Holidays are coming

OK they’ve actually ended for most of us, but the ones in the Coke ad are just around the corner.  Sorry. The run-up to Christmas is often a frazzled time in corporate land.

And it starts now…you can even hear the music…

After the summer months of pretty much nothing getting done, there’s often a mad panic to spend budgets, deliver the annual plan and get things lined up for next year.

Going back to all that honestly used to fill me with absolute dread.  Nausea if I’m honest - the Sunday night before the Monday morning. Coupled with the darkening mornings, limiting where I could safely run, and the falling temperatures, I mourned the end of summer and getting back on the company not-so-merry-go-round.

This year I pretty much took August off.

I worked a handful of days but every week I had more time off than on.  Something I could never dream of doing in my corporate job.  Because then I needed to keep holiday days for Christmas and Easter and the October half term…

Taking August off gave me more time with my family – some fun, some not so much.  Time with teenagers is just as exhausting as time with toddlers I’ve realised.  But I’m glad our children are seeing both parents able to flex their jobs around their lives, able to go on multiple holidays (we went away six times, two abroad); working to live not the other way around.

I don’t want to boast; I haven’t got everything right and I have lucked in with a particularly good gig with an amazing startup accelerator.

But I want you to see it’s possible.

Possible only because of my corporate experience – the twenty years I worked with and inside corporates building my skills, experience and knowhow.  Making myself really valuable to others so that I could monetise what I can do.

And you can too.

It just takes preparation. So that it doesn’t feel like jumping off a cliff and praying you’ll land without breaking anything.  Instead, it’s about making a series of small, low risk jumps, some of which you can do before you’ve even left, so that you can land safely.

Over the summer I finished the first draft of Corporate Escapology the book.

It was a lot harder than I expected to write that many words.  But having a really strong table of contents drove me to completion.  I’ve had it professionally edited, as well as unprofessionally edited (thank you Saara!) and got some really positive feedback – as well as some really useful feedback to make it better.

I now need to start pitching the concept to some publishers.

But even if I get a publishing deal in the next month (unlikely), it’ll be 9-12 months before it’s out.

9-12 months! 

So, I’ve built a short course called The Escape Plan to help people like you prepare to leave corporate life.  It’s just £20 and it could really help anyone who’s starting back at work and thinking “There must be more to life than this” or “I can’t face going back to my job” or “I cannot be here in a year’s time”.

And I need your help.

I’d love to be all nonchalant and say “If you’re interested I’ve built a course, try it if you want”, but the truth is I really need as many of you (who need it) as possible to buy it.

Publishers only sign up new authors who can demonstrate there’s an audience for their work.  A large following on a social media channel, an email list or blog, a successful business through which books can be sold or a training course.

And nothing speaks volumes like revenue.

So, although I don’t really need the cash, validation that an audience is willing to pay for content from me de-risks the project for the publisher.

You dear subscriber, are that validation.

And the course is pretty good if I say so myself.  And others have too.

It’s 11 videos and 8 worksheets using the Escape Method in the book:

1.     Getting the right mindset to leave.

2.     Understanding your strengths, skills, experience and knowhow.

3.     Exploring opportunities for your life post-corporate.

4.     Closing gaps and identifying the conditions for your escape.

It won’t replace the tailored coaching I provide, but it will help someone make progress – clarify what’s important to them, build a more objective self-assessment and open their mind to different opportunities and options.

For £20, it’s a pretty low investment in your future.  And a great way to de-risk an otherwise potentially reckless move.

Or it could really help someone you know who’s been made redundant or facing the prospect, to get clear whether finding a replacement corporate job is really their only option or not.

I’d be very grateful if you could share The Escape Plan – and this blog - with people you think might need help to build a more fulfilling, purposeful, and potentially, more rewarding life.

One where they could potentially take next August off, where they could spend more time with their family (the dream might be better than the reality) or just do work that matters.