Gen X Legends

Meetings are endless, your manager’s Slack tone feels like a personal attack, and quitting sounds like the only escape plan. But Gen Xers know better than to throw it all away without a backup parachute. In this episode, executive coach and author of Red Cape Rescue , Darcy Eikenberg offers an alternative to resignation: reinvention from the inside. Drawing on years of coaching and a dose of neuro...

What happens when the company you’ve devoted half your life to suddenly disappears? Benedikt Oehmen spent 17 years at Blizzard Entertainment, moving from gamer support to managing teams across seven languages. But when corporate priorities shifted and layoffs hit hard, he didn’t just walk away—he rebuilt. In this episode, Benedikt shares how he turned a painful downsizing experience into a mission...

In the second half of his conversation, Collin Plume moves beyond financial products into financial legacy—sharing how Gen Xers can teach resilience, ownership, and critical thinking to the next generation. From diversifying income streams to protecting family futures with real assets, Collin reveals why wealth isn’t about a flashy portfolio—it’s about building something that lasts, even when syst...

Collin Plume didn’t build Noble Gold to chase hype—he built it to restore trust in a system Gen X knows can break.  In this first of a two-part series, Collin shares how early lessons from insurance sales, real estate, and recession-era survival shaped his people-first approach to wealth building. He explains why real assets like gold and silver aren’t just investments—they’re anchors of ownership...

In Part 3, Waverly Deutsch steps into her latest role: founder of Wyseheart, a coaching firm designed to help the most overlooked founders build ventures that last. Focused on meaningful business, not unicorn exits, she brings her full career of coaching, teaching, and hard-won insight to early-stage leaders across age, gender, race, and identity.  For Gen Xers who aren’t ready to “retire,” this i...

In Part 2, Waverly Deutsch opens up about her decades at Chicago Booth, where she helped founders refine not just their business models but their ability to lead. She discusses how emotional connection strengthens logic, why confident delivery isn’t enough, and how AI is changing but not replacing human insight.  For Gen Xers mentoring across generations or rethinking their own leadership, this ep...

Waverly Deutsch, the former Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Chicago Booth School of Business, didn’t follow a path—she composed one.  From falling in love with theater to entering computer science as one of only three women in a class of 30, Waverly’s story is one of blending head and heart across every career twist. She shares the real story behind leaving academia for Forrester Res...

In this final installment, Gen X executive coach Jennifer Selby Long goes deep on the real decision behind office politics: should you stay or should you go?  Drawing from decades of experience guiding leaders through complex change, she lays out the subtle dynamics that determine whether a culture is salvageable—or just stuck. From the hidden toll of hybrid models to bosses who subtly push out hi...

In this third installment with Gen X executive coach Jennifer Selby Long, we zoom in on one of the messiest, most misunderstood realities of modern work: office politics.  Jennifer breaks down why politics often stem less from individual egos and more from structural dysfunction, emotional disconnection, and leadership blind spots—especially in hybrid teams. She explains how outdated views of lead...

Jennifer Selby Long is no stranger to messy transformations. With three decades of experience in executive coaching, digital change, and tech leadership, she helps seasoned professionals navigate the personal minefield that comes with professional change.  In this second installment, Jennifer dives deep into neuroscience-backed insights on why we sabotage ourselves—and how to stop. She breaks down...

Jennifer Selby Long has spent 30 years helping leaders navigate change—long before “change management” became a buzzword.  In this episode, the Gen X executive coach reflects on how she stumbled into her calling during the early days of IT transformation, and why emotional intelligence—not just operational efficiency—is what drives successful digital change. Drawing from her own career pivots and...

Dominic Carter, CEO of the Carter Group, shares how a personal frustration with his aging parents’ care became a long-term mission: building real, user-driven aging tech in one of the world’s oldest—and most demanding—markets. From human-centric research to venture studio development, Dominic shows how Gen Xers can lead the future of aging by solving the problems we’re all going to face. This isn’...

Dominic Carter, the CEO of the Carter Group, didn’t become an aging tech founder by chasing trends—he got there by building slowly, listening deeply, and surviving the kind of early burnout that forces reinvention.  In Part 1, he shares how moving to Japan, launching businesses, and failing hard shaped the systems-thinking approach that now powers his work on aging innovation. This isn’t a startup...

