Corporate Exit Diaries

It’s been one year since I made my corporate exit.

What a year.

It’s been a hard, exhilarating, humbling, worthwhile, year of struggle, stretch and success.

It’s been a year of:

• uncertainty
• travel (dozens of states, 5 countries...so far)
• learning
• wrestling (not literally, unless we're talking about the frequent forcing of things back into a carry-on suitcase and backpack)
• exhilaration in goals reached and new deals
• talking to hundreds of strangers-now-friends
• finally releasing my book (Dear Fellow Spender)
• heartache
• joy and contentment
• discovering how much I deeply love rocks and plants and toast...

But this wasn’t my first time leaving corporate.

Oh no no no...

I left a job 6+ years ago, fully intending for it to be my permanent break-up with the corporate grind.

I charged out of there with a heck-yeah energy:

"I can do what I want now! Brunch dates every day of the week, hikes at 2:00 in the afternoon without telling anyone or checking Slack while on the trail, no commute, no corporate bureaucracy complicating every single decision, no more fluff meetings..."

But I jumped too early for it to last.

Yeah sure, I was debt-free, finally trusted myself with the money in my care, had a savings runway, and a handful of clients for my budgeting coaching practice.

However, my “why” wasn’t meaningful, motivating, or solid enough, my savings and my business vision wasn't big enough, and I ended up playing small and re-entering corporate later that same year...

‍

The first time I left corporate, I played small.

This corporate leap, made a year ago, I've played much bigger and consistently. The reason why? Because it was more about YOU.

I finally was ready to really risk, take the big chances, make the mistakes, and play on a bigger stage because I want to help YOU get free to do similar.

This time my corporate exit was motivated by three things:

1. A feeling deep in my soul that it was time to leave the nest.
2. A hunger for the type of growth that doesn’t come for dreamers in corporate.
3. Knowing that in order to show up as the ME that could help YOU the most, I had to leave "safety" and go into the unknown.

Was my business exactly where I wanted it to be to make a smooth income transition?

Nope.

But I had plenty of savings and no debt.

I had a rock solid financial system for being proactive with my money and trusted myself with it.

I had (still have) a really good work ethic and a willingness to take way more risks this time.

Me taking the leap is why I’m a financial life coach (and very much my own kind of coach) and not a financial planner.

I do things a bit my own way, and they don’t always make sense on paper or to others.

Part of the journey of the past year has been embracing uncertainty in a big way.

Reminding myself what it feels like to leave safety and go into the unknown—in a BIG way—helps me commit even more to helping you get ready to leave your own safe nest and embark on your own adventure.

You might feel safe staying in your corporate job, afraid of entertaining your own version of uncertainty—starting your own business, retooling your career, leaving corporate altogether to be home more for family, writing your book.

But overstaying may not be that safe, especially because no job is ever guaranteed, and if your soul is shriveling.

You might be getting messages from the inside of you that it's getting to be time to do something different.

And the best way to be ready to make your own leap into the party of uncertainty is to get certain about and with your money.

Because when you get certain with money, it's amazing the uncertainty you can and might want to entertain...

‍

Dreams. How are yours?

In Part 2, we were talking about how getting certain with and about money allows you to go into your own unknown with more confidence.

But why would you want to head into the unknown, when where you are feels so...safe?

Well. In your 30s and 40s, you start to realize you basically have everything you’ve been working for. Your achievements might not all be what you dreamed about as a kid, but they're still really good!

Sure, you may have a portfolio of debt, but you have a lot of things you want and relationships and possessions that make life rich and comfortable.

And yet you wonder what’s missing.

Or why you don’t feel like you’ve “made it.”

Your spending might be to numb the is-this-it feeling.

After being all successful in corporate, family life, and having all the status things, you realize there’s still something missing.

I say that thing is a need for satisfaction and a feeling of making progress.

And one of the easiest ways to do that is to get intentional with your money and your time like your life—right now—matters.

Ya might want to read that again.

Getting intentional with money allows you to create your own definition of what “making it” looks like.

And manage your money around your own definition instead of someone else's.

It’s really easy to go after other people’s dreams, only to realize it’s not your dream to be stretched so thin or so busy “getting.”

It can be a full-time job to accumulate stuff, stress about managing all that stuff, and not liking what you have to do to make the money to keep getting the stuff.

In the words of Cindy Lou Who from The Grinch (one of my favorite Christmas movies🎄): “Isn’t this just a little superfluous?”

I’m learning more and more that my version of “making it” looks like:

• Contentment, not complacency.
• Simplicity over complicated and stressful.
• Peace over hustle.

Aimless spending only reinforces the aimless feelings you might have about your own life, or spending according to what you think someone who’s "made it" should spend like.

Intentional spending helps you get intentional about crafting a life that fills your soul.

More money doesn’t necessarily do this.

Well-managed money does.

And when you manage your money well you make it possible to:

1. Make money doing something you love
2. Intentionally choose to make less money to live your own version of "made it."

If you find yourself spending like your dreams are the same as everyone else's, you're going to find value in the last part of the Corporate Exit Diary. It's all about the intentional approach to well-managed money, spender-style.

Because spending is never the problem. Aimless spending (the kind that doesn't even feel good anyway) is.

‍

When I first started this piece, I set out to write a quick post about my 1-year mark of leaving corporate.

That “quick post” turned into a long expose on why you might even WANT to leave and how to get financially certain in order to embrace uncertainty.

A big part of my WHY I felt drawn out of corporate: building Moso Money Financial Coaching to help more people feel more peace in their day-to-day lives.

And the easiest way to get you more of that peace is to get involved in new and happier ways with the roots of your money.

To trust yourself with your money.

And to be able to use your money to intentionally create the life of your unique dreams.

A woman who trusts herself with money is in my opinion way more powerful than a woman making all the money in the world who doesn't yet trust herself with basic management of her money.

What specifically does it look like to get intentional with your money and your life to make your options possible?

👉 Look at everything. Put boundaries around all your accounts and debts and cash stashes.

👉 Come face-to-face with your spending and discover how much your life costs.

👉 Get really clear about what is in your life that doesn’t match what you actually envision for your life.

👉 Decide that you’re done using credit cards in unplanned fashion. The first step to getting out of debt is to stop getting into it.

👉 Budget. I don’t usually use that word this directly because of the "ew" factor, but here it is. Life with the kind of budgeting I teach is so much better than life without it.

👉 Stop letting your checking account tell you whether you can afford to spend. It knows nothing about your plans.

‍

In short, and to wrap up the Corporate Exit Diaries:

Your “why” really matters in whatever you’re doing.

Get yourself financially certain. This allows you to embrace the uncertainty that is between you and your own corporate exit, literal or figurative.

Create your own definition of what “making it” looks like.

Changing your money life is the easiest way I know to change your life.

Dear Fellow Spender is a great place to start if you are wondering what it looks like to get (more) intentional with your spending to create really exciting options for yourself and your one and only life.