Rejoin Coaching

Rejoin is a holding company for my digital brands and businesses that I started while designing my way out of my corporate job. We own a few small online businesses: Careercloud.com, Quotebook Journal and my Rejoin Coaching business.

CEO Rejoin

Edgewood College

Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship

I help advise the School of Business on learning and curriculum. I am particularly interested in how we support students to be resilient, adaptable and self staring individuals.

Looking to build Higher Edpreneurship.

Advisory Board Member

I help high achievers break corporate dependence and build beautiful Portfolio Careers for freedom, family and finances.

I help high achieving professionals BREAK corporate dependence and build Self-Directed Lives.
I believe that to transform our circumstances, we have to BREAK what's not working, on purpose. And do it smartly.

My Career Design Lab is where your golden handcuffs and unfulfilling career go to die, and where we reimagine work aligned with who you want to be, who you want to serve and what legacy you want to leave.

Like you:
I know what it's like to be burned out, unfulfilled and secretly DYING for new opportunities. 
I know what it's like to seek my identity and self worth from a job only to realize the mirage.
I know what it's like to sacrifice my health and family for "achievement."

The difference is I did something about it.

In 2018, work wasn't working for me, so I broke it and methodically designed a new life with intention.
I used my job as an investor in my future. I figured out my advantages and then built a side business that I took to full time corporate exit, then scaled to over $1m in revenue.

I built an entire process to help me figure out my re-invented career and now I use that to help other corporate pros smartly build futures that are Self-Directed, intentional and successful - that is my purpose.

Previous, my career spanned:

Financial Futures and Derivatives Trading
3 Startups
Freelance Consulting
Corporate Innovation

I infuse major lessons from these unique experiences to help you craft a dynamic, portfolio career that is adaptable, intentional, purpose driven and never dependent on the whims of corporate structures.

I waited too long.
I've always loved writing.
Always wanted to write a book.

To many ideas, too paralyzed to start.
To self-conscious about my ideas.
Always like "Am I the only one who feels this way?"

I can't write a book.
I don't know how.
It feels like a lot of work.
And I definitely can't PROMOTE one!

But one thing has stuck with me in the 7 years since I left corporate:

I'm committed to what I want, and committed to the idea of "starting where I am."

So I wrote: "Just Leave Me Alone So I Can Work".

It's one part tactical guide and one part call to arms.

This book is about owning your time, not time management.
This book is about effectiveness, not productivity.
And this book is about design, not performance.

Your time is too valuable to now own it.

The book will be live January 19, 2026,
BUT if you pre order now, I'll send you a signed copy ;)

https://lnkd.in/gJXzVwMB

Light that fire,

Mike

Michael Gardon

Talks about #careers, #investing, #lifedesign, #remotework, and #entrepreneurship

The next level of corporate success is entrepreneurial emergence —​> live the life you deserve by building the business of YOU | I follow my own path + light 🔥’s | Pod: Breaking Work 🎙️

2023: I wrote one linkedin post
No one read it except a reporter from the Wall Street Journal

She interviewed me for 90 minutes,
and kindly mentioned my name in the article.

She was tapping into the sheer load of distraction that happens at work,
and how it prevents us from doing our best work.

WSJ title: Leave Me Alone To Do My Job

I realized I had something to offer in this thread,
So I decided to write my own story of dealing with distraction, burnout and overwhelm
and how I decided to OWN my time.

This book is 1 part tactical - the stuff that actually works.
(not "time management" bs)

And 1 part treatise - a call to arms for people to wake up about their own relationship with time.

Ultimately, I needed to own my time so I could BREAK out of corporate.
To design the life and the business I wanted.

But even if you just want more control and sanity over your work-life,
I think everyone can resonate with "𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝗼 𝗜 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸."

The book goes on sale January 19, 2026
But if you want a signed copy which will be worth a lot of money someday ;)
you can pre order now and I'll ship you a little note!

Light that fire,

Mike
https://lnkd.in/gJXzVwMB

A burned out corporate executive asked me why I walked away from a $225K innovation role...
I showed him the 4-part framework that helped me build a business working 20 hours per week.
Now he makes more money than his old VP salary (by doing work he actually cares about)

Here's the truth: Most corporate professionals approach escape velocity ALL WRONG.

They're chasing:
• Cookie-cutter business models
• Surface-level tactics
• Quick-fix solutions that don't last

But there's a deeper path.

One that starts with getting crystal clear on:
• The work that truly lights you up
• The impact you're meant to make
• The life you actually want to build

I've helped 100+ corporate leaders build authentic, profitable businesses by focusing on what matters first - the transformation they want to create, not just the mechanics of "how."

