Speaker #0Back in 2010, I founded a climate tech startup. This was just a few years after the 2007 financial crash and the global economy was still reeling, and it was right after the solar investment bubble burst. And you know what? People fell over themselves to tell me I was out of my mind. They warned me it would fail. They told me my timing was terrible. People who loved me were understandably really nervous on my behalf. But you know what? They were all wrong. And part of the reason was that my belief in what we were building was unshakable. But also, times of disruption are some of the most fertile moments to create something bold and meaningful. Upheaval clears out what is no longer working. It creates cracks in the system where new ideas can take root. It turns purpose-led work from nice to have into fundamental necessity. And if you don't yet see that we are in a moment of global disruption, you're kidding yourself. But I know you do see it, because that's why you're here listening to this podcast. That's why you can feel the pull towards something different and better. And so today I'm going to share with you five reasons why right now, not next year, not when things settle down, not when things go back to normal because it isn't happening. Why now is the perfect time to build your own purpose-led business. If your career looks great on paper but feels wrong in your bones, you're not alone. Welcome to From Corporate to Calling, your lifeline into meaningful work. I'm Alyssa Murphy, a regenerative business mentor and former startup CEO who walked away from corporate systems to create work that brings life. Each week, I share stories, reflections, and provocations to help you recognize the signs of burnout and make a career change with purpose. If work looks good but feels wrong, this is your invitation to get out of corporate and into your calling. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm really excited about today's conversation. It's a big one. and I'm going to start by setting the scene honestly, because I think we really need to stop sugarcoating the backdrop that we're working against here and really take some time to reflect on the reality that we're living in. Look, the job market right now is horrendous. It's soul-sucking. It's demoralizing. In every industry, I'm seeing... incredibly talented people struggling to even get interviews. Organizations are increasingly obsessed with AI and they're using it as an excuse to replace the workforce at a scale we've never seen before and we really have no idea of exactly what kind of disruption AI is going to mean for workers and we're really only at the very beginning of that curve. There are mass layoffs happening everywhere. in corporate, in the public sector, especially in the US government, it's just becoming standard practice. It's ruthless, it's fast, loyalty means nothing, even contribution doesn't seem to count. No one is safe and that's not catastrophizing, that's observable reality. And then for those a view in sustainability impact esg climate, often you're watching your roles getting pulled into commercial or legal functions. The money is just drying up to actually get done any of the work and impact that you want to create. Your work is being diluted, deprioritized, or just quietly erased. And organizations increasingly feel like they have carte blanche to abandon climate commitments and net zero, and many are seizing that opportunity. It is a bleak picture, but I promise you this podcast ends on a very positive note because here's what matters. You do not need to stay inside that broken, unjust system. That's what this episode is really about. The real question that you need to ask yourself is how do you respond to this moment? You as someone who is here for a reason. who recognises the friction that we're seeing in the marketplace, who understands what's happening in the world of work, who looks beyond that to the macro picture and knows what this moment in history is asking of you. You want to do work that matters. You want to contribute something meaningful. You want your career to be aligned with your values. And also, let's face it, you need your work to sustain your life, your family, your wellbeing. So the question becomes, where do you turn next? Let's walk through the options. Your first option is to stay where you are. You can do your very best to hold on to the job that you have. And you can learn to live with that low level anxiety that maybe you're next, you know, keep checking the Slack messages, look out for the sort of suspiciously vaguely titled meetings, wait for that 3am layoff text. And you can watch as your projects just seem to be sidelined without explanation. But this is survival mode. And I think you know that. And you can also look for a better job. That's another option, right? And sometimes this works, absolutely. But only if the job is truly aligned with what you want. And the frank reality is that the percentage chance of you landing one of those jobs is infinitesimally small at the moment. And it only works if you do get to be incredibly choosy at a time when the market is unbelievably be squeezed. Because without intentionality, a sideways move just becomes a distraction, a delay, a temporary relief, until you end up in a slightly different version of the same trap that you were in before. So let's talk about option three, because this is the path I believe in. And it's the one that I know that you are curious about, or you wouldn't be here. Option three is to build work on your own. terms. Creating work where you define the values, where you decide what your business stands for, where you set