A conversation with Nancy Kessler, the founder of Memoirs Plus, a service designed to help you tell your life story through writing a memoir.
Nancy Kessler, founder of Memoirs Plus, discusses the challenges and experiences of her life that finally led her to start a business at the age of 58.
Nancy shares how she worked at various jobs, but when she was fired at 58, she decided to take it as a sign and start her own business. Several people commented that her business idea would not make her rich, but she wanted to do something that made her happy and offered her the luxury of freedom while working comfortably for 30 hours a week.
“When I got fired at 58, which, by the way, is on my calendar every day, it's listed as Freedom Day. It was the kick in the pants I needed to start my own business."- Nancy Kessler.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand what is important to you and use that as the framework for your decision making.
- Be a collector of skills. Each role you play or job you take will allow you to hone your skills over time.
- Do a lot of networking before you start any project. The realtionships you build will be invaluable as you move forward on your journey.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more about Nancy and how she overcame the challenges in her life and business.
About the guest:
Memoirs Plus founder Nancy Kessler has a passion for listening and capturing the essence of a life. A former museum curator, she creates memoirs, producing a beautiful book to share with family, friends and future generations.
Connect with Nancy at:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancykessler/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/memoirsplus
Website: http://memoirsplus.com/
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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Laura Rotter: [00:00:00] When life changes, money changes. This is the True Abundance Podcast where we'll be speaking with people who experienced a big life transition that changed their definition of financial success. I'm your host, Laura Rotter. Welcome.
My guest today on the True Abundance Podcast is Nancy Kessler. Nancy, thank you so much for agreeing to be the first guest on my podcast. Nancy, you founded a business. Memoirs Plus it's I think it's just over eight years ago when you were already into your fifties.
And I'm very, very excited to learn about your journey. I think when life changes, money changes.
And so I'd like to start this interview. A question that I hope will then maybe be the [00:01:00] lens through which you might look at your journey as you describe it. So how does that sound?
Nancy Kessler: Great. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you, Laura. You're welcome. So
Laura Rotter: the question is, what was money like in your family growing up?
Nancy Kessler: Interesting question. So I grew up in a very comfortable suburban family. My mother, just to put context, instead of growing up in a typical depression household, was actually going on cruises in the 1930s. My family was extremely liberal, so they made sure that we understood that we were privileged.
Even though I had privilege, I was shown. All kinds of lifestyles in many different ways. And we, we did things like camping as a vacation. So we, we weren't extravagant as a family [00:02:00] growing up.
So I grew up with some comfort. But that changed when I got divorced which was when my children were one and three. and then I really had nothing. So I say I lived on fumes for many years
Laura Rotter: I'm wondering if having grown up with some means, was there a sense that there was a safety net what kind of safety net existed?
Nancy Kessler: didn't have much, you know, I mean, I, I was thinking the other day about the time my sister lent me,, $200 and sent me a check so I could pay some bills , and it was like, I really didn't have $200.
I had zero at certain points and it was scary.
My parents were supportive and, and helped, but, you know, I couldn't rely on them a hundred percent. So I had to, I had to kind of make things, I had to, to make things due. I was [00:03:00] also mentioning the other day, a little trick I had I would take my children on an adventure the week before school started.
So that when the teacher said, What did you do this summer? They could say, Oh, we went to Hershey Park, or we went to Sesame Street, , and it was strategically planned, so it was fresh in their mind. , that may have been the only thing we did that summer. So I found ways to be creative with the kids and my children are not materialistic, so they fortunately didn't want and or need a lot of fancy items in their life, and that helped.
Laura Rotter: Well, you say you were fortunate that your kids weren't materialistic, but knowing you, Nancy, I would assume that your values came through and they, they learned from you. You, you use the word creativity when describing planning the vacation. So how does that thread [00:04:00] come through?
Your first job was working for a publisher. I don't know what you were doing, and then how. did it evolve from there. Well,
Nancy Kessler: Actually my first career was working in a museum and I, I really could not handle the low salaries there. , I was, I think I started at 11,000 and I was a full curator in New York City making 20,000 when I left.
And it was just ridiculous you couldn't live on it. I had to make a little bit of money, but also keep in mind that I needed flexibility with my hours. So that was extremely important when my kids were young.
