Corrine explores how voluntary redundancy lead her into contracting. She talks about how taking the time to reflect whilst contracting helped her understand what she really wanted and what she didn't want.

She talks about the 'heaviness' or bureaucratic treacle that got in the way of getting stuff done which got her down.

Corrine talks about enjoying the various different types of work she is involved in which are personally important to her. This includes coaching for neurodiversity and spending time in nature.

We also explore how voluntary redundancy gave her some financial breathing space. Also recognizing that with her two children both having graduated that her financial needs were less.

We explore Grant's journey from permie to contract BA (about 15 years as a contractor) with the benefits that provides.

And then how the 'shine' comes off from contracting where he wasn't taking breaks and getting the benefits. And how business analysis became a bit stale as he was very able to deliver this.

We explore his passion for visual thinking and how this started purely from his love of learning and exploring this through to being more commercial to respond to what the Visual Jam community are asking for. Also how he brings this into his 'day job' and his networking and seeking other opportunities more aligned with visual thinking and simply beong a problem solver rather than the vanilla BA role.

And at 31:00 Grant shares his top tip for those who find themselves in a similar situation where they have a nagging feeling that they want something more than BA contracting.

We explore everything from why I became a BA contractor in the first place to what I stopped enjoying about it and my journey to find a new path.

My new path included the years of trying to create a business to replace the income and several events that occurred which were catalysts and helped me understand how I would have done things differently.

It includes my top two pieces of advice in the last 5 minutes if you would like to hear this first - understand yourself so you can start building a business or working life that you will love; be kind and don't judge yourself so that you can learn look at failures to help with your growth.

I have known Rachel for a couple of years and she is characteristically open and honest about the struggles and successes, including personal challenges.

She talks about the limiting mindset from her working class background and how she broke free.

Rachel describes the personal catalyst that gave her the drive to do what she hadn't even imagined was possible.

Laura had a career as a business analyst and moved into contracting as she wanted to start her own business to give her more freedom, partly because she wanted the freedom to raise her family.

In this interview, Laura shares how she navigated this, what inspired her, how she managed the financial challenge (sort of by accident!) and the bumps along the way.