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

Keith Allen Johns

I help ambitious people go next-level in business and life | Deep mindset coaching that creates massive change | DM me to get started | TEDx Speaker | Former C-suite | International Transformation Coach

The technology industry has changed.

AI, market pressure, flatter orgs, and tighter promotion cycles have made advancement more competitive (and less obvious) than it used to be. Strong performance still matters, but it’s no longer enough on its own.

I work with technology leaders who are doing objectively good work but feel that something isn’t translating. They’re respected, capable, and trusted to deliver. Yet recognition, influence, or promotion feels harder to access than it should at this level.

One reason is simple and rarely said out loud:

👉 Many of the most important decisions about your career are made when you’re not in the room.

Those conversations about readiness, trust, and “who’s next”? 

They happen quietly.

What gets discussed isn’t just your output, but how you’re perceived: Your presence, judgment, clarity, and the confidence leaders have in you under pressure.

This is where most of my clients get stuck. They come to me wanting to:

* Turn their manager relationship into real leverage: not just alignment, but advocacy when decisions are made upstream

* Become someone senior leaders actively speak up for, not just someone they respect when they see the work

* Project calm, decisive executive presence in ambiguous rooms without politics, performance, or over-explaining

* Walk into high-stakes meetings already clear on how they want to be remembered afterward, not replaying the conversation on the way home

My work focuses on Moment Prep: helping technology leaders prepare before critical conversations, meetings, and decisions so they show up grounded, clear, and intentional about the impression that carries forward into rooms they’ll never sit in.

I learned this the hard way.

I rose to COO in the tech industry without an MBA, without formal business or leadership training, and without a playbook. I had to figure out how influence, trust, and executive presence actually work inside modern organizations and I had to do it alone.

After doing it myself, I spent the past year in deep conversations with technology leaders who were navigating the same invisible challenges. The patterns are consistent. And they’re teachable.

You don't have to figure it out alone as I did.

I work with strong performers who are close to the next level and want to advance without becoming political, performative, or inauthentic.

If you care about how decisions are made when you’re not in the room, we’ll have a productive conversation. DM me today.

CEO and Founder

I help corporate leaders who are feeling stuck in their 9-5 break free from corporate by building & scaling a purpose-driven business.

Most people come to me because 

❌ They’re feeling burnt-out, struggling to find work-life balance and looking for more meaning in their work
❌ They’ve focused on climbing the corporate ladder or changing jobs, but something still feels missing
❌ They wonder if there’s more to life. More freedom, income, time & purpose. But then wonder if they’re crazy for wanting more
❌ They’ve thought about the possibility of starting their own business but felt overwhelmed with where to even start

Does this sound familiar?

I’ve been there too. I progressed to being a COO of a tech company before I finally realized…

WORK SHOULDN’T SUCK

You’re not crazy for wanting more and it is possible to have more purpose, freedom, income & free time in your work.

Here’s how I help you find that for yourself:

1️⃣ Find your Purpose
2️⃣ Turn it into a business idea 
3️⃣ Start your business on the side
4️⃣ Exit corporate 

 The program is a 1-1 intensive coaching program where you receive:
👌 Tactical business coaching
👌 Mindset & habit coaching
👌 Accountability & an extensive network
👌 On-demand coaching access

What does that mean for you?
✅ Your first high-ticket client within 6 months
✅ A clear & tangible plan & momentum for your corporate exit
✅ Set off a chain reaction to thrive in all areas of your life

"Before I met Keith, exiting corporate was just a dream” - S.A. from Phoenix, database administrator turned international consultant

“I booked my first client for $3,000 in 2 weeks. Now I have the confidence to quit my 9-5.” - M.D. from Washington DC, business consulting leader turned performance coach

“Keith completely changed my life. I’m going to keep working with him.” - B.B. in Atlanta, technology leader

💡 Is this right for you? Let’s start with talking through your options. DM me to book a call.

taplio

The Battle

Matt Doan

Keith Allen Johns

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatt Doan's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Matt Doan

Keith Allen Johns

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matt Doan's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatt Doan's LinkedIn Performance