April 24, 2025 • 22 mins
You said you'd leave after your corporate bonus—but you're still in that soul-sucking job. Why? What’s holding you back from leaving your 9 to 5?
In this episode, we're calling out the top 5 excuses high-achieving women use to delay their corporate exit—and how to drop them for good. Whether you're dreaming of becoming a coach, consultant, speaker, or business owner, it’s time to get honest about what’s holding you back.
We cover:
✨ The hidden cost of chasing one more promotion
✨ Why your side hustle can’t keep being your late-night hustle
✨ How your fear around money or partner’s opinion may be silently stalling your success
✨ The truth about self-doubt and trusting your ability to run a business
You’re not alone in these thoughts—I’ve been there and so have my clients! But staying stuck won’t get you closer to your purpose. Your dream deserves more than your leftovers!
It’s not the job, the money, or your partner. It’s the excuses. Let’s ditch them so you can finally make your Empowered Exit™.
🎧 Listen now and take your first real step toward reinvention.
If you're looking for additional support through coaching, visit my website to learn more about working together and my signature program EDIT Your Life™: www.karinfreeland.com/life-coaching
Then book a call here!
Not ready for coaching? Get a copy of my self-help book: Grab Life by the Dreams!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karin Freeland (00:00):
Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help
high-achieving career women likeyou get unstuck, make your
corporate exit strategy, andsuccessfully transition to your
next chapter.
Hi, I'm your host, KarinFreeland, a certified life coach
and corporate exit strategist.
Whether you want to start abusiness, become a speaker, or
something else, I'm here to giveyou the tools and strategies to
(00:23):
shift your mindset, build yourconfidence, and take bold
actions so you can rock yourreinvention.
Ready?
Let's go.
Well, welcome back.
We have got some real talk foryou today.
Look, you set the deadline forleaving your job.
(00:43):
You said you would exitcorporate and finally follow
your dream of being a coach, aconsultant, a business owner, a
speaker, whatever that dream isfor you.
You got your bonus.
and now you're dragging yourfeet, you are inadvertently
(01:04):
choosing to stay stuck.
And I'm not here to judge.
I've been right where you arenow.
And so have dozens of myclients.
I am, however, here to help youcall out the patterns holding
you back so that you canovercome them and finally
achieve your purpose.
(01:25):
So today I want to cover fiveexcuses that are holding you
back and that you could ditchright now if you wanted to.
The first one is you stillthink you can climb to the top.
And I see this excuse play outin two distinct ways.
The first one is, well, hey,since I worked this hard to get
(01:49):
where I am, I should probablyjust ride this out.
See how much money I can getfrom this gravy train.
See how high I can climb.
I just want to see if I can getto the next level.
Even though the thought ofstaying has you bored out of
your mind or filled with dreadand exhaustion.
(02:10):
And that my friend is just yourego talking.
And it's time to find out whyyour ego is so hell bent on you
climbing the corporate ladder.
There's definitely some innerwork that needs to be done
there.
Maybe a comment someone made toyou once, something that's
(02:30):
holding you back.
The second way that I reallysee this play out is in the
women I work with who have thisundeserved loyalty to their
company.
So for example, theorganization or leadership team
has just continued to danglecarrot after carrot and move the
goalpost on you 10 times Andeven though that's all happened,
(02:53):
you're still in this delusionthat it's just a matter of time
before you finally break throughto that next level.
But here's the truth.
You're wasting precious timebuilding someone else's goals
and dreams instead of your own.
More likely than not, your ideaof getting to the top is built
(03:17):
on corporate conditioning orpressures from society.
It's not even really your truedesires.
Most people don't wake up andsay, Oh, I want to be the VP of
operations, or I want to be theCMO of a energy company.
Like, I don't know, pick athing, pick an industry, pick a
title.
Like most people don't say thatwhen they're kids, there are
(03:41):
several hidden costs of stayingfor a promotion that may never
come.
or worse yet, that mightactually come and tighten those
golden handcuffs even more.
Think about that for a second.
How likely are you to leavewith an additional 50,000 in
salary or 300,000 in stockoptions?
(04:02):
I've seen it firsthand.
The chances of you leaving ifthat happens are drastically
reduced.
So what if you stopped tryingto climb to the top of someone
else's ladder and built yourown.
You could do that if youstopped thinking you could still
climb to the top, even thoughit's not something you truly
(04:25):
want.
