[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Milwaukee's philanthropic community radio show. I'm Julie Ellen Becker, president of Ellenbecker Investment Group. EIG is committed to bringing awareness to organizations in our community. This show highlights local and surrounding area nonprofits to help listeners learn how they can have an impact in our community and is for educational purposes only. We believe that helping the community is always positive and recognize the importance of providing a voice. Every organization highlighted is a qualified 501. The opinions and missions expressed on MPC do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ellen Becker Investment group employees and leaders. Please enjoy today's show.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Welcome. This is EIG, Milwaukee's philanthropic community, with your host, Jill Economo, on Newstalk 1130 Wisna.
[00:00:52] Speaker C: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Milwaukee's philanthropic community, where we highlight people and organizations who are doing great things and making a big impact in our community. I'm your host, Jill Economo, director of community relations at Ellen Becker Investment Group. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, the purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter, to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, and to have it make some difference that you lived and lived well.
That's what the show is all about. We want to inform, we want to inspire, and we want to impact people so that they want to go out and make a difference in the world in some way. The theme of today's show is living a life of purpose. How do you do that? Well, we're going to hear from a few individuals today who will share how they are personally doing just that. And we'll also learn about an organization that will help you along your journey. My guests today are Karen Hung, CEO of Silver Rock Consulting, Tim Hanley, senior advisor from Marquette University, and Jim Stolberg, co CEO of Halftime, who helps you to embark on a lifetime journey of adventure and impact.
Now, who doesn't want that, right? That sounds awesome. Welcome to the show today, everyone.
[00:02:13] Speaker D: Jill, thanks so much for having us.
[00:02:15] Speaker E: Yeah, thanks, Jill. Appreciate you having us here.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: You are welcome. So, Jim, let's start with you. Share with us what halftime is all about.
[00:02:24] Speaker E: Well, we are a nonprofit ministry, but I like to describe us as we're in the business of transformation, sort of along the lines of the quote you just gave us. We help high capacity leaders get clear, get free and get going. And the idea behind that is to get clear of how God made us and what kind of contributions we can make in the world, to get free from all the barriers or challenges of what keeps us from getting started on that mission and then getting going in the plan of action being very practical, we take them on a head in a heart journey, and we help them to discover that purpose in their life and then live it out well.
[00:03:05] Speaker C: And I think sometimes people just don't know where to start. They have it on their heart to do something from a philanthropic standpoint, but they're not sure where to go and how to get started. So who do you serve through the ministry?
[00:03:25] Speaker E: So I mentioned high capacity leaders, but I can broaden that into think about entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, influencers, maybe even military officers. We've served quite a few that are, that think in high capacity. And we actually use this measurement we call 949. The perfect client would be a nine, four nine. And we think about that on the scale of one to ten along success, significance, and then surrender. And a nine would be, maybe I've lived a life of success, at least by how the world defines success, but I want to live a life of significance. But maybe I'm only a four on the level of significance, but I have a strong desire to live more significantly beyond myself. And so if I'm a nine on that scale, that's the type of person we feel we want to serve. So we call them 949 ers. And oftentimes someone who's in that position in life will have what we would call smoldering discontent. I know I sure had that. Just this feeling that there's something more out there for me that I want my life to counter. But I may not know exactly how to go about doing that.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: I've heard it said one time, think about your epitaph. You know, what do you want people to say about you when you're no longer here?
[00:04:45] Speaker E: It's actually one of the exercises we.
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Do as part of maybe. I got it from your book. I did read your book a number of years ago, actually.
So how did you personally get involved with halftime?
[00:04:56] Speaker E: Yeah. So, like many, I was introduced to the book. Actually, the book is going to be 30 years old next year. I was much younger when a mentor of mine, a good friend of mine, gave me the book and said, here, why don't you read this? And I thought it was just incredibly profound.
I was only in the late twenties, maybe 30, and I read the subtitle which said, from success to significance. And I said, well, I still think I need a. A little more work on success before I feel like I could be significant. And so I continued down that path.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: A lot of people think that probably.
[00:05:32] Speaker E: Yeah, wrongly so. Perhaps we can live significantly at any age, right.
