Marc Miller literally wrote the book on Encore Careers. That book is called Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life.
He started his business, Career Pivot, to help those in the 2nd half of life make meaningful career decisions. As he says: “We all want the freedom to work how you want to work when you want to work and working at something you love.”
On Creating Your Encore Career, Marc shared both his experiences and what he has learned helping others make the pivot to an Encore Career.
Marc’s Career Journey
Marc’s journey started with working at IBM for 22 years. From there, he left and went to work for a successful startup. As a result of working for that startup, he and his wife were able to get debt-free and finish funding their son’s college education.
In 2003, he went off and taught high school math for a couple of years. During that experience, he learned that he wasn’t an extrovert like he had always thought. After just two years, he was burnt out and left that career to do nonprofit work for a year. From there, Marc worked for another startup for a few years.
Finally, he started Career Pivot in 2011. Marc launched this company because he realized that no one was out there focusing on his age demographic’s careers. They were all expected to just retire. This inspired him to start a coaching practice and write the first edition of Repurpose Your Career.
Everything Marc does with Career Pivot is centered around the concept that many of his age demographic either have to or want to continue to work into their 70s. He wants to help them do that without “working for the man.” He also helps them shift their mindset away from the way they were raised to what today's world looks like.
The Power of Mistakes
Throughout his various career pivots, Marc admittedly failed many times. However, he teaches that it’s okay to fail. The key is to understand the ramifications and minimize the risks.
Sometimes you just need to try something to see whether or not it will work. You just have to learn to fail fast and fail forward. This means that whenever you make a mistake or fail, you need to be intentional about learning something from it.
If you’re starting an Encore Career, you can learn from your mistakes by looking back at your previous career and figuring out what worked and what didn't. Ask yourself when you were happy and why and you will automatically multiple your insight.
How to Start an Encore Career
If you’re brand new on your journey to starting an Encore Career and want to find the success that Marc has, here are the first steps you should take:
1. Figure out exactly who you want to help.
2. Decide how you want to help that person.
3. Create a process for how you will provide the kind of service you want to provide.
4. Ask yourself if people will accept your help. You can do this by experimenting with your career. Do small side projects that are low risk and will allow you to see if people will accept your help in a certain industry.
5. Figure out how much money you actually need to make because everyone has different monetary means.
Learn more from Marc and consider getting his help as you repurpose your career by visiting him at https://careerpivot.com.