This works because it starts with WHO YOU ARE, not what everyone else is doing.

✅ No forcing yourself into trendy business models
✅ No copying what "worked for others"
✅ No sacrificing your values for profit
✅ No pretending to be someone you're not

Ready to build something real?

𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 ;)

Don't quit your job.
Don't let them win.

You're strong enough.
You're capable enough.

Instead of them using you,
You can use them.

This is a core mantra inside the Freedom Accelerator Lab.

If you're a burned out senior leader,
See how we make our 'jobs'
into our Investors in our new lives.

DM me 'workshop' for your exclusive invite to 
experience the shift.

Light that fire,

Mike

25 students, 5 businesses in less than 90 days.
An Inside look at Pitch Day @edgewooduniversity:

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭: 𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽

We get in touch with who we are at our best.
Because we can't create anything great if we're not utilizing our individual natural gifts.
Each student goes through my Advantage Mapping Protocol
It's foundational and fundamental.

Think Mr. Miagi teachng Daniel Son "Wax on, wax off" before he ever throws a punch.

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟯𝟬: 𝗘𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝟯 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗢𝗱𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

This is their options portfolio.
Based on their own Advantage Map.
They start to believe in their own creative abilities and inspiration.

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟲𝟬: 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 (𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 "𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀")

Utilze Design Thinking and Lean Canvas to organize and mobilize

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟵𝟬: 𝗩𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹

Class gets randomly split into groups.
Research, Design, Marketing, Branding, Sales.
5 Real, fundable businesses.

Pitch Day is a celebration of how far they've come and what they can do as 18-22 year olds in their next phase of life.

Proud of each one of these students
Their ability suspend disbelief
To challenge the status quo
To overcome self-doubt
To be who they are

Extra special moment: I invited my own kids to attend and 2/3 said yes.
That's a win in my book!

Congrats to all my students on an amazing semester.

Thank you for letting me be in your lives for a moment.

Light that fire,

Mike

I hated my past self for a long time.
Then I realized: Future me was going to hate current me even more.

Here's what nobody tells you about change:

We are FAR more different from who we were 10 years ago than we can imagine.

And we'll be FAR more different 10 years from NOW than we can imagine.

But here's the problem:

Remembering is easy. Imagination is hard.

It's easy to SEE who I was - angry, wound too tight, not a pleasure to be around.

It's far harder to SEE who I'll become.

So for years, I made decisions for my CURRENT self:
→ Took promotions for more money NOW
→ Stayed in my lane for safety NOW
→ Built a life that worked for TODAY

Meanwhile, Future Michael - with different values, different energy, different priorities - would have to live with choices made by someone who no longer existed.

My 21-year-old self picked my career with LIMITED information.

By 30-something, I was a different person living in a prison that stranger built.

And I was doing it AGAIN.

Making choices for TODAY that would trap TOMORROW.

I see this everywhere now:

People wake up at 45 in a life their 25-year-old designed and think "who the f*ck chose this?"

You did. By not choosing.

Here's what I learned about Future Proofing:

Change is INEVITABLE. You WILL be different.

The question isn't WHETHER to design for change.

It's whether you do it INTENTIONALLY or let it happen TO you.

Next Monday (Nov 24), I'm hosting a free workshop where I'll walk through the 4 outcomes of how to Break Work and design an intentional work-life:

→ Time Sovereignty (stop renting your time)
→ Future Proofing (build for the person you'll become)
→ Unfair Advantage (leverage what makes YOU unique)
→ Business Foundation (create income independence)

This isn't about predicting the future.

It's about building OPTIONALITY now so Future You has room to breathe, pivot, and become whoever they need to be.

Comment or DM me 'WORKSHOP' below and I'll send you the registration link.

I stopped building prisons for people I haven't met yet.

You should too.

Light that fire🔥,

Mike

You know what's wild about the holidays?
Everyone asks what you're grateful for.
But nobody asks what you're tolerating.


I was at a holiday party last week.

Guy next to me - VP at a Fortune 500 - was talking about gratitude.

"Grateful for my health. My family. This amazing job."

Then his phone buzzed.

He looked at it. Sighed. Excused himself.

Came back 20 minutes later, visibly drained.

"Sorry. Urgent email from my boss."

At 8 PM. On a Saturday. During the holidays.

This is what we've normalized.

We're grateful for the paycheck.
But we're tolerating the erosion of our TIME.

We're grateful for job security.
But we're tolerating the loss of our ENERGY.

