Nobody hires anyone over fifty anymore

Well, thank you for the invitation. I'm really excited to be joining you.

Well, I could start from when I was five years old and felt entrepreneurial, but probably a good starting point is to recognize that in 2002, I left big consulting when Arthur Anderson came to an end and I set out a personal manifesto for my work, which I now describe as the portfolio executive work style. And essentially what I was looking for was a work style where I could be fee earning 12 days a month, have four to six clients and serve those clients on a long-term basis, providing them with leadership of an executive function. So in terms of a conventional consulting model, now what I learned at Anderson was find a problem, fix a problem. and ideally find an even bigger problem and fix an even bigger problem, find an even bigger problem, fix an even bigger problem. And that was the life. But I felt fundamentally that by providing part-time leadership for a function in a smaller organization, you can maximize the transfer of wisdom, skills, knowledge and experience, but also take on hands-on responsibility for making something work. Whereas too many consulting organizations that I've been involved in, you come in, you set out the plan, you might fix a problem, and then the implementation still needs to bed in. There's a much longer process. So I felt this was a very different way of behaving. And after doing that for about 10 years, I realized that there were a whole generation of people who had got 20 to 30 years senior executive experience in some really big businesses, but who had effectively ended up on the career scrap heap at around 50. So I call this the Scrap Heap Challenge. And the Scrap Heap Challenge is what do you do with your working life when at 50, the doors to advancement or even finding another role for people on a six figure salary are effectively closed? And the portfolio executive community is a response to that. It's a way of saying that. you can build a new future like I did by providing part-time leadership for function in a portfolio of clients. And what we do as an organization is enable people to make that transition and then support them within the community during that transition. So whereas a conventional consulting business might be shaped around the idea that I have a stable of great people who can bring great advice, and support my clients and I own them if you like and sell them to the market with 100 % markup but the relational contract is I keep them fed, I keep them busy. Rather than doing that, we have something where actually we empower individuals to find their own clients. through that mutual support of the community and then they get to keep all of the fees rather than sharing 50 % of the fees with the consulting brand. So in some ways it's really disruptive to a conventional consulting model. And my role in this is to provide, if you like, the executive education for those portfolio executives, not so they can become better finance directors or chief marketing officers or whatever their professional skill is, but to enable them to engage more effectively with the market with this particular kind of offer. So that's been a really exciting journey for me over the last 10 years. When I started out, the term fractional hadn't been coined. It's now the big new thing in many, many areas. you see, now I use LinkedIn a lot. see hundreds and hundreds of people adding fractional to their LinkedIn proposition. But particularly in the US, I think fractional has just come to mean part-time. And I'm believing that there's a distinctive way of bringing that fractional offer to clients, which creates the most value for the clients. and actually creates the most resilient and compelling work style for the talent, if you like, for the professional. And that is having this portfolio of long-term relationships where you're taking executive leadership of a function. Inevitably, the scale of organizations that you can serve will be constrained because there's still culture in the bigger organizations they want to own you full-time. but thus does give you an opportunity to serve and often to give back to businesses that are not so far down their pathway and actually make a huge difference. And the great joy of being a portfolio executive is You've got a home, you the businesses you work for, they treat you as part of their executive team. You go to their board meetings, go to their Christmas party, out there on the strategy day, you're feeling part of it. But you're not feeling part of just one organization where they may let you go at will. You're feeling part of a portfolio of four to six organizations, where even if you lose one client, it's annoying. but losing less than 25 % of your income is disruptive, but it's not life changing. Whereas for senior professionals that I've been working with, they find that suddenly what they thought was their big job comes to an end. And actually they think that the rules of the game are still the same. They think that you can still go... on a job search, engage with recruiters, engage with executive search people, and you will get that next six-figure job. Sadly, the reality of the people I'm talking to is that six, 12, 18, 24 months into that job search, they're still not getting work. And what that does to them emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and financially is absolutely tragic. So maybe I only talk to people who are on the scrap heap or are threatened with a scrap heap, but there seems to be a real trend that large organizations for whatever reason are incapable of hiring people into six-figure salaried roles once they are over 50. It's just strange but true.