Okay, the second excuse that Isee holding so many women back
is you think you can balanceboth.
If you started your business oryour side hustle,
congratulations.
That's amazing.
And very smart that you stayedin your job while you built this
(04:46):
and tested this out.
I often recommend that to myclients before leaving their six
figure job.
Maybe your side hustle has evenreally taken off and you might
be capped out right now and feellike I can't possibly take any
more clients or do any more ofwhatever your business is
because there's no more hours inthe day.
(05:06):
So you, you literally have runout of time to commit to that
side hustle.
So you're faced with adecision.
Do I leave corporate or keepbalancing both?
And let me be clear.
Yes, yes, you can balance both,but not forever.
(05:26):
Let me repeat that last part.
You cannot balance both afull-time job and a side hustle
for an extended period of time.
No matter how talented ororganized you are, Burnout is
real, and I see too many womenburning out trying to do both
(05:48):
for too long.
The truth is you can't keepgrowing your side hustle while
giving your day job your besthours.
Are you ready for a littletough love?
You know it comes from a goodplace.
How much longer are you goingto let your day job get in the
(06:08):
way of your real goals?
How much longer are you givingyour dreams your leftovers?
How much longer are you goingto delay or let go of your
legacy?
It's time to go all in on yourdreams and make them a reality.
(06:31):
And hear this.
You have been successful ineverything you've ever done.
So there's absolutely no reasonwhy you would not be wildly
successful here too.
I believe in you.
That's why I do this podcast sothat now you can believe in
you.
(06:51):
The third excuse that I hear isyou want more money.
Hey, I know I just got mybonus, but there'll be another
one next year.
And oh, there'll be a 3% payraise potentially.
Oh, there might be thisopportunity, that opportunity to
make more money.
I'm just going to stay.
Look, I know that this is asensitive subject.
(07:14):
And please don't take this thewrong way.
But I wonder if there might besome greed getting in the way.
Maybe some feelings of jealousytowards what Others have that
you feel you deserve.
Maybe your worth is too tied upin your worldly possessions.
(07:35):
And again, this desire oftencomes from ego or past seasons
in our life of scarcity where wedidn't have a lot of money.
You know, I used to say when myhusband and I were first dating
and living together in Florida,in Miami, what do you want for
dinner tonight?
Raviolis, raviolis, orraviolis.
(07:57):
We had no money.
I was a starving actress,waiting tables, barely living
paycheck to paycheck.
And we had canned raviolis, wehad fried raviolis, and we had
frozen raviolis in a bag.
And we were very limited onwhat we could eat.
And I have to remind myselfsometimes that I'm never going
(08:19):
back to that state.
even if my business went bellyup tomorrow and i made no money
for a year which that wouldnever happen but if that
happened i'm still not going tobe in a position where i have to
eat raviolis raviolis orraviolis okay so i can let go of
the need to want more money butif you grew up in poverty or
(08:40):
had very frugal parents youprobably have some deep-seated
fears around money Now there'snothing wrong with wanting money
unless it's detrimental to you,right?
And so we all need to look atthat for ourselves.
But I personally like tosubscribe now to the idea of
enough.
(09:01):
I'm not looking for more money,just enough to pay my monthly
bills, have a few extras and nothave to tap into my savings.
When's it gonna be enough foryou?
What's that monthly number?
And I think if you get reallyhonest with yourself, you'll
(09:21):
find it's a lot lower than youthink.
But to be sure, this is why Ialways recommend that my clients
work with a certified financialplanner.
They can give you the factsabout your money situation and
help you reach your financialgoals.
But if you're making sixfigures, not living above your
means, that's a biggie.
(09:41):
You've been contributing toyour 401k for quite some time.
I find it really hard tobelieve that you can't exit
right now.
And here's the thing.
As long as you get more money,you will just spend it.
That's what everyone does.
It's called lifestyle creep andit happens really slowly, but
(10:03):
essentially your cost of livingrises with how much you make.
You go out to eat more.
You fill up your closet with afew more things that you don't
really need.
You get season tickets to thetheater or some sporting event.
You take that extra vacation.
You buy your kid a nicer carthan you normally would have.
The next thing you know, youneed more money for that
(10:25):
inflated lifestyle, therebykeeping you trapped in that
corporate hellhole even longer.
