Client Case Study

FROM CORPORATE PEAK TO PORTFOLIO POWER.

After 20 years in senior C-suite roles at Johnson & Johnson, Ernie didn't need another title. He needed a box that fit the life he'd already built, so he made one.

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The Challenge

After 20 years in senior C-suite roles at Johnson & Johnson, Ernie was told he was overqualified and repeatedly pushed toward SVP roles that required relocating away from his sons.

The Shift

Instead of forcing himself into a company's existing framework, Ernie built his own box: a consulting practice defined by his own parameters, not a prescribed title.

The Outcome

Ernie now runs a portfolio practice: consulting engagements ranging from 10 to 50 hours a week, two nonprofit board seats, and university lecturing, all on his own terms.

Olivia Gamber

A Note From The Founder

Olivia Gamber, CEO

When Ernie came to me, he was already at the top of the top. Twenty years at Johnson & Johnson, working directly with the C-suite at one of the largest companies in the world. The question wasn't whether he could get another job. It was where do you even go from there when you've already reached that kind of pinnacle.

He had chosen to retire from the corporation, not from work, and taken time to travel and reset before he started looking seriously. What he found on the other side surprised him. Companies wanted to hire him, but only into their existing frameworks: a senior director role that quietly became an SVP pitch requiring a move to Europe or across the country, away from two sons still in college on the East Coast. He kept hitting the same wall. Would he compromise the parameters he'd set for his life to fit someone else's org chart.

Underneath the job search was something harder to name: a grieving process. Twenty years of team dynamic, structure, and identity don't dissolve because you decide to retire from the corporation. Ernie was also nervous, for the first time in his career, about picking up the phone and asking his own network to pay him.

What we built together over the next year wasn't a job search. It was a box that didn't exist yet, one Ernie had to create himself.

THE CEILING AFTER THE C-SUITE

Olivia Gamber

So tell, obviously, if you could walk us back to when we met and you were transitioning out of your role that you had for so long... What was going through your mind? Like, I mean, technically you could retire, you didn't need to work, but you still had this drive, you were still hungry.

Ernie

Exactly. I was 20 years at Johnson and Johnson in a very senior role, very senior roles, multiple. And the world had changed. The pandemic took a lot out of me. I was exhausted... The options that were presented to me to continue working at Johnson & Johnson, it just didn't feel right for me. And there was a third option, which was I could retire from the corporation. That didn't mean I was going to retire from work, but I could retire from the corporation. And that unto itself was incredibly freeing and liberating and exciting.

But when I started getting serious about jobs, searching about four months after my last day at the company, I started getting interviews pretty easily... I put some principles in place. I wasn't going to move across the world. I didn't really even want to move across the country yet. My boys are still in college here on the East Coast, and I didn't want to be too far from them... I think that a couple of times I came up against this wall of, would I be willing to compromise my parameters for the job?

“I found myself coming back to no.”

Olivia Gamber

Absolutely. Because you've done their job, right? And so that's what everybody tells me. They're like, Olivia, they keep telling me I'm overqualified.

Ernie

I got two or three interviews in on a senior director level role, which would have been great for me. But then pivoting midway through it, saying, we have an SVP job that you'd be better for. However, it's not in your immediate proximity. You need to move to Europe or you need to move across the country. Again, coming up against my barriers that I had set for myself of saying, well, I'd be quite happy actually in this role that I applied for. I don't necessarily need to do that.

BUILDING HIS OWN BOX

Ernie

When I started, I was very nervous about tapping my own network, but I was inspired by the model here. And so when I started going through the trainings, I started just feeling emboldened.

“For two months, I was sending seven or eight notes a day, four days a week, to people that I know, creating opportunities.”

PARAMETERS, PROJECTS, AND CONTINUAL LEARNING

Ernie

And that got me a couple of consulting roles. And so over the summer through the fall, I was working some weeks 10 hours, some weeks I was working 50 hours. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was pulled in to work on a massive M and A that really shocked wall street... I worked with her for about 50 or 60 hours over a four day period and helped her knock out this massive, super confidential M and A.

Ernie

I was advising two different consulting firms. I have a lot of expertise in that... I ran at J and J a $30 million budget with oversight for multiple consulting firms that advised us. So I really know from the other side, from the client side, what works and doesn't work at PR agencies today. I got uncomfortable when they asked me to come in as SVP into their firms, because I didn't want to do the hard sell service work that they really needed in order to bring me in.

So I put my parameters in place and I said, well, I'd come in for this, but I don't want to come in for that. I would rather have the majority of my time, 70% on the service side, not necessarily on the sales side, which they wanted to reverse probably even more than 90, 10. So I turned a couple of those things down.

