Kevin Kermes

Background

About Kevin Kermes

I'm Kevin, and I spend my time writing and building communities for people who are quietly ambitious. That's a specific kind of person. Accomplished, credible, second-in-command types who've spent 20+ years becoming exceptional at what they do. Now they're looking at what's next, and "what's next" doesn't look like climbing another rung. I started as an Army Infantry Officer. That foundation taught me something useful: clarity under pressure matters more than complexity. After the military, I spent years in executive recruiting, launched + sold search firms, placed hundreds of senior leaders. I learned how organizations think about talent, and more importantly, how talented people think about their careers when no one's watching. In 2008, I founded Career Attraction. Over the next 15+ years, I worked with more than professionals, most of them senior executives navigating transitions they didn't have a playbook for. CXOs wondering if they actually want to be CEO. Senior Leaders realizing the next role up isn't the answer. GMs who've built everyone else's vision and are ready to build their own. That work became CreateNext Group, the container for everything I build now. It's a community, a collective, and a trusted space for senior professionals to bring to life what's next for themselves personally and professionally. Not retreads of what they've already done. The real thing. Life-first businesses, sovereign income, work that doesn't require them to perform a version of themselves that stopped fitting years ago. The people I serve are in their mid-40s to early-60s, transitioning from corporate performance to something more aligned. They're leaving big titles and good money to build autonomy. They don't need cheerleading. They need clarity work, frameworks that match how they actually think, and a place where "I don't know what's next, but I know it's not this" is a legitimate starting point. I write about all of this in my Substack, The Quietly Ambitious, where I publish frameworks, psychology, and practical strategy for leaders in transition. If you're one of those people, or you work with them, you'll find something useful there. Subscribe here: https://thequietlyambitious.substack.com/