But that was my journey. And so I lived for what I would call my career, which was all about feeding my ego and my pocketbook, but not feeding my soul. And so through a culmination of my career, exited the marketplace at 52, I actually went through the halftime institute. I called my friend who gave me the book so many years ago. I had re read it again, and it was incredibly profound. I had lunch with him and he said, dude, you're in halftime. You need to go through the program. And I did that, and I'm so grateful I did that in 2019. And it was just nothing short of transformational about how I think about life.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: And so explain just real quickly, you're the co CEO of halftime here in Wisconsin, actually, globally.
[00:06:27] Speaker E: Globally, emotionally, yeah. We have a, the institute, I feel honored, has been around for about 25 years. Yeah, it is an honor. It's a privilege, actually. I somehow found myself on the board shortly after I went through the halftime experience.
And then from there, we created a vision for what halftime could be next. And the, the CEO at the time said, you know what, I love this vision, but it's not for me. It's for somebody else to lead. And so actually created a unique arrangement with my co CEO, Tom, and we stepped in, we locked arms together and did that about three and a half years ago.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: And here you are today.
[00:07:01] Speaker E: Here I am.
[00:07:02] Speaker C: So what kind of impact do you see through your work?
[00:07:07] Speaker E: I mean, this is the best part of being a part of halftime. Bob used to say, the fruit of our work grows on other people's trees. And I just think that's so true. We have the privilege of witnessing the ripple effect of people living a life of significance. And there are so many stories out there. We've served literally thousands of people around the world and taking them on this journey, and we get to see that fruit. And there's some great stories out there of people who have. Some have just literally just read the book and they refigured how to live their life. Some actually going through programming that we offer through halftime.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: I read something recently talking about the difference between a leader and a servant leader, and it really speaks to that idea of watching something grow on someone else's tree. You know, just the idea that you're lifting other people up so that they can do better.
[00:08:06] Speaker E: Absolutely. We don't ever want it to be about half time. It's about the people who take the journey. And I've just witnessed so many great, great stories. You know, one of my favorite, I'll call his name's Brad. Years ago, very young entrepreneur was in a family business with his brother.
Really had that smoldering discontent we talked about. I said, there's got to be more of the life than just making more money.
Actually exited the business, sold his piece to his brother. But he. He went on a trip with his wife to India, and it just broke his heart. He was in the slums, and he saw just the poverty and the actual slavery of these women who were being trafficked. And he said, they just said, we have to do something about this. We can't just go home and not unsee this. And so they actually started a for profit businesses mission. It's called made free, and they produce high quality goods. Think backpacks, purses, bags.
But the beauty of this is that they rescue the women out of poverty, and they employ them through the dignity of work. And they've saved hundreds of women in India by bringing them out of the slums, employing them in their business, and growing it. And they've saved hundreds of lives and through the business, which is different. Oftentimes we think of nonprofits, but this is actually a for profit business, and they're able to scale and grow it. They've just changed many lives. I actually have a few of their products.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Well, you think about the impact that that has, and that's one person impacting multiples. So when someone says, it's just me, yeah, it may start with just you, but the potential impact can be massive.
[00:09:54] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: What are you most excited about for the future of halftime?
[00:10:00] Speaker E: Yeah. To create more of those ripple effects, we really feel called to serve more and serve them longer through the journey. And so part of the strategy has been to do that through more partnerships. We believe it's one way to reach more people is through great, like minded partnerships with organizations that can really help us to grow and accelerate who we reach.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Okay. Well, halftime actually has hubs across five continents where they equip these high capacity leaders everywhere to discover and live out the joyful, impactful lives that they were made for. Stay tuned, because when we return, we're gonna hear from one of these high capacity leaders, Karen Hung, and her journey of impact. We'll be right back.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: You're listening to EIg, Milwaukee's philanthropic community, with your host, Jill Economo, on Newstalk 1130 WISN.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Welcome back. I'm your host, Jill Economo. With halftime hubs across five continents, there are quite a few high capacity leaders that they've worked with. In our next segment today, we're going to talk with one of these leaders and halftime client. Welcome to the show. Today, Karen Hung, founder and CEO of Silver Rock Consulting.
[00:11:22] Speaker D: Hi, Jill. I'm thrilled to be here.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: I'm happy to have you here. We actually met a number of years ago at, gosh, I don't even remember if it was C Sui for Christ or some other organization, but you've been here at Ellen Becker helping Karen in multiple capacities, doing interviews on our other radio show, money sense. So you're a pro at this by now, right?
