✅ Confronting lifelong fear and self-doubt with small, intentional steps
✅ Reinvention in later life using digital tools and social media
✅ The enduring value of mentorship and human connection
✅ Lifelong learning as a mindset—not a timeline
✅ Legacy, storytelling, and the quiet power of older voices in business

Summary (developed by NoteGPT)

00:00:00 Welcome to the Wisepreneurs podcast, where women 60 and beyond redefine work with purpose and confidence. I’m Nigel Rollins, your guide to building a resilient career through self-employment, consulting, or new ventures. Each episode delivers practical strategies, expert insights, and intellectual capital to master business, marketing, and technology while staying mentally sharp and align with your goals. We’ll exploreworked entrepreneurship, authentic branding, AI powered work, cognitive vitality, and

00:00:32 resilient transitions to unlock opportunities and create a future filled with impact. Join me to transform your experience into a thriving, purpose-driven career. This is Wise Prneurs. Let’s get started. Welcome to the Wise Prneurs podcast, a place where we share stories of starting over, no matter where you are in life. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce Lorie Smell, a 79year-old who makes you wonder if there’s anything he can’t do. Picture this. A kid working in a junkyard at 13, a university grad at

00:01:06 37, and now a YouTube storyteller lighting up screens. Laurie’s life isn’t a straight line. It’s a beautiful, messy map of courage and curiosity. With a little help from mentors and a lot of grit, he’s turned fears into triumphs. Fear is fear. It doesn’t matter if you’re 78 or 18, he says. If you’ve ever wondered what’s next for you, Lori’s story might just spark an answer. Come join us on Wisepreneurs to hear how he did it and maybe find your own next step. Laurie, welcome to the Wispreneurs podcast. Can you tell us something about

00:01:39 yourself and where you’re from? Well, I was born in a little place called Donald 4 and a half hours drive from Melbourne, a long way away. And I was living there because my dad had TB and sadly we thought that the weather had something to do with ameliorating diseases like that, but it didn’t. And he died when I was three. So I’ve never really known a father’s a father’s love, a father figure in my life. So, I substituted other people as father figures and they’re these key mentors that have made a difference to

00:02:19 me as I’ve as I’ve traveled along. And one of the first ones was old Bill Menzies in the junkyard. Uh I I still I still worship that man. He was just such a beautiful human being. And look, with my three other brothers, we battled along and I don’t know what happened, but somewhere along the way when I was a little boy, I I I just didn’t get maths and I sort of became so frightened of it. It’s actually got a technical name nowadays, but it it tormented me for the next 30 years of my life. That was one

00:02:54 of the reasons why I found myself working at manual jobs. Later on in life, computers were equated with this math sphere. Hence why I’m starting this exciting new journey at 79 to face these fears and and deal with them. I did deal with them earlier, but I didn’t know that the computers would rear their ugly head and become this math thing again. So I was behind the eightball when the when they came out. You left school at 13. So what did you go and do? Well, I ran away from school at 13. I didn’t leave school. I I ran. Uh I I was

00:03:35 I was belted I was belted by the math teacher and humiliated every day and I just couldn’t take anymore. So that’s when I went to work in the junkyard because I old Bill didn’t do that to me. He taught me all about all about antiques and scrap metals. And I still have that knowledge today. I can walk into an antique shop and I’m knowledgeable about things like that. the antique robe show. I love it. And I found myself working in a an Italian glass factory at Frankston, the Mirano Mosaic Tile Factory. And these were the

00:04:13 days of the day go. And I was frightened. They were looked down upon by us Aussies. And I was led to believe, not from my mom by the way, but just the general population that they were dirty, they ate rats, all this sort of stuff. And I found that they were wonderful, warm people, and they ate things that I never dreamed of. And I wanted to be like them. And I worked as this little boy, 13year-old. 7 days a week, I lived in that factory. I slept beside the furnace. It was nice and warm. They fed

