Leaving corporate America

Marielle shares her journey of relocating from London to New York City, where she initially believed she would achieve her American dream but instead faced burnout and a loss of personal values. She emphasizes the importance of resilience, personal branding, and work-life balance. Marielle also discusses the negative aspects of corporate America and the need to build a personal brand outside of job titles. She ultimately takes control of her narrative and becomes an intrapreneur. Leaving Corporate America, okay test, all ready. Leaving Corporate America, okay great, let's go Marielle, let's go. Today I'm sharing my journey of relocating from London to New York City. How what I thought would be my American dream of climbing the corporate ladder quickly turned into an American nightmare. But I also learned a lot about resilience, growth and the power of personal branding which I'll share with you here. In case you've not met yet, I'm Marielle, a global speaker, LinkedIn top voice and LinkedIn learning instructor. My channel is all about equipping you with the tools to establish your personal brand, develop yourself leadership skills and improve your wellbeing. Here's an overview on screen of what we'll be covering in today's video. I want to give you an insight into what's possible when you truly bet on yourself like I did. And I felt compelled to share this because 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 fulfilment. What happens when that promise is broken? Meet the women who are turning their backs on consumerism, materialism and burnout. This really resonated with me as a millennial myself who quit the corporate rat race of working in the city of London and more recently corporate America a few years ago in favour of creating a more manageable and sustainable work-life balance that's more aligned with my values of freedom and joy. I had to do this. This video is the video that I wish that I watched when I was feeling stuck, burnt out and miserable when running my own business and having full control of my time was merely just a dream in my head. So let's get into it. Relocating to New York. So let me give you a quick back story. Back in 2011 I went on holiday to New York with my sister and I fell in love with the pace and the energy of the city. If you've ever been to New York you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. One day we had the opportunity to do a brownstone tour which is the tour, it's a free tour that you do. One day we had the opportunity to do a brownstone tour and it was there that I decided that I had to live there. So once I got back home to London I started working on my plan. I remember walking over to my manager's desk on a Monday morning and excitedly telling him I want to move to New York, I want to relocate to the New York office. He looked at me like I was crazy but I was so determined to make it happen. I created a vision board of my goals which I'll show on screen now for you so you can see. On the right of the board I stuck an image of me walking down the street in Brooklyn. My sister had taken this photo of me while we were doing the brownstone tour. At the time I did feel a little delusional creating this board because I didn't know anyone in New York but to be fair with you I'm a little delusional when it comes to setting goals and I think you have to be right. I don't know anyone who's achieved anything major who hasn't been just a little delusional. I printed this board out and I saved it and made it the screensaver on my phone and I would essentially carry it around with me everywhere. So anyway, one day an interview had come up in New York. Long story short, I got the job. 11 months after creating the vision board I was flown out on an all expenses paid first class flight to relocate to New York City and I'm going to do a separate video on the visualisation process that I used to make this New York vision happen because it is so, so powerful. Anyway, arriving in New York I was so excited to be living there. I really thought that I would be the black Carrie Bradshaw from the popular show Sex in the City. Great show and I really felt like I was living in a movie most days, especially walking down Fifth Avenue, riding the subway, hanging out in Central Park. The city's energy is infectious and the possibilities felt truly endless and I was really ready to make my mark, armed with so much ambition and the belief that hard work alone would lead me to success. But soon the harsh realities began to set in. The city that never sleeps was also the city of endless work, like non-stop work, non-stop work. I was in the belly of the capitalist beast. Long hours, emails at 9pm from my manager while I was trying to unwind from the day, high pressure and a relentless pursuit of more began to take its toll on me and my mental health, to be quite honest with you. The dream I was chasing started to look more like a never-ending mirage. I was in my lowest moments. It was in my lowest moments that I realised the dream wasn't the problem, it was how I was pursuing it. I had lost sight of my values and what truly mattered to me. I remember being sat at my desk and looking around at everybody in the office and everyone looked miserable, like really miserable. There was no life in them. No one inspired me either because it was like they just settled into this existence, you know? My