Why I'm Doing This: The Story Behind Navitential

I spent decades in corporate marketing. Running marketing and even sales divisions, across industries, across sectors, across countries. I was good at it. I had the MBA, the title, the runway that looks, from the outside, like the whole point of a successful career.

And then I left.

Not because it was easy. Not because I had it all figured out before I walked out the door. I left the way most of us actually leave things that aren't working: messily, later than I should have, and for reasons that took me a long time to say out loud.

The version of "having it together" that wasn't

Here's what nobody tells you about being the senior marketer (and often the only woman!) in the room for twenty-plus years: you get extremely good at looking like you've got it handled. You chair the meeting. You write the plan. You manage your team. You know exactly which framework to reach for when the CEO wants a five-slide answer to a problem that actually needs fifty.

What that experience doesn't teach you is how to build something of your own, on your own terms, when there's no business plan telling you what happens next, no one else on the org chart to bounce ideas off, no one to counter the doubting voices in your head, no one to caution you when you're potentially about to do something dumb, no one else to be accountable to.

I've started a number of businesses since leaving corporate (I even had some while I was in corporate). I've pivoted more than once. I burned out harder than I ever did in corporate, the kind of burnout where you can't tell anymore if you're tired or just done. I rebuilt. I got really sick and had to let it all go. I started again. Somewhere in there I stopped thinking the next framework I bought would be the one that finally fit, because I'd bought enough of them to know that wasn't how this worked.

The tech chaos was never really about tech

Every "just get organised" piece of advice I tried assumed I thought in a straight line. Pick your niche. Follow the five steps. Build the funnel exactly like this, in this order, and don't skip ahead.

My brain doesn't work like that, and I'd guess if you're reading this, yours might not either. I've got the kind of mind that sees six businesses in every idea and forgets to eat lunch (and dinner and breakfast and...) when something interesting is happening. Multipotentialite, if you want the word for it. Neurodivergent, if you want the diagnosis. Just built differently, if you want the plain-English version. Possibly even a bit weird, if you want the unfiltered truth. So when I went looking for the tools to run my business, I ended up with fourteen subscriptions that didn't talk to each other, three half-finished automations, and a permanent, low-grade hum of dissonance about which platform held which piece of the puzzle. Sound familiar?

What I actually needed didn't exist yet

Not another course. Not another "proven system" built by someone who'd never had to translate decades of corporate marketing experience into a business that had to work around my other obligations, my energy patterns, an unpredictable brain, and a bank balance that wasn't backed by a payroll department anymore.

I needed a system that started with how I actually work, not how a textbook says I should. I needed the tech to disappear into the background instead of becoming a second full-time job. And I needed people around me who'd stopped pretending the standard advice was going to save them, same as I had.

So, that's the thing I built. Not because I'd studied the problem from a distance, but because I'd lived every part of it: the golden handcuffs; the identity wobble of not having a job title to hide behind (and be recognised for!); the exhaustion that makes "just start a side hustle" feel like a cruel joke.

What my typical business week looks like

I start every day gently because I am not a morning person! And I have a hard finish so I can spend time with my significant other and wind my busy brain down each evening for a restful sleep. And it usually works too!

Marketing Mondays: I do any admin, talk to a few clients then host my Marketing Mondays co-working session where I sign off on social content and check my socials for a max. of 30 minutes (so I don't get sucked into the abyss!).

Tech Tuesdays: Client work and group coaching.

Wednesdays are mine. Known as Woodworking Wednesdays, I visit a local Men's Shed in the morning to hang with the guys and learn new skills for my courtyard revamp project which I work on in the afternoon. Sunshine, upcycled hardwood and powertools - it's my version of heaven! 🤣

Thoughtleader Thursdays are when I run webinars, workshops and masterclasses.

Feelgood Fridays are when I get to choose which projects to back on Kiva.org, attend networking events or the monthly co-working day with my peeps in The Impact Collab, and spend the rest of the day writing. Either on one of my business books, a novel, or if neither of those is hitting the spot, blogs like this so I can 'talk' to people like you! Happy days!

Occasionally, I work on a Saturday for a workshop, but only if no other times work, and I make sure to balance it out with time off on another day. This way I can manage my energy levels and stay sharp for the workshop. And let's be clear, I do it because I love it, and I get a huge buzz from the work I do, so it's a win all around.

If I'm travelling for fun, everything runs itself while I'm away.

If I'm travelling for work or a speaking gig, I run it business as usual from my laptop.

The Result

I'm doing work I love, with people I love working with, making the money I need to live the lifestyle I want in the number of hours that I want to work. Basically, I have a life I love and there is no burnout in sight! Something that wasn't possible in my corporate roles, and wasn't possible when I was following someone else's script for my own business.

If that type of life is of interest to you, I can tell you from personal experience that it's possible, and I encourage you to pursue it. Staying where you are, whilst safe, won't help you shake loose the shackles holding you. It won't allow you to find something that allows you to be you. For real.

And you deserve that. Hell, you've earned it!

Why Navitential, and why now?

Navitential exists for the woman who's spent her career fitting into someone else's mould and is done doing it. Corporate escapees. Multipotentialites. Women whose brains have been quietly, politely told they're "a lot" by systems that were never built for them in the first place. It's strategy, a tech platform that actually holds together and works for you (your way), a roadmap, and a community that gets it - all under one roof, instead of scattered across fourteen logins and a facilitator who's never done the thing they're teaching.

I'm not going to pretend this is going to look effortless. Building a business - any business, on any terms - rarely is. But it doesn't have to look like the version I spent twenty years perfecting for someone else's company, or the version that the latest sales bro tells you is THE only one you'll ever need. And it can look like yours.

That's what I'm doing here. I unboxed my own potential first, so I can help you unbox yours. It's time to thrive. Properly. On your terms. Your way.

By Racquel Collard | navitential.ai | Book a call

Founder, author, speaker, marketing / tech nerd, and woodworking weirdo.

Lover of shiny objects, systems that works for me and my brain, and really good business strategies that let me build the business I want (not what others think is the perfect business for me!).