A coach can help in both work and life
Ann Mintz enjoyed a decades-long career as a museum director and professional fundraiser for institutions such as the Chester County Historical Society in West Chester, Penn. She quit last year and was on the verge of retirement. But at 70, Mintz realized she just wasn’t done. So she sought out a life coach for her next act.
At her local Mount Airy Learning Tree, she met Yosaif August, a certified life coach and founding member of the Meetup group Encore Community of Philadelphia, which gets together monthly.
August, 73, who trained with the International Coach Federation, went through a reinvention himself.
He and his wife ran a profitable executive-recruiting and human-resources business in New York for many years. Finally, he said, one day “I turned to my wife and said, ‘Sweetheart, I don’t want to do this work anymore.’ I was sick of it.” The couple relocated to Mount Airy, a leafy Philadelphia neighborhood.
August had read about life coaching and exploring post-retirement possibilities, and he realized that “I like to help people figure out what those possibilities are and then ask of themselves, ‘Which is mine?’”
“I’m working now,” he said, “because I’m deeply excited and purposeful. Financially, I have to work. My wife and I made financial decisions that caused us to sell our house and our second property, a farm near Woodstock, N.Y. Those were decisions that we both made to embrace a life that was more meaningful and fun.”
What do his senior clients get out of his coaching?
One woman, a high-level graphics designer, learned to support herself by day trading. “She wants to make money for herself and free her up to do good work in the world,” August said. Another, a lawyer, found he loved being a social worker after retiring from the law.
As you ponder your own next chapter, he said, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Are you a joiner or a builder?
How do I reinvent a job that I hate into one that gives me freedom to do what I want?
How do I get unstuck from being mired in debt and responsibility?
“For instance, I asked a doctor client: ‘Do you want to join something established or create something?’ She realized she’s a joiner; she wanted the flexibility to teach yoga, and so she took a job with an urgentcare company, but she doesn’t want something full time.”
Mintz is sculpting her next act. An early high-tech adopter, she now teaches a class on how to buy and sell on eBay. Working with August for the past few months, she said, “helped me understand my primary drivers: being useful and making a difference. I’m not ready to stop working. I have skills, so it seems silly to stop.”
She’s done “a ton of job interviews,” she said. “I don’t need to work financially — I need it psychologically. I got dispirited in the process, but now I got back to a sense of myself. I’m more selective now” when applying for jobs.
Her homework? To write down these things: What are her drivers? Who is she? What are a list of good things about herself ?
“There are a lot of people over 50 looking for work, and conventional wisdom is take your college graduation off your resume. I didn’t: If someone wants a 35-yearold, they don’t want me. I’m not going to make three-quarters of my career disappear,” she said. “It’s silly to pretend I’m younger than I am. I have a killer work ethic. And I don’t do needlepoint.”
Long known as late-night outposts of roller hot dogs and greasy pizza, convenience stores now also want to sell you healthier food, preferably lots of it.
This shift in the $550 billion industry was on display at the National Association of Convenience Stores trade show in Chicago earlier this month. What began as a few bananas by the cash register is now a full-blown movement aimed at selling healthier fare to consumers, and millennials in particular.
There are practical reasons for this change: Sales of soft drinks, cigarettes and fuel — longtime pillars of the convenience store business — are in decline. And the rise of e-commerce threatens all bricks-and-mortar retail.
“It is a constant evolution. If you think today’s model is going to work, you’re done,” said Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives for the National Association of Convenience Stores.
The addition of healthier offerings means more choices for consumers. The salad custom-made by a robot — yes, that’s a thing that exists — won’t replace the roller dogs but might serve as an alternative. More high-protein packaged products like upscale jerky and plant-based protein bars might also be accompanied by more made-to-order food that’s marketed as fresh.
The industry shift also means big opportunities for relatively small companies like New Yorkbased Terrafina, which produces nuts, dried fruit and trail mixes. Just last year, the 12-year-old company began selling its products to convenience stores in small plastic tubs that fit into cup holders and discovered a relative goldmine.
“C-stores are looking for alternatives to tobacco and soda and gas,” said Paul Miller, Terrafina’s vice president of sales. “And even your processed food products from the 1990s. C-stores are definitely more of a growth opportunity than grocery stores.”
The market for more upscale jerky products with modern attributes — cage free, grass fed and so on — in convenience stores is booming, said Brian Levin, founder of the Colorado-based Perky Jerky.
Big Food is getting in the game, too. Chicago-based Conagra Brands — parent company of Slim Jim — recently acquired the maker of Duke’s meat snacks and Bigs Seeds. Kraft Heinz has invested in its P3 Portable Protein Packs of meat, cheese and nuts.
And at the trade show, Chicago-based Hillshire Brands introduced its Small Plates with contents such as apple chardonnay flavored pork and Gouda cheese.
Some convenience stores are taking the foodie movement beyond packaged foods. The Pride Stores, with 12 locations in the Chicago area, has in recent years hired a corporate chef and incorporated different restaurant concepts, such as Urban Counter and Taco Urbano, into some of its stores, where shoppers can sit down and eat or carry out their orders, said Mario Spina, owner of the chain.
Pride also expanded its selection of craft beer and wine, Spina said. Times have changed, he said, from when his father, Peter, ran the business.
“Last year, we went three months where we lost money on fuel. You can’t rely on that. We have to have other avenues where we can make decent revenue and decent profit margins,” Spina said.
Last year, the convenience store industry saw fuel sales tank 9.2 percent — from $349 billion in 2015 to $316.8 billion in 2016, according to data from the National Association of Convenience Stores. Meanwhile, inside-store sales increased 3.2 percent, from $225.8 billion to $233 billion, with strong growth in healthier foods and beverages, according to the trade group.
“Our industry is not without challenges . ... How do you keep people going to your stores if they’re not buying gas from you?” said Lenard, the industry spokesman.