Graduate corporate life for entrepreneurial freedom — without jeopardizing your income or family 💚 | Pod: UncageYourself.FM 🎧

You make great money... and you're suffocating.



I coach Directors, VPs, and Executives through Corporate Graduation®: the transition from Corporate Dependent to Corporate Optional — in one year.



Whether you're still inside corporate or recently out, if you've spent 15-25 years building career capital, you're probably running some version of this:



1) Sunday nights feel heavier than they should.

2) You keep starting things and stopping.

3) Family and health get whatever's left.

4) You're going through the motions and no one can tell.

5) You've been doing the math in your head for months.



That was me.

Divorced. Burnt out. 

Going dark inside a career everyone envied.



So I got to work:



I made my employer my investor.

Compressed the job.

Built a founder-grade business.

Graduated corporate for good.



171+ Directors, VPs, and Executives have done the same.

The methodology: Space → Self → System.



1) SPACE: compresses corporate and clears the conditions.

2) SELF: recodes the identity underneath.

3) SYSTEM: deploys your career capital into a founder-grade business.



Skip a step, and you replicate the cage with a different name on the door.



What we do together:



✅ Compress your corporate role to 20 hours/week

✅ Package your career capital into proprietary IP

✅ Build a founder-grade business around who you are

✅ Install founder identity, not someday — now

✅ Exit with runway, not regret



Ex-BCG. 4x dad.



This is the work I was built for.



START HERE:

go.corporategraduation.com

Matt Doan

1 week of founder growth = 5 years of corporate growth.

Here's what just happened for me:

(Save this)

Last week, New Media Summit in Austin with 500+ builders. This week, a 3-day intensive mastermind with some of the most badass founders around the world.

Back to back. Intense. I'm drained.

→ In corporate, growth is slow. Incremental. Safe.
→ Same room, same conversations, same container.
→ You don't notice it b/c environment never changes.

One week in the right rooms reoriented how I think, build, and move. That compression becomes normal when you design your life around it.

If you're still inside corporate making great money but feeling the pull toward something more, these are the things nobody tells you about the other side.

5 things worth sitting with:

---

1) Your TOP job as a founder is content.

Not sales calls. Not funnels. Content.

Every hour on a great YouTube video, podcast, or Substack essay pays you back for months (or years). Builds trust with people you'll never meet... until they're ready to buy. 

100X ROI. Nothing in corporate compounds like this.


2) Nobody cares about you. Just their transformation.

I walked the booths at the summit. Companies winning had names like selfpublishing.com, The Scalable Company, and GrowLetter. Crystal clear outcomes. Zero "I help X do Y" language.

That's consultant energy. One-man band.

Category design means framing, naming, and claiming your own space. Shine the light on the category, not yourself (see Category Pirates).


3) Sales is hard when marketing is weak.
Marketing is weak when positioning sucks.

Every founder I met who struggled with sales had the same root cause two levels up.

Vague, safe, and generic positioning.

When positioning is sharp, marketing writes itself. When marketing works (which should be 80% of your days), sales becomes enrollment, not a pitch.


4) People don't haggle anymore. They binge and decide.

They want to experience your thinking through long-form content. YouTube, podcast, Substack. Non-negotiables, no matter your business type.

Buying decisions happen before anyone books a call.


5) When you see a window, throw a brick through it.

(Because windows close.)

Go pro. Not "I'll start when I'm ready."

The corporate →  founder shift means someone saw an opening and went all in. They know their audience intimately. They produce at volume. They treat content like a pro athlete treats training.

My positioning with Corporate Graduation® is locked down (legally, even). Category claimed. Now it's building a trust-building marketing machine — YouTube at the core, with podcast and Substack, all feeding one engine.

I'm going pro in marketing.

---

If you're reading this from inside corporate, leaning toward something more, you're not going to figure it out in your current room. Or at your current pace.

Change the room.
Build the machine.
Go pro.

PS - This is the message you needed to hear.

Corporate Graduation® Founder | Directors & VPs → Founder in ONE Year | 173 Graduates | Ex-BCG | go.corporategraduation.com

Abu Maiyaki INC

Dedicated to reinventing organizations and leadership for the evolving future of work. 

Past clients:
Project Manager, CCRM Transformation | Government of Canada
Program Lead, MS D365 | Center for Creative Leadership
Global Change Management Lead, MS D365 & Operating Model Transformation | Center for Creative Leadership
Change Management Advisor | Eldorado Gold
Enterprise Transformation Architect/ Strategic Advisor | Government of Canada

Managing Partner

Diaminate

Unifying Startup Data to Drive Capital, Clarity, and Competitive Edge.

