MyNextSeason

It’s no secret that I’m a planner

At KPMG, your retirement date is fixed, so it was a known timeline for me for years. I didn’t have every day after that date mapped out perfectly, but I felt like I had so many things I couldn’t wait to do. I loved serving on the KPMG Board of Directors and decided I wanted to do more work like this in retirement. At that point, I was ten years out, so when I started to look into it, I was basically told I was eight years too early. But that didn’t stop me from thinking about it.

Charting a path

Leading up to retirement, so many people asked me what I planned to do that I developed a pie chart. It had four quadrants: family and travel, women’s leadership, board work and service, and theater and arts. (When I was in college, I couldn’t decide whether to be an actress or an actuary.) When I showed it to my doctor, she asked, “Where’s self-care?” So, I’ve adjusted my four quadrants to have self-care in the middle because that was central to making all my goals happen.

A variety of fulfillments

Serving on a corporate board was one piece of my retirement plan, not my whole plan. For the last decade of my career, I decided my life’s work was to develop and promote future female leaders. I launched a blog, “Mind the Gap,” that had over three million views and ran workshops all over the world on confidence and risk-taking—for the sole purpose of paying it forward. I didn’t want that to stop when I retired, so I joined a regional Girl Scouts not-for-profit board to continue feeding my passion for empowering women and girls. I also take every leadership speaking engagement I can.

Making it happen

To make my pie chart a reality, especially board service, I realized I needed to have a more organized approach to networking and relationships. I started with a list of board members, C-suite executives, and organizations of interest I could talk to. I created a master list of questions I asked, always ending the conversation with, “Do you have anybody else you’d suggest I speak to?” Sometimes, people would answer no, but many would offer a warm handoff to another person. Following this strategy during the two years before my retirement led to more than 150 conversations.

Connect outside your orbit

If you’re networking with the same people in your immediate orbit, chances are you’re most likely hearing about the same opportunities. I learned that many people who land board seats did so through “weak” or “loose” relationships. So, even if I felt a little nervous, I got very aggressive about reaching out to people I didn’t know.

Treat advice like feedback

I’ve always felt like advice is a gift and treated it like feedback. To anybody feeling bombarded by it, don’t judge the advice; just be open to hearing and receiving it. It doesn’t mean you have to take it. I sought as much advice as I could and wrote it all down, even if it didn’t feel relevant to me. You never know when it might be useful. I’ve gone back and looked at that advice and then later thought, “Oh my gosh, that’s right on point!”

Stay in control

One time, a recruiter was aggressive about wanting to get me into an interview during a certain week. I didn’t have the time to really digest and think about the company, and it didn’t go well. I learned I have to give myself the time and energy to prepare for a great interview. That means doing it at a time that works for me, not everybody else. I’m a preparer, and this process takes more preparedness than I had anticipated. Board seats don’t come up every day, and you want to give it your best shot.

Landing a Fortune 100 Board

I’m now on the board of MetLife, and networking played a big role in getting there. About five years before I retired from KPMG, one of my former clients transitioned to board work. After he left his company, I made an effort to stay in touch with him regularly. When I was about two years from retirement, I set up a dinner with him. “I’m about to start looking for boards. Do you have any advice?” I asked. He was serving on several boards at the time and offered to make introductions at MetLife.

I then had more than 10 interviews, and my MyNextSeason advisor was instrumental in guiding me on explaining the value and skills I could bring to their board. I was announced in February 2024, and I’m both excited and proud. But the real story is that it started with relationships.

Networking toward joy

Ten years before I retired, I already appreciated the importance relationships would have in achieving my goals. The unexpected blessing is that what started with networking for the purpose of landing a board developed into relationships for living my life. It’s not about planning every next step; it’s about finding your joy and leaning into it.