Yas Grigaliunas

CEO & Co-founder, World’s Biggest Garage Sale

Fast Five is our quickfire interview series where we hit up some legendary movers, shakers, innovators and changemakers with, you’ve guessed it, five big questions. In this week’s edition, we talk to Yas Grigaliunas CEO & Co-founder of  the World’s Biggest Garage Sale.

Q1: Give us three words that describe your life as an entrepreneur.

I tend to make things up on the fly, so rather than three words, I’ll share the formula that describes my life as an entrepreneur, but also the life I aim to inspire anyone we work with along the way too. 

I wrote the formula like this as a way to ensure that everyone in our team know that grades, intelligence and other metrics we grow up thinking are vital to success, actually are not. 

This formula is a ‘never fail’ way to make your way through life on your own path. EFFORT + EXECUTION = EVOLUTION – therefore, I suppose my words are Effort, Execution and Evolution.

Q2: Most entrepreneurs have an origin story- a moment in time or an experience that was the catalyst for their entrepreneurial journey. What is your origin story?

Mine was when Mark Sowerby (Queensland’s First Chief Entrepreneur) told me that my ‘hobby’ of running a once a year annual World’s Biggest Garage Sale, was actually 4 years of running a business.

The big question he asked me was could I afford to quit my job and go all in? 

That was in 2017…. I quit my job less than a week later and haven’t looked back since. 

It hasn’t been easy, I won’t pretend or portray that, but I wouldn’t make a different decision if I had the chance to relive that moment.

Q3: Tell us about a massive flearning (failing + learning) moment for you.

Wow!  There are SO many massive flearnings along the way – and still now every single day. 

I don’t ever see failure as a bad thing, so I struggle to identify a massive flearning, more like a lot of daily flearnings that shape tomorrow. 

Mistakes are lessons, I love to make them, I love to learn from them and I don’t dwell about what I cannot change. 

I just wish I could help others not let failure be so fracturing. 

Fall down. Get back up. Learn. Move on. 

I popped a new quote on the wall recently.  “If it’s something you can’t control, don’t let it spin you out of control” – YazzyG . It was inspired by Maya Angelou’s quote “If you don’t like something change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude”.

A lot of people complain and lose time and energy over things they have no control over.  Time is a gift, we need to use it wisely.

Q4: What do you wish you’d learned at school about starting or running a business?

I am not the type of person that wishes for things that cannot be changed.  I’m a real forward thinker, so I can’t change how or where I was educated, so I am not sure that I wish I’d learned anything about starting or running a business at school. 

I love to learn by doing, so I would have loved anything practical back in the ’90s – much like what I see in schools now. 

It would have been great to do something more than just the ‘token work experience’ we did in high school.  I’d love to have worked in a business for a whole term – now that would be cool!!!  

Q5: What’s one book, website or podcast you’d recommend to aspiring young entrepreneurs, and why?  

Gosh, one book….now you challenge me. 

I have too many books that influence me. 

I’d say read: 5AM Club by Robin Sharma AND Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. 

One is HARD and one is SOFT.  These two bipolar forces will give you a taste of what life is like as a founder.

If you want something more prescriptive, Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People will bode you well in your whole life (if you are diligent to follow the habits of course).    .

More about this week’s Fast Fiver, Yas Grigaliunas.

Yas is the CEO and Co-founder of the World’s Biggest Garage Sale (WBGS), an entrepreneur of impact and a circular economy pioneer in Australia, driving this industry forward by innovating, collaborating, connecting and mobilising multiple stakeholders towards a shared vision, all while providing social good.

WBGS are activating the circular economy and resource recovery of dormant goods for good, powered by their purpose to provide meaningful employment and pathways for disadvantaged youth.  Through an omnichannel resale retail presence, including events, pop ups and an online recommerce platform, Yas is a passionate advocate of the Sustainable Development Goals, delivering outcomes and outputs to support the Global Goals.

Energetic, authentic and an expert of execution, Yas is a master at enrolling talent, communicating long-term vision, and inspiring people along the journey. Yas and her organisation are living proof that you can provide a positive impact for people, planet and purpose

Yas is one of the many social entrepreneurs that took part in Future Anything’s Future Fest events as part of our immersive, in-curriculum entrepreneurship program, Activate.

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