Why I’m Starting Something New at 60

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 Why am I starting something new

Why Start Something New At 60

Eric Dickmann 0:18

at 60? You know, after 40 years of building expertise in my profession, I'm a marketer, why did I wanna voluntarily become a beginner again? And what I mean by that is I'm a beginner here on YouTube. I'm starting this channel, Beyond Expertise, because honestly, I've spent a lot of time thinking about my next chapter. But I'm a thinker. I'm inside my head a lot. I haven't spent enough time really acting. And so I know that I can't think myself into the life that I want. At some point, I really have to start doing things, and one of the things that I wanted to do was create this channel. Certainly not because I have all the answers, but because going forward in this next chapter, it's a journey for me. I wanna try different things. I want to experiment, and I wanna share that journey with you because I'm really hoping that there are others who are going through these same kinds of life decisions, and I'm really interested to hear what you have to say.

The Comfort Trap Of Routine

Eric Dickmann 1:18

Because I'll tell you, for me, there's a real trap of comfort, and I saw this in my corporate life. I got used to the routines. And every year it would be more or less the same. Budget cycles would happen at the same time every year, review cycle, trade shows, various company activities. It became a rinse and repeat kind of routine it was comfortable, it was easy, and time flew by. But I realized that that level of structure was creating some artificial boundaries in other areas of my life that really left me deeply unsatisfied. But I didn't really know why, and I didn't really know what actions to take.

Leaving Corporate For Consulting Freedom

Eric Dickmann 2:05

And in 2019, I decided to leave the corporate world altogether. I left to start my own consulting business as a fractional CMO, which was great. I had talked for so long about work-life balance and how important that was to me, and I really wanted to be able to explore some new things in my life. Yes, I was in charge. I could determine what I did during my day. I had much c- more control over my schedule. But what I found is that that schedule, that structure, was something that I really needed to create the momentum in my life and to really get things done. Because I think many of you can relate, having too much unstructured free time does not make you more productive. And while it may feel good, having a little bit of structure makes all the difference in the world. In my consulting business, I wanted to fill my days. I wanted to find new clients, increase my income, build more stability in my business. Some of the structure that I rebelled against a little bit in the corporate world was exactly what I needed to have a successful business on my own.

When A Podcast Still Feels Too Safe

Eric Dickmann 3:15

But I wanted to try other things as well, and so I launched a podcast, and that was great. I loved it. And the show called The Virtual CMO was primarily an interview show where I talked to other marketing professionals and people who were in the same space as I was as a fractional CMO. But deep down, I felt that I was primarily amplifying their expertise. I wasn't really building my own new identity. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't find value in a show that interviews other people. I want to do that here as well. But I knew that it couldn't always be about other people, that I had to put myself on the line a little bit more to amplify my own identity, to share my own experiences and my own skill. And I knew that I was changing how I worked without really exploring who I

Turning 60 And Noticing The Gaps

Eric Dickmann 4:05

wanted to become And so what was it about 60 that really changed things? You know, honestly, I don't feel a whole lot different at 60 years old than I did at 58 or 55 or even 50 years old. It's more of a milestone I think that people recognize from the outside. But I will tell you that it also gives you a reason to reflect, to look back, to think about how time has passed and where you are in your life now compared to where you thought you wanted to be. And what I realized is that I had spent a lot of attention and energy building my career and then moving on and building my solo consulting business. But there were other parts of my life that I really hadn't given the attention to, Whether they be building new friendships, developing new outside interests, working on my health and personal growth, and really underlying all of that is that deeper sense of purpose. Because when you're working, so much of your identity and so many of your relationships are tied up in the business that you're in, the company that you work for, the peers and coworkers that you have, that I realized that once all of that started to go away, there were some significant gaps in my life that I wanted to address. And if I'm not gonna explore these things now, turning 60, when exactly was I gonna do it? And I think for me, what I started to realize was that I needed to move out of this mode of thinking about what I wanted to do and moving into action.

Learning On Camera With Reps

Eric Dickmann 5:42

And I think one of the first things that I'm trying here is this YouTube channel, is trying Beyond Expertise, because there's something different about getting on camera, sharing my personal perspectives, and also candidly learning a lot of unfamiliar skills. I've always been kind of a technologist and embraced skills, but look it, I'm not Gen Z. I don't have the video editing skills and the creativity that many of them do today. So I'm a beginner again, and I'm trying to accept that even though at 60 I've developed a great deal of expertise in my marketing career, I'm now doing something where I'm really a beginner, and some of this stuff you can't think through. You can't figure it all out in advance. You have to do the hard work. You have to go through the repetitions. You have to build that muscle memory, and that's part of what I'm doing here on the channel. Look, I don't know where this is gonna lead, but I know it's a journey. It's not a destination, and it's gonna be full of little experiments along the way. And I think what I wanna do is share those experiences because what I'm really hoping is that there will be others of you out there who have reached a similar stage in life, maybe it's 60 or some other milestone, and you're looking at your next chapter and saying, "There's a lot of unfinished work here, but I'm not exactly sure where to invest my time, where to invest my energy, and what exactly am I trying to accomplish along the way?" I'm not trying to be an influencer. I'm not trying to go viral. What I'm really trying to do is build meaningful connections with other people who are asking similar questions. And I wanna be clear, I'm still working. I haven't given up my work life. I'm still learning, and I'm certainly not here pretending that I have all the answers. So I really don't know where this will lead, but I'd rather find out now than spend another decade just thinking about it.

The Question To End On

Eric Dickmann 7:38

And I'll leave you with one final question. What's something you've been thinking about starting but haven't actually done it yet? Thanks for listening to Beyond Expertise. 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.