Live Without an Expiration Date

Rich Jones

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Weekly podcast hosted by executive coach Rich Jones exploring the human side of career disruption, identity, and reinvention through honest solo reflections and guest conversations for those navigating change and redefining success. rjones0747.substack.com

17h ago

Your Job Was Never the Spreadsheet. It Was the Call.

Last episode was about the audit — figuring out where AI has quietly exposed a skill you thought was still current. This one’s about what you do after you’ve run it, if you’re the person in the room whose job is now to lead with these tools instead of just personally keep up with them. This week, Rich talks to mid-career executives specifically — the ones who aren’t worried about being replaced by AI, they’re worried about something closer and harder to see: leading a team through AI adoption without the whole thing turning into either blind trust or reflexive resistance. He walks through the actual job of an executive in this moment — not producing faster, but deciding better — the two failure modes he’s watching leaders fall into right now, and a decision framework for knowing when AI’s answer is good enough to act on and when it needs a human to slow down and actually think. If your job title has “chief,” “director,” or “VP” in it, and you’ve been quietly wondering whether your value just went down because a tool got faster than your team, this episode is the other half of that question. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jul 27

How to Supercharge Your Job Search When You’re Not 25 Anymore

You’ve done everything right. Two decades of solid performance, a resume full of results, a network you’ve built for years. So why is the job search taking longer and hurting more than it did when you were starting out? In this episode, Rich breaks down what actually changes about job searching once you’re mid-career — and what to do about it. This isn’t generic “update your LinkedIn headline” advice. It’s a practical, no-fluff playbook for repositioning your experience, working a network that’s gone quiet, cracking modern hiring systems that weren’t built with you in mind, and walking into interviews as the answer to a problem instead of a name on a stack of resumes. If you’re 40-plus and back in the market — by choice or otherwise — this episode gives you the strategy and the mindset shift to search smarter, not just harder. In this episode:** · Why the mid-career job search is a different game than the one you learned in your 20s and 30s · How to audit and reposition your value proposition before you touch your resume · The network activation sequence that actually generates leads (not just “reach out to people”) · How ATS systems and AI screening actually work, and how to stop losing to them · Addressing age bias directly instead of pretending it doesn’t exist · How to walk into interviews positioned as a solution, not a candidate Runtime: ~30 minutes This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jul 21

Why Good Employees Don't Get Paid What They're Worth

Most people don’t lose ground in their careers because someone said no. They lose ground because they never asked. Somewhere in the second half of a career, the ask gets harder — not because you’re less capable, but because you’ve got more to lose and you’ve watched enough negotiations go sideways to know they can. In this episode, Rich breaks down how to ask for more money, a bigger title, or a wider scope of responsibility without the flop sweat — and without the vague hinting that never actually gets you anywhere. This is a practitioner’s guide: what to say, when to say it, and how to know if the answer is really “not now” or actually “not ever.” No scripts you’ll trip over, no power poses in the parking lot—just a straight conversation about a conversation most of us avoid. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jul 13

Is a Career Pivot Right for Me Now?

You’ve had the thought. Maybe more than once. Sitting in a meeting that used to energize you and now just drains you, wondering if it’s time to do something different — not because you’re desperate, but because something in you has quietly changed. The problem is you can’t tell if that’s wisdom or noise. This week, Rich walks through how to actually evaluate a career pivot instead of just feeling one. He separates the signals that mean something from the ones that are just Tuesday, breaks down the three traps that turn a reasonable question into a bad decision, and gives you a framework to run the idea through before you do anything you can’t take back. This isn’t about chasing reinvention for its own sake. It’s about figuring out, with some rigor, whether the itch you’re feeling is information or just fatigue wearing a disguise. If you’ve been quietly asking yourself “is it time,” this episode is the conversation you have before you answer that question out loud to anyone else. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jul 6

They Hired Someone Younger. Now What?

You didn’t get the job. Or the promotion. Or the project. And something felt off. The interviewer kept asking about your “comfort with new technology.” Or they mentioned the team is “really energetic.” Or you just noticed that everyone in the room looked like they graduated sometime after the release of the iPhone. You suspect ageism. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not. Either way, you’re stuck sitting in that feeling — part anger, part self-doubt, part the distinct suspicion that your LinkedIn photo is doing you no favors. In this episode, Rich Jones gets into the reality of age discrimination in the workplace: what it actually looks like, how to tell the difference between ageism and just not being the right fit, and — most importantly — what you can actually do about it. Not the “stay positive and keep networking” advice. The real stuff. We talk about reframing your experience as an asset without sounding like you’re reading from a retirement brochure, how to modernize your professional presence without performing a personality transplant, and why the professionals who navigate this best aren’t the ones who pretend age doesn’t exist — they’re the ones who make it irrelevant. If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s and you’ve felt the quiet sting of being passed over for someone who still thinks a mortgage is something that happens to other people — this episode is for you. Runtime: ~50 minutes Show: Live Without an Expiration Date Host: Rich Jones This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jun 29

