I left Corporate in April 2020. It was the best decision I ever made. 

I have since also left London and moved to Devon, South West England for a few months*. Here I got to spend time with family, be there to see my nephew go to swimming class at 3pm in the afternoon, and walk the dog whenever I felt like it. On days where it was sunny, I could drive to the beach at the drop of a hat and spend the afternoon skimming stones.  A few months later, here I am writing this from my Managed Isolation hotel room in New Zealand, where, ironically, I have been trapped for 14 days before we are allowed to roam freely due to the pandemic - I get to check out later today!  I plan to stay in New Zealand for 6 months before the next destination. The best part? I didn’t have to ask anyone's permission. No request to take a sabbatical, no worrying about what my boss would say, or even thinking too much about money to move to the other side of the world. All this because, well, I felt like it. 

I don’t mean to sound blaze about that decision to leave corporate and to travel. It is one of the biggest decisions of my life to date. If you told me 5 years ago I would be quitting my corporate career, starting a business and traveling in the space of 9 months, I would never have believed you. Me? No way. That’s something other people do. 

Yet, here we are. A lot has changed on the outside, clearly. But what I want to talk about are the profound shifts I never expected to also happen on this inside. Should you ever find yourself quitting your 9-5 career (let’s be honest it’s more like 8-6 with 6 weeks off a year right?) to start a business, or perhaps you already have, you may notice these changes too. Let me share...

1. You will shift your self-concept completely 

I will always have a love affair with London, it is and will always be one of the best City’s in the world. Admittedly I loved working and living in the City. I loved having a company credit card, being responsible for millions of revenue and working with big-ticket brands. I loved the corporate travel, training in Washington, dining clients in the City (“The Ivy for a breakfast catch up? My treat...”), but boy was it demanding. The work never ends, and neither does the play. I loved the ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality until I just couldn’t anymore. I was ready to start working to live, instead of living to work. Starting my business on the side felt like a new lease of life to me. Life was good back then, I had no idea it could get this much better. Since being in my business I have never felt so purposeful and free in my life.

I have since met new business owners who still shy away from calling themselves an entrepreneur, CEO or business owner. Finding sanctuary in the safe confines of calling their business a side-hustle or project, not wanting to update their LinkedIn or tell their nearest and dearest. They dream of quitting their 9-5 too, but want to see more evidence that their business will work and the idea of quitting their job is actually petrifying.  I think it’s because by not committing fully to being an entrepreneur if it fails, there isn’t so much to let go, no judgement to be had and it’s easier to slip back into who you have always been. I know this because I felt that way at the very beginning too.

One of the pivotal moments for me was in letting go of this idea of having a backup plan. Look, nothing can take away from my previous career in HR, recruitment or in Client Relationship Management. In fact, now, I probably have a deeper and more profound understanding of those things thanks to my business, and it would be invaluable should I ever return to the 9- 5 grind. At the beginning, I even used to flaunt it as my backup plan; “Yes, I’m leaving to commit fully to my business, BUT I can always brush up my CV and go back into it if I need to”. I mean yes, technically I could still do that but the dialogue has now entirely changed, my entire self-concept has changed. I’m not the corporate gal trying on the ‘entrepreneur’ hat. I have committed fully, taken off the tags and am officially non-refundable. 

Making this decision was so liberating. It took me much coaching and a few aha moments to become fully aware of what it meant to have a corporate identity, and what it means for me to truly back myself and step fully into this persona of an entrepreneur. To become her. Now that I am here, it feels liberating. Not just liberating, it feels authentically me. 

I have also learnt there is no book that can tell how you to be an entrepreneur. If you are reading this looking for clues, then you’re looking in the wrong place. Because it’s not about what you do, it’s how you do (as with almost everything in life). Sure, as an entrepreneur, there are certain responsibilities that come with owning a business, I’m sure any accountant will tell you that. But what I’m talking about is the entrepreneur's self-concept. It’s not just a mindset it’s a way of being. Let me add it’s no better or worse than those who work a 9-5, I’m just saying it’s different, and to embody it fully required a complete shift in self-concept for me. My clients, who embrace this shift, say they feel it too. It means not relying on their being one best way. Not looking everywhere for answers, losing yourself to the scroll and downloading every freebie under the sun. It’s backing yourself fully - more on this later.