So tell us what your halftime story is, Jill.
[00:11:47] Speaker D: I loved how you started the segment with the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. So I'd like to add to that and talk about Robert Frost's way leads to way, and that's how my story starts. I would say this was several years ago. I actually think it was about. I hate to say this, but ten years ago, where I was leaving a global chief marketing officer role, it was a high pressure job to drive both top line revenue as well as bottom line profitability results.
And during that time, as I was looking for my next career adventure, I happened to explore on the Internet, did not know anything about halftime, and came across halftime. Now, I would say that was God's provision and guidance. And because of that, I engaged with halftime to learn more. And it was such a powerful notion of a purpose driven process.
And Jim talked about earlier about the transformation, and that is indeed what happened. And it doesn't always happen overnight. As a matter of fact, it is a journey, and that's where the stickiness happens. And so in my journey, I went through this. And it was ironic because I ended up landing a pretty phenomenal opportunity with, at that point in time, the world's largest life insurance enterprise globally out of New York.
And I was staring at that offer to be a divisional global chief marketing officer for a newly merged division. So a lot of things, very exciting things to start from the ground up. And as I was looking at this offer and seeking wise counsel, my halftime coach said to me, you sound way more excited about continuing to explore and do multiple consulting opportunities and engagements to solve big problems across a range of different clients, then settling into this one corporate job again.
And that was a watershed moment.
And you asked the question, how and what did I learn? And that watershed moment led me to the pivot, to draw deep into my emotional being, to think about confidence, and to really lean into my spiritual essence and really seek out what does God have for me at this point in time?
So that led me to the founding of Silver Rock consulting. And we are also all about transformation in a different way. So our transformation is about helping clients from a growth standpoint with transformational business models, and also, very much recently, board impact and elevating board performance.
And as I think about this and pause, that journey has continued even to this day, where I think boards are a huge opportunity to create additional leverage for organizations.
And by that I mean, what a wonderful space and place in a very concentrated form, to create a competitive advantage, to create a strategic asset, and to create moral compass for the organizations for which they serve in both for profit and nonprofit realms.
[00:15:19] Speaker C: Well, you were kind of taking me through this whole process. I want to go back to what you discovered about yourself.
Tell us a little bit more in detail about that. You know, you talked about developing confidence and leaning into your spiritual essence, but what did you discover about yourself that made you say to yourself, I can do this. I can start my own company. I've got this, and I've got somebody behind me that is helping me along the way.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: I will be happy to share this as an encouragement to those listeners out there who are thinking about doing something very different. So I want to encourage those folks who have an idea for founding something for folks who are interested and very passionate about a cause or an organization that they like to join, to really drive deep down and pull up the courage. So, Jill, let's go back to your question a little bit. And my career background and where I really cut my teeth and sank in were large global blue chip corporations.
I loved the complexity. I loved thinking about having a global view. I loved on any given day, I was accountable for making multimillion dollar decisions about sovereignty risk, about currency risk, about cultural impact, what are the boundaries of. Loved all that.
And I loved the infrastructure. I loved having an admin to keep me organized. You know, we were kind of chatting about this morning, right? I loved having an IT tech department who would help me if my laptop wasn't working. And so in that I share that frame and that context, to say, going from that big infrastructure to drive into founding my own thing and being. Being kind of by myself really took a huge leap of faith. And so that was the transformation, the leap of faith, to have confidence that can try it, to not be afraid to fail, which, listen, I've made many mistakes. I'm constantly learning, and to really think about what is the good that I can do in my highest and best to bring that forward in any given scenario, to drive value and to create value.
So that was part of my journey. And so I just want to encourage folks who are exploring their version of how they can bring value and purpose into this world and find a lot of personal satisfaction with it.
[00:17:57] Speaker C: And then I think about mentoring. As you're talking, I'm thinking about, gosh, you would really make a great mentor for a lot of people.
Do you have stories along that line as far as maybe who either through silver rock consulting or through your exposure with halftime that you've served in that mentoring capacity?
[00:18:20] Speaker D: You know, I think about mentoring a few different ways. You know, there's the formal mentoring. There's also advocacy and sponsorship.
