Lessons from a Quitter

You might already be familiar with Elie Mystal from his frequent appearances as a political analyst on major news shows or his considerable body of work on Above the Law and other news publications. It is often easy to look at Elie’s success and assume that he had a straight, easy path out of law into journalism. But what you may not know is that Elie walked away from his 6-figure legal job at a prestigious New York law firm, after having received his law degree from Harvard Law School, without a plan as to what to do next. With the support of his wife, and after months of sitting on his couch with no real idea of where to start, Elie began his journey to be a writer by taking a job working for free at a local news agency.

I got to talk to Elie about how he dealt with all of the pressure from family and society, especially as an African American man, to stay in a “successful” career. We discuss how his path has led him to where he is today as the Executive Editor of Above the Law.

If you’re a frequent listener of the show, then you might remember that we had David Lat, the founder of Above the Law, on episode 14. We delve more into what Above the Law has evolved into in that episode. In this episode, we focus mostly on Elie’s journey. Feel free to check out Episode 14 here.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• What lead Elie down the path to law school
• Why he felt that making the decision to go to law school instead of working for Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign was a “dumb” decision
• Why law school just wasn’t for Elie
• How being a “successful” lawyer as a minority put additional pressure to stay in the field
• How the support of his wife was essential for Elie’s decision to quit law.
• How he dealt with the difficult time of figuring out what his next step was going to be
• What his path as a journalist has looked like
• How he ended up winning a competition to work for Above the Law
• How others can break into a career in writing

Where to find Elie:  

• Website: www.abovethelaw.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/atlblog
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElieNYC

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
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• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Shinah is a whiskey-loving, curse-word slinging, Harvard-trained former corporate attorney who left everything behind to find her passion.

Shinah spent her entire life on the straight, "proper" path. She went to an Ivy League college, then a prestigious Law School, then worked her butt off as a corporate attorney for a big international law firm.

But, after one too many days of uninspiring work and nights of sleeping under her desk, she decided she wanted to reclaim her life! She quit her job and explored so many creative avenues - knitting, woodworking, drawing, graphic design. But CALLIGRAPHY is what she fell in love with.

Shinah needed plenty of inspiration along the way, but the usual sugary, sincere stuff about beauty and dreams didn't reflect what she was really feeling. So she created Crooked Calligraphy to spread creativity, courage and honest, gritty life inspiration through calligraphy.

Crooked Calligraphy has worked with huge brands like Disney, Anthropologie, Jo Malone, and Dom Perignon, but Shinah's favorite work is teaching calligraphy and encouraging her students to look their fears in the face and move toward a life that will make them happy.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How she spent her childhood working towards the predictable path to "success" including getting a 1600 on her SATs and getting into Harvard
• How affirmation and praise can become a drug that keeps you in doing things you hate
• How she started realizing that she wanted to quit her job as a corporate lawyer and what steps she took before quitting
• How she quit law without having any idea of what to do next
• What she did in order to figure out what her next steps would be
• The importance of exploration and experimentation in finding your passions
• How she found calligraphy and how it turned into a business
• How she figured out her unique brand and voice with Crooked Calligraphy

Where to find Shinah:

• Website: www.crookedcalligraphy.com
• Instagram: @crookedcalligraphy

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Shinah is a whiskey-loving, curse-word slinging, Harvard-trained former corporate attorney who left everything behind to find her passion.

Shinah spent her entire life on the straight, "proper" path. She went to an Ivy League college, then a prestigious Law School, then worked her butt off as a corporate attorney for a big international law firm.

But, after one too many days of uninspiring work and nights of sleeping under her desk, she decided she wanted to reclaim her life! She quit her job and explored so many creative avenues - knitting, woodworking, drawing, graphic design. But CALLIGRAPHY is what she fell in love with.

Shinah needed plenty of inspiration along the way, but the usual sugary, sincere stuff about beauty and dreams didn't reflect what she was really feeling. So she created Crooked Calligraphy to spread creativity, courage and honest, gritty life inspiration through calligraphy.

Crooked Calligraphy has worked with huge brands like Disney, Anthropologie, Jo Malone, and Dom Perignon, but Shinah’s favorite work is teaching calligraphy and encouraging her students to look their fears in the face and move toward a life that will make them happy.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How she spent her childhood working towards the predictable path to “success” including getting a 1600 on her SATs and getting into Harvard
• How affirmation and praise can become a drug that keeps you in doing things you hate
• How she started realizing that she wanted to quit her job as a corporate lawyer and what steps she took before quitting
• How she quit law without having any idea of what to do next
• What she did in order to figure out what her next steps would be
• The importance of exploration and experimentation in finding your passions
• How she found calligraphy and how it turned into a business
• How she figured out her unique brand and voice with Crooked Calligraphy

Where to find Shinah:  

• Website: www.crookedcalligraphy.com
• Instagram: @crookedcalligraphy

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

What stops a lot of people from quitting careers that they don't like is that they don't know what else they would do. Well, today's guest, provides an excellent example in how to develop your passions on the side while still working in your day job.