00:04:52 me with lasagna and all sorts of wonderful things. I lived like a king. So much so that I wanted to be an Italian. I wanted to learn their language. And I’ve spent the rest of my life learning it and finally ended up going to university when I was 37 and majoring with honors, I might add. But that school thing took me decades to have the courage to take that first step. I was uneducated. I’d never read a book in my life till I was 22 and I was quite proud of it. How sad is that? Now that’s an interesting point because I want to come

00:05:36 back to that. Obviously you had a thirst or a hunger for learning and and something motivated you. But let’s go back to the junkyard, old Bill. Now, it’s interesting. I I was a teacher and look, it was basically what they would try to teach you was arithmetic in those t days and it was by wrote. It was shoved down your throat. And I’ll be honest, I think most people run a mile than try and do basic arithmetic. you try and give some change at the supermarket and they don’t know what to do with the the coins. They can’t figure

00:06:13 it out. And and so arithmetic is still the problem today. But I remember when I was teaching in a primary school, this is many many years ago. It would have been over 40 years ago in a little country town called Moonbell. Across the road, there was a woodyard. And the old guys who worked in there were in their 70s. They were lean, leathery, and wise to the world. And it just sounds like old Bill. These guys, just like old, they were smart. They were intelligent. They didn’t have schooling, but they were knowledgeable. And I I

00:06:49 think that’s one of the issues today that we underestimate people. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t been to university, they’re still wise and they can pass something on. And if we overlook them Yeah. Okay. So, basically what you found is is that you were mentored. I would suggest that you were meanted when you were in the Italian factory. But what I was trying to think about, you’ve gone from Donald to Frankston. That’s a long distance away from home. So, how did you end up in Frankston? Well, it it was all all because of

00:07:20 necessity. There was my mom 20 20 22 or something with three kids under four and we ended up in a little place called Maui. Now mowies near your lawn where big coal mines were and the power station and we lived in a government house. We lived there for a year and then Mr. Kessle one day loaded us on the back of his truck just like those jalopies you see in the dust bowl of America with the those people that flee all the dust and the poverty. and we made our way to Seafford which is next to Frankston and that’s

00:08:01 pretty well where I grew up. That’s where the junkyard was sort of between Seafford and Frankston and it was still wilderness. I go there now and I don’t you know you ever gone back to a place when you were a little boy and you you’re lost. You think it’s it’s not the same. Well, that’s what seafood is today. It’s all built up. But there were rabbits, snakes, and foxes. Literally thousands of swans in the wetlands where we lived. We called it the swamp. But you don’t do that nowadays. You call it

00:08:28 the wetlands. Thank you. A lot of money to buy a house there now. But not when we went there. And uh there was my mom and and we had no electricity, no water. The the nightman came. We call him the Dunny man. And um it was really something straight out of the 1850s. No electricity. So we had the old um kerosene lamp. And when the tilly land came at you pumped, it was just unbelievable this bright light. So I got lots of interesting memories. But all the while I had a lot of enthusiasm for life, but I was just a a a wild

00:09:09 urchin who uh had a insatiable cur curiosity for the world around me. And I’ve never lost that. Um, but I ended up being uneducated really until I was 30 years old. Well, when you say uneducated, you mean school educated or university educated? School education, which which became a big fear for me. However, I did learn a lot about life. I learned the art of handling people by listening to people like old Bill Menses, listening to people like Sandy and the Concrete Gang when I worked for the Chelsea Council because I didn’t

00:09:55 think I had a story to share. So I’d listen to these guys for hours and I’d soak in their worldly wisdom which you can’t get at a university and uh I didn’t realize how enriched I were becoming. And I draw on this in my role now as being a mentor to other people who spend their lives running from their fears, whatever they are. I sort them out. I say, “Do you want to be like me? Do you want to?” Because help’s around the corner. It really is. But if you’re on the run, you don’t see that. Now, it’s interesting.

