Leaving Corporate for Entrepreneurship: Phil Ginther on One Year of Business Ownership

This week on Marketing Sucks, Amanda sits down with co-host, husband, and Grind Media Group partner Phil Ginther to celebrate his one-year anniversary of leaving corporate life and stepping into entrepreneurship. In this honest, funny, and very real conversation, Amanda grills Phil on what it actually felt like to walk away from a 15-year corporate career, rebuild his relationship with risk, and become a business owner after years of steady paycheques, office politics, and doing work for someone else’s bottom line. They talk about fear, freedom, money, marriage, working together, building a YouTube division from the ground up, and the surprising ways entrepreneurship has changed Phil’s health, mindset, confidence, and day-to-day life. If you have ever wondered what it really looks like to leave corporate and build something of your own, this episode is a reminder that the unknown can be terrifying, but it can also lead you back to yourself.

What You’ll Learn
✔ What it really feels like to leave a long-term corporate career and become an entrepreneur
✔ Why fear and excitement can feel almost identical when you are making a major life change
✔ The biggest differences between being an employee and owning part of a business
✔ Why corporate stability can feel safe, but still leave you feeling stuck, disconnected, or miserable
✔ How entrepreneurship changes your relationship with time, money, risk, and security
✔ What Phil brought to Grind Media Group from his background in creative production and mass marketing
✔ How Amanda and Phil work together as business partners, spouses, and very different thinkers
✔ Why ambition does not have to come at the expense of your health, family, or freedom
✔ How small decisions compound into new opportunities, revenue streams, and business growth
✔ What Phil would tell his corporate self after one year on the other side

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Podcasting support

Production: theultimatecreative.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

All right, welcome back to Marketing Sucks. I'm your host, Amanda Casina.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I'm your co-host, Bill Ginthair.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And so what sucks this week? I need to put my foot up.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Okay, go.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

What sucks is the amount of optimism and enthusiasm you're about to get out of me when I think about the past year as an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Can you do me a favor, since it's been a year, can you stop using radio voice to talk in this podcast?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

I was waiting for it. Yeah. Fire away. So I'm actually coming in.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Hold on, because that's not how you like speak in real life. Unless you're doing some weird meeting voice. Yeah, I hate it. It actually is like. I really hate it. Anyways, okay. That's that we'll leave that for like therapy. So, what doesn't suck is that Phil has had his one-year anniversary officially with Grind Media Group. Woo-hoo! How does it feel?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Like it went by in the blink of an eye.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Alright, it did. And so today what we're gonna do is we are going to grill Phil.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Okay, I'm in the hot seat.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I'm gonna ask Phil a series of burning questions of what it's like to leave corporate to like be an entrepreneur now, do life and business with me. I'm just gonna ask you all the questions. We're gonna interview you.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Well, I don't know what the questions are, but I don't really have a choice at this point. So let's do me a favor.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Do me a favor. Number one, put your stand like to the side, and then it and it'll go like under the couch a little.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Look at that little legend.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

And if you just like bring it. Yeah, there you go. Now you're fine. Then if you just sit up straight because your back looks like a fucking banana.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Banana back.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Like put your butt to the back of the couch. Is it not? No.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I don't like the shape of this couch, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Okay, then you can sit and now up slightly.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I like that this is now on YouTube so people can see what I'm talking about. Yep.

unknown 2:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

I'm fine. Are you good?

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I know you just look like uncomfortable. Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

I am because I don't know what questions you have for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

I spent three minutes correcting your body posture. I'm gonna stop now. Okay. So take me back to the exact moment that you made the decision to walk away from your like corporate job of 15 years. Right? You were there 15 years? Yes. And and took the dive in entrepreneurship. Walk me through that moment.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

It w it was actually in this building. And I was I was given an ultimatum, more or less. And though I didn't have like an answer on the spot, like I knew in my gut that I I had already made the decision. That like I just wasn't okay with what had been presented to me. So it was interesting because it's it's one thing to like know something in your stomach, and then another to like follow through on it, right? But it it was weird after after that long to separate myself from my career and then to kind of go into the the unknown. But yeah, in this building, I let's see, late March of last year, whatever date that would have been. Yeah, I'm not really sure what else to tell you other than that.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Be honest, how scared were you?