I think there are three forces that I'm noticing. One is that there's always been a cult of the younger people. So when I started my career, I was described as a computer whiz kid. If you're a kid at 20, or in your early 20s, then you're not going to survive that designation into your mid to late 30s. So there's always been this sense that, you know, younger people are more energetic, more open to change, more flexible, more committed to the organization. And if we hire somebody who's in their 50s, then they'll be looking to retire in four or five years, where's their commitment? So that persistent trend has just got more and more intensified over the years. I think the second thing is that there used to be, perhaps 30 or 40 years ago, much more a culture of job for life. You came into an organization and you stayed there until you retired. And therefore, even if you might move sideways or move into a cul-de-sac you are still with the organization so they weren't used to hiring people 50 plus because they just kept them in they were focused on hiring those gifted, talented, thrusting young professionals who are in their 30s or their 40s. And the assumption was you're at the peak of your professional powers in your mid 40s, and then you'd either get to the top table or you wouldn't. I think the final thing is that... Organizations don't value or understand the value of wisdom. They think that information is free, which to a large extent it is. You you can get stuff on the internet or through AI. Information is free and they think information is enough. but actually wisdom is about establishing the context. Wisdom is about understanding which questions to ask. Wisdom is about how you engage with people to bring change, not information just to beat people ahead with. And that idea of wisdom, particularly in Western cultures, has been lost. If you go to Oriental cultures, the Chinese, the Japanese, they have had... a real veneration for older people and they recognize wisdom but that has been lost in our societies. those are the three things that I think have intensified something that has always been there but has got more and more extreme.

Well, I think you're correct that that often is how people use the word fractional. They are setting themselves out as an independent practitioner, working for themselves. So absolutely. But I think there are different ways they can work for themselves. So if they're going to be an independent consultant, then that can be great. And often I meet people who when they leave an organization, they step out as an independent consultant. And for the first 18 to 36 months, that sort of works. They can use their existing network. They can tap into that network. They can get the roles. They get the consulting engagements they want. But too often, they haven't invested in building their personal brand. building that network beyond the people they had when they were in their previous job. And now they're in a situation where perhaps, if you're an independent consultant and your average engagement is say three months and to keep busy you have three on the go, then that's 12 engagements a year. You've got to find one new client a month. maybe you're really good and half your proposals convert. So 25 proposals a year. To have those proposals, then you really need to have, again, if you're really good, 50 sales qualified leads a year. That's one a week. And then to get to that point, you need to build an audience and the lead generation thing. And so I find these people either, end up in sort of family or fees cycle, or they actually have to build a sales and marketing operation. And their consultancy is like a side hustle, but all their energy goes to building sales marketing operation. Or they say, actually, this is too hard. I'm going to become an associate of an existing consultancy, borrow their brand, forgo 50 % of the fees and move my dependency from what I was doing before to dependency on one or two branded consultancies where they bring me in when they've got a gap. And I'm usually, no, second choice after an existing staff person. So that's quite precarious. And I think that's having been in this world for more than 20 years, I've seen these patterns evolve. And yeah, it's great initially. The other thing people do is they say, I'll be interim and they offer themselves as fractional interim, often trying to go through agencies, but agencies don't, for the most part, sell part-time interim. If you do get a part-time interim job, then that's great why it lasts, but often it's too demanding if you'd have more than one at a time. So the amount of time you're fee earning is massively reduced and... Usually there's only a very small premium over the salary rate, but you're carrying all the risks of not being busy. So I think interim is a fix that fails and you hit the same age barrier. What I call the gray ceiling, where actually agencies no longer want you just, they may entertain you. They may put you on their list. They may even submit your profile because they want to have some good profiles there, but ultimately it's more and more difficult to get those roles. So yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It is a code for freelance, but what is that kind of freelance? And many people haven't thought through the business model and are not operating that business model in a way that creates sustainable, rewarding, enjoyable work. often it just becomes substitution of toil they might have had in a corporate environment for toil on their own, really vulnerable and challenged and without all of the support systems that the corporate life provided them. So it is difficult, know, it is hard and I'm not going to guess how old you are but I would suggest you probably haven't yet hit that 50 year old barrier. hope that's you get.

