In today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, we're excited to introduce Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, the founder behind Enocraco, a unique venture that redefines what it means to "retire." Elizabeth's journey takes us from the high-stakes world of Wall Street law to the transformative work of helping high-achieving individuals plan the next chapter of their lives. Get ready to dive into the insights of a true innovator who has turned personal and professional challenges into a thriving, impactful business.
Hi, Elizabeth! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?
I work with high-achieving entrepreneurs, professionals, and executives to design a plan for their lives when they "retire" from their current endeavors. My clients are never "done" and while the freedom associated with the retirement concept is compelling, the notions of pure leisure, aimlessness, and stagnation are not. My company provides an array of individual and group programs to help our clients prepare for, navigate, and thrive as they embrace a new chapter of business or life. Note that we are not financial planners.
Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.
My first real business after leaving my career as a corporate lawyer with a large Wall Street law firm involved recruiting and placing lawyers within the "big law" market. I started by working for another recruiter but quickly saw that I could build my own firm, and with my collaborator's permission, I started my own national recruiting firm. The day that I placed my first lawyer in my own business was the day I knew that I'd always want to be a business owner. Even though the 2008 financial collapse ended my run as a legal recruiter, that first business success set the stage for all that was to come and gave me the confidence to pivot to a more satisfying and unique service offering.
Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.
Let me take you back to the moment I decided to "retire" from my law career at the ripe age of 35. I had convinced myself that my personal misery was a direct by-product of my career—which I both loved and hated in equal measure. Ten years into a solid run at an elite international law firm, I had earned admission to this rarified club through a combination of reasonable intelligence and a ridiculous amount of hard work. I had secured my dream, and I actually felt like I deserved it. I had worked full-time while attending law school in the evenings at Georgetown, and despite raging self-doubt at the outset, it seemed that maybe I had what it takes to succeed – even in a wildly competitive environment with a lot of geniuses and psychotics.
Why was I miserable, you ask? At the time, I could not figure out how to competently juggle the role of mother to two toddlers alongside the role of ass-kicking deal lawyer. Even though I could pull all-nighters and focus like a laser beam, the tension between these two priorities was killing me. It was 2003, and while the professional world talked a lot about finding ways to give working mothers a path to professional success, it was not obvious to me how to make it happen. Plus, I could not shake the feeling that I was slowly losing my shot at the life I actually wanted to live—the one where I was choosing my priorities and feeling present for the magical moments in life. Nothing felt magical. I had become a frantic, highly efficient unit of production, and I felt completely depleted and lost.
Of course, the path to building my first business twenty years ago to where I am now is a very long story. But that's where it all started, and I was correct when I imagined that business ownership would be the key to controlling my life in a way that would make me much happier and more fulfilled.
Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?
The biggest game changer for me has been my Executive Assistant, Noby Mislang, who joined me through a service provided by Athena. Athena is a phenomenal resource that pairs elite executive assistants with business owners and leaders to provide 360-degree life and business support. See www.athenago.com. Since Noby joined me, my productivity has skyrocketed and my stress levels have dropped. I cannot imagine how I managed three businesses without her. I cannot recommend Athena highly enough for busy entrepreneurs who need elite support.
We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.
When the 2008 financial collapse occurred, my legal recruiting business literally died overnight. It was truly the end of everything that I had built over five years, and it was absolutely devastating, both financially and psychologically. But I knew that I had valuable insights to offer, and based on my own experience "retiring" from a large law firm, I was well aware that the huge contraction faced by the legal market would mean that many lawyers would have to retool themselves and find a new way to use their skills and talent. In that crisis, my new business was born. I developed a program designed to help intense professionals reinvent themselves, and this work eventually evolved into the work I do today - supporting intense professionals to design an energizing and engaged life after they retire.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?
Our premium program for retiring professionals, the Encore Program, has always been offered on an individual basis over two days. Each client meets us in a resort environment, where we go deep with them over a two-day period to create a vision for the future and design a plan of action to get there. Rarely is there an opportunity to go this deep as a client with an adviser, and it is this level of personal attention that sets our work apart.
What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?
I wish I'd invested sooner in an executive assistant. My sense of overall competence led me to mistakenly think I could (and should) figure out how to do everything myself. I could not have been more wrong. The skill of delegation to a person I can trust has taken my business life to the next level while also allowing me to enjoy what I do more than ever. Total game changer and worth every cent.
Want to go deeper into Elizabeth's work? Take a look at these links:
- Visit Encoraco's website encoraco.com
- Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn: Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons
- Check out the advantages of Athena with Elizabeth's VIP Invite
- Get Elizabeth's Book 'Encore: A High Achiever's Guide to Thriving in Retirement' on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
