Corporate Escapology

Hosted by Adam Forbes

Business Careers

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Latest episode

May 2025

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About the show

Many people have found more fulfilment, purpose and joy by leaving their corporate career and building a life that serves them better. Get inspired and build your confidence by listening to their stories.

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26 recent

May 16, 2025Episode 2643 min

26. Meet Primo: Insights Discovery Expert & Coach - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Series 2/Episode 26: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like Primo is doing.Primo left BP about the same time as me, after about the same length tenure but he did one thing I didn't do - he'd got himself prepared with a ready-made product he'd mastered at BP to sell to others when he left.In BP, Primo was synonymous with Insights - the coloured lego bricks that highlight your different personality preferences - it was his personal brand. And when he left the company, it was pretty obvious what he'd be able to do to harness that brand externally for his own benefit - and to help others.And that's what he's done - he's now making a career travelling the world helping others get the benefit of his experience and expertise helping teams work better together and understand one another more.I've wanted to have Primo on the podcast for a long while because I think his is a model that works for many of us - even ones without an accredited product to offer. Packaging up our knowledge to share with those who haven't had access or have a problem you can solve. It's often easier for customers to buy products than time, because they feel more in control like they know what they're getting. And for us, products are often easier to scale.Take a listen, lots to learn here from Primo.You can meet Primo on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/primo-masella/

April 10, 2025Episode 2538 min

25. Meet James Green: Venture-builder helping would-be Corporate Escapologists - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Series 2/Episode 25: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding.But this one is a bit different, because James Green isn't a Corporate Escapologist. He's an entrepreneur turned investor turned venture builder.And his firm DQ Ventures specialises in helping corporate people build their dream businesses - without exiting the safety of their jobs. At least not to begin with, not until the risk has decreased. The tagline is: Start a company before quitting your job.DQ Ventures acts like a co-founder to someone with an idea who doesn't have the time to commit everything to turn it into a business - and has too much to lose. They bring business-building experience: customer discovery, tech, go-to-market, investment - and in exchange for a fee and some equity, they help road-test the business until you're ready for the Great Escape.You can read more about DQ Ventures at https://dqventures.com/ and meet James on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/greenjim/.

March 13, 2025Episode 2439 min

24. Meet Elizabeth Austin: Writer - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Series 2/Episode 24: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like Elizabeth is doing.Elizabeth is a writer; it's something she dreamed of us as young person but just didn't ever see the career path - and no-one really helped her carve one out, despite her obvious talents.But she kept going - alongside her corporate job that paid the bills, allowing her to bring up her family.And then disaster struck - her young daughter was diagnosed with cancer, just as COVID hit. Elizabeth used her writing as a way of processing the horror of what was happening, as well as dealing with the minutiae of insurance, health systems and medication. She wrote about what it's really like. Try this.Thankfully her daughter recovered.And then her employer made her redundant.But Elizabeth had already faced real disaster and instead saw redundancy as her opportunity to become The Writer. She explains on the podcast the practical steps she's taken with Substack, the classes she's taken, the networks she's built, what she's learned about publishers and the process of submitting articles. Lots for all of us to learn.And Elizabeth is making it work. It's early days and the book needs to be written. But she has escaped: Elizabeth is now a Writer.You can read more of her writing on Substack as https://substack.com/@writingelizabeth and on her website: https://writingelizabeth.com/

February 20, 2025Episode 2344 min

23. Meet Toby Sinclair: AI Startup Founder - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Series 2/Episode 23: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like Toby is doing.Toby's ridden the digital wave post dot-com and digital transformation eras in various e-commerce roles at Littlewoods, National Trust and some others - and then landed a pretty nice job at JP Morgan Chase, eventually specialising in digital services for employee, where he stayed for almost a decade.But Toby's an entrepreneur at heart - and crucially has some technical nous to actually build things. So when the restructures started after COVID, Toby put his hand up to build his own business RealTalk Studio, an AI to help leaders deal with difficult conversations.He's trained his robots to have conversations with leaders so they can practise before the real thing. Something many of us might have wished both we had had access to - and our managers. Well now it's available.Toby is living the dream many of us have looking out the corporate window...but it's not always an easy move as Toby explains.You can find more about Real Talk Studio here: https://www.realtalkstudio.com/and meet Toby on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobysinclair/

January 30, 202541 min

22. Meet Karen: Freelance Surface Designer - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Series 2/Episode 22: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like Karen is doing.Karen is all about design - across all kinds of media: online, print, fabric, you name it, she's probably put something on it. And Karen has worked for and with big companies - and has spent a lot of her career freelancing. She made her move to the UK from her home in Brazil much like the leap that many of us do from corporate world into something new - with trepidation and excitement - and she's made a career for herself doing what she loves.The lessons for Corporate Escapologists here aren't just for those with a creative bent, they're for all of us: How can we package up what we know to help someone else solve a problem they will pay for. Karen has tried lots of things - and continues to experiment, now with retail as a route to market for her original pattern designed products. She also has a lot of experience of different platforms to sell her products and her talents - so if you're thinking of freelancing there's some excellent advice here.All the time Karen's learning what's working and what's not, adjusting all the time. It's more of a philosophy of the Solopreneur, gently hustling their way to find out the formula - and enjoy life on the way!You can find more about Karen on her website: https://fullmistica.co.uk/ and you can even commission her to help create unique designs for you: https://www.malt.uk/profile/karenmattiazzoand on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/full.misticaand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ka-matt/

