The questions I asked myself before I quit my 9-5 job!

Why I quit my dream job on paper to build a business that works for me!

I renamed my Substack “Working For Me”, but what does that even mean?

First draft of my new logo - thoughts?

For a long time in my life, I felt like I was living in a world that didn’t make sense to me.

I would follow the rules, but I questioned everything. I didn’t understand why I was being told to do things (how to live my life/how to behave/how to do my job/why I had to follow the system) in a certain way.

You know those kids that ask why to everything - yep, that was me.

Yep, that’s baby me!

For example, I had a whole 12-year career as a fashion buyer for some of the world’s biggest brands. I started my career at Ralph Lauren, moved to Italy to work for Diesel, worked between London and New York for Kate Spade, then got headhunted by Burberry to run a £ 380 million business.

I went into that industry basically as a child at only 16 years old and left at 28 to start my own business.

On paper? That’s a pretty freaking great CV, right?

So why did I feel absolutely empty inside going to work every day, why did I feel anxious and have panic attacks in the office toilets, and why was I questioning every single process and system I was having to work within?

Why wasn’t I just grateful to be there? 1000’s of people wanted my job, and I was the one chosen for it, so why was I not just… happy?

I would ask myself these questions over and over again.

It got to a point where I would actually just numb out and override the feelings - forcing myself into believing that this was all normal. Everyone must have these feelings about their job, surely?

I felt trapped, but I was just going along with it.

I had contorted myself to live within the box that society wanted me to live in for so long - I didn’t even know there was another way. Or maybe I did, but I was too scared to explore it.

So I carried on carrying on. I said yes to things I knew I didn’t really want out of fear, or maybe because I thought that would make my life easier.

I overrode my intuition every single day.

I lied to myself that this bitchy as f*ck industry wasn’t “that bad”.

Until I got to my breaking point.

I’d had a pretty severe mental breakdown back in 2018 (I’ll go into that story another day). But it wasn’t until 2020 that I actually got the courage to leave my career behind.

Because it wasn’t working for me anymore. (See where I’m going with this?)

---

My last job was what pushed me to corporate burnout and breaking point.

I only worked there a year, as I was covering a maternity leave contract. I was a manager, but unfortunately I’d inherited a team that didn’t like me by default from day one - they didn’t want a leader that was younger than them, nor one that was brand new to the company when they’d all worked there for many years.

It was a rough start from the beginning, and it also didn’t end well either…

In month 9, I got promoted over the person I was covering on maternity leave (you can imagine how well that went down when she came back). So amongst the complaints to HR, the team that iced me out, and a boss that played daily mind games, I was having to become a completely different person to survive - one I really didn’t like.

I learned very quickly I had to play games too, or otherwise - I’d get played.

And if you know anything about me - I hate playing games! Two of my core values are honesty and authenticity, and I wasn’t able to honor those in this career.

Whilst this job wasn’t all bad - it did teach me a lot about leadership (some good, some bad). If I’d stayed any longer, my mental health would have been on the floor. I was already struggling with extreme anxiety by the time I finally handed my notice in in January 2020.

Despite being terrified of what came next, I knew I had to leave. I couldn't go on like this anymore.

My initial plan was to travel around Latin America for a few months, but the pandemic quickly eliminated those plans. As I’d already left my job and I had no salary as we went into months of lockdown, I was forced to start a business - mainly so I could pay my mortgage.

How cute! My 2020 work set up and my very first business LinkedIn banner.

I didn’t really know what to expect for what came next. All I knew was that I wanted the next chapter of my life to include more freedom, more ease, less anxiety, and for whatever I did to let me live the lifestyle I wanted.

This was the first draft of building a life that worked for me even if I didn’t know that was what it essentially was at the time.

---

For the past 6 years, I’ve been on a journey to walk away from society's version of success and find my own.

I have so many more personal stories around this subject that I’ll share in the next posts.

In the meantime, the main thing I want you to know is that “working for me” is all about defining your version of success, building a life that works for you, a career or business that works for you, even relationships that work for you.

You should never feel like you are battling to work for them!

My goal is to create a working for me movement - to show more people there is another way to live and work outside of the box we have been handed down through generations.

We’re in 2026, not 1963. We have so many more opportunities than any other generation.

So, why the f*ck are so many of us not taking them?

---

On this 8.8 Lionsgate Portal - What’s Working For Me?

As part of my posts, I’m going to share what’s working for me RIGHT NOW to give you not only the retrospective reflections of building a life and business that works for me, but also the current things that are moving the needle to help it work EVEN better.

1. FULLY trusting the process - wow, it’s been a hot minute since I felt like I could wholeheartedly trust where I am going in life. Trust in me, trust in the universe.

   I feel like I’ve spent the past 2 years of my life trying to stay in control, and at times that has served me, but do you know what has become glaringly obvious to me lately - I am in control of NOTHING. So why am I trying to be?

   So right now my focus is staying in the present moment, letting things be what they will be, and just taking the actions that feel good, not that I “think” are right. Being in this trusting energy is bringing in heaps of opportunity in my business that I didn’t even know were possible.

2. Travelling again - In case you don’t know this about me, I love to travel. I’ve visited 45+ countries, lived all over the world, but for the past 18 months I’ve been pretty still.

   After 3 years of full-time nomadding, I needed a rest, so I made Koh Phangan in Thailand “home,” and that has been amazing, but recently the traveller side of me has been reactivated, and I’m ready to travel again. My travel right now consists of visits up to Bangkok, heading over to neighbouring islands of Samui and other places in Thailand.

   I don’t need a huge trip booked like maybe I did in the past, but even these mini trips away are giving me sooo much inspiration for my business. Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote down 45 content ideas on an hour ferry ride; more creativity was coming up during that journey than I had had in months.

3. Remembering my why - I teach how to find your why in every single one of my business bootcamps (including this one) as I genuinely think it is the most important aspect of building a life and business that works for us.

   We NEED to know why we are doing something to give us the motivation to keep showing up and doing it, even when it gets hard sometimes. It’s like the shining light we follow that guides us to where we want to be.

   When life gets busy, or business is going in a certain way, it’s sometimes easy to forget the why, but lately I’ve been reconnecting with mine, and I’ll share what it is in an upcoming post.

Just me manifesting becoming an author on the 8/8 Lionsgate portal of 2026.

Ready to build a business and life that works for you?

Next time I’ll fill you in on where I’m at right now and the steps I took to build a business and life that truly works for me - the real version, mistakes included, not just the highlight reel.

P.S I'm writing this post from a hotel in Bangkok, feeling inspired. Today is the Lionsgate 8/8 portal, and my manifestation this year is to become a published writer - so let’s gooo!