00:10:34 We were introduced by Sue Ellen. She was the guest on the podcast. Would you say that she’s mentored you into this new part of your life that you’re doing? Absolutely. Tell me a bit about that. She she was a female bulmanis and he was a wonderful wonderful person in my life as indeed the Italians and other figures that have that have passed my way and I’ve soaked in all Sandy on the concrete gang and Sue has now part of that pantheon of wonderful wonderful people that mean a lot to me. So tell me, have

00:11:08 you not been working for a few years or you’ve been working or suddenly at 79 you’ve decided I’ve got more to add? I I never dreamed that I would be sitting here with you, Nigel. Uh two years ago, I thought I’d miss the boat as far as computers. They tormented me for years. I was a notable, as you recall, and renowned and respected business person in the communication field, in the field of helping other people believe in themselves and communicate with confidence. But I was still living in a world I thought I’d get away. I could

00:11:47 get away without having to deal with computers because it wasn’t really a computer world. Even in the 80s, we could still use emails. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll use that. You’d do the mail posts out. You’d send out thousands of letters and you’d do thousands of phone calls and you’d go and meet people and that. But then all of a sudden, almost overnight, I was redundant. And all these things that I’ve got to share, I’d had their day. I had no outlet. Everyone was talking about social media and this that and the other

00:12:28 and it overwhelmed me. It scared me. And for 15 years I I began to realize that I’d had my day. And then I heard about a person called Grandma Moses. I just happened to hear about her. 78 she was. And someone discovered her. The truth was she’d been painting all her life, dabbling in her own little way. Someone saw her, liked what she did. She even has some of her paintings now having hanging in the White House. She’s an American icon, Grandma Moses. She lived to 100 still painting. I thought, “Wow,

00:13:08 if she can do it, I’m going to ask for help.” And there I was at 78 when most people at 78 have got their feet up in their chair with their rug around them and it’s all downhill from here. Not me. Because fear is fear. Doesn’t matter whether you’re 78 or 18. If you’re scared of something, you got to seek help. And I help people who have got some sort of fear about something get help. And lots of times I can be the help. I can throw the switch so that from one day to the next, they’re on a new path. And that’s what happened to me

00:13:42 with Sue. I thought I’d write a book. I’ve written three books all about helping yourself. Communicate with confidence. Believe in yourself. Now you got a story to tell. Now you’re not an empty vessel and bad luck for you cuz that’s what life dish dished up for you. No, we’ve all got a wealth of experience to share. Our story is that wealth of experience. Our personal stories. How many people tell me, “Oh, I wish I could be like you. You lived such an interesting life. I haven’t. It’s been pretty mundane.” And I stopped them

00:14:16 there and I said, “Now listen, you’ve got a very interesting life I’ve been listening to over this chat.” And believe me, your story is my story. Stay inspired with the Wisepreneurs newsletter. Every week, I share exclusive strategies on business, marketing, and tech for women 60 and beyond, drawn from over 67 podcast episodes and 100 articles. Visit wiserispreneurs.com.au to sign up and get my free career reinvention checklist today. Don’t miss out. They haven’t been heard, have they? So, how did you come across Sue? So, I

00:15:04 wrote my books and then I thought, I’m good at telling stories. Oh, by the way, don’t be ashamed. I tell people of saying I’m good at something. others will put you down. So I say I’m good at telling stories which I have been. Why don’t I why don’t I put my book finding me finding you that’s the title of it. Before you can help someone else find themselves you got to find yourself first. That’s one of my mottos. Get the other person right first. So I did. I sought out a man by the name of Dave Stokes. Made a little sound studio. sort

00:15:39 out some help with a techo guy to set it up so I’d sound professional. And I did. And I do sound professional. And I shared this lovely, lovely book of inspirations, other people’s stories, my story to help them cast off fears and start walking tall, looking the world in the eye. And when I finished that, I thought, well, I’m probably ready for this next step. I said, “Do you happen to know someone that could help me a little bit with LinkedIn?” He said, “I know just the person.” Now, that little that little

