These are some of the products and services Forward From 50 uses or recommends:
John Stange, a pastor from Pennsylvania, has helped hundreds of people to build, grow and monetize online platforms to share their inspiring messages with the world.
You do not have to retire to enjoy a life of travel. Workamper News matches full-time RVers with short-term jobs with volunteer organizations and employers around the country.
Featured go-getter resources
The following products and services are provided by Forward From 50’s featured go-getters. To read their stories, click on the headline.
Jim Akers – Life and career coach
After being abruptly terminated from a high-level management position at a major company, Jim had a revelation that God wanted him to get his spiritual grounding back. Today, he helps people to enjoy successful lives full of confidence by pursuing God and accepting the direction he wants them to go.
Andrea Austin – Dealer of hope
As general of the Not Old Army, Andrea helps people identify their strengths and establish a plan to capitalize on them. She wants people to be fierce in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle or whatever sets their souls on fire.
Rich Avery – More than a pastor
Rich helps pastors get ready for what’s likely to be a new way of doing church. He prepares them for bi-vocational ministry by starting side businesses. He also works with people who don’t necessarily feel called to be a pastor, but still want to serve God.
Steve Barkley – Martial arts instructor
The founder of Live Forever Young, Steve likes martial arts because it is a way for people of all ages to stay limber and healthy. It’s also a skill for self-defense, but most of all, martial arts give people a goal to achieve.
Gill Bentham – Game developer
Gill envisions creating an exciting, immersive and interactive video game for young people who may not have a clue about the Word of God and his love for them. Yet, she wants children and teens to grow into the image of Christ by enduring challenges and setbacks, and still recovering from them.
Janet Black – Turning pain into purpose
A former nurse who retired due to the debilitating effect of fibromyalgia, Janet started writing about pain she experienced in her life. Her books focus on her illness as well as being a teenage sexual assault survivor. Other books discuss environmental toxins and their impact on health, weight loss, and a book on the hopelessness of being homeless, which she co-authored with her husband.
Faye Bryant – Storyteller and coach
The author of multiple reality-based fiction books, Faye also coaches people to find their God-given purpose and how to live in it. She helps clients determine where they keep getting triggered or “hacked” by guiding them through a proven process to say “no” to their crippling defeats and “yes” to living forward with focus.
Mike Brennan – Creativity coach
The founder of Daily Creative Habit, Mike inspires creators and entrepreneurs to show up consistently on their quest for creativity and innovation. He helps them turn their creative aspirations into daily actions by setting goals, monitoring progress and staying accountable.
Chris & Chris Clement – Full-time RVing
The Clements gave up their careers to pursue a desire to travel around the country. Being in their late 50s, the couple is too young to officially retire. So they will finance their travel dreams by working short-term, temporary jobs as Workampers.
Kathy Elkind – Hiking the GR5 trail
Starting in the southern Netherlands, the GR5 trail crosses Belgium, Luxembourg, eastern France and western Switzerland before ending near the southern shore of Nice, France. It took Kathy and her husband three months to complete the 1,400-mile trip from the cold North Sea to the warm Mediterranean. She wrote about it in “To Walk It Is To See It.”
Jeanette Finn – Recovery from abuse
In her 50s, Jeanette wrote a book about her experience as a young sexual abuse victim. “Girl Distorted, Joy Returned: Journey to Innocent Again,” helps women recover from the trauma of similar abuse. She wants women to feel comfortable talking about what happened to them without experiencing shame and guilt.
Mike Forrester – Men’s transformation
Based in Wichita, Kansas, Mike helps men overcome fear, anxiety and depression. He specializes in helping men over 50 to get a good start to a better second half. Whether part of an accountability group or through one-on-one coaching, Mike helps men become dreamers and possibility-thinkers. He also hosts the Living Fearless Today podcast.
Perry Gabbard – Author and life coach
Sharing the joy of hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail involved blogging about his adventure to inspire others. It also meant writing a book about his experience and the lessons he learned along the way.
Don Gleason – Career transition coach
Don become a career transition coach to help people figure out what excites and energizes them. When looking for new jobs, many people ask themselves, “Can I do this job?” In reality, they should be asking, “Do I really want this job?”
Jen Hardy – Fabulous After 50
Through her podcast and online platform, Jen helps women to find their fabulous. She encourages people over 50 to take classes and do things they’ve always wanted to do, whether for money or just for fun. She also started a community just for older women called Jen’s Friends.
Al Hesselbart – Country music singer
Al has done a lot of things in his life. He was a police officer, Boy Scout camp director, salesman, historian and museum manager. But, he was in his 70s before Al followed his heart to become a country music performer.
