Third Act with Liz Tinkham: Recent Episodes
Liz Tinkham
Your first act is school, your second act is work, but have you thought about what you’re going to do in your third act? Join host Liz Tinkham, a former Accenture Senior Managing Director, as she talks to guests who are happily “pretired” – using their time, treasure, and talent to pursue their purpose and passion in the third act of their life.
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.
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.
This week, we’re doing things a little differently. This podcast is brought to you by Athena Alliance, an executive education SaaS platform and network for executive women. Athena offers live Salons for its members with relevant knowledge for their executive and board careers. For this episode, we’ve repurposed one of these Salons—Women & Wealth: Money & Relationships. In this Salon, you’ll hear five tips that will relieve 90% of your financial stress. Learn how to bucket your money to get a better handle on your financial health, and the three money metrics couples tend to disagree on.
Jack Henneman’s love of history began with his father, who was 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!
Lauren Lane 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. Join us as Lauren shares her experiences with her “year of doing yes”, and how facing things that scare you can catapult your third act to new heights. In the episode, Lauren shares beginner tips on social media influencing and inspires with her self-taught mastery of photography and food styling.
Mayor Shelley Brindle is defined by her need to make a difference. From her experiences as an assistant college football coach to the only woman in a media company’s C-suite, Shelley established her reputation as someone who always delivered. After an eye-opening election, she’s now delivering again as Mayor of Westfield, New Jersey. In this episode, Shelley shares her journey from finding her first job in the Want Ads to beating an incumbent as an underdog and why making an impact begins with personal responsibility.
In the 20th episode of Third Act, we talk with Judy Spitz, the outsider. Judy started her career as an academic, but quickly leveraged her speech technology knowledge as the academic outsider at Verizon, where she rose to become the CIO. While there, Judy realized that the problem of lack of women in technology was not getting better, so she decided to solve the problem herself. She founded a program called Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship, which is a unique collaboration among corporations, Cornell Tech, and The City University of New York City. That program works with women students to prepare and enable them to pursue tech careers in New York City. With a grant from Melinda Gates' pivotal ventures, the program is now national and is now Break Through Tech. Judy is once again the outsider, but this time the corporate outsider—as she is now the executive director of that program.
Mayor Shelley Brindle is defined by her need to make a difference. From her experiences as an assistant college football coach to the only woman in a media company’s C-suite, Shelley established her reputation as someone who always delivered. After an eye-opening election, she’s now delivering again as Mayor of Westfield, New Jersey. In this episode, Shelley shares her journey from finding her first job in the Want Ads to beating an incumbent as an underdog and why making an impact begins with personal responsibility.
Coco and Scott are a couple with an unconventional approach to life, family, and career. Coco is the founder and CEO of the Athena Alliance; her husband, Scott, is a senior manager of partner enablement at Databricks. Liz Tinkham talks to the couple about their journey as working parents, how their careers changed when kids entered the picture, and their struggles with identity, jealousy, and guilt as each grappled with their role in the family.
It's a wrap! On today's episode, Liz and Third Act interns Olivia Battison and Olivia Sun talk about what they've learned from Season 1 guests. The fun part? Both of the 'Olivias' are GenZers in their first act. Listen to them recount the stories that were most impactful to these young women as well as learn more about what's in store for Season 2. Liz also talks about the stories that resonated with her and whether she's figured out her own third act.
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.
Chantal grew up in Champagne, France as one of 10 kids. Chantal was a quick learner, finding her way to corporate jobs and eventually discovering a passion for sales, becoming Sprint’s west region Operations Manager. Chantal navigates challenges in stride, having overcome a breast cancer diagnosis and divorce simultaneously. Her experience led her to work with the Susan G. Komen Foundation in San Diego, dedicating herself to working and raising money to boost revenue streams for the organization. Discover how Chantal’s positive energy and drive helped her overcome all obstacles life threw her way.
Anne Devereux-Mills follows a nonlinear path of life, exploring and succeeding across multiple careers and interests. Anne discovered that she was a leader as a Wellesley College undergraduate student and parlayed that into a terrific career in advertising, rising to become CEO of several companies. Today, Anne is a noted speaker, author, philanthropist, and chief instigator at Parlay House. The question is, what can she not do?
Nancy Evans was bound to succeed from the start, regardless of occupation. Early in her career, she wrote a prescient article called Surviving My 20s, starting a zigzag path to storied publisher and founder of iVillage. Today, Nancy is the host of the Confab podcast and works with the Women’s Wisdom Project to build a space for women to listen and learn. Nancy shares her experience of collecting stories from women she’s met throughout the years, highlighting the importance of community for women who can be inspired by those who want them to succeed, no matter what setbacks they encounter.
Carol was a serial tech executive, successfully rising through the ranks of a male-dominated world. Throughout her career, she lacked female mentors. She began looking for ways to advise young women, leaders, and founders, filling the gaps she encountered in her professional life. Hear how Carol shares her entrepreneurial spirit to elevate women following her lead.
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.
