Corporate Escapology

Series 2/Episode 26: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like Primo is doing.Primo left BP about the same time as me, after about the same length tenure but he did one thing I didn't do - he'd got himself prepared with a ready-made product he'd mastered at BP to sell to others when he left.In BP, Primo was synonymous with Insights - the coloured lego bricks that highlight your different personality preferences - it was his personal brand.  And when he left the company, it was pretty obvious what he'd be able to do to harness that brand externally for his own benefit - and to help others.And that's what he's done - he's now making a career travelling the world helping others get the benefit of his experience and expertise helping teams work better together and understand one another more.I've wanted to have Primo on the podcast for a long while because I think his is a model that works for many of us - even ones without an accredited product to offer.  Packaging up our knowledge to share with those who haven't had access or have a problem you can solve.  It's often easier for customers to buy products than time, because they feel more in control like they know what they're getting.  And for us, products are often easier to scale.Take a listen, lots to learn here from Primo.You can meet Primo on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/primo-masella/

Series 2/Episode 25: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.But this one is a bit different, because James Green isn't a Corporate Escapologist.  He's an entrepreneur turned investor turned venture builder.And his firm DQ Ventures specialises in helping corporate people build their dream businesses - without exiting the safety of their jobs.  At least not to begin with, not until the risk has decreased.  The tagline is: Start a company before quitting your job.DQ Ventures acts like a co-founder to someone with an idea who doesn't have the time to commit everything to turn it into a business - and has too much to lose.  They bring business-building experience: customer discovery, tech, go-to-market, investment - and in exchange for a fee and some equity, they help road-test the business until you're ready for the Great Escape.You can read more about DQ Ventures at https://dqventures.com/ and meet James on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/greenjim/.

Series 2/Episode 24: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like Elizabeth is doing.Elizabeth is a writer; it's something she dreamed of us as young person but just didn't ever see the career path - and no-one really helped her carve one out, despite her obvious talents.But she kept going - alongside her corporate job that paid the bills, allowing her to bring up her family.And then disaster struck - her young daughter was diagnosed with cancer, just as COVID hit.  Elizabeth used her writing as a way of processing the horror of what was happening, as well as dealing with the minutiae of insurance, health systems and medication.  She wrote about what it's really like.  Try this.Thankfully her daughter recovered.And then her employer made her redundant.But Elizabeth had already faced real disaster and instead saw redundancy as her opportunity to become The Writer.  She explains on the podcast the practical steps she's taken with Substack, the classes she's taken, the networks she's built, what she's learned about publishers and the process of submitting articles.  Lots for all of us to learn.And Elizabeth is making it work.  It's early days and the book needs to be written.  But she has escaped: Elizabeth is now a Writer.You can read more of her writing on Substack as https://substack.com/@writingelizabeth and on her website: https://writingelizabeth.com/

Series 2/Episode 23: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like Toby is doing.Toby's ridden the digital wave post dot-com and digital transformation eras in various e-commerce roles at Littlewoods, National Trust and some others - and then landed a pretty nice job at JP Morgan Chase, eventually specialising in digital services for employee, where he stayed for almost a decade.But Toby's an entrepreneur at heart - and crucially has some technical nous to actually build things.  So when the restructures started after COVID, Toby put his hand up to build his own business RealTalk Studio, an AI to help leaders deal with difficult conversations.He's trained his robots to have conversations with leaders so they can practise before the real thing. Something many of us might have wished both we had had access to - and our managers.  Well now it's available.Toby is living the dream many of us have looking out the corporate window...but it's not always an easy move as Toby explains.You can find more about Real Talk Studio here: https://www.realtalkstudio.com/and meet Toby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobysinclair/