00:16:18 question that asking for help changed my life. So, I rang up Sue. It was funny. After about two sessions, she said, to be quite honest, I didn’t know what hit me. She said, “You were such a breath of fresh air.” She said, “And and the age you are and and we’ve been on this journey, the journey of changing.” Talk about educating Rita. This was educating Lori. I didn’t even know what a hashtag was. I can remember saying, “What exactly is a hashtag? I’m 78, mind you. And I’ve gone from there in one year to

00:16:53 being here with you, a respected professional podcaster, respecting me as one of your interviewees. I manage my own website. I’ve got my own magic minutes which thousands now watch and I’m going places in this new world. And it’s fascinating because what’s obviously gone through your career is that you’ve come across the right people to help you stay on track and move forward and you reached and obviously with Sue that’s through a network and I should say that I came across you more than 30 years ago when I

00:17:30 first quit teaching and joined the national speakers. One of our other uh guests who’s been on the podcast, Meredith Fuller, suggest I get out and network. And in those days, the only way to network is you had to physically go places. You know, you can’t just email or or like somebody on LinkedIn. And that’s where I came across you. And I realized in those days that uh and and you know, I do remember they used to say you had to get on the phone, you had to get meetings, you had to write letters,

00:18:00 you had to really work. But I was too young. I was so not young. I wasn’t young. I was too naive to understand how it worked. I mean, years later, I do. But it shifted. But networking was really important. Who do you know? And who do you know? And can you ask for help? Which is what you’ve just told us that you did. Okay. So, let’s move on a little bit. You’ve had a varied career. Who would you say you are today then? Who am I today? I’m uh I’m a wealth of worldly experience who can humbly share this with others who now

00:18:34 knows that many people and we look up to them but they’re harboring stuff that are holding them back and never shed it, never cast it off. So I don’t go up and and and preach and say, “Hey, listen. I can No, no, no, no. I’ve got to I’ve got to be at the right place at the right time and someone might just say, “Oh, I can’t do that or I can’t do this.” And never have always been scared of that. And then I can share a story or two to get them thinking. Sounds like old Bill. Just like old Bill. He had

00:19:14 time, didn’t he? Yeah. I think that’s the difference today. I don’t know if we’ve got that time to hear. In fact, what you said is lovely. I’ll take that away from this little chat. I’ve become an old Bill with with young lorries, wideeyed and bushy tailed and eager to know about the world. And I’m talking about 30, 40, 50 year olds behaving like young lorry when the right person’s in front of them. And it’s lucky if they can come across you. All right, let’s move on to something else. Now, technology. Now, we

00:19:48 had a bit of a a tech hiccup when we were starting this. So, um I was going to bring that up. Well, look, it happens a lot. Um in producing this podcast, I use an online studio, a virtual studio. So, we have to log into it. We can see each other like a Zoom meeting, but we’ve got to make sure the recording is working. So, we need a mic and we need the hearing. And and we had trouble figuring it out, which obviously is an issue when you’re a bit older. I’m not saying you’re old, but technology is

00:20:20 something you’ve grasped onto and I think with Sue’s help as well, YouTube with your magic minutes. How have you adopted technology to work at 79? Well, I think I think we’ve we’ve got to we’ve got to run with it. This is the world. And uh young people, when I say young people, people under 40, that’s how they communicate. And if we don’t, we’re seen as old fogies living in another world. And then you’ll see older people, some in their 60s or 70s freely freely on social media talking to their grandkids

00:20:56 and whatever. Well, I wasn’t part of that. Two years ago, I wasn’t part of that. I’m going to share something with you now which was which was something I was ashamed of. Just two years ago, before I met Dave Stokes and did my book, I reverted for a year to gathering scrap metal off nature strips. I went back to the junkyard. I said, “Well, at least I know about metal and and I’m going to spend the whole year gathering.” So, I gathered these heaps of aluminum and stainless steel and brass and gunmetal and copper and all

00:21:27 that. And the big day came and I took it down to the scrapyard about five trips. And I can still remember what I ended up with after that years of work. $928. I said, “No, no. What the hell are you doing? You’ve been this wonderful, knowledgeable person and changed the lives of thousands and you’ve been doing this for a year.” And that’s one of the reasons what sparked me off and said, “You’re better than that.” Not looking down on people, but I I put myself in that position. And um and so I know I’m

