Retirement? Not Now … Maybe Not Ever
This story is about me. How I started and how I got to where I am TODAY.
Some people know what they want when they are young, but I didn’t.
Some people graduate from college at 22, ready to blaze a career, but I didn’t.
Some people take off focused . . . full speed ahead, but I didn’t.
Yet I am here to tell you that I have succeeded despite the roundabout, stop-and-start route I’ve taken through life. With the example of my hardworking parents, and my own dogged persistence and openness to change, I’ve done well in management, real estate and now in Attraction Marketing.
I’m a boomer enjoying life and work. And now, finally, both are on my own terms.
But they weren’t always. Unloading trucks, unpacking merchandise, stocking shelves, writing technical manuals for a defense contractor, layout of text books for a graphic arts company to Manager of Logistics Support. But, after 16 years and a change of executives led to my parting ways.
Meanwhile, I had gone to college, a course here and there, for many years. At first I thought I wanted to teach Physical Education, but then I wasn’t sure. I was basically spinning my wheels like a hamster in a cage, not getting anywhere. I found myself torn between the hopes of higher education and the need to pay my bills. If I could just get certified in this or that, I could get a job that would allow me not to struggle so hard to merely survive.
But then one day, I discovered my employer had an education assistance program. I joined in a heartbeat and began taking three courses a semester. It was do or die. I did, and graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration.
Life led me south to Myrtle Beach. After taking inventory of my peripatetic career, I realized I had developed strong managerial skills, an ability to write, and recent experience in lease management. To work in lease management in South Carolina required a license, but if I secured a real estate license, I could do both leasing and selling. No brainer! I began doing both, focusing on the baby boomer generation retiring to the South.
Nudged by a friend, I tried marketing on the Internet. My first YouTube video, on finding retirement homes in Myrtle Beach, went “viral” in my market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg6Jaql8llU&t=2s. Since then I’ve made more https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jillklunk. I put myself online with a website and a blog. Before my online marketing, I was kind of flopping out there, but after, traffic picked up big time.
I have been selling real estate for the past twelve years focusing on the 55 and older niche. I’m a boomer so I can relate to my clients. I know their issues — getting older, needing good medical care, having nearby shopping, surviving after a spouse’s death and more.
Not long ago I sold a house to a couple, 83 and 84 years old respectively. They had lost everything to Hurricane Sandy. Their grandson, a neighbor, reached out to me. His father and he hoped the grandparents would move south, but they had lived in New Jersey all their lives. For three days I drove them around, showing them hospitals and doctors, places to shop, and how to get around. On the third day they asked, “Can we look at houses now?” While they ate lunch, I researched places they might like, and before the afternoon was over, they had found a home.
See, real estate is about more than knowing houses. Like Attraction Marketing, it is about building relationships. It’s about showing kindness and reaching out to others. It’s about building rapport and to connect with people and build lifetime relationships. I always say “real estate is a journey, and it is my responsibility to help people make sound decisions on that journey.”
Recently I began my own business (https://www.facebook.com/OwnYourOwnBeach) doing Attraction Marketing. Never heard of it? Neither had I, but you will. Attraction Marketing is attracting people to you — not to a product or to a company, but to you.
You can do this by starting a website or a blog where people get to know you. If they leave their email address or phone number, you can establish a personal relationship with them, and keep in touch. Then, when they need a service you provide, they think of you.
When I first started, I was looking for something not expensive to start up but with the potential to change people’s lives. The service I provide is to help people enhance their lives through those I touch.
On my blog, I share my story, something I really enjoy doing. I teach people how to market themselves and help others enhance the lives of others through those they touch.
I owe all of this to my parents. I’ve worked all my life, and I plan to keep going. I meet a lot of nice people through my work. Plus every day is a new learning experience.
When I look over my life, I see that another reason I’ve succeeded is because I’ve been open to change. Whether it was different jobs, or learning on the job, or moving from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Washington, DC to South Carolina or adapting to technology.
Change has been a part of my life. Some boomers my age resist change, but where would I be without change? And who knows where I’ll be a few years from now?
You know, I moved to Conway, right outside of Myrtle Beach, because I wanted to be near the beach. You know how many times I’ve been to the beach in the past seventeen years? Three maybe. When life is this exciting, who wants to go to the beach?
Retirement? Not now, maybe not ever.
All comments, good and bad, are greatly appreciated. You have a voice also, so please like, comment and share.
Network Marketing is my Business … Blogging is my VOICE!