Series 2/Episode 22: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like Karen is doing.Karen is all about design - across all kinds of media: online, print, fabric, you name it, she's probably put something on it.  And Karen has worked for and with big companies - and has spent a lot of her career freelancing.  She made her move to the UK from her home in Brazil much like the leap that many of us do from corporate world into something new - with trepidation and excitement - and she's made a career for herself doing what she loves.The lessons for Corporate Escapologists here aren't just for those with a creative bent, they're for all of us: How can we package up what we know to help someone else solve a problem they will pay for.  Karen has tried lots of things - and continues to experiment, now with retail as a route to market for her original pattern designed products.  She also has a lot of experience of different platforms to sell her products and her talents - so if you're thinking of freelancing there's some excellent advice here.All the time Karen's learning what's working and what's not, adjusting all the time.  It's more of a philosophy of the Solopreneur, gently hustling their way to find out the formula - and enjoy life on the way!You can find more about Karen on her website: https://fullmistica.co.uk/ and you can even commission her to help create unique designs for you: https://www.malt.uk/profile/karenmattiazzoand on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/full.misticaand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ka-matt/

Season 2!  Episode 1: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like Kirsty is doing.Kirsty started corporate life as a graduate trainee in Bass, the drinks company before moving to Guinness and Diageo, mostly in sales and marketing roles, before she found a love of learning and development.  She took on a global programme training all Diageo staff in a new standard way of selling and thrived - but like many burnt out.As Kirsty was burning out she started noticing that there were other ways to apply her talents - as an Associate for specialist L&D consultancies.  It was a smart move de-risking the exit from corporate life before starting her own business, which she did eight years later.  That's more than a decade ago and Kirsty has been running the hugely successful School of Facilitation ever since - providing facilitation specialists and providing a community to associates and solopreneur consultants just like her.In this podcast we're going to learn more about the role of the Associate and how it works, as well as making that leap into business ownership.  All still off the back of the incredible corporate skills, experience and know-how she developed earlier in her career.You can find more about Kirsty on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-schooloffacilitation/and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schooloffacilitation/and her website: https://www.schooloffacilitation.com/

