15 years in enterprise tech → "I want out before my kids forget what I look like." Four sessions, one clear path to the Mediterranean life.
When Marcus reached out, he already had the product built.
He had the technical skills, the enterprise sales background, the proof of concept.
What he didn’t have was permission to want something different.
“I’m tired of optimising for everyone else’s timeline,” he told me on our first call. “I want to move my family to Southern Europe by summer. I want mornings with my kids. I want to build something that doesn’t require me to scale into oblivion.”
Corporate life had taught him to chase bigger - more users, more growth, more pressure.
But his body was asking for less.
We didn’t start with strategy.
We started with the question underneath everything:
What does freedom actually look like for you?
He went quiet…. Then suddenly:
“€6,000 a month. A company LinkedIn page, not my face everywhere. Five good clients, not five thousand flaky ones.”
That precision told me everything.
He wasn’t avoiding success. He was defining it on his own terms.
Over four sessions, we stripped back the noise.
We mapped his real market - not students or solopreneurs chasing cheap tools, but mid-sized agencies who’d pay €1,200/month for something that actually solved their compliance headaches.
We clarified his mission - not to compete with the giants, but to serve the underdogs who didn’t want to hand their data to Big AI.
We built a research plan: 10 interviews by Christmas. Simple. Focused. No guessing.
And we addressed the thing nobody talks about in entrepreneurship: the unlearning.
“I keep defaulting to corporate mode,” he admitted. “Quarterly targets. Performance reviews. Proving myself.”
“What if the business doesn’t need that?” I asked.
He laughed - the kind that sounds like relief.
By session four, he had his plan. His pricing. His first outreach campaign. His move-to-Southern Europe deadline.
But more than that, he had clarity on what this was really for.
Not empire-building. Not validation.
Freedom. Family. A slower life that still pays well.
He texted me last week:
“First agency signed. €1,200/month. I only need four more.”
This is what the work looks like when you stop chasing someone else’s definition of success and start building from what your nervous system actually wants.
The Return Plan - Foundation isn’t about pivoting careers or finding your passion.
It’s about hearing what’s already true - and having the structure to act on it before another year disappears.
If you’re done optimising for everyone else’s timeline and ready to design your own exit, book your free clarity call here.
Or DM me ‘Return’ on for details on the Foundation journey.
– Dan