Episode 4. To Quit or Not Quit Your 9-5 and Why I’m Not Quitting Mine
The Inner Briefing Podcast
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Transcript (RAW):
Marie Groover (00:05.209)
Hello, sweet soul family. Welcome to the Spiritual 9to5 podcast hosted by myself, Marie Groover. And thank you for listening. This is episode four. And today I'm talking about my 9to5. It's just one of the things that I do when I'm not doing the corporate psychic. And it's been a huge part of my life for the last almost seven years. Today I'm talking about why I'm not quitting my 9to5. At least not right now.
you
There is a divide between the spiritual world and any free-spirited space with corporate or the nine to five world. I felt it for so many years. I had one foot in the corporate space and one foot in my yoga community, in my travel community, in my hippie community, and in the community of free-spirited joy and thrill and movement seeking individuals, not to say that people in corporate
are not also dipping their toes and or full body in those communities. And I saw both sides. I get why my free-spirited family is against the corporate desk job, and I respect that. And I also get why my corporate soulmates love their jobs or stay in their jobs or prioritize their career and stability. And for years, I didn't know where I fit.
I struggled if I should quit my job, if I should want to quit my job, if I should travel full-time or write full-time or focus on myself full-time, become a yoga teacher full-time. And instead, or instead, if I should focus everything on my career so that I could one day move up the corporate ladder, make more money, be a decision maker.
Marie Groover (02:06.092)
and be a boss. And I watched a lot of people around me struggle as well with the same exact thing. The conflict of should I stay or should I go in corporate and in spiritual spaces, especially when these two intersect, it's real. And for my entrepreneurs, my aspiring entrepreneurs, my career oriented humans who don't know what career is best for them, what path to take in the corporate world.
for all of you basically out there listening, the conflict of what to focus on in yourself, in your career, or in your business, all of these are so real. I'm talking to anyone out there who feels like they are multifaceted, multi-passionate, not sure where to focus, not sure what you love the most type of person. I too felt this and to be honest, it held me back from starting my own business for a long time. This feeling
also held me back from focusing in on one career path or trajectory for a long time. If you're listening and you work with me or you know me well, or you've just witnessed my life for the last 20 years, you'll know that despite my amazing career story and journey to Microsoft, that a lot of my movement, even at Microsoft, has probably been ADHD driven more than anything. And I've been all over the place. I'm constantly, even right now, all over the place.
And sometimes I make decisions because I feel a conviction about what I should be doing. And sometimes I make decisions to suppress my all over the placeness to be more focused. And since I started at Microsoft, this is just one example. I have been in and out of technical roles. One year I fucking love being technical and one year I cannot fucking stand being technical. I miss the business. And to be fair,
I've learned I am better on the business side, which doesn't mean I'm not going to change my mind in a year or two from now. But the bottom line is I, like anyone, can be technical or business oriented or both.
Marie Groover (04:15.884)
And anyone can be spiritual and work and thrive in corporate. I've said this before, but I can't emphasize it enough. We can be all the things. You can be all the things. This episode is your permission slip to stop trying to follow all the rules about how or who you're supposed to be when having your own business, when traveling around the world, when becoming a parent, when working your nine to five, when making or spending or saving money.
If you're unhappy or you feel conflict, stop trying to fit yourself into a box or a role. Stop trying to adjust or transform who you are to fit into that box or that role or a stereotype or whoever it is that you feel you need to be to do the thing that you're looking to do. Look at me. I have a psychic business and I work at Microsoft. It makes no fucking sense, but to me it makes
all the sense. It makes just the right amount of sense. So let me pause and back up for a second. I too felt a lot of conflict at one time. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my career. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't know if I needed to quit my job in order to run a business. I didn't know what kind of business I wanted to run. I didn't know if I wanted to be technical or non-technical. I didn't know if I could bring any value in any of the spaces that I was interested in.