Podcast #20!  The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  A bit like John is doing, but not quite.John's more of a Corporate Boomerang than an Escapologist - but give me time.  What I've always admired about him is he's made work work for him - he's super curious and unafraid to try things he doesn't know (yet), taking on new roles to learn - doing a PhD, moving into commercial roles, then in cloud computing and analytics and now AI.  I think this has made him pretty resilient, confident in his own ability because he's proved to himself that the world outside is full of opportunities.  Not to be feared.He's got some good advice in the podcast about shifting from buyer-side to seller-side which will affect any Escapologist, as well as finding joy from work - and not being scared of leaving, or being restructured out of, a job.You can find more about John on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnjones/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Wilma is doing.When Wilma made her first Great Escape leaving the Outer Hebrides to go to university she had a simple long-term career goal - to be The Boss. A degree in Management and a Masters in Business IT/IS later she travelled a bit, worked in New York and then ended back home in the Outer Hebrides.She escaped again, this time to a job at Standard Life where she put in twelve hour shifts and partied the rest until she burnt out. More time at banks - RBS, Sainsburys Bank & Tesco Bank - all the time in programme management and transformation roles.  More burn out.  Alongside a three year nutrition diploma. This woman doesn't do things by halves.Then she had a baby and gave up the banking career to start Maverick Motherhood, on a mission to transform the way that women see themselves so that society can change the way that it sees and treats women.  But has she left behind all her programme management skills and experience in the bank?  No way.  Come and meet Wilma!You can find more about Wilma on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maverick-motherhood/ and at https://maverickmotherhood.co/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Stephen is doing.Stephen (pronounced like Steph-an) started his career studying to be a professor of bio-engineering.  He started his PhD and then stopped it.  With all the turmoil such a decision creates.  Starting again is tough - especially if no-one really understands why you've given everything up. But Stephen was hugely courageous and backed himself to break free.He moved into global health work, then telecoms and finally media, where Stephen stayed for seven years in strategy and project roles for Discovery and then Warner Bros Discovery.Breaking free once gave Stephen the confidence to do it again, which he's done now setting himself as a consultant using many of the skills, experience and knowledge acquired during his corporate career - but also he's using his passion for improvisation comedy to help organisations build culture, supercharge teams and improve communications.Stephen is hugely articulate about his journey, failures and successes - he will be an inspiration to many people lacking the courage to stop things that no longer serve them - and move to something else that does.  Even if they have to create it themselves.You can find more about Stephen on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenslee/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Joe is doing.Joe has worked all over the place, in all manner of jobs, although there are some red threads throughout - sport, marketing, content.  He started out with a strong - and wrong - belief that he was a numbers guy, but over time and some satisfactory roles, found himself doing much more creative roles.  The more he learned what he was good at, the more he found what worked for him in line with his values. Until he was ready to take the plunge and leave paid employment and go it alone.  The thing is ut wasn't a big leap into the unknown - Joe had been very deliberately experimenting over the last few years until he and his family were ready and the risks were reduced.You can find more about Joe on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmckay89/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Nicole is doing.Nicole was straight off the bat from university into buying jobs for high street brands many of us grew up with - Debenhams, Warehouse, M&S, Bon Marché, George at ASDA and more.  During that twenty year career she amassed a huge range of buying experiences across multiple categories and global supply chains.  But in 2019, she received some coaching and it changed her focus - towards building something for herself: The Buyer & Retail Coach.  First as a side hustle, alongside some contract work as a Head of Buying at ASDA, then dialled down during COVID (to double-hat with home-schooling!) and now fully dedicated.  Well actually, not fully dedicated because Nicole has other ventures brewing too.  Such amazing advice about aligning your short, medium & long term goals with what you want to Do, Be and Have.You can find more about Nicole on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk, Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/ and at https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Nima is doing.Nima is a fascinating person, having qualified with a Masters in Biomedical Engineering, a brief stint in the NHS, then a radio show, articles and TV - and eventually becoming the anchor for BBC World's Middle East Business Report.  She learnt an awful lot during this period about how good comms cuts through - and what to leave out, as well as how to engage and connect with your audience.  After 12 years in that gig (alongside some others), Nima left to set up SHE Strategy focused on helping women get Seen, Heard and Empowered - and now she is the founder of The Brilliant Communicator, helping businesses, governments and individuals harness the power of good communication.You can find more about Nima on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimaaw and at https://www.thebrilliantcommunicator.com/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Sarah is doing.Sarah worked for over twenty years in marketing, mainly in the medical devices and healthcare sectors.  She was extremely successful as marketing director for household names Philipps, Danone and others - but all the time she was expending a lot of energy as an introvert in what often feels like an extrovert's world (both marketing and corporate careers).  Many times she felt like she had to adapt to the culture, forcing herself to be someone she wasn't - and while that pushed her, she also found it exhausting.And she thought it shouldn't be that way. So when she left her corporate career, she decided she would help people like herself.   Her mission is: to create a world where every quiet voice is heard and valued. She trained as a coach specialising in helping quieter people - and she wrote a book Quiet Catalyst: The introvert's guide to thrving in your career.  Take a listen to her fascinating journey in and out of corporate life as an introvert - and now helping others; it might inspire you in many ways.You can find more about Sarah here https://www.thequietcatalyst.com and on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmanleytqc/And find out more about her book Quiet Catalyst on Amazon and Bookshop.org: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Catalyst-introverts-thriving-career/dp/1781338523 and https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/quiet-catalyst-the-introvert-s-guide-to-thriving-in-your-career-sarah-manley/7684506?ean=9781781338520

