Are you thinking of making the shift from your first half to your second half of life? What does retirement look like for you? Is working remotely the way of the future? In this podcast episode, Billy and Brandy Eldridge speak to Tom Schwab about his company, Interview Valet, and how he built the life he wanted. Meet Tom Schwab Tom Schwab knows how to build an online business. He’s done it successfully several times and now helps others find online success with podcast interview marketing. Marketing at its heart is starting a conversation with someone who could be an ideal customer. Tom helps thought leaders (coaches, authors, speakers, consultants, emerging brands) get featured on leading podcasts their ideal prospects are already listening to. The Interview Valet system then helps them to turn listeners into customers. The author of Podcast Guest Profits: Grow Your Business with a Targeted Interview Strategy, Tom is also Founder/CEO of Interview Valet, the category king of Podcast Interview Marketing. Visit Tom’s website, connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. In This Podcast Summary * What brought Tom into the world of podcasting * The shift from Tom’s first half to his second half of life * Freedoms that weren’t there before * Working with your partner * The hardest lesson Tom has had to learn What brought Tom into the world of podcasting And my mom always asked, she doesn’t understand podcasts, ‘What does that have to do with podcast interviews?’ And I’m like, ‘Mom, it’s not about the podcast interview. It’s about the connection. After travelling the world with the Navy, Tom moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, concerned that his world would get small again. What he has since realized is that it is an amazing time to be alive as we can connect with people around the world on this free platform of podcasting and hear new ideas. To him, that makes a really rich life and that’s what he does as a business now. His team’s goal is to personally connect thought leaders to millions of people who they could serve for the betterment of all. The shift from Tom’s first half to his second half of life The pivotal moment for Tom was the loss of his dad to cancer. Tom was in his early 30s at the time and it struck him that life is not forever, we all have a limited amount of time, and we don’t know how long that time is. Tom started thinking about how he wants to live this life if he might only have another 25 years or so left, and while talking with a close friend they decided that for them retirement was going to be doing fun things with interesting people and writing it all off as a tax expense. Four years ago when he turned 50, Tom looked at it and said that he was now going to consider himself retired and do just that. Freedoms that weren’t there before We can do so many things from our phone, from our laptops. And really, you know, today people really don’t care if you’re in a cubicle, or you know, if you’re on the beach on your computer just so long as the work gets done. 10 years ago, work was where you went, not what you did. Technology wasn’t advanced enough and if the pandemic had hit 5 years earlier it would have looked drastically diff...