137- Ditch Your 9-5 Before the End of 2025 - Step 1: Audit & Align

137- Ditch Your 9-5 Before the End of 2025 - Step 1: Audit & Align
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the MaYapinion Podcast. This is a show where I share my opinions on entrepreneurship and leadership for women. I'm your host, Maya Roffler, and today I am starting a six part series. Today is the first part and it's called How to Ditch your Nine to Five before the end of 25, and you might be thinking, what is Maya talking about?

She sounds totally nuts, but I promise you I'm not. Crazy. This is possible and at the bare minimum, it's possible to at least make your plan to ditch your nine to five or a corporate job. So I'm gonna take you through the steps that I know work. I know they work because one, I've used them. But two, I've also failed at many of these steps too.

So in sharing these with you, I can share what works and how to be more effective than I was just kind of [00:01:00] moseying through trying to figure this out on my own. So the first step is called audit and align. What does that mean? What are you gonna do? So the first step, I want you to really get a reality check.

What I mean by that is I want you to really sit down. We're gonna do this live. So if you wanna do this with me right now, or pause this, you can, but take pen and paper. Maybe you wanna listen to it first, that's fine. But take pen and paper when you have a chance and do your reality check. I want you to write down your salary.

I want you to write down your benefits. I want you to write down. All of of the things that your job offers you, those basic things that we need to survive your salary, benefits, 401k, all of those things, I want you to audit yourself. It's not a tax audit. That's not all we're doing, but I want you to audit yourself and have that all written out.

Look at all of the things that you're getting from your job. And I don't want you to do this [00:02:00] because I want you to stay at your job. I want you to be realistic with yourself about. Okay, what do I need to earn? What this is? Setting yourself up for that. What do I need to earn? What am I going to have to cover?

What am I going to have to make? And that's gonna come along as we move through these steps. Then I want you to be a little less like tactical and black and white with it. And I want you to audit some other aspects of this as well. I want you to ask yourself, what lights you up at work? What do you still enjoy doing at work, even though you want to leave your nine to five?

Okay, I want you to think about that. What still lights you up at work even though you want to leave? What do you enjoy doing? Maybe you really enjoy sales calls. Maybe you really enjoy team meetings. Think about what really lights you up even at a job that you are not happy at. Think about that. Then I want you to think about what you probably think about every day when you say you want to leave your nine to five or your corporate job.

[00:03:00] What drains you? What don't you enjoy doing? Do an audit on that and really, really think about that. So take some time to do that. Write everything out. Then I want you to write out what are you good at? What are you. Amazing at like, are you great at networking and building relationships? Are you great at spreadsheets?

Are you great? You know, fill all the things out that you're great at. Then I want you to fill all the things out that you are not so good at. Like maybe you are really not that organized, or maybe you are not that good at. Selling, you know, whatever it is. This is clearly different people I'm talking about because we enjoy selling.

If you enjoy it, you're probably good at it. That's the point of writing all of this out, because you're going to see things cross over. Typically, if you're good at something, you're probably going to enjoy it. Not always. There are some things that I'm good at, but like I, [00:04:00] it's not my favorite thing in the world, but I know I'm good at it.

Like I'm good at spreadsheets, but it's not my favorite thing to do, but I don't mind doing it. Um. But I think if you're, you know, again, if you really hate doing something, you're probably not the best at it. I'd be pretty shocked if you were the best at spreadsheets, but you absolutely hated it. Probably not, right?

So the reason we go through all these categories, again, tactical stuff, salary, benefits, all of those things. 'cause you're kind of auditing your, your life there. But then also looking at what you do well, what you're not so good at. Look at what lights you up, what makes you excited, and then look at what maybe doesn't light you up so much.

What. What you're dreading and probably why you have maybe quit the job. Maybe you don't like being a leader. Maybe you don't like having a team. Maybe you're a solo contributor. They're solo entrepreneurs. That's fine. I've been one. I've been one. Now I have a team, but I've been one. So think about that and be very realistic with yourself.

Okay, so this is the reality check in in the audit process. Okay? [00:05:00] The audit and a line step. So from there, I want to do a freedom check. I want you to do a freedom check. What do I mean by that? Why do you want to be free? Why do you want to be free of your nine to five and corporate job? What makes you want to leave?

But digging deeper? What makes you like, what does that mean to you? Like for example, some people want the freedom to make their kids soccer games that start at five 30 and they can't, if they're in their corporate job because they have, you know, maybe they're on the east coast, but they have West Coast clients.

That is your freedom. Maybe you wanna be able to work from home. You don't wanna be hybrid, you don't wanna be in the office three days a week. You wanna work from home. It's a crucial time in your kid's life. Maybe you have to care for an elderly parent. Maybe, you know, whatever. It's, maybe you just enjoy working from home.

