Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Client Spotlight: Building a Legacy of Service

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

What else is possible?What do I really want to do next?Tim O’brien had already accomplished a lot but wondered what else is possible.In a very short time, he leaped to found Eighty 20 Partners. Listen to this inspiring story, as Ilana sits down with Tim to discuss how he found the clarity to pivot his career trajectory and make the leap to start his own company.  Watch This Episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/5Y6bO32hP7w Would you like to learn the 4 steps our clients use to make huge leaps in their careers? Check out my FREE traininghttps://training.leapacademy.com/register Need some guidance ASAP? Grab a FREE career coaching session with our team:https://www.leapacademy.com/apply About Ilana Golan & Leap Academy:Website - https://www.leapacademy.com/Follow Ilana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ilanagolan-leap-academy

It was that question of, do I stay? Do I go to another similar company or another path? And I had never really considered that other path. And then as foundations went on, and it was within that first couple of weeks, I started having this clarity, this vision of being an entrepreneur. It was something that was always just back in my brain somewhere, But it really, it came to fruition during Foundations. And then as I moved over to Millionaire's Club, it really, that's when everything really started to solidify. Oh my God, we have a big, big treat for you guys. I'm so, so, so, so, so excited for you. We have today in our Leap show,

we have an incredible guest. I'm, by the way, Ilana Golan, and we help professionals reinvent, leap their careers. And today we have Tim, who is a leaper. Like he is just, his story is just incredible from a lawyer to a CEO of a nonprofit to a head of strategy in a global company. And now you're the founder, you're the managing part principal. I call it CEO of 8020 Partners. Welcome Tim, incredible story. So good to have you.

Thank you so much, Alana. It is absolutely a pleasure to be with you and tell my story. I love it. I love it. So you're going to have to tell the audience. I mean, first of all, again, you leap again and again, and that's really inspiring. But tell me, what made you do this last shift to own your own company, do something big. What made that change? You know, and it seems shocking to think that it was only about six or seven months ago that you and I were having our first conversation. But in that time, it was really that foundations really set up the stage for me. But it was when I first came to you, it was that question of,

I had a lot of promises that were getting broken from the company that I was with at the time. And it was that question of, do I stay? Do I go to another similar company or another path? And I had never really considered that other path. And then as foundations went on, it was within that first couple of weeks, I started having this clarity, this vision of being an entrepreneur. It was something that was always just back in my brain somewhere, but it really came to fruition during foundations. And then as I moved over to Millionaire's Club, it really, that's when everything really started to solidify. I love it. And again, the way you moved, the pace in which you've done everything, like it was truly, truly inspiring.

But I know it's also hard. So what do you do when it's, you know, I mean, you wake up and, you know, tell us a little bit about, you know, it's hard. The mindset modules, especially in the very beginning were key to everything. And I've taken those and evolved a little bit, but I still use versions of those same things. And by the way, the coaching from Sue and Gina and yourself has always been tremendous. But really what kind of drives me today right now is this notion that my business is guaranteed to fail if I don't get up today and keep pushing, or if I don't keep pushing when a challenge arises, because I am guaranteed to see challenges. I'm going to have people telling me, no, I'm going to have people telling me no. I'm going to have people telling me that, telling me to go away when I'm reaching out to them

or whatever it is. You just got to keep pushing forward and you have to recognize your value in the marketplace and know that somewhere out there, the right audience is going to see and appreciate that value. God, I love this. I mean, there's a beautiful, beautiful saying that when you're just able to continue where most people stop, you're able to create a life that is a dream that most people

will just dream of. And that's what we're seeing from you. Like you're running and it's incredible to see it. And again, as a leader, the way you show up in everything is the way you're going to show up to your business is the way you show up to everything in life. What do you think are some of the traits that made you different? Some of the key points for me are dedication to a cause. And it was something that I really saw when I was the CEO of a nonprofit. It's very mission-based. And then I saw, as I started having a family, my mission shifted. And so it sounds almost cliche sometimes, but everything I am doing is for my kids. And I want them to see that they have the capacity and the capability to do whatever

they want to do as long as they put in the work and as long as they have that vision and a clarity of vision and drive towards it. Which is incredibly inspiring. And I love this so much. Are they already seeing the change? Your family, your, tell us a little bit because I mean, you look, you feel different. I assume it shows.

