What happens when you leave a successful corporate career and suddenly have to build a business around your own name, expertise and value?
Leaving corporate life is not simply a career move. For many experienced professionals, it brings a much deeper transition.
Who are you without the organisation and job title behind you? How do you put a price on years of experience? How do you become comfortable being visible? And how do you turn professional expertise into something people understand, value and are willing to buy?
In this trailer for Episode 66 of Muhami Matters, host Chris Adams speaks with Emily Dorschler, Founder of NurtureWorks, about what Emily calls the “corporate hangover”: the habits, expectations and patterns of thinking that can follow experienced professionals out of employment and into entrepreneurship.
Emily works particularly with women who have left long corporate careers and are building businesses of their own. Drawing on her own journey from corporate life through VA and online business management work and ultimately into coaching, she helps clients make the transition from thinking like an employee to stepping confidently into the role of business owner.
In the full conversation, Chris and Emily explore:
• Why being excellent at your profession does not automatically make building a business easy
• The identity shift that can follow leaving a long corporate career
• Why experienced professionals can struggle to recognise and price their own value
• The relationship between self-worth, confidence and money
• Why waiting until you feel “ready” can hold a business back
• The corporate habits that may need to be unlearned
• Why visibility is an unavoidable part of business ownership
• How to communicate the problem you solve rather than over-explaining your methodology
• The importance of experimentation, resilience and learning from mistakes
• Why the journey of building a business should still be a joyful one
One of the central themes of the conversation is that expertise is only the starting point.
As Emily explains, there is a significant difference between knowing you are a great professional and translating that expertise into something you can package, market and make appealing for people to buy.
Chris also reflects on a lesson that applies particularly strongly to consultants, lawyers, advisers and other expert-led professionals: clients are rarely interested in every detail of how you reach the solution. They want to understand the problem you can solve for them.
ABOUT EMILY DORSCHLER
Emily Dorschler is the Founder of NurtureWorks.
She works primarily with women who have recently left corporate careers and are building their own businesses, helping them move beyond the “corporate hangover” and develop the confidence, self-trust and entrepreneurial mindset needed for their next chapter.
Website:
https://nurtureworks.uk
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-dorschler/
ABOUT CHRIS ADAMS
Chris Adams is the host of Muhami Matters and Founder of Muhami and CJA Consulting.
Through CJA Consulting, Chris advises professional services organisations, particularly lawyers and law firms, on marketing, business development, positioning and sustainable growth.
With nearly two decades of experience working with professional services organisations across the UK, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, Chris brings a commercial perspective to conversations about how expertise is positioned, communicated and turned into meaningful business opportunities.
CJA Consulting:
https://www.cjaconsult.com
Muhami:
https://www.muhami.ae
ABOUT MUHAMI MATTERS
Muhami Matters is where credibility meets clarity in legal and professional services.
Hosted by Chris Adams, the podcast brings together trusted advisers, respected industry experts and thought leaders to share practical insights, strategic perspectives and actionable advice for professionals, founders and business leaders.
Full Episode 66, The Corporate Hangover, will be published on Monday, 31 August 2026.
Visit www.muhami.ae for legal knowledge and to connect with lawyers who can solve your legal issues.
Visit www.cjaconsult.com for marketing & business development services catering to professionals
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