Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Payoff from Being Poor, Old: We have never had it better

Here in supposedly affluent Connecticut, the single family house is no longer a symbol of the good life.  Instead, a lawyer who lives here and works in Manhattan, is finding it to be exactly what could keep thousands of ambitious professionals stuck as the economy continues to change. 

Should she not be an "up" in the up or out system in the legal sector, her option would have been to sell her house in Darien, based in Fairfield County and use the gain - there used to always be a gain - as seed money for another career path.  If she's without her $300,000 annual paycheck, she won't even be able to hold onto the house.  However, if she tries to sell it, with the mortgage underwater, she will be plunged into debt.

In BUSINESS INSIDER, Keith Jurow reports that housing hasn't bottomed out in most parts of the nation, including Fairfield County.  Jurow cites the statistics on the William Raveis website.  For Fairfield County in general the market value of homes is down 10.7% from the year before and for Darien, it's down 13.5%.  That means a simple one-million-dollar house in Darien lost about $135,000 in value.  It could lose more, if Jurow is right about no bottom in sight.

That leaves us poor folks realizing we never had it better.  Unlike those struggling to hang onto an upper middle class life style as once I had done (Download Geezerguts) we aim to just pay bills.  That frees us up to only accept communications assignments we love to do.  In the past 10 days I have turned down 14 assignments which would not make me more marketable.  The name of the new game is Learn and Earn.  I can also "afford" to blog on brandname sites for modest compensation. 

When I had a this old house in Fairfield County and a cottage by the Atlantic Ocean, no way could I "waste time" making a name for myself through relatively low-paying work.  Incidentally, a musician acquaintance, who also has come to embrace poverty, is more in demand because his presentation has improved.  The money pressure is off.  At age 62, he could make the big time.

Another gift, in addition to genteel poverty, has been aging.  Those of us "old enough" for Medicare don't have to force-fit ourselves into full time jobs in order to get medical benefits.  When I was a spring chicken I was hog-tied to the whims of employers since I needed the benefits.  Old Enough for Medicare has become the new Promised Land in America.

 

Old Guard v Disrupting Forces: Has professional life become binary?

H-P, which is laying off 27,000 in the next two years, is depicted in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL as the old guard.  That is being put in contrast to the forces of disruption like Apple and Google.  Right now, the jury is out on Facebook.

But has professional life really become binary?  Are we has-beens or employed at one of the web or mobile companies?  Maybe not. 

Just look out there.  There are many professionals of all generations who straddle the two points. 

They include Jack O'Dwyer who had been an early adopter of web communications.  When other public relations outfits were still sending out print newsletters at hefty subscription prices, O'Dwyer had launched Odwyerpr.com at a rate affordable to most of us players.  He's a member of the Silent Generation.  Another middle roader is comeback Henry Blodget.  His creation - Business Insider - links the world of finance and technology.  Not long ago Business Insider got a nice chunk of funding.  Then there's Betty White whose mashup of irony and old-line sincerity has given her a new career path.

It's funny.  The disruptors of 2012 might find themselves the in-betweens of 2013.  Mark Zuckerberg et al. might be struggling to catch up to mobile and better managed companies.

Herman Cain et al.: When money is irrelevant in staying part of the conversation

Despite his new-found wealth, Boy CEO Mark Zuckerberg may become less valued and credible for input into "the conversation."  This is an era in which fresh ideas and the ability to package information and insight into entertainment count much more than money.  Sure, in the capital of wealth Manhattan everyone chases those with money.  But those being chased get attention for only that: money.  Not for what the influence of their views.

Former idea man Herman Cain is struggling, reports POLITICO, to recapture the right kinds of attention.  His magic moments were cut short by allegations of sexual harassment.  What we in the influence business watch is if and how he can pull off a return to being a voice that's heard.  As we know, that's tricky.

