The calendar invite comes from HR. Fifteen minutes, no agenda. You already know.
A week later, you're updating LinkedIn for the first time in years, trying to write a summary that doesn't scream "please hire me." Your inbox fills with recruiter messages for roles two levels below where you were. Friends text to say they're "so sorry" and ask if you want to grab coffee.
You do not want to grab coffee.
What you want is to stop the freefall feeling. To have something that's yours, that generates income, that uses what you actually know - not what some job description says you should know.
I've watched dozens of colleagues and peers go through this exact disorienting crash over the past few years. The ones who came out strongest weren't the ones who immediately jumped into another full-time role. They were the ones who realized: the expertise that got you to executive level doesn't disappear when the badge stops working.
What the people who handled this well figured out - and what I wish more people knew during that first terrible month.
You're Sitting on an Asset
When you've spent 15 or 20 years building expertise inside companies, it's hard to see that knowledge as separable from the job.
You think: "I was a VP of Customer Success at a Series C startup." That's the identity. That's what goes on the resume.
But what you actually have is something bigger: you've solved specific problems, in specific contexts, dozens or hundreds of times.
That knowledge - the pattern recognition, the shortcuts that took you years to discover - is worth real money to people earlier in the journey.
They can't learn it from a book. ChatGPT doesn't have it. The only way to get it is from someone who's been there.
That's you.
Why Right Now Is Actually the Moment
The counterintuitive thing about getting laid off: you're suddenly more valuable to the people who need expertise, not less.
When you were employed, you had constraints. You couldn't advise competitors. You couldn't take side projects.
Now? None of that applies.
You have time. You have freedom to work with anyone. And you have fresh, current knowledge from a real operating environment.
There's a window here. Your expertise is most valuable when it's most current.
Between Free Coffee and Full Consulting
Between "free coffee chats" and "full consulting engagement" is a space that didn't really exist five years ago.
Call it paid expertise on demand. Someone has a specific question, they pay a fixed amount, you give them a focused answer. No scoping calls. No proposals. No ongoing relationship unless both sides want one.
And the part nobody talks about: these small paid interactions are the best lead generation for larger work.
Someone pays for your take on their problem. You deliver something genuinely useful. Now they trust you. Now when they have a bigger project - an actual consulting engagement, an advisory role, a fractional position - you're not a stranger with a pitch deck. You're the person who already helped them.
Starting Without Building an Empire
The minimal version:
Step 1: Pick one domain. Not everything you know - one specific area where you have recent, relevant experience.
Step 2: List 10 questions you could answer. Real questions you've answered before, in your job.
Step 3: Set a price. Don't overthink this.
Step 4: Make it possible for people to pay you.
Step 5: Tell people you're doing this. One LinkedIn post. A few DMs to former colleagues.
The whole setup can be done in an afternoon.
Act While It's Fresh
There's a specific window after a layoff when this works best.
The sweet spot is roughly weeks 3-12. You've stabilized emotionally. You still have current, relevant expertise. You have time and flexibility.
One question. One answer. One person who pays you for what you know.
That's enough to start.
The layoff wasn't part of your plan. It never is.
But you've spent years accumulating expertise that doesn't disappear when the job does. The question is whether you'll use this moment to finally capture some of its value.
Your knowledge has value. Now might be the time to prove it to yourself.
You have expertise people need right now. Don't wait for the next job to use it. Create your profile.