Ep. 147 Life Outside the 9 to 5: The 5 Pillars You Need to Make It Work

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Leaving the nine-to-five is only the beginning. What comes next – actually building a life and business that works for you long-term – requires attention to five distinct areas. Get one of them wrong and the freedom you worked for starts to feel like a different kind of trap. Here’s the framework I’ve developed over years of doing this myself and working with clients who are doing the same.

A life outside the 9 to 5

Hello there. Welcome back to the Reimagining Success podcast. I’m your host Anna Lundberg and we’re looking at building that life outside of the 9 to 5. And so as we speak, if you’re listening in live, but probably if you’re listening anytime, because really this is something we’re always working on in the One Step Outside community and the outsiders community. But as you speak right now in August, we are running the Nine to Five Escape Plan workshop. So if you’d still like to sign up, if you sign up today still you can join us onestepoutside.com/escape. And if not, if you’re listening later in the year, which I’m sure many of you will be doing, you can still check that URL, onestepoutside.com/escape as we do run this workshop a couple of times a year and there will be other resources available for you too in the meantime.

So we’re talking about building this life outside the nine to five and what we’re going through in the escape plan, to give you a bit of a teaser, is the five pillars of building that life outside of the nine to five. And these are my five pillars that I’ve developed and formalised relatively recently, a couple of years ago. But in reviewing my websites now and relaunching both my personal brand website and the business site onestepoutside.com. I’ve been reviewing blog posts and search is actually a big source of traffic for me already. It’s the biggest, in fact, so it can only get better. Lots of people finding me, hopefully, through all the articles I’ve written.

So this is not just a random thing I’ve come up with this morning to talk to you about. This is something that’s rooted in research, in my own personal experience, in years of reflecting on this, reading, immersing myself, learning, training as a coach, working on my own business, based on my own business and branding experience in the corporate world as an entrepreneur myself, and of course now working with clients the past 5, 6, 7, 8 years or so. So really robust, really strong framework, which absolutely sits at the core of all the free content I do – podcast, blog and so on – as well as the paid programmes I work with my clients individually and in a group.

To give you a bit of a background, especially if you’re new to the community. I quit my job back in 2013 and I quit without a plan. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do instead. I just knew it was not this. It took me a whole lot of twists and turns – from travelling and just enjoying that crazy freedom initially, to almost taking another job, to falling into a consulting business which was very successful financially, to then discovering coaching, studying, certifying, training as a coach, to going through what I like to call my hippie phase when I wasn’t earning much money but I was having an amazing time, to then focusing more on my business, to falling in love, to having children and rooting myself now in the UK, originally in London, now moved to the south coast.

So all that to say there’ve been twists and turns and that initial decision to quit my job in 2013 was only the beginning. And so if you’re at the beginning, congratulations and best of luck with that initial step, because it’s a massive step and you’re so courageous for considering it. If you’re further along, you’ll know as I do there is that first moment – it’s one of many brave decisions you’re going to make and we’re in it for the long haul.

So there will be twists and turns. You may get confused – hang on, I have all these different ideas, is this the right one? You’ll inevitably have dips in your results and therefore also in your confidence. You might see things as failures. People might give you negative feedback. You may feel frustrated working with difficult clients, anxious about when you’re going to get your next client. And then of course, if you don’t have those boundaries, if you don’t take care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, then you may ultimately burn out. So you may have created an even worse, or at least as bad, cage for yourself as you had in your corporate life.

So I’ve developed these five areas to focus on as you make your business and your lifestyle viable for now, but also for the long-term.

Pillar 1: Your personal definition of success

The first pillar is to identify your personal definition of success. This is about being clear on what really matters in your life and business. Knowing what you don’t want – your push reasons for wanting to escape the nine to five. Knowing what you do want – your pull reasons. Knowing what matters to you, who matters to you in your life. Knowing what you enjoy doing work-wise. Knowing what you’re really good at doing. Knowing the why that’s driving you. Knowing how you’re going to be wanting to spend your time – I talk about your ideal day, that’s a great exercise to do. Knowing of course what financial success looks like for you and more broadly, what does success mean to you? Are you clear on what really matters in your life and business?

Pillar 2: Confidence and resilience

Do you feel equipped to deal with the inevitable ups and downs of working for yourself? Whether you’re afraid of that feast or famine rollercoaster, or you just feel reluctant to let go of that really stable salary – there will be ups and downs. They get smoothed out over time and certainly if you diversify your income streams, if you have a portfolio career, it’s going to be much more stable and more secure in fact than having an income with one employer. But there is that uncertainty. So this is about having the confidence in yourself, knowing and believing that this is going to work out. Having the internal resources and the external support to help you through this process. Being focused on a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. Looking for solutions rather than focusing on the problems. Having that inner strength and not just relying on external validation. Being part of a professional supportive community, whether online or offline. Having a support network of friends and family cheering you on, and having a coach or mentor to guide you through that process.

Pillar 3: The right business model

Do you have the right business model? Do you have a plan for how your business is going to successfully operate? Having a clear vision, having a strategy that’s going to guide your decisions, knowing who your ideal client is, knowing how you’re going to solve what problem for that client, knowing the products and services you’re offering, and of course having the pricing in place that’s going to get you to your financial goals and work for your ideal clients. Knowing how you’re going to reach and attract those clients. How you’re going to convert those prospects into clients. Knowing what you need to invest in to make your business work and consistently bring in that revenue. A business model is fundamentally how you’re going to bring in money – but for me it’s more broadly how you’re going to achieve that meaningful definition of success.

Pillar 4: An effective personal brand

Building an effective platform that’s going to consistently attract clients. You need to be clear about your elevator pitch, have a professional website that’s communicating who you are and what you do, know what you stand for, know your value proposition, have that ecosystem and funnel that’s going to bring in the right people to you consistently, grow that audience, help them know, like and trust you, build your credibility and authority. And of course ultimately you have to have confidence in yourself and in your services to be able to sell yourself and to sell your products and services.

Pillar 5: Flexible work-life integration

Finding a way to balance your business with everything else. I prefer work-life integration over work-life balance. It’s knowing where and how your business fits into other priorities in your life. Knowing the hours you want to work. Having those clear boundaries. Having proper time off that you’ve planned. Being able to turn off when you want to – evenings, weekends, holidays. Integrating your personal and professional appointments and calendars so that all works for you. Learning to say no to the wrong projects, the wrong clients. Ultimately it means having that freedom and flexibility that we all dreamed of when we started our business.

Which pillar do you need to work on most?

So those are the five pillars of building that life outside the nine to five. If you’re right at the beginning of the journey and want to go through each of these steps, you can find out more about working with me at onestepoutside.com. And if you want a quick sense of where you currently stand across all five pillars, the free Solopreneur Diagnostic will show you in five minutes where you’re strong and where you have the most room to grow.

Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you next week. Bye for now.

If you want to go deeper on each of these pillars, my book Outside of the 9 to 5 walks through all five in detail – with practical frameworks for each stage of building a business that genuinely fits your life.

And if you want a quick sense of where you currently stand across all five pillars, the free Solopreneur Diagnostic shows you in five minutes where you’re strong and where you have the most room to grow.