the boundaries so that work does not become all-encompassing, overwhelming, take over your life and leave you burnt out. Where your needs and the needs of your work are fully compatible, not in conflict. In this work life there is joy, there is satisfaction, that is freedom. Now, will it be easy to make that a reality? No, of course, but it will be yours. And with the right commercial grounding and deep commitment, no one can take that away from you. I suspect that energetically, you already know that that is the right route for you. Something deeper in you has already chosen that. But there's this rational part of you, right, that is fighting back and there is this monkey voice in your head saying it's not a good time, there's too much uncertainty, just be sensible, hold on to what you have, just entrench and ride this out. But here's the thing, that part of your mind doesn't understand that firstly there is no reset coming, there is no going back to normal, it only gets more challenging from here out and also that part of your mind doesn't understand the cost of staying in a place that is slowly eroding you it doesn't understand the root cause of the burnout it doesn't understand the pain of misalignment or what it's like to constantly be shrinking your potential to fit into a corporate box yes of course it's important to acknowledge there are moments in life when choosing safety is the right and only call. I understand that. But if that were your truth, I don't think you would be here listening to this podcast right now. So let's dive into the five reasons why now is the perfect time to build your purpose-led business. Number one, that safety and security that you think or have thought exists in corporate almost certainly doesn't exist anymore. It is a myth that we were all sold, that if you keep your head down, show up, work hard, stay loyal, the prize on offer is stability. But look around you. Stability has left the building. Roles are disappearing overnight. Teams are being restructured. without warning entire functions are being dissolved i'm seeing people who were top performers suddenly left without income without explanation without recourse. So I want you to consider the possibility that the risk is not in leaving where we've always assumed that it was, that the risk is actually in assuming you're safe in an environment where you're clearly not. The second reason why I think now is the perfect time to build your purpose-led business is because there really is no magical back to normal coming. and it's just not the world that we are living in. I was recently in a board meeting where someone on the board who is in an accounting function, we were discussing some challenges that the company was facing and this accounting person said, when do you think things will get back to normal? And I felt I just didn't know how to begin to answer that question because clearly we're just operating in completely different realities you're in a reality where you know you get sort of market dips you get certain challenges and then things just restabilize and they kind of go back to normal maybe that was true 20 30 50 years ago I don't even know it was true then it is definitely not true now there is so much uncertainty so much volatility so much disruption coming. The most naive thing that we could possibly tell ourselves is that things will get back to normal. And yet we almost can't help waiting for the pendulum to swing back, for things to stabilise, for hiring to recover, for leaders to suddenly revalue sustainability and purpose and integrity and people. But we need to be honest that the world of work is in a structural shift, not a temporary dip. And the coming decades will be more and more volatile. We can expect more automation, not less. We can expect more extractive activities inside corporate systems, not less. And hopefully what we're seeing is a kind of extinction burst event that will make space for a new economy to grow. But where does that leave you? as an individual. If you are stuck waiting for stability before making a meaningful move, you need to really question whether that stability is coming. The third reason is that navigating the job market is becoming a full-time job in itself. This is actually quite a practical reason and something I've been thinking More and more lately, as I'm seeing a lot of posts with people sharing, you know, I've been job searching for six months or a year or more, and that's just, it's heartbreaking, it's soul-destroying. And it's also like a really bad use of time, in my opinion. You know, I see people pouring hours every day into applications and rewriting their CV and, you know, networking, and now people are being told, like, it's not enough to apply for jobs you have to market yourself and build a personal brand and be constantly out there engaging on LinkedIn. It's exhausting and it's destabilizing and most importantly all of that effort that you're putting in will ultimately go towards somebody else's organization not yours. So what might it be like to redirect even a portion of that time and attention and emotional labor into your own work, into building something that will grow with you, into creating offers, testing ideas, building relationships that support your vision, not somebody else's. Because if you're going to work that hard, let it be for your future, not for some other gatekeeper. Let it be for a work life and a business that can support you. sustain you and enliven you for years and years to come. Reason number four that it's such a great time to build your own purpose-led business is that choosing to act now gives you leverage while waiting