So mentoring is around, you know, giving advice, being along for the journey, being a sounding board and adding perspective. There's also this notion around how can you advocate for somebody when they're both in the room and outside the room? And that, I think, is just as powerful if I think about folks who may not have had all the advantages of life, whether it's social, economic, or whatever their situation is. So the advocacy for folks are just as powerful, if not more so. And that the sponsorship, in my mind, is actually choosing to do something that will tangibly help somebody and whether it's offering them a job or creating an opportunity where they can have a platform to really shine. So, Jill, your question about mentorship is a really amazing one, and I just want to extend that into the advocacy and sponsorship. So again, out to your listeners, those who are in a position to help somebody else, to really help them step up.
It is. I know we've all heard the adage of it's a hand up and not a handout. The hand up is really around setting somebody free and setting someone forward. And Jim talked about that in terms of the dignity through the transformation. And I would echo that in a different dimension.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: And I was just going to ask you for a call to action, but I think you wrapped it up very succinctly. Right there is, you know, think about what you can do for someone else.
[00:20:02] Speaker D: That's right.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: Is there anything else you want to add, maybe to that, around board involvement?
[00:20:07] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. Jill, thanks for that question. What I would say for boards, for those who are interested in boards, those who are active on boards. Right. Aspiring board leaders, active board leaders, and those who may be advocating for more board voice. I would say three things for boards. First of all, we all know that boards have accountability for strategic oversight, and that does include good governance. But those are kind of table stakes. The other two pieces that I would add is around having courageous leadership and being a moral compass. So I do challenge all of us to elevate our games and including boards, because I see the huge opportunity for boards to really matter and being an asset for the organization that they serve.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: Wonderful. Well, thank you. Karen Hung, founder and CEO of Silver Rock Consulting, for your words of wisdom and sharing your personal journey. I appreciate that. Thank you.
[00:21:06] Speaker D: You bet, Jill. Thanks for having me.
[00:21:08] Speaker C: You're welcome. So we're going to take a quick break, but in our next segment, we're going to meet another high capacity leader and client of half time who also helped sponsor a different type of halftime offering. So stay tuned and we'll be right back.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in. This is EIG, Milwaukee's philanthropic community, with your host, Jill Iconomo, on Newstalk 1130 W I S N.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: Welcome back to Milwaukee's philanthropic community, brought to you by Ellen Becker, investment group. I'm your host, Jill Economo, director of community relations. And my next guest today is another client of halftime who helped sponsor a different type of halftime offering. Welcome to the show today. Tim Hanley, senior advisor from Marquette University.
[00:22:02] Speaker F: Great to be here.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Nice to have you. So we had Karen share her halftime experience. How did your halftime experience start?
[00:22:10] Speaker F: I started, actually 15 years ago. Quite an unusual way. I was at a national conference with perhaps 200 other business leaders, and I happened to be having lunch with one individual I'd never met before. We introduced one another. He was from a Fortune 500 company. I asked him a little bit about where he was headed in his career, and surprisingly, he told me he was leaving this Fortune 500 company the next month to bring his wife to start a new microfinance business in Africa.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:22:41] Speaker F: Wow. Wow is right. And so I was curious about what led him on such an adventure. And he told me about the book, halftime. Haven't I ever heard of this book? He said, tim, if you hadn't heard of this book, remember, I'm pretty early in my career. He was a little bit ahead of me, and that's where the idea started. And so, Jill, I bought the book on the way home from my conference. I read it, and it changed a lot of the way that I thought about things for the rest of my career.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Well, you're at Marquette University, right? So tell us a bit about your background and how you got there.
[00:23:19] Speaker F: Yeah, well, it certainly wasn't my plan, as perhaps others have innovated. It may have been God's plan. So I was fortunate to be a graduate of Marquette. I was like Karen and Jim was blessed to have a terrific 40 year business career. The last ten years of that career. I had a global leadership role in my firm. It was really the dream of my career. And it came time to retire, which in my case was five years ago, and I still felt I had a lot of energy and maybe a little bit of that half time mindset. And you said something at the very start of this interview with the three of us. You mentioned the term servant leadership. That's always been one of my guideposts. Maybe some of it started, I think, because I had great role models, and that's how they treated the people that work for them. Maybe someone was reinforced by the jesuit education I got at Marquette, maybe some of it underlined by the halftime book. But one of the things I thought about Jill when I was toward the end of my career is, you know, what could I do to give back to Marquette? And so that was the start of my experience. I sat down with leadership at the university and asked them if I was willing to give them a couple hundred hours of my time, might there be something I could do that might be helpful? So I sat down with the dean of the business school. I'm a graduate of the business school, and we created a role that never existed before. We called it executive in residence, and it basically just gave me a business card that allowed me to help the college, help the university, and help the dean, and that's how my involvement at Marquette began. But there's a really interesting side story to this, and many of your listeners have heard about this, but literally a few months into this role, I was really enjoying working with the dean. At the time. His name was Joe Daniels, incredibly respected, 30 years at the university, beloved by all, and he was tragically killed in the car accident. And this was a stunner, gut punched to me, to the university, to his family, and everyone that knew him.