00:22:13 excited about this. And but I’ll tell you now, while we’re trying to figure out all those wires and you were getting me to look at my settings and that, the panic, the panic did rear its ug head a little bit, but now it never runs my life anymore. I didn’t sound frightened, did I? No. When we sorted it out. No, we worked. I just said, “We’re going to sort this out cuz I got something to share.” No, we did. And and and luckily you were a kind person and and stuck with me and said, “Yeah, okay.” Took us about 15 minutes,

00:22:43 but but you didn’t, you know, look down on me and make a big deal about it. No, I’m used to it now to be honest. Um Well, you said Yeah. Now, one of one of the people who’ve been on this podcast three times has the same problem every time. You know, I I want to scream, but I don’t. And you know, we’ve got time when we’re a bit older. That’s one one of the luxuries we Well, we don’t know how much time we’ve got left, but we have a different approach to time at our age. So, what do you recommend for

00:23:14 others? Well, obviously what I’m I’m nearly 70. So from the age of 60 on, say, what do you recommend they look at in terms of digital tools and online stuff? If they’re not really um comfortable with it, how do they approach it? Well, the whole thing can be overwhelming. Not can be. It is. Now, we don’t have to know how everything works. all the little binary yes nos going behind the billions of little onoffs with we don’t need to know about that in any little operation I’ve found there’s probably four or five key things

00:23:58 to press and we can change our lives with those key things to press and so do one thing at a time like I do with with with Sue I just do one little aspect of it I will watch her zoom that she sends me each day religiously for 10 minutes. So that that soaks in and reconfigures my fear with those five or so six things to press. And I end up being able to write, produce, and be the participant in my magic minutes. It all came from not trying to do everything. And so I say to older folk, don’t be overwhelmed. Just

00:24:43 stick to a little thing and master that. Master that first baby stuff. But no one knows that. When they see you do it, they go, “Ah, this guy’s clever.” They forget the little steps that come to it. All right. So, what tech are you actually using? What tax? Tech, sorry, technical stuff or technical equipment. Oh, technical stuff. Oh, well um I’ve got an incredible little camera and apparently if you look at my magic minutes, apparently it’s of movie quality. Now, I didn’t know that. I went to this company and I just said, I want

00:25:23 a good camera. Oh, well, this is the one we use. Well, apparently it’s really topnotch and um it only cost me $800 and it just gives you these beautiful movies. So, what did I do with that? I phoned up someone to help me with it. And do you know that wasn’t easy. I I remember I went to um a big department store and I went to the computer department. I said, “Hey, look, I’m I’ve got a camera and I’m not sure how to use it.” um oh well you know call up the company or read this or read that and it’s all too much and so I looked up

00:26:02 audio audio technician now I thought that they go in and you know just sort stuff out and I just found a guy who came all the way out he normally deals with large companies you know doing movies and he he liked my enthusiasm so much he liked my genuiness He could see I was I desperately needed help, but I wasn’t going to waste his time. And he set me up. I paid him his professional fee for his hour. I did about 10 hours with him. And he showed me how to use this camera and make my magic minutes. A lovely lovely man.

00:26:42 So, what camera is this that you’re talking about? What type was it? Uh, it’s a Sano. Just a little little square one. little tiny one that fits on a tripod. I’ve got certain things to do before I do a magic minute. I’ve got an hour set up each time and then I’ve got to to rehearse it and which I do on a tablet which clips into the front of my teleprompter. And so I don’t read it, but it’s there so that I can be natural and and you know, I’ve got to tell a story that’s got a beginning, middle, and an end.