But it's not all doom and gloombecause now you know this and
now you can do something aboutit and bust this excuse.
because you see it for what itreally is.
Just an excuse that's keepingyou trapped.
The fourth excuse that isholding you back from taking
(10:49):
that bonus money and sayingpeace out is you secretly don't
trust your capability to run abusiness or generate income.
This is more common than mostwant to admit.
This is part of why it took meso long to start consulting.
I seriously didn't think I hadthe skills.
Partly because I had spent alot of time in my corporate job
(11:12):
with consultants from companieslike McKinsey and Bain and BCG.
And I always felt like thoseguys, and I do say guys because
they all were, they were smarterthan me.
They were more strategic andworldly and it just seemed like
I couldn't keep up with them.
And so even when other womentold me, Karin, you should
(11:34):
become a consultant.
You could totally do this.
You have all these transferableskills.
I didn't believe them.
I had to do a lot ofself-reflection on the
discrepancy of how I saw myselfand how others saw me.
And maybe you do too.
I also had to get clear on whatkind of consulting I wanted to
(11:55):
do and where my sweet spot was.
I wasn't going to do what theseguys from McKinsey were doing.
For the first two years after Ileft corporate, I contracted
myself out and taught a socialselling program to sales
professionals in the techindustry.
Half of what I did when I wasin my corporate marketing job
was teach sales how to usesocial media.
(12:17):
No brainer.
Total slam dunk for me.
And I made a crap ton of money.
And while it wasn't exactlywhat I wanted to be doing, it
gave me time and the income towrite my books and build my
coaching business while Iconsulted part-time.
Okay.
I wasn't in a full-time joblike you are right now.
(12:38):
I was in a part-time job and Icould say no to any consulting
contract that didn't fit mybudget or my time.
And for you, You have skillsthat you can immediately sell.
We all have them.
You have an immediate means ofgenerating income.
(12:59):
You have the capabilities torun a business.
And maybe this means buying abusiness that already turns a
profit, or partnering up withsomeone so the risk is shared.
I mean, there's so manyoptions.
But if I can run a biz, so canyou.
If I can be a paid speaker, socan you.
(13:21):
If I can make money being apodcast host, so can you, right?
This is feasible and you havethe skills.
The last excuse is keeping youfrom leaving, now that you have
your bonus, is your partnerisn't supportive.
This is a tough one that I dosee with some of my clients.
(13:46):
Oftentimes the husband is usedto the wife being the
breadwinner and he actuallyenjoyed having his wife work and
provide for the family.
And now that you're thinking ofleaving, he's worried about his
lifestyle and might even guilttrip you into staying.
Sometimes this happens out ofhis own fear or money mindset
(14:08):
issues.
If he had poverty or scarcityseasons in his life, he may be
triggered and think, oh no,we're going to go back to that.
It may be something deeper.
Or maybe he just doesn'tinitially believe in your
ability to run a businessbecause he's never seen you in
this capacity before.
(14:29):
Or he had family members withfailed businesses and that past
situation is clouding histhoughts.
There are a lot of reasons whyit may seem like your partner
isn't supportive.
But before you jump to anyconclusions or project your own
fears onto him, you need tostart with an open and honest
(14:52):
conversation about what you wantto do and why.
So for example, At a timethat's convenient for everyone,
like not right when he comeshome from work or like he just
got done mowing the lawn andhe's like relaxing or something,
right?
We got to pick and choose agood time to have this
(15:12):
conversation.
But you might say somethinglike, look, I want to share
something with you that's beenon my heart.
You know, I haven't been happyin my job for quite some time.
I'd really like to leave.
I'm not quitting recklessly,but I want to build something
more meaningful for our future.
And then you can open it up tohim and say like, what are your
(15:33):
initial concerns?
Like, what worries you with meleaving?
And then let him talk.
Do not interrupt him.
Just let him articulate it.
And it may take a minute.
He may not understand all thereasons why he doesn't want you
to leave right now.
He may not have done that workon himself.
(15:55):
He might just be grasping atsurface level responses.
and then once he gets some ofthat out you want to acknowledge
his fears like yeah i'm scaredabout money too i get it but i
know that we are smartintelligent people and we're
gonna figure it out together andas you get in to articulate
(16:16):
your fears you can tackle themone by one without yelling or
feeling defensive Just go andwork through each one together.
