How I Quit the Corporate Rat Race with Personal Branding

today I'm sharing how I went from waking up feeling miserable and stuck working in the corporate Rat Race to creating a life of Freedom doing work I truly love and I know that there's a lot of people out there waking up each day go jobs that just don't spark Joy just for a paycheck and just don't know what to do about it trust me I've been there and I want you to know that you are not alone so I'm sharing the top five tips tip that helped me navigate my way out of that environment this

is a video that I wish I had watched when I was feeling depressed and stuck sitting in my cubicle be sure to stick around right until the end because tip five is something that you need to know and it's often just not talked about at all as always here's an overview on screen of the topics that we are covering in today's video and in case we've not met yet I'm Marielle leir I am a LinkedIn top voice a speaker an NLP coach and my channel is all about personal branding self leadership and well-being so let's

get into it I felt compelled to share my story as I recently read an article in the UK's Guardian titled the soft life why Millennials are quitting the rat race ambition once came with a promise a home a salary progress and fulfillment what happens when that promise is broken meet the women who are turning their backs on consumerism materialism and burnout and honestly when I read that article I did a silent chair because as a millennial who quit the rat race and from feeling completely disconnected from my soul's purpose I really resonated with the article

and I want to share with you what's possible when you truly bet on yourself because I believe that really is the first step to creating any kind of change in your life and I truly believe in working to live and not living to work I relocated from London to New York in 2012 on a work visa and I only knew one person when I moved there I found myself very quickly in a sink or swim situation and I'm actually going to do a separate video on how I manifested my London to New York move and

also got my green card because it's a pretty epic story but moving to New York I got a huge culture shock walking down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was literally like being in a movie the city's energy was just infectious if you've ever been to New York you will know what I'm talking about the possibilities felt endless but soon the harsh realities of corporate America began to set in the city that never sleeps was also the city of endless work now don't get me wrong I do have a strong work ethic but this was Next Level

intense a work culture that I had never experienced while working in the city of London long hours emails sometimes on the weekends at 9:00 p.m. from my manager when I was trying to unwind from a full day a lot of high pressure and a Relentless pursuit of more began to take its toll the dream that I had been chasing really began to feel more like a mirage and my manager would say really mean things to me like you have a high opinion of yourself as if I meant to have a low one I was working

in such a toxic work environment and I still remember looking around while I was sat in my cubicle at everybody and everyone looked miserable nobody inspired me maybe you can relate now I'm not someone who will just work for the sake of money because I truly believe that there's so much more to life and I needed to feel invested because otherwise I would just get bored I really just couldn't see a path forward thankfully there were five key lessons that helped me navigate my way out of that environment and here are the lessons the first

one is gratitude be grateful for your current situation even if if it's not the ideal situation right now instead of saying why is this happening to me ask yourself what is this situation trying to teach me because no experience is ever wasted and there's always a lesson if you look for it for me during my New York Chapter for instance I had to learn to advocate for myself and use my voice because as an introverted British person working in fastpac culture like New York it was very much a make or break situation for me but

looking back I am so grateful for all of those character building experiences because I learned so much tip two is to build your skills up we get paid for the value that we bring to the marketplace and you're going to need to stack certain skills to be able to create a life on your terms and during my time in Corporate America I remember a senior partner the company had become my mentor he said to me Mutual Usery the company is using you for your labor but what can you get out of them that question lit

a fire in my head and in my belly I literally no longer saw myself with an employee mindset where I was working solely head down working in my job clocking in and clocking out I got strategic I started playing chess not Checkers and I started really working on my visibility and developing key skills that I knew would serve me later on I started investing in personal development like never before I joined Toast Masters to improve my public speaking skills because I remember reading that Warren Buffett the billionaire investor famously said the fastest way to increase

your value by 50% is to get good at public speaking and since you're always selling your ideas whether it's at work in a meeting or as a business owner speaking is such a key skill to master I also enrolled in a weekend copywriting course at NYU any training that was available I took it I stayed ready so I didn't need to get ready so what are some key skills that you can focus on developing right now while you are in your current role key skills that I feel everybody needs to master are Marketing sales and

financial literacy tip three is to network well and often because every opportunity that you desire is going to come from someone else so do the right people know about you right now it's not enough just for your manager to know about the impact you're making because what if they leave the company or the department who else knows about how amazing you are who else can vouch for you when you're not in the room have you taken the time to build your board of advisors these are people who can help guide your path and they should

be a mix of mentors sponsors and peers in your industry tip four is to get a coach I invested in a career coach for the first time and she really helped me get unstuck because she helped me identify my key values and my key strengths I had no idea what they were before working with her and I realized that we are not meant to go it alone it's very hard to get unstuck by going it alone and we did a really powerful exercise together which is called the ideal day exercise I'm going to do a

whole another video on that but trust me it was so so powerful because we identified that my personality type is not meant to work in a highly structured bureaucratic environment because my key values are freedom and autonomy because that's part of the reason why I felt like a cog in a wheel because I wasn't meant to be there in the first place it only took me over 10 years to figure that out but better late than never right so if you're feeling stuck I encourage you to work with a career coach to help you map

out your next steps tip five which is my favorite tip and I would say is the most important is to shift your identity how would a person in full control of their life behave what would their habits be when I shifted my identity from having that employee mindset to an entrepreneur mindset that's when things really began to change for me I started doing the Deep inner work to work on my limiting beliefs and stories that were keeping me stuck in a 9 to5 for instance we're taught to put our head down and let our work

speak for itself this is career damaging advice trust me the people getting ahead in your teams in your department they're not just doing that they are working on building their personal brand they're building relationships with the right decision makers often times we stay in places just for money but remember money is not in scarce Supply what is in scarce Supply is the ability to think of an idea that will replace your current income so carve out thinking time to focus on money making ideas once I learned these Five Lessons I was able to take full

control of my narrative and started building a personal brand that reflected my true self not just the expectations of corporate America but one that aligned more with my core identity I began to focus on what really made me unique leverag in my experiences skills and passions to create a brand that really stood out and I started sharing my knowledge through articles and connected with others who shared similar values to me and that really helped me feel less alone as I was making this big change using these five tips I was able to take full control

of my path then I caught the attention of yel University and they invited me to speak at their annual Women's Conference which was really really exciting a little nerve-wracking because it was also my first big speaking engagement but after that opportunities that I could never have imagined began to come my way freelancing Consulting and more speaking opportunities all because I decided to step out on faith and take action and today I work as a keynote speaker and a workshop facilitator for Global Brands and I absolutely love the work I do because it's so much more

aligned with my core values and it enables me to make a huge Global impact if these tips resonate with you I encourage you to explore your own path and how personal branding can help guide you to creating a life on your terms just pick one thing to work on that I've shared today and remember to like subscribe and share your journey Below in the comments because I want to hear from you what changes are you planning to make after watching this video remember life is happening right now and there is no reason to continue working

doing work that doesn't excite you forever thank you so much for watching until my next video take care