Relational Enterprise Episodes

Janine Garner helps women entrepreneurs over 50 turn accumulated expertise into independent consulting practices that charge what professional judgment is worth. After 20 years in corporate marketing, finishing as group marketing director for the Oroton Group overseeing Oroton and Ralph Lauren brands across Australia and Asia, Janine built a seven-figure mentoring business focused on expertise monetisation for experienced women leaving corporate careers. In this conversation, Janine explains why...

Michael Zipursky studied 1,300 coaching engagements to show how experienced consultants build expertise-driven practices. Building a consulting practice through relationships and conversations rather than marketing systems requires a specific set of mindset shifts that corporate experience does not prepare you for. For experienced independent professionals navigating this transition, Michael Zipursky maps the precise patterns he has observed across 1,300 coaching engagements in 75 industries at ...

Experienced independent professionals building portfolio practices will find a practical operating model in this conversation with Dante St James. For generalists juggling multiple ventures, this episode maps the daily discipline and systemisation that lets diverse expertise run without you at the centre. Dante traces how a failed startup, a pandemic-era cafe purchase, and a digital marketing exit became a self-running portfolio spanning hospitality, executive education, and AI-powered software....

Professional reputation built through decades of relationships beats personal branding built through content marketing. Robert Vlach leads Europe's largest freelance community, supporting over 250,000 professionals. In this three-hour conversation, our longest episode, he explains why experienced independent professionals should stop competing with younger workers on their terms. Robert covers why pattern recognition from 20+ years of practice creates unbeatable market advantages, How career cap...

Starting a business after 60 using LinkedIn, relationships, and minimal cost strategies for financial security during career transition. Sue Ellson has been an independent consultant since 1994 and joined LinkedIn in 2003. She's authored five books including Gigsters and is recognised internationally as a leading expert on the platform. In this conversation, Sue offers a practical roadmap for professional women considering entrepreneurship after 60. She explains her 'job for now' concept for mai...

Episode Overview Career reinvention after 60 using your professional relationships as startup capital rather than cash, savings, or business loans. Laetitia Vitaud is a feminist and work-revolution thinker returning for her third Wisepreneurs appearance. She explains why the 150 trusted connections you've nurtured across your career are the most valuable business asset you own How seasonal work rhythms create sustainable practice rather than burnout, and Why older professionals have a genuine co...

Anna Burgess Yang shares her solopreneur workflow for building independent professional practice with lean thinking, automation, and AI.After leaving a FinTech executive career, Anna built a content writing business around Zapier, Airtable, and ChatGPT Pro. She explains why operations is the part of solopreneur practice nobody talks about and how authenticity beats generic AI content.Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Tonianne DeMaria co-wrote Personal Kanban to help professionals make work visible through simple workflow systems that replace conventional task management with better decision-making and sustained energy. Tonianne explains why standard productivity approaches fail independent professionals juggling multiple clients, projects, and competing priorities without organisational structure. Drawing from her journey from fashion to productivity practice, she covers the neuroscience behind overcommitmen...

Emergent strategy as a design framework for independent professionals and consultants managing business uncertainty without organisational support. Peter Compo is author of The Emergent Approach to Strategy, drawing on 25 years of experience at DuPont. He explains how identifying key obstacles, eliminating bottlenecks, and creating strategic rules for decision-making help independent practitioners maintain progress when direction needs to shift. Peter's methodology connects concepts from music a...

Cedric Chin founded Commoncog to help professionals develop business expertise through rigorous testing of ideas against real-world evidence rather than relying on theory or conventional frameworks. Cedric explains how experienced professionals develop pattern recognition and strategic judgement through deliberate practice, drawing on his background in competitive judo and leading a startup in Vietnam. He introduces Leo DiBello's Triad Model and naturalistic decision making as practical framewor...