And here's the thing that a lotof people who do like conflict
resolution, and I'm certainlynot an expert in this by any
means, but you kind of want likeyou and your partner to be on
(16:38):
the same side.
And then you put the problemlike across the table from you.
So you know how they say likeif you sit down to talk to
somebody and you're across fromthem, it feels very combative,
like you're going against eachother.
But if you and your spouse areon the same side, and then the
issue of leaving corporate iskind of over there, then you can
(16:59):
tackle that together, right?
As a team.
And some of the things thatcome up in this conversation,
you might have to table them ifthey're really big or really,
you need more information,right?
Like maybe you haven't doneyour due diligence yet and gone
to the financial planner.
Maybe that's the next step.
Like, look, okay, you'reworried about money.
(17:20):
I understand that you could beconcerned about that.
Why don't we go to a financialplanner together and see if this
is as big of a concern as wethink it is, right?
And then you can come back tosome of those.
Now, I wanna give you just acouple of quick tips for having
the money conversation.
Just like you do in your dayjob, right?
(17:41):
Present your exit plan like abusiness case.
You don't just go to your bossor your team members or whoever,
the leadership team, and go,hey, I have this great idea.
Just trust me on it.
It's going to be awesome.
No, you present a businesscase.
Do the same thing here.
Hey, honey, here's what I'vesaved.
Here's how long it's going tosustain us.
(18:03):
Here's how I plan to earn ourmonthly income.
Really show the math and thenumbers.
And don't be afraid.
to include some worst casescenario planning.
Like, hey, look, if I'm notgenerating consistent income by
this time next year, then I amwilling to consider pivoting or
(18:24):
contracting or doing somethingpart-time until I can get it off
the ground.
And let's be real, you canalways go back to corporate if
you decide.
It's still gonna be there ifyou change your mind Or if by
some crazy reason, things don'ttake off.
But more times than not, thatis just like a back burner.
(18:47):
It's just there, but you'llnever need it.
And one more tip, present someexpenses that you can cut or
reduce.
So for example, you might belike, hey, if we cut that
streaming service or we take ouradult child who is now 21 off
our cell phone bill and they canpay for it themselves, or we
(19:08):
find a lower cost landscaper, wecould actually save X amount a
month.
So see, I don't really need tokeep earning all this money.
One of the things that I foundin my life is money also made me
Don't take this the wrong way,lazy.
But what I mean by lazy is Iwould just throw my credit card
at every problem because Ididn't have time to investigate
(19:31):
a cheaper solution or a betteralternative or God forbid, do
something myself, right?
Like I was never cookingcookies for the class or
something, right?
Like I went to the store and Ibought the damn cookies and
there's nothing wrong with thatat all.
But you know what?
I didn't need to go buy cookiesnow for the class.
party, I can make them at homebecause I have the time.
(19:54):
So money sometimes just makesus not explore all the options
because it's a convenience.
That's a better way to say it,Karin.
Sorry.
Sometimes I have to articulatethis stuff to get to what sounds
better.
Money sometimes just makes usnot investigate all the options
because it's an easy, convenientsolution, right?
(20:16):
It's like the first thing wethink of.
It's that first option we runfor.
Bottom line, you're going toget a lot more buy-in from your
partner if he sees that you'vethought all of this through and
you have some backup plans.
At the end of the day, though,it's your life and your purpose
matters.
In time, he'll probably comearound, but if he doesn't,
(20:40):
that's okay.
You can still succeed withouthis support.
I know it would be nice if ourpartner always supported us, but
It's not a prerequisite foryour success.
You can still exit yourcorporate job and build
something really beautiful foryourself.
Okay, so that does it.
(21:01):
Five excuses that you need toditch right now so that you can
take that bonus money and run.
The first one, you still thinkyou can climb the corporate
ladder and get to the top, butyou don't even need that and
it's not actually gonna fulfillyou.
And if it doesn't come, thenyou've just wasted a whole bunch
of time that you could havebeen building your own dreams.
(21:22):
You think you can balance both,but not forever.
At some point, you're going toget burnt out or things are
going to start to drop, right?
You're going to start to dropsome balls.
And then what?
Number three, you want moremoney.
But do you really need thatmoney?
But what if you could make thatmoney somewhere else?
Again, that is just an excuse.
(21:43):
Number four, you secretly don'ttrust your capability.
to run a business or generateincome.
Hogwash, you're fabulous, and Iknow you can do it.
