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Marianne Korten is the inspiring director of Soul at Work in Amsterdam, Holland. She was a recent guest on the Dean and Jared Words Cause Radio Show featured on BlogTalkRadio.com. She shared an inspiring story about how she quit her comfortable job of 16 years in the meetings industry to start her own personal and professional growth company in 2005. Learning by doing, she embraces the adventure and ‘walks her talk’ while coaching her clients how to gain focus, confidence and quality of life.

I had the chance to catch up with Marianne and expand on the interview we had on the radio show:

Jared: We talked about it on the show, but you quit your day job of 16 years. That’s crazy, but you clearly had good reasons, right?
Marianne: There were 3 reasons that inspired me to quit my job. The first being the lack of inspiration after 16 years working the same environment. It wasn’t the colleagues or work atmosphere but I knew I had to make a change.

I believe the way you experience your job has an effect on your health. So I started to feel more tired, couldn’t concentrate, sleep longer, started to arrive late, lost my keys to my bike, missed the bus as if I needed to receive a message. I believe it was my own soul telling me “Marianne you had a great time but you finished the book at this office, let’s start a new chapter in your life”.

The second reason that inspired me was that a few years before this moment I took the courage to tell my manager I wasn’t happy anymore and he said “What do you like to do?” I said education. And he allowed me to start up my own department! So I realized by expressing what you want you can get what you want and that I could create something out of nothing! So why not do it again and start my own company.

The third reason was that I became a certified communication skills coach and trainer while I was working and that opened up a new world. Before I didn’t know what to do but now I did. I found my passion.

J: Why did you start Soul at Work instead of finding another job?
M: I wanted to discover all the other talents I had in store and manifest my own ideas. Create something myself. I noticed that I overcame many obstacles: I moved from a typical shy girl next door to a public speaker and if I can do that I can do more, so I was curious to find out.

J: What does the Soul stand for in your company?
M: Inspiration: find inspiration at work or let your passion become your work. It’s also a double meaning: let your soul be at work and life takes care of itself.

J: I love it! Being Dutch, why do you focus on international audiences?
M: I wrote in English when I was 12 with a pen-pal in India. I read the National Geographic and Time Magazine of my dad and my jobs were always in international environments so it was a logical step. The other reason was to differentiate with Dutch coaches and to aim at a global audience at the same time.

J: Pen-pals in India! You just have to love how small our world is. Tell me what you envision for future work styles?
M: More people don’t find what they want in corporate jobs anymore. One of the main reason is they lost the human touch. It’s all about ROI and bottom lines instead of the people who do the work. I envision more people will turn their passion into a job or have multiple jobs. (I also do PR part-time for an association and I write columns). These single or small organisations will then start communities of their own in order to co-create a new society and life.

The empowerment of the people has begun, a bottom up approach instead top down. We need to be inspired and use our work to see the greatness of our being!

J: I’ve always been a fan of the bottom up approach. I spent the majority of my life on the bottom. Scratch that. Underneath the bottom. Let’s get back to the spirituality side of things. What can one do so practice spirituality in the workplace?
M: Stay connected: focus on your heart, your fellow colleagues and your own being.
Be aware of your own living body, breath and talents. To me to be spiritual is to express my full being with all the talents I have.

J: Women becoming more powerful in the workforce. Why?
M: They moved from copying the ‘male approach’ at work to standing firm expressing their femininity to balance both energies. Women will move from independence to interdependence and are therefore the examples of co-creation in the workplace. Women will bring back the feeling and attention to our humanity in the world. No against the males but with them as we need both sides!

J: One last thing. Give us some tips on quiting the day job and starting to live the life of our dreams.
M: Focus on what you love or what you want to make better. Research your joy, passion. If you don’t know your passion: what touches you, frustrates you, do you talk about, notice all the time? Ask your friends, family, they might see it too what makes you tick.

Take small steps e.g. start reading about your new job, own company or new position. Find education if needed, listen to role models not to dream-bashers. No need to jump into the deep end: work part-time and build a new work environment step by step.

Set goals and write the steps down. Talk to people if you get discouraged, they will cheer you on.

Her company, Soul at Work:
Through coaching, public speaking and e-learning, Soul at Work supports international audiences to create more quality of life. Soul at Work’s mission is to uplift communication worldwide by giving people the tools and confidence to build 21st century lifestyles. Finding inspiration through work and creating a job around your own inspiration are the keys to a fulfilling life.