See you in the Fall!

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.