Hustle with Heels Podcast

Ep25. Why Your Corporate Job Is Not Your Wealth Plan

• Cindy Excell

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She got the promotion.

But she missed her daughter’s Easter Hat Parade.

And the question that kept coming up was: at what cost?

That moment hit me hard. Because I’ve been there too.

I missed one of the biggest days of my elder daughter’s life while sitting alone in a hotel room for a work event overseas. I’ll never forget the feeling.

Pride… and regret.

In this episode, I’m sharing the stories that made me rethink how I was defining success and why I stopped seeing my corporate job, promotions and pay increase as my wealth-building plan.

We talk about what wealth really means, the power of building something of your own, and how to create freedom without walking away from your career overnight.

If you’ve ever asked yourself “is this really it?” I think this one will stay with you.


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 A friend of mine, she just got promoted to the HR director of her company, which is a career defining moment for her. But what she said to me next, I missed my daughter's first Easter to Hat Parade. And uh, I keep asking myself at what cost? And that hit me because I've been there too. I missed my daughter's end of the year six school musical.

I was overseas attending a national conference for my work. I was watching her get ready through a screen while I was in the hotel room. And in that moment everything shifted for me. So in this episode, I'm going to break down why our careers were never designed to build wealth, and how you can actually start shifting from relying on your nine to five job to building something of your own.

Welcome to the Hustle with Heels podcast. I'm your host, Cindy Excell. A corporate girl start, hustler wife and a mom of two. In 2020. I started my first start hustle as an online fitness coach while working in my corporate job as a private wealth manager. Over the years, I have been leading proof that a corporate career and a side hustle can absolutely co-exist in harmony.

Today I'm helping corporate women and early stage entrepreneurs create wealth beyond that nine to five jobs. And build an online business on their terms. On this podcast, I'll share my knowledge, strategies, and the stories that will help you start and grow your start hustle. Whether you are ready to diversify your income streams or are looking to build a start business that aligns with your goals, I'm here to support you every step of the way.

Now, life get started. Welcome back to a new episode of HAS with Heal Podcast. The other day I caught up with a friend of mine who just got promoted. She's now the director of the HR department of her company, which is a huge achievement for her years of hard work, long hours working and proving herself had finally paid off.

So she should have been over the moon and in some ways she was. I. But as we were talking, her voice dropped just a little bit. She told me that her five years old daughter just who started kindergarten this year and this past week, which was the last week of the first term for many schools, they had their Easter head parade.

I. Now, if you don't know what Easter Head Parade is, it is a event where you have all the children make their own Easter head and they will design and, uh, you know, put a really cute and, uh, fun head together. And then they basically just going to, you know, walk in the school and their parents will be watching them to do this Easter Head parade.

So it is a very fun school event, and it was the first one and she missed it. So she was stuck in the back to back meetings, and even though she tried to shift things around, it just wasn't possible for that day. And then she said to me, I'm building this incredible career, but sometimes I wonder at what costs that hate me.

Because I've been there too a few years ago, back in 2023, my older daughter, who was 11 years old, at that time, she was in year six, which was her final year of the junior school or the primary school. And one of the biggest events of that year was the end of the year six school musical. Should've been looking forward to for the whole year, and, uh, rehearsing the lines and dancing moves, planning every little detail.

So my elder daughter, she never liked to be in the spotlight. That's why it also took a lot of courage for her to even go for the audition and then got the role. You know, it was one of those milestone moments that kids will remember forever. And unfortunately I missed it. I was overseas attending a national conference for work.

It was one of those work events I felt that I had to be at. I remember the night of her performance. I was sitting alone in my hotel room. It was quiet and everyone else at a conference, they've all gone out for dinner. And I was sitting there in the room with my phone in hand and FaceTiming my husband with the girls.

They were at her friend's house getting ready, and her friend's mom was actually helping her with her hair. And my husband, bless him, he had taken her to get her makeup done professionally. He was trying so hard to make sure that everything was perfect and special for her. And I sat there watching through a screen, and she was still practicing her singing her line and was nervously excited, but had that beaming smile on her face.

And then my heart ached because I wasn't even there. I couldn't help her get dressed. I couldn't hug her before she went on the stage, and I couldn't see her little face light up in real time. And I will never forget that feeling, that gut wrenching, mixed of pride and regret, one of the biggest milestones in her young life.

