I want to start by saying that I don’t have a formal business degree or certification that qualifies me to speak about business or hustle culture. What I do have is personal experience: I left corporate life and have been navigating the wild world of business ownership and freelancing for the past three years, experiencing success, failure, mindset shifts, and constant pivots along the way.
This topic is close to my heart, and I figured the best place to start is by explaining how I began having these conversations in my own life, and why it matters so much to me. I hope that by sharing my story, others who feel the same will feel less alone and less overwhelmed than I did in the beginning.
Why I Left Corporate
In 2021, I was a marketing assistant at a fintech company. I was generally happy there—the people were nice, and the company culture was better than my previous two jobs. But as a creative person, I felt unfulfilled, especially since I had started taking on freelance design work as a side hustle after hours.
Over time, I grew more frustrated at my job, increasingly wanting to be at home working on my own projects. That frustration deepened when I found myself spending afternoons clicking through tabs, trying to look busy when no work was being briefed in. I kept thinking, "I could be so much more productive with my time." That’s when I started to consider a change.
Putting a Safety Net in Place
Once the wheels started turning, I began planning. Going off on your own isn’t simple—it requires preparation. One of the most important steps was ensuring I had a financial safety net, savings that could cover at least three months of essential expenses in case work didn’t take off right away. I saved up by working on extra projects on the side, which helped me build that cushion.
Starting a business is stressful enough, so if you can put systems in place that relieve some of that pressure, take the time to do it—you’ll thank yourself later.
Having a Launch Strategy
“Just go for it” can be great advice, but that doesn’t mean going for it without a plan. I decided I needed a clear idea of the following:
What I offer
How much I charge
How my process works
Who I’m trying to attract
How to market my business
Running a business is far more complex than these five things, but they’re a great foundation to start with. The rest, you’ll learn as you go.
Setting Intentions
If my ultimate goal had been to make as much money as possible, I would’ve stayed in corporate. I could see a financially positive trajectory in my career there, but it wasn’t aligned with my greater lifestyle goals: living a simpler, calmer, creative, and more flexible life.
Since I had decided to make this major pivot, I needed to set clear intentions around it. This ties back to the standard and cliché (but true) idea of knowing your why. If I was going to turn my life upside down, I needed to have a clear vision of what I was working toward. Because trust me—your business can take on a life of its own, and you’ll need the clarity and restraint to guide it.
The Emotional Side of It All
So. Much. Imposter. Syndrome. (But also excitement.)
I think most people experience something similar. Questions like: “Can I actually do this?”, “What if I fail?”, and “Why would people work with me?” are common. If you haven’t had thoughts like this, I’m genuinely happy for you! But I certainly did. And, to be honest, sometimes they don’t go away—you just get better at answering them with positive responses. “I can do it because…” and so on.
Building confidence takes time, and as I’ll discuss in Part 2, the world will bombard you with questions, opinions, and standards you might feel you need to live up to. Frankly, I call BS on that.
The only standards you need to live up to are your own. But we’ll get into that soon enough.
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A Note: My goal with this blog is to start conversations about building balanced business lifestyles, whatever that looks like for you personally. I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and questions—nothing is off-limits! Let’s engage!
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