Advisor

Centennial College

Professor, Business - Leadership and Strategic Management 

Black Executive Men Community

Member

Morgan Stanley

Agile Coach/ Engagement-Delivery Lead, Enterprise Technology Services - Transformation & Strategy
Transformation & Strategy Program: Supporting service tower strategic priorities and platform vision ensuring execution across identified initiatives

Vice President, Agile Transformation

DecisionXDesign

Decision by Design is a hybrid management consultancy and digital firm focused on improving and innovating business operations. We build operating models that enable decision-making, support bold thinking, create space for inventiveness and culture change.  

Mission: Enable and expand future sustaining operating models for our clients.
Vision: Build the future of business.
Brand promise: Accelerate and nurture operational relevance. Period!

Clients have included: Financial institutions (BMO), Public sector (Government of Canada & Ontario, Huron County), Utilities (EnerCare, SparkEnergy, OPG), Non-profits (United Way, CBCC, WorkFaith), Private sector and Small Business (Siral USA, CGC, Saudi Information Technology Company) to name a few.

Past enterprise clients:
IT Agile Project Manager/ Coach | WorkFaith
Digital Transformation Program: Supporting the transformation of the organization from a long established in-person soft-skills training organization to a first-class distributed workplace 

Business Advisor | Huron County
Supporting small businesses with digital transformation advisory, business continuity plans, cash flow projections, marketing plans, information on government programs

Program Manager/ OCM Lead | BMO Financial Group				
Technology Operating Model Program: Portfolio and IT Service management operational model design and implementation to evolve maturity of technology experience for the business 

Change Management Lead | Ontario Power Generation 
MyPower Program: Change Management Lead supporting the people-side of digital transformation for the Cloud implementation of an enterprise-wide HCM (SuccessFactors) system

Organizational Effectiveness Consultant | Ontario Ministry of Transportation
RUSMOD Program: Transformational review of programs to achieve operational effectiveness in enabling legacy modernization of Ontario’s licensing and registration system

Senior Principal

Delice Foods

Canadian food and beverage start-up with a specific objective – introduce the North American market to the vibrant tastes of the African continent through healthy, nutritious, high premium products. 

Bao Smoothies™ is the first line of beverages from Delice Foods to pair the Baobab Superfruit from Africa’s legendary Tree of Life with 100% natural exotic fruit juices - a 1st in North America!
•	Led product roadmap from concept to commercialization, driving critical capabilities with technical experts to ensure regulatory/ legal adherence
•	Tripled annual sales Yr-on-Yr by 194% effectively addressing consumer (health, 3Ps, organic/ natural) trends, establishing brand in targeted high-end category   
•	Expanded account base from 48 (Yr 1) to over 300+ l(Yr 2) retailers, guiding execution of instore-merchandising, marketing campaigns and partner relationships 
•	Acquired national and regional account coverage, developing key accounts (Wholefoods, Bulk Barn, Williams Sonoma, Farm Boy, Foodland, etc.) fueling growth

Key Achievements:
•	Recognized, nominated: 10 Most innovate product, Grocery Innovation Canada 2013
•	Dragon's Den participant, 2015

Founder

Ontario Government

HRO IT Strategy Program: Conceptualization and development of divisional IT strategy roadmap, ensuring continued definition of an integrated Human Capital Management (HCM) system vision.

Key Achievements:
•	Recognized and nominated: 3rd Place, 2012 OPS International Project Management Awards
•	Recognized and nominated: 2012 HROntario Awards of Excellence - Large Team Excellence in Partnership & Collaboration

Ministry Devolution of Accountability Program: Restructure of $36bn organization and re-engineering of programs/ services in support of an enterprise-wide functional operating model.

Key Achievements:
•	Recognized and nominated: 2010 HROntario Awards of Excellence – Large Team Excellence in Innovation & Transformation

Management Consultant/ Business Improvement Consultant/ Project Manager

Transforming organizations for the future of work and empowering leaders to walk in their greatness!

Welcome to my page:
As a tested executive, I understand your struggles in fixing the service plumbing of that 200yr old business. As a leader, I see the challenges you face trying to figure out a better way to lead your teams, to have those painful conversations. I share your personal hopes, encourage your potential and authenticity. I have been in the trenches and have stood shoulder to shoulder with you, building out new operating models, changing systems, redesigning structures and improving processes.

I am an enterprise transformation executive consultant, leadership advisor and coach. I transform organizations and leadership for the evolving future of work. I support uncompromising leaders like you to reinvent organizations and change cultures.

With more than 20+ years leading complex transformation programs, I have extensive experience working with senior executives and their management teams in delivering strategic change across a wide range of technologies and industries. I have participated in over 50+ enterprise-wide transformations from $36 billion public sector institutions, multi-lateral funding agencies, not-for-profits, start-ups to Fortune 100 clients.

