Maite Baron
What can you tell our readers about your new book?
At a time when there have never been so many opportunities in the world to do what you want, there’s no need to carry on doing something you don’t like when you can create a new, more satisfying life for yourself that will bring you purpose and success.
But most people don’t know how, or are too scared to break free from the corporate life they’ve grown up with. So they carry on as they’ve always done, commuting long distances daily, and looking over their shoulder the whole time wondering if they’ll be next for the redundancy bullet.
‘Corporate Escape: The Rise of the New Entrepreneur’ is the catalyst that can help them break free from their old world and take control of their lives by becoming what I call a ‘New Entrepreneur’ – post-corporate employees who are living their life on their terms and not someone else’s.
The book is based on my own 14 years’ experience working with both high performance individuals and within large organisations and businesses, and has two aims. First, to challenge people's preconceptions about where they are in their lives right now and the corporate path they’ve chosen; and then to empower them to start living a better life in ways that make them happier and give them more control.
So it questions the reasons why you do what you do, and then helps you develop the mindset and effectiveness of a 'New Entrepreneur', someone who is equipped with the skills, ambition and emotional resilience to survive and thrive, whatever the direction they choose to take.
By doing this, ‘Corporate Escape’ helps professionals break free from the conformity and mediocrity of their black and white existence stuck in the rat race.
Why is it different from other books on the market?
Most books for would-be entrepreneurs or anyone looking to escape the rat race tend to focus on specific tasks like how to start a business, set up a website, or change career direction.
‘Corporate Escape’ is different because it focuses far more on ‘you’, the person, and how to equip yourself to take giant steps in your life.
For example, it looks at how you can change your mindset and break free from the ‘prison’ of corporate thinking that will hold you back. It also gives you techniques for building your emotional resilience to overcome future challenges; it teaches you ways to leverage up the skills and talents you already possess to greater advantage and how you can identify the one thing that will really motivate you to create a new beginning for yourself and your family, and much more of course.
To what extent is this book driven by your own experiences of being unhappy in business?
Being paid to help managers, executives and other professionals perform better in a corporate world when you know that the only thing they want to do is escape from it, is pretty unfulfilling, very frustrating and ultimately meaningless.
I became tired of seeing so many professionals burnt out and disillusioned, but still trying to climb the career ladder, doing things they didn't want to do, just to meet the expectations of others.
Many of my clients were also living in what can only be called ‘a permanent state of fear’ – fear of losing their jobs, of not being able to make ends meet, or of ending up divorced, yet again, because work was taking up too much of their life.
That means there are an awful a lot of professionals out there right now who are feeling pretty lost, unfulfilled and empty, being manipulated by a system that’s only looking to create a profit from them.
So the message in ‘Corporate Escape’ is clear – why sell your soul for money when there are so many other ways in which you can lead a more fulfilling and no less successful life?
‘Corporate Escape’ is all about helping professionals see the opportunities that are open to them. And now is the perfect time to get out of the rat race, hanging on in the corporate world waiting for things to get better is a big mistake.
Who is the book aimed at?
It’s for any professional who is feeling frustrated, stuck, undervalued and burnt out, or just isn’t reaching their potential and can’t wait to escape the corporate world that’s dragging them down.
It is also for those who are in a state of transition, for instance between jobs or careers, wondering what to do next but not sure how to find a new way forward. And it’s also for anyone who’s looking to ‘reboot’ their life after redundancy, or wanting to use their skills, knowledge and expertise to start up a business or grow one they’ve already begun.
I’ve written ‘Corporate Escape’ to give all these individuals the courage they need to take control of their lives, both personally and professionally.
You are the co-founder of The Corporate Escape Foundation. Tell us a little bit about this.
The Corporate Escape Foundation™: ‘Business with Heart and Soul’, is a non-profit organisation I’ve founded with my partner, Keith Grafton. Through it we aim to bring passion and meaning back into the workplace and create a legacy of prosperity and purpose that will help society as a whole.
We believe it’s crucial that after the excesses of corporations and big business in recent years, values and ethics and passion and meaning should be put back into business again, and The Corporate Escape Foundation can play a part in doing that.
It’s philanthropic by nature and based on a love of people and the pursuit of human excellence. And because we believe we’re in this world to make a difference, creating social change is a major part our business model.
That’s why we balance every ‘for profit’ training experience with a ‘not for profit’ initiative that trains and educates new and existing business owners about the need to create enterprises that generate social change, as well as profit.
From a practical point of view, this means that the Foundation will help struggling, unfulfilled and disillusioned professionals find a new way forward.
So anyone who invests in their own success by participating in our programmes is not only helping themselves, but also contributing towards a more entrepreneurial and generous society. By doing this, we think that the Foundation will leave a lasting legacy that will enhance the quality of people’s lives, nourish the human spirit in the workplace, bring people together and make the world a better place.
You are a ‘corporate escape coach’. Tell us a little about how you work.
Nothing makes me happier than helping professionals see ‘the bigger picture’ and opening up doors and possibilities, where before they only saw problems.