January 9, 2025Episode 141 min

Season 2. Meet Kirsty Lewis: Founder, School of Facilitation - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Season 2! Episode 1: The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like Kirsty is doing.Kirsty started corporate life as a graduate trainee in Bass, the drinks company before moving to Guinness and Diageo, mostly in sales and marketing roles, before she found a love of learning and development. She took on a global programme training all Diageo staff in a new standard way of selling and thrived - but like many burnt out.As Kirsty was burning out she started noticing that there were other ways to apply her talents - as an Associate for specialist L&D consultancies. It was a smart move de-risking the exit from corporate life before starting her own business, which she did eight years later. That's more than a decade ago and Kirsty has been running the hugely successful School of Facilitation ever since - providing facilitation specialists and providing a community to associates and solopreneur consultants just like her.In this podcast we're going to learn more about the role of the Associate and how it works, as well as making that leap into business ownership. All still off the back of the incredible corporate skills, experience and know-how she developed earlier in her career.You can find more about Kirsty on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-schooloffacilitation/and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schooloffacilitation/and her website: https://www.schooloffacilitation.com/

October 17, 2024Episode 2037 min

20. Meet John Jones: Corporate Boomerang - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

Podcast #20! The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. A bit like John is doing, but not quite.John's more of a Corporate Boomerang than an Escapologist - but give me time. What I've always admired about him is he's made work work for him - he's super curious and unafraid to try things he doesn't know (yet), taking on new roles to learn - doing a PhD, moving into commercial roles, then in cloud computing and analytics and now AI. I think this has made him pretty resilient, confident in his own ability because he's proved to himself that the world outside is full of opportunities. Not to be feared.He's got some good advice in the podcast about shifting from buyer-side to seller-side which will affect any Escapologist, as well as finding joy from work - and not being scared of leaving, or being restructured out of, a job.You can find more about John on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnjones/

September 12, 2024Episode 1943 min

19. Meet Wilma MacDonald: Maverick Mother - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. Like Wilma is doing.When Wilma made her first Great Escape leaving the Outer Hebrides to go to university she had a simple long-term career goal - to be The Boss. A degree in Management and a Masters in Business IT/IS later she travelled a bit, worked in New York and then ended back home in the Outer Hebrides.She escaped again, this time to a job at Standard Life where she put in twelve hour shifts and partied the rest until she burnt out. More time at banks - RBS, Sainsburys Bank & Tesco Bank - all the time in programme management and transformation roles. More burn out. Alongside a three year nutrition diploma. This woman doesn't do things by halves.Then she had a baby and gave up the banking career to start Maverick Motherhood, on a mission to transform the way that women see themselves so that society can change the way that it sees and treats women. But has she left behind all her programme management skills and experience in the bank? No way. Come and meet Wilma!You can find more about Wilma on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maverick-motherhood/ and at https://maverickmotherhood.co/

August 22, 2024Episode 1848 min

18. Meet Stephen Lee: Improv Comedian & Consultant - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. Like Stephen is doing.Stephen (pronounced like Steph-an) started his career studying to be a professor of bio-engineering. He started his PhD and then stopped it. With all the turmoil such a decision creates. Starting again is tough - especially if no-one really understands why you've given everything up. But Stephen was hugely courageous and backed himself to break free.He moved into global health work, then telecoms and finally media, where Stephen stayed for seven years in strategy and project roles for Discovery and then Warner Bros Discovery.Breaking free once gave Stephen the confidence to do it again, which he's done now setting himself as a consultant using many of the skills, experience and knowledge acquired during his corporate career - but also he's using his passion for improvisation comedy to help organisations build culture, supercharge teams and improve communications.Stephen is hugely articulate about his journey, failures and successes - he will be an inspiration to many people lacking the courage to stop things that no longer serve them - and move to something else that does. Even if they have to create it themselves.You can find more about Stephen on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenslee/

August 1, 2024Episode 1742 min

17. Meet Joe McKay LinkedIn Ghostwriter - Corporate Escapology the Podcast

The Corporate Escapology podcast is here to show you pathways that others have trodden to leave their corporate job and do something more fulfilling, purposeful and rewarding. Like Joe is doing.Joe has worked all over the place, in all manner of jobs, although there are some red threads throughout - sport, marketing, content. He started out with a strong - and wrong - belief that he was a numbers guy, but over time and some satisfactory roles, found himself doing much more creative roles. The more he learned what he was good at, the more he found what worked for him in line with his values. Until he was ready to take the plunge and leave paid employment and go it alone. The thing is ut wasn't a big leap into the unknown - Joe had been very deliberately experimenting over the last few years until he and his family were ready and the risks were reduced.You can find more about Joe on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmckay89/