Maybe that's a freedom for you. Maybe you wanna work from anywhere in the [00:06:00] world. People who travel while they work. The reason this is so important is it's, it's going to be one of the whys why you do this, because leaving. A steady job is not, I mean, it's easy to just jump and leave, but you we're looking for a plan of action.

Here we are looking for a plan that we can execute, and in this first step when we're auditing everything, it's really important that we're auditing why we're doing it, and you defining your freedom. We'll help in the why. Because we wanna have a why in what we're creating, but we also need a why as to why we choose this path.

And something I'm very clear about every single day, why do I choose to work for myself? Why do I work in this way? Why do I do consulting? Why do I have an event business? Why do I do these things? Because I like the autonomy. I like being able to work for myself. I like being able to have the freedom to say when I work and when I don't work.

And you know, it's dependent on my clients as well. But I know that, and I [00:07:00] remind myself of that. And I had to remind myself when I took a big pay cut to start my business. It works. So it's really important that you get clear. This is even deeper than just , a blanket. Why? This is a freedom. Why? Why do you need this freedom?

Why is this important? And it should light you up. It should be important to you. Now, I want you to write down, once you write down the reasons why, and there can be several reasons why you need freedom, or you know why you're seeking freedom, I want you to write down a freedom date. I want you to pick a date.

You're going to set yourself free from your corporate nine to five, and I want you to be realistic, but I also want you to be aggressive. So if you really think you can do this by the end of 25, I believe in you. I want you to put December 30th or 31st. Do it. Do it because it makes it real. When you put it on paper.

It makes it real. [00:08:00] If you think, okay, I'm gonna put these things into play, but I think it'd be realistic to give myself six months. Put down three months, push yourself on this challenge, okay? But write down your freedom date, because that's gonna matter as we move through these steps. Okay? So now I wanna talk about alignment.

Because when you go through the audit process, you're looking at logistics. You're looking at, okay, this is when I think I wanna leave. This is why I wanna leave. This is what I'm making. The logistical aspect of it, these are my benefits. These are things I'm gonna have to replace.

So this next part is about alignment. It's an alignment audit as well. Okay. So you're auditing a little bit more of what you enjoy and does it align with you? So what I mean by this is we're, now we know our freedom. We know the audit of kind of the more tactical stuff. But does what we're [00:09:00] doing align with us?

So for example, if 90% of your job is admin work, spreadsheets, emails, paying thing, doing all that, uh, admin type stuff, but you're a super creative person. Let's say 90% of your job, you're doing admin. This is where you're aligning and you're asking yourself, am I creative? Am I logical? You already probably know this, but it's taking pen to paper and thinking about this and listening to this episode and really asking yourself, what am I aligned with?

What do I enjoy? I personally. And I don't feel like I'm the most creative person in the world. A lot of people argue with me on that and they say, Maya, you're super creative. Like you've built more than one brand. Like I'm, I like to think of myself as logistical 'cause I have an event, logistics business.

I'm logistical. I'm very thorough, I'm very analytical. Typical Virgo behavior. I'm very [00:10:00] analytical. I'm more, I would say I'm more of a visionary than I am, like creative, but I guess there's a creative aspect to that. But the point of thinking about this is, I'm very clear about that. Now, what aligns for me is to be a visionary.

What aligns for me is to be logistical. What aligns for me is a job where I can balance both. And also I really love selling because I love. Giving people a service that they really, truly need. And I love those relationships and I realized in my corporate career, I was always having to kind of pick, it was either I was having to be heavy in sales or I was having to be heavy in the logistics.

And I actually really enjoy both. But I like a balance. So I like to kind of sit at 50 50 with that. That was huge for me, and that's what I'm asking you to think of here. With alignment, I feel amazing because I'm able to do 50 50 with kind of the admin, logistic, that kind of aspect in my career. And then I also get to sell because I need to sell to new clients.

I need to interact with [00:11:00] relationships, and so that's what I look like. Look for and, and look into myself about because, and also when I'm signing new contracts, like, is there a way for me to sell? Is there a way for me to do logistics? That's me. I love that. I really enjoy that. So if you're a creative person and 90% of your job is admin, of course you're gonna hate that, right?

You need it to be kind of the other way around. So that's getting in touch with that and really thinking about. Who you are and what aligns for you as a person. If you are like a number cruncher and you love numbers, but you've been forced to go out and sell and network and be extroverted. 75% of the time you're gonna be miserable.

So think about what aligns for you, like what makes you feel good inside. You probably heard that just when I was sharing, like I love to sell, but I love to also sit and do my spreadsheet. Sometimes I need that balance. I'm kind of a 50 50, sometimes a 60 40 with that kind of stuff, and I've been able to align myself by going out and ditching my nine to five.

