Ep #9: Quitting Your Corporate Job to Create Your Own Start Up In Politics with Eyal Halamish (Part 1/3)

What happened in the 6 months after we quit our jobs and began to live more inline with our values and core purpose? In this episode we deep dive on our adventures, learnings and struggles over: remote work contracts, change of travel plans due to COVID, getting to safe isolation, and our predictions of the pre/post COVID world. 

Links mentioned: 

1. The amazing co-working/co-living space Andra lived in when in San Francisco: https://www.outsite.co/

2. Our email: connect@the8billioneffect.com 

3.Our instagram: @the_8billion effect

This is part 3/3 of our episode with Eyal Halamish, and the final episode of our 10 part "Should I Quit My Job" series. 

In the wake of devastation from his business collapsing, Eyal had to wake up and learn to lead with his heart and not his head. He was a 26 year old super kid, CEO, that had potentially grown up too quickly but these trials led him into a great awakening as a leader. 

A huge key to Eyal’s success moving forward was being vulnerable and asking for help. He says ‘Don’t just ask for advice from mentors. Be vulnerable and actually ASK for help. Admit you have no idea when you don’t, instead of trying to be confident. Vulnerability is such a powerful concept. Let your guard down. Let people in to help you, and focus on achieving together." 

Listen to the full episode to learn how to write pitches that inspire action not attention, that have peers and investors wanting to help and not just give advice.  

Connect with Eyal: eyalhalamish.com

This is part 2 of our 3 part series with Eyal Halamish.

The episode jumps right in with Eyal explaining ‘how we fix democracy’ and his theories on policy, government and technology working together to benefit the public and our leaders.

He then continues telling the story of his journey as a leader at OurSay, the platform that he built.  He explains their 'quick' wins within their first 6 months of business: features on ABC Q&A, meetings with former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard,  Google and Fairfax Media partnerships, and their website getting over 10 million hits.

He was on fire and it was safe to say, Eyal felt on top of the world... until a few missteps sent their strategy into a spin and he nearly lost everything.  

Eyal had to reinvent himself. He shares how he ended up running out of capital and needed to let go of his team of 30 people and the journey he took to re-invest himself as a leader. He shares the value of listening to your team and the importance of taking feedback as you go. 

Eyal not only quit his high paying corporate consulting job in the mining and energy industry to create his own brilliant start-up in the political sphere with some friends, but a few years into it, he also quit his own leadership style that was driving the business into the ground

If that's not enough, once he rebuilt his start-up from the ground up to be a success story, he stepped down as CEO to work as an Investment Director of Australia's Victorian Government in New York.

He has learnt many things along the way about himself and others, including what makes his and his peer's minds tick, what it means to people when they are fully respected and how we are not always as right as we think we may be.  

His learnings and advice are backed heavily by lived experience. A set of major lightning-bolt moments in his life, such as his business nearly going broke, his team walking out on him and his father being in a critical condition have really forced him to be present with himself, his family and his team.

These pivotal moments have helped him peel back the onion on what is really important in life and what isn’t.

It’s very refreshing to hear a story with such candour, of a guy who nearly lost it all, and how trusting his team helped him not only rebuild the company, but himself along the way.

Connect with Eyal: eyalhalamish.com

[WARNING - Apologies for the poor sound quality in the first 15 mins… There are a few episodes where the sound has let us down and we are working to rectify this in future episodes. We appreciate the support as this is amateur recording that we are learning to enhance. But we will not let it get in the way of great conversations we had with our amazing guests!]

Doug is a powerhouse guy who has quit many jobs in order to fulfil a promise he made to himself 8 years ago when he was 23. His promise was to try as many jobs and life experiences he can before he turns 30 and if they don’t make him happy or help him live his best life then he would quit and move on to the next one…. These jobs range anywhere from a Real Estate Agent’s Receptionist to working for the UN in Sydney.

Doug has now entered his 30s, honoured his promise, started a podcast that inspired this one of ours, quit his most recent job and he is currently traveling Australia for the next 12 months in a van with his wife, Kitty and his Labrador, Lucy, who he both adores. You can follow them on Instagram @kittyanddoug.

Doug lives his life by a few core mantras. A few main ones are reflected in his latest project ‘The Quartic Podcast’, which you should definitely check out (it’s amazing). The 4 P’s are the 4 pillars of the podcast and the movement he is creating…. Performance, Purpose, Prosperity and Philosophy. He has many other core values he lives by which you will hear more about in this episode.

We cannot speak highly enough of Doug and his advice for others in an unfulfilling job. He has a few disclaimers worth tuning into, one being ‘make sure you have a savings runway and rid yourself of debt first’. It was a pleasure to have Doug and his wealth of knowledge, care, compassion and wisdom on our podcast. He truly embodies all the mantras of The 8 Billion Effect and it all started with getting the most important piece right first…. Himself!!