For about a month. I have been asked by many, many people what I will be doing once I retire from teaching.
The questions and comments have been telling.
“So you’ll just write books now? Become a full-time author?”
“Planning to play a lot more golf?”
“Will you be shifting your energy to storytelling and stand-up once you’re done teaching?”
“So you’ll just kick back and wait for those pension checks to arrive every month?”
Someone even asked me if I plan to become a full-time substitute teacher to supplement my pension and savings.
I suspect that the word “retirement” is part of the confusion, because although I have retired from my teaching career, I am still working on my many other careers. Retiring from teaching will simply allow that other work to happen more flexibly, more easily, and more profitably.
But no one seems to know exactly what I will be doing, or really what I have been doing over the past decade.
Elysha is constantly being asked the same kinds of questions.
“What will Matt do now?”
So, in the spirit of answering all these questions in one place and creating a place where I can direct these curious minds in the future, here is what I am and will be doing in terms of work moving forward:
- I am a consultant on the topic of storytelling, which in business terms encompasses marketing, sales, branding, communication, strategy, and leadership. My clients include companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Ticketmaster, AMC, and many more. I also work with philanthropic organizations, school districts, colleges and universities, keynote speakers, authors, celebrities, and even the FBI.
- I am a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who takes the stage around the world, speaking at industry conferences, corporate retreats, company gatherings, corporate training sessions, and more. This year, I will be traveling to Canada, London, Denmark, Nashville, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Orlando, New York, Nantucket, Raleigh, Montreal, Austin, Arkansas, and more.
- I am an author of fiction, nonfiction, and magazine columns. My first middle-grade book will be published in January, and I am currently working on my next adult novel, my next nonfiction book, my next middle-grade novel, and a book of advice for middle-grade students based on my teaching career. I also have a collection of picture books that I very much want to publish and two memoirs that I would like to find a home for someday.
- I am the founder and co-owner of storyworthy.com — where I sell online courses on storytelling, teach mastermind workshops, and offer a VIP membership to an exclusive community with access to me and all of my storytelling content.
- I’m the founder and Creative Director of Speak Up — a storytelling organization that Elysha and I own and operate. We produce storytelling shows in Connecticut and beyond. We also partner with organizations such as Voices of Hope and Red Talks to highlight their causes and the people behind them.
- I am a performer who is paid to tell stories, deliver stand-up, and perform my solo shows around the country. I also perform alongside Jeni Bonaldo and Elysha in “Matt and Jeni Are Unprepared” — a show that combines storytelling, improv, comedy, and competition.
- I own YouTube and TikTok channels, both of which generate small amounts of income that I hope to grow.
- I am a substitute minister for Unitarian Universalist churches in New England.
But I have been doing all of this work already, for more than a decade, and in some cases, two decades.
None of it will be new to me.
I will simply be doing it more flexibly now, picking and choosing when I work, who I choose to work with, and what is the most profitable way to make these things happen. I am fortunate to have a team that works alongside me to make much of this work friction-free and far more efficient.
But yes, I also plan to play more golf.
I also look forward to having more time and flexibility to support and care for Elysha and the kids.
Also, more time to explore new interests, complete much-needed household projects, and reconnect with people I miss.
I also plan to register as a substitute teacher for those days when my friends at Wolcott School are shorthanded, and I am available and still only five minutes away.
I also plan to volunteer at Wolcott School in any capacity my friends and former colleagues would like – teaching a writing lesson, working with an individual student or small group of kids, helping out on field day, fixing the sound system, and even making copies and correcting papers if needed. My friend and former colleague, Sharon Snow, has shown me this path to staying connected to the people I love and to the place that will also be my second home, and I will be eternally grateful to her for it.
So yes, I have retired from my teaching career, but I am not retiring from work, my career, my business, and my craft.
“What will you be doing now that you are retired?”
I’ve been asked this question hundreds of times since I announced my retirement from teaching.
The answer?
All of the above. Maybe more.
I’m always in search of the next great adventure.
