Relational Transitions Episodes

the Work Narratives podcast. Valentine Gatard argues that human agency becomes more valuable, not less, as AI takes over routine work — and that independent professionals who build community are building the single most important resource they have. A researcher, speaker, and host of the Work Narratives podcast, Valentine explains why French professionals refuse management roles (it's not about pay), why the future of work is about agency rather than automation, and why career independence is structural protection against commoditisation. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Career coaching for experienced professionals requires understanding what happens on both sides of the hiring process. Alisha Hook spent 25 years in talent acquisition and HR across Australia and the UK before founding Your Career Edge, a consultancy offering fractional talent services and career coaching. For independent professionals and career changers, this episode maps the practical mechanics of navigating a job market that has shifted significantly since the pandemic. Alisha introduces three trends reshaping the employment landscape: job hugging, where employees cling to roles out of fear rather than satisfaction; peek-a-boo jobs, where high applicant volumes cause listings to disappear within days; and anti-perks, the hidden downsides that make otherwise attractive roles problematic. She discusses the growing impact of AI on hiring, including employer hesitation to fill roles and rising distrust as AI-generated resumes become indistinguishable. The conversation covers pra…

Bex Thomas spent 20 years in recruitment, earned a director-level promotion at a global firm, and realised the achievement felt hollow. That moment of anti-climax led to an eight-month sabbatical that became the catalyst for designing a portfolio career as a career transition coach, sabbatical coach, and podcast host of Sabbatical Stories. Bex explains her five-question framework for planning intentional career breaks: why you are taking the break, when to take it, where to go, who to spend time with, and who you want to become afterwards. She describes the financial planning behind extended breaks, including the currency hack of spending time in Asia on Australian dollars. For experienced professionals sensing their current role no longer fits, Bex shares why the integration period after a sabbatical determines whether the break transforms your career or fades into a distant memory. She also covers how to negotiate leave when your company has no formal sabbatical policy, the p…

Margareta Krizova offers freelance advice for professional reinvention, sharing six questions that replace the business plan. After almost 30 years in M&A dealmaking, she sold her equity stake at 53 to rebuild as an independent freelancer. The conversation covers her six questions framework, invisible work (where freelancers fail to count their own hours), and why side hustles work as a low-risk transition from corporate employment. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Ben Legg thinks in decades. His first was in the British Army as a Royal Engineer, building and blowing things up around the world while earning a civil engineering degree. His second was in big business: McKinsey strategy consultant, then Coca-Cola in Greece, Poland, and India, where he ended up running the entire India operation through a major turnaround. His third decade was big tech: COO of Google Europe, followed by CEO roles at several ad-tech companies. Now he runs The Portfolio Collective, a community helping professionals build portfolio careers combining multiple revenue streams. Ben argues that the future of work is portfolio-based, and that the infrastructure which corporations once provided — professional development, peer support, opportunity discovery — now needs to be rebuilt by independent professionals themselves. The Portfolio Collective provides that infrastructure through community, training, and a marketplace that connects portfolio professionals with opportuni…

Melisa Liberman returns to Wisepreneurs a year after episode 39. She is a coach for independent consultants, helping them build businesses that are sustainable rather than accidental — the distinction matters because most consultants are excellent at delivery and terrible at treating their own practice like a business. Melisa's core framework distinguishes working in the business (client delivery) from working on the business (lead generation, pricing, pipeline). She introduces her MAP process for lead generation — meet, add value, propose — and explains why the most effective path to new clients is not cold outreach but conversations sparked through speaking, channel partnerships, and diagnostic conversations that reveal blind spots the prospect did not know they had. She calls these get-your-foot-in-the-door offers: no charge, high value, and structured to turn a conversation into a next step. The conversation covers the business development formula she uses with clients to turn v…

Mark Trinham has made his living as a full-time artist for 30 years, starting with hand-drawn illustration before computers arrived in design studios, founding an environmental clothing company at 21, and eventually building a public art practice with collaborator Glen Romanis that has produced large-scale sculptures, nature play spaces, and an 80-metre artwork on the edge of the Simpson Desert. He has never had formal business training. Mark's work is driven by a deep connection to the natural environment. Growing up on a farm and spending childhood hours in the bush gave him a love of indigenous landscapes that now shapes every commission. His public artworks integrate into parks and housing developments through close collaboration with landscape architects, engineers, councils, and Traditional Owner groups — projects that can run for two to three years and span multiple stages over a decade. Beyond sculpture, Mark illustrates children's books, paints wildlife collector cards, pla…

