Retirement Seminars Are Not My Forte

I just received this e-mail from a gentleman in Vancouver asking me about whether I conduct retirement seminars:

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick
To: success101coach [ at ]yahoo [ dot ]com
Sent: Sat, March 13, 2010 3:18:55 PM
Subject: Post Retirement Seminar

Hi Mr. Zelinski

Ernie, first of all, thank you for the wonderful thoughts on retirement/living fully that you have shared through your books. I am definitely a fan and found your The Joy of Not Working to be of tremendous help before my own retirement from a Regional Director of HR position with the Federal Public service last April.

I have been loving retirement but as I approach my one year anniversary, I would like to do more to increase the awareness/implementation of your ideas (as well promote your books) amongst Federal Public service retirees in the Vancouver area.

Although there are lots of pre-retirement seminars/courses offered for public servants before they retire, I feel that there would be some real value in more post retirement sessions that focus on what's working well for people; what problems people are having or have had and creative methods that could or have been used to solve the problems. There just doesn't seem to be anything available/offered and my sense is that there is a real need out there.

I am aiming to lead in developing the seminars and also facilitate them (on volunteer basis for now). I am optimistic that the structured setting to exchange views, listen to speakers, and increase knowledge and awareness will be beneficial (especially to those who are struggling or not fully taking advantage of this stage of their lives).

I am in the very early stages of planning communication, course content, etc; at this stage the target audience would be Federal Public service retirees. I plan to work with the Federal Superannuate Association (will be meeting with the regional Chairperson later this month). I have had very positive feedback about the basic concept, so now it is a matter of further developing the ideas.

I would love to hear you in person prior to starting the above sessions (likely in Fall, but one might happen prior to summer). Are there any speaking engagements that you have planned in Vancouver in near future? How about in Calgary (I visit my family there on a regular basis) ? In Edmonton?

It would be tremendous to have you as a guest speaker at one of the above post retirement seminars (especially if you were in Vancouver on other business). What fee would you generally charge?

Have you seen any model post retirement courses/seminars in the public or private sector (or in colleges/universities) that I might take a look at in developing my sessions ?

Thanks,
Rick

ps I would like to develop my own expertise in this area with a long term view to enhancing my ability to offer my services on a volunteer and/or paid consultative basis. Any thoughts that you have on how best to formally educate myself in this field would be greatly appreciated.


Rick W.

This was my response to the above retirement letter:

Hello Rick:

Thanks for your interest in having me conduct a retirement seminar.

In fact, I don't do that many retirement speeches or conduct many seminars these days.

Although I am not a member of Toastmasters, I will be making a presentation on creativity at the Edmonton District Toastmasters convention in May. Creativity is my favorite topic.

But I like to stay away from the retirement topic itself because I don't like making a speech or presentation that takes more than an hour. I would not do a good job.

I will make an hour presentation, which I am good at, but not 2 hours or more.

For example, I will do gigs like the recent one where the National Turkish Congress on Quality spent about $17,000 for the business-class airfare and hotel accomodations in an executive suite at the Ritz Carlton, and paid me $3,000 to speak for an hour about The Joy of Not Working in Istanbul:

See Top-10 Highlights of my trip to Istanbul.

I recently had a request to go to the U.S. to conduct a retirement seminar for an organization but I suggested that they contact Rein Selles from Retirement Life Challenge, who lives in the Edmonton area.

You state that you have read The Joy of Not Working.

Have you read How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free?

This book has already sold over 110,000 copies and has been published in 8 foreign languages since it was released.

Conduct a search for "retirement" or "retire" on www.Amazon.com and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position. Better still, search for "retirement book" in Google and the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy appears in the number 1 spot — out of over 29 million webpages!

What sets this retirement book apart from all the others is its holistic approach to the fears, hopes, and dreams that people have about retirement. This international bestseller goes way beyond the numbers that is often the main focus of retirement planning in most retirement books.

There are many ingredients of a happy retirement and several retirement planning tools that help retirees plan for their retirement in new and more meaningful ways. One of the most powerful tools is The Get-a-Life Tree that you won't find in any other retirement books.

In Chapter 1, I give eight good reasons why the large majority of retirees, whether they live in Canada, the U.S., or other Western nations, can live on far less than 80 percent of their pre-retirement income. Indeed, government statistics indicate that retirees live comfortably on 45 percent to 62 percent of their pre-retirement income.

I have attached the E-book (in PDF format) with over half of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free that is available as a free download on the Creative Free E-Books Webpage at the Real Success Resource Center ( http://www.real-success.ca/free_ebooks.html ).

I have also attached the PowerPoint Slide that indicates the benefits that any organization can attain by giving away copies of The World's Best Retirement Book.

Please feel free to forward both the E-book and Slide to any of your colleagues and friends who may be interested in using this book as a gift for retiring employees or clients.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)


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Note: This is a one-time notification about How to Retire Happy, Wild & Free. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

If you have any objections, please respond and we will not send you further e-mails about our other retirement giveaway e-books that we intend to release.

Our retirement books are designed for corporations so that they can create GOODNESS, COOLNESS, and AWARENESS with clients and customers.

Even more important, our funky retirement books such as The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks! help retirees and the soon-to-be retired to earn their retirement karma points so that they love retirement.

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