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Oh, incredibly, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Like you don't get how lit up you got like, you're like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah, fear and excitement have the same, you know, reaction in my body. I'm like, yay! Fear in the sense of I had known something for so long and so consistently, that's like that's what I thought my life was in a way. And plus that like slow drip paycheck, you know, you get you get a little bit addicted to that. It just shows up in your your account regardless.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

To be clear, you also get a paycheck here.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah, we're we're going into the past though, okay. I'm not I'm not saying I'm not getting paid.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Like I'm literally like people think we don't pay ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

But I was scared to never make money again. But it's really it's the unknown. But at the same time, that's that was also exactly what I knew I needed to do. I was fucking miserable. Like it's you, it's you remember miserable misery miserable Phil from a year ago?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yeah, that grumpy guss.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah. I do, actually. Okay, what's the what's the biggest difference for you, like employee versus ownership now, like being an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Oh, the biggest I mean that's such a broad question. I'll I'll say that my time is my own. And I mean that in the sense that even though I'm doing work, I'm doing work because I know I need to do that work because it's for our business. Whereas previously it'd be like you're doing that work for somebody else. And there's like a level of detachment there. It's not like I assigned myself that work. So I think that that distinction is interesting because there's no it's a different if it's it's a different kind of hard, right? Like one is the mental weight of being told what you need to do and how you're going to do it. And then the other is you are entirely responsible for this task. So there's a different sense of ownership, but but I get to choose like how, where, and why I'm spending my time in places. Which I think is the most freeing thing that I've experienced.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Do you get it now? Just Just a bit. Just a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

One thing you absolutely do not miss at all from like corporate life. Literally just rapid-firing questions. I have zero segue in these.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Being in an office for no fucking reason. Like, just no fucking reason. Like, well, you gotta have this meeting in person. Cool. You know, wrap my day around going in somewhere, getting in there.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

And then no one's there. And if they are there, they're so accustomed to doing things over Zoom, they don't actually go into the meeting space. So I'm just sitting in these boardrooms by myself saying, Why the fuck am I here? Anyway, that I think that answers your question. Not that I have an opinion on it.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Okay. And what has surprised you most so far about like being an entrepreneur-owning part of this company?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Dead air. Yeah. I mean, what has surprised me most?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

I'm like, still takes 19 years to answer any question. At home, I literally, my eye twitches and like just answer the question.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yeah, you gotta give me time to think about it. Just how how like I don't know, I I guess what comes to mind is like the way the way new business can show up unexpectedly.

unknown 7:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Right? Like even when you're not necessarily chasing that because you're just you're trying to do something else, and that the the choices that you make, you know, month one consistently will compound over the course of a year into new opportunity. Which is great and surprising.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Let me see. I've got so many questions. I'm like, which way do I want to go?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Selective. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Okay. Here's a good one. What did you think I did all day before you joined the business?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Real Housewives and Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

That's not a real answer.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

You asked what I thought you did.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

You thought I just watched TV all day and sat on Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

No, now I know you do those things, but it's while you're you're working on the city. While I'm working.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

No, like actually, what did you think I did all day?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Work?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Like, you know, we didn't just to be clear, I have not worked for somebody. Like, I have not held an employment like role.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Like I I haven't had an employee contract of myself in it'll be like 20 years in September.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So I don't and and I've always ran my own businesses. Yeah, I do. So like I don't think you ever knew what my day-to-day looked like, but now that you're in it, that's why I'm asking. Like, what did you think I did all day before? Because now you see what I do, and you some days, some days he looks at me, guys, and he literally is like, I get it now. I get why you were always so stressed out, or like why certain times of the year drove you out the like just absolutely insane. Like I literally wanted to just cry all the time. So now, like, because I'm like, what did you think I did all day?

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Now that you're well, it's weird, right? Because it's not like I never thought you had like a like a cookie cutter day where I'd be like, oh, Amanda arrived at the office at 9.30, you know, chatted by the water cooler for 15 minutes and then rolled her eyes as emails. Like it was nothing ever like that because I was like, every day is a different, you know, mixed bag of nightmares or good things, depending on what it is. So I don't think I had like this defined idea in my head of how you spent your days. I just knew you'd be like, well, for the next 14 hours I'm gonna batch work, and then maybe I'll take two days to just ease into the next thing. You know what I mean? So there wasn't like a oh Amanda right now is you know having lunch.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

What did you bring to this business that you thought was missing?