00:27:20 that’s captivating, that means something, that’s entertaining, that’s inspiring, all in 60 seconds. And yet it takes you an hour to set it up. Well, it’s taken me a lifetime to set it up. But even more, what do you do after you’ve recorded it? Well, then after recorded, this is all thanks to Sue. Then I edit it. I download it. I upload it. I sideloadad it. I do all those things that I I didn’t even know anything about. Two years ago, I was collecting junk and thinking that was where Lori was going to end up. You’ll

00:27:55 laugh. I’m I’m thinking about Steto and Son that nobody young would probably know. Remember Steto and Son? He loved him. That was me. That was me. And so so then I edited and I did one this morning actually. Took me about 3 hours. go from beginning to end and press the YouTube button. I had a look at a few this morning. They are very professional. Um, so have you touched on AI yet or artificial intelligence, any of that stuff? No, but uh I picked up your enthusiasm for for it and you hear all this negative stuff, but I think that

00:28:32 there’d be lots and lots of good things that you could do with it. The one thing I’m not afraid of is that there’s only one Loris male in the world. And so even if someone copied one of my things and duplicated me, it would never be me. It wouldn’t have the soul and heart of who I am. And so if whenever I go in front of an audience, that’s my magic. That’s the magic I weave on an audience even via social media. Well, the main thing about AI for people at our age cuz one of the issues is that you can easily trust it and just

00:29:15 use it say to create social media posts or something like that. But the benefit of our age is that we have got a long history of knowledge so that when we look at the output we can say that’s not right, that’s rubbish. we’re able to evaluate it. Whereas I think sometimes the younger ones who are just kicking out 50 social media posts, which they can do with AI, they’re not necessarily reading it or making sure that it means anything. And and that’s one of the issues for us as older adults or older

00:29:48 old I don’t know what we call ourselves when we’re older, but you know, technology is just something that we can use. But I’m I’m very pleased to hear that Sue was able to get you tuned into it and and uh we will put Sue’s information in the show notes. Okay, let’s go back to this. You returned to school to earn a degree in your 40s. So, one of the things I do notice and I can hear loud and clear is that you’ve spent a life of continuous learning. You’re still curious. What do you suggest for other

00:30:22 people who are in their 60s and and you’ve met some who say, “Well, I haven’t done much in my life.” But what should they learn? Well, they they should learn that which scares them. When I was 30, I didn’t know I knew what a full stop was, but I didn’t know what a colon was or a semicolon or a paragraph. 30. 30, mind you. So, I went and bought a little book. I was in London working on a building site and I went and bought a book called You’ve Got a Point here. You got a point here. And then I bought bought another book about

00:30:59 men and nations. I still remember it. I was uneducated in a school sense, not a worldly sense. And I sat down of a night in these building sites. They let me live there if I looked after stop robbers pinching their materials. and and had a little globe, a light globe, and I would read out loud. And slowly but surely, I began to see how to form a sentence. Sentence is one idea, a paragraph is one idea, and and what the different punctuation marks and that meant. And so, my advice would be to to tackle that which you’re afraid of.

00:31:39 go and buy a book. Go and seek someone out and enroll or learn that. And before you know it, and when I say before you know it, as the days, as the weeks, as the months go by, as the years go by, you then find what’s the next step that I’m scared of? Because it’s all about fear that you’ve been sidest stepping or avoiding all your life. A bit like me at 78 with social media. I hit it head on. But baby steps was what I wanted someone to help me with. I once had a guy help me with maths when I was going to uni

00:32:15 and he just went straight in. It was just too much. I wanted baby step stuff. I wanted to know that if you multiply a number it gets bigger and you divide it gets smaller. That’s where I wanted to be. So now you got to take control. I’d tell them and go back and get someone to help you step by step and you’ll be excited about it because someone’s helping you. Yeah. But that’s the issue, isn’t it? If if they don’t understand what the little steps are and they try and give you the big steps, they lose

00:32:50 you. And this is the trouble with, you know, being too much of an expert, it’s very difficult to explain things to people. But what I’m hearing is basically throughout your life, you’ve been reinventing yourself. Yeah. And here you are. Yeah. With the help of others. When I first decided to get an education, which was a big fear, it was another fear. I’ve had these fears I’ve overcome. Just like social media was more than the fear. It was a it was a nightmare. Hence the stepto experience. And for some reason that that was

