The Escapee Collective

Welcome home.

Over a million Gen Xers have already broken out, some by choice and some by layoff, and they're thriving outside the corporate walls. We want you to be next.

A community of Gen X escapees, plus unlimited 1:1 calls with the ones a few steps ahead of you.

Join the Collective What it takes

$49 a month, or $400 a year. No pitches, no upsells, no contract.

150members and growing

30+mentors and counting

1,000+mentor calls to date

$49a month, cancel anytime

What it actually takes

Three keys to thriving outside corporate.

Get these right and you'll do fine out here, whatever your background or skillset. That's not a motivational line, it's what I've watched happen a few hundred times.

The mindset has to change

Corporate built you a box with rigid rules. Get approval. Follow the process. Wait your turn. Stay in your lane. Those rules worked in there. Out here they'll sink you. That's good news. The rules outside are simpler, and you write most of them yourself.

Learn to make money outside corporate

Not as hard as you think. You're not building a startup, raising money or hiring anyone. You're finding people with problems you already know how to solve and charging them for it. You've been doing the hard version of this for twenty five years.

Take back control of your time

This is the whole point. Fund the life you want in the fewest hours it takes, and the rest of it is yours. Miss this one and you rebuild the job you left, except now you chase the invoices too.

That's it. Three things. Nobody hands you a manual for any of them, which is why most people lose a year figuring out something another escapee could have told them in ten minutes.

How we help

Two halves that turned out to be one thing.

For years I ran two things, separately.

On one side, mentor calls. Somebody would show up stuck on pricing, we'd spend thirty minutes on it, they'd leave with a real answer. Then they'd go back to figuring out everything else alone.

On the other side, a community. People who got it, no explaining required. But when something went sideways at nine o'clock on a Tuesday, a post in a forum is not the same as a conversation with somebody who's been there.

Recently it clicked. Each half was the answer to what the other one was missing.

So that's what this is now. The room and the calls, in one place, for one price.

The community

People who get it

Gen Xers who walked out of a twenty year career and started over. Nobody here needs the backstory. And it runs on a schedule, not a feed you fall behind on.

Weekly accountability sessionsSay what you're doing. Come back and report.
Monthly mastermindsSmall groups, same faces, your real numbers.
Monthly collab sessionWhere projects and partnerships get made.
Mini workshopsTactics and strategy. One thing, done properly.

Members run the accountability sessions and most of the workshops. That part is on purpose.

The 1:1 calls

Somebody to ask

Unlimited 30-minute calls with mentors and experts who have already done it. Tell us what you're stuck on and we match you to someone who has solved that exact thing.

No other community does this.

Local networking

Actual rooms

Real cities, real people, in person. Dinners, meetups, the occasional beer. Working for yourself gets quiet fast, and quiet is what takes most people out. This is also where the referrals start.

The 1:1 calls

Not gurus. People a few steps ahead of you.

Every mentor comes out of this community and has run a business of one. Consultants, coaches, fractionals, advisors, creators. They've priced the thing, sent the proposal, chased the invoice, and had the quiet quarter.

They've actually done it

Thirty of them and counting, all out of this community. Not theory, not a framework somebody read about. Every one has hit the same walls you're hitting, and most are still out here running something.

Matched to your question

Pricing questions go to somebody who fixed their own pricing. Positioning goes to somebody who repositioned. You're not rolling the dice on a directory.

Mentors and connectors

Sometimes the answer isn't advice, it's a name. Half these calls end with somebody saying "you need to talk to Dave," and then they introduce you to Dave.

Thirty minutes means thirty minutes.

Nobody's dragging it out to seem valuable and nobody's watching a clock nervously. You get straight to it because you both know the shape of the thing.

Nobody is going to pitch you.

You've taken a free consultation before. You know how those end. Mentors here don't sell on calls and they're not fishing for work. The call is the whole thing.

Want to keep working with them? Go ahead.

If you hit it off and want to hire a mentor directly for something bigger, do it. You bring it up, not them. We don't take a cut and we won't get in the way.

What it actually sounds like in here

Two kinds of help, and you need both.

What people bring to a call

One problem, thirty minutes, somebody who's solved it.

"I want out in 18 months. What do I actually need in place first?"

"What should I charge for this? I think I'm way under."

"They offered me a package. Do I take it or ride it out?"

"My proposal keeps getting ghosted. Is it the price or the proposal?"

"One client is 70% of my revenue. How do I fix that?"

What never becomes a call

The other twenty nine days of the month.

"Landed a project that's too big for me. Who wants in?"

"Still in corporate and lurking. Anybody else leave at 54?"

"Raised my rate today and I feel sick about it. Talk me down."

"Chicago people. Dinner next Thursday, who's around?"

"Signed the biggest contract of my life. Had to tell somebody who gets it."

The calls are for the thing blocking you today. The room is for everything else: the deal you want a second opinion on, the referral you didn't know was coming, and the Tuesday where you've talked to nobody and it's already four o'clock.

Join

One price. No hourly rate. Ever.

$49/month

or pay ahead and pay less

$125a quarter, about $42/mo

$400a year, about $33/moSave $188

The room
A room of Gen X escapees who get it
Weekly accountability sessions, member led
Monthly masterminds and a monthly collab session
Mini workshops on tactics and strategy
Members refer and hire each other constantly
The 1:1 calls
Unlimited 30-minute calls with vetted mentors
Matched to whatever you're stuck on
Unlimited written questions between calls
Local
Local networking, dinners and meetups in real cities
The promises
No pitches or upsells on any call, ever
Hire a mentor directly if you want. We don't take a cut.
No contract. Monthly cancels anytime.

Join the Collective

And if it's not for you, you get your money back. Take a call in your first two weeks. If it wasn't worth it, tell us inside 14 days and we'll refund the whole thing. Annual included. No forms, no exit interview.

Already a member? Your rate doesn't change. Ever.

Fair questions

Ask away.

I'm still in corporate. Is this for me?

It might be the best time. Every question you answer now is one you're not scrambling on the week after you leave, and right now a paycheck is covering the mistakes. Plenty of members are still employed and building quietly. Nobody here is going to tell you to quit.

Unlimited calls really means unlimited?

Book as often as you need. No credits, no per-call fee, no monthly cap. Most members do a couple a month and then go quiet for a while. Both are fine.

Is this another Slack group I'll mute in a week?

That's the right thing to worry about. The difference is that things here are scheduled and small. Weekly accountability, monthly masterminds, workshops with a start and an end. Same faces every time, so you end up knowing eight people well instead of skimming four hundred. And members run most of it, which is the part that makes it stick.

How fast can I get on a call?

Usually within the week, often within a day or two. Written questions get answered inside 24 hours.

Is there a size you have to be?

No, in either direction. Members range from still-in-corporate to seven figures with nobody on payroll. The line isn't revenue, it's shape: no team to manage, no investors, no exit you're building toward.

Do I have to show up to anything?

No. Some people are in here every day and some surface twice a year with one question. Nobody's tracking your attendance.

Why the hard stop at thirty minutes?

Because it makes both of you get to the point, and it's what lets mentors say yes to a lot of calls. An hour would mean fewer mentors and longer waits.

Wasn't this called something else?

The Collective has been running for years. We tried a new name for the 1:1 calls, everybody told us it was confusing, so we stopped. Same room, same people, now with calls included.

You've been doing this by yourself long enough.

A room full of people at your exact stage, somebody to call when you're stuck, and a reason to get out of the house. Come for the answers. Stay for the people who get it.

Join the Collective

Take a call in your first two weeks. If it wasn't worth it, we'll refund you.