You've told yourself you'll leave at least a dozen times.

After the reorg.

After the next vesting date.

After the kids finish this school year.

After you save a little more.

After you figure out what you'd even do.

There's always a perfectly logical reason to wait. That's what makes it so dangerous. The reasons never stop being logical. They just keep stacking up, year after year, until waiting becomes the only thing you're practiced at.

I was the queen of "after."

After I close this deal.

After I finish this fiscal year at Workday.

After I get through this leadership offsite at Oracle.

I had 25 years of "afters" lined up in a neat row, each one buying me another few months of avoiding the thing I already knew.

When I finally had the courage to leave my corporate life and start my own business, my only regret was not taking the leap sooner.

I wish someone had told me five years earlier that leaving can look completely different.

It can be a plan. A boring, methodical, and systematic 18-month plan that lets you walk out with income already flowing, clients already signed, and your family's stability fully intact.

That's what I teach now.

I've walked 113 senior leaders through this exact process, and the ones who made it look effortless all did the same thing: they started building while they were still employed, long before they handed in a resignation letter.

The first step is surprisingly small.

Thirty focused minutes a day, before your workday starts or after the kids go to bed.

You use that window to do one thing: identify the specific problem you've been solving for companies your entire career, the one that a buyer would pay $15K to $30K a month to have you solve on retainer.

That single exercise changes the math entirely.

When you realize you only need two or three advisory clients to replace your corporate salary, the "after" list starts losing its power. The wait stops feeling protective and starts feeling like what it actually is: an expensive delay.

One of my clients, a former CFO with 28 years in finance, spent 14 months telling himself he'd leave "after the next board meeting."

He started his 30-minute daily window in January.

By April, he had his offer built.

By July, he had two retainer clients paying him $25K each per month.

He gave notice in August with more income than he'd ever earned at a single company.

His story is common among the people I work with. The leaving part is usually the easiest step, once the bridge is already built underneath you.

This week, I want to challenge you to count your "afters."

How many times have you moved the goalpost on yourself?

Try it for a few days and tell me the number. I lost count of mine somewhere around fifteen.

Melina

Learn more about my programs here​

113 Cherry St. #92768, Seattle, WA 98104
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​