00:33:23 supposed to help me avoid it. What a laugh. But it took a lot of courage for me to go back to school to even utter those words. And that happened. I was in a motorbike accident and I remember I was a Mr. Minute. Yet another thing I’ve done, I went from engraving to running five stands throughout the Sydney area and CRA being the supervisor. And I couldn’t add up and they didn’t know it cuz I didn’t tell them. In the end, it caught up with me and I had to run away again. And I was in a motorbike accident

00:33:58 trying to get my foot better. It was really bad. And I was walking down a street. I had to walk for a few hours each day. And I heard some kids in a school room. And I remember I was 37 now enjoying themselves. And I looked through the window. I can still remember looking through the window and and I saw a cell. a cell on the blackboard and the teacher and the kids were interacting and a and and this bolt of shame went through me. I did not understand what they were saying and I was 37 and then and there I decided I was

00:34:38 going to go back to school and that’s what I say about helping other people. They say, “Oh, you might if you throw the switch.” They can change their life along a new path from one day to the next. And I did go back to school. I bought a whole package of Time Life books, 20 of them to read everything there is to know about the world. I thought that was the answer. Of course, it was knowledgeable. I became pretty good at trivial pursuit. But but but it was a wonderful step along the way. And when I went back to school and I went to

00:35:12 TA in Collingwood with another lot of also rans like me, that’s that’s who my classmates were. I was 40, they were 18. My view of where I was going was to be a park ranger. That’s what I thought. If I got year 12, remember I left school in year seven because I didn’t get that. Now, how was I going to attack year 12, which I did? Not only did I get through, but I got enough marks to get into Melbourne Uni. Freak out. I took a year off just to learn typing and stuff like that. I went to Melbourne Uni a year later. I

00:35:52 made friends with four or five young people and stayed with them for for four years. They helped me and I helped them with life. And that’s where a whole new path of being an educated, literate, confident person. And that’s when you met me at the national speakers. And so you made the shift what what we call working with the hands to working with the mind. And here you are today. So that’s one heck of a transition, isn’t it? And that’s the nature of the world today. We’re moving away from using our hands to using our

00:36:29 heads. It’s a very different world from you know when you were lighting that tilly lantern and we should explain to people we’re talking about Australia because you live in Australia so some of these places are in the state of Victoria that we’re talking about and Melbourne University is is there you relaunched at 78 can’t believe it and and I’ve got to say yes I’ve been launched launched onto the on social media and this is the world that we live in And how long do you think you can keep doing

00:37:01 this for? I mean, you’ve only just started. Yeah. Look, it has no end. It’s like a hobby. But I’ve got to pace it. I don’t need to chase all the business like I did when you met me. I’ve now had my family. I’ve done my best. You know, a lot of room for improvement, but you know, I’m quite proud of the effort I’ve made. But I’m quite happy. I’m quite happy to sell a few books, make a difference to people, but not be the big uh worldrenowned guru, but but certainly be worldrenowned and respected and have

00:37:44 something to say. Oh, I totally agree with that. I mean, look, I spend a lot of time researching, writing, and I still have a number of clients I look after, but I do not want to spend the whole day inside in an office. Now, I work from home now, have an office, but I can’t wait after this conversation to get out on my bike and go for an hour, just get get out in the bush a bit, and I can’t wait to get out in the garden and do a few of the jobs. I don’t want to be like you you said, I don’t want to

00:38:14 be the full-time guru or anything like that, but like you, I want to do the bit where I can help. Oh, but if we don’t help ourselves, we can’t help others. And so, we’ve got to do, we’ve got to have a nice balanced life. I used to be totally obsessed with because I always wanted to be someone cuz I was always on the run of from me because I didn’t think I was worth much. So I became very good at whatever I did. I I was a professional bike rider at one stage in my life. But to the detriment of everything else, I

