I had built a successful career over three decades, moving through diverse industry sectors and leadership roles across Wisconsin. But when I traded snow-covered winters for the white sands of Florida’s Emerald Coast, I wasn’t just changing my address, I was confronting a fundamental question: What’s next? The Panhandle’s tourist-driven economy offered limited professional opportunities and compensation nowhere near what I’d known up north. My robust Wisconsin network suddenly felt irrelevant in a region where I knew no one. I could have forced my way into a traditional role that didn’t fit or settled for something beneath my experience. Instead, I paused and asked myself: How do I translate thirty years of expertise into meaningful contribution in a market I don’t yet understand?

I started by leaning into local discovery rather than job applications. I met with the Chamber Director. I read the news religiously and paid attention to civic leaders. I did cold outreach to people doing interesting work, not asking for jobs but seeking to understand the region’s needs and gaps. These conversations didn’t lead where I expected, they led somewhere better. Person after person asked the same question: “When are you going to write that book on career transitions?” Professional friends I’d coached over the years kept circling back to my advice, my strategy, my ability to help them move forward. That’s when the ah-ha moment hit: people had been seeking me out for career guidance for years, across industries, across career stages. That wasn’t just a side skill, that was where I thrived, where I was most confident, where I created the most impact.

Your encore career isn’t about doing more of what you’ve always done, it’s about distilling where you were truly at your best and building your next chapter around that. Ask yourself: What would I eliminate from my past roles? Where did I light up? What problems did people naturally come to me to solve? For me, the answer wasn’t another corporate leadership position, it was founding CareerVantage Connections and formalizing what I’d been doing informally for decades. Your decades of experience aren’t a resume to be recycled, they’re wisdom to be repackaged. The question isn’t “Who will hire me?” It’s “What contribution do I want to make, and who needs exactly what I offer?” When you get clarity on that, your encore work becomes both purposeful and compelling. And trust me, that clarity makes all the difference.