What really happens after you quit your job to start a business? Alex McCarthy shares the messy, unexpected middle between leaving the “safe” path and building a business — and life — that actually fits YOU.


Everyone loves the entrepreneur story of "I quit my job to start a business" but not everyone shares the emotional journey that comes with becoming an entrepreneur.

Here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: sometimes you leave the wrong path before you know exactly what the right one looks like.

That’s what happened to Alex McCarthy.

After a career in export sales — including her claim to fame of selling over a million pounds of green bananas (love that!) — Alex knew the path she was on wasn’t the one she wanted long-term. So she left, bought a one-way ticket to Asia and started figuring out what she actually wanted work and life to look like.

What came next wasn’t a perfectly packaged entrepreneur story.

It was travel. Meeting digital nomads. Using her existing network. Pitching herself before she felt completely ready. A former employer unexpectedly becoming her first client.

And eventually turning down the opportunity to return to her old job WITH A PROMOTION, because she wanted to gives this whole entrepreneurship thing a try!

We get into the reality of your first year of business, finding those first clients, making decisions without knowing exactly where they’ll lead, and building a business around your lifestyle instead of creating another job you eventually want to escape from.

In this female entrepreneur podcast episode:

• What actually happens after you quit your job to start a business — especially when you don’t have the perfect plan
  
  
• How Alex found her first client by using the network she already had
  
  
• The less glamorous reality of navigating your first year of business
  
  
• Why Alex batched an entire year of podcast episodes while pregnant to stay visible without needing to constantly show up online
  
  
• How to start building a business around your lifestyle, values and version of success
  
  
  

Listen for...

a reminder that you don’t have to know exactly where your business is going to go before you start, pivot or scale.

And more importantly: if you're leaving a career because it doesn't fit the life you want, don't automatically build yourself a business that doesn't fit either.

About the Guest:

Alex McCarthy is a business coach and podcast host of My Kind of Business, where she helps solo business owners and small teams build businesses that fit their lives — not the other way around.

Her approach is rooted in freedom, creativity and a personal definition of success — especially useful when you’re in those first few years of business and everyone else’s version of “making it” starts to cloud out what YOU want.

Connect with Alex McCarthy

Website: https://www.alexmccarthycoaching.com/
Podcast: My Kind of Business

Next Steps:

1. Share this episode with a friend
2. Listen to next: The Biggest Mind F*ck of My Life | Leaving My Job to Start a Business (ep 25)
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RESOURCES
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www.herfirst3years.com
Instagram: @chardetryel


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