Angela Jones learned early on how to use her voice to advocate for herself and others. She demonstrated her voice as educator, university senior administrator, and now CEO of Washington STEM, a nonprofit focused on equity and STEM education in Washington State. Angela’s voice led her to career success, but it has also helped to change the lives of thousands of kids across the state of Washington.
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 episode of Third Act.
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 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.
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.
In the sixth episode of Third Act, we talk with Judy Spitz, the outsider. Judy started her career as an academic, but quickly leveraged her speech technology knowledge as the academic outsider at Verizon, where she rose to become the CIO. While there, Judy realized that the problem of lack of women in technology was not getting better, so she decided to solve the problem herself. She founded a program called Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship, which is a unique collaboration among corporations, Cornell Tech, and The City University of New York City. That program works with women students to prepare and enable them to pursue tech careers in New York City. With a grant from Melinda Gates' pivotal ventures, the program is now national and is now Break Through Tech. Judy is once again the outsider, but this time the corporate outsider, as she is now the executive director of that program.
This episode of The Third Act Podcast features Steve Wilcox. We’ve titled this episode The Conscientious Giver, as Steve and his wife, Peg, have deliberately given to and worked for charitable causes while leading incredibly busy family and professional lives.
Steve retired from a hard-charging career as a Managing Director at Accenture and is now the Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Oakland; quite a pivot. In this episode he talks about his lifelong involvement in charitable giving, inspired by his mother, and how he’s adapted his style to religious nonprofit work. He’s also passed on his legacy of giving to his three sons, who now run a family foundation.
Host Liz Tinkham affectionately refers to Steve as the “compassionate hard-ass”. His is an inspiring story of how to be very successful at work while not forgetting what’s important - family and faith.
(01:40) Act 1: Stonehill College as a first generation college student
(03:32) Carnegie Mellon creating and analyzing public policy
(04:28) Think before you speak: lessons from the CIA
(06:11) Act 2: Arthur Anderson and a mini computer can make history
(09:23) Director of Technical services of the NYC Transit Authority
(13:11) Back to consulting for communication
(14:14) Extended family and the extent of its impact: there’s always another place at the table
(17:02) Covenant House: a charity for youth experiencing homelessness
(17:58) Tithing with checks and wine
(20:14) Making it work with teenage kids and traveling
(21:17) Act 3: building a family foundation
(21:40) When it’s time to pivot
(25:42) Bishop of the Archdiocese of Oakland and the start of Cristo Rey
(30:59) The Compassionate Hard-Ass hard at work
(31:28) Authority and power in a nonprofit, from the perspective of a nonreligious person in a religious organization
(33:27) Advice to high-charging people to religion: get involved
Listeners can get in touch with Steve on LinkedIn or by email here.
This episode of The Third Act Podcast features Beverly Tarulli, the Human Library. This moniker is derived from her eternal passion for learning, guiding her initial studies at Franklin & Marshall that later progressed to earning her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Beverly’s high academic performance and drive landed her a job at Bell South, which is now AT&T, developing and validating tests to hire frontline workers. Her role at PepsiCo evolved over her fourteen year career, leading efforts in organization and talent development, global human resources, and eventually becoming the Vice President of Human Capital Strategy & Advanced Workforce Analytics. While working at PepsiCo, she was also a part-time faculty member at Columbia University. Prior to PepsiCo, Beverly worked at Accenture where she helped launch their Human Capital Practice. Now, as a newly appointed clinical assistant professor at NYU School of Professional Studies, Beverly specializes in human capital and human capital analytics.
Beverly prioritized her passion for people as truly human capital in every career move she made, coming full circle back to academia at NYU.. Hear more about Beverly's insights on re-skilling your labor force, the impact of people in your organization, work-life balance, and more in the fourth episode of Third Act:
- (00:32) Introduction to Beverly Tarulli
- (01:53) Act 1: Franklin & Marshall and her path to psychology
- (05:47) Act 2: Re-skilling employees to hire and develop talent in big corporations, started with Bell South
- (06:27) Accenture and Human Performance Consulting: the impact of people on a project
- (07:29) Challenges of budget allocated to change management to support her work, what kept her going
- (10:14) Move to PepsiCo and building work life balance doing human capital strategy and advanced workforce analytics--building HR strategy framework as a student of CEO at the time, Indra Nooyi
- (14:40) Act 3: the analytics behind the people
- (17:53) Giving HR a seat at the table
- (26:20) The true value behind technology: its impact
- (27:11) The ethics of data and the implications
- (27:57) COVID-19 and its impact to the world of academia
- (29:24) Lifting and shifting doesn’t work: stop thinking about academia as second best option
- (31:21) The Human Library: never done with learning
Get in touch with Beverly through her LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.
On this episode of The Third Act Podcast, we talk with The Challenger, Jeannie Diefenderfer, whose innate pursuit of the hardest challenges led her to a highly successful global career at Verizon. Jeannie spent 28 years working for Verizon following her education at Tufts University where she studied chemical engineering. Picking the hardest major and on the lookout for the toughest challenge, she joined the wonky and male-dominated Network Group at Verizon, eventually working her way up to the Senior Vice President of Global Enterprise Customer Care.