Some like Paul Volcker have had a comeback.  His insight about the operations of investment banks has been proven out in the JPMorgan Chase losses.  Others who have fallen off the radar screen aren't so fortunate.  Despite several tries, including aligning with Occupy Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer can't get traction. 

That's a case study for PR: Why do some influentials bounce back and others don't? My hunch is that it has a lot to do with being able to let go of their earlier identity.  Oprah can't stop being Oprah of the talk show space.  Her voice is fading out.

Kennedys Aren't Only Family Seemingly Cursed: You gotta meet mine, at least the few members still living

The Kennedy Curse.

Of course, we all expected that phrase to blanket media coverage when Mary Kennedy, estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., was found dead.  The media didn't disappoint.

However, so many of us also live - and are grateful for at least that - on the verge of panic of what will befall our own families next.  We R the dysfunctionals.  On the Eastern European side of the family (mother's maiden name was Miksza) passive suicide is rampant, fatal cancer happens at a young age, fatal alcoholism happens even earlier than that, prison time is par for the course, and after stays in mental hospitals the rest of the lifetime spent on SSI.

I felt I had dodged the curse.  At least until last Friday when I underwent a breast biopsy.  I explained to the attending doctors why I was convinced that I didn't inherit that set of genes with all the cancer.  There was a briefing on Mendel. Then one doctor mentioned that breast and colon cancers tend to be linked in families.  Both are in mine.  I prepared to find a home for my 16.5 year cat Jason. 

Today I found out yet again that I did dodge the family curse.  Everything is okay.  Was this a case of having a winning ticket in the genetic lottery or a mindset determined to beat back the darkness? My hunch is that blogging keeps me alive.

Baby Boomers: Branded as "Overeducated"

When Generations X and Y look at the resumes for us Baby Boomers they get bug-eyed when they get to the "Academic Education section."  Yes, we were the overeducated generation. No surprise, we were the first generation in America to go to college as a mass movement.   So, it was expected that we would overdo a good thing.  I pursued intellectual excellence at Seton Hill University, the University of Michigan, and even Harvard Law School.

But, I left that maze of testing and research papers only $2500 in debt.  Today's graduate student, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, leaves with an average nut to pay back of $43,524 (Source: FinAid.org).  That's a lot of money, considering, unlike the time we came of age, this is not an era of affluence, at least not for the 99%.

All generations have to ask ourselves if advanced studies - that is, after the entry level BA or BS - were "worth it."  Of course, that depends, especially on the work we get access to do.  When I do complex ghostwriting assignments, say on alternatives to bankruptcy or what's needed for ethnic groups to succeed as entrepreneurs, the training in research and connecting the dots at a high level kick in.  However, when the marketplace forces me to do routine assignments like making web content keyword-dense, I default to despair that I allowed myself to become conditioned for making sense of complexity. 

But, how would I assess my educational investment if I owed $43,524? Likely, with regret.  Debt, at any level and at any interest rate, limits career risk.

Competition: A generation relearns how to go after a job, assignment

I have to compete.

That was the accidental insight I got after I pulled out all stops to land an assignment covering an aspect of online video.  Then that was reinforced when I got two interviews for a plum in retail.  I am pushing, as artfully as I can, for that third interview which could bring home the gold.

Since my generation of Baby Boomers was so many in number we learned from the get-go that we better compete for attention from adults, an education, and first few jobs.  Then affluence took over.  We relaxed.  We cultivated good matters or the genteel WASP code of decorum.  Many of us got stuck there.

Those of us who returned to hustling have found that it not only is effective.  It also is energizing.  I wake up in the morning not with dread about the problems which could develop.  Instead I am intent on scanning the horizon for opportunities.  Some of them I will pass on.  Others I will figure out how to pursue.  Earning a living has become a growth experience again, just the way it had been when I nailed down my first full time in corporate America and awoke to infinite career possibilities.

