Scott Couchenour is on a mission to empower leaders in their 40s and 50s to realize the fullest expressions of their most successful selves in the years ahead..

Listen to the full interview with Adam Torres and Scott Couchenour on Mission Matters Startup Podcast.

Coaching on a part-time basis from 2007 onward, Couchenour arrived at a crossroads when the family business he’d been serving as COO for almost 25 years began struggling in the wake of the 2008 market crash. Even after he moved into the role of CEO and spent several years orchestrating a reinvention, he says, the company couldn’t overcome its cash flow problems and ultimately had to close its doors.

“I was a 50-year-old without a career,” he recalls, but notes that after several years’ worth of “self-doubt, anxiety, and a profound identity crisis, I began to emerge with some principles. The reinvention I worked on for our business contained principles universal to the reinvention of a person’s life,” he continues. “That’s where (my) 5D process comes from.”

Explaining that his pivot at age 50 helped him change his perspective and begin looking at life as a series of quadrants, he says, “Given the average life expectancy is around 80, I break that down into four 20-year segments.” The first, from birth to age 20, he says, is the first quarter, meant for learning; the second, from ages 20 to 40, is for building; the third, from 40 to 60, is for reaping, and the fourth, from 60 to 80, is for transforming.

So, he says, “I began to codify reinvention for those in their 40s and 50s in preparation for their 60s and 70s.”

How do business owners in their 40-50s prepare for their 60-70s using the 5D model?

For those in their third quarter to prepare for the fourth, Couchenour advises five steps: download, discern, design, do, and dig. In other words, it’s important to begin by getting out of your head, then make sense of the mess, identify a primary objective and some related…