We're grateful for the title.
But we're tolerating the death of our CREATIVITY.

Gratitude is important.

But so is radical honesty about what you're sacrificing.


If you're done tolerating work that drains you, I'm running a free workshop on reclaiming your time and energy. Link in featured section.

Stop tolerating. Start designing.

Light that 🔥,

Mike

Two VCs spoke to my class last week. 
Their message cut to the heart of what prevents millions of people from even starting a business:


Complexity kills.

BUT that's exactly what corporate trained us to do.

For years, I thought business success required:
→ Sophisticated funnels
→ Complex operating systems
→ Multi-stakeholder alignment frameworks
→ Endless optimization and efficiency plays

Because that's what corporate rewards.

In corporate, you prove your value through COMPLEXITY.

More decks. More frameworks. More meetings.
You learn to overexplain everything to appear strategic.
You build systems to show you're thinking big.

I even pitched a meeting cost calculator at a Fortune 500 once - a tool that would save millions by showing the true cost of unnecessary meetings.

They laughed me out of the room.

(Shopify built it years later and it became a headline story. But I digress.)

Here's what those VCs made crystal clear:

The best businesses aren't complex. They're simple.

Solve one problem.
For one specific person.
In the clearest possible way.

We don't fail at business because we lack skills.

Corporate gave us MORE skills than most entrepreneurs:
→ Managing up = client management
→ Stakeholder alignment = sales
→ Project management = delivery systems

We fail because we bring corporate COMPLEXITY instead of entrepreneurial SIMPLICITY.

We overcomplicate to prove we're smart.
We optimize before we validate.
We build systems before we have customers.

The irony? Our corporate training is an unfair advantage.

We just need to strip away the bloat.

𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 (𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟮𝟰), 𝗜'𝗺 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟰 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀:

→ Time Sovereignty (stop renting your time)
→ Future Proofing (build for the person you'll become)
→ Unfair Advantage (map what makes YOU unrepeatable)
→ Business Foundation (build simple, not complex)

I'll show you how to leverage your corporate skills without bringing corporate complexity.

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲 '𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗣' 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸.

Stop building like a corporate strategist.

Start building like an entrepreneur.

Light that 🔥,

Mike

P.S. Thank you to Mike Mansell and Cooper LaRue from Amfam Ventures. Appreciate you bringing your expertise and perspective to Edgewood University.

I hadn't made a real decision about my own time in 7 years.

Every hour accounted for.

Every block claimed by someone else.

Every "gap" in my calendar immediately filled with another meeting.

I used to think this was success.

Busy = important, right?

Wrong.

I was a Time Renter.

Paying with my life energy for someone else's priorities.

Trading my creative potential for a predictable paycheck.

Saying 'yes' to everything because I got paid the same regardless.

The day I realized I couldn't remember the last time I chose what to do with my Wednesday afternoon?

That was the day everything changed.

Here's what nobody tells you:

The price of not claiming sovereignty over your time accumulates silently.

It didn't seem like a big deal to answer your boss's late-night email.

But now you're responding at the dinner table.

Taking calls during what any sane person would call personal time.

Years pass with you rationalizing "always available" as a cultural norm.

Until one day the simmer of discontent boils over:

"I've invested twenty years of time and energy into someone else's vision."

You can't optimize your way out of the wrong game.

You have to design a different one.

One where YOU become the gatekeeper.

Where your time goes to things you actually care about.

Where Wednesday afternoons are yours to design.


I'm running a free workshop on breaking free from corporate handcuffs and reclaiming sovereignty over your time. 
𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗣 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀.
The choice is yours.

Keep renting.

Or start owning.

Light that 🔥,

Mike

I used to hide in the bathroom at work.
Not because I needed to go,
Because it was the one place no one could get to me.

I was a Time Renter, instead of an Owner.

Not just my schedule.
My sanity.

You can't remember the last time you made a decision about your own time.

Your PTO gets burned on laundry and grocery shopping because there's no space during the week.

Your weekends aren't "recovery" anymore—they're triage.

And Sunday? Sunday is just pre-grief for Monday.

80-90% of professionals are time renters.

They believe time is abundant.
They sell it at a fixed price.
Their only path to more money is doing MORE or learning MORE.

But there's never capacity for either because all their time already belongs to someone else.

I was a time renter for 15 years.

Then I became a time owner.

Not by quitting my job.
By designing my Perfect Week INSIDE my corporate role.

And everything changed.

Because Time Sovereignty isn't about having more time.

It's about treating your time like the finite stockpile of gold it actually is.