Robert Vlach returns to Wisepreneurs for a second appearance. He leads Europe's largest freelance community, supporting over 250,000 Czech professionals through the country's biggest open directory of freelancers, and wrote The Freelance Way — now published in English and used as the foundation for a university course at Masaryk University in Brno. Robert draws a sharp distinction between personal branding and a good name. Personal branding is a marketing discipline, borrowed from show business and often used to manufacture an image. A good name is something ancient and robust: it is created by other people talking about you behind your back, built over five to ten years of consistent, high-quality work, and cannot be faked. He quotes Charlie Munger: the peak of civilisation is not complicated bureaucratic systems but a collaboration of completely trustworthy individuals who rightly trust each other. The conversation covers why older professionals have an undervalued advantage — the…

Laurie Smale left school at 13 to work in a junkyard and at 79 produces his own Magic Minutes YouTube series after learning digital tools from scratch with LinkedIn specialist Sue Ellson. Between the junkyard and YouTube, Laurie graduated from Melbourne University with honours, built a speaking career through the National Speakers Association, and wrote three books. He shares how he overcame a lifelong fear of technology and why baby steps and the right mentor make reinvention possible at any age. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Kim Watty is a 66-year-old Emeritus Professor of Accounting who spent 30 years at RMIT, the University of Melbourne, and Deakin University, teaching in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Japan, and rising to Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law. She formally left academia in 2020 and spent the next few years looking for what she calls 'the more' — the thing she knew she wanted to do next but could not yet name. That thing turned out to be The Main Act, a business she co-founded with her daughter Pru. Their signature programme, Retirement by Design, is an eight-week online course for women aged roughly 45 to 78, built on the Stanford Life Design methodology developed by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The programme alternates content weeks with integration weeks, includes one-on-one accountability calls, and deliberately keeps cohorts small and Melbourne-based for now. Kim and Pru interview every applicant to ensure alignment with the core mindsets — curiosity, bias to action,…

Jane Hudson built an independent L&D consultancy specialising in regulatory training after leaving corporate employment, and returns to Wisepreneurs 50 episodes after her first appearance. She covers pricing strategies, managing remote teams, finding a defined niche, and balancing client delivery with business development as a solo operator.

Emma Williams has a physics degree from Cambridge and a PhD in MRI brain imaging, but she left academia after three and a half years when a committee meeting comment hit her like a double-decker bus: she realised she did not love it. She now coaches PhDs and postdocs through the career transition out of research — helping very bright people who have spent a decade in the lab figure out what they actually want to do. She calls herself the nerd coach because her STEM clients recognise themselves in it. Her travelator metaphor — the automatic career escalator vs. the deliberate choice through the gates — came from her own experience of taking promotions she did not really want. The conversation covers why the academic pyramid produces far more researchers than permanent positions, how to build a peer support network early (she wishes she had found hers sooner), and what it feels like to leave a career you trained for since childhood. Emma's story is about making the deliberate choice r…