00:38:51 slept, ate, and drank bikes. I even had the bike in my bedroom with me and way beside anyone if they touched it. I had a horrific accident at the Valadrome in Melbourne and uh and I never quite made it even though I was on that bike a few weeks later with a broken collarbone and all that. And I I think it was a good thing, a good lesson that we must not be totally obsessed with anything. We’ve got to have balance. There’s other people that need our attention and our love. And my bike’s got all of that and only

00:39:34 my bike. [Music] Lori, it’s it’s been a fascinating story. How would you suggest others might like to make this shift? Maybe they’ve sort of retired. They’ve got some skills and some knowledge, but they’re sort of finding life’s not what they were hoping that they maybe they’re getting a bit bored or they want to share something. What advice would you give them to help them make this shift? Well, everyone has a story to tell. Everyone. And your story might be that you’re pretty good at growing roses. It might be that you’ve traveled

00:40:14 and you’ve you’ve had some experiences. It might be that you come from a different country and you’ve got a story behind that of how that happened. Everyone has a story. Now there are many groups of people that would love you to come and share it. Now if you’ve got a fear of public speaking, pull a chair up in front of them, couch it in different terms and the fear will go away. Say I would like to come along one evening with a chair, pull it up in front of your group and have a friendly chat and

00:40:50 share a few of my travels. and then you’re not public speaking and you’re sitting down in front of them and you introduce it as just a friendly chat and get them and say please ask me questions and make your talk with you answering their questions. I would suggest if I knew what I just shared with your listeners then and I knew it as an earlier stage before I had the confidence to speak I would have loved to have done that. It’s almost like a wonderful interactive question time. Just have a little

00:41:20 beginning and a little finish at the end of it thanking them and hope we all learned something from there. I certainly did type thing and share what you do. One of the biggest things we do with ourselves, I’m not really good at anything. I’ve never done anything. What silly comments? What a silly overview of your life of your decades and decades of living. And sometimes the challenges are worth sharing. like I shared about me with a scrap metal just two years ago. It’s a valuable story that needs to

00:41:57 be told. And I told it for the first time in my life on your program and made $925, was it? 928. 928. That’s That’s an amazing story. Well, Lori, you’ve had an amazing life from the sound of it, and you’ve made quite a few shifts. You’ve reinvented yourself, and here you are back back in the thick of it, sharing your knowledge and all that. Can I just say that this is it really is like a rebirth. It it it’s that exciting. It’s it’s like a whole new career, but where I call the shots of the pace and what I want to do.

00:42:41 But it nonetheless it’s that’s exactly what it is. It’s it’s a it’s a new lorry. There are generations that have never heard of me or my stories or what I’ve got to offer and they say, “Where the hell have you been?” And I can hear the energy in it and the excitement. So it’s it’s like you’re a new you. Well, Lori, how are people going to find you? How would you like them to find you or connect with you? Well, I’m on most platforms and the best way to connect with me would be lorismmail.com which would take them to

00:43:13 my web or simply look up lorry magic minute and get to know me just through those magic minutes. And should you need to gain from my knowledge on my website you’ll see my books. three books. One is Finding Me, Finding You, which really shows you how to get you right first. Next one is How to Be a Conversational Success. Hey, it’s not hard if you know how to go up to a stranger and see them standing all by themselves at a group and say, “Hi, what brings you here?” This book just reveals all the secrets of how to do

00:43:52 that. And finally, how to take the panic out of public speaking. shows you how to bring all this comfortableness and self-belief up before an audience. So, you are in effect having a chat with them, not being a public speaker. And that’s what they crave for but rarely get. That is fantastic. Lori, thank you for being my guest. Um, it’s been wonderful speaking to you and seeing you again after all these years. The feeling’s mutual. Absolute pleasure. That’s all for today’s Wiseur podcast. Age is no barrier when you’re a Wisepreneur

00:44:25 crafting a purpose-driven career. If you found value in this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. Visit wispreneurs.com.au to join my newsletter for exclusive strategies and ideas, and connect with me on LinkedIn for more insights. I’m Nigel Rollins, and I’ll see you next time to keep building your future with impact.

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Contact Nigel Rawlins at The Wisepreneurs Project

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