Author of “Mailman” Stephen Starring Grant joins WPF to talk about career reinvention in the Blue Ridge.

Key take-aways:

• Curiosity is Your Compass: Follow your genuine interests, even when they don’t align with a traditional career path. Curiosity led Steve from early web development to brand strategy to delivering mail—and ultimately to publishing a book.
• Curiosity is fuel for market value, creating learning, adaptability, and problem-solving in both white- and blue-collar work.
• Build Resilience Before You Need It: Career shocks will come, often when you least expect ‘em. It’s my observation that the people I view as most “successful” have usually had MORE adversity on the way than those achieving at the middle-level.
• Maintain a financial safety margin – including healthcare planning. Healthcare is an “invisible safety blanket” until it’s gone.
• Stay Useful in Any Context. From the boardroom to the warehouse, deliver value wherever you are.
• Structure your schedule to minimize decision fatigue. Steve’s father’s advice on lunch restaurants —“pick a loser and stick with it” — applies to many routine choices.
• Consistency builds capacity for big, creative projects, like writing a book while holding a full-time job.
• Lean Into Authentic Storytelling: If you’re sharing your work or life publicly, don’t just report events—show what you saw, thought, and felt. Real stories resonate more deeply and attract your true audience.
• See Work Through the Lens of Service: Even routine or physically demanding jobs have meaning when done in service to others. Steve’s pride came from passing the “sniff test” with fellow letter carriers and serving his community well.

For more information, visit the show notes at WorkPantsFinance.com/48