2. How you manage your days will completely change 

We were conditioned to operate on someone else’s time from as early as our school days and forever since. As a child we started the conditioning by being sent to school from 8am to 3pm, 5 days a week. Later in life we graduate into the world of work (literally in my case after obtaining a business and HR degree) into working 8-6 for corporate. Add on a company laptop and mobile phone, you’re actually on call 24-7. This grind mentality, a world history of consumerism, convenience and even the creation of the lightbulb all contributed to our conditioning (anyone who has read the book Sapiens; A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari will resonate). So you can imagine, going from that to not having anyone to answer to as being quite a shock to the system. 

You are left to your own devices, with no one to tell you if you are doing it right, how much is enough and what good looks like. I mentioned earlier that you live to work, you don’t work to live. Well running your own business can easily become a 24/7 thing too. At first, you are probably happy to do it. You love it right! You are feeling liberated, purposeful and excited. But it can catch up on you. With so many ideas and no clarity, you can easily be pulled into different directions and listen to the wrong people about what strategy and direction to take in your business.  

Finding balance is a challenge for everyone. Worklife balance is one of the HR buzzwords of the 90’s and it never really went away. With your business, it’s a new kind of time, stress and pressure management. It’s about backing yourself to know when you have done enough and knowing when to grind and put in the hours. It’s also about knowing how to work effectively and actually move the needle when you do sit down to focus. 

Having more time as a new business owner can be a curse in disguise. Sometimes you never stop, other times you don’t even start. Finding the discipline and knowing how operate effectively is a skill that’s learned. I often joke now, when deciding to take a day off or not, that my boss won’t let me. You wear many hats as a new business owner, and knowing which hat to wear, whilst being accountable to no-one but yourself is a learned skill. It takes time to find your rhythm in business, but when you do, it’s far more liberating than the 9-5 grind.

3. The inner work has never been more essential

When clients are putting their faith in you, your product or your service it just hits on a whole new level when you’re running your own business, even if you held similar responsibilities in your corporate career. I truly believe I can only meet clients at the depth I have met myself, especially as my line of work is a place where my clients come to be radically honest not just with me but with themselves. So I continue to work on myself so that I can serve my clients more powerfully. This may not be true of every business owner (there are plenty of business owners who are in it purely for the money, but even property investors are still in the business of creating homes and communities, not just buildings) but I do believe this philosophy is true of any purpose-led business owner.

Ikigai, a Japanese word loosely translated in the Western world to ‘purpose’ (more specifically, the reason for getting out of bed in the morning!) is commonly described as being made up of 4 key components. They are; doing what you love, doing what you are skilled at, being of service and being rewarded. This framework is one that describes me in my business fully. I love what I do, truly, it is a privilege and honour to hold the space I do for my clients as they transform into something greater. I am bloody great at what I do, I feel it, and my clients tell me, and I see it in how they transform. I am rewarded, not just financially but by the joy this work brings me. Finally, my business and I am of service, by showing up to my clients knowing I have reached my own depths, allowing me to serve them more powerfully as I hold them through theirs. 

The inner work is essential especially when I look at my business strategically. Being able to operate from a place of abundance and possibility is far more powerful than making decisions from a spiral of self-doubt, lack and comparison. It means I create from source, I am not copying or looking to others for direction. This doesn’t mean I don’t seek expertise,  but the ultimate decision and direction are always mine. This CEO mindset means I know the value of investing, especially in my own mindset and when I do so, I invest as my future self, not my present self. It allows me to level up quickly and grow with confidence. 

So what does the inner work even look like? The inner work is exactly what I help my clients with. It is bridging that gap from employee into CEO mindset. It is learning to trust and back yourself fully, even when you don’t have the evidence. The inner work is about getting crystal clear on your vision, understanding what you want, and more importantly knowing who you are. The work is also about facing your shadows, the parts of you that hold you back, tell you that you’re not good enough, or where you find yourself in circles of perfectionism, procrastination, and doubt. The inner work is understanding, forgiving and transforming these fears so they prevent you from self-sabotage in your business and allow you to reach your full potential. Finally, it’s developing the tools to stay in the right energy and mindset as you reach new heights, and new challenges as a new business owner. 

This is why the work is a continuous process. The most profound changes happened for me when I first started this work. But as your business grows you will grow with it. I always describe to my clients that personal development is like a tree. As you branch out, grow stronger, taller, braver, your roots must also grow deeper. So even when you have done some of the inner work before, it never truly stops. 

Are you a new business owner ready to step into your next-level self? 

Schedule your free Chemistry call today to explore if coaching is right for you and your business - book by clicking here. 

*location correct at time of writing!