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Oh, oh. You like my list of questions today? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

You don't have to be careful, say it all mention it all.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Zero idea what that reference is. It's Real Housewives, by the way. And that's because that's what you're doing at the end of this.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

I mean, I know I know professionally where my strengths are, but I think more than that, it's the way the way we interact and the way we balance each other has also been really good for the business.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Uh that's not what I asked. What yeah, I asked what did you bring that you thought was missing? So you brought yourself. In the laptop. That's what you thought was missing. You brought yourself. Bill brought himself. That's what was missing from the company. No, like what did you bring with you? So you said your like your experience, like what from your experience was missing on RN, like in the business that you brought.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Sorry, on a on a very specific level.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Are you for Penga?

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Like, is that what you're asking? A list of things. No, but I'm saying, you know, like over over a decade in in creative and production, which was you know something you did.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

You love a good deck.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

No idea what you're about to say.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

You do, you love a good deck. Phil, Phil's like way of processing information is new for me. It is very corporate, and that's probably the only piece of corporate land that I will allow into this business because it has made sense and it has made things smoother for production side.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

So yes, I agree. However, the way you do it, I've I had to get used to. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Well, yeah, it's an entirely different way of operating. And then I was like, what do you mean you didn't do this before? And we had this like, what do you mean? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 11:53

And that was the same outcome, just different ways of getting there.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yeah, yeah. So I mean bringing bringing that to the business was just it rounded out something that was already there, but I think needed needed more. And then also I think having a background more in in mass marketing, as opposed to like, you know, helping entrepreneurs build from the ground up, it's like coming at it from a completely different side.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Which is which is great because there's learning both ways. So it's I think just different perspectives, different experience, and apparently a love of YouTube, which is good.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, you built our YouTube division, like single-handedly.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

I had nothing to do with that, other than like creative ideas and yeah, and that's been fun because it was you know something I was very close to, but I never was like, Oh yeah, we're gonna start a YouTube division. And then we sat down, we're like, we're gonna start a YouTube division.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, and in a year we have multiple clients, which is great. It created a whole new branch of I think of creativity, it gave the team new projects to work on, and then it also brought in a whole new stream of revenue, so which you know I'm not mad about. So I would hope not. No. Okay, next. How have your relationships with money, risk, and security changed since becoming an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Okay, let's start with money, because this was an interesting one for me. I and you you can call me out on this because I you you know I'm very I'm I used I was very rigid.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

You in the past were. You were or are I feel better around it? Some growth.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Well, because I always used to be, I always used to be like, all right, this is what's coming in, this is what we can do, this is you know, it's reasonable, all this needs to go there, there, there, and there's that's still that structure still exists. I thought that would get worse moving into being a business owner because there is, I don't want to say more volatility around it, but less certainty. Right. And that goes back to that like paycheck drip, right? And in the past year, I mean I've there's a bit of a weight off my shoulders in a stranger. And I don't know if you've noticed that, but I feel the difference.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

I think I noticed it when you were looking at a shirt that cost a lot of money, and I was like for the first time in my life. I was like, he's not gonna buy that. And then you're like, yeah, I think I'm gonna get this one. And I was like, Oh, okay, yeah, sure. Because I used to have to convince you to throw away shirts with holes in them because you still thought they could like leave the house a couple of times. He's a very resourceful man, he just doesn't like spending money, which is fine. Like, I don't think nostalgic shirts. I don't think that like be like anybody really needs to spend like thousands of dollars on like an outfit or shoes or a jacket, unless you you love that. That's great. Like if you have the means to do that, that's awesome. But you were very, very conservative in how you like even a shirt that you needed to like for an event or something, you were very conservative. So I feel like, yeah, you've definitely shifted how you look at money for me to to be a part of because I've known you, like we've been together as a couple for what, 19 years this year. Married 15.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

So yeah, it's like two decades of watching you operate from almost like a a place of scarcity, like there's not gonna be enough, or we have to keep like obviously we save and we do all that stuff, but like there has to be this like constant whatever to now this year. I feel like you've gotten a little bit more like risky.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Yeah, there's there's a deeper conviction and confidence in what I can create that allows me to not feel that's what you can create that's not going to somebody else. Yeah, yeah. No, seriously, that's it. Where on the other side it's like, hey, could get cut tomorrow because I'm a number. Yeah, of course. And I think that's a conversation a lot of people have with themselves.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Alright, cool, cool. That was a nice answer. What do we do really well as a team?