morale was really low and resignations were really high. Over time, I'd become so disconnected with my core values, I couldn't even hear myself anymore. Have you ever felt that where you can't even hear what your intuition or your gut is telling you? I was simply just existing in this rat race and not really living. Not to mention all of the external distractions of the city kept me so, so busy and distracted. The expensive restaurants and the busy social life soon began to lose its appeal. Plus, working in such a toxic environment is not something I signed up for and I'm sure you've not signed up for that either. You know, my manager used to tell me really mean things. She would say, you have a very high opinion of yourself. Like, excuse me? Am I meant to have a low opinion? And she would also say, you earn so much more money than my husband when I asked for my salary to be reviewed. You know, I was doing a good job. They would often give me $50 gift certificates in recognition of my work, but they would never offer to review my salary, which I thought was really weird. Over time, I began to feel really miserable and just felt quite empty, to be honest with you. And I knew that I couldn't figure out my next steps alone. I was too close to the situation. And I just didn't have the skills. I didn't know how to get unstuck. So I invested $300 into a career coach for the first time. And she helped me get really clear on my key strengths because I had no idea what they were back then. Based on the personality test that we did together, she helped me uncover that I was not meant to work in a heavily bureaucratic corporate environment because my personality type would just feel like a cog in a wheel. I'm an entrepreneur at heart and a visionary. You know, I love to create my own path. This blew my mind when I found this out because I had spent the last 10 years of my career working in environments that weren't aligned to my goals and my vision for my life. They just weren't aligned with my personality. And don't get me wrong. I'm so grateful for those lessons that I learned in the corporate environment because no experience, in my opinion, is ever wasted. I wouldn't even be able to do the work I do today without going through those lessons. But I think it's just so important to understand why sometimes we don't feel like we fit in and it's because we're just not in the right environment. So that's a question for you to consider. Are you in an environment aligned with your core values? Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur, but I do believe everyone should at least do work that they enjoy and that lights them up and that they feel aligned with. Another really powerful exercise I did during this time was the ideal day exercise. I still remember sitting in my cubicle writing out my ideal day in my journal. And if you've never done this exercise before, I highly recommend it. It really helps you imagine the possibilities. And feel free to pause this video and grab a pen and paper. It's a great exercise to help you get clear on what you really want to do with your one precious life. This really helped me unlock the kind of life that I want to be living. I reflected on key questions like, what does my perfect morning look like? What kind of work do I want to do and for how long? Do I want to be living in a noisy city, a suburb or a beach town? What kind of people do I want to interact with? How do I want my life to feel? Busy, burnt out, vibrant, joyous? How do I want to conclude my day? As I look back at these answers that I've written down in my journal, I realise I wasn't living my ideal day at all. Far from it. This realisation was the beginning of a very new journey. I began to take control of my narrative and started building a personal brand that reflected my true sense. Not just the expectations of corporate America, not just wrapped around my job title, but me as an individual. Too many of us wrap our identities around our job title and the company. But what happens if you were to lose your job tomorrow? Have you taken the steps to build your brand outside of your job title? So I began to focus on what made me unique, leveraging my experiences, skills and passions to create a brand that stood out. I started sharing my journey, the good, the bad, the not so good, and I connected with others who shared similar values as a way to feel less alone and isolated. A senior partner at the company had become one of my mentors, and over lunch he told me something that I will always, always remember. Focus on mutual usury, he said. The company is using you for your labour, but what can you get from them, Marielle, while you're here? Mic drop moment. That question lit a fire in my belly. Literally lit a fire. Just like that, I no longer had a victim mindset. I began to take control of my journey. I became an intrapreneur. And if you're not familiar with the term, it's someone who acts like an entrepreneur in their nine to five role. I got proactive and I really started investing in my personal development like never before. Now, not to get me to feel like this, because this is a different view on work, but there was never awkwardness in my life, which I thought was crazy. Over time, I started to feel really comfortable, and this was before anything had gone wrong. And I knew that if I didn't figure out my next step, I was going to be stuck in this situation. And I didn't know how to deal with it. I didn't know how to get on top of it. So I met Ed, 300 dollars a year, and he was a great person to talk to. He helped me get really prepared for my next steps, because I had no idea what they were like then. Based on what that guy said that was taking care of us, he helped uncover that I was not meant to work in an intrapreneurial kind of business. It wasn't mine. It was one of my friends' friends. