A note from Kerrie Phipps – I connected with Jamie and Hello Sunday Morning when he was nominated by his friend James who was seated next to me on a flight from Perth to Sydney. An inspiring conversation about creating an alternative, and healthier culture…
Introducing Jamie Moore –
Jamie Moore
Jamie Moore is a social entrepreneur who wants to change the world’s relationship with alcohol. Having lived all across Australia and up and down the California coast Jamie has seen a range of drinking cultures and he is fascinated by the way technology can support people to live healthier lives. Being a historical serial binge drinker himself, Jamie has used hellosundaymorning.org to change his own drinking behaviour and the drinking behaviour of thousands of people around the world. He currently lives in Sydney with his partner and is the General Manager of Hello Sunday Morning and Director of www.unistatstutor.com
1. How do you love to explain your enterprise to others?
Hello Sunday Morning or HSM represents an idea. It’s a simple idea. The idea is you don’t need alcohol to be confident, you don’t need alcohol to have fun, and you don’t need alcohol to be yourself.
Alcohol is something that you enjoy, not something you need. That’s the HSM idea.HSM is an online program that helps everyday people take a break from drinking and improve their relationship with alcohol. It offers a way for any individual to sign up and take a 3-month break from drinking, achieve some goals and get some perspective on why and how they would like to drink. Each one of their stories is an essential contribution to a better drinking culture.
2. What makes your story unique?
HSM is for people that want to create a life that revolves around living, not one that revolves around drinking. It’s for anyone who believes that confidence, identity and happiness aren’t things that can be measured in standard servings; it’s for any anyone that believes in a better way.
HSM is unique as it harnesses the best in health promotion and technology to create an online program built around personal choice. It is built around a community of people who are all striving to understand what that personal choice means to them. It is unique as it is the first alcohol health promotion campaign that is data focused rather than eye-ball focused, with success measured by long-term changes in behaviour, rather than the number of people who saw an ad.
3. What plans do you have to expand HSM further?
Hello Sunday Morning is growing at a fantastic rate, with the community doubling in size every 6-months. Currently 70% of our users are from Australia, 15% are from New Zealand and 15% are from Ireland/USA/Canada. We plan to grow further in the Ireland, USA and New Zealand markets in the coming years, while maintaining our core focus on Australia’s drinking culture. HSM will also be launching a premium platform in January 2014 that will provide a more advanced program at a minimal fee for those that want to engage with the platform at a deeper level.
4. How did you move from dreamer to achiever?
When I was 22 I was living in Perth in a share house with some friends. Life was as I would describe it, adequate. I had a good but not great job, I was satisfied but wasn’t happy and I knew that I wasn’t becoming the person I wanted to be. I took 2 days to sit in my backyard and think about what I really wanted out of life, I wrote and I wrote and I wrote until it dawned on me. What I wanted was simple so I wrote it down:
“I want to work for myself in a job that inspires others”
Those 12 words summed up what I wanted my life to be about. One month later I took action. I sold everything I owned that didn’t fit into a suitcase and I moved to Brisbane, a city where I had never been and didn’t know a soul to start my Masters in Organisational Psychology, I thought if I could understand how people think inside organisations, I could create my own vision for one some day. Six-months after I moved I met Chris Raine who founded HSM and things changed. Within a few months we were working together and we set the task of growing HSM from 1,000 people to 50,000 by 2014. I’ve never looked back since and I truly believe that I’m living those 12 words I wrote in my backyard back in 2010.
5. What do you believe are the essential qualities or attributes of a successful person?
They key attribute to success is communication. The ability to communicate your ideas, desires, needs and “orders” is essential to success in any personal or professional relationship. In 99.9% of cases where a situation has not worked out, I can trace the cause back to a failure in communication. Simply spelling out your message does not guarantee it is understood, therefore the resulting action is not guaranteed to be what you desired. In my dealings with other social entrepeneurs, those that are successful are the ones that have the guts (importantly not the confidence) to communicate them effectively and those that fail are the ones that don’t.
6. How has the increasing success of your business impacted your personal/family life?
Since I’ve focused on running Hello Sunday Morning and www.unistatstutor.com my personal and family life has transformed dramatically. There’s an old saying that say “do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life” – while I can’t say that is entirely true as there are parts of my day-to-day (admin, life admin, audit reports, accountant meetings etc) that I find boring and tedious, I can say that I love my work. What this means is that when I get home from work I’m excited to share my day with the people I love, rather than bring home my frustrations like I used to. Doing what you love means that the people you spend time with the most feed off the energy and passion you have for your work. I’m blessed to have a girlfriend who is the same and is highly committed to her work as a child psychologist and works for a cause, rather than a pay cheque.
One thing I have learnt is the importance of switching off when required. I make promises to my girlfriend and family that they will get time with me where I’m “disconnected” that means phone off (no email, phone calls or text), they get my 100% attention. It actually helps me connect better with them as well.
CONTACT DETAILS
Jamie Moore, General Manager
Hello Sunday Morning
PO Box 1012, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone: 0401805332
www.facebook.com/hellosundaymorning
Twitter: @HSM_AUS
