Way Out #18: Rising from the Ashes: From Fired to Founder with Anne Pao

From Burnout to Building My Own Business with Haley Scruggs

For years, Haley Scruggs believed that success required pain. From grueling 80-hour weeks selling books door-to-door in college to becoming a top-tier technical recruiter for fast-paced startups like Bumble and The Zebra, Haley built her career on the belief that her worth depended entirely on being a "workhorse." But muscling through eventually takes a devastating toll. In this episode, Haley opens up about the extreme corporate burnout that pushed her body to its absolute breaking point — and how being laid off from her executive "dream job" ended up being the ultimate blessing in disguise. Today, Haley is the founder of A Lighter Way Consulting, where she uses her decade of HR experience to help driven women in tech navigate burnout and partners with startups to humanely handle layoffs. She shares her strategies for dealing with the terror of entrepreneurship, how to honor your body's natural energy cycles, and why she is manifesting abundance one penny at a time. If you are exhausted from trying to prove your worth to toxic corporate environments, Haley's story is a beautiful reminder: you do not have to sacrifice your health and happiness to be successful. ───────────────────────────── IN THIS EPISODE: ───────────────────────────── ▸ The trap of the "workhorse" mentality and how to recognize when your body is sounding the alarm ▸ Why achieving the ultimate corporate title and salary might not actually bring you peace ▸ How to handle the fear of the "messy middle" of entrepreneurship ▸ Redefining success: from seeking external validation to building a grounded certainty in yourself ───────────────────────────── 3 TIPS FOR WAYFINDERS: ───────────────────────────── 1. Treat fear like a passenger, not the driver. Haley recommends personifying fear as a scared three-year-old version of yourself. Put them in the backseat and remind them: "You don't get to drive this car. I'm driving." 2. Follow the energetic breadcrumbs. If you have a yearning or a pull toward something more, that is your truth — and it deserves to be followed. Start leaning into the things that bring you joy. Those small breadcrumbs will point you toward your next step. 3. Communify your life. You do not have to figure out your next steps alone. Find people already doing the things that make you say "I could never" and start having conversations with them. Community is how you take the tiny steps forward you need to launch your own dream. ───────────────────────────── CONNECT WITH HALEY: ───────────────────────────── Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haleyirenesings/ [https://www.instagram.com/haleyirenesings/] Email: hello@HaleyScruggs.com [hello@HaleyScruggs.com] ---------------------------------------- FIND YOUR OWN WAY OUT: https://www.101waysout.com/101-ways-out-thirty-day-program [https://www.101waysout.com/101-ways-out-thirty-day-program]

Way Out #19: From Being Told What to Make to Building a $1M Agency with Marianne Kaiser

What do you do when the agency that promised you the world starts making you question your own value every single day? If you are Marianne Kaiser, you track your misery on a 30-day Post-It note countdown, and then you walk away. In this episode of 101 Ways Out, we sit down with Marianne, a former Creative Director who escaped the toxic burnout of the traditional agency world to build her own fractional empire, Contrary Collective. While Marianne took the leap into entrepreneurship with two toddlers at home, this isn't just a story about balancing motherhood and business. It is a masterclass in radical boundary-setting, unapologetic outsourcing, and industry disruption. Marianne breaks down exactly how she built her agency to run like a "hair salon for creatives." This unique structure enables her to partner top-tier talent directly with clients on passion-led projects without the unpaid weekends and corporate red tape. We dive deep into the messy middle of entrepreneurship, including how she survived a terrifying dry spell, the exact words she used to turn down a client who tried to slash her budget to a third, and how she completely redefined what "success" looks like. And the payoff for betting entirely on her own authority? Marianne is now projecting a $1M revenue close rate for this year. If you are struggling with imposter syndrome or waiting for the "perfect time" to leave a job you hate, Marianne will inspire you to borrow some self-confidence and make the leap. As she brilliantly puts it: "If someone else trusts you to do the job, you're probably underselling yourself." In this episode, we cover: - The "30-Day Post-It Note Countdown" that led to her resignation. - Why she intentionally built a fractional, 1099 agency model. - How to set firm boundaries when clients try to underpay you. - Why letting go of "mom guilt" (and unapologetically outsourcing the laundry) made her a better CEO and mother. - The power of being of service to others when your business hits a slow period. Follow Marianne LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannekaiser/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannekaiser/]