I didn't know that I could be all of the things that I wanted to be and instead I spent a lot of years trying to pick one thing to be. I spent a lot of unhappy years trying to pick one thing to be. Then one day I was walking off the beach and I got a message. It said, a union of opposites. You see, I had been pondering this idea, this conflict within me.
this conflict within so many for quite some time. And I didn't buy it anymore that I had to choose. Y'all, I loved my job. I still do. And before I ever even dreamed of starting a business, I never let my job limit me from the things I wanted. I only ever saw it as a way to amplify my ability to get and do the things that I wanted. When I started this particular job, so when I started Microsoft, I first moved to Texas.
Marie Groover (06:41.868)
And then I moved to Charlotte. Both moves were for my career. I moved not just for work though. I moved because it sounded exciting to me to move. It sounded exciting to me to move for a job. So I was happy to take the leap for work. I was happy to take the leap into a new space, a new environment, a new place. Then I started traveling extensively for work. And I said yes to this. I said yes to travel because I wanted to travel. And I got to see most of the entire country.
But traveling for work all the time gets rough. And when it didn't work for me anymore to be traveling every single week, despite people at work telling me that it was impossible to be remote and do the particular job that I was in, I figured out how. I delivered over $1 million in services in one quarter while working from my house just to prove that I could do it. So when living in Charlotte didn't work for me anymore and I wanted to live back on the beach,
I just asked. I said, why not? Why not just ask? And fortunately, my manager subscribed to giving his people freedom so that they would be happy because happy people work harder and are more productive. So he said yes. And I moved back to my hometown by the ocean and I only traveled for fun. And because I figured out how to be productive remotely, I started really traveling. I worked from the Philippines. I worked from Costa Rica. I worked from Ecuador. And one time I even worked for my van.
while driving around the country surfing and snowboarding along the way. I never let working in 9-5 inhibit me, only amplify the life that I wanted to live. I never thought to myself, that's not possible because of X. I always thought, how can I make this possible? What can I do? What can I leverage to get what I want? I say this because I know there are some of you out there who are listening right now who are like, huh, must be nice.
who are like, you just have a better situation than most. And yeah, I do have an amazing situation, but to get to the situation, I actually worked with what I had and I continue to work with what I have. I didn't allow what I had to be an excuse. And together my situation and myself, we transformed. We worked together. We changed together. So when I started pondering this concept that we have to choose between either being A,
Marie Groover (09:08.95)
Spiritual and free or be soulless and incorporate. I really didn't buy it. I really didn't get it and I really didn't think that I needed to quit my job to be my fullest expression. How many people tell you that? Just this week actually someone, two people, told me just quit your job. You'll probably fulfill all your dreams and goals and more and watch as you expand into your life and your business and watch as everything changes and transforms.
And I believe that, by the way. I could quit my job and I would expand into my business and my whole life would transform. Like there's nothing wrong with that. And it comes from a really good place. But I want to add that it's not the only way, that it's not the way. It's inaccurate. You see, there's a logical fallacy. It's called the false dichotomy. It's the us versus them fallacy. The false dichotomy fallacy.
is one that convinces its subscribers that there are only two choices, that things are black or white, that you are for something or against something. The thing is life isn't black and white and neither are humans. Anytime something seems this or that, like there's only two choices, us versus them, truth or not truth, pause and evaluate my friends.
So anyway, there's a false dichotomy floating around in the soulpreneur, also Instagram coaching space, but really any spiritual awakening, any space that facilitates the spiritual awakening that you can either quit your nine to five and fulfill your dreams or keep your nine to five and let corporate suck the soul out of you. And I have so many things to say about this. The first thing, just like a quick mini tangent, businesses and corporations have souls.
This will be an entire episode, so I won't go super deep here, but I will say that businesses and corporations don't suck the soul out of you. People do. Processes do. Policies do. Conformity does. We do when we give ourselves away. And we are just as responsible, if not more, as individuals, for what of our own souls we give away. More responsible than businesses are for taking away.