removes it. Look, you have an opportunity if you are in any form of employment or regular work to make proactive decision to change. to step away to build your own thing and you can do that instead of waiting for the axe to fall right suddenly you have options you can negotiate an exit that gives you a financial cushion You can reduce your hours so that you have space to build something new while you still have some predictable income as well. You can even look at things like freelancing for your existing organization. So you're essentially doing the same job, but with a lot more freedom, a lot better boundaries and, you know, energetically shifting towards building something for yourself. You get to move on your timeline, not theirs. Waiting until redundancy or burnout forces your hand drastically narrows your option. Acting early and on your own terms widens them. And here is the final reason, reason number five, and this is the one that I just feel from the bottom of my heart and really, really desperately want to share with you because it's so important. It's so fundamental on a... human level you've already waited long enough and this is the reason that matters the most yes big change is hard I am in the middle of something at the moment it's actually to do with one of my children some very big decisions that's going to mean a lot of upheaval and disruption and you know I really feel in my body how hard it is when you're facing a big change that feels like a leap of faith, when not everybody agrees with what you're doing and you're kind of just going with your gut instinct, but you feel it like in every fiber of your being that it's the right direction to go in, that's a really hard thing to navigate. But here's what I'm learning from my own personal experience at the moment and what I've learnt. from working with clients and from making big changes in the past is that sitting on the edge of the thing that you know you truly want month after month year after year is far far worse than the upheaval of making the change the emotional cost of inaction is enormous it chips away at your confidence undermines your energy it erodes your hope it makes you smaller than you are it diminishes your potential and if you're honest if you really take the time to sit with this and listen to your body and to what you already know i think you already know that you want this for yourself and really the only question left is when will you finally choose to honor that so look if you're feeling that pull that sense that you're done with the old way of working and you're ready to build something of your own. I want you to know that you don't have to figure it out alone. That is one of the hardest parts of making these kind of big life changes. I've definitely been feeling that myself with this kind of looming decision is that it can just feel really lonely. Like you just, why do you have to kind of carry all the weight of it? Couldn't you just have someone to unburden with who understands what you're doing, who can give you really good guidance, but guidance that's rooted in what you know and what you want for yourself? Because that makes all the difference. And that is why for people like you, considering this kind of journey, I've created the Meaningful Business Incubator. It exists for this exact moment. Now, the Meaningful Business Incubator, it's a six-month high support space where you will build the foundations of a purpose-led business that is both commercially sound and deeply aligned with your values. Together, through a lot of one-to-one coaching. where you will work through your ideas, define your offers, do the financial modeling, hone your messaging, work with your fears, support your energy, find confidence and develop boundaries. These are all the things you need to create meaningful work that sustains you for the long time term. These are all the things you need to create meaningful work that will sustain you and support you for the long term. And one of the best parts is that you get to do this in community with other people who have had the courage to choose this route for themselves supporting each other and learning from each other so if you're ready for structure clarity and real momentum then the meaningful business incubator is where that begins put a link in the show notes so you can learn more about that program and if you are ready to dive in and Ask all your questions about it. Tell me exactly what it is that you are considering building and book a call and we will go through that together and help you to make a decision whether that is the right fit for you to begin with the January cohort. I'm also running a live workshop on the 9th of December. There'll be two times for European and US time zones where you'll get a real taste. of the kind of work that we do inside the Meaningful Business Incubator. And you'll also make some really significant first steps towards designing your own regenerative business. I'm going to share full details of that next week, but make sure that you're connected with me on LinkedIn. If you search for Alyssa Murphy, you will find me and keep an eye out for next week's episode that will also have all the details of the workshop. Finally, whatever next step is right for you. I appreciate you simply having the courage to be here, to take this time for yourself, to listen to these ideas and consider these possibilities for yourself. And my hope is that this podcast helps move you closer to the work that truly feels meaningful to you. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate burnout or misalignment. You can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you.