Enterprise clients hire me to bring deliberate focus back to their most important assets — their people, partners, and stakeholders. I do this by enabling decision-making, supporting bold thinking and creating space for inventiveness and culture change.

Leaders hire me to bring focus back to their most important “why’s” — passion, purpose, and vision. I do this by helping them gain clarity of their personal vision, challenge them subtly, nudge and have them confront their potential. 

I am energized by complex, big challenges and have actively sought them. I am happiest and engaged when facilitating, collaborating, solutioning and leading client engagements. Whether it be defining enterprise strategy, conducting system-wide assessments, designing solutions, or helping leaders own their space! 

I am purpose-driven and impassioned in the work I do and how I serve my clients. I operate with deep empathy and believe in all possibilities and believe we all have a responsibility to walk in our greatness. 

Areas of Expertise: Leadership & Team Coaching, Strategy & Execution, Large-Scale Transformation, Cross-Functional Team Building, Business Consulting & Advisory, Business Model Innovation, Organizational Design & Restructuring, Organizational Change Management (OCM).

Always happy to chat, pls feel free in reaching out.

Abu Maiyaki

A blessed Ramadan to all celebrating...
May it be accepted from us all!
Amen!

Bridging the gap between system ready and organization ready | ETOS Creator

I keep a record. Every transformation program I've touched since 2019.

47 programs. 
$3.2B in total spend (no joke).
 
I track one thing: How much it cost to fix structural gaps based on when they were discovered (the engineer in me).

The pattern is consistent and brutal.

Gaps found in Blueprint phase (12 programs): Average fix cost: $240K Timeline slip: 4-6 weeks ROI still achieved: 9 out of 12

Gaps found in UAT (18 programs): Average fix cost: $1.1M 
Timeline slip: 3-4 months ROI still achieved: 11 out of 18

Gaps found post-go-live (17 programs): Average fix cost: $4.2M 
Timeline slip: 6-18 months ROI still achieved: 3 out of 17

One program stands out. 

Public agency.
ERP implementation.
Month 2 of Blueprint, we found 6 structural issues:

-  Approval workflows mapped to old org structure
-  Process owners without budget authority
-  KPIs that punished required behaviors
-  Decision rights misaligned with new system
-  Three others


Leadership fixed 4 of them before detailed design. Cost: $680K total.
The 2 they didn't fix? "We'll handle those in change management."
Those 2 gaps are now 14 months into hypercare. Running cost: $2.8M and counting.
The math doesn't lie. Every month you wait increases the fix cost by roughly 1.5x.


Yet most governance frameworks don't measure structural integrity until integration testing.
By then, you're not doing diligence. You're negotiating how big the problem is.

What would you find if you ran structural diagnostics in month 2 instead of month 14? Honestly?

Every transformation leader tells the same story.


$50M program = [Check] 
Beautiful business case = [Check]
Executive buy-in = [Check]

Six months in, adoption is 23%. 
Your OCM team is running more "awareness sessions."

Where did it go wrong?


Here's what nobody told you: **The system was already broken before you arrived.**
Not the technology. The organizational structure itself decoupled from reality years ago.


Your job isn't to "manage change."
It's to detect whether this transformation can even succeed within current structural constraints.


The truth most consultants won't say: Some transformations fail because they were structurally impossible from day one.

You can't train people out of a broken org chart.
You can't communicate past misaligned incentives.
You can't manage around capability gaps leadership refuses to acknowledge.

Before you build another readiness assessment, ask: 
Can people actually DO what we're asking? Can the structure support it?


Your next board presentation should start with structural integrity, not change readiness.


**What structural constraints are blocking your transformation right now?**

There's a moment in every failing transformation when everyone knows it's broken.

Executives ask "how do we contain this?" Your sponsor stops returning emails. The PMO deck turns Red.

You realize: those early warnings? They were right.

This moment defines transformation leaders.

Some update resumes. Some document for CYA. Some coast to contract end.

But a few do something different:

They stop trying to succeed within broken constraints.
They name what's actually broken.
They bring data instead of hope.

I've been in that room where you finally tell the steering committee:

"We can keep pretending this is change management. Or acknowledge our structure cannot support what we approved."

It's terrifying. You might lose the contract.

But here's what happens:

Either they fix the structure and succeed.
Or they don't, and you documented why.

Both beat spending two years on an impossible program while your reputation burns.

Your job isn't making impossible transformations succeed through heroics.

It's making structural failure visible before it becomes a $50M lesson.

Have you ever stopped a doomed program? What gave you the courage?

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