Minnesota Vikings Legend Fran Tarkenton Scores a Touchdown in the Tech World
Release Date: 11/10/2024
The Caregiver’s Journey: Drawing Purpose from Pain
Second Act Stories
What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it? It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for. We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge:...
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The Caregiver’s Journey: Drawing Purpose from Pain
Second Act Stories
What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it? It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for. We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge:...
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He Stole $7 Million From A-List Clients…A Second Act After Prison
Second Act Stories
Jonathan Schwartz was at the top of his game serving as a business manager to top stars including Beyonce, Alanis Morisette, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mariah Carey, Linkin Park and others. But this Hollywood insider had a dark secret; he was a compulsive gambler and cocaine addict. And over the course of six years, he embezzled over $7 million from his clients to fund these addictions. Jonathan's criminal behavior earned him a six-year sentence in prison. When Jonathan returned to society in 2020, he found it almost impossible to get a job. But he went back to school and got a degree in alchol &...
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Peggy Rowe Became a New York Times Bestselling Author at Age 80
Second Act Stories
has accomplished a lot in her 87 years. She started her career as a schoolteacher in Baltimore, where she and her husband John – also a teacher – raised three sons. It was a pretty normal life by all accounts. But life got extraordinary somewhere along the way. One common thread in the Rowe household was humor, and Peggy had a finely tuned ability to recognize funny and write about it. See, writing has always been her creative outlet. She wrote all the time. She wrote fun poems for her students, which she would later hear them recite on the playground; she wrote short stories that were...
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Harvard To Home Repair: A Management Consultant's Unusual Career Pivot
Second Act Stories
With an undergraduate degree from New York University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Jon Malankar joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2018. He climbed the corporate ladder at this top managment consulting firm and became a partner in his mid-30s. But the bureaucratic burden of working for a large consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients and a strong desire to be more plugged in to his local community ("I felt like a nomad in my hometown"), Jon yearned to be his own boss. After a year of exploration, he opted to become a Mr. Handyman franchise owner in Long Branch, New Jersey....
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Prescription For Change: A Doctor Pursues Her Passion For Fashion
Second Act Stories
Since her mother taught her to sew at the age of eight, Vanessa Gavin always wanted to be a fashion designer. Throughout high school, she made her own clothes experimenting with different colors, fabrics and patterns. But in college she opted to study biology, went on to get her masters in public health and finally got a degree in medicine. Now Dr. Vanessa Gavin-Headen, she spent the next 25 years in a rewarding career as a family physician in Long Beach, California. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic when health professionals started wearing medical scrubs again that Dr. Vanessa returned to...
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Lights, Camera, Education: C. Scott Votaw Shifts from Making Movies to Molding Minds
Second Act Stories
is the Assistant Vice Chancellor of the , where he is responsible for overseeing the . After growing up in Georgia and graduating from college, Scott packed his car and headed west without a plan. With no relevant experience in film and production, he eventually networked his way onto a crew as a runner. Just by being present and paying attention, he found a way to save the production money and was rewarded with an almost immediate promotion to second assistant director. That auspicious start launched him into what would become an incredibly successful 25-year career in the film and...
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Mad Men 2.0: Advertising Veteran Helps Launch “Geezer,” New Agency For 50+ Market
Second Act Stories
Brent Rivard had a long, successful career in advertising, working for major ad agencies in New York and Toronto. But as he entered his 50s, Brent faced an industry that is focused on youth in both it’s work and it’s staffing. The average age of an individual working in advertising is just 29 years old. Teamed with two advertising executives also in their early 50s, he is in the process of building a groundbreaking agency called “Geezer.” The new company is different from traditional agencies in two major ways: Geezer is focused on serving the 50+ market (the most lucrative segment of...
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All Eyes on Justin Farmer: Veteran WSB-TV News Anchor Launches a Second Act in Public
Second Act Stories
is one of the most recognizable people in Atlanta. He spent 17 years as the evening news anchor on , Atlanta’s top-rated news station, and one of the biggest local market news stations in the country. News was a Farmer family business; Justin’s father, Don Farmer, was an correspondent, a founding anchor, and later the evening news anchor on WSB in Atlanta, a job he held until 1997. Ten years later, Justin landed the same job, at the same station. But let’s rewind: this all meant that Justin grew up with an inside track to history. While he graduated from with a degree in political...
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Sparking Climate Conversations Across the USA: Kathleen Biggins' Second Act
Second Act Stories
Kathleen Biggins is a prime example of an ordinary person doing extraordinary things. The genesis of Kathleen’s second act began in 2006 when she was asked to attend the Garden Club of America’s National Legislative Conference in Washington on behalf of her local garden club. That’s where her education about climate change began and ultimately led to the formation of C-Change Conversations. The organization is dedicated to helping people across the political spectrum understand the science behind climate change. Kathleen and her colleagues have made presentations to 21,000+...
info_outlineFran Tarkenton is unquestionably one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game of football. A true legend who rightfully earned his place in the NFL Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame (for his championship career with the University of Georgia Bulldogs), and on the list of the 50 Greatest Minnesota Vikings AND the 50 Greatest New York Giants. In his rookie season in 1961, Fran joined an expansion team called the Minnesota Vikings, and in the first-ever Vikings game he threw four touchdown passes and ran for a fifth, upsetting the great Chicago Bears. At the time of his retirement from the NFL in 1978, Fran owned every significant passing record: 3,686 pass completions, 47,003 passing yards, and 342 touchdowns. Legend.
After retirement, Fran became a commentator alongside the one and only Howard Cosell in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth, he landed a job hosting That’s Incredible, one of the biggest sensation TV shows of the 1980s, and he became an early entrant into the software business, a visionary move that launched what would become the longest-lasting and most lucrative part of his illustrious and multifaceted career.
At 84.6 years old as of the date of this interview, Fran is as sharp – and as busy – as he’s ever been. His company, Tarkenton, is as highly regarded as it is successful in helping other businesses grow and prosper. All the incredible lessons he learned growing up, on the gridiron, in entertainment, and in his many business ventures coalesce into his leadership of Tarkenton to this day.
But Fran claims no responsibility for the success he’s achieved. He attributes it all to the coaching he’s received; in the NFL, from greats like Sid Luckman, Norm Van Brocklin and Bud Grant; and in business, from former IBM CEO John Akers to Walmart founder Sam Walton.
In this episode, Fran shares colorful stories about his journey from the streets of Washington, DC; to Athens, Georgia, home of UGA; to the NFL; to entertainment; and ultimately to a wildly successful business career.
You can learn more about Fran by Googling his name, and you can learn more about Tarkenton Companies by visiting www.tarkenton.com.
Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes