The escape from corporate and my own time-based approach

Ever been stuck in a 9-5 job you didn't love? Or better yet, something you downright hated so much that you'd go home to a bottle of wine every night to block it from your mind while complaining to anyone who would listen that you were meant for more?

For me, that was management consulting.

Back in 2018 (not that long ago!) I was assigned to a project in a Japanese owned company, I wasn't to speak unless spoken to, I wasn't to raise ideas in meetings unless I'd already voiced them prior through the right chain of command, I wasn't to leave my desk at the end of the day unless my supervisor had gone home and if I was working from home I clearly wasn't working, so don't even think about it.

My phrase of the year was "Kill me now".

The thing with corporate and the whole "double income" thing is that it's comfortable. You get used to a certain way of living, you buy your lunch every day without thinking about it, you take out a mortgage you can only just afford, buy the car you've had your eye on it and before you know it, you're just "stuck".

Taking off my apron (figuratively speaking), throwing it on the floor and marching out the door on a whim wasn't exactly going to happen (or if it had happened, it wouldn't have worked out well!). I needed an exit plan.

You guys might remember from my last blog, the failed start-up that bled me dry? One critical error that I forgot to mention was that back then I impulsively quit my well-paid corporate job in Oil & Gas to throw myself into start-up life convinced I couldn't fail.....and well....I failed.

This time round, I knew better. I'd fallen in love with the whole concept of digital marketing, I couldn't get enough of what I was learning about launches, funnels, challenges, branding, strategies, my mind was buzzing with possibilities. For the sake of my family though, of my marriage, of my mental health, I needed to ease my way out of corporate gently while building up my income somewhere else so that the transition wasn't stressful.

And before any of that could happen I needed to complete a whole lot of training. Like hours and hours and hours.

So when you work full time, you've got young kids at home and you've got a partner who rolls their eyes at you any time you mention another entrepreneurial idea, when exactly do you find the time and space to do what you need to do in order to do what you want to do? (which in my case was the apron throwing scene 😂)

For me, my routine became something like this and it differed very little day-in-day-out for more than 6 months:

6:20AM Wake-up & get ready for work

7AM Drop toddler at daycare

7:15AM Headphones in and listening to James Wedmore tutorials while I caught the bus to work

9AM Start work (headphones in)

9AM-12PM Work my mindless job while simultaneously listening to James, podcasts or any free webinars on the digital marketing that I could find

12-12:45PM Cross the street to my closest cafe, laptop and workbook in hand, order the same chicken and cheese toastie and chai latte that I got every single day on their $10 lunch deal and sit there working my way through the Business By Design Program. 

12:45-5PM Working (for the most part), but every now and again stopping to type out an idea for a sales page or a launch strategy or something that I just had to get down on paper before the idea was gone

5-5:45PM Sitting in the empty food court outside of work with my laptop and workbook, more Business By Design study (it's a long program!) 

5:55-6:30PM Bus ride home (headphones in) listening to James

6:30PM Arrived home like nothing had happened, entrepreneurial hat off, mum and wife hat on, husband none-the-wiser

A key detail I left out (& a very strong motivator), just before these 6 months of craziness began something exciting happened. I was PREGNANT🎉! (story for another day) and I had zero interest in returning to corporate when baby number 2 arrived, so it was do or die, now or never.

I'd love for you to share with me your own story or escape - or perhaps you're just preparing your own apron throwing scene as we speak?

I'll leave you with this if you're just beginning:

You don't have to go quite so hell-for-leather in your approach but, for me, that crazy 6-month schedule definitely set me up for the success that followed shortly after.

I meet a lot of people who tell me they would like to do something but that they "don't have time" and when I hear that I think "you haven't reached the point where the alternative to making time is worse than doing nothing at all".

As (the great) James Wedmore says, "Your success is inevitable. All that stands between you and your success is TIME" and I'll add to that, I don't know about you, but the less time the better!! Get cracking!

If this article resonated with you and you're curious to hear what else we might have in common, keep an eye out for the next blog in my series "The Heart-Centred Apprentice" and drop a comment below. 💕