So I begin my work by helping them create a vision of their ‘ideal’ life, which is often in stark contrast with their current reality. By seeing the gap between the two, which is generally very large, they immediately begin to understand why they feel so frustrated, burnt out and disillusioned, and experiencing fear and resistance to change. They just aren’t living the life they want.
After this, we concentrate on developing the mindset they need to move from being an employee to becoming a New Entrepreneur - in other words, someone with the revised set of attitudes and social paradigms that are necessary for their future success. Unless they do this, they will remain stuck where they are.
Often one of their most common fears is not feeling in control of their lives, so to tackle that we then focus on creating a solid ‘escape plan’ that enables them to safely leave the corporate world in the first place, and which prepares them for success outside it. This takes careful thought, as jumping out of the corporate world means making some radical changes, and these have to be prepared for, not just by the person themselves, but also their family.
In parallel with working on their mindset, I will also look at the practicalities of starting a business, if that’s their route forward, and updating their skills and knowledge base, or finding opportunities to use their expertise differently and in ways that are more fulfilling and rewarding, emotionally as well as financially.
We will also focus on revealing their strengths and passions, identifying potential business niches, creating their product or service offering, setting up a pricing structure, creating a marketing plan, branding themselves and their services, developing partnerships and joint ventures with others, and much, much more.
By this stage, my clients will feel truly empowered to start fulfilling their vision and are equipped with a systematic plan for turning it into a reality.
It’s an end-to-end process that helps them achieve enormous growth personally and professionally.
And while until now I’ve only done this on a one-to-one basis, it’s something I’ll also be opening up to groups from 2013.
Why is it so important to be happy and passionate at work?
Any discontent you have with your work life will percolate through every aspect of your existence. And while we continue to work in ways that aren’t meaningful or satisfying to us, we will always feel as though there is something, some meaning, missing from our lives.
That’s why we may feel confused, fearful and disillusioned when doing jobs we don’t like. Without clarity and direction we feel lost.
And because of advances in technology, we’re connected to the external world 24/7. And as the boundaries between work and personal areas of our lives dissolve, we work harder, often into our free time, and still feel as if we’re achieving less and less.
So despite being in this connected world, we become more and more disconnected from ourselves and others. It’s no wonder many of us feel lonelier than ever. And unless we do something that feels rewarding, it’s only a matter of time before we ‘break down’. We’re not robots and we need variety and joy in our lives.
On the other hand, when you do a job you love, your continual satisfaction creates happiness that keeps you passionate, which in turn generates yet more satisfaction and so it goes, a ‘virtuous circle’ that we should all be on. Without passion, you will only ever create something that is ordinary.
Where can people start if they wish to change their work life?
The first thing they need to do is be honest with themselves about where they are right in their lives right now. This means answering five fundamental questions.
First, who am I and what makes me unique?
Second, what am I passionate about?
Third, what do I want from my life – professionally, financially, spiritually, emotionally and health-wise?
Fourth, what values need to be present in my everyday life to make it feel worthwhile?
And fifth, what is the legacy I want to leave behind for the benefit of others?
What steps does your book go through to put this into action?
It looks at your beliefs about work, career, life, relationships and how society, the education process and the media hijack your identity and cripple your thinking so you become a follower rather than a leader.
It also considers what you can do to ‘get back into the driving seat’ by showing you how fear, in its many forms, can hold you back and what you need to do overcome it.
The book also helps you rethink what success is, what it means to you and how you can achieve it outside the corporate world.
So effectively the book takes you on a journey of self-discovery, helping you to find out who you are today, what matters to you, what you are willing to put up with and what you need to change. It will also help you engage with your life and give you the courage to make your dreams happen.
Who and what have been the biggest influences in your career?
Since my childhood I’ve been inspired by great thinkers, philosophers, inventors and entrepreneurs. So I love to read books and watch biographic films about them to gain insight into their lives, their defeats and failures, to learn how they overcame their challenges, took advantage of their opportunities, and above all how they saw the world and what they thought about it.
I love art (Picasso, Giacometti, Kandinsky), opera (Puccini, Verdi), classic cinema (Woody Allen, Bergman, Hitchcock), ‘real’ fashion (Chanel, Balenciaga, Dior) and architecture (both old and modern).
All these disciplines have influenced me as long as I can remember. And being born in Barcelona, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by beauty from an early age – my school was built by Gaudi so it was no boring ‘clone’ of a building, but a place where every wall oozed creativity and genius, so much so that you could ‘feel’ it.
During 14 years in the high fashion industry, I learnt the discipline of doing something with love, attention and care as well as the sacrifice that’s required to create a unique masterpiece, but also the pleasure that this then gives.
Because I see every individual as unique and I find it incredibly sad that society tries to make each of us the same. So everything I’ve done in my career has been to empower people so that they have the courage to be themselves, to live and work they way they chose, to help them reach their potential and to experience a purposeful and prosperous life.
What is next for you?
I plan to start delivering group programmes from January 2013 to support as many professionals as possible in escaping the corporate world and taking control of their future lives. I’m here to ‘liberate the corporate soul’ and prepare as many professionals to successfully transition from being an employee to become a New Entrepreneur.
Female First Lucy Walton