And at the time, the university was a bit at a crossroads. Joe was doing an amazing job, and one of the things he was most involved with was a really important fundraising effort to build a new business school for Marcap.
And I was a bit along his side at the time. And I remember thinking, in the midst of this tragedy, you know, what could I do to be helpful? So I went to our firm's leadership, our university's leadership, and said, listen, if there's something I can possibly do to help, not knowing what that could possibly be, please let me know.
And literally a day or two later, they asked me if I might by chance be interested in being the dean of the business school, which I never remotely thought of before.
And of course. What an honor and a privilege.
And after I thought about this for a day or two, bought my wife a big bottle of wine to convince her maybe I could go back to work again.
I said, yes, I'd be happy to be considered Jill. And the next day they offered me the job. So that's how it all started.
[00:26:22] Speaker C: Well, what I like about what you said is, what I love about what you said is this idea of being available, because how many times do we have opportunity in front of us and we just need to make ourselves available? First of all, we have to keep our eyes open to see the options, obviously. But you went in and you said, I'm available. What do you need? What is it that I can provide you? I love that.
It's an interesting time in higher education, to say the least. How is Marquette positioning itself for the future?
[00:26:55] Speaker F: Well, you just have to read what we're seeing all across the country. There's no doubt higher eds and disruption. You see what's happening in some of the schools, the really predominant schools on the east coast. You understand what's happening with demographics. There's going to clearly be less men and women who are going to be of college age in the very near future. And so the best universities have to re examine their businesses, much like most of the companies that we advise during our three careers. Universities have to relook at their business model. They have to be sure they're right sized, that they have the right areas of focus. They have to grow in areas where there's going to be future demand. They have to shrink in areas where there's going to be less. And so, again, as a person who had 40 years in business and then spent four and a half years at Marquette, I got to be in the middle of us really reshaping the university and doing this in a proactive way, in a way from strength. And again, we're all reading what's happening to other places around the country. We're not immune to that. But I really like how we're positioning ourselves so we can be where we need to be five years, ten years, and 40 years in the future.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: Well, speaking of that, what are you most excited about for the future, then, of Marquette?
[00:28:07] Speaker F: Well, so much to be excited about. And of course, I could go on and on, Gilles, for quite a while to talk about Marquette. But there's a couple of things that really stand out. One, there's several aspects of the university, the College of Business being one of them. We have an incredible college of nursing, an incredible college of health science that are nationally renowned. And what we've been able to do is further strengthen and grow those parts of Marquette in a way that's sustaining and for the future. We've just literally wrapped up, you may have seen, your listeners may have seen an announcement. We just wrapped up a very significant capital campaign that was significantly needed to make sure we have the right sort of financial strength to be affordable, to have the right sort of programs in the future. We just wrapped up that campaign just a couple of months ago, and that campaign will allow us to have the strength to go forward. And one really important aspect of this that you could, of course, appreciate is we've got to make this affordable. Marquette's a catholic jesuit private university.
Tuition is not inexpensive. And so it's critically important that we have financial aid. We're incredibly focused on first generation families. And so to do that, you've got to have the financial aid to grow that. This particular campaign raised over $300 million to allow us to further fortify that. And so I think the way the university is positioned is incredibly well as we navigate all the ups and downs of the future.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate you sharing your personal journey with Marquette, but we're actually going to take a quick break, and when we return, we're going to talk with Tim and Jim about a partnership between Marquette and halftime. So stay tuned and we'll find out more about that after our commercial break.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: You're listening to EIG, Milwaukee's philanthropic community with your host, Jill Economo on Newstalk 1130 w I S N.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: Welcome back to Milwaukee's philanthropic community, brought to you by Ellen Becker Investment Group. I'm your host, Jill economo, director of community relations. And I'm talking in our last segment today with both Jim Soberg from halftime and Tim Hanley from Marquette University.
