Why I Love Being an Advisor (And How to Become One)

After you sell a company, everyone asks what is next, and almost nobody warns you how strange the question feels. I have built and sold three businesses, and somewhere along the way the answer became advisory work: chairing advisory boards, sitting on others and advising founders through the moments I once lived. This article is two things at once. It is an honest account of why I love the work, including the parts that were hard to adjust to, and it is a practical answer for the operators who keep asking me how to become an advisory board member themselves, because the path is more accessible than most people think and less comfortable than most people expect.

The nod of the head

Let me start with why the work is worth doing, and it is not the fees. The best moment in advisory work is watching a founder change and grow, and it arrives as something tiny: the nod of the head. The non-verbal recognition of a breakthrough, the moment a nugget of gold resonates and flicks the switch. You can see it happen in real time, an idea landing in someone who was stuck, and everything they do afterwards is slightly different because of it. That is what an advisor is actually for, and chasing that moment never gets old. The second joy surprised me more: the learning runs in both directions. Sitting on boards alongside sharp people from different industries means sometimes I am the one who receives the nugget of gold, and after decades of operating, being a student again is a quiet pleasure I did not expect the work to include.

The honest part: letting go is hard

Now the part the recruitment-style articles never tell you. The transition from operator to advisor is genuinely difficult, and the difficulty has a name: letting go. I am a doer. For thirty years my job was to execute, to be in the driver's seat, to make the thing happen with my own hands. Advising is, to a degree, spectating. You are mentally and emotionally invested in the outcomes, often deeply, but once the meeting ends and the follow-up is done, there is nothing left for you to do except stay on top of the changes and remain hands-off while other people do the actual work. For a certain kind of person, and most successful founders are that kind of person, that restraint is the hardest professional skill they will ever learn. If I could speak to the version of myself who was one year past an exit and wondering what came next, the message would be simple: relax man, it will all be okay, do not force it. The identity shift takes time, and forcing it just delays it.

What actually makes a good advisor

Having chaired boards and watched many advisors succeed and fail, I can tell you the two qualities that separate them, and neither is intelligence. The first is empathy. If you cannot understand the journey, you cannot sit in the shoes of the founder and see the actual problems, as opposed to the problems visible in the board pack. Empathy is what lets you connect, and connection is what makes advice land rather than bounce. The second is breadth of experience, because breadth is what lets you diagnose effectively and, just as importantly, know what you do not know. The advisor who has only lived one company, one industry or one function keeps prescribing their single experience as universal medicine. The dangerous advisors are certain. The valuable ones are curious, and I wrote about the sharpest version of that trap, advising people close to you, in should you become an advisor to a friend. Much of what makes the role work is the same pattern recognition that makes second time founders better than first-timers: the lessons compound, and advisory is how they compound into other people's companies.

How to become an advisory board member

The practical path, stripped of mystique. First, be honest about your raw material: advisory seats go to people with genuine operating scars, a real network and a specific expertise someone will pay for, so name yours precisely rather than describing yourself as an all-rounder. Second, start where you are known. First seats almost never come from cold applications; they come from founders you have already helped informally, investors who have watched you operate, and your existing network hearing that you are open to advisory work, so say it out loud and say it specifically. Third, treat the first seat as a product you are building: do it brilliantly, ask for the referral, and let the second and third seats come from the first. Fourth, take the craft seriously, read properly before every meeting, respect the confidentiality absolutely, and learn the governance basics through a body like the Australian Institute of Company Directors so you understand where advisory ends and directorship begins. And fifth, price yourself properly from the start, because underpricing your first seat sets an anchor that takes years to move; I have written a full guide on what advisory board members should charge, and the short version is that too cheap damages you more than too expensive.

Who should not do this

A caution offered with love, because the failure mode is common. If what you actually miss is running things, advisory work will frustrate you and your restlessness will leak into the boardroom as interference. If you need to be the smartest voice in the room, you will talk when you should listen and the founders will quietly stop bringing you the real problems. And if you are drawn mainly by the day rates, the market will find you out, because the advisors who last are the ones motivated by the nod of the head, with the fees as a consequence rather than the point. The best test: think of the last time someone else succeeded using your advice and you felt genuine joy with zero need for credit. If that memory exists and warms you, you will probably love this work. If you cannot find one, build a few first.

The bottom line

I love being an advisor because it distils the best part of three decades of building: the breakthroughs, without the payroll. The price of admission is learning to let go, leading with empathy, and accepting that your job is now the question, not the execution. If you are an operator wondering how to become an advisory board member, the path is real: name your expertise, activate your network, do the first seat brilliantly and price yourself like you mean it. And if you are a year past your own exit, staring at the "what next" question, take the advice I would give my younger self: relax, it will all be okay, and do not force it. The work finds the people who are ready for it.

FAQs

How do you become an advisory board member in Australia?

Start with a precisely named expertise and an activated network, because first seats come through people who have seen you operate, not cold applications. Do the first engagement brilliantly, ask for referrals, learn the governance basics and price yourself properly from the beginning.

What qualifications do you need to be an advisory board member?

No formal qualification is required, which is exactly why credibility matters so much. Genuine operating experience, specific expertise and a track record people can verify are the real currency. Governance education through a body like the AICD helps you understand the boundary with directorship.

What makes a good advisory board member?

Empathy and breadth. Empathy lets you sit in the founder's shoes and see the real problems rather than the reported ones. Breadth of experience lets you diagnose accurately and know what you do not know. Advisors with one experience prescribed universally do damage politely.

How much do advisory board members earn?

In Australia the range runs from around $500 a day at entry level to $5,000 a day for scarce senior expertise, with monthly retainers around $4,000 common in the middle. Most working advisors hold a small portfolio of seats rather than one full-time equivalent.

Is advisory work a good career after selling a business?

For many exited founders it is the most natural next chapter, converting decades of pattern recognition into other people's progress. The honest caveat is the transition: you must genuinely enjoy enabling outcomes rather than executing them, and that shift takes most operators time.

Wondering what your next chapter looks like?

If you are an operator or exited founder weighing up advisory work, or a founder who wants an advisor who has actually lived the journey, this is the conversation I have most often and enjoy most.

Not sure whether an advisory board is the right move yet? Take the free advisory board readiness assessment. Six minutes, a score out of 100 and a straight answer.

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