How to "Cash Out" of Corporate Life Without Crashing Out ft. Kiersten Saunders
Brown Ambition
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2026
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this Brown Table chat, Mandi sits down with Kiersten Saunders co‑author of “Cashing Out” and co‑host of Rich & Regular to talk about what it really looks like to walk away from corporate in 2026 without blowing up your life. They get into why the message of “cashing out” hits different now that layoffs, Trump‑era uncertainty, and AI chaos have Black women rethinking their careers all over again.
Kiersten shares what surprised her most in six years of entrepreneurship, from detoxing corporate habits to riding out a brutal few years for creators and brand deals. She and Mandi get real about breadwinner fatigue, health insurance math, mom guilt, and the panic‑scrolling nights where LinkedIn starts looking a little too tempting.
They also dig into: how to tell the difference between burnout and “I need to quit today,” why your nervous system not just your budget has to be part of your exit plan, and the underrated power of hyper‑local community, borrowing, and free resources when you’re building a softer, more sustainable life. Plus, Mandi and Kiersten confess how they really use AI to talk themselves off the ledge on tough days.
If you’ve been side‑eyeing your 9‑to‑5, flirting with creator life, or just craving more freedom without losing your mind (or your money), this episode is your permission slip to rethink what “cashing out” looks like for you.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | burnout is really a result of doing the work that you don't want to be doing. So it's not just a lot of work that's happening or a lot that's expected of you. It's doing things that are expected of you that you don't want to be doing. And so if you can close that gap and really figure out how to offload the things that you don't want to be doing or the things that are not best suited for you. You can have those tough conversations. You can learn that very hard skill of |
| 0:25.8 | delegating or learn that hard skill of having the conversation with someone you loved. And once you do |
| 0:31.1 | that, then you minimize the number of things that are truly burning you out and you can start |
| 0:36.3 | to whittle that list down. |
| 0:37.9 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:40.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:46.6 | Hey, hey, B.A. |
| 0:47.6 | Welcome back to the Brown and Vision podcast. |
| 0:50.0 | It's your girl, Mandy Money. |
| 0:51.9 | I am so happy to be back with y'all. |
| 0:54.4 | If you survived the Blizzard to beat all blizzards this week, if you're in the Northeast |
| 0:59.4 | like me, I just hope that you have taken your dose of ibuprofen because shoveling three feet |
| 1:06.5 | of snow, y'all, the way my back is breaking, my fingers fingers are sore i just shout out to anybody who's doing |
| 1:13.2 | their own shoveling and listen take a break take a hot bath epsom salt we're gonna need it tonight |
| 1:18.7 | and yeah this was an insane winter storm i'm so glad that i survived it and you know how one day |
| 1:25.4 | can really screw up your entire week? Because of the blizzard, |
| 1:28.8 | school was closed on Monday. I was home with both my children. By the way, one of whom was getting |
| 1:34.5 | over a stomach bug. I don't know if I've told y'all be a fan, but my, I'm, I'm solo parenting |
| 1:38.9 | for the next like 10 to 11 weeks because husband has got a new job. He has to do training out of |
| 1:43.9 | state. I'm solo |
| 1:45.7 | momming. And I want to talk a little bit about how I prepared for single motherhood being a |
| 1:52.8 | single. I was raised by a single mom for starters. And I've never not appreciated the fact that |
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