In Part 2 of his conversation, Tokyo-based American Gary Bremermann moves beyond his own story to share the frameworks and realities that shape career reinvention today. From his Seven Steps to Career Clarity to his candid views on Japan’s ageist hiring market, Gary offers a Gen X blueprint for change: slow, thoughtful, grounded in values, and fiercely human. For anyone tired of chasing titles and...

Tokyo-based American Gary Bremermann didn’t stumble into career clarity—he fought for it across countries, careers, and crises. From hitchhiking North America to building and burning out of his first company, Gary’s story is a blueprint for real Gen X reinvention: practical, nonlinear, and painfully honest.  In this first of a two-part series, he shares how early travel, entrepreneurial scars, and...

In Part 2 of her conversation, Erica Sosna bridges personal resilience and professional wisdom—sharing how The Career Equation helps both individuals and organizations build careers that actually fit. Instead of offering empty advice, Erica gives a practical, human-centered model that empowers people to align their skills, passions, impact, and environment into a sustainable career path.  For Gen...

Erica Sosna was already a respected career strategist, author of The Career Equation , and founder of a successful consultancy. But when a near-fatal accident left her paralyzed in 2022, everything changed. In this first of a two-part series, Erica shares how she rebuilt her life—and her career—on new terms. From learning to walk again to rethinking the purpose of work itself, she offers a bluepri...

In Part 2 of her conversation, Nina Sossamon-Pogue moves from storytelling to strategy—offering real-world tools for navigating change, resilience, and reinvention. From building a reverse resume to mapping your own success timeline, she shares frameworks that help Gen Xers (and anyone feeling stuck) turn lived experience into a launchpad. Instead of chasing corporate validation or viral moments,...

Nina Sossamon-Pogue didn’t build a personal brand around change—she built a life out of it.  In this first of a two-part series, she shares how elite gymnastics hardwired her resilience, how journalism sharpened her communication instincts, and how a strategic leap into tech proved that reinvention is less about following trends—and more about knowing who you are at the core.  For Gen Xers who’ve...

In the second half of their conversation, Edward J. van Luinen, Ed. D. and Tricia Cerrone reveal the system behind their decade-long collaboration—and the framework that became their book, Collaborate to Compete. But this isn’t just theory. It’s a Gen X playbook for how to lead, design, and scale collaboration that actually sticks. Grounded in five core behaviors—generosity, resourcefulness, co-cr...

Edward J. van Luinen, Ed. D. and Tricia Cerrone didn’t build a personal brand around collaboration—they lived one.  In this first of a two-part series, they reflect on the working relationship that began at Disney and slowly evolved into a business, a book, and a model for how Gen X builds enduring trust. Forget quick team-building hacks and shallow LinkedIn takes—this is collaboration done the Ge...

Jason Bloomfield didn’t learn change in an MBA program—he learned it through real life.  As a teenager, he became the de facto head of household. Now, as Global Head of People Change and Experience Design at Ericsson, he leads transformation across 180 countries. In this episode, Jason shares how active listening, design thinking, and human-first systems have helped him move organizations from dys...

John Gates has been on the inside of more salary negotiations than most of us will see in a lifetime—over 75,000 offers across industries and levels. From a scrappy upbringing in Oregon to global recruiting roles at Capital One and beyond, John learned how the game works. And now, he’s helping jobseekers stop lowballing themselves and start playing smarter.  In this episode, he debunks the biggest...

Chris Hare didn’t build a personal brand—he built a body of work. Over three unmissable episodes, he takes us on a journey that starts inside Amazon’s walls and ends inside your own. In the final part of this trilogy, Chris Hare gives us the tools. From visualizing your own life movie to collecting 360° feedback from people who truly know you, he shares practical frameworks that help you rethink y...

In Part 2 of his three-part series, narrative strategist Chris Hare shares the stories he used to survive.  From a near-suicidal season while working at Amazon to a healing moment years later in a record store, this episode unpacks how internal stories—if left unchecked—can become prisons. But when named, challenged, and re-authored, they can also become paths to freedom.  For Gen Xers who’ve spen...