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Work in separate streams effectively.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

So what we do really well together as a team is we work apart. Yes. That's how that's how the team works. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

No, but but truthfully, it's it's kind of like, you know, we come in, we're like, what are you doing today? What are you doing today? Cool. We agree on that task and and we go to work, and there's no like, you know, crossover. We respect each other's boundaries of that. I think also not let not being like like having ambition, but not to the point where it's it like sucks the rest of your life away from you. You know what I mean? Where it's like that's the one and only goal. So like there are things that we chase passionately together that that's really awesome. But then there's this entire opposite side that allows for for more freedom and and mental space. Like, I think if I was to summarize the past year, I would say that every area of my life improved since stepping away and starting this. It's a bold statement. It's a it's a very bold statement, but I mean like you know, physically I feel better, mentally I feel better. I see the world so differently. And those were all things I wouldn't have known on the other side of like that, you know, that moment of having fear around that decision, right? So you kind of you run that risk, you take that jump, and then you you somehow like find everything you need on the other side of that, and it's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

That's why Yup. That's what I love about entrepreneurship. Okay, what is one thing? It's a funny question. What is one thing about working with me that you think people would find hilarious? And then what's one thing they would find shocking? And I only say this because I've worked I mean, we have a team, but nobody's ever in the office with me. Like the entire team is remote, minus Jess, who comes in a couple of days a week. But even then, like she still like has her own space that she works out of. So since you actually share an office, you live with me too, so that's different. But what is one thing that people would find hilarious and one thing people would find shocking?

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Yeah, I mean, you're so you're so like just transparent. I don't know if anyone would find anything shocking. Like it's not like you hide anything. I think hilarious is like your your tendencies around desk space and organization.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

My OCD?

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Yes. And also you can watch me lock a door and then you will check that door to make sure I locked it.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

That's my OCD.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

And so when you didn't do that last week, remember I thought we had that breakthrough moment. I was like, this is amazing. And then you're like, God damn it, I forgot to check the door. Shocking. No, you just kind of lay it all out. Yeah, no, I don't like what you see is what you get.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

I guess so, yeah. That's true. I just thought maybe you would have some kind of insight that I'm not. I mean, we talk about everything, so I I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

But if it does come up, I'll I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Okay. Okay, last question, because then we have a guest waiting for us. What would you tell corporate Phil five years ago?

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Oh, five years ago.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah, five years ago, Phil. So that means Lola would have been like I don't know, 18 months old. Just to give you context as to where we were in life from the children's perspective.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, wow. Um probably have to open with you don't want to hear this. It's like it's like that scene from The Departed, because you had it on the other day where Matt Damon's in the interview room with the guy, and he's like, You don't have to listen to me, just hear what I'm saying. You know, like that kind of straight talk. Oh, that's tough. Maybe that everything everything you're you're chasing and that you're working for is is right in intention, but you're not gonna find it here.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Now, what would you say to yourself if you were actually talking to a human and not like a a quote in a book?

SPEAKER_02 20:20

But that's how I talk to myself and is that actually? Oh yeah, how am I not know this?

SPEAKER_00 20:26

That's like what your inner thought like I'm always intrigued what people's like inner thoughts sound like. Like, that's how you talk to yourself. Like you talk to yourself like a philosophy major. I mean, you are a philosophy major, so okay, you know what? I'm just tired.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Where have you been?

SPEAKER_00 20:39

I'm right here, babe. Because like the way I would talk to myself, like like that exact sentence would be like, get the fuck out of here. This is not for you.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

No, but if I said that to myself five years ago, you know, it's younger me would have beat me up. They don't want to hear it. Got it. They were like, you know, eye on the prize, give me that corner office, or you know, whatever that was at the time. But at the same time, you raise a good point, like, yeah, get the fuck out, like start something sooner. But also, like, you know, I'm a big advocate of like I wasn't ready at that point. No, you and it probably would have fallen apart, and then I would have ended up back in the the system. The system for you would first feel it felt like that at times.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Alright, well, thank you, Mr. Ginther. Congratulations on one year at Grind Media Group.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

We love having you. We know everybody loves Phil. It's uh it's a pain point, it's a fun thing in this company. No, we honestly though, I think you coming in at the exact moment that you did was the perfect like daytime, whatever, the the universalized was serendipitous. Anyways, we love having you. Thanks for sharing.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Love being here.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Thanks for answering all my questions.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

They weren't that bad. I thought it was gonna be a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

No, I was gonna get a little like crude and stuff, but I decided to make this like a nice like get to know Phil episode.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Okay, and now you know my inner dialogue and how I speak to my. I was still like shocked. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yeah, that's a weird one. Anyways, thank you for listening, for watching wherever you are tuning into Marketing Sucks. We will talk to you next week. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Bye.