There is a pervasive myth that keeps many talented professionals tethered to roles they have outgrown. It is the belief that to build a portfolio career or step into independent consulting, you must burn the boats and reinvent yourself entirely.

We look at the independent space and feel we cannot get there because we don’t have the ‘perfect’ experience, we haven’t packaged ourselves like the influencers on LinkedIn, or we don’t know the right people. We assume that freedom requires a new identity.

But I am not going to lie to you: this line of thinking is not only wrong; it’s expensive.

In this article, I will share why your current career history isn’t something you leave behind, it is the very asset that funds your freedom.

The Reinvention Trap

I speak to many senior professionals who unconsciously discount what they already know. They look at their fifteen or twenty years in the public sector, the NHS, or corporate delivery, and they see ‘old news’. They assume that independence requires reinvention rather than translation.

This manifests in a specific behaviour which looks like “collecting credentials like Pokémon cards”.

You might feel the urge to get another certification, another degree, or another piece of paper to prove you are worthy of charging for your advice. You worry that without a shiny new label, you are an imposter. Meanwhile, there are people younger than you, and potentially less capable, who are doing better financially and visibly.

Why? Because they aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. They are simply packaging what they know in a way the market understands. They aren’t chasing the ego boost of a new qualification; they are chasing the clarity of a solved problem.

Translation Over Reinvention

When I moved into programme management advisory and services, I had a moment of realisation. I wasn’t learning anything fundamentally new. I was utilising skills I had honed working in the NHS and the public sector. The delivery mechanisms were the same; only the language had changed.

I had to reshape, rethink, and reimagine my experience to speak the language of the private sector (and I’m still on this journey).

All learning is based on past experiences and events. Even when we imagine new things or use tools like AI to generate ideas, we are simply engaging in a resynthesis of old information. The goal isn’t to become a new person; it is to resynthesise the information you already possess so it is tailored to the client you want to help.

Consulting is simply familiar work in a new sequence.

Think about ‘prospecting’. In the corporate world, we call this relationship building. It requires asking great questions, listening intently, and building rapport. You do this every day with stakeholders.

Think about ‘delivery’. This is just execution. You diagnose the issue, you plan the solution, and you implement it. You already operate inside these delivery systems; you just haven’t labelled them as a service yet.

How to Leverage Your Career Capital

If you want to create freedom, you must stop hoarding certificates and start articulating value. Here is how you shift from employee to consultant mindset:

1. Stop Accumulating, Start Articulating

Experience becomes leverage only when it is articulated. The private sector doesn’t care about your specific qualification; they care about what you have done. You need to frame your experience using the PAR model:

Problem: What was the strategic or operational issue?
Action: What specific methodology did you apply?
Result: Did you save money, improve efficiency by a percentage, or enhance customer feedback?

2. Map the System

You already understand how work moves. You know how governance works, how decisions are made, and what procurement models look like. This is your edge. When private-sector clients speak to me, they often want to understand the nuances of data interoperability or leadership dynamics within a specific sector. You know the “boring” stuff that outsiders are desperate to understand. That knowledge is sellable.

3. Use the DAPIE Framework

Don’t overcomplicate delivery. It follows a logical flow that I call DAPIE^©:

Diagnose: Understand the problem through primary and secondary research. This looks like speaking to people, reading reports and data, and understanding policies, service specifications and processes.
Assess: Based on all of the information you have found, formulate your hypothesis and present it to your client.
Plan: Develop the implementation roadmap that aims to resolve the problem at hand. Think of People, Operations, Technology and Information (POTI).
Implement: Do the work! Setup the review meetings! Get organised and get going.
Evaluate: Review the outcome and evaluate lessons learned and next steps. You have likely run this cycle hundreds of times. Now, you simply need to sell the cycle.

The Economy of Relevance

We live in a time where people are obsessed with attention. But you have to ask yourself: do you want the “Bag”r, or do you want to be “That guy”?

Reinvention chases attention. It’s flashy. It feels good to say you are starting something brand new. But relevance compounds income.

Real business is built on relationships and trust. It is about being appropriate and relevant to the right people, not getting likes from the wrong ones. Market alignment beats personal ego every time. Freedom comes from refining what already works, not trying to be a ‘big shot’ in a new arena where you have zero footing.

Conclusion

Your experience isn’t baggage. It is the raw material for your independence.

You already own the intellectual property required to be free. You understand the systems, the people, and the problems. The only missing link is your willingness to sit down, do the work of mapping your skills to market needs, and articulate your value without apology.

Don’t rely on AI to do the deep thinking for you, and don’t wait for another certificate to permit you.

How will you resynthesise your past experience to fund your future freedom this week?

Understand. Reach. Expand.

Peace.