Joanne Bourgault is a dentist based in Saskatoon, Canada. When she found herself unfulfilled with her current work, Joanne began working in the online space on the side. After dabbling in various roles, she found that she loved working as a copywriter and marketing strategist. You can now find her helping female entrepreneurs grow their businesses doing meaningful work so that they can design lives that suit them and their families - instead of settling for "average."

What I love about her journey is that she is taking the time to find what she truly loves, editing as necessary, and building her dream without having to quit her job and make dramatic changes. Her story is the perfect example of how to put in the work to give yourself a realistic escape from a job you hate.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why Joanne left her career in accounting to go to dental school
• How working with a life coach led her to realize that she wanted to transition out of dentistry too
• How she experimented with different side hustles to figure out what she really liked
• How she dealt with talking to her husband and family about leaving dentistry
• How she deals with her changing identity from dentist to marketer
• How she finds the time to balance her full-time job, family life, and side hustle.

Where to find Joanne:

• Website: joannebourgault.com
• Instagram: @joanne_bourgault

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

What stops a lot of people from quitting careers that they don’t like is that they don’t know what else they would do. Well, today’s guest, provides an excellent example in how to develop your passions on the side while still working in your day job.

Joanne Bourgault is a dentist based in Saskatoon, Canada. When she found herself unfulfilled with her current work, Joanne began working in the online space on the side. After dabbling in various roles, she found that she loved working as a copywriter and marketing strategist. You can now find her helping female entrepreneurs grow their businesses doing meaningful work so that they can design lives that suit them and their families - instead of settling for "average."

What I love about her journey is that she is taking the time to find what she truly loves, editing as necessary, and building her dream without having to quit her job and make dramatic changes. Her story is the perfect example of how to put in the work to give yourself a realistic escape from a job you hate.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• Why Joanne left her career in accounting to go to dental school
• How working with a life coach led her to realize that she wanted to transition out of dentistry too
• How she experimented with different side hustles to figure out what she really liked
• How she dealt with talking to her husband and family about leaving dentistry
• How she deals with her changing identity from dentist to marketer
• How she finds the time to balance her full-time job, family life, and side hustle.

Where to find Joanne:  

• Website:  joannebourgault.com
• Instagram: @joanne_bourgault

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

For most of us risk-averse, type-A personalities, walking away from a multiple 6-figure career to pursue an entirely different career is a HUGE, scary step. Most can't muster up the courage to even take that jump. But to leave such a "successful" career to just travel around the world with your family would make most of our heads explode. What if I can't get a job when I get back? But what will we do for money? WHAT IF WE BECOME HOMELESS? You get the point. We're crazy.

Luckily, Joe Hansen is a little less neurotic than the rest of us because he did just that. He walked away from his Big Law job, making a great salary and living in San Francisco, to travel the world for a year with his wife and 2 young children.

While traveling, he is pursuing his original passion of writing by working on his first novel, an apocalyptic thriller set in San Francisco. I love Joe's story because he intentionally took this step without having everything buttoned up and planned out. As you'll hear, he and his wife are taking one step at a time. He has back-up plans in case he needs to go back to being a lawyer but, otherwise, he's realizing that everything is figureoutable...no matter what happens.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• What led him to law school and what his experience was like at a big law firm
• Why the big law firm life is not a realistic one
• Why he decided to travel the world for a year with two small children and how he prepared for it.
• How his coworkers were more supportive about his decision than Joe initially thought they would be
• How he's moving through his journey without knowing exactly what he is going to do in the future
• Whether people can take a gap year or two and return to the law
• How they're tackling world travel with 2 small children
• And so much more!

Where to find Joe:

• Website: www.backpackrugrats.com
• Instagram: @joseph_c_hansen
• Instagram: @paolabregneti

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

For most of us risk-averse, type-A personalities, walking away from a multiple 6-figure career to pursue an entirely different career is a HUGE, scary step. Most can’t muster up the courage to even take that jump. But to leave such a “successful” career to just travel around the world with your family would make most of our heads explode. What if I can’t get a job when I get back? But what will we do for money? WHAT IF WE BECOME HOMELESS? You get the point. We’re crazy.

Luckily, Joe Hansen is a little less neurotic than the rest of us because he did just that. He walked away from his Big Law job, making a great salary and living in San Francisco, to travel the world for a year with his wife and 2 young children.

