143 The move into ‘unretirement’, with Victoria Thomlinson
After running her own digital communications company for 30 years, Victoria noticed that a lot of senior employees were being recommended to her as they tried to create new roles for themselves in their retirement. She spotted a pattern, noticing that these people didn’t want to be retired, but they did want to leave behind their full-time corporate job. So, Victoria launched Next-Up; a company that helps anyone over 50 find purpose through a new role in the next stage of their lives. This may be as a Non-Executive Director, in a consulting role, or a part-time position. Through webinars, workshops, events and guides, Victoria and her team are turning 70% of people from feeling apprehensive about their retirement to excited about the opportunities ahead. In the past few years Victoria has discovered the wealth of knowledge and experience that this generation has to offer and has developed a passion for finding ways to encourage anyone not wanting to retire to follow their passions and start “unretirement”. In our conversation Victoria shares her story of setting up Next-Up, some of the success stories, and her vision for the future of her company and her generation.