You know, I think within the first couple of weeks after making the decision to move forward, you know, my wife was the first one to really notice the change. And she was saying like, you look taller, you look just more confident. You look like you're the person that you've wanted to be all these years. Uh, and you know, now, um, you know, now I'm able to tell my, you know, my boys who are still very young and they don't

really understand. They only know that I go to an office and sometimes it's a faraway office. Sometimes it's close office. Sometimes it's downstairs. But for them, I tell them that I'm building something and that I'm helping people while I'm building something. I love it. And I also love the fact that you're open about this with us, with them, because the beautiful thing is what we found is a lot of leaders hide all the time, you know, and build all these fences. A just becomes a lot harder on the journey, but also a lot less relatable. The beautiful thing is when you open this up, you know, your, your kids now see, you know, a dad that probably has more patients that is more fun that, you know, like, and,

and, you know, they also can emulate because if everything sounds fake, nobody can emulate it. But if it sounds real, now I can have a shot. So tell us, Tim, you decided to stay with us in Millionaire's Club. Why did you decide to stay? You know, I saw everything that happened personally within foundations, but then I got to the end of, you know, nearing the end of foundations. And I really said, I need that next level of support. I've got the mindset now, and I've got the, you know, the vision now, how am I going to build on that? You know, how am I going to show up every day? How am I going to get in contact with the right people to help push me forward? And how am I going to continue to build that network?

And how am I going to utilize that network in a way that's not just beneficial for me, but mutually beneficial and really, especially in person in Arizona at the end of last March, which it's shocking to think that there was only a couple. No, it's nothing. I mean, it just barely happened. But seeing that in person was huge and being in the room with everybody. And especially it was great because that was right near the start of my Millionaire's Club journey. And so being able to launch in person was incredible. And the conversations you can have and just sitting with other people. And it also helped for me establish a solid network of people that I am

continuing to talk with weekly, bi-weekly, and we're helping push each other forward. I love this. Oh my God. And you better be booked for October too. But the big thing I think that people don't talk about, it is really lonely. So being a CEO, being an entrepreneur, um, it's a really lonely journey. Um, do you find yourself leaning on these people on us on, you know, like, is that something that has been helpful for you? Yes, uh, indeed. And by the way, that's one of the things that nobody really talks about.

And especially when you're sitting there in sort of that honeymoon phase of, I started this thing. Hurrah, I'm here. And then you realize you're like, wow, now I have 50 million decisions to make today. And am I right? Are any of these decisions right? Who knows? And yes, it can get very lonely

sometimes having to operate as you're pulling everything from vision to, you know, to reality. And so having the ability to connect with people who are on a similar journey. And I always avoid saying like-minded because really there are people who are on a similar journey as me, but I like hearing the different backgrounds and the different perspectives because that helps me whether it's just a sanity check on some of my decisions or if there's a perspective I haven't considered yet. Having that built-in network is just, it's been incredible. Amazing. So I love this in so many levels. So Tim, why would people reach out to Tim? What can you help them with in 80-20 partners? And who is that? So who is your audience? How can they help? You know,

what can you do to help and how do you move the needle? I know you're going to move the needle, but I want you to tell the audience. Great questions. And by the way, I'll preface everything by saying you start something off thinking you're going to go to path A. And really, you check out path B, C, D, and ultimately, you're like, okay, well, path X is sort of the place that I'm going to head. So originally, I had the vision of doing a lot of process strategy and process mapping for small law firms, small and solo law firms. I realized after talking with a lot of law firms that some of the initial market research I had, it was not resonating with the audience I wanted to serve. And so I've pivoted a couple of times. And right now I am working on, number one, I'm advising and I've partnered up with several legal tech startups. And so I have sort of built that out.