So Marquette partnered with halftime on something that you both have in common. So talk to us about that.
[00:30:42] Speaker E: Yeah, well, it's probably obvious by now that we had this common thing with halftime, but we also, it runs deeper than that. We also had this commonality in Marquette. I happen to be a Marquette alum and have been plugged into the university for many, many years, and Tim and I actually go way back because we actually started at the same firm together years ago. He a little bit before me. So there was these threads of commonality that go back pretty deep into our lives.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: Okay, well, then how did the collaboration between this project that you're working on with halftime and Marquette, how did that come about?
[00:31:18] Speaker E: Well, really, it came about by Tim and another mutual friend, colleague of ours, Charles, came to me and said, wouldn't it be great if we could do something together between halftime and marquette? And this was just music to my ears.
When I think about how much Marquette transformed my life as I was entering into the marketplace and how much halftime transformed my life exiting the marketplace, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than try to put these two institutions together to do something bigger and better. And so I jumped on that right away and said, tim, if you want to do it, let's do that. I was just really grateful for that. And so we created an offering together that would allow us to bring halftime to Marquette and more specifically to alumni and friends of alumni, so that we could bring them along on the journey.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: So then what did you hope to achieve then through this partnership and elaborate a little bit more on what you started to talk about?
[00:32:20] Speaker F: Yeah, let me talk a little bit about that, Jill. And so Jim and I, we brainstorm. How could we put something together that might take the best of what we had, both Marquette and halftime? There's a very important focus on faith at halftime. It's one of the things that appealed to me originally, and, of course, that underlies what we have at Marquette University. And so we're really hoping to design an offering that would appeal to our friends and family to allow them to stay connected to Marquette. You can kind of appreciate how important it is that we stay connected to our alumni, not just right after their graduation, but 1020, in my case, 45 years after graduation. That shows you how old I am.
And so we felt that if we could get something going, we'd have something to build on. And just so incredibly grateful to Jim because it was his energy. He really helped us design a program that we could offer. In fact, I was the executive sponsor of that program, was the dean of the business school at the time. And I raised my hand because even though I could tell you that I thought I led a half time oriented life, I thought I could benefit from some direction, you know? Still, after 45 years of working, I feel like there's a lot ahead of me. And so this incredible experience allowed us to build a roadmap, me and the rest of my corps to build a roadmap for how we can have a life of significance in the future. That's what we're hoping to offer to the people that participate, and we were.
[00:33:49] Speaker E: Able to host it at the brand new business school. The O'Brien hall was just beautiful. Perfect timing for that. Very nice so we had a great environment to host the cohort.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: Well, so where are you in the partnership journey?
[00:34:01] Speaker F: Well, you know, I told you earlier, I maybe started this journey 15 years ago, but I think I'm still at the front end. So what this experience allowed us to do with this experience allowed me to do is literally build a roadmap of where I'd like to see my life head, my life with my spouse, my life with my family, my life with my faith, my life with my health. And so, literally, we're doing this in an iterative way. We have a cohort. This cohort is with like minded people, friends, and alum from Marquette. And so I think, in some ways, I'm just on the start of that journey. I want to just tell you one quick story that really moved me, though.
I just. This Saturday night, I was with someone I've known for 35 years. I've been a bit of. He's about a decade younger than me. I've been an informal mentor of his. And we sat in his backyard after a boat ride, and he said, tim, I have to tell you about what I just did. And so he had a 30 plus year career in technology sales. He said, tim, I just accepted a full time position at the Red Cross. I go, wow. And he goes, Tim, you know why I did that? I credit this all to you because you told me to read the halftime book. And so that, you know, gave me goosebumps, Jill. I mean, that is what Jim and I. And Jim and I could give you a dozen other stories, and Karen could as well, of the impact that this book, this movement has had on people.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: And that's. I was just thinking of one word. When you're telling that story, and that's impact. I mean, again, the show, we want to inform people, and you certainly have done that, but we also want to inspire and impact people so that those of you listening, if this is something that resonates with you, reach out and find out more about it. Get the halftime book. It's fantastic. I've read it. I've given it to my husband. He's read it now. The line is given to our kids, having them set aside some time.