Karen Wickre shows experienced professionals how career independence works well beyond conventional retirement age, drawing on senior roles at Google and Twitter and decades of authentic relationship-building across Silicon Valley. She explains why genuine, mutually beneficial connections matter more than transactional networking, and how continuous adaptability sustains an independent career into your 70s. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Anna Molnar helps women entrepreneurs over 50 navigate pricing for freelancers and charge what their expertise is worth. Based in The Hague, she left embassy work at 40 to build an independent coaching practice focused on expertise monetisation for women solopreneurs. She explains why undercharging is the most consistent problem among women entrepreneurs and the connection between professional self-perception and appropriate fees. Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetise expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

The Indie List is a high-touch marketplace connecting freelance marketing professionals with Irish clients, serving approximately 7,000 independent marketing solopreneurs. Úna shares how she left advertising in 2005 when the industry proved unwelcoming to women with young children, how a LinkedIn post during COVID became a business, and how The Indie List's earn-learn-connect model addresses the isolation, cashflow uncertainty, and admin burden freelancers face working alone. The conversation co...

Robert Vlach wrote The Freelance Way and founded Freelancing.eu to help independent professionals develop pricing strategies that match their actual expertise rather than competing on cost. Robert explains how experienced freelancers and consultants can move beyond industry-standard rates to pricing that reflects decades of accumulated skill. He covers the specific challenges independent professionals face in defining their roles, navigating pricing norms that were set for younger or less experi...

Tash Menon Verheul founded MASH, a creative technology company that curates teams of independent professionals across 31 countries for branding and marketing projects. She shares how she built the business from Melbourne with no local network, the referral-only recruitment model, and why demonstrating impact matters more than agency credentials for freelancers going independent.

Amanda Reeves has worked in administrative support for over 40 years, building an independent practice in Melbourne entirely through referrals. She provides executive-level support to solopreneurs and independent consultants, from annual reports and conference materials to websites and social media. Amanda explains how she built a freelance practice without marketing, the practical realities of freelancing after 50, and how one client recommendation led to international work in Switzerland.

Elina Jutelyte explains pricing for freelancers through a first-of-its-kind global study across 13 independent communities.Her survey of 400 freelancers found that 90 per cent find work through personal networks, while only 14 per cent rely on platforms. The conversation covers trending freelancer topics from LinkedIn strategy to AI, plus Elina's ambition to build an MBA-style programme for independent professionals.Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Alison Grade helps experienced professionals build sustainable freelance practices as the author of The Freelance Bible, published by Penguin. Her path runs from film and TV production, where she spent years as a freelancer and producer, into writing, teaching, and running her own motorbike training company. Alison covers the practical mechanics of starting and running a freelance business: pricing, finding clients, managing the feast-famine cycle, and the mindset shifts that separate freelancer...

Matt Dowling founded the Freelancer Club, a 60,000-member community that helps independent professionals build sustainable freelance careers, after an unpaid invoice nearly ended his own. Early in his freelance photography career in London, a client went bankrupt owing him 11,000 pounds. With no contract, no legal protection, and months of debt, he discovered that thousands of other freelancers were going through the same thing with no resources to draw on. That experience became the foundation ...

Jon Younger helps experienced professionals understand the freelance economy through his Forbes column and his book Agile Talent: How to Source and Manage Outside Experts. A management consultant for decades, he explains why freelancing is lumpy, how experienced professionals can future-proof their skills, why companies need to adapt to agile talent, and what freelancing looks like as you age. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Suzanne Noble has reinvented her career more times than most experienced professionals manage in a lifetime: from singer with The Dirty Blondes, to Channel 4 TV producer, to co-founding a PR agency that grew to 1.4 million pounds in revenue with 12 staff, to global PR and marketing director for Lazy Town, to launching a baby sling company, to building a TikTok channel with 50,000 followers, to founding Startup School for Seniors helping people over 50 start businesses. Suzanne covers what each r...

Lisa-Marie Cabrelli turned corporate expertise into a location-independent eCommerce company in 2006, starting with $500 and a book on building a Yahoo Store, then retiring young when she sold the multi-million dollar business. She built it through early Google SEO, identifying an underserved niche in American Girl doll accessories, drawing on her corporate background as a business systems analyst to develop a process engineering approach for solopreneurs. The conversation also covers her seven published novels, PhD in Literature, and coaching work helping women start location-independent businesses.Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetise expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

Karen Wickre worked at Google and Twitter before writing Taking the Work out of Networking, her guide to building genuine connections without transactional pressure. Karen explains why networking does not have to feel like work. Drawing from her Silicon Valley career and her current life as a self-employed corporate editor and writer in her 70s, she shares practical approaches to maintaining loose-touch relationships that serve personal and professional needs alike. Her framework treats networki...