 

Our Mothers, Not Ourselves: But we probably don't get that, ever

The mother-daughter relationship is one of the most complex I have experienced.  And, although my mother died relatively young in the mid 1980s, I still wrestle almost daily with whether she was a destructive or strengthening force in my life.  My father, who passed away about five years before my mother, rarely gets on my emotional radar screen.  Neither does my older sister, who also died relatively young, right after 9/11.   

In her column in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Elizabeth Bernstein chronicles some of that.  Of course there are so many of us females who speculate, even in social gatherings, how much smoother or better our lives would have gone had our mothers been more motherly from the get-go.  Instead of shaming the speaker for being stuck in the past, we tend to listen up. 

Our external and internal debates about the role of our mothers in how our lives have gone are much more frequent that the what-ifs about had we been born into wealth and influence, gone to better schools, majored in something different, or even didn't let that proposal go. 

Full Disclosure:  I decided not to have children not because of my stormy relationship with my mother but the genetic legacy from that eastern european part of the family.

PRSA: Is this an organization in search of a new mission?

In this age of austerity, even K Street lobbyists, reports POLITICO, are feeling the pushback from clients who are unwilling to pay for services they might be able to do themselves through social media.  Is the PRSA also fighting for survival?  Will it have to find a fresh mission to attract financial support from those in public relations?

In his blog today - which you can read here- Jack O'Dwyer takes a look at where PRSA is now and where he envisions it should be.  Singlehandedly over the years O'Dwyer has helped thousands of public relations firms obtain recognition for their accomplishments such as nailing down new accounts, solo flyers develop their brandnames, and undergraduates decide if public relations was the field for them.  To me, that's the way to define effective lobbying.

Many I speak with are still undone by the reality that the PRSA barred O'Dwyer from covering its annual meeting. 

Barbie: A generation may never comb her blonde pony tail

Mattel's competitors and critics (after all Barbie was the anti-feminism) licked their chops when the earnings report came out.  Barbie sales had fallen.  Girls grow up faster and their idea of a good time is getting on a tablet or smartphone, not combing Barbie's blonde pony tail.

However, no fool, Mattel is developing virtual activities for mobile which embed iconic brands like Barbie.  That beauty of that is the brand will never really mature.  It's like watching Marilyn Monroe on film.  The Monroe brand in that medium is frozen in time.

I look at Mattel and other toy companies for the financial information company Motley Fool.   Here you can read over my shoulder.

Joe Muto Puzzle: Hustler or self-destruct?

We have had a weekend to mull over whether whistleblower Joe Muto is a hustler (that is, totally in sync with capitalist America) or a self-destruct who sacrificed not only a job but one in the glamour industry of broadcasting.

Given the end of the traditional social contract between employer and employee, whistleblowing has become more common.  I take a look at this for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here  you can read that and think about the whole kettle of fish.

On the one hand, a relationship with the high traffic high profile Gawker, the platform for Muto's whistleblowing, can lead to the big time.  Authoring the column "Wonkette" gave Ana Marie Cox the ticket to just about any job she wanted in brandname media.  Also, Gawker paid Muto $5000.  Not a million bucks but a bird in the hand always beats a possible fortune in the bush.  Nice chunk of change to pay down credit card debt or the vestiges of student loans.

On the other hand, Fox tracked down the miscreant through a digital trail.  Muto doesn't seem too smart to have left one.  For example, tipsters to legal tabloid Abovethelaw.com know to leave the building and leak only on their own smartphones.  In addition, Fox News is not particularly vulnerable at this time.  Its powerful head Roger Ailes is holding a strong hand, including the ability to hire a Manhattan law firm. Whistleblower Greg Smith attacked Goldman Sachs when all of Wall Street has become an easy target.  No surprise he received a juicy advance of $1.5 million to continue to rat out his former employer.  There a precedent there in Michael Lewis' taking on The Street.

The next weeks will tell the tale about Muto as an entrepreneurial type or naive.  Monitoring that story will continue to bring heavy traffic to Gawker.  However, Muto could find himself out in the cold with only $5000 to show for taking this risk.