Almost every escapee story on this show starts with corporate going bad. This one doesn't. Jim Barke spent nearly twelve years at a company he genuinely liked, with what he calls the best team he's ever worked with, and six weeks of PTO. Nobody pushed him out. He wasn't burned out. He hired a career coach because he knew he was at a crossroad, and on their second or third meeting she told him he should quit his job. He laughed at her. He was divorced, single income, with his oldest headed to college. Then he came back to the next meeting and said he was going to do it. What flipped it happened on a walk. He was spinning on how am I going to make money, and realized money isn't actually his top value. Being a present dad is. Being a decent neighbor is. What he wanted was the ability to say yes. And he has the receipts. When a local father went missing and the community put out a call to search, he moved his one meeting and went. During a local emergency he spent about forty hours delivering groceries in a month. Two years in, this is the most useful kind of guest, because he still remembers the numbers. He set written goals before he left. Three months to momentum. Six months to a first client. Twelve months to sustainability, which he's careful to say does not mean replacing his corporate income. It means seeing a path. His first client came from announcing on LinkedIn that he'd left. A guy he used to train for triathlons with had just become chief legal officer at a nonprofit and had a project. His best client over two years came from an email somebody in the Collective sent him about Catalant, a marketplace for consulting work with private equity backed companies. He bid, won it in three days, did good work, and ended up flown to San Francisco to present to the PE firm's leadership. His words: that one email changed the trajectory of my business. He's also honest about the parts that are hard. The loneliness of a basement office after a team he loved. Three kids in college. Income that moves up and down. And the two hundred thousand dollar question nobody in this space answers well: how do you build enough trust in a networking group to actually refer someone's work when you've never seen their work? He doesn't know. He says so. And when I asked whether he'd ever go back to corporate, he didn't give me the usual answer. He said maybe. Under specific conditions. But that he'd be running away rather than running toward, and he doesn't like that feeling. In this episode: Why strategy alone doesn't sell in the mid market, and what AI changedLeaving a job he liked, with six weeks of PTO on the tableThe career coach who told him to quitThe walk where money stopped being the pointTwo months from decision to exit, with no client lined upThe three written goals he set before he leftHow the first client actually came inCatalant, and the email that changed everythingThe loneliness nobody warns you about, and his fix for itWhy a ten o'clock email feels different nowThe $150,000 in commissions he turned downThe trust problem in networking that nobody has solvedWhether he'd go back, and the conditions THE SCOREBOARD Jim wrote these down before he left. This is the most transferable thing in the episode. Month 3 — Momentum. Not revenue. Conversations, calls, referrals, people responding. The test is whether you're moving or staring at a blank screen. Month 6 — First client. He set it that far out on purpose so it wasn't a pipe dream. His came faster, but he says waiting six months would have been brutal, and he planned for brutal. Month 12 — Sustainability. Note what this does not mean. It is not replacing your corporate income. It's seeing that people buy what you sell and that there's a path. Year 2 — The one Brett adds. You stop wondering whether you have to go back. Not because you couldn't, but because you've seen enough cycles that the swings don't rattle you. HOW THE CLIENTS ACTUALLY CAME IN Announced on LinkedIn that he'd left. A former triathlon training partner, newly a chief legal officer at a large nonprofit, reached out with a project. Flat bid, project based. That one relationship has produced several engagements since, and kept producing after the guy moved on.An email from somebody in the Collective pointing him at Catalant, a marketplace for consultants working with private equity backed companies. He found a fit at a hundred million dollar PE owned healthcare company, bid, and won it in three days. Worth noting he says three days is not typical. He has proposals that have been open for three months.That client compounding. The CFO turned out to be a partner at the PE firm, flew him to San Francisco to present to their leadership, and has been his best account for two years. When work slows down he emails them that he has bandwidth and asks what they've got. TIMESTAMPS 00:01 — Welcome, and the different kind of escapee story00:42 — Who Jim is and what sourcing and procurement actually means01:23 — Getting out of bad contracts, and why relationships are the product02:30 — Mid market wants strategy and execution, not just strategy03:13 — How he uses AI on contracts, and where twenty years of judgment comes in04:19 — Two years out almost to the day04:26 — Brett on the two year mark05:02 — Twelve years at one company, and why that was unusual for him05:30 — Six weeks of PTO, and leaving anyway05:50 — The career coach who told him to quit06:10 — Divorced, single income, oldest headed to college07:07 — The walk, and the moment money stopped being the driver07:40 — The search for a missing father, and what saying yes looks like08:20 — Forty hours delivering groceries during a local emergency09:15 — Two months from decision to exit09:30 — Why he couldn't build anything before he left09:44 — Brett on finding your first dollar outside corporate10:43 — What he actually sells, and why he still sells it11:00 — The part nobody tells you: you get to dream12:00 — The first week, and the Ron Burgundy glass case of emotion12:22 — Two years later the swings are monthly, not daily13:27 — The honest part: three kids in college14:10 — Loneliness, and the team he misses14:50 — Out of the basement once a week15:02 — Brett on not telling anyone he'd gone solo15:40 — The circle of ten, and why Brett started with five17:07 — Corporate isn't the enemy, it's the trade-off17:55 — Answering email at ten at night and why it feels different19:43 — Clients only send you the high value stuff20:17 — Six hours of Zoom you were invited to21:35 — The walk as work time, and getting over the guilt22:00 — What he thinks of expensive consultants now that he is one23:18 — The 20 to 30 percent rule24:29 — The ninety pound coworker25:00 — Executives who block time to think25:44 — Walking notes, voice memos, and the folder of things you can't decipher later26:56 — Podcasts and silence, fifty fifty27:18 — Rediscovering the joy of learning28:25 — The three written goals29:30 — The first client, and the triathlon connection30:22 — The Collective email, and Catalant31:19 — San Francisco, and the client that's carried two years32:18 — Why the second and third clients are the hard ones33:28 — The trust problem in networking34:48 — How Brett handles a referral when he doesn't know the work36:12 — From chasing six figure deals to the four to six week roadmap project37:27 — His dad, two jobs, seven days a week, and what it taught him38:35 — The commissions he's turned down, and the 25% offer39:33 — Where that revenue stream is legitimate for other people40:54 — Would you go back to corporate?41:07 — The conditions, and why it would be running away44:26 — The nurse line, and 30% of calls that didn't need a nurse47:09 — Where to find Jim
