We grew up with rotary phones, mixtapes, and a deep distrust of authority (thanks Reaganomics, DARE & especially MTV). That makes us perfectly built for consulting in our 50s. You’ve got hard-won experience, zero patience for corporate BS, and enough perspective to see stuff others (especially the Gen Zers) miss. Let’s be honest - you’re not “too old to compete” You are Street Fighter tough. You already know the glitches and shortcuts.

Let's dive right in and figure out how we turn your old life experience into your new life income stream. So imagine this…you are now ready to launch your new identity as consultant to the industry that you used to work in. It doesn't matter what industry. It could be tech, it could be waste management, it could be non-profits, it could be healthcare…these are essential truths that are going to drive your income. And we can tell you from personal experience, drives your satisfaction too (finally, proving Mick Jagger wrong).

Nobody needs another bright-eyed, freshly minted MBA 20-something telling them how to “disrupt synergies”. (Sorry to any of you readers who are ex-McKinsey, ex-Bain, ex-any big consulting firm because that's your native language). Businesses want someone who’s been through actual recessions, seen at least three tech bubbles pop, and remembers when AOL CDs showed up in the mail every week. That’s real gravitas. You’ve got context. You’ve got speed because you don’t need six Slack huddles and a Loom training video to get moving.

Sure, you’re not gonna sell yourself as “the fresh new perspective” anymore. And that’s the real win.. The real advantage of age is we see patterns faster than Somebody who hasn't been through corporate re-orgs, leadership meltdowns, paradigm shifts, market corrections and pipe dreams to spot the plot before the opening credits are over. You've got wisdom that is sitting in compressed RAM, so it loads really fast.

Trading hours for dollars? That’s consulting on “dumb mode”. Clients don’t care if you spend 3 hours or 30 on the project. They care if you fix their problem without making their life worse. Price your advice like a primo spot in line at a club. You are sitting at the front of the experience line, and if your job is outcomes (which it is) you are worth way more than an employee over a short period of time. That's the real consulting magic. You don't have to learn what needs to be done, you've just got to apply it to a new circumstance.

The market is littered with ex-CMOs, ex-CEOs, ex-VPs. The term of the moment is "fractional executive." A whole classifieds worth of “used to be someones”.

What makes you the one they pick? Because you’re not just an ex-whatever. You’re the ex-whatever who lived through Y2K hysteria, boardroom flameouts, and Blackberry addiction and you came out of it knowing the backdoors and cheat codes no one younger has even seen. You’ve got industry-specific X-ray vision. That’s rare. That’s bankable.

But if you take it one step further, you've got x-ray vision around a single sticky, ugly, miserable problem that the young'uns don't even know how to describe. That's the power of being an ex-whatever. You've got broad experience across the history of the industry, and if you think about it carefully, there's something that you know better than anybody else. And if you don't know it better than anybody else, you certainly know that single point better than the market does. Because the market forgets. And us old folks? We like to remember.

So, what do you even sell? Let's just jump in and imagine that you're going to sell like the Columbia Record Club: 12 albums for a penny, but without the gotcha of paying $22 for some Lover Boy album that you didn't even want. What you're going to do is fill in this formula: “I do x for y without the unpleasant z”. Create a one-liner so clean your client instantly knows the win. “I help tech leaders align sales & marketing teams without creating battling business units.” Or “I help family-owned businesses modernize & become more profitable without losing what actually makes them special.” It’s Mad-Libs with money attached. You never ever have to say this out loud, but when you have this sitting in your brain, it makes your value proposition super clear so that you can apply it to the opportunity that's right in front of you.

Yeah, networking feels gross. But think about it differently - you’ve got the advantage most folks forget - decades of contacts. That VP you worked with in ’98? Now they’re running their own show and they’ve got budgets. Dust off your Rolodex (literal or digital, or your Day Planner) and start pressing the flesh - and make it fun. You aren't selling, you're connecting and reigniting. LinkedIn posts, lunches, alumni emails, conferences. It isn’t begging; it’s reminding people you exist. Visibility and context are the dollars and cents of the trust currency.

Don’t wait for the “perfect” website, logo, or tagline. That’s for a different stage. Your name, your experience, and your devastating good looks are your starting point. Your first consulting gig will probably come from a conversation, not a landing page. So start with three things: define your simple offer, tell everyone you know you’re doing it, and take the first project even if it’s a little messy. Consider it your garage-band phase - it won’t be pretty, but it gets you on stage (and after your first gig, you probably ought to make a band t-shirt, but just one). And once you’re in motion, it's a hell of a lot easier to stay in motion..

We don’t get do-overs, but we do get sequels & reboots. Starting a consulting business in your 50s isn’t some TikTok-hyped side hustle. It’s the second act you deserve. You get to leverage your experience, show off your knowledge, and make real impact without ever having to talk to Ted from Accounting in the break room. It's finally your turn at the karaoke mic. Start singing with gusto.

Do this next: Make your “I do X for Y without Z”. Test it on three people you trust. If they get it, you’re ready to share it wider. If not, tighten it up until it lands. That’s your first boss battle. Everything else opens up from there.

Consulting is weird. There were no consultant role models in the 70s & 80s - except maybe private eyes. So here’s your 70s & 80s consulting kit:

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chapter neXt is a newsletter/community/guide for entrepreneurial folks in their 50s and beyond. It is published by Julia Kelahan (check her out on LinkedIn, her amazing strength-based learning center & her ADHD & Executive Function coaching business) and Tim Kilroy (check him out on LinkedIn & his agency growth business & his agency-focused newsletter). They are the proud parents to 5 kids, they live near Boston & their dog’s name is Fred. Our ads are ads - duh. But some of the publishers that we link to in our content may offer us a commission if you buy something from them - that doesn’t influence what we link to, nor does it influence what we say about it.