Retirement Coaches - Reinventing the Wheel?

I recently received this e-mail:

--- From: Arnie A
Subject: Retirement - reinventing the wheel
To: success101coach [ at ] yahoo.com

Mr. Ernie Zelinski,

I am 68 years old and am looking forward to phasing into retirement. For about the last year, I have been researching out information on the transformation into the next chapter of my life. Much to my astonishment (and as you point out) there is almost nothing written about the "how to's"; but a significant quantity on the financial aspects of it.

I have talked to any number of sources including physiatrists (two) that specialize in senior citizens (who in fact said if I find anything let them know) to searching the internet. I initially found How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free and was most impressed with something I could relate to and get my teeth into. I searched for more info and though I have found any number of other books - I have not found anything that effectively delves
into the transitional aspect as well as you do.

That leads me to the point of this e-mail - that I would like an opportunity to chat with you to discuss the possibility of making presentations to audiences specifically along the basis of your book. I have been astounded to find there is so little assistance/guidance for people who wish to make this transition [and experience Fun Things to Do in Retirement ] and not have to re-invent the wheel. I became a recruiter because I enjoy helping and working with people - and my wife who was a teacher at one point is also interested in doing this.

I would very much appreciate it, if you could find some convenient time that I may call you to discuss this further. I have attached my resume, so you can might relate to what I have done and possibly the qualifications I would hope I possess.

Regards,

Arnie A.

This was my reply:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ernie Zelinski
To: arnie
Subject: Re: Retirement - reinventing the wheel

Hello Arnie:

In reply to your e-mail, just to let you know that I don't have that much interest in getting involved with anyone in retirement seminars to help people experience what I am writing about in my new book The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement.

Although people may well need non-financial, transitional retirement seminars, most people don't think they need them for happiness after midlife.

That's where the problem begins. If you sell people what they want (even if they don't need what they want), you can make a fortune. If you try to sell people, what they need, you can go broke.

There are many personal retirement coaches that have been trained by two retirement institutes including the following:

Retirement Coach Institute

Career Coach Institute:

But from what I can gather from a teleseminar I did for a group of retirement coaches, not too many are making a good living, simply because most people don't think that they need guidance in the transitional aspects of retirement [ and Reasons to Retire Early ].

Having said that, three or four retirement seminar presenters have contacted me to let me know that they are recommending How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free to the seminar attendees at the few seminars that they give each year.

Just a note that a prominent financial organization in the U.S. has recently purchased 3,750 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free for its sales reps and may soon be testing the book by having a special print run of 1,000 to 5,000 copies with the company's logo on the cover to give to its baby boomer clients.

If these baby boomer clients like the book, the financial organization will eventually purchase 50,000 to 100,000 copies of the book with its logo on the cover to give to its clients. This financial organization has asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement, however, so that its competitors don't get wind of its marketing strategy at this time.

I am hopeful this deal will develop but at the same time I am well aware of how negative financial advisors are and how they may resent the subtitle "Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor."

For the record, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is self-published because even my publisher Ten Speed Press (along with 35 other American and British publishers) turned it down. Ten Speed Press, however, did agree to distribute it for me with their imprint on it. In the end, this turned out great for me because I now make about 4 or 5 times as much money as authors who have the major publishers publish retirement books for them.

In the mean time I am just concentrating on marketing of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on the Internet (with viral marketing such as the attached free E-book). I know that it is a good book and I intend to sell 500,000 copies eventually.

So long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 8 foreign languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)