Number five, your partner isn'tsupportive, and that's okay,
because they don't need to be.
It's nice if they are, and Igave you some strategies for how
(22:04):
you can overcome that, but ifthey're not gonna support you,
you're still capable of doing itwithout them.
As always, I am rooting for youand I will keep believing in
you until you are strong enoughto believe in yourself.
Thanks for tuning in.
I hope you're inspired to takeaction by committing to one of
(22:26):
the tips or strategies we talkedabout in today's episode.
If you want more accountabilityand support, I've got your
back.
Book a complimentary empoweredexit strategy call today.
Visit karinfreeland.com tolearn more and book your
45-minute session.
Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help
high-achieving career women likeyou get unstuck, make your
corporate exit strategy, andsuccessfully transition to your
next chapter.
Hi, I'm your host, KarinFreeland, a certified life coach
and corporate exit strategist.
Whether you want to start abusiness, become a speaker, or
something else, I'm here to giveyou the tools and strategies to
(00:23):
shift your mindset, build yourconfidence, and take bold
actions so you can rock yourreinvention.
Ready?
Let's go.
Well, welcome back.
We have got some real talk foryou today.
Look, you set the deadline forleaving your job.
(00:43):
You said you would exitcorporate and finally follow
your dream of being a coach, aconsultant, a business owner, a
speaker, whatever that dream isfor you.
You got your bonus.
and now you're dragging yourfeet, you are inadvertently
(01:04):
choosing to stay stuck.
And I'm not here to judge.
I've been right where you arenow.
And so have dozens of myclients.
I am, however, here to help youcall out the patterns holding
you back so that you canovercome them and finally
achieve your purpose.
(01:25):
So today I want to cover fiveexcuses that are holding you
back and that you could ditchright now if you wanted to.
The first one is you stillthink you can climb to the top.
And I see this excuse play outin two distinct ways.
The first one is, well, hey,since I worked this hard to get
(01:49):
where I am, I should probablyjust ride this out.
See how much money I can getfrom this gravy train.
See how high I can climb.
I just want to see if I can getto the next level.
Even though the thought ofstaying has you bored out of
your mind or filled with dreadand exhaustion.
(02:10):
And that my friend is just yourego talking.
And it's time to find out whyyour ego is so hell bent on you
climbing the corporate ladder.
There's definitely some innerwork that needs to be done
there.
Maybe a comment someone made toyou once, something that's
(02:30):
holding you back.
The second way that I reallysee this play out is in the
women I work with who have thisundeserved loyalty to their
company.
So for example, theorganization or leadership team
has just continued to danglecarrot after carrot and move the
goalpost on you 10 times Andeven though that's all happened,
(02:53):
you're still in this delusionthat it's just a matter of time
before you finally break throughto that next level.
But here's the truth.
You're wasting precious timebuilding someone else's goals
and dreams instead of your own.
More likely than not, your ideaof getting to the top is built
(03:17):
on corporate conditioning orpressures from society.
It's not even really your truedesires.
Most people don't wake up andsay, Oh, I want to be the VP of
operations, or I want to be theCMO of a energy company.
Like, I don't know, pick athing, pick an industry, pick a
title.
Like most people don't say thatwhen they're kids, there are
(03:41):
several hidden costs of stayingfor a promotion that may never
come.
or worse yet, that mightactually come and tighten those
golden handcuffs even more.
Think about that for a second.
How likely are you to leavewith an additional 50,000 in
salary or 300,000 in stockoptions?
(04:02):
I've seen it firsthand.
The chances of you leaving ifthat happens are drastically
reduced.
So what if you stopped tryingto climb to the top of someone
else's ladder and built yourown.
You could do that if youstopped thinking you could still
climb to the top, even thoughit's not something you truly
(04:25):
want.
Okay, the second excuse that Isee holding so many women back
is you think you can balanceboth.
If you started your business oryour side hustle,
congratulations.
That's amazing.
And very smart that you stayedin your job while you built this
(04:46):
and tested this out.
I often recommend that to myclients before leaving their six
figure job.
Maybe your side hustle has evenreally taken off and you might
be capped out right now and feellike I can't possibly take any
more clients or do any more ofwhatever your business is
because there's no more hours inthe day.
(05:06):
So you, you literally have runout of time to commit to that
side hustle.
So you're faced with adecision.
Do I leave corporate or keepbalancing both?