Marie Groover (11:33.292)
So to say that something else, particularly a business or corporation is sucking your soul or even a relationship is to avoid taking responsibility for the soul that you are giving away. It's to avoid taking responsibility for yourself. And another thing is what about soulful businesses and soul filled nine to fives? What if you want to work for a nine to five that's like totally rooted in soul and totally rooted in
good intention and spiritual awakening or whatever it is that you're super passionate about. Is that not good? Can you not be your fullest expression and live out your dreams? I'm not sure. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who grew and expanded and now they have a team. I often wonder what their work environment is like after spending so many years hating on corporate. How do they treat their people?
How do they ensure that they grow and love and support their people so that their people will work for them and not for themselves? Because that's what you do when you work in nine to five, right? I've heard this quote, you're a sheep, you're building on someone else's dream. I'm being sarcastic because I don't believe that. My business, The Corporate Psychic, we have employees, well, right now I'm just one, but we're expanding.
We touch in with each other personally and on a soul level and we operate from a space of deep connection, not money over human, not process or policy over person. We lean into each other and into discomfort. We show up authentically. You can ask Teagan. The biggest and best compliment I've ever received in my life came from her about how I run my business. It's genuine. It's the most loving place to be and sometimes TCP is even more loving and nurturing.
than some of my deepest friendships are. This is what I imagine and hope and dream for the entire working world to empower and enable and grow together in love and deep connection and compassion while being productive and positively impacting and assisting and solving problems for the world. If I believed that all businesses were bad or big corporations were bad, how on earth could I hire someone and feel okay about it? And I'm gonna be real, I want TCP to be huge.
Marie Groover (13:52.015)
I want to be the Microsoft of the spiritual world. Why can't you have and be at all? Why do we have to choose? It doesn't mean that we have to do it all. It doesn't mean that we have to be the best at it all. Ask yourself who's selling you these ideas that you can't be at all, have it all, experience it all, enjoy it all. Who is selling you the idea that you need to have your soul sucked or that you need to wake up if you don't want to have your soul sucked?
Why can't you be awake and choose what's best for you without disappearing for six months and drinking cacao or tripping your face off? And I love tripping my face off. I'm not against drugs, but I also love my desk job. It isn't as simple as quit your job, find yourself, make all your dreams come true. There is nothing externally that can change or come about that will show us who we are on the inside, including quitting your job.
And there's no one path for everyone. I'm not at all saying that your job doesn't suck. Your life doesn't suck. Your situation isn't bad. All of those things might be true. What I'm saying is that it's not this or that. It's not quit your job and be free. Find yourself, know yourself, be successful, or stay in your job and lose your soul. And it's also not stay in your job and be successful and free and happy, like, or quit your job and
Your life sucks suddenly. It's neither of those, right? It can be a mix. It all depends. So that was a big tangent. I was walking off the beach and the idea drops in, a union of opposites back on track. And for me, it was a challenge of how can I unite all aspects of myself and express this in fluidity and express me in fluidity, in comfort and with ease.
How can I be a surfer, a healer, a writer, a poet, an engineer, a businesswoman, a dog mom, a yoga teacher, a retreats coordinator, an average joe lean, a lover of books and music, a singer and a piano performer, a psychic channeler, an explorer of life, of love and travel? How can I be all of those things and make money and share who I am in a way that other people will relate and lean in and understand? And.
Marie Groover (16:11.751)
It wasn't very long after this moment, this idea, this message that the corporate psychic was born. Rather than playing it safe, I wanted to surprise and trigger the fuck out of everyone. Psychic is a strong motherfucking word. It's bold. I know a lot of psychics who don't refer to themselves as psychic because of the stigma around it. And I'm not even claiming that I'm psychic, by the way, at least not in the stereotypical fashion.
A lot of payment processors won't even work with me now because I have this word in the title of my business. Didn't know this before, but fun fact. And for people in the spiritual world, corporate is strong as fuck too. Corporate is triggering. It's cold. People in the spiritual space every day question why I don't leave my job, tell me to leave my job, talk about how corporate's awful. Man, the discussion is real on a regular basis.