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm a visionary. You know, I love to create my own path. This is the beginning of my life when I found out that I had spent the last 10 years of my career working in a workplace that wasn't mine. It was my goal. It was my mission. It was my life. This is where my life went upside down. And don't get me wrong. I've never worked in an intrapreneurial kind of environment. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm a visionary. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. I'm not an entrepreneur at heart. 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Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. I really don't believe that. But I do believe that we should at least aim to do work that lights us up and that we feel really aligned with. Another really powerful exercise that I did during this time was the Ideal Day exercise. I still remember being sat in my cubicle, writing out my Ideal Day in my journal. If you've never done this exercise, I highly recommend it because it really helps you tap into what's possible for you. And feel free to pause this video and grab a pen and paper because I'm going to leave you with some prompts to help you. It's such a great exercise to help you get clear on what you really want to do with this one precious life of yours. This really helped me unlock a new level of possibilities for myself. And I reflected on these key questions that I'll share with you now on screen. What does my perfect morning look like? What kind of work do I want to do and for how long? Do I want to be living in a noisy city, a suburb, or a beach town? What type of people do I want to interact with? And how do I want my life to feel? Busy? Vibrant? Joyous? What do I want it to feel like? As I look back on the answers I'd written in my journal, I realised that I just wasn't living my ideal day at all. Far from it. This realisation was the beginning of a new journey for me. I started to take control of my narrative and really proactively started building a personal brand that reflected my true self. Not just the expectations of corporate America, not just wrapped around my job title, but me as an individual. You see, too many of us wrap our identities around a job title and the company. But what happens if you lose that job tomorrow? Have you taken the steps to build your brand outside of your job title? I began to focus on what made me unique, leveraging my experiences, skills and passions to create a brand that stood out. And I started sharing my journey, the good, the bad. And I started to attract people who shared similar values to me and that really helped me see that I just wasn't alone. And I remember one day I was having lunch with a senior partner who became a mentor and he told me something that I will always always remember. Focus on mutual usury, he said. The company is using you for your labour, but what can you get from them while you're here? Mic drop. That question literally lit a fire in my belly. Literally, just then I switched from being having a victim mindset and I began to take full control of my journey. I became an intrapreneur. And if you're not familiar with the term, it's someone who acts like an entrepreneur in a 9 to 5 role. That's when I started investing in my personal development like never before. Any type of training that was available to me, I took it because I recognised the company's paying for this. When I start a business, I'm not going to be able to necessarily afford all of these training courses. So I started building up this bank of skills that one day would help me launch my business. I joined Toastmasters and went every single week to practise my public speaking because I recognised I would need to be a good speaker. I also enrolled in a weekend copywriting course at NYU. And if you're someone working at a company, don't get complacent. Take all the free training you can. And over time, opportunities that I could never have dreamed of began to open up. Freelancing, consulting, speaking engagements, they all started to come my way. And each step moved me further from the nightmare and closer to my new dream. Then I caught the attention of Yale University and they invited me to speak at their annual women's conference, which was a really great experience. This was one of my first big speaking engagements and I absolutely loved it. And then I was able to get my green card. 18 months later, after applying, I was awarded the Extraordinary Ability Green Card, which meant I could live and work in the US and leave the company that I was working for. And I'm so glad I took the time to build my brand before I needed to, because literally two weeks before my green card arrived, I was laid off. But I had already secured and started protecting myself by building my brand. Which is why I love to say, stay ready before you need to get ready. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...