Along the way, she realized the value of her relationships, both personal and professional, leveraging both to join commercial and nonprofit boards as she moved into her Third Act. Most importantly, she learned the importance of being fully present, both for her family and for herself.
Jeannie put her passion into action, giving back to boards with her industry knowledge and expertise that has built strong leadership in both for-profit and nonprofit boards.
- (00:30) Introduction to Jeannie Diefenderfer
- (01:33) Act 1: Tufts University and seeking the challenge
- (03:48) Act 2: Verizon on the horizon
- (06:08) Serving as SVP of Global Enterprise Customer Care
- (07:19) Building a global presence and network
- (09:39) Determining when is the right time to pivot
- (11:52) Finding your confidantes: who’s in your corner?
- (14:39) Challenging traditional husband wife goals
- (16:07) Advice for family life and integrating it into your everyday
- (22:30) Serving on a for-profit board: getting the position, pros, cons
- (27:44) Act 3: Advice for aspiring board members
- (30:44) Finding balance in life through yoga, golf, hiking, and being present
- (34:18) What aren’t you done with yet? Openness, fearlessness, nonjudgmental
Additional links and resources
Connect with Jeannie on LinkedIn here. To hear more from Liz Tinkham’s podcast guests, subscribe and listen to The Third Act from your favorite podcast player.
When he was about to graduate from Purdue, Andre Hughes met an influential senior executive who leveraged his network to get Andre a great job at AT&T. Andre never forgot the lesson he learned from this “kingmaker”, quickly becoming a kingmaker himself during his long career as a Managing Director at Accenture. A natural leader, Andre built large practice areas within Accenture, developing a global following of younger leaders. But, it was a trip to Kenya as the head of the Accenture Foundation that sparked his passion for global philanthropy. He saw how his knowledge of teaching others how to help themselves could be built into a software platform.
In this episode, Liz Tinkham speaks with Andre about his Third Act: Powered By Action. Andre founded Powered By Action to provide innovative software solutions to other nonprofits to help them extend their reach and virtually connect all of their constituents. Andre and teammates bring their diverse expertise to automate program delivery through short-messages, live webcasts, content delivery and polls to build engagement on other nonprofits’ platforms.
- (00:31) Introduction to Andre Hughes
- (01:57) Act 1: Purdue University and the ticket to opportunity
- (05:03) Creating value by fusing engineering and business
- (05:43) Act 2: Arthur Andersen and Accenture
- (8:56) The power of relationships
- (09:34) Andre Hughes: the Kingmaker
- (10:25) Painting a vision in the conference room
- (12:07) Human capital role: a collage of social responsibility, human capital strategy, and skill development
- (16:00) Sharing your voice to create significance for someone else
- (18:58) Catalyst for Act 3: Powered By Action
- (27:14) The evolution and scaling of Powered By Action
- (31:42) Achieving the vision: digitizing, storytelling, and connecting
Connect with Andre on LinkedIn, or email him at andre@pbya.org. You can learn more about Andre’s Third Act at poweredbyaction.org. Want to hear about more people like Andre? Follow and subscribe to The Third Act podcast.
Kate Isler began her career at Microsoft at its beginning, ready to respond to the energetic, nuanced business environment of a rapidly growing tech company. Her independence and can-do attitude led her to both early success and recoverable failure, further fueling her drive to succeed. Kate’s career allowed her to travel extensively through the Middle East, exposing her to a range of cultural and professional challenges as she navigated post-Gulf War Dubai as a woman in a male-dominated industry. For Kate, these were opportunities to grow herself and the company at large.
In this inaugural 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.
As Kate puts it, “I’m only 50% finished!” Tune in to hear about Kate’s border-breaking career and her incredible drive toward gender parity.
- (00:34) Introduction to Kate Isler
- (01:12) Taking a chance on Microsoft
- (04:36) The GUI: a good old mistake
- (06:56) 1992: The Middle East
- (08:48) What were you most afraid of as a mom, woman, and professional?
- (10:38) Selling in Syria: a culture clash
- (16:01) What was your main takeaway as you walked away from the job in Syria?
- (17:52) Did you ever experience gender parity at Microsoft?
- (21:17) Coming and going from Microsoft
- (25:07) Building YOU, not just your career
- (26:16) How did you start scaling International Women’s Day?
- (29:59) Act 3: Be Bold Now
- (33:05) The W Marketplace
- (34:00) Finding your passion after you pivot: why not?
- (36:01) Breaking Borders: inspiring women to take chances
- (37:06) What aren’t you done with in your life?
Contact Kate at kateisler.com or bboldnow.com. Shop the WMarketplace at https://thewmarketplace.com. Follow @IslerKate and @beboldnow0308 on Twitter, and subscribe to The Third Act at thirdactpodcast.com.
How both women and men have discovered passion and new meaning in the “Third Act” of their lives, after their big career has come to a close.