But you see, I don't wanna leave corporate. It's not perfect, but neither is the spiritual space. Actually, I can't think of a single space on this planet that is perfect. And I wanna transform the way we live and work. I wanna be in the work. I wanna challenge this idea that we have to pick one thing, one space, one skill and hone in.
We are each multifaceted, multi-passionate, multi-skilled, multi-joyous human beings. Why can't we be all of the things? Why can't I have a six figure business as a side hustle? A multi six figure business as a side hustle, a seven figure business, who knows one day, as a side hustle that brings me joy and energizes me rather than depleting me. Why can't I work a nine to five alongside it and love my nine to five?
Why can't I also travel the world at the very same time and explore all of the things that bring me joy, that allow me to express myself fully? Why not? Why can't I? Why can't you? In January this month, TCP celebrated its first 10K month, 11 days into the month. And actually now it's the 14th, as of the recording. And we are celebrating almost 14K in sales this month.
Marie Groover (18:36.049)
And I actually haven't even been fully present in this past week with TCP or at my nine to five because a family member was in the hospital, is still in the hospital. I was experiencing deep and painful relationship wounding and I had to put my dog down. And yet my business brought in over $10,000 in sales. Expansion and contraction is possible at the same time.
You can have this and you can have that at the very same time. How are you realizing that it can all work for you and that it doesn't all happen to you or work against you or that you have to change anything to be yourself? You don't have to change it to be yourself.
I'm not quitting my 9 to 5 because it works for me, because it fulfills me, because I learn and grow and expand in it because of it, because my boss is a heart-centered leader whose current biggest problem to solve is how to make our leadership show up in a more authentic and vulnerable way, because my mission with the corporate psychic is to transform the corporate world and to transform the way we live and work and because
I get to learn from someone and work with someone who's actively holding space for authenticity in executives. Because I want to hold space for authenticity in the entire working world, including with the execs of our world, the world leaders, as well as everyday people. I'm not quitting my job because I know that I can have a thriving, successful, energizing, life-giving business and expand myself within my nine to five successfully.
holy and with joy. I'm not quitting my job because I don't want to because I don't have to and because I don't buy this idea that I can't be my full self and live in my fullest expression because I have a nine to five. Your job doesn't limit you, you limit you. And I'm sharing all of this with you because I want to challenge you and by challenge I mean invite you into this game of life and work and invite you into exploration and play.
Marie Groover (20:51.037)
within the life that you already have, that you've already built, that you will continue to build and grow and expand in and transform with. I'm sharing all of this with you, not because I give any fucks what you think or if you approve. I'm sharing all of this with you because I want you to stop looking for and trying to choose and stick to one thing. I'm sharing this with you because I want you to have and be and try.
and experience all of the things with joy and fun and play and freedom with ease. You have and are everything that you most deeply desire. Please don't limit yourself by subscribing to any idea that you have to be this or that. You don't have to be anything but yourself and you don't have to listen to anyone but your heart. Quit or don't quit your job. I don't care. I'm not quitting mine.
And I invite you to join me to challenge whatever is limiting your existence, your desires right now by living your fullest expression, despite what your situation is. Thank you for listening. If you're looking for your purpose and you've listened to my other episodes and you haven't yet realized that you just have to be yourself, join my group container, Your Soul's Purpose. It's seven weeks of intuitive and purpose-driven work to connect you with your purpose.
and dust off that North Star of your life. You can decide for yourself if you want to keep your job or leave your job, start a side hustle, monetize what you came here to do, or just be. We kick off in February and I would love to have you.
Marie Groover (22:40.179)
Thank you for listening to the Spiritual 9-5 podcast with myself, Marie from The Corporate Psychic. Save and follow for more wisdom. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram at thecorppsychic and I would love for you to join our community. It's called TCP Community and Courses and you can find it on Mighty Networks. And if you want to go big on you, reach out. I want to work with you. Wherever you are, whatever is on your mind. I hope to meet again.
maybe in the next episode right here. I'm honoring you and with gratitude, good day.