Side note, in getting all of this market information and then just talking to all these lawyers and small law firms and midsize law firms, I developed a real knowledge of what the market wanted. And that turned out to be a real value there for a lot of legal tech startups. They're like, you know what these people want. Let's bring you in. And then you can help us with product development, or you can help us with implementation strategies. And so now I would say about half of what I'm doing is working with startups on just that market research, software implementation. And then on the other side, I am working with a lot of the smaller law firms and smaller businesses on things like software audits. And so knowing a bit about the legal tech world now, I've recognized that there are some legal tech companies that will go out and try to sell magic

beans to these firms. Then they get them in-house, they spend six months implementing them, and they realize they traded in one problem for three other ones. And so I'm a big believer of responsible software implementation. And so that's been working with, that's been another component that I hadn't really identified initially, but working with these small law firms on identifying really what are your needs and how do those align with your goals? And that helps set things up for, you know, other work that comes down the line. I love it. I love it. I love it. So beautiful. And again, the beautiful thing is in a company, you know, when you're agile, you're small, you're going to need to figure out your market fit. If people are very strict, they're just going to go with their head against the wall, but it's not going to be a fit, right? So I love that you're experimenting.

No, it's so critical. And I love that. So tell me one thing and tell the audience one thing that is maybe a fun fact or whatever, or something that people don't usually know about you but you think they kind of built you to the person that you are today the leader that you are today um what would that be so fun fun fact and interesting fact um i mentioned my kids before uh and i do have uh three beautiful boys um and my my wife and i uh it took us seven years to be able to have children so all of our children are our ivf children uh and so having gone through the uh you know the fertility journey was something that really shaped me, uh, because, uh, and it's also another, you know, down the line, I'm going to pursue something in this world too, but there is, um, there are a lot of great resources for, uh, for the mothers in the fertility journal,

but not a lot for the, for, you know, I won't say fathers, but the non-childbearing parent, uh, there are, there's not a lot there. And, uh, it really forced me to, you know, really be introspective and figure out how I could both support my wife, my partner, and also make sure I was taking care of myself. And so it really built up resilience and dedication and something that just kept pushing me forward and also kept pushing me forward to be my best self. And now being on the other side of that, by the way, the universe always has a sense of humor because we were very purposeful

and we always put in one embryo because we did not want to have twins. The second embryo we put in split on its own and we got twins. That to remind you that you can't calculate everything in life right best laid plans oh my god i love this so much this is such an inspiring story tim i did not know that i don't know if it's not eventually going to become some kind of a calling because it's an incredible story

and it's actually a big need that is not addressed. Yeah, no, that's definitely down the line for me. It's sort of one of the next areas that I'm going to get into. Oh my God, Tim, I just wanted to say this was such an honor. It's so incredible to have you. Can't wait to see you in October and just seeing you crush life. No, and Alana, it has been an absolute pleasure to chat with you. It always is, but particularly being able to share my story and hopefully serve as some inspiration for some others down the line.

But thank you for building this, building this environment. So maybe last foot for thought for the leapers themselves, for people who are right now, maybe going through foundation, maybe scared, maybe don't have their clarity yet, maybe trying to figure this out. You know, don't even know if millionaires is in the horizon. What would say to them why lean in so i always think back to i think maybe my first or second uh group call and i was on there and i remember asking the question when will i see clarity i just i see clouds i and i see millions of paths and i just see clouds it's you know sticking to that program, especially in foundations, but asking for the help, asking for being courageous enough to step outside of myself and asking for help,

asking others what they're, what they see in me. That was a big step for me, actually being able to go out to people and say, like, what do you see? What do you see here? And so really, the biggest thing I can say is just keep, you know, keep at it, the clarity will come. Tim, thank you so much. Tons and tons of success. And we are going to crush it. I can see it.