systems and processes were unintentionally designed to prevent these women from getting jobs. So she decided to do something about it.  Today, she is what she calls the Chief Reframer in several roles — first as the head of a nonprofit (Amazing Community) that helps women get back to work, second as a lecturer on this topic at NYU, and third as the head of her own consulting company that helps companies design age-friendly workplaces. Join Liz's lively conversation with Stela as she offers great advice on how to work through ageism in the workplace, whether you are an employer or woman seeking work.

Tim Breene's storied career as the Founder of Accenture Interactive set him up for a successful retirement of advisory and board work, but it's his faith journey with his wife that has defined his third act. After several years working part-time with World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization, Tim took his time, talent, and treasure and became the CEO of World Relief. He served as CEO for five years, helping to empower local churches all over the world to better serve their people. In this interview, Tim talks about what it's like for a hard-charging Accenture person to be less attached to an outcome. Today, Tim continues to harness, as he describes, the best wisdom and practices of his Christian and secular experiences for the common good. 

In this encore episode of Third Act, we speak with Lauren Lane—who believes unrelenting passion is the driving force behind success as a social media influencer. As a former Hallmark Art Director, Lauren made a huge pivot in her career to her third act as a professional cook and social media influencer. In this episode, Lauren shares tips on social media influencing and inspires us with her self-taught mastery of photography and food styling.

After retiring from a 40+ year career in publishing (ending his corporate career as President & Publishing Director of Hearst Magazines), Michael Clinton went back to school to earn his master's in nonprofit management and philanthropy at Columbia in New York. His new book, Roar Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late), offers a playbook on what to do in the second half of your life—and how to do it.

Donna Orender grew up playing stickball in the streets, eventually turning her passion for sports into a career as commissioner of the WNBA. In her third act, Donna is sharing the valuable lessons she learned with girls and women in her Florida hometown through her nonprofit, Generation W, and new book, WOWsdom. Donna believes that when people (especially women) come together, magic happens—and her story is a testament to that magic.

Kim Alexis Newton is a successful artist, corporate executive, and entrepreneur through her quilting, career at Hallmark, and recent launch of her book and business—The Intentional Pause. We talk with Kim about her skyrocketing success, the overwhelming nature of saying no, and a changing sense of identity in this encore episode of Third Act.

This week, we dive into the second part of Athena Alliance's Women & Wealth Salon series. Tama Smith and Manisha Thakor share tips to ensure you're financially compatible with your partner and how to pick a financial advisor—even if you don't have millions of dollars in the bank. Learn how to steward your money with intention, whether you're navigating financial conversations with your significant other, adult children, or aging parents. 

At the end of his first act, Jerry Palmer found himself out of shape, divorced, and without friends. Deciding to regain his lifelong connection to athletics was the turning point as he began training for an Ironman. After solidifying extreme sports as his passion, Jerry set his sights towards his most ambitious feat yet: crossing the entirety of the United States on foot.  Follow along as Jerry shares his life lessons, from a career of consulting with Accenture to the innate kindness of approaching a stranger. Traversing on foot gave him front-row seats to the turmoil of the country as he witnessed the prevalent inequalities still plaguing our society. Through it all, Jerry's admirable mental fortitude encouraged him to persist, despite the challenges in his way.

Growing up in Sweden, Eva Helen thought men and women were afforded equal opportunities, but research for her college thesis called for a rude awakening when she realized gender inequality remained prevalent. Allying herself with a sisterhood of passionate advocates for equality, Eva continued her journey of advocacy throughout her career as a tech startup founder.  Now in her Third Act, Eva looks forward to releasing her book this fall, Women in Tech, a Book for Guys. She is a firm believer in the importance of involving men in the fight for women's rights, especially concerning advancement in the workplace. Since pre-tiring, she founded her company—EQ Inspiration—and has led a series of workshops called "Women in Tech, an event for guys", sharing a structured approach for men to advocate for and mentor women. 

Dominique Mielle grew up in France and pursued her MBA at Stanford, where she developed a "platonic crush" on the brain of professor William Sharpe, developer of the Sharpe Ratio—leading her to a career in hedge fund investing. She recently left that career after 20 successful years, and now spends her time giving back and serving as a role model for women looking to break into the world of hedge funds. Her third act is filled serving on five company boards, mentoring other women, and playing a mean game of polo. Her new book, Damsel In Distressed, debuts on September 7th encouraging more young women to pursue a career in hedge fund investing.

Chip Conley was dubbed the Modern Elder by Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb. After Chip sold his highly successful boutique hotel chain, he became the strategic advisor for hospitality and leadership for the young founders of Airbnb—and Brian's mentor. This led him to launch the Modern Elder Academy, the world's first midlife wisdom school where participants learn to repurpose a lifetime of experience into the modern workplace. In this episode, Chip talks about what he calls his "Baja moments" of modern wisdom and how people can use that wisdom to give their lives a new purpose.

Well before “cleantech” became part of mainstream discourse, Kef Kasdin started her first act in the for-profit sector as a clean energy venture capitalist and founder of several renewable energy companies. In this episode of Third Act, Kef talks about how her commitment to addressing climate change has taken her from business executive, to venture capitalist, to executive director of a nonprofit. Kef offers valuable insights on how to get involved with environmental action, and shares her experience at the helm of organizations dedicated to making a difference.

Maria Garcia Nielsen is an accomplished international board director, business executive, and advocate for diversity in education and in the workplace. Maria uses an excel spreadsheet to map out how she divides her time between working on international boards, leading and mentoring women, and giving back the gift of education through her council work at Cornell and Wharton. On this episode, Maria talks about her educational path as an immigrant, leveraging her background in international business and exploration of executive networking as she pursued board membership.