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Katie is doing.Katie worked for more than 15 years in HR as a generalist, a pretty reductive word for what in fact means she has an awful lot of experience and knowledge. She worked for smaller businesses and scale-ups where she had to tackle the full range of HR issues.  But after COVID, when she'd managed perfectly fine working from him, her company wanted her back in the office - Katie said "No, I'm off". She left to become a freelancer, but what's more interesting is how she's packaging up her incredible knowledge into the HR Hub - a subscription service offering templates, tools, policies, guides (and an hour a month on Zoom) - everything a startup/scaleup needs to keep on the right side of the law and do well by its people.  Katie gets the flexibility she wants for her young family and commercialises all that knowhow.You can find more about Katie here: https://www.instagram.com/hr.katie/and the HR Hub here: https://www.hrkatie.co.uk/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Duncan is doing.Duncan was bp’s head of brand; he worked for the company for more than thirty years and was both an extremely senior leader in one of the biggest companies of the world - and a deep specialist.  Those two things don’t always go together in a corporate.  I suspect it was one of the reasons both sides saw value in one another.  But there came a time, in a recent restructure, that Duncan left the company and then left him wondering what to do next.  Obvious pathways included consultancy, agency, another corporate brand role etc?  But Duncan chose to follow a passion opening up “a second chapter” as he called it - as a chef.  But of course, not just any old chef - Duncan’s brand experience is all about precision, consistency and perfection - in a way, it’s no surprise his cooking is just the same.You can follow Duncan here:https://www.instagram.com/branded_chefwww.linkedin.com/in/duncan-blake 

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Luke is doing.Luke fell in love with wine on a backpacking world tour and after a few years in journalism joined Majestic Wine's management scheme.  He stayed there for five years, learning the trade, fine-tuning his commercial skills and even dabbling with social media.  But then he decided he wanted to go it alone, so he took the bold decision to start his own business selling wine directly...and now online he's built a huge following on TikTok, Instagram and now on Substack helping normal people get more informed about wine.You can find more about Luke here:https://www.tiktok.com/@lukeflunder?lang=enhttps://www.instagram.com/luke_flunders_wine_world/?hl=en-gbhttps://lukeflunder.substack.com/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Claire is doing.Claire Perry-Louise is the founder of Like Hearted Leaders, a community of entrepreneurs on a mission to end loneliness in leadership.  She helps organisations build community and culture with their key stakeholders (customers, employees, partners).  But this is not her first rodeo...for the first fifteen years of her career she was a solicitor, a job that gave her little joy but pleased those around her.  She acknowledges their good intentions, but the law stifled her and made her unhappy.  A chance (or was it?) video on YouTube changed her life and set her on a new more purposeful, happier life.You can find more about Claire and Like Hearted Leaders at https://www.likeheartedleaders.com and on LinkedIn.

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Lilli is doing.Lilli is a design consultant, specialising in service design - where things just magically work for us demanding customers.  She worked with corporates and consultancies before deciding to go freelance - and then specialise her design work in climate resilience.  Lilli has given a lot of thought to the freelance or independent consultant model, its strengths in building personal resilience, but also its gaps in support and community.  That led to her idea for IMMA Collective, a hub for freelancers and solopreneurs in the climate space.You can find more about Lilli and IMMA at immacollective.com, read her blog on Substack and on LinkedIn.

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Kia is doing.Kia is an intuitive artist and coach - she helps female artists find their voice and their purpose, trusting in their own intuition.  But she spent ten years working in various "dull, grey" corporate jobs being miserable.  Kia's story is far from unique - being guided by well-intentioned parents and exclusive teachers - away from her passion and into something safe, but ultimately unfulfilling.But Kia escaped - and followed her heart back into art, and now helping other artists.  Her journey is one of hope and inspiration for all of us. You can find more about Kia at kiacannons.com and on instagram https://www.instagram.com/kiacannons/

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Niall is doing.Niall Riddell is founder of Paua, an Electric Vehicle startup that offers a kind of fuel card for EV fleet drives, so they can charge anywhere.Many people sitting in corporate jobs dream of building their own startup - it couldn't be more different, the autonomy, the agility, the pace...but that can also  make it a hard leap for many corporate people (managing risk, the loneliness, too much freedom). Niall is a special kind of founder, employing decades of corporate experience - and particularly self-awareness developed through leadership courses.  He knows himself really well - and although he's learning fast what makes him and his startup successful, he's also building on solid foundations and avoiding the hype trap that befalls many a startup founder.You can find more about Niall at linkedin.com/in/nialliriddell/ and more about Paua at pauatech.com

