Leverage a New Identity: Part III, Liberate Your Creativity After Corporate Life

Introduction to the RIASEC profile framework

The RIASEC framework is a valuable assessment tool for navigating your Executive Encore decisions, whether contemplating a career refresh or exploring post-corporate interests in search of a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment.

To learn more about the RIASEC system, read the following blogs in this "Leverage a New Identity" series:

Part I, Overcome Feelings of Identity and Status Loss 

Part II, Cultivate Your Post-Corporate Social Network

If you're a woman executive transitioning from the corporate world, you are embarking on a profound and exciting chapter of your life. This transition can be most rewarding and less stressful by leveraging your former identity to leverage your new "refreshing" identity. You can leave your mark on the universe.

In Part III, Liberate Your Creativity After Corporate Life, we'll focus on the need many of us share; the need to leave a mark on the universe in a creative way. We can meet this need by emphasizing the arts and pursuing self-expression through creative endeavours.

If you identify with the "Artistic-Creator" classification in the RIASEC framework, you might be eagerly anticipating the chance to unleash your creativity and enjoy a sense of liberation.

For many women, leaving a corporate career signifies not just a transition, but a profound transformation. This shift provides an opportunity to redefine one's identity, pursue passions, and fully harness creative potential. Shifting from the structured world of corporate life to the uncharted territories of creative endeavours can feel both empowering and challenging. It is akin to a sense of liberation.

This blog post explores the art, science, and practical strategies of harnessing this transition to unlock and unleash your creativity. We'll explore reflections and opportunities, analyzing strategies and steps to maximize your Executive Encore, while reshaping and enhancing your life and work.

Finding the Creativity in Transition

For many corporate professionals, particularly women in executive roles, the idea of pursuing creative endeavours can seem intimidating. You may have fostered your creativity by pursuing activities outside your career, distinct from your professional life. Alternatively, you might have set aside creative pursuits to focus on personal and professional priorities. Creativity isn't about artistic talent; it’s about innovative problem-solving and you may have crushed the latter in your corporate work. Although you may have excelled in structured, process-driven settings with credit to your creative inclinations, transitioning to a more unstructured creative role unveils a whole new world of possibilities. This transformation can unlock hidden layers of self-expression while redefining your life goals and ambitions.

The Significance of this Transition

• Creativity fosters growth and adaptability. Artistic and creative people thrive on change and even a little chaos. It's their superpower!

• This pivotal transition is a rescue from conscripted "corporate-restrained" creativity and introduces new ways of applying corporate-honed skills in fresh, dynamic settings. And, for this individual's benefit of personal satisfaction and self-actualization.

• Creative energy is unleashed to open doors to reinvention, renewal, and authentic self-expression. The blend of creative energy and chaos fuels the allure of remastering both life and work.

Liberation is a powerful force for venturing beyond your comfort zone, leveraging your structured mindset, and channelling it into creative outlets—painting a canvas of possibilities where the only limit is your imagination.

From Routines to Reinvention

The RIASEC framework, widely used to understand career interests, identifies Conventional Organizers as individuals who excel in processes and systems. This might sound familiar as you navigated your corporate life and work. However, you can use the framework to discover that there might have been a budding Artistic - Creator somewhat restricted or even oppressed. It's time to transform those cultivated skills—organization, reliability, and attention to detail—into creative powerhouses.

Here’s how you can begin bridging the gap between structure and creativity in your Executive Encore.

Practical Strategies 

1. Conduct a Self-Assessment 

Ask yourself questions like:

• What creative projects have always intrigued me but felt out of reach? What's on your back burner?

• How can I use my organizational skills to build something new?

Discovering your passions or bringing creative projects off the back burner is the foundational step in shaping a distinctive creative identity.

2. Start Small, Explore Often 

Test your interest areas incrementally. Have you always wanted to write, paint, or design? Perhaps there have been opportunities in your corporate life that did appeal to and utilize your writing or design talents, but your full development and pleasure were constrained by the structured workplace and the job description. Begin with low-risk projects that demand high levels of creativity, allowing you the freedom to experiment. Explore various creative media.

3. Redefine the Value of Your Past Skills Creative Terms 

Your ability to manage systems and lead teams could translate to creative entrepreneurship. Launch a niche business, become a consultant, or explore mentoring within creative industries.

4. Network with Like-Minded Women 

Connect with women who have transitioned into creative fields and let their stories, challenges, and triumphs inspire you. Looking for motivation? Explore my interviews on the Executive Encore YouTube channel for firsthand advice and inspiration from women who are leveraging the skills and expertise they honed during their corporate careers.

5. Craft a New Routine for Uncertainty 

Creativity often lacks the structure of the corporate world with pros and cons—but you can create your structure on your terms. Set time aside every day for your creative venture and begin to live and appreciate the moments of liberation and uncertainty. Track your progress and feel the power of creative time as you establish momentum. This can be on your calendar as "Deep Work". In his book, Cal Newport defines deep work as a state of distraction-free concentration when your brain works at its maximum potential; something that we need to enjoy creative pursuits and maintain mental health.

6. Build Community 

Join a creative group on LinkedIn or in your community to engage with like-minded professionals. Share your stories and insights. Grow together through shared experiences of remastering life and work. Join our Executive Encore community by subscribing to our newsletter on LinkedIn and through our website.

The Key to Reinvention and Remastering Life and Work

Reinvention and remastering your life and work requires an open mindset, a willingness to experiment, and the courage to redefine who you are outside of familiar patterns. Give yourself permission to lean into uncertainty and accept some chaos—it’s in these moments that your true creative potential emerges.

What does liberation look like for you? Is it experimenting in art? Is it creative writing? Composing music? Launching a passion project? Translating your procedural expertise into a creative profession? Organizing events for enjoying the arts, entertainment, museums, etc.?

Leave your mark on the work.

Join the Movement

This is your time to step into a new adventure, fearlessly. Here’s how you can continue your transformation and inspire others along the way:

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel for insights and interviews that keep you inspired as you shift from corporate life to creative liberation.

• Comment below and share your own experiences—the challenges and triumphs of transitioning into a creative identity.

• Comment on LinkedIn and engage with like-minded peers who are on the same transformational path.

• Share this post to inspire others in your network who might be ready to liberate their creativity.

Closing Thoughts

Leaving behind a corporate identity and stepping into the unknown can feel risky, but it’s also liberating. Creativity isn’t just about freedom; it’s about building something new—something uniquely yours. With self-assessment, incremental steps, community support, and the ability to reframe your skill sets, you’ll find this transition to be an endlessly rewarding chapter of reinvention.

Craft a life you love. Liberate your creativity. Create the life you always dreamt of while you were building your career.

Your Next Steps
Contact me here for more information and valuable resources for the following:

• RAISEC assessment and coaching
• Accelerator programs and coaching programs for entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs. 
• Competent Board Inc. training program referral
• EmpowerHer Excellence and the Executive Encore coaching programs for women executives, business owners, and professionals

If this post resonated with you, consider sharing it with others who might find it helpful. For more inspiring and empowering content like this, subscribe to the Executive Encore blog and the newsletter below.

Listen to the podcast and watch interviews on YouTube with women continuing to contribute their leadership skills in their Executive Encore.

Are you ready to commit to making your Executive Encore the most incredible performance of your life? Contact Maestro to inquire about our Executive Encore programs. Let's remaster your encore phase, create a symphony, and celebrate the rhythm of life!

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