What Happens After the Layoff

Richard Taliaferro

Author

Entrepreneurs Gone Wild
August 08, 2025

I knew from the beginning this place wanted to exist.

Not just as a patch of land. Not just as an idea in my journal. But as a real, living space where people could come home to themselves.

Wild Woods Retreat sits on 30 acres in the Smoky Mountains. Every step of building it has been both harder and more meaningful than I imagined. And now, for the first time, you can see it taking shape.

The site is live:
👉 https://wildwoodsretreat.com

This isn’t about filling cabins. It’s about making space for quiet, for clarity, for people who are usually the ones holding it all together.

If you’ve been craving room to exhale, come take a look. You may find something you didn’t know you needed.

Speaking of clarity, this week’s feature is all about what happens when your old path end, and how to build something even more aligned. Meet Richard Taliaferro.

Richard Didn't Just Survive a Career Loss… He Built a Coaching Practice to Help Others Thrive After Theirs

When Richard Taliaferro got the call, he knew what it was.

Not because he was expecting it, but because he'd watched it happen again and again to other people. Colleagues. Friends. Quiet goodbyes and the kind of corporate reshuffling that leaves decades of experience sitting at home, wondering what the hell just happened.

This time, it was him.

After 26 years at The Wall Street Journal, the layoff came like a sharp pivot at the end of a long sentence. He'd been there through the paper’s evolution from print to digital. He’d managed change. Mentored people. Worked with the video department. Delivered under pressure with millions of eyes watching.

And now?

Gone.

That moment, the deep breath after a career cliff, is where a lot of people freeze. But Richard didn’t.

He went to his bookshelf.

The Certification He’d Almost Forgotten

Years before the layoff, Richard had quietly enrolled in coaching school. Nights and weekends. It wasn’t some grand career shift, more like a “just in case.” He’d always been drawn to personal development. Always the guy lingering in the self-help section at bookstores.

By the time the call came, he already had two coaching certifications. He just hadn’t used them yet.

And suddenly, he knew why he had them.

Helping People Rebuild After the Big Shift

Richard now works with mid-stage professionals who are staring down the same identity crisis he faced.

People who've been in their roles 10 or 15 years and feel it slipping. Or worse: people who’ve just been laid off, forced to reimagine their future with no script and no safety net.

He doesn’t offer hype. Or quick wins. Or the kind of advice that works better in a meme than it does in real life.

He offers space.

Space to pause. Reorient. Ask better questions.

His 12-week coaching program is built around mindset. But not the “grind harder” flavor. This is mindset as a doorway. A way to separate who you are from what you used to do. Because, as Richard puts it, “You did that job. But you aren’t that job.”

That distinction? It's everything.

Structure Creates Freedom

There’s another shift that’s shaped Richard’s work lately, and it’s one that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Systems.

“Building systems is key,” he says. “Systems for clients. Systems for content. The systems you build help your business run better and let you do the thing you enjoy.”

And for Richard, that’s coaching people.

The more he’s streamlined behind-the-scenes operations, the more space he has to focus on what he’s best at: helping others think clearly. His process is still deeply human. Still personal. But now, it’s held by structure so it doesn’t all live in his head.

That clarity? It ripples outward.

Clients feel it too.

The Anti-Guru With a Calm Voice and a Clear Map

There’s no bluster in Richard’s work. He’s not trying to go viral. He’s trying to help people breathe again.

His clients come in tangled. Not just in logistics, but in identity. And he helps them slow down just enough to untangle it all so they can find what’s next without panic.

He doesn’t rush them to declare a new title. He invites them to notice what they’ve always loved. What’s always worked. What still lights them up.

And then he walks with them while they build something around it.

He doesn’t tell you what to do. He helps you remember what you already know.

From Newsroom Stress to Park Bench Wisdom

There’s one other shift Richard made when he left the Journal.

He went outside.

A lot.

In Central New Jersey, there are parks near his home where he walks, runs, hikes, and sometimes just sits with coffee and an iPad. That’s where his best ideas come from. Blog drafts. Newsletter nuggets. Clarity.

His favorite writing room? A picnic table at sunrise.

No cubicle. No office buzz. Just squirrels, coffee, and that quiet, honest place where thoughts get unstuck.

It’s the opposite of his newsroom life, the daily pressure of being right, fast, and hyperaware of who's watching.

Now? He's watching squirrels.

And somehow, writing better than ever.

Why It Matters

You can read plenty of posts about reinvention. Career pivots. “Doing what you love.”

But Richard isn’t just repeating what he read in a book. He lived it. He got the call. Faced the fear. Dusted off the thing he prepared for quietly, when no one was watching. And he turned it into a new life.

That’s what he helps others do.

Whether you’re mid-career and wondering if there’s more… or you just got blindsided by the kind of corporate decision that makes your stomach drop… Richard Taliaferro is someone who will meet you in that space and help you move through it.

Not over it. Not around it. Through it.

And that makes all the difference.

P.S. This fall, I’m co-hosting a 3-night gathering in the Tennessee woods.

It’s called The Shift Weekend and it’s for women who feel like something inside is ready to change.

We’ll move, write, laugh, cook, learn from the land, and get back in tune with our bodies.

It’s more than time away.
It’s a shift in how you see yourself, your work, your next season.

The conversations go deep.
The breakthroughs feel real.
And the women you meet? The kind who see your magic and reflect it right back to you.

If that kind of space sounds like what you need, come take a look:
https://forms.gle/GEZ2sSZJtVrtwckc8

Just 20 spots. I’d love for you to be one of them.

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