Next Monday (Nov 24), I'm hosting a free workshop where I'll walk through the 4 outcomes of Breaking Work:

→ Time Sovereignty (stop renting, start owning)
→ Future Proofing (build real resilience)
→ Unfair Advantage (leverage what makes YOU unique)
→ Business Foundation (create income independence)

This is the exact blueprint I used to escape the corporate distraction vortex and build a multi-6-figure business on MY terms.

DM me 'WORKSHOP' below and I'll send you the registration link.

Stop hiding in bathrooms.

Start owning your time.

𝗣.𝗦. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗲

I kept telling myself "next year will be different."
For 5 years.
It never was - because I was solving the wrong problem.

𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿.

Still burned out - just with a color-coded calendar.

𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀.

Had certifications I never used because I had no capacity to deploy them.

𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.

Lasted 6 weeks before I couldn't sustain it alongside my corporate job.

Each approach kept me stuck in a different way.

For years, I thought I just needed to fix ONE thing:

"Just get better at time management."
"Just pick up that new skill."
"Just start the side hustle."

But that's not how this actually works.

Here's what I finally figured out:

Building freedom (creative, time, financial) aren't separate problems.

They're ONE interconnected system.

You can't build a business without time to build it.

You can't future proof without knowing what advantages to leverage.

You can't create your unfair advantage if you have no capacity to use it.

And you can't sustain any of it without a foundation that actually works.

Trying to solve them one at a time is why most people stay trapped for YEARS.

I see it constantly:

People optimize their calendar but still feel owned by their job.

People collect skills but never monetize them.

People start businesses but abandon them because there's no room to breathe.

We've been conditioned to think transformation comes from fixing ONE thing.

It doesn't.

It comes from building all four pillars simultaneously - as a system that reinforces itself.

That's what I'm walking through this Monday (Nov 24) in my free workshop.

The 4 outcomes of the Freedom Accelerator Lab:

→ Time Sovereignty (stop renting your time)
→ Future Proofing (build for the person you'll become)
→ Unfair Advantage (map what makes YOU unrepeatable)
→ Business Foundation (build simple, not complex)

This is the exact system I used to go from trapped corporate employee working 60-hour weeks to running a multi-6-figure business on my terms.

If you've read posts 1-4 this week and haven't registered yet - what are you waiting for?

Comment 'WORKSHOP' below and I'll send you the registration link.

Stop trying to fix one thing at a time.

Start building the system that sets you free.

Light that 🔥,

Mike

Scrolling again on Sunday?
It's not anxiety about tomorrow, 
It's grief from last week.


Grief for another week you'll spend building someone else's dream while yours collects dust.

You feel it in your chest every Sunday around 4pm.

That slow-creeping dread.

The pit in your stomach that wasn't there Saturday morning.

We tell ourselves it's "just work stress."

But it's not.

It's your body's alarm system screaming that you're living a life you didn't choose.

Every Sunday, we mourn:
→ The business we haven't started
→ The time we'll never control
→ The person we're not becoming
→ The dreams we keep postponing

And every Monday, we go back anyway.

Because "next year will be different."

Except it won't.

Not unless you build the system that sets you free.

This Tomorrow (Nov 24), instead of dreading Monday, join me for a free workshop where I'll walk through the 4 outcomes that eliminate Sunday Scaries forever:

→ Time Sovereignty
→ Future Proofing
→ Unfair Advantage
→ Business Foundation

Comment or DM me 'WORKSHOP' below and I'll send you the registration link.

Stop grieving your Sundays.

Start owning your Mondays.

I used to hide in conference rooms.
Not for meetings.
Just to breathe.


Big title. Corner office. Great salary.

And I was stealing moments of silence in empty conference rooms because my calendar was so suffocating I couldn't think.

That's when I knew.

The problem wasn't time management.
The problem was that my time wasn't MINE.

Someone else decided:
• When I worked
• What I worked on
• Who I worked with
• Whether it mattered

I was a high-paid time renter.

And the rent was going up.

More meetings. More travel. More "urgent" requests that weren't urgent at all.

I realized something:

You can't optimize your way out of the wrong game.

So I stopped playing.

I didn't quit recklessly.
I didn't "follow my passion."
I didn't wait for permission.

I designed a different game.

One where I controlled my time.
One where my energy went to things I cared about.
One where I built equity, not just earned a paycheck.

That was 7 years ago.

Now I teach other high-performers how to do the same thing.


𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀, 𝗜'𝗺 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲. 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

You don't need permission. You need a plan.

