Michelle Warner took the “escapee avoidance” route — she planned to do the traditional MBA-to-consulting path… then graduated straight into the Great Recession (the day Lehman fell). That curveball pushed her into entrepreneurship early: a founder-for-hire role turning a multi-billion-dollar foundation asset into a business, followed by a mission-driven tech startup, and eventually her current work helping small business owners design the next iteration of their business.

This is a tactical episode about what actually works when you’re leaving corporate: why you should “throw spaghetti at the wall” early, how to stop doing random coffee chats, and how to use relationship marketing and audience borrowing to land clients faster — without turning into a sales robot.

What you’ll learn

• Why “sequence over strategy” matters more than the perfect plan

• The hidden risk of being too strict and narrow early on (and why it creates regret later)

• How Michelle built her business through relationship marketing, not content churn

• “Audience borrowing” as the fastest way to build trust and pipeline

• How to approach connector conversations vs. client conversations

• Why your early goal is simple: learn how to make money and stack wins

• A practical way to think about packaging: repeatable frameworks, flexible middle

Key moments / highlights

• Graduating into chaos: the day Lehman fell and what it changed

• Founder-for-hire: getting a salary while living the startup founder life

• Affordable internet in inner cities — and what customers actually did with it

• “Fractional CEO” before fractional was trendy

• The rule: don’t build with blinders on for too long

• The shift from “networking for jobs” to networking as a long-term business asset

• The line that matters: say something that people can’t “unsee” after the call

Michelle’s core concepts (worth stealing)

• Sequence over strategy: the order of moves beats the elegance of the plan

• Throw spaghetti first: test offers, clients, and problems before you commit

• Connection avatar: define who’s worth meeting so networking doesn’t waste your life

• Trust transfer: get introduced through people/places your audience already trusts

• Audience borrowing: build relationships with people who “own the room” your clients are in

Best quote energy

• “Learn all the rules so you can go break them.”

• “It’s more important the order you do things than how good you are at it.”

• “I’m totally unemployable.” (Escapee anthem)

Connect with Michelle

• Website: themichellewarner.com

• Podcast: Sequence Over Strategy (short, practical episodes; curated playlists on her site)

Connect with Brett / The Escapee ecosystem

• If corporate is broken and you’re looking at an exit strategy, this is your sign.

• Join the community: TheEscapeeCollective.com