Melisa Liberman became an accidental consultant when she moved to Hawaii and her employer kept her on. From Accenture executive to independent coaching practice, she now helps solo consultants build businesses using a 14-step roadmap and her free IEC Toolkit. The conversation covers her four-C framework for building a consulting client base: clients, connections, collaborators, and channel partners. She explains why experienced professionals consistently discount the value of what they know, how to shift from hourly to value-based pricing by calculating what a client actually gains from the outcome, and why the move from corporate to solo is less about finding clients and more about recognising that you have been selling your entire career — you just did not call it that. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Marleen Deleu spent 26 years building HR staffing strategy at Randstad, the world's largest staffing services firm, before launching Nextconomy, an online knowledge platform covering the evolving world of flexible work. She explains why the freelance workforce is growing 6 to 9 percent per year across every professional domain — not just ICT and engineering — and why most organisations still ignore 30 to 40 percent of their actual workforce because contingent talent sits outside HR's remit. Marleen makes the case that talent scarcity is now a board-level issue, that the demographic shift toward experienced professionals choosing independence is irreversible, and that the organisations who learn to integrate freelance talent strategically will outperform those who treat it as a stopgap. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Michelle Kvello, founder of Lantern Partners and creator of the Corporate to Consultant course, shares what independent professionals need to know about finances when leaving corporate employment to build a solopreneur consulting practice. Drawing from 12 years running her own CFO advisory firm, she explains why most new consultants underprice their services and walks through the financial planning that prevents common mistakes. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Sue Ellson moved from corporate banking to becoming an independent LinkedIn specialist, author of five books including Gigsters, and a self-described gigster who has built a multi-stranded career across consulting, writing, and professional education. Sue explains how she stays employable and visible as an independent professional through deliberate online presence and continuous learning. The gigster model suits experienced professionals who bring multiple skills rather than a single specialisation — and Sue makes the case that portfolio careers are not a fallback but a deliberate strategy for people who outgrow single-track employment. She shares practical approaches to building professional credibility on LinkedIn and why showing up consistently online is the modern equivalent of a shopfront. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Sandra McGuire, founder of Money Wellness, turned two decades of corporate accounting expertise into an independent coaching practice. Her journey from corporate roles to solopreneur practice is itself a case study in expertise monetisation. She explains how unconscious money stories drive adult financial behaviour, covers the 50/30/20 cash flow framework, and addresses financial challenges specific to women including superannuation gaps and why women over 50 are Australia's fastest growing demographic of homeless people. Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetise expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

Paula Ronan helps experienced professionals understand what marketing actually requires when you move from corporate to independent practice. Based in rural Ireland, she made the transition from corporate marketing in London to freelancing and built Ronan Marketing into a consultancy serving Irish businesses. Paula covers the distinct business cultures between corporate London and rural Ireland, why understanding your target market matters more than any marketing tactic, and how to maintain brand values when you are the entire marketing department. She also discusses the discipline required to market yourself when client work keeps getting in the way — the problem every independent professional recognises. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Valentine Gatard has been an employee for only nine months in her entire life. Based in Paris, she works as a coach, speaker, and podcast host, helping companies and independent professionals rethink their relationship with work. Valentine explains how jazz improvisation shapes her approach to coaching, why freelancing and portfolio careers are reshaping professional identity, and how crafting your own work narrative matters more than following conventional career templates.

Terri Connellan helps experienced women professionals navigate career independence through self-leadership, creativity, and psychological type awareness. After 30 years in TAFE, she trained as a life transition coach, wrote Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition, and built an independent practice around creativity and writing. She explains why wholehearted living means designing work around what fulfils you rather than what you are qualified for. Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetise expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

Meredith Fuller OAM about the award-winning documentary, 'Home Truths', which focuses on domestic violence and is co-produced by Lesley Coleman & Rod Winning. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice. Subscribe for new episodes.

Mark Elliott coaches experienced professionals starting independent businesses after 50, helping them navigate the specific challenges of launching a venture later in life when the stakes, the skills gap, and the motivation are all different from doing it at 25. He covers why lifestyle design matters more than revenue targets for older entrepreneurs, how to track spending as the foundation of financial independence, when to outsource rather than learn a new skill, and why self-care and energy management are business strategy rather than indulgence. He co-founded Startup School for Seniors with Suzanne Noble, and the conversation draws on both his coaching practice and the lived experience of building something new when the runway looks different than it did at 30. Wisepreneurs explores how experienced independent professionals position accumulated expertise and build sustainable practice.

Lisa Ross-Marcus helps experienced women professionals navigate career transitions and build leadership capability from her Amsterdam executive coaching practice. Her path from performing arts in Paris to executive coaching blends kinaesthetic awareness, artistic creativity, and structured method. Lisa covers discovering a niche market, the practicalities of becoming a coach after a performing arts career, what confidence means when internal dialogue is not cooperating, and why values alignment anchors sustainable independent practice.

Mary-Clare Switz explains why getting the financial foundations of an expert business right from day one can determine whether it succeeds or fails. A registered BAS Agent with more than 40 years of experience, she covers why Xero gives small business owners real-time financial visibility, common mistakes including miscoding expenses, and why she tells every new client to set up their business as if they are ready to sell it tomorrow. Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.