How to Avoid 3 Mistakes I Made & Accelerate Your Escape

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. I am on a mission to help 10,000 GenX corporate professionals escape the box of the 9-5 grind. Each week I will share news, strategies and tactics to help you take control, find balance and NOT sacrifice your income. Links at the bottom for free resources

?? ALERT: We have launched a Free Slack community for recent escapees & those that are escapee curious: The Escapee Collective? We hope to see you there!

“I Don’t Know Where to Start”

One of the most common concerns from corporate GenXers is “I don’t know where to start”. I thought I would tackle this question in this week’s newsletter by sharing the 3 mistakes that I made and what I would do differently. I am 100% confident that it would have reduced my learning curve by 6-12 months.?

My hope with sharing this will be twofold, one, give you a place to start and two eliminate some of the unnecessary mistakes. The three mistake I made were:

1. I didn’t define a goal or what I wanted to achieve
2. I didn’t have a plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail
3. I tried to do it alone. There is so much value in others knowing what you are doing

Mistake One: Define What You Want

My original two goals and that is using the term loosely, were get the hell out of corporate and replace my income. I didn’t put any thought into it. It wasn’t until 2+ years later that I really started to think through what I wanted.?

I took a step back and mapped out what my 2.0 life would look like. How much money did I want/need? Where did we want to live? How much did I want to work? Plus factoring in family time and travel.?

Define what you want your life to look like then figure out how "work" fits into that. I reviewed this in detail a few issues ago:?

If you are on the younger side of GenX you still may have bigger bills such as college so that needs to factor in. I just wrote the last tuition check a month ago so my only big expenses will be 2 future weddings.

Mistake Two: Have a Plan

Mistake #2 was equally? impactful. You need to have a plan. I did not. All I knew was what the consulting firm was billing me out at so that told me my market value, I knew how to sell and more importantly close consulting deals (it helped I had been in the shoes of the people I was selling to), and also delivery. That was the end of it.?

What I really needed to do was map out a strategy that aligned with the initial exercise of defining what I wanted. Some key questions to consider:

• What is your financial runway
• What is your plan: Full time go at escapee, Escapee light (stay in corporate but start with smaller side projects) or build for a future exit
• The type of business you want to run, who you want to work with, etc..
• Determine your offer and GTM strategy (I covered this in the last issue #13)
• Bonus: If you can test and land a small contract before you make the switch.

Circumstances will dictate your exact plan. Remember you can always pivot but it is so important to be driving towards a goal. It will create a sense of urgency.

Mistake Three: Going Alone

This was an avoidable mistake on my part. I didn’t tell many people that I went solo and started a consulting business. I can’t tell you why. In hindsight it doesn’t make any sense. I was so excited to get started and be done with corporate yet I didn’t share with my entire network. My wife, a few friends and my closest professional contacts were aware and that is it.?

It took me two years to realize I didn’t have to do this alone. There are strong and supportive groups that want to see you succeed- like our Escapee Collective (shameless plug to join our free Slack group if you are curious about exiting) Plus having the support of friends and family is critical. Running a solo business can be lonely so having a tribe is important.

I recommend having folks just ahead of you in your journey, where you are in your journey and help someone just behind you. I also suggest making sure your family and friends are in the circle as well.?

Thank you for reading and please share with anyone you think would find value

Free Resources

The Corporate Escapee Podcast: Helping GenXers find their “What’s Next”!

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Brett Trainor Blog