The first time Sue Remes retired from her career as a global beauty industry consultant who spent more time on planes than at home in Minneapolis, she quickly got lured back to work by a longtime client in need. Sure, it was on her terms—limited hours, no travel—but it wasn’t the true break she felt ready to make.

In 2024, after nearly 40 years in the beauty business, she retired again. This time, she says, it’s official. “All I’ve ever done in my life is beauty and I really wanted to try some other things,” Remes said in a podcast interview on a recent episode of By All Means: The Mentor Series. “So I’ve gone down that road pretty deeply and I’ve been mindful about it. I’m not willing to get off the boat again.”

Remes calls this chapter a “rewirement”— “because I’m busier now than I was in my career.”

Here’s her advice for finding purpose after stepping away from a demanding career.

Get creative

“I was so single-minded in my career, I knew I wanted to live a more creative life.” For Remes, that meant painting classes and learning to felt. “Creating art is like the greatest stress reliever.”

Continue learning

“I’m somebody who believes that learning comes from both being excited about something and feeling a little bit of pain with something. So I really set out to create new experiences for myself.” That could be as simple as trying a new restaurant, or in Remes’s case, selling her felted wool animals at a couple of popup shopping events. “Putting art into the world was scarier for me than any stage I walked on to do a keynote.”

Build new relationships

“In work, you’re constantly meeting people. In retirement, you have to figure out how you are going to continue building those supportive relationships, because that is part o what keeps us healthy. Remes joined the board of the Steger Center for Innovation and Leadership. ‘I think everybody’s fear is they’re going to sit home and never get off the La-Z-Boy in front of the TV. For me, it was how am I going to support my community, and how am I going to support the next generation of women coming up in the beauty industry.”

Remes offers advice to next gen beauty founder Bruna Valente of Terrain Brazilian Botanicals on episode 142 of By All Means: The Mentor Series.