Mentorship. You talked about how important that is and how that can have an impact on the next generation. And like we said, just making yourself available so that you can take advantage of an opportunity that's been given to you.
[00:36:18] Speaker F: I see this a little bit like a mindset. So I think half time, when I read the book, I started thinking differently. I did not leave my career to go to Africa. But I started thinking differently about other not for profit opportunities. And I'll bet from that time forward, I was involved with perhaps a dozen not for profit organizations. I chaired many of them because that was my mindset. I've got adult children now, right. They're in their thirties and in their careers. And I hope that I'm a bit of a role model to them as they think about this and maybe a few others, like my friend that worked at the Red Cross. But I think in many ways, Jill, it's about a mindset.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I think we have to remember that we're not all called to do everything, but everybody can do something, even if it's that one person. Like we talked about before, you may have an impact on one person, but then that person goes out and they have an impact on one person and on and on and on. And if you think about the potential, perhaps you will look to lead your life in a different way by putting something else on priority in that priority space.
Jim, what would you like our listeners to take away from our session? I mean, we could go on and on and on. This is such a great conversation, but unfortunately we're time bound.
What do you want to say to the listeners?
[00:37:33] Speaker E: Well, two things. One, I'd like to go back because when you talked with Karen, she was talking about feeling called to board work. And I just want to acknowledge that she walks the walk when it comes to that. We added her to the halftime board last year right before in the fall. And the level of impact that she's had on halftime and the board specifically, and I would say not just the board as a whole, but the board as individual members has elevated dramatically. So I'm grateful to her for that.
But my call to action would be I mentioned smoldering discontent before. If you feel that sense that there's something more, that that's not something to be squashed, that's something like we want to fan the flames on that.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: You want to nurture that.
[00:38:20] Speaker E: Yeah. That's a sign from God that there's something more for you. And when you're living outside that that's smoldering discontent. So I just want to be encouraged, an encourager to people to step into that. And, you know, one of the things I'm really passionate about, and I think this is just a false narrative we have in our society is, you know, at some point you get to retirement or this financial independence, and then you're just supposed to, I think for Wisconsinites that means you're supposed to buy a place in Florida and go down there and golf the rest of your life. And while that can be great, you can do so much more. And what I'm passionate about is, especially now with a lot of the baby boomers leaving the marketplace, that is just an incredible resource of wisdom, networking, resources that can be leveraged for good.
Yeah, you can have a great golf game, but you could really use all that God has given you up to this point in your life, and you could have the most fruitful part of your life. The next 20 years could be more incredible than the past 20 years, right?
[00:39:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:25] Speaker E: That's really what we want people to step into.
[00:39:28] Speaker C: Yeah. You can grow a beautiful garden of trees with many different leaves, plant orchards. Yes, exactly. For sure. Well, I want to thank my guests today, Jim Stolberg from half time, Tim Hanley from Marquette University, and Karen hung from Silver Rock Consulting. Thank you all for taking the time to inspire us with your own personal stories of impact. Hopefully we've generated some interest for our listeners to go out and make an impact of their own in some way. So thank you all for being a part of this interview today.
[00:39:56] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:39:57] Speaker C: You're welcome. If you'd like further information about what we talked about today, you can reach out directly to halftime or you can give me a buzz and I'd be happy to, to direct you. And if you know of a great organization doing great work in our community, like halftime, and I'm sure Silver Rock and Marquette that you think would be a great guest for the show, or if there's a particular area of philanthropic interest or cause that you'd like to learn more about, just email
[email protected]. i encourage you to tune in next Sunday morning at ten to Milwaukee's philanthropic community to learn more about the ways people, people and organizations are making a difference in our community by focusing on living a life of purpose and impact. You can tune into Newstalk 1130 on your radio or your computer, or you can listen on your cell phone via the iHeartRadio app. You can also visit our
[email protected], to listen to previously aired shows, or you can listen on demand.
It's been said that to live a life of significance, all you have to do is make a difference with others wherever you are, with whatever you have, day by day. So my call to action is give some thought to how you can do that. You've heard some great ideas from our guests today about how you can get started wherever you are and with whatever you have. And by doing that, you will have found a way to be a blessing and give a blessing in so many more ways than you will ever know. Thank you for listening today. Have a great day.