And I wasn't there for it. That was a moment I'll never get back. And yes, I was doing something. I thought it was important for my career. At that time, I already had my side, a fitness coaching business for about three years, but I hadn't thought about leaving my corporate career at all. But sitting in the hotel room, I realized that I actually wasn't okay with what I had to trade to get there and to do what I do in corporate.

That was one of the defining moment for me, and I realized that I needed to build something different. Something that gave me the choice to be there for my daughters, not just the ability to provide for them financially. Now, these stories, mine and my friends, they are just two examples, but I know that they are not rare.

They are everywhere. For corporate women, for working moms, for example, who are career driven. Those are the stories that happen all the time. There are so many high achieving women working in corporate. They are doing incredible things in their careers, and yet deep down there is this nagging feeling that we are building success on somewhere else, terms that we are treating memories, flexibility, and even parts of our identity sometimes for promotions and the pay rises that were never designed to give us true wealth and true freedom.

So if you've ever had that moment where you thought, I've done everything right in my career, why does it still feel off? Then today I want to share a truth that changed my perspective on my career life, wealth and freedom for me, which is your nine to five job, is not your wealth plan for you and your loved ones.

Now before we go any further, this isn't about quitting your job or hating on corporate. That is not what I'm talking about here, but this is about waking up to the fact that no matter how good your salary is, no matter how high position you are in your corporate role. If your income is tied to somewhere else business, somewhere else, decision, and the somewhere else goes and dreams, then the real wealth and the real freedom, it is never going to be truly in your hands because real wealth should give you presence, peace, power, and control over your life and over your career.

And that doesn't come from chasing corporate titles or waiting for big bonuses. It actually comes from building something that is yours and on your term. It took me over a decade to realize this uncomfortable but necessary truth. Your job was never designed to make you wealthy. It was designed to pay you just enough not to leave.

And I know that might sound a little edgy, maybe even a little bit confronting, especially if you spend your whole adult life climbing the ladder like I did for a decade. Collecting promotions like gold stars, doing everything right. I spent over 19 years in financial services industry working closely with many, many high net worth clients, and interestingly, I started to see patterns while working with these people.

In my opinion, if you were not born into wealth, generally speaking, there are two types of wealthy people. The first type are the high income earners working in a nine to five job, big salaries, big bonuses, maybe even some equity in the company. From the outside, it looks like they've made it. They stand up on the top of their corporate career.

But what I saw behind the scenes was that freedom was tied to that income, that time it was spoken for. That calendar was controlled by somewhere else, and even though they were earning a lot, they were also spending a lot to keep up with the lifestyle Their job demanded, they looked free, but they actually wouldn't.

Then there is the other type of wealthy people. These were the ones who had built something of their own, usually the entrepreneur type. They built a business that was not only making money, it was also designed around the life they actually wanted to live. I. They worked hard, especially at a building stage, but they worked on their terms because they built their business with intention.

They created choices, which allows them to have the freedom as well. And once I saw that difference, I couldn't unsay it because I knew that deep down I wasn't going to be the one chasing more money just to stay stuck in the system. I not only want to provide for my family and my kids financially, I also want the kind of wealth that gives me options and the freedom I want to have the ownership over my time, my energy, and my purpose.

I. Now, most of us in the corporate world, we are chasing the first version of wealth. The title, the, the corporate title, the salary bump, the bonus, the executive status. We think if I just get to next level, then I will feel secure. I. Then I'll have options. Then I'll finally be free. But what we don't always realize is this, the higher your income goes in corporate, the less freedom you usually have.

You are managing more. You are responsible for more. You are being pulled in every direction, and you are answering to the board of your company, maybe the shareholders as well, and your times. It's no longer yours. You might be making high end multiple six figures, but you still have to ask for permission to take an afternoon off in order to attend a school function for your child, and you still have to log back in after dinner or still working weekends to stay on top.

Now, let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with that path. If you love your career, if you love your nine to five career, if you are fulfilled by the type of work you do in your nine to five job, and if you are happy with working through those hours because it alerts you up, that's amazing. And I'm so happy for you because before I had a family, before I had my children, I was like that.

I was always the first one who got to the office in the morning and the last one left. I'd worked through my evenings and weekends and was proud to be called a workaholic back then. There is absolutely no judgment here because for some people that is their dream. But now for me and for many of my clients, that's not the kind of wealth we are after because we want to be there for our kids.

