Discover how to leverage your decades of expertise and experience to design a meaningful retirement lifestyle business that generates income while allowing you to work on your own terms and create the life you want.
Influential Woman · Business Consulting
Regina Andler
Business Strategist, Autumn Ascent Consulting, LLC
Salem, NH 03079
7Years experience
1Article published
Her Story
About Regina
I am a business strategist, best-selling author, speaker, and founder of Autumn Ascent Consulting LLC. I help women over 50 turn their lifetime of knowledge, skills, and experience into profitable coaching and consulting businesses that create impact, generate income, and support the retirement lifestyle they want to live.
As the creator of The Unicorn Factor®, my proprietary business methodology, I help entrepreneurs recognize what makes them unique and use those strengths to stand out in the marketplace. My approach combines practical business strategy, simple systems, and AI tools to help clients build sustainable businesses designed around their goals and the lives they want to enjoy.
With more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience and a background in corporate technology, operations, and leadership, I've founded and operated multiple businesses and worked with entrepreneurs across a variety of industries. I bring that real-world experience to my work, helping clients see opportunities, solve problems, and turn ideas into practical action.
I'm also the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book The Unicorn Factor®: Demystifying Marketing Content to Set You Apart From the Crowd, a contributing author to several collaborative books, and a longtime contributor to Ultimate Achievers Magazine.
I believe that success isn't about following someone else's path. It's about recognizing the value of what you bring to the table and building a business that allows you to make a difference while living life on your own terms.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Regina
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to keep learning and growing. Throughout my career, I've learned that success isn't about having everything figured out from the beginning. It's about being willing to take chances, learn from your experiences, and adjust course when necessary.
I've always had a natural ability to see the bigger picture, connect the dots, and find solutions where others might see obstacles. But just as important has been my belief in helping others succeed. I've found that when you focus on making a positive difference in people's lives, success often follows.
I also believe that success isn't a destination or something defined by someone else. It's about creating a life that reflects what matters most to you, being willing to grow along the way, and recognizing that it's never too late to pursue something new.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I've received a lot of great advice throughout my career, but one piece that really stuck with me came from a mentor who told me, "You are a business consultant. Go be a business consultant."
It sounds simple, but it made me recognize something I'd been doing naturally for years. Sometimes we're so close to our own talents and abilities that we don't recognize their value. We assume that because something comes easily to us, it must come easily to everyone else.
That advice reminded me of the importance of recognizing your own strengths, trusting your experience, and being willing to see yourself through someone else's eyes. It's a lesson I now carry into the work I do with my clients.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice would be to believe in yourself, stay curious, and never stop learning. Don't feel like you have to know everything before you get started. Some of the most valuable lessons you'll learn will come from taking action, making mistakes, and figuring things out along the way.
Find mentors, surround yourself with people who challenge and support you, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Most importantly, recognize that what makes you different is often your greatest strength. You don't have to do things the way everyone else does to be successful.
And don't let someone else define what success should look like for you. Build a career and a life that reflect your values, your strengths, and what matters most to you. Success is personal, and you're allowed to define it on your own terms.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think one of the biggest challenges in business right now is keeping up with how quickly things are changing, especially with AI. There are so many tools and so much information available that it's easy to get overwhelmed or spend more time learning about the latest thing than actually growing your business.
AI creates some amazing opportunities, but it's not a replacement for having a solid business strategy, understanding your customers, or building relationships. Those things still matter, and they always will.
I also see a huge opportunity for women who have spent years building careers, raising families, running businesses, or gaining valuable life experience. So many don't realize that what they already know could be the foundation for a successful coaching or consulting business.
To me, the opportunity is about using the tools we have today while recognizing the value of what we already bring to the table.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The three values I lead with in both my professional and personal life are authenticity, transparency, and integrity. I believe in being true to who you are, being open and honest with people, and doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. These values guide how I make decisions, build relationships, and run my business. I don't believe you have to compromise who you are to be successful. In fact, I believe the more authentic you are, the stronger your relationships become, both personally and professionally.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Regina
Your Experience Has Value. What Will You Do With It?
