The 8-week program
Most "next chapter" advice ends at "find your passion" and "stay active." Useful affirmations. Useless as a plan. The Encore Career Lab program is the plan: a structured 8-week walkthrough of the four pillars, with weekly coaching, a peer cohort of professionals at the same inflection point, and frameworks built specifically for the realities of life after a successful first career.
Each pillar gets two weeks. By the end of the program you've built a full structure — not a vague vision, an actual design — that holds up against the questions you didn't yet have answers to when you walked in.
01 · Weeks 1-2
02 · Weeks 3-4
03 · Weeks 5-6
04 · Weeks 7-8
Weeks 1–2 · Identity
The hardest question first: who are you now that you're no longer your last title? We separate identity from role, surface the parts of you that pre-date the corner office, and rebuild from a foundation that survives the transition.
Weeks 3–4 · Purpose
What gets you out of bed when "work" is no longer the answer? We map your contribution patterns — what you've spent your career caring about — and translate them into a purpose architecture that fits the rest of your life, not just the next year.
Weeks 5–6 · Income
Most encore conversations skip income or treat it as optional. We treat it as a load-bearing pillar. Consulting, board work, fractional executive roles, equity participation, advisory income, course-and-cohort revenue, licensing — every shape your next-chapter economics could take, evaluated against the lifestyle you actually want.
Weeks 7–8 · Network
Your prior career built a rolodex worth more than most people realize. We design the strategy to convert it into your next chapter's lead source — for clients, board seats, advisory engagements, or whatever your encore actually generates. The relationships are already there. The architecture isn't, until we build it.
The transition from a mission-driven career carries a different shape. The Next Mission is Encore Career Lab's dedicated program for senior military leaders, led by Major General (Ret.) Bob Sofge. Same 4-pillar framework; specialized cohort; tailored to the particular identity and contribution shifts that come from decades of structured command.
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