50. The "Too Old" Myth & My Unfancy Tech Startup (Birthday Special)

Written By Rhonda Lavoie

Show Notes

I turned 50 today. And honestly? The world has a script for this milestone. It tells you to look for golf courses, slow down, and fade into the background. But I spent this last year doing the exact opposite. I spent it speeding up.

In this special bonus episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on the "double life" I’ve been living this month. By day, I’m a Real Estate Agent in the truck, negotiating deals and running around for clients. By night (and early morning), I’ve been waking up a part of my brain I haven't used in years—my "Analyst" brain—to launch a brand new Android app.

We talk about the "Wisdom Stack"—how I used my 30s skills (SAP Analyst) combined with my 40s grit (Real Estate) to build something new at 50. We also discuss why most productivity apps act like a "Digital Warden" (jails and bans) and why I built Paced as a "Prairie Solution" to a Silicon Valley problem.

In This Episode:

  • (00:00) – The "Double Life": Balancing Real Estate contracts and app code.

  • (01:11) – The Pivot: Why I refused to "slow down" for my 50th birthday.

  • (01:46) – The SAP Reveal: How I used my past life as a Business Analyst to manage developers.

  • (02:37) – PushScroll vs. Paced: Why I refuse to do pushups just to check Instagram.

  • (03:22) – The "Prairie Solution": Why we need help, not a digital bootcamp.

  • (04:04) – Launching Paced: Introducing the "Kinetic Exchange" (Walk to Unlock).

  • (05:10) – The Formula: 30s Skills + 40s Grit = 50s Empire.

  • (05:31) – A note on rest: Why I am taking next week off.

Resources Mentioned:

This Week's Challenge:

If you are an Android user, download Paced and try the "Walk to Unlock" feature. If you aren't, practice the philosophy manually: Before you scroll, take a breath (or a walk). Remind yourself that you don't need a jail; you just need a pause.

🔗 CONNECT WITH RHONDA

·       Music for The Rhonda Lavoie Podcast written and recorded by Wade and Tan Fehr.

Transcript

[00:00:00] So I made it. And I have to be honest with you guys. The last month, it has been a wild ride. I've been living a double life by day. I'm in the truck running around for real estate clients, negotiating deals, dealing with market, and then early in the morning and in the in between times and late at night.

[00:00:24] I've been waking up a part of my brain I haven't used in a long time to get this app launched. There were moments where I was just purely exhausted. But sitting here today, it was 110% worth it because I turned 50 today and I didn't wanna party. I wanted to build something that solves the problem.

[00:00:49] Welcome back to the podcast. I am your host, Rhonda Lavoie. This is a special little bonus episode, and I'm keeping it short, but I had to hop on here because today is a big milestone. As of this morning, I am officially 50 years old, and usually the world tells you that 50 is the time to slow down. I spent this last year speeding up.

[00:01:11] I've been building a tech startup while working full-time in real estate. And I wanna tell you what that actually looked like because it wasn't just hiring a developer and waiting for the magic. I actually had to get my hands dirty.

[00:01:23] And thankfully I knew how to do that because this wasn't my first rodeo with software. You see a lot of, you know me as Rhonda Lavoie, the real estate agent, but before I was selling houses, I had a whole different career. I was an SAP business analyst. So while I can't write the code myself, I know how to run a project.

[00:01:46] I know how to talk to developers. I know how to look at a broken process and say, how do we fix this? But let me tell you, getting back into the tech game after being away. It was a steep curve. I've had to learn so much. This month I've been using AI as my research partner, literally asking it to help me understand market strategies and navigate roadblocks.

[00:02:11] We hit a crisis a few weeks ago where the app was loading too slow. It was critical, and even with my background, it was stressful. We had to scramble to fix it, but we did it. I learned how the Google Play Store works, which is a whole beast of its own, and I learned that even at 50 my brain is still hungry to solve problems.

[00:02:37] And really that's why I built this. I looked at the market, I looked at the tools available to help us get off our phones, and some of them are just aggressive. I found one app called Pushscroll. Have you seen this? The idea is that if you want to scroll social media, you have to do pushups, and honestly, it's a neat idea.

[00:03:01] I respect the hustle, but I know myself and I know you. I'm not getting hot and sweaty just to scroll Instagram for five minutes. I'm just not doing it. Then there's, on the flip side, you have the blocker apps that just lock you out completely. They're act like a jail warden. I thought there has to be a middle ground.

[00:03:22] I guess you could call it a prairie solution. I grew up in Lone Rock. I'm a prairie girl, and out here we value common sense. I realize that we don't need a digital jail. We don't need a bootcamp. We just need a little help. I built this app because I know exactly what it feels like to be always on in real estate.

[00:03:47] If you don't answer the phone, you don't get paid. That constant pressure leads to burnout. I realized I couldn't survive the next decade of my career if I was constantly fighting my phone. So I decided to build the tool. I actually wanted to use something simple, something honest.

[00:04:04] So the app is called Paced, and we are officially launching it today. It is live on the play store right now. It's simple. It groups, it's simple. It groups, those noisy apps, social media, the news, whatever sucks your time, and it puts them behind a cool down timer. It just asks you to pause to take a breath.

[00:04:29] And my favorite part, we added walk to. If you want to scroll, you can, I'm not stopping you, but you can speed up that timer by taking steps. No pushups here. You literally can walk to earn your scroll. It connects your physical body back to your digital habits.

[00:04:49] It's just enough friction to stop the doom scroll, but not enough to make you need to shower afterwards. So happy birthday to me. If you're an Android user, go check it out. Search for Paced Habits and screen time in the Play store. And if you are listening to this and you feel like you're too old to pivot, remember this.

[00:05:10] I use skills for my thirties, my analyst days combined with the grit from my forties, my real estate days to build something brand new at 50. Nothing is wasted. Use it all. Download the app. Give yourself the gift of five minutes for the show notes, links to the app, everything else we talked about today.

[00:05:31] Head over to rhondalavoie.com and just a heads up, I'm taking next week off after the month I've had, I'm going to unplug and actually enjoy being 50, so there won't be an episode next Tuesday. I'll see you in two weeks. As always, keep it real and get it done.

Rhonda Lavoie
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