I initially wrote the word “transition” in the subtitle above, and quickly realized, no, what I really mean it is retirement as a transformation, a change in identity from worker to retiree. It is in fact a metamorphosis, a large-scale change in core identity for whoever goes through it.
Don’t think this post isn’t for you!
Now, not many of you readers are retired, but don’t think this post isn’t for you. Unless you’re like me and don’t plan on ever retiring, it may impact how you approach it – and what your business may be able to do for others, including in completely unrelated transformations to retirement.
The spark was a friend, knowing I’m working on this book, sending me this HuffPost article: “‘Retirementmoons’ Are Trending. Here's How To Have The Best Experience”. It includes many personal stories and travel industry commentary you might find of interest, and opens this way:
Traveling as a way to celebrate big moments in your life isn’t a new concept, but one specific vacation trend in this area seems to be on the rise: “Retirementmoons” — a portmanteau of “retirement” and “honeymoon” — are becoming more popular as people look for special ways to commemorate the milestone.
And as the CEO of one travel planning agency noted, “These trips aren’t just about ticking off destinations; they’re about embracing freedom, reconnecting with passions and making memories that mark the transition” – make that transformation! – into retirement”.
Milestones & Capstone
The awkward construction of “retirementmoons” aside, this article connected to several areas I had been writing on experience guiding in the past two weeks. First, that in any transformation journey “There are milestones along the way, steps that should be recognized and celebrated”. The most important milestone is the last one, “the achievement of the aspiration, something that should be celebrated – ‘I was X, now I am Y!’ – as the capstone experience of the transformation offering.”
In thinking of the ongoing transformation journey that is working, retirement is not just any old milestone; it’s a capstone moment to which everything up to that point has culminated. I specifically mentioned retirement in my next paragraph:
Rituals and ceremonies can be especially appropriate at such a time. Think of graduations, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, baptisms, even retirement parties. How might you celebrate your aspirants’ achievements with or after a capstone experience?
So whatever industry you are in, how can you celebrate not just milestones along your customers’ transformation journeys, but especially that capstone achievement of their aspirations?
Follow-Through
Second, in writing of the final of the three phases of experience guiding (diagnosis, encapsulated experiences, and follow-through) I noted that follow-through – ensuring that the transformation takes hold – “is where most companies ostensibly in the transformation industry today so often fail their aspirants”, and then gave these examples across the four spheres of transformation (health & wellbeing, wealth & prosperity, wisdom & understanding, and purpose & meaning):
Healthcare providers diagnose and heal patients and then prescribe medicine, but do little when up to a third of them do not take their meds as directed. Financial advisors successfully manage their clients to retirement (or hitting “the number” that enables retirement), but rarely shift to helping them with what to do with their time. Educational institutions hand out diplomas and certifications without offering practical applications of what students learned. Many religious advisors focus on a baptism, bar or bat mitzvah, commission, or other such ceremony of spiritual significance, but often don’t extend the relationship into discipling. Transformation guiders of all stripes guide aspirants in hitting not just a major milestone but the highly anticipated capstone, and then think they are done with the transformation.
But of course they are not done; that’s where follow-through comes in. And note that second example – guiding clients in being retired, not just being able to retire. Nowhere in the article is there a financial advisor quoted, only travel advisors. But I know from friends, family members, acquaintances, and research that most people are ill-prepared for this transformation; where is the help, the guidance? Every financial advisor (individually and corporately) should remember that money is the means to an end; helping clients achieve their end aspirations – retirement being only one of them – would create much more economic value than merely managing their money (while also creating greater demand for the money management part).
Now think now about your own business
Think now about your business. What are you offering today that is but the means to an end? How can you subsume those means within the ends your customers aspire to become? And once you figure that out, don’t forget to celebrate each and every aspiration achieved!
Joe
© 2024 B. Joseph Pine II