I Spent 40 Years Building a Career. At 60, Now What?

Welcome To Beyond Expertise

Eric Dickmann 0:01

Welcome to Beyond Expertise, a podcast about identity reinvention for professionals ready to explore who they are beyond their titles and careers. I'm your host, Eric Dickmann. Let's get ready to go beyond expertise Hi, I'm Eric, and I just recently turned 60 years old, and I have to tell you, it's given me a moment to pause. I've been

Turning 60 And Asking Whats Next

Eric Dickmann 0:24

thinking about the last 40 years of my life that I've invested in my professional career and wondering, what comes next? I've certainly enjoyed my professional career, but I also realize that at this stage of my life, the same things that used to motivate me aren't the things that are motivating me today. I absolutely enjoy working, and I'm not ready to retire. I'm looking for new challenges, new opportunities, new ways to contribute. But the old motivations that used to pull me along in my professional career are not the same ones that are on my mind today, I don't know all the answers. I don't know where my life is taking me. I don't have a roadmap. But I know it's gonna be different than the last 40 years.

A Career On Autopilot

Eric Dickmann 1:08

Let me give you a little bit of background. I was fortunate enough to get a job right out of college, and that job opened a series of doors that took me through most of my career. One opportunity presented itself after another, and my career advanced at a fairly steady pace. And I was grateful for those opportunities and for the advancement that I saw in my career. My title increased, my salary increased, my responsibility increased. From the outside, everything looked good. But I can also tell you that I honestly felt that I didn't have my hand on the rudder, that I wasn't guiding my career in a direction that I wanted it to go. I was simply walking through the doors that opened for me. And I was fortunate, don't get me wrong. But deep down, I always felt that I wasn't necessarily steering my career. I was simply taking the next opportunity that was made available. There was only one choice to make, either take the next opportunity or stay where I was. I didn't feel that I had a fork in the road where I could go one direction or another And after a while, it began to feel like my career was somewhat on autopilot, where I was just following a predetermined path, but I didn't have a lot of say in exactly where I was going. And I remember

Trying To Steer And Getting Blocked

Eric Dickmann 2:29

a couple of times specifically where I tried to steer my career in a different direction. I tried to create an opportunity where there wasn't one, and candidly, I was slapped down. It felt like every time I wanted to put my hand on the rudder to steer my career in a different direction, the universe said, "Nope, follow the path that I have laid out for you." And so I did, and I continued along, and I achieved increasing levels of success and responsibility and financial reward until ultimately I reached the top of my career. I'm a marketer, and my last corporate role was as a chief marketing officer for a technology company, and I loved the experience. But when that opportunity ended, once again I was presented with one more door to go through. Not a series of opportunities that I could select from, but simply one. And I looked at that opportunity and said, "This is not where I wanna go. This is not what I wanna do next." And so I decided to leave the corporate world and go out on my own. And I will

Leaving Corporate To Choose Direction

Eric Dickmann 3:36

tell you that that was a huge weight that was lifted off my shoulders. It felt like for the first time in my career I was in charge, that I was guiding where I wanted to go, that I was making my own choice, and it was liberating. At the same time, it was a little scary. I had never been in business on my own before, and I had to build everything from scratch. But even so, it was liberating because I knew that the decisions I was making were the decisions that I wanted to make. And I've loved being an independent consultant, and I've been doing it since 2019. And honestly, it's not the easiest thing in the world. There are ups and downs. In future episodes, I wanna talk more about that because it is challenging being off on your own. But I think for the first time in my life I felt like I had a direction.

More Than A Profession

Eric Dickmann 4:29

But I also realized, especially as I turned 60, that so much of my life has been focused on my professional identity You know, I use the example of going to a cocktail party and introducing yourself to somebody, and it's very common for people to say, "So what do you do?" And by that, they're really looking for what's your profession. So much of our life is wrapped up in what we do. And at least for me, I realized that turning 60, even though I had been in business for myself for a couple of years, that there were parts of my life that I just feel hadn't got the attention they deserve. And as I look forward to this next chapter of life, I realize that all of this focus and attention that I have given my professional life maybe needs to be distributed more to other areas of my life As I mentioned, some people look forward to retirement. They want a life of leisure, going on vacations, playing golf. But I knew that that wasn't my path. That's not where I wanted to go. I really wanna continue contributing, and as I look forward to this next phase of life, I started to realize I really didn't have much of a plan. What areas in my life did I want to invest more in that maybe had been a bit neglected over the years of building my professional career? I value contribution, and I know that I wanna keep working, at least at some level, but I also know there are other aspects of my life that I want to enhance. I know that I have attributes that are valuable. I know that I have expertise, discernment, experience that is valuable in the marketplace, but many of those things are tied up in that professional identity. What I wanna do now is focus on other things. I wanna focus on health and relationships and building new networks of people outside of my profession. There are so many aspects of my life that I feel I've just touched the tip of the iceberg on, but haven't really developed those in a way that I wanted to, you know, I've been a podcaster for years. I've hosted a show called The Virtual CMO, which is very focused on marketing, my profession. And about a year ago, I started Beyond Expertise, where I talk to other people who are in this same phase of life who are going through this transitional period, and that's been a great experience, and I love podcasting. It's a way of putting myself out there, being my authentic self, talking to you and others like you who may be in a very similar situation. Whether you're just turning 60, whether you're turning 50, 40, 70, whatever it may be, the age isn't important. It's the idea that we are more than just our profession. We are more than the expertise that we built over years. There's so much more to who we are, but sometimes we get stuck wrapped up in our professional identities, that once that identity goes away, we find we're a little bit lost. And while I don't believe my professional identity has gone away, I realize that as I pull back and work less, I need to develop those other aspects of my life. I need to build up my identity in other areas beyond who I am as a marketer.

Mattering Contribution And The Big Questions

Eric Dickmann 7:49

There isn't a roadmap, there isn't a master plan, and so part of what I'm doing right now is just understanding what this journey looks like. How do I put these pieces together to construct a next chapter that is truly fulfilling, where I can be my authentic self and feel fulfilled in the life that I'm building beyond the expertise that I've developed in my profession? This isn't a show about retirement. This is a show about mattering, about value, about contribution, about leveraging who you are as a person beyond the professional experience that you've generated over the years. Have you reached a milestone date in your own life and now are wondering what is your next chapter all about? How are you navigating it? What have you found out about yourself that you didn't realize when you were so focused on building your career? What this show is really about is who are you beyond your professional identity? When you strip that professional identity away, do you like what's left? Thanks for listening to Beyond Expertise.

Resources And Invitation To Return

Eric Dickmann 8:53

You can find show notes, resources, and links mentioned during this episode at podcast.ericdickman.com. If this conversation resonated with you, I hope you'll join me again next time as we continue exploring what it means to reinvent ourselves beyond our careers, titles, and expertise.