While traveling, he is pursuing his original passion of writing by working on his first novel, an apocalyptic thriller set in San Francisco. I love Joe’s story because he intentionally took this step without having everything buttoned up and planned out. As you’ll hear, he and his wife are taking one step at a time. He has back-up plans in case he needs to go back to being a lawyer but, otherwise, he’s realizing that everything is figureoutable...no matter what happens.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• What led him to law school and what his experience was like at a big law firm
• Why the big law firm life is not a realistic one
• Why he decided to travel the world for a year with two small children and how he prepared for it.
• How his coworkers were more supportive about his decision than Joe initially thought they would be
• How he’s moving through his journey without knowing exactly what he is going to do in the future
• Whether people can take a gap year or two and return to the law
• How they’re tackling world travel with 2 small children
• And so much more!

Where to find Joe:  

• Website: www.backpackrugrats.com
• Instagram: @joseph_c_hansen
• Instagram: @paolabregneti

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Well, there is nothing better to start the New Year off with than an episode all about how to get financially independent so that you can do what you want! I'm so excited to have the incredible Paula Pant on the show today to do just that!!

As she likes to say herself, Paula is unemployable. She quit her job more than a decade ago, has traveled to more than 40 countries and refuses to work for anyone else. She runs the website Afford Anything, which holds a community of more than 53,000 email subscribers. She's the host of the Afford Anything podcast, which has enjoyed more than 4 million downloads. Both spread the idea that you can afford anything, but not everything.

After building financial independence through real estate investing, Paula is helping people all over the world figure out how to get out of debt and create financial independence for themselves. On this episode, we get into the details of her path to early retirement and how we can all get started on our own paths.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• What the FIRE movement is really about
• How Paula got started on her own journey to financial independence
• How freelancing gave her freedom to travel for over 2 years and the skills to never go back to a "job"
• Where the big opportunities in freelance writing are today
• How she built her rental property portfolio and the resources she offers her community to do the same
• What some possible downsides are to the FIRE movement and how to have the proper discussions to work around those issues
• And so much more!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Email Series on Rental Properties: www.affordanything.com/viplist
• Free e-book on FIRE: www.affordanything.com/escape

Where to find Paula:

• Website: affordanything.com
• Podcast: podcast.affordanything.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paulapant

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Well, there is nothing better to start the New Year off with than an episode all about how to get financially independent so that you can do what you want! I’m so excited to have the incredible Paula Pant on the show today to do just that!!

As she likes to say herself, Paula is unemployable. She quit her job more than a decade ago, has traveled to more than 40 countries and refuses to work for anyone else. She runs the website Afford Anything, which holds a community of more than 53,000 email subscribers. She's the host of the Afford Anything podcast, which has enjoyed more than 4 million downloads. Both spread the idea that you can afford anything, but not everything.

After building financial independence through real estate investing, Paula is helping people all over the world figure out how to get out of debt and create financial independence for themselves. On this episode, we get into the details of her path to early retirement and how we can all get started on our own paths.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• What the FIRE movement is really about
• How Paula got started on her own journey to financial independence
• How freelancing gave her freedom to travel for over 2 years and the skills to never go back to a “job”
• Where the big opportunities in freelance writing are today
• How she built her rental property portfolio and the resources she offers her community to do the same
• What some possible downsides are to the FIRE movement and how to have the proper discussions to work around those issues
• And so much more!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Email Series on Rental Properties: www.affordanything.com/viplist
• Free e-book on FIRE: www.affordanything.com/escape

Where to find Paula:  

• Website: affordanything.com
• Podcast: podcast.affordanything.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paulapant

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast

Anna Lundberg is the founder of One Step Outside, where she helps people around the world build businesses and create a lifestyle that allows them an unimagined sense of freedom, flexibility and fulfilment. But that's not how she started her career. Like most of us, Anna began by climbing a traditional corporate ladder at Procter & Gamble as a brand manager. In her 7 years with the company, she worked on high-end fashion accounts like Dolce & Gabbana and lived a glamorous lifestyle.

But after leaving for a short sabbatical, Anna realized that she didn't want to go back. She left her career without much of a plan. Through consulting and taking on clients of her own choosing, Anna created a new business and life for herself. Since leaving her corporate job in 2013, she's now reimagining what success looks like and she's passionate about inspiring and supporting others to do the same.

In addition to her own coaching business, Anna recently launched her own podcast, Reimagining Success.

Here is what we chat about in this episode:

• How she got the courage to leave her job
• How she decided what she was going to do next after leaving her job without a plan
• How she pushed past her "Good Girl Syndrome" to do what she really wanted to do
• Why you shouldn't tell everyone about your plans to quit in the beginning
• Why you ultimately have to just take action
• The difference between the "what" and the "how" of the next step
• How to find the right coach for you
• And more...

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Book - http://leavingthecorporate9to5.com

Where to find Anna:

• Website: onestepoutside.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/onestepoutside
• Podcast - http://reimaginingsuccesspodcast.com

Follow along for more:

• www.lessonsfromaquitter.com
• https://www.facebook.com/lessonsfromaquitter
• https://www.instagram.com/lessonsfromaquitter/
• https://twitter.com/quitterpodcast