The Business Workshop
It started with a simple idea scribbled on a napkin one slow Tuesday afternoon. ‘What if Common Grounds could help others find their second act?
‘ I’d been getting so many questions from customers about how I’d made the leap from corporate drone to business owner at 58 that it seemed natural to formalize it somehow.
The first ‘Second Act Workshop’ was held on a rainy Sunday evening after closing. I’d made extra coffee, arranged chairs in a circle, and prepared handouts with trembling hands, convinced no one would show.
Three people came—a former teacher, a recently divorced accountant, and a nurse approaching retirement. We talked for hours about fear, finances, and finding purpose after being discarded by corporate America. ‘You know what’s amazing, Cathy?
‘ the accountant said, clutching her coffee mug. ‘You’re the first person who hasn’t told me I’m too old to start over.
‘ By the third month, we had twenty-seven attendees crammed into every corner of the shop, with Ethan frantically bringing chairs from storage while Diane made emergency coffee runs.
I stood before them, this mismatched group of middle-aged dreamers, and saw myself reflected in their hopeful, terrified expressions. ‘The world wants us to believe our expiration date has passed,’ I told them, ‘but we’re not milk—we’re wine.
We get better with age.’ The room erupted in laughter and applause.
What I didn’t realize then was that a local journalist had slipped into the back row, notebook in hand, about to change everything with a front-page feature that would make my phone ring off the hook the very next morning.