Way Out #18: Rising from the Ashes: From Fired to Founder with Anne Pao

How Anne Pao Turned Corporate Retaliation into a Fractional Empire Anne Pao was a top-performing VP, hitting 85% of her OKRs and consistently earning 100 NPS scores from her teams. Her manager, however, was a nightmare. He treated his team poorly and openly expressed that he liked to "keep a tight leash around the neck" of his employees. After it went too far, she formally reported her manager to HR for bullying and harassment. She was met with a retaliatory rating on her performance review. In the text, he explicitly complained about her HR escalations.  Anne went away on vacation, but when she returned, everything changed. She was called into a meeting and told her position was suspiciously eliminated due to "redundancy". Instead of letting a toxic corporate culture defeat her, Anne created a spreadsheet titled "Rising from the Redundancy Ashes like a Phoenix" and made a commitment to take one step every single day toward her new future. Today, Anne has completely reclaimed her autonomy. She is the founder and CEO of Ignite Consulting, a fractional go-to-market and RevOps firm. She also founded RevOps Village, a thriving community of over 700 revenue professionals, and co-leads Women of Pavilion. By betting on herself, she not only gained the freedom to choose who she works with and when she works, but she now earns 25% to 45% more than her corporate salary while working fewer hours. In this episode of 101 Ways Out, Anne opens up about her incredibly difficult exit from corporate tech, her nomadic and challenging childhood, and how to successfully pivot into fractional leadership. In this episode, we cover: ➜ The Reality of Retaliation: Anne's harrowing experience with a hostile work environment, navigating HR, and ultimately being pushed out of her VP role. ➜ The "Redundancy Ashes" Blueprint: The exact step-by-step approach Anne took to build her consulting business from scratch immediately after losing her job. ➜ Building a Fractional Empire: How Anne leverages her deep expertise in operations and business intelligence to run Ignite Consulting. ➜ The Power of Community: Why Anne built RevOps Village and how making consistent "deposits" into your network is the ultimate lead-generation tool for entrepreneurs. ➜ Redefining Success: How Anne balances being a present mother and partner while working Monday through Thursday—proving you don't have to choose between success and happiness. Connect with Anne Pao: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annepao/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/annepao/] Ignite Consulting: www.igniteconsulting.co [http://www.igniteconsulting.co]

Way Out #17: From Pastor to Serial Entrepreneur with Keith Davenport

If you wanted to script the ultimate story of a radical life pivot, you would be hard-pressed to write something more dramatic than Keith Davenport’s journey. From a conservative evangelical pastor to a progressive political candidate, and finally to a neurodivergent serial entrepreneur, Keith has completely dismantled and rebuilt his life on his own terms. In this episode of 101 Ways Out, Keith opens up about his profound transformation. He shares the historical discoveries that shifted his worldview and led him to step away from the church, and the grueling burnout he experienced managing crisis communications for a county of 600,000 people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, it took a terrifying breaking point—and an urgent care visit for severe anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD—to push him to completely abandon the traditional career path. Today, Keith is a thriving serial entrepreneur building an ecosystem of businesses in his hometown of Gardner, Kansas. We discuss how he launched his consulting firm, Blazer Strategies, acquired Ground House Coffee using seller financing, and founded the HR tech startup MythicHire to eliminate resume bias. Update Since Recording: True to his serial entrepreneur nature, Keith has had a massive year since we sat down to record. He has stepped out of the CEO role at MythicHire to launch 030 Holding Company, a venture dedicated to acquiring small businesses using seller financing. His mission is to protect small business legacies and increase community wealth by creating jobs, increasing wages, and building profit-sharing tracks. They acquired their first business, Madison Street Threads, in October. He has also withdrawn from a planned 2026 State House run to focus entirely on his family, teaching business acquisitions at JCCC, and local advocacy—like working directly with his local police department to find humane alternatives for the unhoused. In this episode, we cover: * The Courage to Pivot: How to walk away from the path you thought you were "called" to when it no longer serves you. * Mental Health as a Catalyst: Navigating extreme corporate burnout, late-diagnosed ADHD, and anxiety as an entrepreneur. * Acquisition Entrepreneurship: How to successfully buy a business using seller financing. * Redefining Success: Why Keith chose being a good dad and husband over traditional corporate power. Connect with Keith Davenport: * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/keithmdavenport [http://linkedin.com/in/keithmdavenport] * 030 Holding Company: (Keep an eye out for his latest venture!) * Blazer Strategies: blazerstrategies.com [http://blazerstrategies.com] * Ground House Coffee: groundhousecoffee.com [http://groundhousecoffee.com] * MythicHire: mythichire.com [http://mythichire.com] Listen now to hear Keith's incredible story of finding a Way Out!

