Life transition and retirement coaching
A long chapter is ending, or changing. Design what comes next, instead of drifting into it.
Coaching for the turning points after a long career: retirement, a career change, a reinvention. The part a financial plan or a new job title doesn’t answer.
Thirty years in tech. Semi-retired. A few steps ahead of you.
What a transition really is
Every transition starts with an ending.
Retirement, a career change, a reinvention: from the outside they look like beginnings. From the inside, the first thing that happens is that something ends. The hard part usually isn’t the new thing. It’s the in-between.
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First
An ending
A title, a team, a routine, a way of being known. Even an ending you chose is a loss, and it’s normal to feel it.
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Then
The in-between
Unsettled and unstructured, and often kept quiet. “Who am I now?” It’s also where the best ideas come from, if you give it room.
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Over time
A new beginning
Built, not found. One small experiment at a time, until the new chapter feels like yours.
Transitions are processes, not events.
Who we help
People who gave decades to a career, and are now deciding what comes next.
Retirement
Your financial plan answers whether you can retire. It doesn’t answer what Tuesday afternoon looks like.
For professionals six to eighteen months either side of leaving a long career, whose retirement plan covered the finances, but not the days.
Keeping busy.
Is this it now, every day?
Still on your way out? You may feel ready, with nothing written down yet: no picture of year one, no answer to “So, what do you do?”
Career change and reinvention
When the title goes, so does the easy answer to “So, what do you do?”
For people rethinking work after a long career: a pivot, a package, consulting, fewer hours, or work that means more.
Your experience didn’t disappear with the job. Together we find what your career gave you that still wants a home, and test where it fits next.
- Identity, structure, and being needed often leave with the job.
- Capable people go through this too. For them it’s design work, not repair work.
- You don’t have to have it figured out before you start.
What changes
I’m building, not drifting.
From “I thought it was just me” to “This is common, and it can be worked on.” Then a next chapter designed through small experiments, rather than drifted into.
Values Wheel
North Star
Decision Filters
Success Scripts
Experiment Log
“With Bill’s help, I drew from my core values and the positive traits I had built in other areas of my life… [it] gave me renewed confidence and clarity in how I presented myself.”
“Thanks to our work together, the trajectory of my life and career has become much more purposeful and intentional in alignment with my NorthStar.”
How we get there
Build It While You Live It™
People rarely think their way into clarity.
Small experiments, not perfect plans. Instead of asking “What should I do?” we ask “What am I learning?”
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1
Pause and Notice
Slow down and make room to reflect. What’s changing? What gives you energy, and what drains it?
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2
Distill the Pattern
Look beneath the surface at values, identity, strengths, and sources of meaning.
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3
Translate Insights into Resources
Your own Values Wheel, Decision Filter, or Success Script, so the work continues between sessions.
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4
Run Small Experiments
Not a perfect plan. One small move worth testing. Curiosity over certainty.
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5
Reflect and Adjust
Turn experience into wisdom. What surprised you? Then design the next step.
Then the cycle runs again, for as long as the transition takes.
“You don’t tell me — you lead me to it.”
Retirement and career client
Ways to work together on your next chapter
Two conversations to start. Then the way that fits you.
Start here
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Coaching Discovery Session
Free · 45 minutes
A taste of coaching and a fit check.
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Introduction to Your Next Chapter
One session
Your RQ results, and where to start.
Then choose
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Next Chapter Circle
Ongoing community
People living this too, with a regular prompt from me.
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Next Chapter by Design
Six-week group
From reflection to a first real experiment.
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Next Chapter, Built
Private · 7 months
A designed week you can keep running on your own.
Every way begins with a free Coaching Discovery Session.
Meet your coaches
Two coaches who know what it means to leave a long career and start their next chapter.
Bill Dodd
Life Transition and Retirement Coach
Thirty years in tech. Semi‑retired. A few steps ahead of you.
I spent more than thirty years in enterprise technology, at SAP, Sybase, Sun, IBM and HP Enterprise Services, much of it as a sales leader and player-coach. Now semi-retired, I coach people through the same kind of turn I’ve been making myself.
I work as a thinking partner, not an advice giver. You bring where you are; I help you slow down, notice what matters, and try what’s next.
700+ coaching hours
Certified Navigating Transitions Coach (TQ)
Positive Intelligence Coach
Erickson Professional Coach
Jacqueline Bryant
Leadership Coach
A holistic approach: mind, body and spirit.
Jacqueline led sales in hospitality and travel organizations in Australia and the USA, and supported global sales in enterprise software. With a background in design studies and health and wellness, she brings a holistic approach to clients in transition to retirement.
Using the Positive Intelligence model, she helps executives strengthen their mental fitness and guides them through their post-career transitions, so they can find real fulfillment in their third act.
A dual citizen of the USA and Australia, a mother of two young adult children and a lifelong learner, she volunteers with organizations like the National Charity League and lives the long, active, healthy life she helps others build.
CPCC, Co-Active Training Institute
Positive Intelligence
9+ years coaching
Start here
If something in you is saying “it’s time,” let’s talk.
In a free 45-minute Coaching Discovery Session, we’ll look at what your career has given you and where you want to take it next. You’ll leave knowing what you most want to take with you into your next chapter, and one thing you can start on this week.