So if I was an executive in my mid fifties and I'd got a job, then I'd be saying to myself, I need to get ready to make this transition before I'm shown the door. In fact, even if I'm in my late forties, I need to get ready to make this transition before I'm shown the door. And the essential thing to my mind is to radically shift your understanding of the way you engage. So if your mindset has been I apply for jobs, then my promise to you is you will never have to apply for a job ever again. If your mindset has been, as a consultant, I find problems and fix problems, I would say to you, drop that mindset. Now think about how can I build capability for my clients? How can I enable a function to be fit for purpose on an ongoing basis as my client grows and develops? And if I'm sitting there saying, you I've been in an internal role, perhaps finance or HR or product development or technology, and I'm saying to myself, I cannot sell, I would say. Nothing in me wants you to become a super salesman. All you need to do is create a structured signposted buying process so the people who know they want you understand how to buy you. So those are the things I'd be saying to them. But to get there, then what you need to do is to recognize that now you are the product, you are the brand. and you need to build an audience for that brand, an audience for that product, and a way for them to engage with you. And so a lot of what I do with people when we first start out is get them to really understand how the whole of their working life so far has prepared them for a time such as this, and how they can then turn that into a narrative that is coherent and compelling. and draw from that the golden threads, the hidden gems, the key character personality traits that make them different and special. Because you want to be in a category of one. You want to attract the people who you'd love to work with and who would love to work with you. And the other people in England, we have this spread called Marmite and the tagline is you love it or you hate it. It's all about being distinctive. So the people who are attracted to you come and think I'd love to have you working for me. Now what can I get you to do? And those of you who aren't really interested, don't really quite like the style, move on. And no, I suppose in some ways I've been living this out myself. If you look at the slide behind me, I'm talking about freedom and joy. Well, in the executive development world, in the world of success, then a lot of people don't measure their success earlier in their careers by how much freedom and joy am I having. So those people are not going to be attracted to my proposition. But often as people get into the second half of their working life, they recognize that money is not buying them everything they want. and actually a lot of what they're experiencing. Corporate life, it might be very well rewarded slavery, but too much of it is toil, they're not actually getting the joy. The thing that they came in to do as a professional, they're no longer doing, they're spending all their time managing other people or playing the politics. so for those kinds of people who are tired with... the contracts that you have in a corporate world or recognize it's going to longer be available to them, then they may be attracted to the idea of freedom and joy. Those who are still thinking, how can I make sure that in the next two or three years, I make as much money as possible, whatever the personal cost, they are less likely to be attracted to me. And that's again about differentiating myself from the market. So there are lots and lots of people out there who will tell you how to make more money. There are fewer people out there who will say, how can you build a work style that gives you everything you want? Money, freedom, joy, and the opportunities to do work you love with people you love doing it. That's a slightly different story. Not for everybody, but for those who are attracted to that. It's a distinctive offer. And in the same way, I'm encouraging the people I work with, what makes you distinctive? What makes you different? Why are some people going to believe you're special? And how can you make sure that those people who won't believe you're special don't bother wasting your time.

So what I want to do is three things, grow it in scale, enable it to be a more powerful support system for its members, and increasingly for it to become a portal where businesses that recognize they can benefit from a portfolio executive, a fractional executive or a fractional leader, come there to find the people that they need because I think ultimately if this becomes something that businesses look for as well as members participate in then we are doing all the heavy lifting for our members. People will come there look for somebody a bit like this come across person that's attractive to them and then say can you come and work with us? Because the biggest fear I hear from all the people I work with as portfolio executives is, how am I going to find clients? I would love to be in a situation where the problem now is, how do clients come and find us? And the community itself, that portal is so well recognized in the market that clients come and find us. Members of the community are getting unsolicited inquiries for their services. That's the dream. I'm sure we'll get there and we're going to be putting some additional tools and so on on the website so it'll be easier for people to come there. And we've got a. doing a lot of work around AI based SEO and building our audience and so on. But each individual member is also building the audience and that's part of the key. we've got, no, approaching 150 members who are each promoting what we're doing, that's building a great audience every single day.

So the simplest way to find me is to go to our website, portfolioexecutive.biz, and there's a contact form on there. So you can contact me directly. You can see other members of the community, or you can try and, or you can find me on LinkedIn. My first name is Charles. My surname is McLaughlin. That's M-C-L-A-C-H-L-A-N. So either way you'll be able to get to me and I'd love to respond to you personally with any kind of questions or suggestions you've got.

exciting to be here and I'm looking forward to your podcast getting more and more of an audience. Thank you.