What really happens after you quit your job to start a business? Alex McCarthy shares the messy, unexpected middle between leaving the “safe” path and building a business — and life — that actually fits YOU.
Everyone loves the entrepreneur story of "I quit my job to start a business" but not everyone shares the emotional journey that comes with becoming an entrepreneur.
Here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: sometimes you leave the wrong path before you know exactly what the right one looks like.
That’s what happened to Alex McCarthy.
After a career in export sales — including her claim to fame of selling over a million pounds of green bananas (love that!) — Alex knew the path she was on wasn’t the one she wanted long-term. So she left, bought a one-way ticket to Asia and started figuring out what she actually wanted work and life to look like.
What came next wasn’t a perfectly packaged entrepreneur story.
It was travel. Meeting digital nomads. Using her existing network. Pitching herself before she felt completely ready. A former employer unexpectedly becoming her first client.
And eventually turning down the opportunity to return to her old job WITH A PROMOTION, because she wanted to gives this whole entrepreneurship thing a try!
We get into the reality of your first year of business, finding those first clients, making decisions without knowing exactly where they’ll lead, and building a business around your lifestyle instead of creating another job you eventually want to escape from.
In this female entrepreneur podcast episode:
- What actually happens after you quit your job to start a business — especially when you don’t have the perfect plan
- How Alex found her first client by using the network she already had
- The less glamorous reality of navigating your first year of business
- Why Alex batched an entire year of podcast episodes while pregnant to stay visible without needing to constantly show up online
- How to start building a business around your lifestyle, values and version of success
Listen for...
a reminder that you don’t have to know exactly where your business is going to go before you start, pivot or scale.
And more importantly: if you're leaving a career because it doesn't fit the life you want, don't automatically build yourself a business that doesn't fit either.
About the Guest:
Alex McCarthy is a business coach and podcast host of My Kind of Business, where she helps solo business owners and small teams build businesses that fit their lives — not the other way around.
Her approach is rooted in freedom, creativity and a personal definition of success — especially useful when you’re in those first few years of business and everyone else’s version of “making it” starts to cloud out what YOU want.
Connect with Alex McCarthy
Website: https://www.alexmccarthycoaching.com/
Podcast: My Kind of Business
Next Steps:
- Share this episode with a friend
- Listen to next: The Biggest Mind F*ck of My Life | Leaving My Job to Start a Business (ep 25)
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