Way Out #16: From Corporate Publishing to Soul Blueprints with Alisa Messeroff

When Alisa Messeroff was three years old, she had her first spirit visitation—a presence at the foot of her bed that she found magical, but which terrified her overprotective mother, who told her she was making it up. For the next two decades, Alisa silenced the thing that made her different and performed the version of “normal” she was handed: high school, college, a corporate job in New York City. In her corporate, she was promised a promotion two years in a row, and denied both times. The last was the straw that broke the camel's back. Alisa looked her director dead in the eyes, said "F You", slammed his sliding glass door, and walked out. Within weeks, she and her husband, Mike, had given up their Manhattan apartment, sold most of what they owned, and moved to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Alisa threw herself onto a catamaran crew, worked as a guide, and taught herself photography on a camera she bought with her own money. Then, on the last day of their time in St. John, the hives started. She was covered from head to toe. Her tongue swelled. She took prednisone and ended up with moon face. A parade of American doctors couldn’t name what she had, and one of whom told her she would likely have to live on steroids for the rest of her life. She was terrified that she was going to die. Out of money and out of options, Alisa and Mike decided to continue their journey around the world, from Hawaii to Australia. Alisa said, “If I’m going to die, I’m going to die doing what I love.” A woman in a caravan park in Broome, Australia, whom Alisa now calls her angel, booked her an appointment with a naturopath. Four days after starting a protocol of Chinese herbs, the hives subsided. Alisa would not find out until years later, back in Costa Rica, that what she actually had was alpha-gal syndrome—a tick-borne illness that makes your immune system attack mammal products. Diagnosis finally came after a decade of symptoms. That is only part of her story. The other half is the spiritual journey she spent most of her life running from: * A vision on an acupuncture table of a little boy being hit by a truck came true three months later in her own neighborhood. * A Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT) session where she met a spirit guide named Iribella, who told her the hives were her teacher, not her enemy. * Two separate Reiki sessions where, by her own account, spirit stepped into her body and used her as a conduit. One of which, she would later learn, had intervened with a client who had a handful of pills in her hand the night before. Today, Alisa is in her early 40s. She splits her year between Breckenridge, Colorado and Tamarindo, Costa Rica. She and Mike are openly polyamorous. She is a certified Reiki practitioner, a breathwork facilitator, a professional photographer, a mindset and manifestation coach, and a business mentor. She is also, by her own admission, “very woo... but also very grounded,” and she is enrolling this fall to become a clinical herbalist, completing the loop Iribella told her about five years earlier. Her mantra: “Everything is always working out for me,” has become a core belief. She sits in it. She feels it surge through her body. And she has built a life that lets her wake up, every single morning, genuinely excited about what is in store. This is one of the most spiritually fascinating conversations we’ve had on the show. If you have ever wanted to be connected to something greater than yourself, this is the show for you. CONNECT WITH ALISA Website: alisamesseroff.com [http://alisamesseroff.com]