Laura Rotter: And that was understood less when we were, I feel now there's more of an understanding, of course, with hybrid that that's needed.
But when we, this has gotta be in the eighties, early
Nancy Kessler: eighties. Early nineties. Early nineties. Right. And so I need, I needed to find people that I worked with and for who were sensitive to the fact that I [00:05:00] might have to take a morning off or run to a school concert and, and I really was able to find that, which was fortunate.
Laura Rotter: So what was the next job that you found? It's always nice to look back and create this story. So how did it
Nancy Kessler: flow? So I've had a lot of different careers and the way that I look at it, I was actually collecting skills. And I didn't know what they were for . But every job I would build new skills and it ends up that I needed all of them to be an entrepreneur and to run my own business.
So, for example 2008 I worked for an architectural firm. And I ran the office and I also really ran this person's life. I was more like a personal assistant.
Wow. And In that job he actually got rid of his bookkeeper and decided that I was going to be the bookkeeper. [00:06:00] And I have the equivalent of probably a fourth grade education in math. And I had a lot of trouble in math. So I. I did get a tutor to teach me QuickBooks, and that was good, but I remember having to text my daughter some of the formulas and have her
I, I really didn't even know how to do it, but learning how to do the finances for that size business really helped me. Now I know how to do QuickBooks and that part of the job does not phase me. So all the way through I was doing all these jobs and my, I think my resume looks like hodgepodge, but I know in my head that it, it came together to help me run this business.
Laura Rotter: What other skills?
Nancy Kessler: I learned through museums mostly, I learned a lot of public relations and certainly how to deal with elderly people. [00:07:00] I've always had an affinity for the elderly. I was kind of kid who sat in the kitchen on the side of the room and listen to all the adults tell stories, and I loved hearing the stories. So I really feel like when I started this business, I got into being the authentic Nancy. It's exactly what I wanted to be doing, and it kind of happened by. So not when I was at the architecture firm, but the job after that, I got fired at age 58.
And what job was that? I was working for a lawyer and I had had a lot of trouble getting that job because I was aging out of, Yeah, I was trying like from about 55 on to get out and I couldn't even get interview. So when I got fired at 58, which by the way on my calendar every year, it's listed as Freedom Day.
Mm-hmm. . [00:08:00] That's
Laura Rotter: amazing, Nancy. Really,
Nancy Kessler: when I felt like I got free and I just, it, it was the kick in the pants that I needed to start my own business and I wish I had had the guts to do it when I was 30 years. But I, I'm really a natural entrepreneur and I didn't know it, so I encourage people to try to find your inner strengths.
But at that point, I had a little bit of severance and my mother was in her eighties and she had lost my father. And I was really taking care of. So my mother was very supportive of me starting the business and she recognized that what I was doing for her had a monetary value and so she compensated me for some of the work that I did for her.
So that enabled me basically not to have a [00:09:00] salary for a year or so while I took business classes at the Women's Enterprise Development Center, Wei. I did a lot of networking to get the business going. I probably sat down with over a hundred people to just go one on one and find out everything I could about the aging business, any kind of business I was, I was really just hungry for knowledge.
And those relationships have helped over the years because people know me, they've sat down with me for an hour to have a cup of coffee, and they're likely to remember me when they know someone who needs a memoir. Along the way, somebody had asked me to do a memoir of this woman in Greenwich who was fascinating. She had come from Iraq and Iran and her husband died when she was in her early forties [00:10:00] and she was running a Max Factor cosmetic business as a single mother under Ayatollah Khomeini
he wanted to take her kids away, so she got her kids out to Switzerland and she showed me the purse that she carried where she would have a false bottom, and she just kept taking cash out of the country and then eventually she got out and it was such an amazing story. In fact, We published her book, which was called Jermaine, the first 90 years.
And probably a week after we published the book, she fell. And after that she only spoke in Arabic. So I got a story in English that was like the last stories that she told. I mean, we wouldn't have lost them.
What
Laura Rotter: a gift to her family.
I love the idea of naming the day that you were laid off. Freedom Day, Nancy. That so [00:11:00] resonates with me. I was laid off in November, 2013. I really, when I look back, I see that almost as part of my spiritual journey.