And let me be clear.
Yes, yes, you can balance both,but not forever.
(05:26):
Let me repeat that last part.
You cannot balance both afull-time job and a side hustle
for an extended period of time.
No matter how talented ororganized you are, Burnout is
real, and I see too many womenburning out trying to do both
(05:48):
for too long.
The truth is you can't keepgrowing your side hustle while
giving your day job your besthours.
Are you ready for a littletough love?
You know it comes from a goodplace.
How much longer are you goingto let your day job get in the
(06:08):
way of your real goals?
How much longer are you givingyour dreams your leftovers?
How much longer are you goingto delay or let go of your
legacy?
It's time to go all in on yourdreams and make them a reality.
(06:31):
And hear this.
You have been successful ineverything you've ever done.
So there's absolutely no reasonwhy you would not be wildly
successful here too.
I believe in you.
That's why I do this podcast sothat now you can believe in
you.
(06:51):
The third excuse that I hear isyou want more money.
Hey, I know I just got mybonus, but there'll be another
one next year.
And oh, there'll be a 3% payraise potentially.
Oh, there might be thisopportunity, that opportunity to
make more money.
I'm just going to stay.
Look, I know that this is asensitive subject.
(07:14):
And please don't take this thewrong way.
But I wonder if there might besome greed getting in the way.
Maybe some feelings of jealousytowards what Others have that
you feel you deserve.
Maybe your worth is too tied upin your worldly possessions.
(07:35):
And again, this desire oftencomes from ego or past seasons
in our life of scarcity where wedidn't have a lot of money.
You know, I used to say when myhusband and I were first dating
and living together in Florida,in Miami, what do you want for
dinner tonight?
Raviolis, raviolis, orraviolis.
(07:57):
We had no money.
I was a starving actress,waiting tables, barely living
paycheck to paycheck.
And we had canned raviolis, wehad fried raviolis, and we had
frozen raviolis in a bag.
And we were very limited onwhat we could eat.
And I have to remind myselfsometimes that I'm never going
(08:19):
back to that state.
even if my business went bellyup tomorrow and i made no money
for a year which that wouldnever happen but if that
happened i'm still not going tobe in a position where i have to
eat raviolis raviolis orraviolis okay so i can let go of
the need to want more money butif you grew up in poverty or
(08:40):
had very frugal parents youprobably have some deep-seated
fears around money Now there'snothing wrong with wanting money
unless it's detrimental to you,right?
And so we all need to look atthat for ourselves.
But I personally like tosubscribe now to the idea of
enough.
(09:01):
I'm not looking for more money,just enough to pay my monthly
bills, have a few extras and nothave to tap into my savings.
When's it gonna be enough foryou?
What's that monthly number?
And I think if you get reallyhonest with yourself, you'll
(09:21):
find it's a lot lower than youthink.
But to be sure, this is why Ialways recommend that my clients
work with a certified financialplanner.
They can give you the factsabout your money situation and
help you reach your financialgoals.
But if you're making sixfigures, not living above your
means, that's a biggie.
(09:41):
You've been contributing toyour 401k for quite some time.
I find it really hard tobelieve that you can't exit
right now.
And here's the thing.
As long as you get more money,you will just spend it.
That's what everyone does.
It's called lifestyle creep andit happens really slowly, but
(10:03):
essentially your cost of livingrises with how much you make.
You go out to eat more.
You fill up your closet with afew more things that you don't
really need.
You get season tickets to thetheater or some sporting event.
You take that extra vacation.
You buy your kid a nicer carthan you normally would have.
The next thing you know, youneed more money for that
(10:25):
inflated lifestyle, therebykeeping you trapped in that
corporate hellhole even longer.
But it's not all doom and gloombecause now you know this and
now you can do something aboutit and bust this excuse.
because you see it for what itreally is.
Just an excuse that's keepingyou trapped.
The fourth excuse that isholding you back from taking
(10:49):
that bonus money and sayingpeace out is you secretly don't
trust your capability to run abusiness or generate income.
This is more common than mostwant to admit.
This is part of why it took meso long to start consulting.
I seriously didn't think I hadthe skills.
Partly because I had spent alot of time in my corporate job
(11:12):
with consultants from companieslike McKinsey and Bain and BCG.
And I always felt like thoseguys, and I do say guys because
they all were, they were smarterthan me.