I spent 15 years climbing the corporate ladder.
It took 90 days to build my own.
Without quitting.

Let me be brutally honest with you.

For 15 years, I did everything "right."

Climbed the ladder. Earned the promotions. Built the resume that looked impressive on LinkedIn.

But behind the polished exterior? I was dying inside.

Every Sunday night, the dread would creep in.
Every meeting felt like corporate theater—style over substance, politics over progress.
Every day, I gave my best energy to someone else's vision... and gave my kids whatever was left.

I knew I was capable of more.
I knew I was meant for something different.

But here's what stopped me for YEARS:

I had real responsibilities.

Three kids under seven. A mortgage. A lifestyle my family depended on.

I couldn't just quit and "figure it out." That's not how grown-ups operate.

So I started researching. Reading every book. Following every guru who promised "passive income."

And they all said the same thing:

"Just hustle harder. Wake up at 4 AM. Build your business at night and on weekends."

That's fucking exhausting.

I was already giving 10 hours a day to corporate. Now I'm supposed to grind another 4 hours after my kids go to bed? Destroy my health? Wreck my marriage?

That's not freedom. That's a second prison.

Here's what I realized:

The problem wasn't that I needed MORE time. I needed to reclaim the time I already had.

I was drowning in pointless meetings, reactive work, and corporate chaos that served everyone's agenda but mine.

So I stopped trying to "hustle harder" and started creating SPACE at my current job.

I learned to:

✅ Protect my calendar like my life depended on it (it did)
✅ Say "no" strategically without becoming a pariah
✅ Engineer my environment for deep, focused work

And here's what happened:

I got my time back. Not by working less—by working SMARTER.

I reclaimed 10-15 hours per week. Real, focused hours.

THEN I used that space to build my business. During work hours. While still employed.

No 4 AM wake-ups. No sacrificing family dinner. No burning myself into the ground.

It took 90 days.

90 days to turn my corporate expertise into a real business with real income.

Not because I'm special. Because I had a SYSTEM.

A system that works whether you're in finance, tech, defense, consulting—doesn't matter.

This is simple. It's not easy. But it works.

Here's what that system looks like:

✅ First: Reclaim your time at your current job (without rocking the boat)
✅ Second: Identify the premium offer hidden in your corporate expertise
✅ Third: Build real revenue streams while you're still getting a paycheck

This isn't hustle porn. This isn't "grind culture."

This is strategic business building for professionals who have too much to lose to wing it.

And now? That photo of me and my family jumping in Maui?

That's not a vacation. That's my Tuesday.

Because I stopped renting my time to corporate masters and started owning it myself.

𝗜'𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶

I spent years trying to be world-class at ONE thing.
I failed every time, because being the BEST at one thing is nearly impossible ->

And it's soul-crushing to try.

Here's what changed everything:

I stopped trying to be #1 at anything.

Instead, I stacked skills I was top 25% at.

Content marketing + corporate strategy + systems thinking + teaching.

Suddenly, I wasn't competing with millions.

I was 1 of 1.

We've been sold a lie about specialization.

"Pick a lane."
"Niche down."
"Be known for ONE thing."

But that's not how unfair advantages actually work.

Your advantage isn't being the best copywriter.
Or the best strategist.
Or the best anything.

Your advantage is the COMBINATION nobody else has.

When we stack 3-4 things we're top 25% at, we become unrepeatable.

This is exactly how you unlock yourself from corporate shackles.

It's not just skills either.

It's our complete picture:
→ Natural curiosity and genuine interests
→ Personality alignment
→ Life experience and background
→ Learning preferences
→ Decision-making styles

No one has your blend.

Which means no one can truly compete with you.

They can copy your content.
Your messaging.
Your offers.

But it will ALWAYS be a knockoff.

A lesser version of something that's uniquely yours.

Next Monday (Nov 24), I'm hosting a free workshop where I'll walk through the 4 outcomes of building your unique Advantage:

→ Time Sovereignty (stop renting your time)
→ Future Proofing (build for the person you'll become)
→ Unfair Advantage (map what makes YOU unrepeatable)
→ Business Foundation (create income independence)

I'll show you exactly how to identify and stack your advantages so you stop competing and start being 1 of 1.

Comment or DM me 'WORKSHOP' below and I'll send you the registration link.

Stop trying to be the best at one thing.

Start being the only one who does what you do.

Entrepreneurs - don't fret about your first hire. Here's now to do it step by step:

First time entrepreneurs struggle to find their first few hires. Here's exactly where you should be posting.

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