Design a Business Around the Life You Want to Live in Retirement
You've spent decades gaining knowledge, developing skills, solving problems, and learning from your experiences.
Whether you've built a career, run a business, raised a family, or done some combination of all three, you've accumulated a tremendous amount of knowledge along the way.
And now, as you begin thinking about retirement and what comes next, you have an opportunity to put that experience to work in a whole new way.
But where do you begin?
Retirement Doesn't Have to Look Like It Used To
For years, retirement was often viewed as the finish line. You worked hard, saved your money, and eventually stepped away from your career to enjoy the years ahead.
And for some people, that's exactly what they want.
But for others, retirement looks a little different.
You may still enjoy solving problems, sharing your knowledge, helping others, and being involved in something meaningful. You may also want to generate income that gives you more options for travel, hobbies, and the things you've always wanted to do.
The good news is that you don't have to choose between doing meaningful work and enjoying your retirement.
You can design a business that allows you to do both.
What Is a Retirement Lifestyle Business?
A retirement lifestyle business is simply a business designed around the life you want to live.
Rather than building a business and then figuring out how to fit your life around it, you start by deciding what you want your life to look like.
How much time do you want to work? What kind of work do you enjoy? What would you like your business to make possible?
For one person, that might mean consulting with a handful of clients each month. For another, it might mean coaching, teaching, or sharing specialized knowledge with others.
There's no single right way to do it.
The important thing is that your business supports your goals, your interests, and your definition of success.
You May Be Overlooking Your Greatest Strengths
One of the things I've discovered throughout my years in business is that people often overlook the very skills and abilities that make them valuable.
Why?
Because those things come naturally to them.
Have you ever found yourself saying, "Doesn't everybody know how to do that?"
The answer is no, they don't.
Something you've been doing for years without giving it much thought may be exactly what someone else needs help with.
I call this your Core Genius.
It's the combination of your knowledge, skills, experience, and natural abilities that makes you uniquely valuable.
And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your job title.
Someone who spent years managing teams may have a natural gift for helping people become better leaders. Someone with a background in project management may be especially good at taking complicated situations and creating simple, workable solutions.
The possibilities go well beyond the jobs you've held.
The key is recognizing what you bring to the table and how that experience could help someone else.
Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
After decades of working, you probably have enough knowledge and experience to build several different businesses.
But just because you could build a business around a particular skill doesn't mean it's the right business for you.
You might be excellent at managing large projects, but that doesn't mean you want to spend your retirement managing deadlines and coordinating teams.
You might have years of experience in an industry and be ready to use that knowledge in a different way.
That's why I believe it's so important to look at both sides of the equation.
What do you have to offer that someone would pay for?
And what kind of business would allow you to enjoy the life you want?
The answers need to work together.
Define Success on Your Own Terms
Earlier in your career, success may have meant promotions, higher income, growing a company, or taking on more responsibility.
But your priorities may be different today.
Maybe you want more flexibility. Maybe you want to travel. Maybe you want to continue making a difference while having more control over your time.
Whatever your goals, they should play a role in the business you create.
And, of course, the business still needs to make financial sense. It needs to solve a problem that people are willing to pay to have solved.
But when you combine what you're naturally good at, what you enjoy doing, what people need, and the lifestyle you want, you have a much stronger foundation for building something that works for you.
So, What's Possible for You?
If you've been wondering what you might do with the next stage of your life, I encourage you to start by looking at what you already know.
Think about the things people naturally come to you for help with. Consider the skills you've developed over the years and the problems you genuinely enjoy solving.
Then ask yourself a different question.
Instead of "What could I do with all this experience?" ask, "What would I enjoy doing with it, and what kind of life could it help me create?"
You may discover opportunities you haven't considered before.
Because retirement doesn't have to mean you're finished contributing, growing, or creating something meaningful.
It can be an opportunity to take everything you've learned and use it to create impact, generate income, and enjoy life on your own terms.
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