They were more strategic andworldly and it just seemed like
I couldn't keep up with them.
And so even when other womentold me, Karin, you should
(11:34):
become a consultant.
You could totally do this.
You have all these transferableskills.
I didn't believe them.
I had to do a lot ofself-reflection on the
discrepancy of how I saw myselfand how others saw me.
And maybe you do too.
I also had to get clear on whatkind of consulting I wanted to
(11:55):
do and where my sweet spot was.
I wasn't going to do what theseguys from McKinsey were doing.
For the first two years after Ileft corporate, I contracted
myself out and taught a socialselling program to sales
professionals in the techindustry.
Half of what I did when I wasin my corporate marketing job
was teach sales how to usesocial media.
(12:17):
No brainer.
Total slam dunk for me.
And I made a crap ton of money.
And while it wasn't exactlywhat I wanted to be doing, it
gave me time and the income towrite my books and build my
coaching business while Iconsulted part-time.
Okay.
I wasn't in a full-time joblike you are right now.
(12:38):
I was in a part-time job and Icould say no to any consulting
contract that didn't fit mybudget or my time.
And for you, You have skillsthat you can immediately sell.
We all have them.
You have an immediate means ofgenerating income.
(12:59):
You have the capabilities torun a business.
And maybe this means buying abusiness that already turns a
profit, or partnering up withsomeone so the risk is shared.
I mean, there's so manyoptions.
But if I can run a biz, so canyou.
If I can be a paid speaker, socan you.
(13:21):
If I can make money being apodcast host, so can you, right?
This is feasible and you havethe skills.
The last excuse is keeping youfrom leaving, now that you have
your bonus, is your partnerisn't supportive.
This is a tough one that I dosee with some of my clients.
(13:46):
Oftentimes the husband is usedto the wife being the
breadwinner and he actuallyenjoyed having his wife work and
provide for the family.
And now that you're thinking ofleaving, he's worried about his
lifestyle and might even guilttrip you into staying.
Sometimes this happens out ofhis own fear or money mindset
(14:08):
issues.
If he had poverty or scarcityseasons in his life, he may be
triggered and think, oh no,we're going to go back to that.
It may be something deeper.
Or maybe he just doesn'tinitially believe in your
ability to run a businessbecause he's never seen you in
this capacity before.
(14:29):
Or he had family members withfailed businesses and that past
situation is clouding histhoughts.
There are a lot of reasons whyit may seem like your partner
isn't supportive.
But before you jump to anyconclusions or project your own
fears onto him, you need tostart with an open and honest
(14:52):
conversation about what you wantto do and why.
So for example, At a timethat's convenient for everyone,
like not right when he comeshome from work or like he just
got done mowing the lawn andhe's like relaxing or something,
right?
We got to pick and choose agood time to have this
(15:12):
conversation.
But you might say somethinglike, look, I want to share
something with you that's beenon my heart.
You know, I haven't been happyin my job for quite some time.
I'd really like to leave.
I'm not quitting recklessly,but I want to build something
more meaningful for our future.
And then you can open it up tohim and say like, what are your
(15:33):
initial concerns?
Like, what worries you with meleaving?
And then let him talk.
Do not interrupt him.
Just let him articulate it.
And it may take a minute.
He may not understand all thereasons why he doesn't want you
to leave right now.
He may not have done that workon himself.
(15:55):
He might just be grasping atsurface level responses.
and then once he gets some ofthat out you want to acknowledge
his fears like yeah i'm scaredabout money too i get it but i
know that we are smartintelligent people and we're
gonna figure it out together andas you get in to articulate
(16:16):
your fears you can tackle themone by one without yelling or
feeling defensive Just go andwork through each one together.
And here's the thing that a lotof people who do like conflict
resolution, and I'm certainlynot an expert in this by any
means, but you kind of want likeyou and your partner to be on
(16:38):
the same side.
And then you put the problemlike across the table from you.
So you know how they say likeif you sit down to talk to
somebody and you're across fromthem, it feels very combative,
like you're going against eachother.
But if you and your spouse areon the same side, and then the
issue of leaving corporate iskind of over there, then you can
(16:59):
tackle that together, right?
As a team.
And some of the things thatcome up in this conversation,
you might have to table them ifthey're really big or really,
you need more information,right?
Like maybe you haven't doneyour due diligence yet and gone
to the financial planner.
Maybe that's the next step.
