I hadn’t planned to stop writing over the summer, it just happened and maybe it was what I needed. Launching the book was pretty intense through July and it was nice to check out for a bit during August.
I say “a bit” because I ran the first cohort of Escapology Live, a five week group coaching course to activate some of the exercises and advice from the book. I developed new exercises and tools – and then I had the absolute pleasure of meeting each week with nine people in different states of exit.
And I got some great testimonials, like this:
"It's an insightful and well-structured course, and Adam is a really inspiring, encouraging and supportive course leader. It has been great to meet - and hear the stories of - other people who are on the same 'journey' as me, and this sharing of knowledge and experience has really helped me with my own development."
Half the group is continuing with ‘Carry On Escaping’ an extension of the course, fortnightly with more focus on accountability and preparation.
I also did 31 Days of the Summer Escape Plan on Instagram during August, a fairly gruelling job of recording myself every day and trying not to care about how I looked. There’s a tip each day to help you prepare to exit your corporate job – starting with how to recognise if you’re institutionalised and ending with how to handle the wobbles. I stuck all the videos on YouTube if you feel the need for inspiration!
I was talking to someone the other day about how there’s an emerging red thread in what I do that I would never in my wildest dreams have expected when I was leaving BP: I’m an expert at ‘corporate’.
One thing I do is help bring together startups and corporates to drive innovation.
Another thing I do is help smaller companies understand their corporate clients so they can pitch and serve them better.
And another thing I do is help individuals understand their relationship with their corporate employer, appreciate their corporate skills, experience and knowhow and help them build lives that serve them better (possibly with a redefined relationship).
Right now I have a new venture brewing with a friend to help corporates serve their exiting staff better by preparing them for what’s next.
Understanding how corporates think and operate, logically as well as emotionally (since they’re run by humans) has become my core competence.
Who’d have thought it? Definitely not me. But of course the dots can only be joined by looking back.
Can you observe anything like this in your own careers and meanderings?
I ask because it’s a much more empowering and inspiring way to look at what you choose to do next. Compared with “I’m a marketing director, I’ll look on LinkedIn for marketing director jobs”.
‘Understanding how corporates think and work’ opens up opportunities I’d never really thought about – maybe executive coaching, sales training, organisation design, culture change, there’s almost certainly another book here.
You can build on these red threads to forge new identities and new career pathways.
Like one of the chaps from cohort 1 of Escapology Live; an events producer, he’d started to generate new income streams from photography, social media and teaching meditation. You could see this as a random collection of jobs (perfectly fine of course), or you could see what I see, having got to know him: an expert in using creativity to make human connections.
That’s much broader and more strategic, opening up opportunities for him to live with more purpose, fulfilment and variety.
It’s all part of Explore, the third stage in the Escape Method from my book Corporate Escapology - encouraging a more expansive and experimental approach to define what you do next. Not being confined by small and limited thinking of job boxes and instead seeing long spectrums with points that may appeal.
You can read more in Corporate Escapology if you haven’t bought it already and if you have, please do give me a review on Amazon! I had wanted 50 reviews by end August so there’s just one day to give make a first time author very happy!
It’s good to be back! Don’t forget to sign up to Escapology Live!