Chris Hoyer – Training the thin blue line
After a career-ending tragedy, Chris dedicated his life to helping police officers prepare themselves mentally, physically and emotionally for the day they may encounter or need to use lethal force.
John and Kathy Huggins – An RV dream
After his job was outsourced overseas, John and Kathy started RVing and loved it so much they encouraged others to do it, too. As they learned new things, they shared it with others on their Living the RV Dream platform, which became one of the largest groups on Facebook.
Steve Hurwitz – Inspecting, fixing RVs
After COVID ended his job, Steve downsized into an RV and started a business as a certified RV inspector and mobile service business. At age 57, Steve saw an opportunity that seemed perfectly aligned with his skills that would also give him full control of his time and income.
Phyllis Jenkins – Empowering women
After surviving a near-fatal medical emergency, Phyllis felt God gave her an assignment to empower people, especially women, to share their powerful journeys with others by taking their stories to the stage, not the grave. Today, she helps authors discover their voice and create a platform around their message.
Tim Ketchersid – The clean comedian
A former pastor for 16 years, today Tim works as a comedian who performs clean comedy routines for corporate audiences and church groups. Some of his favorite jokes come out of observable situations because people often relate to those things happening to themselves.
Lori Ann King – Life coach
The author of Wheels to Wellness, Lori believes too many people simply allow life to happen to them. It’s essential that people be aware of what’s happening. That way they can make adjustments before small problems become large ones. She guides people through a process of self-evaluation to enjoy a more balanced life.
Jeff Kramer – Overcoming perfectionism
When Jeff retired at 58, he became a coach and trainer to help people overcome problems that plagued him much of his life — perfectionism and self-doubt. He works with people to free themselves from their flaws and escape to excellence.
Todd Kuckkahn – Forging opportunities
Todd developed a five-step roadmap to help people shift their minds toward better opportunities. That involves identifying their core values,and then focusing on nine key elements: career, finances, heath, family and friends, romance, personal development, recreation and their contribution to society.
Nick Lutuanio – Video creator
Nick admits he’s an “old guy,” but he doesn’t let that stop him from making videos to help older people make the most of their lives. Nick’s YouTube channel, Make the Most of the Rest of Your Life, connects authentically with people over 50.
Kelly Mack McCoy – Ghostwriter, coach
Kelly saw being a truck driver as a way to escape a horrible family situation. However, when the trucking company went bankrupt, it opened a door for him to pursue a dormant dream of being a writer. He publishes his own fiction and non-fiction books. As a ghostwriter, he writes and edits stories for other people.
Betty Mills – Horse trainer and mentor
When the 70-year-old widow retired 2016, Betty pursued her true passion for horses and mentoring young people, especially teenagers, who want to learn to ride and care for the big animals.
Eric Pearson – Author, substitute teacher
After retiring in 2018, Eric found renewed purpose as a middle school substitute teacher. He also wrote several books which share lessons he learned during some painful life experiences.
Janine Pettit – Girl Camper
Janine founded Girl Camper to successfully connect women to the camping lifestyle and to each other. It started as a national group, but today there are dozens of Girl Camper chapters scattered across America. Her Girl Camper magazine targets all women but especially appeals to “glampers,” who enjoy upscale products, like eating off real dishes rather than paper plates.
Steve Rupert – Love + purpose after 50
Before turning 50, Steve had multiple careers requiring him to move 21 times since 1987. After turning 50, he found true love for the first time as well as a new career as an RV inspector that was ideally suited for his unique skills and the lifestyle he desired.
Susan Salenger – Health advocate
After retiring and taking college classes, Susan discovered some alarming information about the rates in which women’s medical conditions are misdiagnosed, and their symptoms dismissed. Today, she’s an author and advocate for taking control of doctor appointments and personal health.
Tony Slabaugh – Podcaster
Hello Good Neighbor is a soliloquy of one where Tony talks about whatever is on his mind. It could be a movie he just saw, as well as everyday things he encounters. He has read or listened to so many self-improvement books, that Tony wanted to share his perspective about what he learned with others.
Michele Stanford – Health coach
Michele helps people regain, restore and renew their health. Using functional lab testing, Michele helps identify areas where a body is out of balance. Then she offers nutritional advice and uses other natural therapies and modalities to restore that natural balance.
David Steen – Writer and author
Much of David’s material focuses on value of pursuing the American Dream in a way that not only allows people to pursue their passions and create a successful life, but ensures they don’t shut out everyone else, too. He also advocates creating community where people help each other in order to thrive together.
Michelle Weidenbenner – Havoc to hope
When Michelle was nearly 60, she and her husband became guardians of their two elementary-age granddaughters after their parents became homeless as addiction took a tremendous toll on their lives. Her experience led her to develop the All Mighty Moms tribe to help parents contend with a child’s addiction.