Speaker #0Career change that takes you out of extractive corporate systems altogether. Career change that opens up a whole new kind of work. Work that is connected, communal, human. Career change that lets you experience purpose every single day, where you can see and feel the tangible contribution you're making. 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. So I'm on one of my trips to London where I've been going now and then to step into the corporate world and I'm in this big brand co-working space on the 10th floor. Surrounded by glass and steel, there are banks and banks of desks and I'd chosen a corner on one bank of desks and diagonally opposite me, there was a very nice, very stressed guy who was on back-to-back video calls the whole time that I was there. He'd finish a call, he'd run into a meeting room, he'd run back out. it was non-stop and there was a lot of very dehumanized language in the way that he was talking, at what point I heard him drop the phrase mass termination capabilities, which seemed like very normal parlance in what he was doing. It seemed like he was working on some kind of AI powered HR software. And I'm sure when you talked about mass termination capabilities, though it sounds to me like hideous, destructive of military language that... they were talking about something technical like batch removing access or benefits but it didn't feel good it didn't feel human and there was something about this guy that I just kind of couldn't take my eyes away from we had a little chat where he borrowed my phone charger actually seemed like a really nice person but also someone who was really caught up in this extremely fast pace, extremely stressful. and quite dehumanised mode of working. And then something ironic transpired because later in the day he took a personal call and he seemed to be talking to the HR department of an organisation that he'd left about some kind of dispute over shares or a bonus payout or something like this. And it just really struck me as kind of painfully ironic that he'd left He'd left an organization and was in this dispute with their HR department, and he'd moved into a new organization where he was spending his time building software that treats people as numbers. And this is the thing, if you find yourself in that kind of position, you know, stressed, burnt out, dehumanized by your work, desensitized from the purpose of what you're creating through your work. The answer is not to polish up your CV and jump into a new job because it's never enough. If you don't take the time to redesign your relationship with work, to divest from the extractive systems that are behind the work you're doing, then you're just going to carry the same dysfunction into your new role. Now, if you're listening to this and you are at the point where You are ready to quit. I want you to pause. And that might sound contradictory because my whole thing is helping people quit corporate, right? And yes, that is what I want for you, but there are two parts to my work. Number one, quit corporate. Number two, create a life-giving career or business. So yes, I do want you to quit, but I want you to do it with purpose. And that is what I'm going to explore in today's episode. So here's what usually happens. You reach breaking point. I can't do this anymore. I can't survive through another bonus cycle. I'm waiting on this promotion that I don't even want anymore, something has to change. So you head to the job boards, you finally pick up the phone to that search firm that's been pestering you, you surreptitiously start asking around and you look for a job that feels better than the one that you've got right now. But here's the problem, that approach is incremental at best and actually kind of risky at worst because most of the time what you're doing is solving for one thing. So maybe that's flexibility for family commitments or a workplace culture that feels a little more human. Maybe you're seeking a mission that you can get behind more comfortably. Those are all good things. They all matter. But nine times out of 10, it keeps you locked in the same corporate system. So you take the gamble, you put in the work, you find the courage to quit, and you end up... with a slightly better version of the same stress, the same dissatisfaction. And that is why people wonder, why do I keep having burnout after burnout? Because you're stuck inside of the same system. So let's talk about career change with purpose, because I want you to bottle that courage that you're finding to take that step of quitting. And I want you to hold on to that courage because we're going to put it to much better use. This is what I mean by career change with purpose. Career change that takes you out of extractive corporate systems altogether. Career change that opens up a whole new kind of work. Work that is connected, communal, human. Career change that lets you experience purpose every single day, where you can see and feel the tangible contribution you're making. Isn't that what you really want? not just another rung on the ladder to nowhere. And that kind of career change is absolutely possible. It takes courage and it takes a different starting point. Let's talk about three pathways into purposeful career change. So instead of starting with salary, a title, or what looks good on your CV, here are three places you can start instead. Number one, start with how you want. work to feel. Really think about it, reimagine it and let that feeling guide your choices. It might lead you into a role where you, that will create that kind of feeling for you, or it might tell you that you need to create your own work in order to get that feeling. And that was how my client Claire approached things. She'd come out of the big London agency world working on corporate sustainability for global brands. Her whole experience of work was extreme hours, wraparound childcare, deadlines on Christmas Eve. And when she was ready to come back to work after having her children, she knew it had to be different. We worked together to build an approach around putting her family first, finding balanced work that brought her satisfaction, using her skills for genuine purpose. And finding work that still left time for all the things that she really wanted to do, like picking her kids up from school, making the costumes for their performances, packing their lunches for them. These things mattered to her as much as her work, and we created a solution that allowed her to balance both. Here's a second approach. Start with a passion issue. Take something that you care deeply about and go deep on it. Learn about it. meet people working in that area, immerse yourself in whatever is happening currently with that issue. Over time, the opportunities will emerge. Often that will be through freelance work and those opportunities will allow you to go all in on something that actually matters to you. Here's a second approach. Start with a passion issue. Choose something that you really, really want to change or to make happen and go deep on that, learn about it, meet people working in that area, immerse yourself in that issue and you will find that the opportunities begin to emerge. Yes, often that will be through freelance work or you'll have to look at a kind of an ecosystem approach to your career so you're maybe balancing more highly paid work with more sort of voluntary or lower paid work. This will allow you to go all in on something that really deeply matters to you. My client Alini did exactly this when she left her role in big tech in the US. She knew she wanted to move into regenerative agriculture for a long time, but she had no hands-on experience and that had been holding her back. So she began volunteering, she began building her network, and she really immersed herself in the local world of regenerative agriculture until the opportunities started coming to her. And today she offers fractional chief of staff services to grassroots organizations who benefit enormously from all that experience that she brings from working from a really big organization in big tech. And the third approach, start with a vision. Decide what kind of world you want to help build and bring it to life. This is the entrepreneurial path. And yes, it's bold, but it's also. the way to create work that really means something to you and eventually to create meaningful employment opportunities for other people too. I've just started working with an amazing client Anna who is taking this route. She has long dreamed of creating a regenerative hub in Catalonia where she lives that's going to combine food and family and ecological learning and she's finally set aside the pressure to build on her already you highly successful career. She's ignoring the tempting job offers and she's finally bringing that vision to life. So here's the takeaway. If you've got a job that looks great on paper but feels wrong in your bones, yes, it is time to quit. But don't just quit and leap into a slightly shinier version of the same thing. Even actually if it sounds like a much, much better job, take the time to pause. Pay attention and ask yourself some powerful questions. What system is that role operating in? What is the real purpose of the organisation? What kind of vision would you be supporting? And how would that work feel every day in your body? And if you find that those things don't align, I believe you're being called to quit with purpose. Because when you do that, you'll never have to find yourself in this position again. If this kind of purpose-led, life-giving career change is exactly what you need, then you're in the right place. This podcast is your weekly lifeline into meaningful work. Make sure you're following so you don't miss an episode. If you want to go even deeper, subscribe to my emails. I share things there that I don't share anywhere else. And if you are ready to take your first step into purposeful career change right now, take a look at Courage to Quit. It's my 90-minute session that takes you from trapped and anxious to clear, grounded and free with a personalized exit plan that you can act on with confidence. 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.