Being able to do things for myself, and I've also realized I can't [00:12:00] have such a stringent schedule. Like I could never go into an office every day at eight and leave at five. Maybe you need that though, so maybe you need to think, okay, what. What can I do with my schedule to like, maybe that's part of, of what you enjoy.

You like to have those boundaries and maybe the job you're at right now isn't giving you those boundaries. That kind of rolls over into the audit in, in the first process of what we were talking about with audit and align, but aligning is this. Part of it is when we're starting to think maybe of what you would think a little more woo woo type stuff.

Like what, what do you enjoy? If you're creative, you don't need to be doing admin stuff or you don't need to be doing, you know, logistical things all the time. You wanna be doing the things that. Are inspiring to you and align with who you are. I think that's really, really important. Like these are also things of like, you know, like I said, I can't be in an office eight to five.

That's not me. Like maybe that's for you. Maybe you, you know, again, maybe you're a micromanaged at work and you're really independent person, which this is [00:13:00] what you should be doing anyway, right? So that you can have your freedom and have your autonomy. But those are the things I want you thinking about, like that alignment, how is it aligning for you?

So for your alignment, I want you to, in your sheet of paper and in this exercise, I want you to write down three things that align you align with from your corporate experience. For me, like I shared, I loved sales. That aligned with me. I loved the logistic aspect of it that aligned for me, but also. Talk about how you want to split your time.

So if that aligns for you, but maybe you're like, I only wanna do that this percentage of the time. Go deep in that and share that. Go deep in how much time you actually want to spend doing those things. And it's not that that can happen right away. In my opinion, this is an evolution and also understanding yourself more as you get more autonomy and get out there and build your own business.

But I think it's so [00:14:00] amazing to have such clear vision because I didn't do these things as clearly as I'm sharing them with you. And so getting this audit and then aligning yourself and understanding you as a professional and where you wanna go, it gives you so much clarity as you move through this.

The last part of the audit and the align, uh, step. Our first step here is really shifting your mindset, and I know, I know so many people talk about mindset. Mindset has been talked about by so many coaches, by so many people. It in some ways. Honestly, in my opinion, I think it's way overused. However, the reason it's overused and over talked about is because it is important.

Mindset is important. Where people go wrong with mindset is they think, oh, it's like the secret. They're like, I'll just have a positive mindset and everything will work out. [00:15:00] It's, it's half the battle, in my opinion, in a lot of ways. Let's just say I sat at home all day hating my job, but I was like, I'll just be positive about this.

Something will change. Something will, yeah, I might get another job offer. Someone else might notice me. I definitely think the power of the mind mindset helps you. However, when you're thinking like an entrepreneur, when you're thinking like a business owner, when you're thinking like a leader, you know that mindset is a big tool and an incredible tool.

But action behind your mindset. Is when you're unstoppable. Because the only way to create something new and to create the life you want is to take action behind that positive mindset. Then you're completely unstoppable. So what I want you to think about with this last part of our audit and align step is shift your mindset.

No, you have to go to work tomorrow. You have to stay in this job for another week, another month. If you're [00:16:00] ditching your nine to five over the end of 25, it's not gonna be too long. However, you know, you have to be there, so your mindset is really important, but shifting your mindset and shifting it.

Instead of saying, oh, I hate this job. I don't wanna be here, you're now shifting it and saying something like this. So I want you to write down what yours is. But my shift was, you know what? I'm grateful for this job. It's helped me pay my bills. It's helped me get to where I am now. And now I'm grateful for it because it's helping me realize.

That I wanna ditch my nine to five, that I want to leave corporate, and that maybe there's something else out there for me. And it's helped me realize that when we shift our mindset, that's when power happens. So that's why it's so important to audit all of this, align ourselves, figure out what we really want, what we're good at, what we wanna do, take all of that, and then mindset.[00:17:00] 

Be grateful for the time you've had there. Even if it's the worst experience ever. Be grateful for it because it's brought you to this point and that's hard. That's hard. But you will look back. As you build this and you work through these six steps, you will be grateful. So work on that mindset shift. I want you to write down what that is for you, what you're gonna tell yourself every day.

Going in somewhere where you're not super happy, but you know, it's kind of a means to an end at this point. So how are you gonna talk to yourself every day? Alright. That is step one in our six step process of ditching your nine to five before the end of 25. If you're listening to this in 2025, I hope you're inspired, and I hope you'll follow me on this six part series.

Obviously, you can do this any year when you hear it, and we have a really cool worksheet that you can download that has all six steps, so you can click the link. Down below in the show notes and download it. [00:18:00] Excited to bring that to you guys and we'll also be covering that in upcoming workshops as well.

So you can check that out in the link too. So thank you so much for listening to another episode of the MaYapinion Podcast. Don't forget to follow me at MaYapinion podcast and at Maya Roffler on all social media platforms. We'll see you next time