The Disruption Conversation

There’s a moment in almost every job interview for someone in the second half of their career when the question arrives. Sometimes it’s direct: “Walk me through the gap on your resume.” Sometimes it’s softer: “Tell me about your most recent transition.” However it’s phrased, what the interviewer is really asking is: What happened to you? And are you okay? Most people are not prepared for this conversation — not because they don’t have an answer, but because the answer is loaded. The gap, the departure, the restructuring, the exit that was complicated — these things carry weight. And when that weight shows up in an interview room, it shows. Not always in the words. In everything around the words. In this episode, Rich Jones walks through how to handle this conversation honestly, professionally, and without tanking your candidacy before you ever get to the part where you’re actually impressive. This isn’t a word-choice episode. It starts where most career coaching advice doesn’t — with the reality that preparing your answer to this question is an emotional processing exercise first and a communications exercise second. If you haven’t made peace with what happened internally, no amount of careful phrasing is going to carry you across the finish line. Experienced interviewers have seen that performance. They know what it looks like. From there, Rich covers the five cardinal rules that apply regardless of your specific situation — including the one that trips up the most people (and it isn’t the obvious one). Then a practical three-part framework for building an answer that’s honest, grounded, and forward-facing — with a worked example you can actually model. The harder cases get direct attention: being managed out, owning a performance issue without tanking your candidacy, navigating health and caregiving gaps, and talking about an entrepreneurial venture that didn’t go the way you planned. These are the scenarios most career advice skips over. This episode doesn’t. Rich also covers what to do when the interviewer keeps pushing — follow-up questions, reference alignment, and how to hold a boundary professionally when the conversation goes further than it needs to. And he closes with five concrete preparation steps to do before you walk into any interview where this conversation is likely to come up. If you’re in a search — or you can see one on the horizon — this is the episode to have in your back pocket before you sit across from anyone. Topics covered: career disruption, job search, interview preparation, career gaps, layoffs, career transitions, second half of career, professional reinvention This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jun 22

Redefining Success in the Second Half of your Career

You’ve been measuring success your whole career. The question nobody asked you — including you — is whether you chose the metrics. In this episode of Live Without an Expiration Date, Rich Jones takes on one of the most avoided conversations in the second half of a career: what success actually means once the ladder runs out of rungs. Not a motivational answer. Not a retirement-planning answer. A real one. The original definition of success — title, trajectory, compensation, position — wasn’t wrong. It was rational. And it served you. Until it didn’t. The problem isn’t that you chased those things. The problem is that most people never stop to ask whether the definition still fits once the context changes. In the second half of your career, the context has changed. Dramatically. Rich walks through why the second half plays by different rules, the five most common mistakes people make when they try to redefine success (including the ones that stop them before they even start), and a four-dimension framework for building a definition that actually reflects who you are — and where you want to go — in this chapter. This episode is for the person who’s still running on the original software. Who’s optimizing for a scoreboard they never consciously chose. Who has asked the quiet Tuesday question — “Is this it?” — and hasn’t answered it yet. In this episode: * Why the first-half definition of success made sense — and why it doesn’t anymore * The five mistakes people make when they try to redefine success (and how to avoid them) * Four dimensions of a second-half definition: Impact, Autonomy, Sustainability, Alignment * Five questions for the conversation you need to have with yourself * How to close the gap between the new definition and your current reality — without burning everything down * What it actually looks like when people get this right The scoreboard you’ve been watching? Someone else built it. This episode is about building your own. Live Without an Expiration Date is produced by Leading2Leadership LLC. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com
Jun 15

The Contribution Conversation

There’s a conversation most experienced professionals never have. Not because no one would listen. Because most of us don’t know we’re allowed to have it. It’s not a performance review. It’s not a raise negotiation. It’s a direct, professional accounting of your value — what you bring, where it creates the most impact, and what the organization needs from you right now. In this episode, Rich Jones breaks down the contribution conversation — why experienced professionals avoid it, what’s actually at stake when they do, and exactly how to have it in the second half of your career. You’ll hear why seniority often makes people quieter about their own value, not louder. Why the gap between what you bring and what leadership perceives you to bring is one of the primary reasons talented, experienced professionals end up sidelined. And why waiting for someone else to raise the subject means you’ve already lost the frame. Rich walks through the three layers of senior professional contribution — technical expertise, pattern recognition, and relational capital — and why most people lead with the first and leave the other two invisible. He covers when to have the conversation, how to enter it depending on where you are, and the specific language and structure that makes it land. This isn’t about self-promotion. It’s about professional responsibility. If you’ve spent decades developing expertise, judgment, and relationships that are genuinely hard to replace — this episode is about making sure the people who need to know it, know it. Live Without an Expiration Date is for professionals navigating career disruption, reinvention, and relevance in the second half of their working lives. Hosted by Rich Jones. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rjones0747.substack.com

Weekly podcast hosted by executive coach Rich Jones exploring the human side of career disruption, identity, and reinvention through honest solo reflections and guest conversations for those navigating change and redefining success. rjones0747.substack.com

Creator

Rich Jones
Years Active

2026
Episodes

31
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Rich Jones
Show Website

Live Without an Expiration Date