Like, look, okay, you'reworried about money.
(17:20):
I understand that you could beconcerned about that.
Why don't we go to a financialplanner together and see if this
is as big of a concern as wethink it is, right?
And then you can come back tosome of those.
Now, I wanna give you just acouple of quick tips for having
the money conversation.
Just like you do in your dayjob, right?
(17:41):
Present your exit plan like abusiness case.
You don't just go to your bossor your team members or whoever,
the leadership team, and go,hey, I have this great idea.
Just trust me on it.
It's going to be awesome.
No, you present a businesscase.
Do the same thing here.
Hey, honey, here's what I'vesaved.
Here's how long it's going tosustain us.
(18:03):
Here's how I plan to earn ourmonthly income.
Really show the math and thenumbers.
And don't be afraid.
to include some worst casescenario planning.
Like, hey, look, if I'm notgenerating consistent income by
this time next year, then I amwilling to consider pivoting or
(18:24):
contracting or doing somethingpart-time until I can get it off
the ground.
And let's be real, you canalways go back to corporate if
you decide.
It's still gonna be there ifyou change your mind Or if by
some crazy reason, things don'ttake off.
But more times than not, thatis just like a back burner.
(18:47):
It's just there, but you'llnever need it.
And one more tip, present someexpenses that you can cut or
reduce.
So for example, you might belike, hey, if we cut that
streaming service or we take ouradult child who is now 21 off
our cell phone bill and they canpay for it themselves, or we
(19:08):
find a lower cost landscaper, wecould actually save X amount a
month.
So see, I don't really need tokeep earning all this money.
One of the things that I foundin my life is money also made me
Don't take this the wrong way,lazy.
But what I mean by lazy is Iwould just throw my credit card
at every problem because Ididn't have time to investigate
(19:31):
a cheaper solution or a betteralternative or God forbid, do
something myself, right?
Like I was never cookingcookies for the class or
something, right?
Like I went to the store and Ibought the damn cookies and
there's nothing wrong with thatat all.
But you know what?
I didn't need to go buy cookiesnow for the class.
party, I can make them at homebecause I have the time.
(19:54):
So money sometimes just makesus not explore all the options
because it's a convenience.
That's a better way to say it,Karin.
Sorry.
Sometimes I have to articulatethis stuff to get to what sounds
better.
Money sometimes just makes usnot investigate all the options
because it's an easy, convenientsolution, right?
(20:16):
It's like the first thing wethink of.
It's that first option we runfor.
Bottom line, you're going toget a lot more buy-in from your
partner if he sees that you'vethought all of this through and
you have some backup plans.
At the end of the day, though,it's your life and your purpose
matters.
In time, he'll probably comearound, but if he doesn't,
(20:40):
that's okay.
You can still succeed withouthis support.
I know it would be nice if ourpartner always supported us, but
It's not a prerequisite foryour success.
You can still exit yourcorporate job and build
something really beautiful foryourself.
Okay, so that does it.
(21:01):
Five excuses that you need toditch right now so that you can
take that bonus money and run.
The first one, you still thinkyou can climb the corporate
ladder and get to the top, butyou don't even need that and
it's not actually gonna fulfillyou.
And if it doesn't come, thenyou've just wasted a whole bunch
of time that you could havebeen building your own dreams.
(21:22):
You think you can balance both,but not forever.
At some point, you're going toget burnt out or things are
going to start to drop, right?
You're going to start to dropsome balls.
And then what?
Number three, you want moremoney.
But do you really need thatmoney?
But what if you could make thatmoney somewhere else?
Again, that is just an excuse.
(21:43):
Number four, you secretly don'ttrust your capability.
to run a business or generateincome.
Hogwash, you're fabulous, and Iknow you can do it.
Number five, your partner isn'tsupportive, and that's okay,
because they don't need to be.
It's nice if they are, and Igave you some strategies for how
(22:04):
you can overcome that, but ifthey're not gonna support you,
you're still capable of doing itwithout them.
As always, I am rooting for youand I will keep believing in
you until you are strong enoughto believe in yourself.
Thanks for tuning in.
I hope you're inspired to takeaction by committing to one of
(22:26):
the tips or strategies we talkedabout in today's episode.
If you want more accountabilityand support, I've got your
back.
Book a complimentary empoweredexit strategy call today.
Visit karinfreeland.com tolearn more and book your
45-minute session.
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