Ernie

Today's Wednesday, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I take AI for senior leaders, a class that I take online, just to keep my skills sharp and really make sure that I'm still learning and staying abreast of the latest trends.

“Everybody needs AI. But everybody also needs RI. And RI is real intelligence.”

A FULLER LIFE

Ernie

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I'm really excited about it. I really am looking forward to, I'll say this.

“I laugh a lot more. I read a lot more. I go to galleries and look and appreciate art. I have deeper friendships.”

Ernie

I'm much more full life. I have deeper friendships and because I have more time to focus on these things. And my son came home... he showed up at five thirty on Sunday and it was really great. And I just feel more complete now.

Olivia Gamber

That's amazing. And I think what I've just seen since when I first met you, your whole definition of success has completely evolved and you're more focused on alignment with what your values are and less on titles and status because you're in a different mindset. You're not chasing that validation anymore.

Ready to Stop Applying?

Ernie proved that after two decades in the C-suite, the next chapter doesn't have to look like the last one. If you're ready to build your own box instead of squeezing into someone else's, let's talk.

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Read the full transcript

Olivia: Absolutely. Because you've done their job, right? And so that's what everybody tells me. They're like, you know, Olivia, they keep telling me I'm overqualified. And I'm sure you got that over and over again, right? Right.

Ernie: two or three interviews in on a senior director level role, which would have been great for me. But then pivoting midway through it, saying, you know what, we have an SVP job that you'd be better for. However, it's not in your immediate proximity. You

Ernie: When I started, I was very nervous about tapping my own network, but I was inspired by the, by the model here. And so when I started going

Ernie: I got uncomfortable when they asked me to come in as SVP into their firms, because I didn't want to do the hard sell service work that they really needed in order to bring me in. I would have been happy coming back full circle to what I said earlier. I would have been happy to come in as a senior strategist doing them, doing the roll up your sleeves, nuts and bolts, but they didn't want to hire me for that. They wanted to hire me to come in and

Olivia: Where, what sparked this idea? How did, how did you guys come down this path? Did you come up with this idea? Or what led you to the alternate, you know, where you're at now? Could you share that story?

Ernie: there was a grieving process. I had to go through to say, you know what? It's okay. It's okay to separate yourself and recognize that perhaps the future is not working seven to seven in a corporate office all the time anymore. Now, look, right. The hard part for me was missing that dynamic of being in the energy of being in an office and being part of a team that's kind of rolling forward, all that kind of stuff. Because when you consult, it is you.

Olivia: Yeah.

Ernie: You guys know that better than anybody. Yeah. So I did have to go through a little

Ernie: I laugh a lot more. I read a lot more. I go to galleries and look and appreciate art.

Olivia: Um, it sounds like you have a much more full life to me.

Ernie: I'm much more full life. I have deeper friendships

Ernie: me a couple of consulting roles. And so, you know, so over the summer through the fall, I was working some weeks, I was working 10 hours, some weeks I was working 50 hours. Just a couple of weeks ago, two weeks ago. Now I was asked to, I was pulled in to work on a mitt, a massive M and a, that really shocked wall street,

Ernie: some weeks, like I said, it's really 20, 30, 50 hours. Some weeks, it's five,

Ernie: I'm on two different nonprofit boards.

Ernie: to J and J, I was a partner at a consulting firm that we built and sold. So I have a history on that side too. So I was, and plus I ran at J and J, a $30 million budget over with oversight for multiple consulting firms that advised us.

Olivia: what would, what advice would you give them?

Ernie: and it took her 45 days. She got through all these trainings, got all these certifications and she had three offers.

Ernie: for two months, I was sending seven or eight notes a day to four days a week to people that I know creating opportunities,

Ernie: I'm talking to all my biggest industry contacts. I specialize in earned media. So working with reporters, I make sure I loop to them on a regular basis. So if they write an article, I send them a note. Or if I'm just thinking about something creatively, even if I'm not representing somebody, I share the ideas with them. I go to lunch with reporters all the time just to keep it fresh so that when I need to pick up the phone, like these consulting things that kind of pop up for big, for, you know, for big M&As or big, I actually have constant contact with them and I can slide right in,

Olivia: how did you, how do you overcome that? And, you know, stay optimistic about the field with what you're seeing.

Ernie: today's Wednesday, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I take AI for senior leaders, a class that I take online, just to keep my skills sharp and really make sure that I'm still learning and staying abreast of the latest trends.

Olivia: like ops tech, you know, you know, like the creatives are getting hit hard right now. And so as you think about AI, because everybody's using AI for communications and emails. And so what's your take on all this?

Ernie: Everybody needs AI.

Olivia: Yeah.

Ernie: But everybody also needs RI. And RI is real intelligence.

Ernie: Earlier in the year, I took an accounting class and a finance class. Right now, I'm taking an AI class.