That really felt like the universe said, Okay, you're ready. You can do this. You don't, you don't need this job anymore. And I, too, my father passed a a little bit after I started my business and I got a very small inheritance and I felt like that, that he was giving me a gift so that I had resources too.
So I, I love that part of your story. It feels like that you felt and continued to feel held by, by the universe and that, that woman came to you just when you were thinking.
Nancy Kessler: Right, right.
I really feel like the memoir is a wonderful way to honor people while they're alive and they can tell their stories in their own voice.
So, whereas I remember stories my [00:12:00] grandmother told me, I can't get them down the same way she would've. I love
Laura Rotter: that, and I also love Nancy, how you describe the fact that in some ways it helps the person to come alive. Keeping the relationship going during Covid where so many seniors were isolated, it reminds them of their stories or reminds them of their history. I think you even say that in the description on LinkedIn, that it's not just a product that ultimately you're purchasing, but the experience.
Nancy Kessler: Right, Because so many seniors feel invisible. So when I start interviewing them, all of a sudden they feel honored and they're excited to share their stories and no matter how insignificant they may feel their stories really do matter.
And the families, I've [00:13:00] never done a memoir where the children didn't say they learned something.
Laura Rotter: Nancy, you are clearly a source of support for these for these people and their families. What supports did you rely on? You mentioned WEDC which I know has been an important part of your journey. Love to hear more about that or any other supports that you felt were really helpful during what was quite a big
Nancy Kessler: transition.
Mm-hmm. There, there were a lot of people I feel have mentored me. And I have in turn been mentoring other people. But I, I did have a lot of support. I had a lot of people say it's a good idea. It's not, it's not terribly lucrative. I'm not ever going to get rich, and there were a lot of people in when I first started they were sort of I don't know how to describe this nicely, but I would say like men in their forties and fifties were looking at me and saying, You're never gonna, this is [00:14:00] never gonna fly. You know, you're never gonna get rich from this. And you know what? I am not going to get rich from it, but I love what I'm doing and that's the place that I wanna be.
You know, I, I, at this point, I'm 66 years old, I want to have a certain lifestyle where I have time to have a two hour lunch with a friend or take an afternoon off and go apple picking. You know, I want some luxury in my lifestyle. I don't wanna stop working. I don't wanna retire, but I really want a lifestyle that allows me some freedom.
Laura Rotter: It's a beautiful testament to as we age our definition of
Nancy Kessler: success shifts
Laura Rotter: As we get to the end of our time together, Nancy what advice would you give to women our [00:15:00] age who are looking to start their own business and be their own bosses. I mean, it's, it's scary and exciting at the same time.
Nancy Kessler: Yes, it is. I think it's really the most viable option for women our age.
So I firmly believe you need an education in starting a business, and that's where WEDC see came in very handy for me, and I give back to WEDC all the time, because of what they gave to me. They taught me everything I needed to know to set up a business.
And what does WEDC
Laura Rotter: stand for? For anybody
Nancy Kessler: who's listening and Women's Enterprise Development Center. Thank you. They were originally founded 25 years ago to help women get off welfare by starting their own businesses.
Laura Rotter: So Nancy, if somebody wants to work with you and get a memoir done for a, a parent or a grandparent or [00:16:00] themselves, how do they get in touch with you?
Nancy Kessler: So you can reach me at memoirsplus.com. My email is memoirsplus@gmail.com or Nancy@MemoirsPlus.com
I can give you, Do you want my phone ?
Laura Rotter: However you want people to get in touch with you when you
Nancy Kessler: call me at (914) 261-0834. I'm happy to talk people about the process and what's involved. It's really labor of love and I look forward to meeting new people all the time and hearing great stories.
Laura Rotter: It sounds like it's almost a calling for you to get to interact with people and get to know so many people. Do you work remotely or, or do people need to be relatively
Nancy Kessler: local? I can do both. I have a lot of clients that I do over Zoom. I have clients in about 20 states now.
Thank you
Laura Rotter: so much for telling your story and [00:17:00] spending the time. I can see in your face and the way you talk about it, how much you enjoy what you're doing and how you really feel like it was a gift that you got laid off when you did and have been on sort of this, this journey of self exploration, if you will. So thanks again
Nancy Kessler: thank you. Thank you.