We want to be the ones driving them to the dance classes, the soccer games, and their auditions, et cetera. And we want to be there for the big milestones. And yes, we also want to be there for the ordinary moments, the afterschool chats, the weekend adventures, the flexibility to say yes to them without rearranging the whole work schedule.

That's the kind of freedom I want and my clients want, and that's the version of the wealth I'm building to give me the kind of freedom. Some people might also say, with high corporate income at the least, I can save more. Well, that's not untrue. You've probably heard about this before. Save 20% of your income, max out your super stick with low cost index funds and stay the cost.

Look, those are all still smart things to do. I'm not here to throw out the basics, but here is another fact. Those old rules, they are just not enough anymore. Because the game has changed. We are leading a time where the cost of leading keeps rising, where the industries are being disrupted overnight, where jobs that the ones felt safe are being made redundant, and people get laid off all the time and the jobs get automated or even outsourced.

It is not that the savings is bad, not at all. It is that relying on savings from your high nine to five income is just not enough. Not only job security does not exist, but also the true wealth isn't built by cutting back on coffee or takeaways. It is built by creating options, the options that allows you to set no to work that doesn't allow you up, the options that allows you to take a month off and the not stress about the bills.

Options that allows you to spend more time with your family now, not when you retire and you don't get those kind of options from saving a little bit of extra each month from your property income. You get them by creating new income streams because your nine to five jobs, that's income. It pays the bills.

It is what you work for. But a business of your own, that's the leverage. That's when you take what you already know, your skills, your experience, your expertise, and your unique strengths, and you turn those into something that can generate income on your terms. So it is great that if you already are able to save and invest your corporate income, but don't stop there because the real shift happens when you stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like an entrepreneur and a business owner.

If you're listening to this episode, I know that you are trying to create freedom, flexibility, and financial security that is beyond your nine to five. You want to wake up. In morning, one day in, and know that your day is yours, that your income doesn't depend on fulfilling somewhere else, dream and taking somewhere else.

KPIs. You want to be able to walk away one day when you are ready and know that you've built something strong enough. To stand on its own, something that isn't just a sad project, but a real business. A business that's aligned with your values, your zone of genius, and the lifestyle you want to create.

Maybe it's because you want to be the one who drops your kids off at school, takes them to the sports, or show up for the school concert, or you maybe you want to be available not just for the milestones, but for those everyday moments that matter to you as well. Or maybe it's because you've realized that your job, as successful as it can be, isn't giving you the freedom you thought it would.

Or maybe it's just a sense that you are meant to do something that is more purposeful and more meaningful. The good news is that you can use what you already know to make an impact in somebody else life. You don't need to start from scratch. You already have the knowledge. You already have the experience and the credibility.

You've been building that for years through your career, your life, and your story. Now it's just about learning how to package that and how to take what's already inside of you and turning that into a coaching offer that solves a real problem for real people. One that pays you well and allows you to live on your terms and that compliments your nine to five and eventually gives you the freedom to step away if you choose to.

So here is what I want to leave you with today. If your only plan for building wealth is your current corporate career, it is time to rethink the strategy because while your job is a powerful tool, it might be serving your world right now. It was never designed to give you the full financial freedom.

Your real power is in your ability to create something of your own, to take what you already know, your skills, your wisdoms, your living experience into a business that works for you. You are not quitting your job tomorrow. But I do encourage you to think differently. And in the next week's episode, we are going to break that down step by step.

I will walk you through exactly how to build a 5K per month coaching start business. Without quitting your job or burning yourself out in the process, it's going to be packed with strategy, mindset, and practical tips that you can use immediately. So don't miss it. Yeah. If this episode lit a fire in you today, if something clicked or you saw your future in the new way, I'd love for you to DM me on LinkedIn at Cindy Excell.

And let me know what you think or send it to another smart and ambitious woman in your life who's ready to take back control of her career and creating something of her own. That's it for today's episode. Keep hustling with the intention and keep taking actions. I will see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the Hustle with Heels podcast.

I hope this episode has inspired you to take action towards your sad hustle dream. If you en enjoyed this episode, please take a second to rate and review it. Each review helps me help more corporate women, and early stage entrepreneurs just like you. Don't forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories, all on LinkedIn, and check me at Cindy Excell.

I will see you next week.