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to inspire and show you pathways to leave your corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.  Like Charlie is doing.Charlie worked for Sky, Accenture and Frasers Group which owns Sport Direct.  Her time at Accenture rapidly accelerated her readiness for a "Group Head of" role at a major retail group.  But Charlie is an entrepreneur at heart.  Throughout her corporate career she has run a series of side-hustle businesses, including clothing, marketing services and "edutainment".She recently left Frasers to return to consulting, this time in a boutique consultancy, where Charlie will will run her latest education/entertainment business Consulting Survival alongside.You can find more about Charlie at Consulting Survival at https://www.youtube.com/@consultingcharlie6044

Ileana is an expert in local content.  It’s a phrase you may not be that familiar with.  Unless you work for a huge multinational establishing presence in more remote parts of the world.  A multinational like Exxon, for whom Ileana worked for 24 years before deciding to form Colibri, a consultancy to help energy companies maximise local economic development.  Ileana is passionate about eradicating poverty and delivering social change through the investment, resources and skills that multinationals can provide.Ileana brings to bear decades of expertise in procurement, negotiation, policy, stakeholder management, as well as diversity and inclusion, sustainability and entrepreneurialism.  And she packages that up in a consultancy offer that brings value to her clients – and gives her more variety in the work she does and potential for more impact. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ileanaferberhttps://colibribusiness.com/

Erica trained and qualified as an engineer, cutting her teeth on some of bp's biggest projects in Alaska, Azerbaijan and Angola. Despite the glossy images of smiling oil workers on corporate websites, the experience was tough - for men, as well as women, for local staff and the expats flown in.  Erica learnt first hand what it's like to be different and for that difference to not always be celebrated.Exhausted Erica took time out, founded Two Piers a consultancy with a purpose, to build more inclusive workplaces.  She returned to bp, completed her MBA and pivoted her career commercially into mergers and acquisition, another high pressured role.  No easy roles for this high achiever.But after a couple of years, the restructure loomed and Erica decided this was her time.  The spreadsheets confirmed her hypotheses - it was time to leave.  And dedicate herself to Two Piers.Watch Erica's fascinating story here and if you want more - you can find Erica  at https://www.twopiersconsulting.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/two-piers-consulting/ and https://www.instagram.com/twopiersconsult/

Katie trained as journalist before moving into product management. But after a trip around the world with her family, Katie decided her mission was to help small businesses get to grips with customer research.  After validating the need for her offer with a community on Instagram and several consulting gigs, Katie got a publishing deal and wrote a book - The Book - on customer discovery for small businesses.Katie shares some really great insights with me about  working with, rather than for, corporates, getting comfortable without the salary and being patient with ourselves.You can find Katie's new book 'Do Penguins Eat Peaches' in all good bookstores from October 17 2023.

Steve Cook spent 25 years working for just one company is a variety of roles - moving from a technical entry into innovation and deeply commercial roles in bp's technology and alternative energy organisations.But when his time was up (his words) he came to realise that he wanted to turn his hobby as a potter into a major component of his life after corporate - fifty percent of his time.  Leaving 50% to use his corporate skills, experience and knowhow in the cleantech startup ecosystem to chair boards and advise cleantech businesses and investment funds. 

Hi there, welcome to Corporate Escapology the Podcast.I'm your host, Adam Forbes, author of Corporate Escapology a book to help people package up all their amazing corporate skills, experiences and knowledge and use them to build a more fulfilling, rewarding, purposeful and enjoyable life after corporate.Each episode I'll be talking to people who have left their corporate jobs to do something different - often many things.  We'll hear their journey - the practical and emotional side of leaving something behind - as well as what they're doing now.I hope it will both inspire you and help build confidence that if they can do it why can't you?!You can find me on instagram @corporateescapologist or by dropping me a line at [email protected].  I've also built a short Escape Plan course at https://corporateescapology.thinkific.com/courses/escape-plan